August 22, 2025
I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and I’m now a senior at Skidmore College. I study education and psychology with a minor in dance. For as long as I can remember I thought I would become a teacher, but recently I’ve considered going into school social work or child psychology instead. My earliest memories of Judaism are from the preschool...
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August 22, 2025
People say, “Birthright changed my life,” and you wonder, what does that actually mean? Well, 23 and a half years after my Birthright Israel trip, I’m the President and CEO of Federation CJA in Montreal. And when I look back — on my personal life, my marriage to a Jewish woman, my professional path in the Jewish community, and everything...
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August 22, 2025
I grew up in Montreal in a home where we didn’t need to be told why Judaism mattered; it was ingrained. My parents and grandparents set the example. Every Friday night, without exception, we had Shabbat dinner. We weren’t strictly Shomer Shabbat, but family always came first. From the time I was little, Israel was part of my life. My...
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August 21, 2025
I was born in Canada to Israeli parents who had left Israel before my birth. My three brothers were born there. My parents were very Zionist, but they immigrated because my dad had PTSD from the Yom Kippur War, and didn’t want his sons to go into the army and experience what he went through. At home we spoke Hebrew,...
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July 25, 2025
My name is Annie Michaels, I’m 32, and I live in Chicago. I was part of a Birthright Israel Volunteer trip in September 2024. This trip was created for individuals with disabilities from the U.S. and Canada who had attended Camp Ramah in the past. The purpose of the trip was to volunteer during a time of war and to...
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July 23, 2025
I was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and came to the U.S. when I was a year and a half old. Fresh off the boat except it was a flight with a layover in Italy and I had no say in the matter. Russian was my first language. My second language was also Russian. English eventually showed up, uninvited but necessary....
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July 21, 2025
I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. It’s not the smallest Jewish community, but it’s not L.A. either — where I live now. Growing up, I was nearly always the only Jewish kid in my class. One of maybe three or four in my entire grade. We observed the High Holy Days, did some Shabbat dinners, and I had a bar...
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July 15, 2025
Growing up in Montgomery County, Maryland, my strongest Jewish memories were forged at Perlman Camp in the Poconos. Every summer, Shabbat became the highlight of my week, Israeli dancing and singing Hebrew prayers with my closest friends as the sun set over the lake. It was there that my Jewish identity felt most alive and authentic. At UNC Chapel Hill,...
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July 8, 2025
I live in Manhattan, where I’m part of the leadership team at a software infrastructure and technology company. My family is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. They fled after Chernobyl, first to Israel, and then finally to Toronto, Canada, where I was born and raised. I’ve walked a path that’s taken me deeper and deeper into Jewish life, something that truly...
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July 7, 2025
This story originally appeared on June 25 in Hillel International. For months, I had been counting down the days until my trip to Israel with the University of Florida Hillel. It was a dream I spoke into existence over and over, telling friends, family, teachers, and even strangers how excited I was. I imagined myself living for the summer in...
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