I’ve made it. After three years of planning, two canceled trips and many weeks of quarantine, I have finally made it all the way from the middle of Massachusetts to the city once called the Center of the World: Jerusalem. Having never traveled outside of the country before and not knowing what to expect or if my Hebrew would be up to scratch, I was exceedingly nervous while on my way to Israel. Luckily for me, I could not have asked for a better group of people to be traveling and spending my time with this summer.
Before I even settled in for the arrival quarantine or for my internship itself, I had already made friends with about half the people in my group, fellow young adults who were just as nervous as I was but always very friendly and welcoming. For the first few days we did everything together and helped each other get accustomed to Israel and our new lives for the summer. The people I am sharing this trip with are some of the nicest people I have ever met; it’s an incredible group of people and I am so glad to be sharing this experience with them.
And as much as I enjoyed getting sunburnt at the beach in Tel Aviv and spending hours losing myself in the wonders of the shuk, I came here to work and work I have. I’ve spent a lot of time scrolling through social media before, but never in order to be productive; usually I have the opposite intention. But during the past week I spent time analyzing the social media presence of many Jewish organizations and seeing what works and what doesn’t and figuring out how that can apply to the social media accounts of the RRG Beit Midrash of Hebrew University (rrgbeit on Instagram!) to better advertise the program and help them reach and engage a larger audience. Rabbi Udren, my boss and mentor for the summer, has been so fun to work for and incredibly knowledgeable and supportive in my personal and professional development. I am confident in saying that this will be the best summer of my life, both in how I will grow personally and professionally and in how much fun I am going to have in Israel and with the other people on my program. Yallah!
Harrison Rosengard, Brandeis University ’22, is a psychology major interning at the Rabbi Reuven Grodner (RRG) Beit Midrash at Hebrew University through the Boston Onward Israel program. 125 students from Massachusetts colleges have professional internships in their fields of interest in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa this summer. Visit onwardboston.com for more info!
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