The first time I experienced the cultural difference between America and Israel was on the plane to HSI. I was frantically trying to get to my seat when I accidentally hit my backpack on the lady who was in my aisle. She talked to me in a pretty straightforward tone, and for the first time on the trip I felt like I was uncomfortable. However, after a few minutes I began to step outside of my comfort zone. I started to introduce myself, and after half an hour we were already laughing at each other’s jokes and she was teaching me some Hebrew. This experience automatically helped to teach me that Israeli’s may seem stiff on the outside, yet if you dig deep and get to know them, it may turn out that they are amazing people.

From that moment on, I was extremely excited to see what this amazing country could offer me, and how many more of these fantastic people I would come across. The first couple of nights that I was here, I saw the city that surrounded me. It was not filled with fifty story buildings or extremely bright lights, it was like a nice town in America that was not overwhelming and could be easily explored.

American culture is more tense, people are in more of a hurry and find it difficult to stop their work. I looked around the first Shabbat that I was here and it was completely different. The people I looked around at were able to completely take a step away from all stresses and celebrate the holiday with their family and friends.

Another evident difference  in Israel is that there are many more soldiers who are walking around while they are carrying their weapons. In America, since it is surrounded by countries which aren’t as big of threats, it pretty rare to see many soldiers walking around on a daily basis.

Another cultural difference between America and Israel is the religious presence. In Israel, everywhere you turn you will see someone wearing a keepa, or on the plane you may see many Orthodox Jews praying early in the morning. In America, it is not as usual to see someone wearing a keepa or a hijab, yet here it is extremely popular because it is a place of religious significance.

Israel and America are two completely different lands, yet they both hold very important contributions to the world and encompass what it has to offer.