My First Few Days in Israel

DAY 1

Tuesday morning, Mom, Dad, and I left our house for LAX where we met up with the rest of the group. After all 39 students checked in at the EL AL gate, the families gathered and spent time together. Before saying our final goodbyes, we congregated together, heard words from our Dean, Head of School, and Rabbi and then said the Tefillat Haderech (The Traveler’s Prayer). It was an incredible experience to proudly show off our heritage and mission in the midst of all of the hustle and bustle of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. It was a very emotional few hours as many tears were shed and hugs were given. I have to say with both of my parents very emotional, it was hard to leave; I finally did make it past the group into the security line and on to the flight.



The flight was 14 hours long, so naturally everyone was very antsy. All of us were walking around and switching seats the entire flight and getting a chance to talk and hang out with everyone on the program.

Landing was a very special experience for me. I have always loved and supported Israel but I have never been myself. I have never seen and experienced firsthand the country that I advocate for through my work with AIPAC and at Milken. As we were descending, I saw the coastline of Israel through the window. I can’t describe the feeling of landing in Tel Aviv on an Israeli airline, and having every passenger on board applaud the second the wheels hit the runway. The power of the moment didn’t stop there. Entering an airport full of Hebrew signs and advertisements and hearing Hebrew spoken everywhere made me feel like I was at home.

I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me after going through Baggage Claim and Customs. Yoni Alon, Brian’s Israeli buddy who lived with us for two months, was there to greet me. I feel bad because I was rushed and only had a couple of minutes with him, but we exchanged phone numbers and I look forward to being with his family in Tel Aviv. I also can’t wait to see Liron, my sister’s Israeli buddy and her family as well.



The next surprise was one of my good friends, Gal Marko, who went to Milken last year, but who’s family moved back to Israel last summer. He was there to greet all of us. I’ll be spending a lot of time with him as well.

We boarded the bus, met the staff that we will be working with during the next four months, and went on our way towards Hod HaSharon, the town we live in. We passed through Petach Tikvah and a number of small towns, which are all so different than I expected; they are all quainter than I thought.

I was really happy when we reached our destination of Hod HaSharon, which is only about fifteen minutes from Tel Aviv. To be completely honest, I was a little bit hesitant at first because I had heard how small of a town Hod HaSharon is and I prefer big cities. However, Hod HaSharon is much bigger than I thought. There are a few big streets full of restaurants, cafes, and stores. There is a mall, movie theatres, several parks, and a center called the Sportan, of which we all bought membership. The Sportan has an indoor and outdoor pool, weight room, tennis and basketball courts, and other facilities.

As we pulled up to the Alexander Muss campus, I felt really anxious and excited. From what I’ve seen, there are grass fields, a beautiful Beit Midrash building, a cafeteria, dorm buildings, and classrooms.

We got settled, had a brief orientation, and had free time roaming the town.

We returned to the campus for dinner (burekas, which I guess I have to learn to love), unpacked in our rooms, hung out together, and had another late night orientation with our staff.

DAY 2

We woke up and got ready for breakfast. Afterwards, we went to orientation where we heard from several people, including the nurse, Dean of Education (covered rules), Dean of Students (covered open weekends), and Dean of Academics who covered our general studies classes. We also did some administrative work including getting our books that we had shipped from Los Angeles.

We then took a brief tour of the campus (computer lab, laundry room, restaurant, assembly hall (Beit Knesset), dorms, cafeteria, classroom buildings, and grassy fields.

We then went to our core class. Tuvia, the Dean of our program, who was our teacher during first semester for Chumash at Milken, teaches one section of the class. The other section is taught by Aubrey Isaacs. I was placed in his class with a lot of my friends and think he is a great teacher. The class was mostly preparing for the semester but we did get to start some learning.

The way academics work here is that there is the core class (Jewish Studies/History) and the General classes (Math, Science, Spanish, English, and Hebrew). Half of the week we are on campus during normal school days and the other half of the week, we are on tiyulim (trips) throughout Israel. The tiyulim belong to the core class.

After the core class, we ate lunch and then boarded the busses for Tel Gezer, now ruins, which used to be a thriving civilization in ancient Israel, one of the three most important.



A theme throughout the tiyul was the story of Abraham, the first Jew, which is the beginning of our first unit. We had great conversations about how he chose to believe in one God and renounce paganism, which his father and society worshipped.

Tel Gezer was a lot of fun. We saw historic sights from the time of Canaan, got to know Aubrey, and spendt time with friends. The bus ride to and from, about a half an hour each way, was also very fun.

That night, I finally got my box of sheets, towels, etc., which had been stuck in customs. I also went to the computer lab to check the Internet and much later in the night, finally secured wireless Internet access in the dorms.

After settling a little bit, I went out with six or seven friends into town and explored Hod HaSharon. We had great falafel and later in the night got crepes with shachar (amazing chocolate spread!).



After returning to campus, we had a meeting with our Madrichim (Guides), Benji and Chana. After the meeting finished, we had free time to roam the dorms and be outside.

Anyways, I’m in my room now and I’m about to unpack my big box, the last thing to really finish up my room. After that, the four of us will hang out and eventually go to sleep.

L'hitraot!