This week at Muss, we visited the Israel Envelope (formerly known as the Gaza Envelope) and saw the murals in Sderot depicting the tragedy of October 7. Afterwards, we went to a site called Tkuma, where we saw hundreds of destroyed cars riddled with bullets. We even saw pickup trucks with machine gun mounts that Hamas used to conduct the massacre that day. It was such a meaningful experience reading the stories every car carried, and then looking at all the other destroyed cars, knowing each had its own story and tragedy.

Afterwards, we went to the Nova Music Festival site. The mother of Elia Eluz (a victim of Hamas) spoke to us about the story of her son, and afterwards, we had free time to walk around and read all of the different stories of people who were slaughtered. At the end of our visit to the Nova site, a survivor shared his harrowing story. It was a very powerful trip that really brought to life the horrors of what happened on October 7.

The next day, we had our first Shabbat on campus, where we were all together. We spent all of Friday night and Saturday relaxing and bonding, making many very special memories.

Our next trip last Tuesday was again to the Israel Envelope, but this time we volunteered at an indoor kids park and helped clean and organize so kids could play without worrying about being near a bomb shelter. Afterwards, we did an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) program where we learned about the military and had a real-world simulation of IDF basic training, and we were led by soldiers from different elite units, hearing about their journeys in the military.

Most of the trips we had been on up until then had been educational and/or fun, but these two trips were much more meaningful to all of us. Overall, these trips really brought us together, and I know the next few trips we have in store will be great.

Daniel Ashar is a 15-year-old student attending Cherry Creek Highschool in Englewood, CO