Students Immerse Themselves In The Land Of Israel

By Larissa Lytwyn

Crystal Young, 16, a sophomore at Newtown High School, has always felt closely tied to her Jewish roots.

Recently, Crystal and Ben Sherman, 17, a junior at Nonnewaug Technical High School in Woodbury, had the opportunity to literally stand on the soil of their spiritual homeland.

From December 26 to January 5, the students embarked on Teen Mifgash Israel, a Federation Jewish Communities of Western Connecticut, Inc Southern New England Consortium (SNEC) sponsored tour of northern Israel. The Waterbury-based Federation has a sister organization in Gilboa.

The trip was open to any sophomore or junior SNEC high school member in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

In addition to Newtown, students also hailed from Connecticut towns including West Hartford, New Haven, Woodbury, Woodbridge, Southbury, and Fairfield.

An Israeli family in Afula hosted Crystal while Ben stayed with an Israeli family in nearby Gilboa.

“The trip was really an opportunity to come and understand firsthand all of the Israeli history I had learned through school and through the Mifgash orientation program,” said Crystal. “We spent a day at a neighborhood school, toured important sites and cities including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and went on a Jeep tour through the countryside. It was an amazing experience!”

Ben, who also said he highly values his Jewish heritage, agreed.

“The only problem was that the trip was too short,” he said. “We weren’t able to spend all that much time with our host families.”

Both Crystal and Ben stayed with a two-parent household that included adolescent children.

“Our time was very structured,” said Ben. “There wasn’t a whole lot of free time, but we were able to see a lot.”

While Crystal lived in the more urban Afula center, Ben enjoyed residing on a kibbutz, or communal farm.

“On a kibbutz, everyone is a [shareholder],” Ben explained.

The kibbutz tradition is based on an idealized social economy; in Hebrew, the word means “communal settlement.”

The kibbutz society is dedicated to mutual aid and social justice. It operates on the principle of joint ownership of property, equality and cooperation of production, consumption, and education.

In short, it is the fulfillment of the idea, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

The first kibbutzim (plural form of “kibbutz”) were founded approximately 40 years before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Their founders were young Jewish pioneers, mainly from Eastern Europe, who came not only to reclaim the soil of their ancient homeland, but also to forge a new way of life.

Today some 270 kibbutzim, with memberships ranging from 40 to more than 1,000, are scattered throughout the country. Most of them have between 500 and 600 members, including both adults and children.

Ben’s family was one of several hundred on the kibbutz property.

While there, however, Ben said he did not have to do any animal care taking or related chores. Mostly, it was because he was out of the home touring so much.

“The jeep tour was really amazing,” said Crystal. “We were able to take in a lot of the country that way.”

The group saw such sites as ancient Roman ruins and Israeli-Arab villages.

“The media tends to focus on the negative with Israel,” said Crystal, “all the [Israeli and Palestinian] fighting, and the land is always portrayed as a strictly desert landscape.”

While, no doubt, the ethnic conflict caused the Mifgash group to stay in the country’s safest regions, away from the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian border areas, Crystal and Ben said they were pleasantly taken with how “nice” everyone was, including some Arabs.

“There was one incident I remember, when I saw an argument between an Israeli and Palestinian boy one night, but mostly, people just want to live their lives,” said Crystal.

Extremists on both sides tend to undermine the peaceful autonomy of the majority of the areas’ peoples, agreed Crystal’s father, Joseph Young, a Newtown-based dentist.

“To some extent, it is a matter of perspective,” Dr Young said. “I have friends in Wisconsin, for example who are afraid to go to New York City because they are afraid they’re going to be mugged.”

Dan’s father, Jeffrey Sherman, shared Dr Young’s sentiment.

“I knew it was going to be an amazing opportunity for Ben,” Mr Sherman said. “I wish I could have gone!”

Both Ben and Crystal said they were eager to return to Israel in the near future.

Ben said he would also like to pursue a career in environmental science at schools including, possibly, Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.

Crystal said she would love to go to college in Israel, majoring in either biology or Jewish studies.

Both teens’ families are considering possibly taking in an Israeli student as part of a future Mifgash exchange.

“One day,” said Dr Young, “Crystal and Ben will look back on this trip and remember how important, and how special, the experience was, even more so that how they feel about it now.”

“I’m really glad I did it,” said Crystal.

For more information on Teen Mifgash or the Federation, call 267-3177.