Cleveland Hillel’s Birthright Experience

 Gabby Markoff

CWRU '11

While traveling to a new country, many times it is hard to envision how the journey will develop. Having no experiences on which to build, ideas of the people, the buildings, and the culture are all blank spaces waiting to be filled. For many of us on the Birthright trip from Cleveland this May, Israel seemed to be the exception. As we first introduced ourselves at the airport in New York City, many people spoke of what the trip was going to be like. It seemed as if everyone had a family member that had been on Birthright, or relatives that lived in or had visited Israel (myself included). All of us had some presumptions of how the trip was going to be structured and what we were going to see. When the plane landed, and we walked out to Bus 833, ours for the next ten days, it appeared as if the trip was going to go as imagined. This idea, however, lasted only the time of the bus ride to Jaffa, where, from the second we stepped off the bus, everything we had assumed was soon corrected.

Our tour guide Jeremy led us off the bus to an Arabic bakery, where no one spoke English. After accidentally buying more than we intended or getting something completely other than what we had ordered, due to multiple miscommunications, we began the rest of our adventure. It was Friday, the first day of the weekend in Israel, so there were many people around as we followed Jeremy through Tel Aviv, its markets and downtown area. Very few of us had slept on the plane, so we were running on no sleep in more than twenty-four hours. In Independence Hall, we sat in a dark room, while a movie played; I can’t tell you what it was about, as I fell asleep the second the lights went out. It was an overwhelming first impression of Israel though, a city that was full of life and friendly people, but had protective barriers in front of all of the supports for the bridges, in case someone threw a bomb at them.

For the next two days, we slept at the Blue Bay Hotel in Netanya. It was gorgeous, with a view overlooking the Mediterranean Sea from the back grassy patios that we each had in the back of our rooms. Taglit offers an amazing experience to so many people, and they treat them superbly. There was a pool at our beachside hotel as well. Our second day there was Shabbat, which lured us into a false sense of calm and peacefulness; I remember thinking that clearly the previous day had been an anomaly. We swam at the beach, and at night, after Havdallah, visited a nearby kibbutz.

While there, we were able to see the dining hall, the individual homes of the people who lived there, and the old children’s house where the children used to stay all day while their parents worked. We learned that Israel was built on the idea of the kibbutz, of the social concepts of sharing and working together to create and protect something that is of the upmost importance. Not only do the kibbutzim represent these ideals, but the whole country does as well. These ideas were brought up multiple times as the backbone of Israeli culture.

The Mifgash, whom we met on our third day-, which was rather reminiscent of the first fun-filled day, brought another angle to our views on Israeli society. These soldiers were on leave from the military to spend time with us. We swapped stories about high school, work, and our social lives, soon coming to realize that we were not very different. They might have to join the army immediately after high school, but they played the same sports, liked the same movies, and even listened to a lot of the same music. It was exciting to hear about their lives in the military and to hear about their ideas on the political and social situations in Israel and in America. We found that even in these areas, we had similar views.

For the next few event-filled days, we shared our experiences with the Mifgash. We rode camels at the Bedouin camp, climbed Masada, and swam in the Dead Sea. This was our education on Israel’s ancient history. We explored the Golan Heights, saw the borders of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and hiked through the Tel Dan nature reserve. These experiences gave us the opportunity to see the recent history of Israel and how the country is moving forward, working on sustainability issues, and working to preserve its wildlife.

We made a short stop In Safed on our way to Jerusalem. There, we were able to see the inside of a Sephardic synagogue, the first time for many of us and a glance at another way to practice Judaism.

And then we made it to Jerusalem, the holiest city in the world. The city was beautiful from Mount Scopus, where we had our first sight of it. With all of the buildings created from the same white Jerusalem stone sprawling over a series of hills, the view is breathtaking. Our first interactions with the city were on Ben Yehuda, a tourist filled street, lined with shops and places to buy gelato. It was not until our second day there that we explored the Jewish Quarter and were able to visit the Western Wall. It was inspiring to see so many visitors at the Wall. Everyone there was sharing their experience with us, as we were sharing our experience with them. It made me see that Jerusalem, like Israel, is a home for all people to share their beliefs and experiences with one another.

The rest of our time in Jerusalem, went by quickly, even though we stayed there longer than we had stayed anywhere else on the trip. It was filled with listening to speakers, visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, and going to Mt. Herzl, where Yitzhak Rabin has his grave. It went by quickly, but the trip was well spent and exhausting. By the time we were driving to the airport, I was looking forward to being able to sleep on the plane.

As we flew home though, I found myself speaking with the others about when we were going back. Everyone wanted to return. It was a wonderful experience but gave only the briefest of glimpses of this amazing country. All of us want to see more, and experience again, what we were given the opportunity to experience for only ten days. Going to Israel was the most favorite location to which I have ever traveled. The trip was nothing like expected, and that was the best part about it.