Beyond a Fantasy, with Alexander Muss High School in Israel
WOW, WOW, and WOW! (And yes, I’m screaming this!) I’ve had the semester of a lifetime, and I need every teen like me to know that they can do this too!
I’m an LA transplant who moved to a small mountain town (Park City, Utah) in 2021. I’m the girl who randomly decided to go abroad and spend my second semester of my sophomore year amidst a war almost 7,000 miles away, and in Israel of all places. I never could have imagined the impact this tiny country could have on me, ESPECIALLY in the middle of a war. On January 23, I left everything I knew to go to a new school in a foreign country, without knowing a soul. It almost seems like a fever dream looking back.
I literally lived, breathed, ate, and slept Israel for almost 5 months. My time there not only enhanced my religious beliefs, learning more about my roots, but I grew so much as a person. Living without my family for such a long period not only made me more responsible and self-reliant, but it made me view the world so differently. I now had new lenses to leverage in all sorts of ways with the hope to learn, grow, and experience the world as it really is. Not a Netflix series, but rather true life!
In Israel, I felt like I could be anybody I wanted. I had a chance to reinvent myself and it was so refreshing. I wasn’t beholden to what people knew of me or what they thought they knew of me. I got a chance to hit the reset button without any baggage. What was most unique for me, especially now, living in Park City, Utah, was that I was surrounded 24/7 by Jews. Living in Park City, I am not usually surrounded by many, but while I was abroad, I realized how vital it is to not only surround yourself with people with similar histories, values, and aspirations, but also people that make you feel like you belonged. That is a feeling that never left me while in Israel. I literally felt like I truly belonged for the first time in my life. Despite the language barrier, despite the fact that I was over 7,000 miles away from my family, I found that I had a deep-rooted connection to not only the land of Israel, but the people I met along the way.
The tiyulim (field-trips) were a significant part of my time in Israel, we not only walked across the entire country by foot, but we travelled across the country and spent our time as a sponge. The most impactful tiyul we went on was undeniably our trip to Poland. Before going, I had an idea of what we would be doing but I never could have imagined how impactful it would be for me. Seeing each concentration-death camp and the tracks my ancestors traipsed across was a chilling feeling I have never ever felt before. I was overwhelmed with emotions, but I left Poland motivated to share not only what I saw and experienced about the horrors of the holocaust, but to share what I learned about the 6 million Jews who were murdered, what they experienced, and how their lives ended.
Holidays in Israel
Additionally, being in Israel during the Jewish holidays were experiences I have never had before. A couple of examples would be Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom HaAtzmut. All 3 of these days are brushed over in the US. I didn’t really grow up honoring or commemorating them as much as I did in Israel. On Yom HaShoah, the entire country froze. It was so quiet. Everything was closed, restaurants, stores, schools. Everyone just mourned. I remember we went into the Hod Hasharon town center and stood for 2 minutes, we, everyone around us just froze in time while the siren went off. It was so surreal. Cars would stop, people would be standing on the side of freeways to honor our ancestors. The siren almost sounded like the screams and cries of all the victims of the Holocaust. Literally it gave me chills. On Yom HaZikaron, it was especially sad this year after October 7th and all the fallen soldiers and people.
I never really honored this day as much as I did in Israel. Similar to Yom HaShoah, there was a deafening silence throughout the entire country. I remember this day being just so beyond emotional for everyone. Everybody was affected and knew someone who was in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and had fallen. We had a ceremony with hundreds of Jews who gathered to honor each fallen member of our tribe. I remember there being a slideshow of people who were IDF soldiers and had died in the current war. It was just so emotional. These were young adults, just a few years older than me. They were doctors, nurses, businesspersons, lawyers, bakers, farmers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. It all felt so close and real. Not something we would watch on cable news. I have never seen a country so united. Really, it was unbelievable how unified everyone was. Coming from the US, everything is so separate. If you’re a Democrat or Republican, if you have a different religious belief, if you are a different race, everyone is just so separated. In Israel, people put their differences aside and joined together to mourn the war and to mourn the fallen soldiers. Israeli Arabs, Christians, Jews, Druze alike, we’re all one, fighting together the same enemy, Hamas. It was so beautiful to not only watch, but to be a part of it.
Shabbats were my all-time favorite days of my semester. I have Shabbat dinner with my family every Friday; however, I have not always felt connected to it. Being in Israel, I loved it more than anything because it was time to join after a long week and just be with one another. A Shabbat I will always remember was in Tzfat, famous for its kabbalistic and artistic legacies. When we were split up into groups and went to random host families. I was in a group of 6 and I remember us sitting at a dinner table with a family we had never met before as we celebrated Shabbat. We prayed, ate and talked with the host family for hours. It was so nice to know that I could be anywhere in the world and if ever I should need it, I could still have a home-cooked Shabbat dinner with a family, even if I had never met them before. I was proud to be a member of the tribe!
Speaking about food. The food in Israel is AMAZING. I am such a foodie and loved all the new spices and scents each meal would have. I am missing the huge fruits and vegetables now that I am back home. The freshness, the colors, and the richness of flavor surpassed any other country I have visited to date.
Building Life-Long Bonds
I will forever miss were just exploring Israel with my best friends. I love love love travelling and encountering new experiences. I just loved all of our tiyulim. Whether it was hiking up Masada, floating in the dead sea, or walking through the Machane Yehuda Shuk. Seriously, every trip I went on grew my love for Israel and my passion for travel.
I never could have imagined how much the teachers had an impact on me. Jon, my Israel Studies teacher, was unlike anybody I have ever met before. You can tell by just speaking to him once that he truly has a passion about what he's doing. He taught me so much about Israel and history. and every lesson was filled with so much knowledge and genuine love for Israel. I have never had a teacher so hands on and active in supporting students. It will be a major shift when I get back to my school at home.
I also never ever could have imagined that I would meet my long-lost sisters in Israel. I went in not knowing a single soul and came out with a 2nd family. It wasn’t just my inner circle of friends that I am referring to, our entire group became a family. We all went through so much together. We laughed like a family, ate like a family, slept like family, fought like a family, and cried like a family. I truly found my people.
Now That I Am Home
Now that I am home, a couple of questions I have been asked repeatedly are, “Did you feel safe during the war?” and I will sometimes get, “How did your parents let you go to Israel?” My answer every time is, “I have never felt safer.” It is 100% true. Yes, there’s certainly a war while I was in Israel, but I genuinely have never felt more protected, comfortable and safe.
A big difference between Israel and the US is that everyone after high school is required to enlist in the IDF. It’s a citizen army made up of everyone from teachers, college students, bankers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters… everyone is there for one reason and one reason only, not because they love war (they don’t); rather, because they are dedicated to protecting their loved ones. There is a genuine love that Israeli’s have for their country and people, whether they are Jews, Christians, Arabs, Druze, or any other citizen. They all truly want to serve and protect their home, because if they don’t do it, who will? I have never seen this before in the US.
Most Americans have become used to the luxury of other people doing things for them, including joining the military or police forces. “Why should you have to protect your home when we already have people protecting us?” Being in Israel, that whole ideology shifted for me. People are proactive, they fight for what they need, they earn it, and they don’t give up. There isn’t a luxury to be passive in a neighborhood surrounded by enemies who actively call out for the extinction of an entire country.
Knowing how strong the IDF is, I felt safe. I also felt protected as I was around people of my own tribe 24/7. I never felt like I had to be ashamed, like many Jews on college campuses feel today, or actively try hide the fact that I was Jewish. I never needed to tuck my Jewish jewelry into my clothes.
This feeling of safety and protection just made me even prouder to be who I am, and understand the incredible responsibility every Jew carries, as there are only 15 million of us. I honestly felt safer in Israel during a war, than in the United States in normal times.
During my time there, we did have one siren and one scare, and YES in that moment it was very scary. It was an adrenaline rush I have never experienced before. However, we were totally okay. We went to the bomb-shelter and waited 10 minutes, and life moved on! Israel as a country is so strong – they always move on. Literally, rockets can fly one hour and the next you continue your life. It taught me that, if you fall, you must just get right back up. If you have been blessed with a life, then live it to its fullest, and never allow anything to hold you back or to keep you down.
Overall, Israel was literally the best thing that ever could have happened to me. I found myself, found my people, and found my love for the amazing country we call Israel. I really want every Jewish teen to know about Alexander Muss High School in Israel, because it gave me the independence and confidence that I could have never gained elsewhere. I will forever be grateful for my parents for sending me on this program, supporting me to go, especially during a trying time, and for allowing me the opportunity to understand and appreciate Israel.
Thank you to everyone who followed along my journey and life abroad, it was seriously the best time of my life.
Xoxo,
Izzy
You can read more about Izzy's entire semester at her blog: https://izzyinisrael.blog/