“So Gabe, you are going to go to Israel, right?”
I was asked this question prior to my participation in the icnext/AFU-WOFI program, and frankly I was not excited. Sure, going to Israel sounded like fun, but that was most certainly not the only part. There was a somewhat large workload, and the time commitment was seemingly colossal. So, upon begrudgingly agreeing to participate I began to have very negative expectations for the program itself. But more so the mission trip involved a large workload, and I was now preparing myself for what I assumed would be a trip full of boring lectures and, most heinously, no Ben Yehuda Street. As you can see, I once again went with the pessimistic outlook about the program.
I don’t admit this often, but I was entirely incorrect. The speakers who I assumed would be unbearable were fantastic. Not only did they give great insight into The Israeli Family (the theme of our mission), they also spanned the spectrum from traditional Jew to Arab-Israeli Muslim to African immigrant Christian. This allowed the trip to be a unique and eye opening experience for me, because I was not familiar with some of the issues and opinions which were shown and discussed through the wide variety of people who talked to us.
However I’m not really writing this blog for me. I am writing it for every kid who is going to be in tenth or eleventh grade next year, who thinks this program is stupid and a waste of time. Let me tell you, I thought exactly like you. I thought this program wouldn’t be interesting or cool, and that all it would do was add more stress to my life. It took Amnon bribing me with Starbucks to get me to even talk about it. So as you might imagine I was pretty adverse to this program.
Looking back at how stubborn and unwilling I was, it’s kind of funny that I came to love the program so much. It was not a quick change, and to be honest, I only really came to appreciate it entirely on the Israel mission. I could say more about the trip, but I feel as though telling you even more about what happened is useless. The purpose of this blog is to share my experience about the program in general, to speak to each individual and tell you that you are not the only one who does not want to participate, or is nervous, or doesn’t want to waste their time. I cannot say you are wrong for thinking those things, they are your opinion. But what I can tell you is this: it is well worth your time to check out the icnext program.
In essence this was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, so take it from the rabbi’s kid, join ICNext cohort three! And if you are lucky, you might end up on Israeli national news.