A Home Away From Home

Hi, I am Carissa McKinney from Framingham, MA. I went on Israel Quest this past January. I left the States for the first time in my life and came back wishing the plane would just turn around and go back. Israel was amazing but not only because it was a Jewish based country (which was a cool concept for me) but also because the landscape is so diverse and the people there have so much passion for their homeland. Israelis would randomly come up to me whenever I wore my Taglit-Birthright Israel shirt telling me to come back and that they hoped we love the trip.

I rode a camel, climbed Mt. Masada at sunrise, put my feet in the lowest salt water on earth (the Dead Sea) and the lowest fresh water on earth (the Sea of Galilee), experienced the sights, smells and sounds of Jerusalem on Shabbat, ate in a Druze Village, was part of the Tel Aviv nightlife and came home with friends I am still so close to today and in much need of sleep.

This might sound cliché, but I went in with such high expectations and was scared nothing could live up to them, yet I left with them so far exceeded. No matter how interested or uninterested you start out, I say just GO! The trip will teach you so much and likely change your mind 🙂

-Carissa