Journey to the Holy Land

I am so excited to be unexpectedly starting up another installment of this travel blog.

For anyone who does not know me or my family background very well, I was raised without much emphasis on religion.  My mother, who was raised Catholic but became jaded with it at an early age, took me to catechism and Catholic church services when I was very young, but never forced me to attend beyond an age when I could make the choice myself (which wound up being around 7 for catechism, a little later for Catholic worship altogether).  My father was raised Jewish, though once his family moved from New York to California when he was 11 they stopped observing for the most part (and both of his brothers have since become different versions of Christian).  He neither converted to any form of Christianity nor reclaimed any Jewish practices, and remains agnostic to this day.

The lines between religion and culture are unusually blurred when it comes to the Jewish faith, however, and though I did not fervently believe in any religion enough to convert, I always secretly wished it was my mother who had been the Jewish parent, not my father, because then according to the faith I would have been considered Jewish by birth, and could have been raised with all the traditions afforded to my young Jewish peers such as Hebrew school and bar/bat mitzvahs.  That's one thing I think is tragically absent from most young Americans' lives: a strong sense of cultural identity, which is something I always felt was missing.

So, I grew up relatively religion-free and tradition-free, and didn't suffer for it - I had a great childhood, and was taught to think for myself and find my own answers to life's questions, which I think is ultimately better - the Christians and people of other religions I know who found their faith through similar means (questioning and finding the answers to life's questions through their own course of thought and discovery, rather than complete indoctrination at birth) are much more confident in their faith, and much more willing to have rational, civilized discourse about their beliefs with others because they don't take them for granted as universal fact, but as truths found through a personal, internal journey.

While I've yet to complete such a comprehensive internal spiritual journey myself, at least in the sense of arriving at an easily described or labeled religious doctrine, I still have not lost that yearning for cultural identity, for something to tie me in to the history of humanity more tangibly than a young secular member of a less-than-300-year-old consumption-driven forward-looking nation.  I've recently started digging into my personal history, archiving old family photos and looking back as far as records will allow to find when my family came to this new country and why, and through the process have been getting to know these figures in my family's history.  At the same time, I've been reclaiming those elements of my family's past by embracing the cultural side of my heritage, and attending events organized by the Hillel organization on my new campus, which embraces a broad definition of Judaism that includes those like me that were not raised with the Torah, but nonetheless claim membership in this heritage that spans thousands of years, in which religion and history are at times blurred.

All of that leads me to today, to my upcoming trip on which I embark this coming Wednesday.  Those unfamiliar with current Judaism or don't know very many Jews may have never heard of Taglit-Birthright Israel, so I will tell you briefly who they are: a group of wealthy philanthropic Israeli Jews who fund the Taglit organization that gives the gift of a free 10-day trip to Israel for non-Israeli Jews (together with the Israeli government and local Jewish Federations), stemmed from a belief that it is every Jewish person's "birthright" to visit and experience the holy land.  There are a myriad of trip organizers, which cater to all sorts of interests and degrees of religiosity.  In 2009, I first applied to the organizer Mayanot, which caters to more secular, less religious Jews (though they send every group with a Chabad rabbi for spiritual support and guidance and insight for whoever wishes it), with a looser definition of what defines someone as "Jewish" (leaning more towards the cultural/heritage side, they only require that one parent is Jewish, regardless of whether or not it's the mother, and that you do not currently practice another religion, which as I've explained above I do not).  I was put on the waitlist, and did not receive the gift that year, and did not apply again until this year, on a whim.

This year, I was again put on a waitlist, but unlike the last time I applied, I never took myself off of it.  Then, exactly a week ago, last Monday I received a phone call telling me that the upcoming Dec. 14 trip, departing from LAX, had a cancellation, and asking if I would like to be added to the trip last-minute.  As luck would have it, I had not made any other plans over my winter break from school, and immediately accepted!  So, on Wednesday, I depart for Israel on a FREE 10-day (12-day including the flights to get there) adventure taking me all over the country!

This is a dream come true.  I cannot believe I am going to be physically at these sites from which so much of the course human history has evolved, the place over which so many wars have been fought, where some religious legend and history are blurred as to what may have really happened... these places that sound like fiction, like a far-away land far removed from this real world in which we lived, are going to be right in front of me, under my feet.  It's unreal.

I do not know if I will have the opportunity to blog daily, like I have for my past trips in this blog - they are going to keep us pretty busy and I have no idea how often I will have internet access.  But in case I do have the chance to make updates, I wanted to have this introduction out and ready.  If not, I will keep a journal with me at all times as it is, and will make entries to tell you all about my experience upon my return.

Speaking of my return - there is a possibility I will be able to extend my flight and travel for a couple more weeks while in-country.  This is easy and cheap to do, but it depends on if the airline will allow me to move my flight, which it will not let me do until I am actually in-country.  If not, I plan on returning to the region this summer when I will already be nearby in central Europe for a music festival, and can come back and wrap up the sites I missed (I hate to leave any stone unturned).  Because this is a Jewish trip, we will be skipping many of the important sites of the other major religions and some regular old tourist locations, and I want to double back and fill in the holes that will be left regarding the rest of both my personal heritage and humanity's history.  And maybe even hop on over to Jordan if I can squeeze it in :)

I will be there for most if not all of Hannukah and for Christmas - though Christmas will happen while I'm still on the Jewish program, so it'll be almost as if it doesn't exist for me this year.  It will be a nice change, I think, to not be constantly barraged with the crazy spectacle America turns it into.

So, that's my story. I'm going to Israel. I have to keep saying it because it seems so unreal - I'm going to Israel.

Shalom.

[edit: I got my extension, so I will be gone until January 11!]