On Birthright Israel, we visited Yad Vashem the same day as Mount Herzl which made it a very emotional day for all of us. Another girl and I had a particularly difficult time while walking through Yad Vashem and had to take a break. Our soldiers were the first to come and comfort us. At one point one asked, “What are you feeling?” And I said, “Scared.” Her response will stick with me for the rest of my life. She said, “You don’t have to be scared. It is my job to protect not just Israel but you too. We will make sure that this doesn’t happen again.” It was at that moment that everything we had learned on Birthright Israel and about Israel clicked for me. As long as Israel exists, it stands as a symbol for protection for not just Israeli Jews but all Jews. The existence of a Jewish state gives us all a strength, no matter where we live in the world. In the musical, Witness Uganda, the character, Griffin, sings, “There is a long invisible thread, that wraps around my heart and wraps around your head” about his relationship to his colleagues across the world in Uganda. When reflecting on my trip to Israel, this song lyric resonates with me. While American Jews live a world away from Israeli Jews, we lead parallel lives. We are tied together by something that isn’t tangible – an invisible thread. There is an intrinsic connection between us and our IDF soldiers. We walk side by side in our goals, in our dreams, and in our lives as Jewish people. It is thanks to organizations like Birthright Israel that we are able to shorten that thread. We are able to encounter our other halves and become more whole because of them.
"The existence of a Jewish State gives us all a strength, no matter where we live in the world." 12
JOURNEYS • ISSUE 15
