They’d never seen snow. Then St. Louis delivered a blizzard.

Avi Holzman, Contributing Writer

Published February 1, 2026

As St. Louisans hunkered down during the Jan. 24–25 weekend snowstorm, four Israeli teens found themselves marveling at the rare winter scene unfolding around them.

Itai, Ofir, Yuval and Naomi, the four Israeli shinshinim—who for security reasons will be referred to by their first names—had never seen a significant snowfall before. It’s unlikely they will be forgetting it any time soon.

“Every morning when I wake up and see the snow outside is really special and amazes me,” Yuval said. “It felt like walking on white sand because there was so much snow.”

When the shinshinim saw the weather forecast, they expected to be stuck indoors. Instead of remaining with their individual host families, they decided to ride out the storm together in Creve Coeur with Yuval’s current host family.

“We wanted to experience the snow together, so we chose to have a sleepover. We had the American snow day,” Yuval said. “We went sledding outside and had a snowball fight. It was very fun.”

All four shinshinim bonded with Yuval’s host family and got to spend extended time together, which they had not done in a while. Besides sledding, they also played board games, watched movies and drank hot chocolate.

Naomi said she was “disappointed” the last time snow was forecasted in St. Louis because only a few inches fell. “This time they talked so much about it, and I didn’t believe it,” she said.

She added that being in the snow felt “magical” and loved having a quintessential American experience. Naomi, like the other shinshinim, is looking forward to Passover, the Fourth of July and potentially celebrating Easter if she is living with an interfaith host family.

Ofir, who has been skiing in Israel, said that on the slopes he did not “feel the snow in the same way,” and struggled to explain just how much snow had fallen to his friends back home.

“I sent them a lot of pictures and explained how far the snow goes up your leg. It was pretty crazy to explain to my friends. None of them have ever seen this much snow,” he said.

Itai almost did not make it to the host family’s house because of the storm. He thought it was going to start snowing on Saturday afternoon and went for a run when “everything turned white so quickly.”

He, like all of the shinshinim, was grateful for the experience. It was his first time sledding and holding a snowball. The whole weekend was a blast, and for him even the less desirable tasks were fun just because they involved snow.

“Shoveling the driveway was fun just because it has snow included,” he said. “A lot of people who live with snow do not like it as much as I do.”

The shinshinim are Israeli teen emissaries who have recently graduated high school who spend a year volunteering in Jewish communities abroad.

The list of partner organizations for the shinshin includes:

Congregations Bnai Amoona, Central Reform Congregation, Kol Rinah, Shaare Emeth, Temple Emanuel, Temple Israel and United Hebrew as well as the Israeli Scouts, Saul Mirowitz Jewish Day School and Jewish Community Relations Council’s Student to Student. During the summer they work at Ramot Amoona, Camp Emeth, Camp Ben Frankel and Camp GUCI.

The Shinshinim program is a partnership between the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, the Jewish Agency for Israel and local Jewish organizations with the support of the Lubin Green Foundation. Both the Shinshin and Reverse Shinshin programs are funded through, and their experiences and roles at various synagogues and schools are coordinated by, the Israel Center team at Jewish Federation of St. Louis.