Typically I don’t have trouble starting my blog posts, but sitting here, trying to determine where to begin this post, I’m just staring directionless at my white screen and blinking cursor. It’s not that I have nothing to say, it’s just that there’s so much to say, and so many different things I experienced (and am still experiencing and processing), that finding the beginning seems like an impossible task.

I suppose I’ll rewind to the “very beginning” and just go from there. Be forewarned, I anticipate an extremely long post ahead…

Birthright is something my brother and I have talked about doing for a long time, but we always wanted to be sure to go together. Since we’re 2 years and 9 months apart (yes, we all know the joke by now about my second birthday), we really had to wait until the older age bracket of 22-26 in order to make it all work out. So, in the fall of 2012, when my brother was 22 and I was 25, we finally applied together for Winter 2013 Birthright.

It sounds easy, but it actually was more complicated than I thought it would be. Before I looked into registering, I thought there was just “Birthright” and you sign up and go on a trip. Well, that’s wrong. Birthright is an umbrella organization that sponsors Jewish youth, 18-26 on the trips, yes, but they contract out the actual travel and tours to a plethora of tour providers, many of which specialize in Birthright trips. What that means for registrants is that we had to go through all the different providers and put in a registration bid for their specific trip, not just a general “Birthright” request. Surprise! So I did some preliminary selecting and sent about 5 providers to my brother to look over, and we finally settled on Sachlav – Israel on the House. It ended up working out amazingly well because a friend of mine had traveled with Sachlav before, so we were able to get a priority referral code from her, which also gives her credit should she want to be a tour leader at some point.

After we put in our request, we waited for quite a while, maybe a month, to hear if we were accepted onto Sachlav’s Winter 2013 schedule. We ended up getting placed on a trip on January 2nd, which we had to decline because I didn’t have enough PTO. We weren’t guaranteed another shot in the winter, so we just crossed our fingers and a few weeks later, we got messages that we were placed on the March 5th departure out of JFK. It was pretty much perfect.

After registering, frankly I didn’t think too much about the trip itself. I’ve traveled a decent amount for a 25 year old, so overall leading up to the trip I was really just excited to see a new place, specifically one that I have heritage and a cultural tie to.

Then, of course, the week before the trip, half of my life completely imploded and I had one of the most stressful weeks I can remember – I don’t want to go into too much detail but simply put, I was frantic. Utterly, utterly frantic to the point where several of my good friends thought I should cancel/postpone my trip. As I’m sure you noticed, I did not in fact cancel, and I am so glad of that, even though I did appreciate everyone’s concern. <3

All that said, I did not pack one iota of anything until Tuesday, March 5th at around 9:30am. Oh, did I mention I was supposed to meet my mom and brother at 12pm to head to JFK to meet our tour group and check in for the flights? Oh. Yep. That happened. Somehow through my crazed packing escapade I managed to not forget much (face wash, anyone?) and was only 30 minutes late meeting my family.

Arriving at JFK was surreal. I’ve never flown through there AND there’s really nothing like meeting 34 (basically) strangers who you will be spending the next 12 days traveling a foreign country alongside. Luckily the two girls I had been chatting online with, Sierra and Ally, were there already so Matt and I met up with them and started bonding. They were pretty much just as cool as I had anticipated. <3

Let me pause here for a second.

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Ok, so I don’t want to really give a crazy full fledged rundown of the trip day by day for a couple of reasons.

1. We did SO much that I don’t honestly remember every nook and cranny. I’ll post the itinerary once one of my crew finishes compiling everyone’s memory lists (yeah, it’s that bad).

2. I don’t think it would really be that interesting for you all to read a blow-by-blow of my every moment on the trip.

3. I sort of want to keep some things personal and private. Aka yes, I’m being selfish.

So where does that leave us?

Well, in summary my trip to Israel was absolutely amazing. I know that sounds cliche’ but like I said, when I left I didn’t think I would get anything out of the trip other than… well… a really cool trip to the places my ancestors visited/lived/died.

Why does that matter?

While of course I did get to see the amazing land that is Israel, from the greenery of the Golan Heights to the lowest point in the world at the Dead Sea, to the dry but breathtaking Negev, to the incredible party life of Tel Aviv to the history of Jerusalem… I could go on and on and on, but the sights are only a portion of what I experienced in Israel.

A lot of people say that Birthright “changes” you. Like I said about Crossfit and as one of my tripmates, Eric, so eloquently put it, lots of people “Drink the Kool-Aid” when it comes to going on this trip. In the context of Birthright I always took that to mean that people who “change” become some kind of “Super Jew” – immediately enrolling in torah study and Hebrew classes, becoming kosher, observing Shabbat to the letter of the torah, etc. etc. etc. Understanding that and keeping my skeptical nature in mind, coupled with my less than stellar view of organized religion, you can imagine that I did not expect to have any sort of religious connection to this trip. To me, even though when I was young I went to Hebrew school and was Bat Mitzvah’ed and Confirmed, Judaism has always been my heritage and my culture moreso than a religion I truly ascribed to in any way.

All that said, spending 12 days with 34 other young Jewish adults really does have an impact on a girl, let me tell you. Sachlav is a wonderful tour provider in that they don’t shove religion down your throat (although we did get several hints about Jewish babies), but they provide enough support and also give you ample opportunities to ask questions when you’re comfortable asking them. I really do have to thank Max, Arielle, and Daniel (our American and Israeli tour guides) for making everyone feel so welcome and comfortable in regards to that throughout our entire trip. Providing us all with a safe space to just be ourselves, ask questions, and share our histories is what I think really opened us all up to each other much faster than we otherwise would have on the trip (although all sleeping together in the Bedouin tent helped too, I’m sure!). Jewish babies and Bedouin tents aside, spending 12 days with 542 showed me what it’s like to be around people who share your history, your culture, your joys and your struggles. Although there is a decently large Jewish community where I grew up, I never had many Jewish friends. The difference that I found in 542 is that although we all come from such different places and have our own personal histories and day to day trials and tribulations, we shared our Jewish bond, our heritage, with one another freely.

To me, Judaism as a religion was always a relic of my grandmother, and somewhat my mother’s generations – it was never something I connected to because the rules were “old fashioned”. What I didn’t realize until I went on Birthright was that it wasn’t that I didn’t necessarily want to not be “Jewish” – I just never had the opportunity to have a community that was my own – that I connected with. When my brother and I would go to family religious functions, we were always the only ones our age. I know I personally would feel bored and out of place, tired of everyone saying, “Ohhh you look just like your mom!” or “You’ve grown up so much!” or “I can’t believe you graduated college!!” or any variation of the sort. I love my family, but there’s just something missing when you don’t have a community of your own generation. People who can identify with you and with whom you can relate to on a day to day basis. I know now that I have that with my 542 crew, even if we’re spread out in a bi-coastal world, and should I need them, I can call them anytime.

Now, I’m not saying I’m going all “Super Jew” on anyone here… I’m not going to be Kosher (I don’t think I could ever give up Chicken Parm or Bacon Cheeseburgers), I’m not making Aliyah, and I’m not running off to marry an Orthodox Jew and have 12 babies in 8 years or however they manage to have so many cute children so close in age. However, I will admit that when 542 was at Shani’s moshav, I did buy myself a set of Shabbos tealight candle holders. I can’t promise I’ll rush home before sundown tomorrow to light them, or that I’ll even light them at all, but they’re here now. I know at least that would make Momma Arielle proud of me, no matter what choice I make tomorrow evening, and whether or not I keep my phone on to hunt down the nearest wi-fi.

To any of my 542 who are reading this:

I am so blessed to have met each and every one of you. (No joke I am tearing up right now and I didn’t shed a single tear at our closing. Dangit I’m so not a crier.) You all have impacted my life in the craziest of ways and I don’t think I can ever thank you enough. I can’t wait til we have our first reunion and WHEN you are all in the NJ/NY area I expect to be frequently called/contacted so we can meet up. Thank you guys for putting up with my antisocial first days when I was completely stressed and zero fun, to being jealous of my uncanny bus-sleeping abilities, to celebrating with me on our first Shabbos, and most of all, for trusting me enough to give me the chance to go from stranger to family in 12 short days. <3

Questions/Comments?

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By Dara Monasch

(Beach and Group Photo Credits to the Wonderfully Talented: Rachel Otis)