When I was asked to write a blog, about a few moments that stood out from the trip, I knew it would be tough to do. How do I take just a few moments away from a trip that may have changed my life? I learned so much and saw so many things that it was beginning to make my head hurt.
 
This trip created a sense of togetherness and understanding of what being Jewish meant. Putting pictures/images on places that I only read about and studied in the Bible.  My two big personnel moments came from the Har Hertzel, the military cemetery and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
 
Har Hertzel was unbelievable and really showed us all of the loss that Israel has suffered in the name of staying alive as a land and as a people. When we were walking around, there a mother visiting her son’s grave who was killed during a suicide bombing. She spoke with us and we all were very touched and shaken. Her story was very intense and not one of us had a dry eye.
 
When we were at Yad Vashem, I came across a section of the exhibit from Ukraine and one city specifically, Zhitomir. This was my home until I was 3 years old and where my family lived for a several generations. Seeing pictures and reading about what happened there made everything much more real for me. I heard many stories from my family over the years and seeing all of this within the exhibit, did something to me that I still can’t put into words.
 
I want to just say thank you for everyone that made this trip possible and everyone in the trip has and will continue to benefit in ways that we may not understand yet, but one day we truly will.
 
Thanks,
 
Max Feldblyum
Rockville, Maryland

Thoughts and expections for Tel Aviv