My name is Zahava Bar-David, I am nineteen years old and a freshman here, obviously.  I went to a Jewish private school for High School, and then spent a year abroad in Israel last year. It is a common thing in my High School and in other Jewish High Schools to spend a year in Israel after graduating and before going into College. It was a really hard decision for me to make, I did not want to go and did not think there was a reason for it. The reason that many kids do it is because it is supposed to be a year of growth, religiously and independently.

            There are so many schools and one year programs available for the Americans that come, and the first step is deciding which school to go to. Some are coed programs, some are single sex schools and they are each different religiously. Some more strict, with more rules and some with less rules and a lot more freedom.

            Before I went to Israel for the year, I was not very involved with Judaism. I did not feel a strong connection to my religion and thought of it in a negative light. It seemed like a set of rules about things I couldn’t do. I couldn’t eat milk and meat together, I couldn’t drive on Saturdays because we keep a sabath, and the thought of going to a religious school in Israel for a full year made me nasueas. I wanted to just be a regular high school graduate and go to college the next fall. I thought I was ready for it, and wanted to live in the city and party every weekend. My older sister went for a year 3 years before I did, and when she came home she kept a strict dress code and did not wear pants anymore. That scared me and turned me off to it as well. I fought with her over it, and did not understand why she was becoming “more religious” and it changed our relationship in some ways, which hurt me as well.

            I made the decision to go anyway, mostly because all of my friends were going and I had nothing to lose. I was going to a school with two of my best friends that did not have such a strict schedule and was known for giving the kids a lot of freedom. This was the best decision I have ever made. It wasn’t easy leaving my family, and leaving New York, and my boyfriend who was staying in the city, but all of these challenges helped me grow as a person and mature every day that I was gone. For the first time, I was living on my own with friends in a different country, with tons and tons of other Jews. I began to love it and by the end I learned enough about the positive aspects of my religion and no longer thought of it as a set of rules. I found that the rules and the customs were not meant to restrict me from having a regular life, but to help me maintain a balanced mindset and be a good person. We did community service once a week, stayed at strangers houses for the sabath and met tons of new friends. We had tons of fun also, the drinking age in Israel is 18 so we were able to party on some weekends too. I realized that I could be connected to my religion and also remain a regular college aged kid.

This experience for me was life changing and although now I’m starting college a full year later than I should be, I grew and matured over the year that I was away much more than I think I would have in a year of college in the city. I didn’t come home wearing only skirts or obsessed with praying, I’m still the same girl just with a much greater appreciation for life and for religion.