Mayanot Gives Jewish Youth a Chanukah to Remember
Remember that feeling when you saw something you’ve only heard about for the first time in your life? Remember the emotion? It’s a pretty cool moment, isn’t it?
Well, imagine being somewhere you have heard about your whole life for the first time, and being there or seeing it during a time that is specific to that time or place!
Well, for 80 lucky people on Taglit-Birthright Israel: MAYANOT, they got just that; Israel on Chanukah!
“It’s beautiful and amazing,” said Drew Toresco, a participant on Mayanot 16 from Hoboken, NJ. “We’re lucky to have been able to come here during Hanukkah! It was awesome to celebrate the only holiday that happened in Israel, IN Israel!”
These sentiments are not Toresco’s alone. They are echoed widely across his bus.
Mayanot 16 arrived in Israel as the country was fixing to kindle light number seven. Seeing menorahs lining the streets and in windows all over was enlightening to say the least.
“I felt like it was more powerful to be here in Israel, where everything started, on such an important holiday,” Said Toresco’s bus-mate, Clare Starr. “It felt very special, like a once in a lifetime opportunity,” explained the native of New Jersey.
Mayanot 290, a group of Young Professionals, has been zipping across the country since early morning of Wednesday, last week. At last, they have arrived in Jerusalem, but, that wasn’t before they had the opportunity to light the candles together, as a group, as a family, for seven straight nights!
“Spending Chanukah in Israel is like celebrating ‘the Holidays’ back in America,” Carly Baum, who knows ‘Holiday spirit’ from her home town of NYC, pointed out. “Except here, it’s our holiday! There is an incredible, warm Holiday spirit all around. It was amazing to experience that!”
With the trip approaching its last leg, Mayanot 290 will settle in for a once-in-a-lifetime Shabbat in Jerusalem, with the Chanukah spirit still looming large.
The feelings, emotions and thoughts of the group have been set in large part because of their celebration of Chanukah together. “This trip has helped me to ‘re-realize’ my own personal strength, as well as the vast depth of support that strengthens all of us,” said Mayanot 290er, Taylor Helfand.
Helfand’s thoughts, reflecting on the widespread Chanukah celebrations in the Jewish state and the strength of Jewish community when unified, speak volumes of the purpose and success of the Mayanot Israel program.
“Together with Taglit-Birthright Israel, Mayanot is able to bring a sense of true Jewish unity to our participants while at the same time encouraging self-expression and reflection,” said Rabbi Shlomo Gestetner, Dean of the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies.
“And when we can bring together Jewish history, Jewish culture, Jewish heritage and throw in the celebration of Chanukah in the Holy Land, you have a true blend of past, present and future for these young Jews to build off of,” Gestetner concluded.
