When I first came to Israel in 2012, I was 17, alone, and unsure of what it meant to truly belong to a place. 

At the time, I was part of a program in which I expected to stay in Israel for about a year. But the moment I set foot here, I felt something I had never felt before: home. Not in the sense of a house or city, but a deeper identity — the feeling of being part of a people, a culture, a nation. Growing up in the US, I’d never experienced that kind of rootedness. Here, I found it instantly.

Being Israeli isn’t just about where I live; it’s about what I do. I enlisted in the IDF because I wanted to contribute, to protect, and to build alongside my fellow citizens. Serving in the Golani combat unit, I learned lessons that went far beyond strategy or weapons training. I learned resilience, foresight, and the responsibility that comes with defending a country that feels as much like my own as the home I grew up in. Those months — the drills, the deployments, the uncertainty — shaped not just my skills, but my understanding of what it means to truly serve and........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)