Mt. Hertzl

After a night of shananigans on Ben Yehuda street and getting a much needed sleep in, Bus 966 headed out to Mt. Hertzel at 9am. We arrived at the cemetary, stepping off the bus to feel the cold Jerusalem air blowing down the backs of our necks, an erie atmosphere surrounded the group. We walked up the stone steps, to the grave of a young american boy named Michael Leveine, from Philidelphia. A young jewish boy who dreamed of serving in the IDF as a paratrooper, and made that dream come true. Although his life was
was short, his story was powerful and very emotional. The group stood around his grave as Audrey told his story, not a word was said from our typically loud group. As we moved up through the cemetary hearing different stories about young soldiers, the sight of seeing the ages of the deceased soldiers really made you contemplate life. Seeing so many gravestones with people of the similar age to us, makes your heart sink. Knowing that you are the same age as many of the deceased soldiers and that we could easily be in the same place as them, if we were Israeli. But our soldiers in our trip explained that although it is scary to think about dying, they are proud to serve their country and feel that it is honor to serve in the IDF.