Israel experience brings prayers to life
By Josh Levin
2007 Young Ambassador

Whenever I say the Sh’ma, I always close my eyes. It helps me concentrate on the true meaning of what I’m saying and how powerful the prayer is.
However, saying it in services for the first time since I returned from Israel with the Young Ambassadors program was a completely new experience, like I’ve never had before. The first line, Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad (Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One) gave me the strangest flashback. It was a connection more powerful then I’ve ever experienced. Just as I said that verse I saw, in vivid photographic memory, the Kotel, the Western Wall. Clear as day, as if I was seeing it for the first time again, I was almost sure I was there.
I would have opened my eyes expecting to see it if it was not for what happened next. Quietly now: Barukh sheim k'vod malkhuto l'olam va'ed (Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever). Just like that the image changed. I was ripped away from the Kotel as fast as it came to my mind. All of a sudden I was standing at the end of the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem.
For those of you who have never been to Yad Vashem, allow me to explain. The memorial is underground and made of concrete. It is shaped like a triangle and a tunnel. You walk through approaching the light at the end, veering off into side rooms filled with testimonials and other pertinent items, like you would expect to find. But at the end is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The guide said, “Walk out this way and look at Jerusalem.” At this point I had seen the city from the promenade, a spectacular view, but nothing like this one.
After walking though a place as grim and simply ugly as Yad Vashem, seeing the holy city was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been fortunate enough to lay my eyes on. This is when I knew I was home and safe. Surrounded by other Jews in our holy city, I could not help but cry. The contrast of emotions was so great. The sadness of seeing the depth of anti-Semitism and how dangerous it can be and the absolute joy, the immeasurable happiness of seeing Jerusalem again, was the most spectacular mix of emotions I’ve ever felt.
It was unbelievable but whispering that prayer to myself, like I’ve done so many times before, had so much more meaning to me now. I realized the true gift the Young Ambassadors program had given me. It was not just a trip to Israel, to see the country, or even make all the great friends I did. No, the gift was something far greater than that: it was a connection. The connection to a promised land and a place I’m so proud to call home. This was the greatest gift I have ever received. Only after that service and saying the Sh’ma that one little time did it really sink in: Israel is home. But it’s not just mine.
Israel is holy. It’s not simply holy for the incredible sites that can be found there or the history that it holds, it is holy for a modern reason, as well. Israel is holy because it is a home to Jews everywhere. Going to an Ethiopian absorption center proved this. We were surrounded by first-generation Israelis from Africa. We could barely communicate but we were connected. Words were superfluous, absolutely unnecessary. We knew each other already.
Staying in one of our hotels with us there was a group of French people from Toulouse, Lyon and Paris. For the most part, our group had little French knowledge and the French had little English, so what were we to do? We thought the only logical thing to do was to speak Hebrew but none of us really did. What we did all know were Hebrew songs from our youth. So we all sat in a circle and sang. “David melech yisroel Chai, chai, v'kayam.” Such a simple song even has such a strong meaning to me now.
In short, Israel was more than I could have ever dreamed. It connected me. It connected me to Israel, to the prayers I so often say, to the Jewish people worldwide. It was and will always be a place to love and, hopefully one day, live in.

From June 4-16, 2007, 23 area teens traveled to Israel on the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish Federation’s Bob Malkin Young Ambassadors teen leadership/mission to Israel program. The Young Ambassadors program, a fully subsidized teen Israel experience, is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, which sponsors programs that are helping to keep our children Jewish.