Birthright Israel Excel Showed Me the Importance of Speaking Up

I’m a junior at Cornell University studying mechanical engineering and business. I’m from Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Judaism has always been a strong part of my life. I grew up going to Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, where I learned the prayers and experienced Jewish community. We’d have services every morning and Kabbalat Shabbat all together in a big amphitheater overlooking the lake at sunset. It was so beautiful. Some of my closest friends are still from camp, and the people there always understood me unconditionally.

My mom’s dad was a Holocaust survivor. He and his brother were the only two in their family who survived and came to America with nothing. They didn’t speak English and built a life for themselves from scratch. He passed away when I was three, so I didn’t get to know him, but I’ve watched the testimony video he recorded. It gave my mom a strong sense of urgency about being Jewish, and that filtered down to me and my sisters.

The first time I went to Israel was three summers ago on a Ramah program. It was six weeks long—one week in the North, four in Jerusalem, one in the South. It was an incredible experience. My family was finally able to go all together last summer, but it was only for four days. We spent two days in Jerusalem and two in Tel Aviv. It was wonderful, but it felt like a tease. I knew that the following summer I wanted to really live in Israel, not just visit as a tourist.

That’s how I found Birthright Israel Excel. My cousin had done it the summer before, and she told me straight out, “This will change your life.” She said the people would be some of the best I’d ever meet, the professional opportunities would be unbelievable, and the fellowship doesn’t end when the summer ends—it stays with you for life. Hearing that, I knew I had to apply. When decisions came out in December, I was so nervous. It felt exactly like a college decision. I couldn’t believe how much it meant to me. When I got in I was ecstatic.

Heading into the program, I thought the most important part would be the internship. I focused on getting a good placement. But once the war with Iran broke out, everything changed. The internship ended up being the least important part of my summer. What really mattered were the people, the conversations, the connections we built in such a short amount of time, and the experiences we had together in Israel.

Excel brings together 80 fellows from around the world and 80 Israelis. I figured the Israelis would be nice to get to know, but I assumed my closest friends would be the Americans. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Israelis made a tremendous impact on me. They kept us calm in the shelters when the sirens went off, and they showed us what resilience really looks like.

This resilience is probably the thing that stuck with me most. We’d hear a siren, run to a bomb shelter, wait ten minutes, get the all-clear, and they’d be back out kicking a soccer ball around like nothing had happened. Their determination to keep living their lives, even under fire, inspired me more than I can put into words. If I had to sum up my entire experience in Israel with one word, it would be resilience.

I also loved the culture in Tel Aviv—the balance of work and life, the vibrancy, the creativity. People worked hard, but they lived fully. They didn’t live to work; they worked to live. I’d go to my internship and then head straight to the beach. The whole city buzzed with energy. It opened my eyes to different possibilities for my own future. It even made me want to explore startups and entrepreneurship.

When the war broke out and Excel was put on hold, we were devastated. We left Israel on a cruise ship. Although this was my first evacuation, this did seem odd. That experience turned out to be one of the most meaningful of my life. There was no cell service for 30 hours, and it was Shabbat. Excel organized a Kabbalat Shabbat service, and we had dinner together. Afterward, a group of us decided to stay and sing songs and recite birkat hamazon. At camp I used to find that part tedious, but on the cruise it felt so symbolic. Here we were, Jews literally being shipped out of Israel, the one place in the world that’s supposed to be our safe haven, and we were singing about Israel. It felt like a metaphor for Jewish history, and it was incredibly powerful.

After the cruise, thirty of us stayed together in an Airbnb in Cyprus for a week. We celebrated Havdalah there, explored the island, and just tried to make the best of it. Then, when the situation improved, we were able to return to Israel.

Another highlight was the TED Talks we had toward the end of the summer. Fellows got up and shared personal stories about their Jewish identities. One friend spoke about how his views on Zionism had changed. Another friend, who never really thought of herself as Jewish, shared what it meant for her to have her bat mitzvah in Jerusalem. Hearing these stories made me realize how much we could all learn from each other. It was unbelievable.

The biggest shift for me personally was becoming more comfortable with being loud about my Jewish identity and my Zionism. I’ve always been proud, but I wasn’t always sure I wanted to be so vocal, especially with everything else I had going on at school. But this summer showed me the importance of speaking up, of standing tall in my identity.

I feel more open-minded now. I’ve learned to understand people on a deeper level, to have those meaningful conversations, and to feel even more connected to Judaism. I don’t necessarily need to become more religious or go to synagogue every week, but I want Judaism to be a constant, active presence in my life. It connects me to people I don’t even know. It grounds me.

To the donors who made this possible: thank you. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for trusting us with this experience. Birthright Israel Excel isn’t just a summer program. It’s an investment in people. It’s like putting stock into 80 young Jews who are going to go out and do amazing things in the world. That investment will pay back a hundred times over. For me, it was life-changing, and I know it will be for generations of fellows to come.