IST Reflection Blog - Maya Swartz

To some extent, participating on IST is every Moriah student, and indeed every Jewish student’s expectation; it’s been like this for many years, it was inevitable for me that I was going to go on the program regardless against my own free will. All my friends would be going so why not me? Let me be honest, initially I was not all that positive about the concept of going and my family can attest to my meltdown exclaiming my disdain the night before.

But after surviving those 35 days with my entire year in Israel, I can confidently say my experience and overall perspective that I gained from the trip has been the highlight of my adolescence and has ultimately shaped me into a more responsible, understanding, spiritual and optimistic person as a result.

It has only been 11 weeks and 11 days since we left behind out families, our comfortable normalities and long summer days in Sydney as we boarded the plane with our entire cohort to the Holy Land. 

The mutual anticipation, excitement, crippling anxiety and claustrophobia could be felt throughout those ongoing 17 hours on the plane.  Straight from Ben Gurion airport, exhausted and jetlagged, we were driven on our allocated buses straight to the Kotel. Upon arrival our moods instantly shifted as we were greeted with live music and an undeniably uplifting atmosphere as we descended from the Old City down the cobblestone steps in the freezing cold towards the Wall.

As we stood around in a circle, we faced centuries of our nation’s triumphs and tribulations all accumulated into a single wall. There is intangible holiness one can only truly experience when at the Kotel.  Although I had been to Israel many years before, it was as if I was seeing it for the first time in all its glory. Not only was I in utter awe of its humbling architecture and size, I had instantly gained a nuanced understanding of the significance of what it meant to be standing on that ground, with my entire year, after the countless Jewish history lessons only being able to merely imagine the Jews struggle and suffering that lead them to this landmark. 

That first night spent collectively praying, dancing and singing at the holiest site in the world set a precedent of what the rest of my IST journey had in store. 

Now I’m not going to recount every other memorable, fun or exciting moment ist provided me, if I did, I would be talking for a lot longer than five minutes. 

However, our visit to Mount Herzl during the final week of our program was a juxtaposing emotional experience for me to say the least.  Confrontational is an understatement of a word to use to describe walking through a cemetery of men woman and children who perished in the name of their county. Each particular grave containing an individual story and life, A father, a mother a soldier who was the same age as me… 16, yet they all shared a common aim, to create, sustain and protect a home for the Jewish people. They were prepared to sacrifice their lives so that I could walk through the bustling streets of peak hour Machne Yehuda with my best friends on a Friday morning, so that we could blissfully float in the dead sea with mud smeared across our bodies, so that we could gather together on Shabbat and share our deepest thoughts and feelings with each other during Tisch at hotels and kibbutzim. I felt an emotional yet vital moment of gratitude, knowing the undeniable truth that there are people still today who are constantly fighting and enduring tragedies surrounding the constant threats and intimidation Israel inevitably receives on a daily basis. 

Now that I am back in the Diaspora, these awakening and truthful experiences cemented and strengthened my love for my Judaism and the rich spiritual culture that surrounds Israel’s small yet mighty country we here in Sydney are fortunate enough to call our second home. It has encouraged me to become more actively involved in my religion whether attending shule more often or participating in activities in school and in the wider community that will allow me to emulate the overwhelmingly powerful connection I felt to Hashem as well as my overall spirituality as a Jew. It has encouraged me to be an active advocate for the state of Israel and stand up in the face of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism wherever it may prevail. It has also enabled me to reassess and re-evaluate what I cherish most and emphasise the importance of the meaningful relationships I attained from the trip which will hopefully continue long into the future. Most importantly, the lessons I learnt about life, myself and others on IST, through the shared experiences of both joy and despair, ignited a flame inside of me of passionate love for Israel and I hope for it continuously burn and maintain my sense of Jewish identity which will influence the rest of my life and which I hope to pass on to the future Jewish generations

Maya Swartz