Garin Greene in Israel – Bus 3

NFTY in Israel is an epic adventure into the story of our people. Whether you are joining us on our Adventure program, on L’dor V’dor with an extra week in Europe, focusing on Sports or Science and Technology or Social Justice on Mitzvah Corps Israel, you will have the opportunity to delve into history, physically walking through the sites where so much happened so long ago.

At NFTY in Israel we know that the summer doesn’t end when our participants’ planes land back in their home airport. We also know that our teens don’t come back the “same” after a trip to Israel. A trip to Israel is a journey of a lifetime, but more importantly it is truly a transformational moment in the life of a young person. In fact, for many of our teens, once the program ends, a new chapter in their Jewish life is just beginning; and that is the voyage of understanding the role of Israel in their life as a young Jewish person in North America.

In three weeks I will fly to Europe with our NFTY in Israel Educators to teach them how to lead our teens in Prague and Poland. We will visit all the sites that our teens will visit during the summer and learn how to make the story of European Jewry come alive and be relevant for our youth.

If you’ve ever spoken to someone who just got back from a trip to Israel, chances are that they told you about visiting the famed Marzipan bakery in Machaneh Yehuda (the outdoor market, or shuk, in Jerusalem). Marzipan is widely known for their rugelach—a chocolate pastry that they shovel straight from the oven into containers, which are quickly grabbed up by locals and tourists alike. Just about everyone I know who’s made it to the renowned bakery has come back raving about these bite-sized desserts.

Israel’s outdoor markets, lovelingly called the shuk, are host to tons of amazing food. Lots of it comes in small portions, so you can sample a bit of everything as you wander through these magical markets.

Finally, after nine years, I get to go on the trip of a life time.

I have been going to GFC since Bonim 1 and this is a trip that I have been looking forward to since I began. People always came back from the trip talking about how much fun they had, the friends they made, and the memories that they made. I saw the pictures and learned about the history of Israel and Poland, but now I actually get to experience it.

A summer on NFTY in Israel is so much more than a few weeks in a different country. Through adventure, food, games, sports, social justice, hiking, swimming, science and technology, Hebrew, climbing mountains, sleeping under the stars, and so much more, teens on NFTY in Israel return home with so much more than they left with (and I’m not just talking about the souvenirs).

By Rabbi Rich Kirschen, Director As director of the URJ’s NFTY in Israel initiative and a resident of Jerusalem, I was asked recently to write a blog post about Israel. With that in mind, I am going back to a topic I know well – or at least one I care about deeply:...