Reflections on Israel Tour
Ariel takes look at the three-week trip all over Israel that consolidated his connection, pride and all that it means to him to be Jewish.
As we neared the end of our three-week tour of Israel, travelling the length and breadth of it, doing everything from snorkelling to hiking to camping in the desert (with a whole lot of food in between), there was always one place that I had been looking forward to going to. In all of our discussions about ‘oh, what is the place you are most excited to go to?’, my answer was normally the Western Wall.
Why?
Because it is the place that defines who we are. This is the pinnacle of our homeland, where everything that makes us Jewish happens.
This is where Avraham nearly sacrificed Isaac and made a covenant with G-d, and where King Solomon built what would be the first Temple.
From the temples thousands of years ago to modern-day Israel, through wars and hardship, this has still stood the test of time.
As we all sat there in the Old City, writing notes to be put in the Wall, I could feel myself shaking inside from the emotion and pride of finally being there again.
I was last at the Western Wall for my Bar Mitzvah in 2022. Even though I had only just turned thirteen, I still felt the uplifting sense of pride and spirituality at having my Bar Mitzvah, becoming a man at the holiest Jewish site in the world.
Now, three and a half years later, I still felt that same sense of pride and Jewishness as I said the Shema and then the Amidah at the Kotel.
We are Zionists not just because we are Jewish. This is the land G-d promised to us in the Torah. This land is the land that Moshe, our greatest leader, was not allowed into after he hit the rock. This land is a land that should be protected for all it is worth, as it has been ours for two thousand years, ever since G-d said to Avraham in the book of Bereshit, 13:17, where it says, ‘Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto you will I give it’. This commandment is exactly what we have done on our tour - traversed the length and breadth of Israel, from the Golan down to Eilat, and from Tel Aviv and the sunny beaches all the way to the Jordan River.
Many people, of all different faiths and religions (and none), can come and live in Israel and enjoy it; the Jewish state. As stated in the concept of the Third Temple, the prophet Isaiah said, ‘For My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.’ This shows that everyone can come and pray and live their lives in this land.
As a proud Jew and Zionist, experiencing the pride of the Kotel again after the possibility of not being in Israel at all meant so much to me. May there be peace for all nations across the world, and Am Yisrael Chai!
Ariel Klein (FZY Israel Tour 8, 2026)
