A group of teens from Milken Community High School in Los Angeles has learned that there's more to Jewish identity than they ever realized.
For the fourth year in a row, the school recently brought 78 sophomores to the Alexander Muss High School in Israel as part of its “Tiferet Israel” program.
The students combine intensive studies with volunteer work and a plethora of field trips throughout the country.
The program, which is heavily subsidized by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, lasts 19 weeks and presents for some the first opportunity to encounter Jewish history in a tangible way.
For many, the visits to the sites where the events they have learned about actually took place became a life-changing experience.
“It's one thing to learn history in a classroom,” said 15-year-old Daniel Kort. “It's another to actually go to the place where it all happened.”