May 6-7/Day 14

By: Sam, Class of 2025

May 6-7/Day 14

By: Sam, Class of 2025

We started our last morning early, so we could make sure we had everything to go home. After Tefillah, which was led by Schechter students, we had our last breakfast in Israel. We then made our way to the bus with our luggage. Our first activity was the Maccabi sports museum where we looked at how the Maccabiah started, and about Jews who competed in the Olympics and other international competitions. We then went to the highly anticipated Shuk HaCarmel where we had a pizur lunch and time to shop. Where I ate is regarded as one of the best shawarma places in Israel! We then took a graffiti tour in the Florentin neighborhood of southern Tel Aviv, where we saw some very good graffiti. Once that was over we did our own graffiti on a vinyl record, which was my favorite part of the day. 

We then walked to a park, where we had a reflection session to talk about our trip and the impact it had on us. Finally, we had our last dinner at an amazing restaurant with chicken and beef skewers, hummus, falafel, pita and more. After dinner, we headed to the airport. It was a very sad bus ride—but we did express gratitude to all of our staff. 

Once we got to the airport, the emotions were heavy, because we had made some really good friends from the other schools who had traveled with us. We said goodbye to the students from Gross Schechter (Cleveland), who were staying for another five days, and then we and the students from Kellman Brown Academy (Cherry Hill, NJ) started the stressful security and check-in process. Our plane took off around 12:30 a.m., and most of us slept for most of the flight. We landed around noon Israel time, or 5 a.m. Eastern. We made our way through passport control, got our luggage, and then said goodbye to our friends from KBA. It was time to drive home.

We hit a lot of traffic on the way from Newark to school, and finally arrived at 10 a.m. It was a long and bumpy ride—but it felt good to get home. Music was playing, and we were greeted by the entire Schechter student body, holding posters, smiling, and cheering. We said a quick hello to everyone before going home. 

Overall, it was really an amazing trip. I hope to go back in the next couple years, because it truly was the Trip of a Lifetime. And we all hope to see some of our new friends from Cleveland and Cherry Hill soon as well; we are trying to plan something with them because of the strong relationships we made.