It is hard to believe that I am sitting at the kitchen table writing my final blog from Lower Moreland, Pennsylvania. My dog shrieking at the window to defend the household, my mother making a delicious salad for dinner, my father making his nightly commute home from work, and my sister listening to her favorite artists on the second floor… All so familiar to me. Although I am currently two days into school and coming back to a warm welcome from both my peers and teachers (moreso lukewarm from the students), and despite the presence of my loving and caring family, the United States just doesn’t feel the same. Leaving Israel, especially after such a fantastic experience on the Muss program, has left my heart torn and my soul guilty. To say goodbye to the land I truly love is painful, and only time will tell as to when I recover from my stupor.

My unique encounter with the land of the Jewish people has only led to sharpen me mentally and has further built a foundation to preserve and defend the State of Israel. Approximately a month and a half ago, our group went to the tunnel of Hezekiah, a structure built as a survival mechanism to get water into Jerusalem which was besieged by the Assyrians. Although incredibly enjoyable and educational, the aspect of our adventure which impacted me the most was not the water tunnel itself; rather, it was what our teacher, Yossi, told us prior to entering the almost mile-long stretch of history (I’m getting a bit nostalgic, if you couldn’t tell). While this is not verbatim, Yossi told us something along the lines of the following: “When you leave this program and when you enter college, I can guarantee that you will have a professor or a student body that on the first day of class, will begin to deny the justification of a Jewish homeland, and will argue against any historical presence of the Jewish people in modern day Israel. If you take away anything from this course, please remember this tunnel as a testament to our ancestors, and retain the knowledge that this tunnel and this tunnel alone can combat any and all question of our people’s existence in the land of our forefathers.” I can guarantee, without hesitation, that this idea will be pivotal in the way I grapple and combat anti-Israel groups and leaders- A goal of mine from the very beginning and a reason why I chose to do Muss.

The program has made me consider another path in my future as well, that being either spending an elongated time in Israel, be it a couple years or a decade, or making Aliyah in full. It should be mentioned, however, that I would first like to spend time in Israel as a worker rather than a tourist or student.

Thisexperience has truly been an honor to partake in, and I thank the staffs of JNF and AMHSI for an experience that I’ve lived, learned, loved, and will never forget.