What these WashU students saw in Israel that most American Jews never do

Avi Holzman, Contributing Writer

Published January 28, 2026

Over winter break, five Washington University students went on a week-long trip to Israel with roughly 90 other college students from across the country as part of the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) Alternative Winter Break program.

Two of the five students spoke with the Light about their experiences and how the trip changed their views about Israel.

Ephraim Weiss, 21, attended the JNF’s Global Conference for Israel this past October. He decided to go on the trip so he could visit friends and family and see what JNF does in Israel with the money it receives in donations. He is considering getting more involved with the organization in the future.

“People definitely need to see exactly where their funds are going and why it’s really important to donate to JNF,” he said.

Before starting at WashU, where he studies mechanical engineering, Weiss spent a year studying at a yeshiva in Israel and plans to make aliyah after graduation. Like Weiss, freshman Sonia Stern, 19, took a gap year to study at a yeshiva before WashU and is currently undecided about her major. She also wants to try to visit Israel annually.

“I think it’s a really special place, and that if you care about your identity as a Jew, then it’s really important for you to go,” she said. “You need to have set foot in the land and actually experienced it as it is.”

While on the trip Stern bonded with students from Rutgers, Maryland and other universities about how they could better engage Jewish students. She said one challenge at WashU is the diversity of Jewish practice, with Reform, Conservative and Orthodox students often observing traditions differently, making shared religious programming difficult. Moving forward, she hopes to focus more on political and social events where Jewish students can come together and “unite” around common interests and values.

Looking back, she divided the activities on the trip into three categories: classic tourist sights, heritage sights that highlighted modern Israeli history and volunteering. While she had already seen many of the tourist sites, Stern said volunteering was something she could do “time and again and learn something new every time.”

Participants on the trip made sandwiches for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, did agricultural work and assisted in various building projects. They traveled to northern Israel and the Gaza Envelope and stayed at JNF’s campuses in Beersheba and Hod Hasharon. It was particularly important to Stern and Weiss that they traveled beyond the central part of Israel, which attracts the most tourists and is the most densely populated. They wanted to see JNF’s mission of spreading the Jewish population to all parts of the country in action.

“Israel is more than just the central three cities, and we were able to see a lot of that on the trip,” Weiss said. “It’s very similar to the American states in the sense that each area has a different culture.”

Weiss said the visit to Acre was especially powerful because it is a “mixed city” where Jews and Arabs live peacefully side by side. He added that right now it is difficult for him to see that as a reality for the whole country, especially considering the recency of Oct. 7. However, he still believes peace between Jews and Palestinians remains a possibility.

“People are just people, and they are good people, and it doesn’t really matter where you’re from or anything,” he said.