Stepping off the plane, you are greeted by a warm breeze from the Mediterranean Sea. You rub your eyes as they adjust to the sun that beats down on the Negev desert. You look around and see palm trees, buildings made of limestone, and a beach out in the distance. You wonder to yourself, "what is this place?" This place is your home, it has been for thousands of years and it will continue to be for thousands more. We call this place Israel.
Before you embarked on this journey called Birthright, people may have said to you "be careful" or "stay safe". Now that you have finally arrived you realize there was no need for comments like that because not for a second have you felt unsafe. Comments that warn people to stay safe in Israel, come from those who have never made the trip themselves. If they had, they would know that there is no place that you feel safer than Israel.
As a young Jewish person on a trip to Israel, you travel with 40 of your peers all around this beautiful country. A few of these peers include soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces. Traveling the country with members of the IDF, you learn more than you ever could imagine and begin to realize just how safe you truly are in this place. This realization is not because you have soldiers on your bus with you to protect you. These soldiers are off-duty, taking the trip for the same reasons as everyone else on the bus. Over 10 days, however, you come to see that the country works four times as hard as any other to keep their people safe because you spend time with citizens of this nation. The people protecting and living in this land, truly know what it means to love and support their people and the place they live in…You do not see that in many other places around the world.
There will never be a moment where you feel anxious or begin to question your safety while in Israel. If more people simply got on a plane and experienced this for themselves, I believe a lot would be different. If every young Jewish person took this opportunity of a lifetime and went on Birthright, a lot would be different as well. It is exactly what it says in the name…a Birth Right. And it is more important now than ever before that we truly understand how it feels to be in Israel.
"When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it's not the first time; it's a homecoming.", Elie Wiesel said. This quote to me means more now than it ever did before and that is because I have experienced this feeling. I know what it feels like to walk toward the Western Wall and feel like I've been there before. I know what it feels like to walk the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem and think to myself "this is oddly familiar". These feelings exist because this city is our home and you never feel out of place in your own home. Every young Jew deserves to return home, feel the electricity in the air that Israel holds, and know in their heart that this is where they belong.
Once you have felt this sensation, there is no way to ignore the current situation that Israel sits in. This feeling will turn into strong support for our homeland. You will no longer be able to ignore the events that take place around or in our land because you'll know just how amazing it feels to walk down the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. This feeling will manifest in a demonstration of solidarity with Israel and its people. That is why visiting this beautiful, magical, and fascinating land of Israel is more important now than ever.
