I have always been very vocal about my opinions. I am a Zionist and a proud one at that. I have never steered away from a conversation about Israel, even as I did a semester there with URJ’s Heller High during my sophomore year of high school. I immediately knew that Israel would be a place I would call home for the rest of my life.
I returned from The March of The Living trip the next year, and it reaffirmed my homesickness. When I returned to my family in Greensboro, North Carolina, I deeply missed Israel. I needed to be around Jewish people who love and are passionate about Israel. Heading into my senior year of high school, I was selected for an internship with Stand With Us, an organization that educates on all things Israel and teaches how to combat antisemitism. With Stand With Us, I was able to surround myself with people who didn't only listen to what I had to say about my love for Israel but understood it. I felt like I was finally back home.
I’ve served as an intern for three months so far and have loved every second. I plan programs to educate my peers, something that brings me immense joy. Nevertheless, I never expected to have to navigate a war in Israel, which started with the most deaths in one day of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The unimaginable is happening, and I am lost. Now all I do is refresh my news sites and social media apps every five minutes for updates on the war and to make sure my friends are safe. The saying, “my heart is in the East, even though I am in the West,” keeps coming back to me. I have never wanted to be somewhere so badly, while simultaneously knowing I shouldn't be there.
Before the war, I thought I was stressed between balancing friends and family with college applications. Getting into college was my main priority, and then October 7 happened.
I could stay trapped in my anxieties about Israel, but that doesn't stop my life in North Carolina even though it feels like no one cares about the thing that is most affecting me and the people I love. I have to continue going to school and applying to colleges. This war has even changed my “dream school.” I don’t think I could handle being at a college that is not supporting their Jewish students and condemning antisemitism and terrorism during this time.
Most of the friends I made during my semester in Israel are a year older than me, and they are facing the recent uptick in antisemitic instances on college campuses firsthand. The schools they go to were at the top of my list. Now, with the administration of these colleges not taking this conflict seriously, I don't want to be part of these institutions anymore. As a Jewish person during this time, I can't just choose a school that has a major that I want to study. I must do my research and make sure that I am going to be safe, and that my beliefs will be protected.
I am not saying that everyone has to believe in what I believe in. But I will not stand idly by and watch people turn their views into antisemitism. I am going to college to learn and grow. I want to be a part of discussions with people who disagree with me, but I want them to walk away with respect for me because I will for them.
At my high school, no one talks about what is going on in Israel. Instead of letting this go, I start the conversations and I educate my classmates about the changing landscape. As a Stand With Us intern, as an active member of my congregation, as a BBYO participant and as a proud Jewish woman, I will continue to speak up and stand up for the Jewish State. Earlier last month I traveled to Washington DC to participate in a solidarity march with nearly 300,000 of my fellow Jews. My participation proves that at the end of the day, we are all just one big Jewish family. I see all of these people connected through one cause. We all want to stand up for the country we love.