In the weeks leading up to Oct. 15, 2023, I was preparing for something I’d waited a lifetime to experience: my first trip to Israel. Bags were packed, boarding passes downloaded, headspace somewhere between curiosity and excitement. But then the world stopped. The events of Oct. 7 changed everything. The trip, of course, didn’t happen.

Now, nearly two years later, I’m preparing again for my first visit to Israel, this time with a group from the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. The trip is called Show Me Israel and it’s not a sightseeing tour. It’s a roll-up-your-sleeves volunteer mission: working in food banks, preparing meals for soldiers and showing up in solidarity with communities affected by trauma. It’s not tourism, it’s participation. And that feels right. If you’re interested in joining, registration is open until Aug. 25 at https://www.jfedstl.org/show-me-israel/.

Two firsts, five decades apart

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As I started outlining what I hoped would be a thoughtful story about my long-awaited first time in Israel, I stumbled onto another “first” — one that happened more than 50 years ago. That’s how I came across the story of St. Louisan Mark Koritz.

Back in 1972, Koritz was selected by B’nai B’rith to join a pioneering mission to Israel, one supported in part by the Federation. Then in his early 30s, Koritz and five others were selected by B’nai B’rith to participate in what was essentially a prototype for the missions we know today. He lived in kibbutzim, worked military bases and stayed in Israeli homes. No hotels. No tourists. Just people meeting people.

“We were living like Israelis,” he told me. “I was picking pineapples at two in the morning. We slept on floors, in strangers’ homes and ate with families we’d never met. We came home changed. Committed.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. From that trip, many participants went on to become civic and Jewish leaders, both locally and nationally. Koritz himself helped shape the mission model that still exists today: immersive, grassroots and deeply relational.

Volunteering in Israel, then and now

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The Show Me Israel experience is designed around presence — to stand, work and witness with Israelis navigating the aftermath of Oct. 7. The itinerary reflects that mission. We’ll package aid for displaced communities, support active-duty IDF troops and meet geopolitical experts trying to envision what comes next.

We’ll celebrate Shabbat in Jerusalem. We’ll see the art that’s been born of grief and resilience in Tel Aviv. We’ll engage directly with the people and places that define Israel today.

Some days will be physically demanding. All days, I suspect, will be emotionally so.

Why this journey matters now

I’ve lived my entire life Jewish in America — connected, curious and proud. I’ve never set foot in Israel. And like many in our community, my relationship with the Jewish state is complicated. There’s love, yes, but also critique and a need to bear witness with my own eyes.

And yet, despite having no family in Israel, no relatives lost in the Holocaust and no personal tether to that place or moment, I find myself deeply connected. Every year, I sit for 15 minutes at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum and read names aloud on Yom HoShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. These are names of people I never knew, lives I will never fully understand. But I read them and it matters.

It’s only 15 minutes—a fleeting moment compared to the immeasurable loss of six million lives—but those minutes stay with me. Reading those names is no longer just remembrance. It’s become a ritual of connection.

This trip — my first, long-delayed and long-anticipated — feels like a continuation of that act.

A working mission. Like Koritz’s experience in the ’70s, it’s a chance to show up not just as a reporter, but as a participant. As a member of a community. As a Jew.

And for anyone else in St. Louis considering their first trip, or their fifth or twentieth, or wondering what it means to go now, maybe this story can help you decide. There’s room for more to join us. Sign up by Aug. 25 at https://www.jfedstl.org/show-me-israel/.