“I was born in Ashkelon and during Operation Cast Lead, the air raid siren was my alarm clock. I still remember the sprints, which wouldn’t have disappointed Usain Bolt, to the stairwell or the nearest bomb shelter. I felt that I was living in a crazy reality, and it frustrated me that people around the world didn’t understand what we were going through. I wanted to explain the Israeli reality to them, and this desire brought me to The Jewish Agency.

I ended up doing Shichut in Baltimore, landing in the homes of three host families who took me in as a guest over the course of the year and welcomed me with open arms. The encounter with the Jewish community of Baltimore showed me a different Judaism. In Israel, you aren’t concerned much, if at all, with your Jewish identity. But when you are 10,000 kilometers from your home you start to discover new things: men and women can pray together, girls can be called up to the Torah, and Kabbalat Shabbat can be a fun event. This Shlichut changed my life.

When I returned to Israel, instead of being a paramedic, I served as a commander and officer in the Education Corps. After getting my bachelor’s degree in Biology, I realized the Jewish world is calling to me, and I started working at The Jewish Agency as a coordinator of the Gap Year Shlichut overseas. At the same time, I started studying for a master’s degree in Jewish Education, in a program for returned Shlichim at Hebrew University with Hebrew Union College, because I wanted to deepen my pedagogical knowledge.

At holidays my family calls me ‘Ronit the Rabbi’ because I try to inject a little more traditional Jewish content to our holiday meals. I do this because it’s important to me to connect them to the Jewish experience that I had in Baltimore. I’m still secular, but with a strong Jewish identity. None of this would have happened without my year of service in Baltimore.”

– Ronit Pinsky, Ashkelon, Gap Year Shlichut in Baltimore, USA

“I was born in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem to a traditionally-observant mother and secular father. I remember more than once people asked me why my father doesn’t wear a yarmulke. When I was young, it was difficult to explain the complexity of Jewish identity, but because of this challenge, I wanted to learn as much as possible. That curiosity led me to go on Shlichut to the Hillel at the University of Maryland.

On Shlichut, as I expected, I was exposed to a Jewish world that was totally different from what I was familiar with in Israel. What struck me the most was the idea of choosing to be a Jew. In Israel, you are a Jew by default, and don’t invest too much effort into it. In the Diaspora, you have to be active in order to be Jewish. When I came back to Israel I understood that here, too, there is a widely-encompassing Jewish culture, even if it’s not yet actualized the way it is overseas. This realization made me finally feel comfortable with my Jewish identity.

To me, Judaism is first and foremost a culture. The main aspects of the tradition that I observe, I choose consciously because they are meaningful to me. This conscious choice is the biggest lesson I’ve taken from Shlichut.”

– Yael Gertel, Jerusalem, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to the University of Maryland, USA