For Schechter grads sharing a Jerusalem flat, it’s ‘the real world’

by Gil Hoffman
NJJN Israel Correspondent

JERUSALEM — Taking seven bright teenagers and putting them in a dilapidated Jerusalem apartment for the summer during a time of war in Israel may sound like the premise of a reality show.

But for Matthew Kandel, Zachary Bier, Jeremy Siegman, David Grossman, Matthew Ring, Lauren Walzer, and Dara Yaskil, it’s “the real world.”

The seven students, all graduates of Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, first came to Israel together on an inspiring class trip in advance of their graduation in 2005 and vowed to return the next summer. They went their separate ways to colleges across America but this summer, they kept their promise.

Since arriving at the end of May, five of them have been studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and two have been serving as interns at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think-tank. All seven are staying through July 31 in a three-bedroom apartment they rent on a narrow alleyway in Jerusalem’s gentrifying Nahlaot neighborhood, next door to the Mahane Yehuda open-air market.

“The need to come back was a group feeling that we all shared because of the amazing experience we had last year,” said Kandel, who was raised in Springfield and attends Princeton University. “We wanted to share a different experience in Israel, living together in a more real-life situation.”

The group found the three-room apartment on a Jerusalem real estate Web site and decided to split equally the $1,200 monthly rent. Three of the young men are in one room, two in another, and the two women share the third (and nicest) room.

The apartment has its shortcomings. The toilet makes noise nonstop, the Internet never works, the television works only occasionally, and the apartment does not have an oven. What it does have is a cockroach problem and some eager neighborhood stray cats.

“I’m not sure we knew what we were getting ourselves into,” said Siegman, who is from Highland Park and attends Cornell University. “When I got here along the dirt alleyway and saw the market, I felt like we were in another world. But then on the Shavuot holiday, we walked with tens of thousands of Israelis at dawn to the Western Wall, and I felt more than vindicated in my decision to spend time here.”

Despite the confined space, the seven, who have been friends since kindergarten, remain friends as they get ready to leave. No massive arguments or sexual tension erupted, making for a dull reality show but still a fun summer.

The group did not let Hamas in the south, Hizbullah in the north, or attempted suicide bombings in Jerusalem mar their summer either. They took the conflict in stride, the way Israelis do.

“If war is going to happen, I would rather be here to show my solidarity with Israel and prove that I can’t be terrorized,” said Bier, a University of Michigan engineering student from Warren. “I’m not going to be scared. I am going to go on living my normal life. Going through it along with Israelis makes me feel more authentically Israeli.”

Ring, of Springfield, who is studying business at the State University of New York-Binghamton, recounted touring up north with his family before this month’s escalation in violence. His tour guide, he said, pointed out a Hizbullah-controlled village that was used a week later to fire upon Israel.

“It’s important that Americans are writing letters and are going to pro-Israel rallies but it’s really important to be here, showing support in the best form,” Ring said. “I am glad I’m here and not watching it in America.”

Walzer, of Livingston, who attends Tulane University in New Orleans, said that when the conflict started, her mother wanted her to come home but let her stay when it became apparent that Jerusalem was not being targeted. She rejected comparisons with her experience last summer when Hurricane Katrina shut down her university.

“I don’t see it as the same situation,” Walzer said. “There was a hurricane in New Orleans and they made us all leave. The hurricane destroyed our campus. Nothing has happened in Jerusalem, and no one is forcing us to leave.”

But Walzer wondered if bad luck was following her, saying, “Maybe I am causing it; maybe I’m cursed.”

Yaskil, of Washington Township, who attends the University of Michigan, said her father is Israeli but that even he got scared after he visited family near the border with Lebanon.

“I told my Dad not to go up north but he didn’t realize the gravity of the situation,” Yaskil said. “When he came back to Jerusalem, he said he wanted me to come home early.”

‘Shalit is my age’

But the parents of the seven students will apparently have to get used to having children in Israel on a long-term basis. When asked if they were interested in making aliya, all seven said yes immediately.

Kandel recounted passing the Jewish Agency building daily on his way home from work and thinking about how easy it would be to fill out aliya forms. Ring said the Israeli counselors on their program last year showed them what it was like to live in Israel, making it more realistic.

“I like the fact that we can get citizenship overnight just for being Jewish,” Bier said. “I want to serve in the IDF. It would make my life more meaningful to contribute to Israel. If you stay in America, you don’t have a real impact on the world. In Israel, you have an influence on world events.”

Grossman, of West Orange, who attends the University of Wisconsin, said that the group had “not even scratched the surface” on many of the issues involved in moving to Israel, such as the fate of religious pluralism.

The students said they met few Israelis their age because those who are 18 and 19 for the most part are serving either in the army or in national service. They said they felt awkward watching their Israeli counterparts go off to war while they were about to return to their safe college campuses.

“I feel terribly guilty when I think that [kidnapped IDF corporal] Gilad Shalit is my age and he is in Gaza somewhere while I am here just basically having fun,” Siegman said.

The language barrier has not been a problem for the seven because they studied Hebrew for 12 years in school. They said their Hebrew improved dramatically because they have insisted on speaking it, sometimes even among themselves.

They have also been going to Hebrew-language movies, participated in an Israeli wine-tasting, and attended Israeli music concerts.

Now that they have proven themselves “survivors” in the “real world” of Israel, the group is already making plans for another, although shorter, visit next summer. Asked whom they would vote out of the group before the next round, a la reality shows, no one in the group pointed any fingers.

“We would only vote out the cockroaches,” Bier said.