During Talia Edelheit’s first night in Jerusalem,”our adult leaders had us watch the sun set over the skyline of the city, and it was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen.”
Junior Talia Edelheit had the opportunity to study in Israel from November to January during this school year with the Alexander Muss High School in Israel Program.
While in Israel, Edelheit was able to travel to “Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Akko, the Negev, Masada, Dead Sea, Tzfat, the Kineret, up the border of Lebanon, Syria and even to a Kibbutz (the highest one in Israel) where we could see both Lebanon and Syria in one area. We also traveled to Afula and many other places around the country.” The trips were even more special for Edelheit because “every single place we went to had some sort of historical aspect to it, which made the experience even more meaningful.”
While in Israel, Edelheit lived on a campus in Hod Ha’Sharon, which is about 30 minutes away from Tel-Aviv and an hour from Jerusalem. She said that “sometimes we would have free weekends, where we could go stay with a family who lived in Israel. I stayed with family friends a few times in Jerusalem, stayed with a bunch of kids from my program in the West Bank and went on a Bedouin camping trip with my group as well.”
Edelheit, whose dad is a rabbi, said that “going there taught me that I want to keep my reform beliefs and become more culturally Jewish and not become strictly religious.”
Edelheit’s trip was not all travel and fun. She had a rigorous school schedule that kept her busy, but she did get to go on small trips with the group.
For Edelheit, her favorite part of studying abroad was “seeing the incredible places that Israel has to offer.”
“I need to start living life on a day-to-day basis,” Edelheit said about an important insight she learned on the trip. This insight came after “realizing that I was in Israel and that my trip was going by fast, [so] you have to take in the little things and appreciate them for what they are because you don’t have that much time.”
“The hardest part about studying abroad was definitely being away from home for so long,” she said. Thankfully she “had the resources to stay in touch with everyone at home, and when I came back on the 24th, I couldn’t have felt more loved and welcomed back into the bubble.”
