AMHSI Students Spring into Action

For Marinella Silver and Benjamin Leeds, both high school juniors from New Jersey, the opportunity to spend a semester participating in Jewish National Fund-USA’s Alexander Muss High School in Israel was a dream come true. This one-of-a-kind study abroad program enables high school students from across America and around the world to spend time in Israel, studying in classrooms on campus and taking field trips throughout the country to learn about Israeli history and experience the nation’s culture. 

“Upon arriving on campus, I instantly sensed that the program would live up to and even exceed my hopes,” Leeds said. “Whether hiking for four days across the country or swimming in Tel Aviv, praying at the Kotel (Western Wall) on Yom Kippur or climbing Masada at sunrise, I knew I would get to learn and explore Israel firsthand.”   

Silver recalls the particularly euphoric atmosphere on the evening of October 6. “We started off Simchat Torah, one of the happiest holidays of the Jewish calendar, with more joy and laughter than I even knew existed,” she said. “We spent the whole night singing and dancing with the Torah, uncontrollably crying with gratitude consuming us all.” 

These tears of joy and gratitude quickly turned to tears of fear and sadness as the students woke up to the sound of sirens the next morning and were sent to bomb shelters. Both students recall that the gravity of the situation became clear when one of their counselors was immediately called up to the Israel Defense Forces reserves to fight in the war. “We didn’t even get to say goodbye to him, though little did we know he would be one of many counselors and even teachers, that would leave us,” said Silver. 

Like Jews around the world, the students felt compelled to take action. They quickly mobilized and packed almost 2,000 care packages filled with basic necessities and snacks for soldiers and families living in the south, spending hours writing handwritten notes to be included in each package. In addition, they created their own fundraising page for Jewish National Fund-USA’s Israel Resilience Fund, raising almost $150,000 in less than a month. But, just a few days after the war began, several more of the program’s counselors were called to the reserves and it was clear that the program would have to end its session early. 

“I am very proud of what we were able to accomplish in the last days before we left,” said Leeds. “Within hours of our departure, several families from the Gaza border communities moved into our dorms. My Muss classmates and I were all so happy to hear that our former dorms are being used for this purpose.”  

Silver agrees that, despite having to leave, the students can take pride in what they accomplished during those first few days. “Though we are only teenagers and aren’t on the front lines like our counselors or the thousands of others, we still made a difference,” she said.