My first trip to Israel was the summer of 2006, traveling the entire country with my synagogue’s youth group for a month. My next opportunity to return was for a few weeks in the summer of 2013 to focus on the flourishing presence of start-ups in this place where creativity thrives out of the perfect blend of necessity and passion. From there, I was hooked and could not go another seven years without returning.
I wanted to share my love and appreciation of Israel with others, so I started staffing Birthright trips. In 2014 I brought a group from my alma mater, Northeastern University, and in 2016 I brought a group of Boston-based young adults on a CJP Birthright trip. Both experiences gave me the opportunity to share what I love about this unique and awesome land. I could go on and on about anything from its rich religious history to the incredible advances of technology and innovation there, but what astounds me the most is the diversity and uniqueness of all the bodies of water connected by a teeny tiny country of mostly desert!
Nowhere else in the entire world can you find yourself jumping in the surf of the Mediterranean Sea, snorkeling in the Red Sea, splashing by the waterfalls in the Sea of Galilee and, of course, floating in the Dead Sea—there’s no feeling like that anywhere else on earth! The beaches along the Mediterranean Sea are paradises packed with thousands of beachgoers, perfect sand, warm ocean water and addictive waves for jumping in until you have to pause to watch the sunset over the water.