Back home, my biggest impact for my community will be my ability to talk to others and inform them about people’s views on Israel.

Back home, my biggest impact for my community will be my ability to talk to others and inform them about people’s views on Israel. I plan to speak at my synagogue, the youth group within my synagogue and the youth group outside of my synagogue to explain the importance of tolerance of others and also the importance of Israel. It is important for others to know that what you read is not always reality.

In the United States people who have not been to Israel fear that it is dangerous to travel here. Yet I have never felt safer. People are very different in Israel but they respect one another and allow for each other to demonstrate their religion or ideas in various ways. I can speak about this to my community and I hope to help more people to understand that they don’t have to agree with other people but they need to be respectful of their differences.

Israel has become extremely important to me and I want people to understand how Israel is perceived is not always what is happening. This past weekend I had an opportunity to be near the Gaza Strip when the rockets started. I learned that Israel was defending itself because they had tried to help rebuild and the Palestinians started fighting. That night I learned there were 29 rockets fired towards Israel. My mom sent me an article from the news in the United States which was reporting that the Palestinians were having a peaceful protest and Israel was attacking them. When you read further in the article you realize that the Palestinians had attacked first but from the initial headline it was not obvious. It is important for me to let my peers know about what is actually happening so they can read the news with a careful lens and interpret correct information.

When I go home I need to use the power of my voice to speak to others about how to increase their respect for one another and the need to support Israel.