Moshe, 25 | Five Towns
Back in NY but my head is still stuck there!
I grew up in New York and like, for basically everyone in my community, Israel was always just this huge part of who I am. I spent two years learning in yeshiva there after high school, have family there, tons of friends... I really thought I got it. But if I’m being completely real? Until this past Purim, I had absolutely no clue what it’s actually like to live through a war.
Growing up here, the closest I ever got was seeing protests on campus or arguing with people online. It felt heavy, yeah, but always distant. Safe on the other side of the world. That totally shattered when I went with my family for Purim 2026 and the Iran war started.
On Shabbos morning I woke up to this crazy loud sound. My brain tried to tell me it was just a car alarm, but then I heard people straight up screaming outside. It was a siren. Within minutes we were running for our lives into the mamad.
For the next ten days, that insanity became our actual routine. Siren. Shelter. Wait. Repeat.
No kids in school, no adults at work. Stores were locked up, except for a few markets open for like two hours so people could grab basic stuff. The Kotel was closed. The streets were totally empty. Even shuls were locked. Places that are usually packed and full of life were just completely dead silent.
I still remember having to literally drop to the ground on the side of the road during a missile attack while rockets flew over us, checking my phone every thirty seconds for updates, just sweating from the uncertainty.
But out of everything, what I think about the most is the people.
I saw hotels just letting random strangers off the street into their mamads. People bringing food and drinks into shelters to pass around. I saw Jews from literally every background imaginable sitting together, talking, helping each other, and somehow even singing together in the middle of a literal war zone. The fear was so real, but the achdus was just as real.
Before this, I don’t think I ever really got what Am Yisrael meant. It was just a concept. But during those ten days, I actually lived it. Nobody cared where you were from, what shul you went to, or what your politics were. We were all just Jews trying to get through it.
I went to Israel thinking I knew the place. I left realizing there was a whole side of Israeli life I never understood, the resilience, the crazy strength, and the unity that comes out when things get bad. It wasn't an experience I ever wanted to have, but it’s definitely the one that changed me.
Am Yisrael Chai
