Over the past 10 months, Noa Rose’s life has been a little different than the average American teenager. She has been living halfway across the world in Israel.

Noa, 13, goes to Congregation B’nai Amoona in Saint Louis, where her father, Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose, serves as senior rabbi. For the past year she has been attending ninth grade at Hartman School for girls in Jerusalem. She also attended an ulpan, a school to help non-Israelis learn Hebrew, for a couple of months. 

“My Hebrew has definitely improved,” Noa said. “Before coming here, I was only able to understand basic things, but now, I am able to understand full conversations and even speak.”

Though Noa had visited Israel many times with her family—and with her 8th grade class at Solomon Schechter Day School last year—she said actually living in Israel is different than just visiting.

“When you live [in Israel] you get a completely different perspective on things, and in some ways realize that although Israel is a wonderful place, not everything here is perfect,” Noa said. 

Living in the Jewish homeland as a teenager has given Noa many opportunities she does not have in St. Louis. 

“My favorite part of this year has been the freedom,” Noa said. “In St. Louis it is extremely hard to get around for yourself — walking is definitely never an option — and here I take the bus almost every single day and walk to and from school and other events.”

Celebrating the different Jewish holidays in Israel has been quite an experience for Noa. She has enjoyed watching the Israeli’s exciting holiday celebrations. 

“Celebrating the holidays here has been amazing,” Noa said. “Hannukah, for example, was amazing. In almost every shop there are a thousand different types of sufganiot [jelly doughnuts] and on the buses it said, ‘hag hanukkah samech’” [Happy Hannukkah].”

One of the challenges Noa has had to face over the course of this year is missing all of her friends and family in America. She has been Skyping and talking to her friends constantly. 

“I am ready and excited to come back to America,” Noa said. “I miss my friends a lot and I am ready to get back into our normal schedule. But I think that once we are back for a while, every now and then I will think to myself ‘I wish we could be in Israel right now.’”

So, what has Noa taken away from living abroad for almost a year? 

“This year, I have not only learned more about myself but also about responsibility and having to put yourself outside of your comfort zone,” she said.

The experience has also deepened her sense of Jewish identity.

“I do feel like I have a stronger connection with Israel after being here for a year” Noa said. “I’ve really gained a great sense of being Jewish and to be proud of our country.”