Sharing the experience

For the last ten months, I have chosen a new path every morning. One morning I could go for a run in Jaffa’s old city, letting my mind wander as my legs stepped on empires and conquests. Another morning I could

I'm not sure I've made a better decision than the day I decided I would be coming to the Mechina in Jaffa. Looking back on it, I am so happy that I pushed past my hesitations of language, distance, and culture and

Something I didn't understand until I got to Beit Yisrael was the power of people truly living their values in an Israeli context. I came to Beit Yisrael to experience the religious, socioeconomic, and political diversity of Israeli life.

As Walt Disney wisely put it, "If you can dream it, you can do it." I used to think that these words were nothing but a fantasy, but in the last 10 months, my time at the mechina has taught to see the truth in these nine words.

One of my favorite things about my year at Mechinat Nachshon is when we are "closed" (stay at the Kibbutz) for Shabbat. Shabbat here has an American flavor meaning that I have been able to incorporate some of my own

Every year since birth, I have spent four months in Jerusalem (summer and the first two months of the school year), and eight months in the San Francisco Bay Area (the rest of the school year). This imbalance was due to

Before I even knew I wanted to make aliyah, I knew I wanted to spend a year in Israel; its importance to my people, community and family was obvious enough to make me yearn for a journey in the Jewish homeland.

My experience at Mechinat Rabin was a very positive one. Throughout the year I became fluent in Hebrew, learned a lot about Israeli culture, and made really great friends. I learned a lot about the current issues in Israel and

About a year and a half ago, I packed my bags and left my home in Philadelphia to move to a Kibbutz in the North of Israel with a group of 50 Israelis for a full year.