My Israel Experience (Anonymous High School Intern)
In the summer of 2019, I was fortunate to participate in NCSY’s TJJ Ambassadors Poland 4-week trip to Poland & Israel. After spending a week in Poland, visiting and learning about what daily life was like for Jews before the war, the old shuls, the Ghettos, and the concentration camps as well as we travelled to Jerusalem. I had already been to Israel with my family, but being there with a big group of 80+ Jewish teens from across North America was a completely different experience. As soon as we landed, I felt right at home, surrounded by people who were jewish like me. I felt like I was a part of something bigger than myself.
I live in Alberta, Canada, where there aren’t many Jews. Sometimes I feel like there is no one around me who is like me. However, in Israel, I felt completely different. When we were at the western wall, there was a sense of community and belonging, because we all had something in common, even though we had never met each other before. When we were walking in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I felt like I was immersed in Israeli culture, with the smell of shawarma and falafel wafting through the air and the sounds of people greeting one another in Hebrew. As a Jew who is not often surrounded by other Jews, being in Israel felt like I was transported to another world. At home, I don’t tend to tell people I am Jewish because I know that antisemitism is a growing issue, but in Israel I felt proud to show off my Judaism. I think it is so important for Jewish people to travel to Israel, especially as adolescents, because it is an experience like no other that shows Jewish teens that they are not alone. Rather, there are so many others like them.
After spending a few weeks in Israel, and hearing the first hand experience of active Israel advocates, I realized that the citizens there are just like the citizens in every other country. They do not always agree with what their government decides and it is unfair to judge who they are as people based on their government’s actions. Oftentimes, the media tends to paint Israelis as invaders who are persecuting innocent Palestinians, and most people do not realize that the media is biased and they do not show the full story. I wanted to become an Israel advocate because I know that most people are not for or against Israel. These undecided people are influenced by the media to view Israelis as oppressors. As an advocate, I will be able to educate people who do not know much about the situation. I believe it is the lack of education on the Israel-Palestinian conflict that has a negative impact on how people view the country and its citizens.
In my opinion, the most important role of an advocate is not to start a debate or try to prove the person you are arguing against wrong; it is to dispel the rumours that are propagated by the media and anti Israel activists about the conflict. There are only a small percentage of people that are dead set in their negative opinions about Israel and refuse to change their minds. As an advocate, I will not be able to change their minds, but I will be able to inform the “Undecided” majority about what is actually happening and who is involved. As advocates, we should not try to impose our opinions on the people we are trying to convince because that will just make it harder for them to see our point of view, as they will likely be too proud to admit that they are wrong. Rather, we should give them all the facts and then let them decide what they think is right, so they can make educated decisions on their own, instead of being forced to admit they are wrong.“People are generally better persuaded by the reason which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others” (Blaise Pascal).The people you are trying to convince are more likely to believe what you say, if they think it was their decision to agree with you. Going to Israel and being able to see the country for myself, rather than just being influenced by the people around me, was a life changing experience and I hope that everyone is able to go.
