Virtual Israel Experience

Brad Coppel

I was one of the many Jewish teenagers from Cincinnati who was privileged to experience Israel this year thanks to a grant from the Jewish Foundation. The trip I chose to go on included visits to Poland and the Czech Republic in addition to Israel. I selected this particular trip because my grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and I wanted to learn more about where they are from and its history as well as Israel's.

My trip started off in Warsaw. Among other things we did, we went on a walking tour of the Warsaw Ghetto and learned about the Jewish uprising there. During our stay in Poland, we also visited various concentration and death camps including Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz Birkenau. At each of these places, various participants helped to lead ceremonies of remembrance. Since my grandfather had been at Auschwitz during the war, I volunteered to help plan the ceremony there. This was especially meaningful and emotional for me. Although parts of our stay in Poland were very upsetting, the staff did a great job of planning programming to lift our spirits and keep us upbeat.

From Poland, we took an overnight train into the beautiful city of Prague where we spent three days in the capital of the Czech Republic. In the mornings we had tours of both the Jewish and Czech historical landmarks and then were given free time to shop and tour the city in the afternoons. Although it was an amazing city to tour, I have to admit a highlight of these few days, at least for me, was when my friends and I dined at TGI Fridays in the Old City of Prague during one of our free lunches. It felt great to have a good ole American burger again.

All forty-five participants, as well as our staff, were extremely excited on our flight to Israel. When the plane's wheels touched ground, everyone, even the regular passengers, cheered. Since it was still dark when we left the airport, we were not able to see very much on our way to the hotel. However, I soon learned that Israel is a gorgeous country. Even though I usually do not appreciate natural beauty, I was almost overwhelmed the first day when we were driving from our hotel into Jerusalem. We traveled to a lookout where we could view all of Jerusalem. It was weird to see, in person, famous landmarks such as the Golden Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall that I had heard about and seen in pictures.

The next couple days were a mix of learning history through visiting sites and enjoying nature. We visited Yad Vashem as well as the place in Tel Aviv where the Declaration of Israeli Independence was signed, and biked through the hills outside of Jerusalem, just to name a few of our activities. Although our days were pretty full with scheduled sightseeing, we did have free time to shop, eat, and explore the major cities on our own. Our first weekend there was the free weekend, when people with friends or relatives in Israel can stay with them. Everyone who stayed behind, including me, were bussed to Tel Aviv where we were given time to tour the city, lie at the beach, or swim in the Mediterranean.

After everyone reconvened, my group went to the northern part of Israel for a couple of days. From there we gazed onto Syria and, as we stood on the Golan Heights, we learned how Israel had conquered them during one of her many wars against the Arabs. While in the north we visited one kibbutz and stayed at two others. Labe, our tour guide at one kibbutz, showed us Israel's border with Lebanon and explained what it is like to live on a border settlement. He also took us into one of the kibbutz's bomb shelters. We ended our "Northern Exposure" with an afternoon of rappelling. Although I had never rappelled before, I was asked to be the first person to go down and help untie everyone else and send their helmets and harnesses back up. I wasn't very happy to be first when I looked at the intimidating drop, but it ended up being awesome. I also got to be the first to witness the amazing view through a cut in the rock at the bottom of the cliff. Afterward, we had a fun hike before boarding the bus to return to Jerusalem.

The first night back we heard an excellent speaker tell of his experiences during Operation Moses, the evacuation of the Ethiopian Jews from their homeland and their relocation in Israel. On Friday night we held a creative Shabbat service. We were also given some much-needed time during Shabbat to relax and reenergize before we departed for the next leg of our trip, the "Southern Exposure."

There we visited David Ben Gurion's house and hiked in the Negev Desert before falling asleep underneath the stars at Masada. The next morning we woke up at 4:30 a.m., which I was not happy about, in order to climb Masada to see the sunrise. Although I value my sleep a lot, I must admit that waking early to see the sunrise was well worth it; it was awesome. When we descended Masada, we headed to a kibbutz for breakfast and later went on a water hike. It felt very good to splash each other and go swimming by waterfalls in the heat of the day. We spent the night at a Bedouin camp, and the next day set off on a camel ride, visited the Flour Cave, and swam in the Dead Sea. During our last full day in Israel we worked on an archaeological dig. In addition to looking for artifacts, we also climbed through a cave. This ended up being one of my favorite activities of the entire trip. Back at the hotel we did some wrap-up activities before leaving for our last free time in Tel Aviv.

The next day we were booked on a very early flight so most people chose to stay up the couple hours at the hotel. I hung out with my friends but also managed to work in a little sleep. I found it really hard to say goodbye to all the people with whom I had been through so much. I made many new friends on my trip, and I am sure that some of them will be my friends for the rest of my life. Although I was excited to get back home to the comforts of my bed and my shower, and my family too, it was still difficult to leave Israel. Nothing in my life had ever been like those thirty days were. My trip was an amazing experience. I know I will not only remember it always but also treasure the entire experience for the rest of my life.

Brad Coppel is a senior at Sycamore High School. He is a member of Rockdale Temple. Brad is a local as well as regional officer with BBYO.

Copyright 2008 The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise