Muss has made a huge impact on my life, I want as many people as possible to know what that impact feels like and how significant this experience is to how I now view life.  Before coming to Muss, I thought being Jewish was okay, but I didn’t truly feel any connection to the religion compared to other religions. Now that I have been at Muss and learned what my Jewish heritage means I am so proud to be a Jew. I will be at home in 22 days, that feels like no time at all. Once I’m home this experience will be a memory, not my life anymore, that’s going to suck major. One of the good things about being home is I will be able to educate students on how amazing, life-changing, and engaging this program is. I’m a member of a Jewish youth group and spend a lot of time with Jewish peers, there I plan to talk to my friends and tell them about this program and how they need to go. I will also be presenting at my synagogue to kids who are eligible to go on this program. Many people at my Jewish summer camp have attended Muss and by talking about it with them around people who haven’t been, or having conversations with camp friends individually.

Recently we went to Sderot, the people of Sderot are literally Israel’s first line of defense from Gaza. In Sderot you’re always 15 seconds away from a bomb shelter, the schools are bomb proof, there are even bomb shelters in playgrounds and built into playgrounds. I learned that 70% of all adults in Sderot have PTSD and 85% of kids. These people go through hell on a daily basis, but that does not stop them from being willing to sacrifice a calm life in order to fight for a country they believe in. I won’t go fully into it, but basically, some people in the world say Israel is bombing the Gaza Strip and killing innocent Palestinians for no reason. This is because the number of Gaza civilian deaths are so much higher than Israeli civilian deaths. This is because Israel has more advanced defensive systems and cares more about protecting their civilians. I learned that Israel actually gives Gaza 3 warnings before they bomb them and Gaza knows they are going to bomb them because Israel only bombs Gaza if Gaza bombs Israel first. With this new information, I now know about this topic and about other anti-Israel arguments, I will educate people on the unjust judgment the world uses for Israel and educated people who are against Israel.