Jewish Community Partners

Brooke Sanderson, daughter of Stacy and Josh Sanderson is a junior at the Goldie Margolin School for Girls. Memphis Jewish Federation’s Lemsky Endowment Fund provided her with a Teen Israel Experience grant to offset the costs of her NCSY JOLT program. All rising juniors and seniors are eligible for grants of up to $3,000 to attend a recognized teen summer or semester program in Israel. Teen Israel Experience applications for Summer 2024 are open and can be accessed at Lemsky Endowment Fund | Jewish Community Partners (jcpmemphis.org)

This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to spend five weeks in Israel, through one of NCSY’s many different summer programs, JOLT Israel. This leadership summer program for teens entering 11th grade in the upcoming fall, allows them to explore the land of Israel and have amazing Chesed (volunteer) opportunities, all while making friendships to last a lifetime. There were kids from all over including New York, Boca, Toronto, Chicago, and many more. This summer the program was bigger than ever before with a total of 160 teens on the program, but that didn’t stop each one of us from having the most amazing summer experience.

The first night, they brought us to the Kotel where those of us who had never been to Israel before, were able to see the Kotel for the first time. This was especially special for me as I had never been to Israel before this summer. We started off the trip in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), went to the City of David tunnels, and then went to the shuk (markets) for our first Friday. Our first week was capped off with a day filled with hiking Masada, going to the Dead Sea, and hiking Ein Gedi.

The second week we moved up north to do our week of Chesed, where I worked with the siblings of kids with disabilities. The program was a meaningful week-long camp for the kids who were able to participate in activities like going to a water adventure park, planting trees and learning about army tanks. We spent Shabbos in Hispin, in the southern Golan area, and then moved back down to Yerushalayim.

We went on many different hikes, biking, caving, visited Chachamim’s (wise men) graves, and much more. We took a fascinating tour of the Old City along with the Kotel Tunnel Tours before starting a meaningful Tisha B’Av by going to Herodian. After a long fast, we went to a park overlooking the old city where we had a kumzitz (musical gathering) and sang beautiful songs to end a meaningful day.

The last week of the program was by far my favorite as we did so many cool activities that I had never done before. We went rappelling down the side of a mountain, camel riding, and a program-wide water tag. We then traveled down to Eilat for two days where we explored down south and went on a beautiful hike at four o’clock in the morning where we were able to daven by the sunrise. After a long week of intense programming, we had our final Shabbos where we learned with our advisors, sang, and hung out, and ended off the program by having a banquet to commemorate all the fun things we did over the course of the summer.

JOLT Israel was really the best summer ever and it was an opportunity that I am so thankful to

have had. It was so meaningful to be able to go on the 5 week-long trip with people who are now some of my closest friends and be able to experience the land together.

I am so thankful to Memphis Jewish Federation’s Lemsky Endowment Fund for affording me this opportunity that I will remember for the rest of my lif

Note: This essay was written before the horrific events of October 7^th.