This Yom Kippur, our chazzan did more than lead us in prayer. He showed me the future of the State of Israel, and perhaps the future of the Jewish people.

As I have many times over the past 15 years, I had the privilege of spending Yom Kippur with hundreds of participants, alumni and staff members of the Kol Ami Mechina. Young Jewish women and men from Israel and around the world came together to pray, learn, reflect and ask themselves who they are and who they hope to become. With more than 3,000 alumni, Kol Ami has become a community unlike any other. But that is not what I want to write about.

I want to tell you about the young man who served as our chazzan and led our community in prayer. His name is Ariel, and his story deserves to be known. Ariel was born into an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem. He studied in some of the most prestigious institutions in the Haredi world, including the renowned Hebron Yeshiva. But at a certain point, Ariel realized that he wanted something more than the path laid out before him. He left the yeshiva and began studying secular subjects for the first time in his life.

At the age of 22, he had to begin learning........

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