By Loren Sykes, Director of Israel Immersives I have visited the Kotel HaMa’aravi – The Western Wall – more often in the past two weeks than I have in the past four years. One day this week, groups of NFTY in Israel teens saw two very different faces of the kinds of...

By Eliana Goldwasser The first morning I woke up in Israel, it was loud. My roommates and I blinked awake to the sound of our counselors blasting music from a speaker in the hallway. I could hear them dancing around as I stumbled out of bed, bleary with jet lag.  When...

Ellie: I was really excited to meet the Israelis. Honestly, I was worried they would be really judgmental and speak little-to-no english so communication would be hard. However, now that I met them I think they are all really nice and more friendly than most people I...

By Eli Ortiz and Levi Paskett After a surprisingly delicious meal of hand crafted pizzas, we embarked on our journey to the Jordan River. The bus ride was a new experience. It was run-down, reeked of mold and there was asbestos on the walls; it reminded us to be...

By Grace Leibowitz, Jordyn Hirsch, and Aliza Harris Hi everyone! Jordyn, Aliza, and Grace here! We are three rising seniors from the greater Seattle area and we all come from URJ Camp Kalsman in Arlington, Washington. We all chose Yam L’ Yam, meaning sea to sea, as...

By Zoey Rockoff After waiting for what seemed like a lifetime, I finally made it to Israel. I had never been to Israel before so not being able to go last year was killing me. Hearing the news that my friends and I will have the opportunity in summer 2021 was so...

July 7, 2021 By Eliana Bloom It’s been a long journey. Deciding to go to Israel, buying duffels, the trip getting cancelled, deciding to go to Israel again, and finally sitting on a plane for ten hours, all so that we could come to the one place we’ve been hearing...

By Bailey Pollack Coming to Israel I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve always heard stories about the constant warfare in and around Israel but I never worried too much because I’ve never personally been seriously affected by the conflict. However, now that I’ve come...