by Hannah Cohen and Moshe Rubin

The day was finally here. On January 4, 2015, we joined the participants of Birthright Bus 316 gathering at Newark airport in New Jersey to prepare for our flight to Israel. Although we were anxious for Birthright to begin, we were dreading the ten-hour plane ride that would get us there. We all piled into the plane and took off. Hours later after watching movies, sleeping, and eating some questionable airplane food, the pilot announced that we were just a half hour away from Ben Gurion Airport.

Although the airplane may not have been our favorite part of Birthright, we experienced something beautiful as the flight came to an end. For a while, when looking out the window, all we could see were clouds and the water of the Mediterranean Sea. But as we came closer, in the distance we began to see the coast of Israel. Seeing the shores of Tel Aviv made this trip finally seem real and we realized what we were about to experience in the next ten days would be amazing. Flying over the Holy Land brought back all of the emotion and connection that we have felt towards Israel our entire lives. As the plane landed we couldn’t keep the smiles off of our faces because we finally knew: we were Home.
This blog was originally posted on January 6th but somehow, through the wonders of technology, it disappeared!  We are reposting, but it is unfortunately out of order from the rest of the Birthright blogs.