Josh was a typical 10th grader living in the San Fernando Valley. Hanging out with his friends while he navigated his way through a growing pile of homework and SAT study guides, his schedule mirrored most of his fellow sophomores: Wake up, go to class, come home, hang out, homework, sleep, repeat. The main difference between Josh and most of his buddies was that he was Jewish. He wasn’t embarrassed to share this with his friends; they all knew and acknowledged it, making sure to snap a picture of his ugly holiday sweater along with theirs when Chanukah rolled around. But Josh’s Jewish identify wasn’t something he focused on. In fact, his Jewish identify seemed to start and stop with that Chanukah sweater. Judaism was something that existed, but aside from begrudgingly sitting next to his parents on Yom Kippur or yawning his way through his aunt and uncle’s Pesach seder, it’s just not something he cared to think about. Josh was one of the more motivated students in his class, and he had his sights set on engineering.
In his effort to spruce up his college resume, he made up his mind to spend the summer at a competitive engineering camp in Los Angeles. Two weeks after submitting his application, a senior named Dena approached Josh with a flier for a four-week summer program in Israel. Dena had been involved in their public school’s Jewish Student Union club for the past two years, serving as the club’s vice-president and now president. NCSY runs Jewish Student Union (JSU) clubs at public schools throughout the country, and it was in her JSU club that Dena had first heard about TJJ: The Jerusalem Journey. Wanting others to have the experience she did the summer prior, Dena passed around fliers to any Jewish student she knew. Josh wasn’t interested. It was engineering or bust. But as luck would have it, Josh was hungry. “Come to JSU today,” Dena said. “There’s free pizza.”
Josh walked into his first JSU club with low expectations. Go in, get pizza, and move along. Soon after taking a seat, the roar of 45 other students came to a halt, as they sat quietly to listen to the JSU Club director. The “Rabbi” looked like others Josh had seen before, beard and all. And as the rabbi wrote Hebrew words on the board, Josh rolled his eyes back and thought, Here we go…
About two minutes into the lesson about the importance of mesorah, Josh realized that this rabbi was different. He talked the kids’ language. He talked Josh’s language. He spoke in a manner that was cool and relevant, and although there were over 40 teens in the room, he somehow used examples and stories that connected with the whole group, keeping them engaged until the lunch bell rang. They were glued to their seats, and Josh was hooked. Over the next two months, Josh became a regular at JSU and started attending the weekly after-school NCSY program Latte & Learning, wanting to understand more about his Jewish identity and hoping to understand why he started to care so much about it. The more he became connected with his heritage, the more he wanted to learn. Soon, he became fascinated with Israel. “The greatest classroom to learn about Israel,” the rabbi said, “is Israel itself.” That was when Josh signed up for his first summer on TJJ.
The Anne Samson Jerusalem Journey (TJJ) is a four-week summer program tailored to public high school teens, offering them a captivating journey into Israeli life, history, culture, and the heart of its people. This past summer alone, NCSY sent 22 buses to travel across Israel.
Over the two summers that Josh spent on TJJ, three things stood out. 1) The Land of Israel was like nothing he read or heard, and to truly grasp its rich history and vibrant culture, every Jew must see it for themselves. 2) Being in Israel puts you on a different frequency where you can deeply connect with your Jewish identity. 3) You don’t need to abandon engineering or the passions you care about to embrace a Jewish lifestyle. Today, years after graduating high school, Josh is a successful engineer and proudly teaches Daf Yomi. While once reluctant to enter the JSU classroom, he’s now helping others begin their own Jewish journeys.
To learn more about The Anne Samson Jerusalem Journey and other NCSY Summer programs, please visit summer.ncsy.org or email [email protected].
