By Nathaniel Tishman

When I left home for Boston in 1999, I knew that I was about to begin a new chapter of my life. I’ve always been something of a traveler- telling people exactly where ‘home’ was usually boiled down to wherever I happened to be living at the moment. It would be a time of new experiences, new adventures, and perhaps a chance to really figure out what I wanted to do with my life. What I didn’t realize was that I was going to be reunited with my heritage, in a way that I would never have thought possible.

August 26, 1999
I’d been in Boston for perhaps 3 or 4 days, when I first went to visit the Hillel on campus. Actually it wasn’t really on campus; Emerson didn’t seem to have too much of a Jewish presence, so at the suggestion of my uncle Neal, I signed up for the Hillel at Boston University. It was brutally hot, and when we first walked in, we had to wait for a few minutes before we could fill out the paperwork and meet the people in charge. On the table, I happened to notice a flyer- “Want to go to Israel for free over Winter Break? Birthright Israel is your opportunity!” I was intrigued- I picked up a flyer, not expecting anything to ever come of it.

“This seems way too easy,” I remember thinking.

At first I was just going to apply with a group from Boston University; When I was about to send in the application I was greeted by the first of several setbacks...

“Oh, you’re not a BU student? I’m sorry, you’ll have to find another program.”

“No, Emerson isn’t one of the school’s included.”

“This trip? No, it’s full; good luck to you though....”

I was just about to give up, when finally something seemed to work out. The people at the BU Hillel had suggested that I try to find alternate groups besides Hillel which were going. I went to their website, and they had a series of links to other groups which were going. I suppose the best way to describe it would be to say that the groups were categorized by degrees of religiosity. On one end of the spectrum were groups such as Hillel, and Kesher- Reform groups which basically offered one big party in Israel, with seemingly no mention of history, religion (which I care about to some degree, but it certainly wasn’t the most important thing), or Israeli culture. On the other end of the spectrum were groups such as the Isralight Institute, which I was interested in until I found out that they were an Orthodox trip. I didn’t really see the point of going to another country simply to be sequestered and study Torah for the entire time. I was starting to despair; in my brief search I couldn’t find a group that seemed appealing or was still open.

I was just about to close the window, and say goodbye to the entire possibility of Israel when the word ‘Conservative’ caught my eye. There was one trip that was still a possibility, called Koach. Conservative though? I had been raised and Bar-Mitzvahed in a Conservative synagogue, but the last time I went to services was years ago, except for Yom Kippur services at the Conservative temple at Boston University. It couldn’t hurt to apply though, right? I sat down at the terminal in the Emerson library and began to fill out the application; all the basics- name, address, College, etc. The last part of the application was an essay; I don’t remember exactly what the question was- something along the lines of ‘Why would you want to go to Israel?’ I managed to put something together in probably about 10 minutes; I suppose that’s the advantage of being a Journalism major- it comes easily. I finished the application, and emailed it in, with no real expectation of anything happening.

There was still one more part of it though; I had to get at least 2 letters of recommendation, preferably from Jewish professionals. How was I going to do that? I didn’t know any professionals, let alone Jewish ones. The only Jews I knew were people in my family; I had been on something of a Jewish hiatus during my years in California. I managed to find 2 people though. I got one of them through a man in Sarasota who my Dad knew; after talking to him on the phone for about 15 minutes, he was able to whip something together that worked. One down, one to go. Feeling somewhat guilty, I looked up the number for Diane Nathanson, the cantor at my old temple, who had helped me train for my Bar Mitzvah. I reintroduced myself, and feeling very selfish, asked if she could write something on my behalf. She agreed to, and within a few days I had a glowing letter of recommendation.

After this, nothing happened for several weeks. I had basically forgotten about the entire thing. I got a postcard from Hillel ( I had managed to find one group which still had a slot).

“Due to the incredible number of applications we received, we were forced to make our decisions by lottery; unfortunately you were not selected- good luck in the future.”

Well, so much for Israel, right? I had completely forgotten about Koach. About a week or so later, I had just gotten home from work, when I saw a thick envelope sent priority mail on my steps addressed to me. I brought it inside and opened it...

“Congratulations and welcome to Koach! We look forward to an incredible time in Israel; enclosed you will find more information.”

“This has got to be a mistake” was the first thing which crossed my mind. I hadn’t even remembered applying to Koach, and so after being denied for Hillel, I figured that perhaps it was just a paperwork screwup, and that I would again have the possibility pulled out from under me. I refused to raise my hopes up about it. I didn’t even want to tell anyone about it until I had found what was really going on. Unfortunately, I received it on a Friday night and couldn’t reach anyone in the Koach office until Monday morning. I spent most of the weekend wondering; I was thinking that this would be an awfully cruel trick, and a mistake that would be a huge disappointment. Finally Monday morning arrived, and I called Koach; I asked if I could confirm that I was on the trip. About 30 seconds of elevator music later, I found out that there was no mistake; I was going to Israel! My voice quivering with excitement, I hung up, and immediately called any relatives and friends I could think of with the good news.

Over the next month and a half or so I continued to get more and more information from Koach; I had to have a physical, current shots, and everything else legal that mattered. Packages of information from Northbrook, Illinois came in waves, saying things like “We are so very excited about our trip, and look forward to seeing you in New York!” That was the next challenge; I had to get to JFK airport by 11:30 am on January 6th. I had never been to New York; I had barely left Boston. I managed to get a train ticket together though; I was on my way.

All right, the real story can probably start here...

Continued...