JEWISHcolorado’s Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour (IST) with 41 high schoolers and six staff members (including Israeli guide and staff) was one of the only community-based teen trips to travel to Israel since October 7. The group left Denver on June 16, traveled to Poland, on to Israel, and returned on July 14. JEWISHcolorado talked with two of the participants, Mason Davis and Julia Perlmutter, about memories from the trip that will stay with them forever.
Mason: Throughout my whole Jewish life, I had heard so many heartbreaking stories about the concentration camps in Poland—Majdanek, Auschwitz, Birkenau—but at the end of the day, nothing compares to being there and visiting the land where this happened. Visualizing the way my ancestors were treated—they would arrive, and two hours later, they were dead—really made me feel empathy.
Julia: Before we even walked through that famous gate at Auschwitz, we were standing on the train tracks, and I looked down and saw yellow flowers growing everywhere. I thought about how Jews wore yellow Stars of David more than 80 years ago and now, here was that same color in a flower representing hope and optimism in a place of atrocity.
Mason: During the tour, we went into the room with the Auschwitz Book of Names showing everyone who was killed there. Like any person, I looked for my last name. There were so many people with the same last name listed, and I realized some could be my relatives.
Julia: Walking with my friends through Auschwitz, it struck me that this was a group of kids that the staff could never quiet down, and everyone was now silent. I looked at a friend who would normally have been joking, and I could just tell through eye contact there was mutual respect and feeling. Walking through the gates of Auschwitz, my stomach turned, but I was with people I loved most in the world, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.
Mason: On the first day we arrived in Jerusalem, we went to the Kotel and the staff gave us the letters written by our family. Opening mine and reading it at this holy site with my hand on the wall, was the pinnacle of my Jewish experience. I shed a tear because I could read this amazing letter and be so connected to my Jewish heritage.
Mason Davis
Julia: When we went to the Kotel, I was very tired and it was very hot, so honestly, I was not expecting to feel emotional. I went up to the wall and had a moment and then I opened my mom’s letter, and it was very sweet. But when I opened my Dad’s, I just lost it. He talked about how proud he was of the young Jewish woman I had become, how I had overcome challenges and become strong. I looked around at all the women and felt such a sense of pride in my Judaism, Zionism, and femininity.
Mason: My older brother, who is 24, wrote my letter. The theme was the story of the Jewish people and how the Western Wall is symbolic. For so long, our people have been pushed away and not wanted anywhere, and the Wall stands as a symbol of hope and connection of all Jews around the world.
Julia: My father’s words really stood out to me in that moment especially because we were there in a time of war. I have been to Israel three other times, but this trip helped me really understand Israel for what it is. It hit me—how could the Wall, this place of beauty and love and pride be experiencing war? There was such a sharp contrast between the serenity of the moment and current events.
Julia Perlmutter
Mason: We visited the Nova Music Festival site. You could just feel the horrible things that happened there. Nine months ago, people were simply having a good time at a festival. The terrorists came and changed everything so quickly. Now, there are more than 360 poles with photos and plaques set up to memorialize every person killed or taken hostage there.
Julia: Seeing the faces of all these people, you could feel their personalities through the items their family had placed there—guitars, poems, necklaces, books, letters, diaries. Spend five minutes reading the plaque, and you felt you knew these people. Families were walking around the memorials for their sons, daughters, siblings, cousins, best friends and weeping.
Mason: I looked at those pictures, and I remembered the concentration camps we had just visited. The two are connected. We said “Never again” after the Holocaust. Now, my generation has seen deaths at the hands of people who hate.
Julia: In Poland, we learned about life leading up to the Holocaust when people were saying, “Oh, it can’t be that bad. They are not going to kill us.” Obviously, we know what happened. I never thought I would experience anything like that in my lifetime, but going to the Nova site flipped the narrative because we were witnessing history.
Mason: One of the nights in Tel Aviv, we heard a Nova Festival survivor speak. By telling us his story, we could put ourselves in his shoes and know what it was like to be there. At one point, he thought he was dead, but with a combination of running and hiding, he managed to get to a nearby town. He persevered and survived.
Julia: We heard from so many powerful speakers. One was a Bedouin man. On October 7, he was trying to save family members who lived near a kibbutz when he also saved an Israeli woman, but he did not want to be called a hero. Hearing stories from people who just care about humanity regardless of whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Arab, or American opened my eyes. They care about the land of Israel just as much as the Jewish people do. I thanked the Bedouin in Hebrew for his bravery. Speaking the language helped me connect to people in Israel. I love it. I miss it.
Mason: We also heard from a speaker whose entire kibbutz had to be relocated after October 7 because they were close to Gaza. It made me happy to hear that they were able to stay together as a thriving community with the help of a lot of organizations like JEWISHcolorado.
Mason Davis
Julia: One night, we camped in the Negev and even though we were covered in dirt and dust, it was the best night of my life. There was such a sense of camaraderie among all of us. We knew this is our land where our ancestors walked. We got to sleep on that very land and that was something to appreciate and celebrate.
Mason: We spent our final Shabbat at the Kotel. It seemed symbolic that we would start our time in Israel and end our time at the most important site. People were singing and dancing and all unified. Young, old, Reformed, and Orthodox were celebrating in a spirit that I just loved.
Julia: At that final Shabbat, some of my friends who had never been to Israel before could experience Israel in all its glory with the dancing, the singing, the ruach. There is a spirit in the air that is unmatched at a Kotel Shabbat. I could feel happiness and pride and the love the people around me. I know that G-d was there. I could feel it.
Mason: The trip was life-changing. I was so happy to travel the world with my closest friends and to make new friends.
Julia: The friendships I already had before the trip were strengthened, and I made new best friends. These people will all be at my wedding.
Mason: I credit the staff for creating a balance between having fun and having meaningful experiences. I had a great time while also discovering my Jewish identity and gaining a new perspective on my connection to Israel.
Julia: You can walk up to a person in Jerusalem, and they will have you for a Shabbat meal. IST has instilled in me to an even greater degree that Jewish people will never be strangers to each other.