As the stress of AP exams, finals, and end-of-year anxieties emerge this May, two Emery Juniors have managed to escape this feeling of impending doom. Jeremy Weinstein-Sears and Audrey Hochglaube have temporarily left their families, friends, and classmates in Houston, and ventured to live abroad in Haifa, Israel for 4 weeks. 

This past fall, two students from Emery’s sister school in Israel, Leo Baeck, came to study at Emery and experience life in America, and recently Hochglaube and Weinstein-Sears made the long trek to Israel as participants in the same program. While in Haifa, Hochglaube and Weinstein-Sears live with host families, who have high school students at Leo Baeck. They attend classes at the school, present to the students about their life in America, help teach English, and get to experience life as a teenager in Israel. 

Even though missing the stress of finals is certainly a perk to being a part of this foreign exchange program, it is definitely not why Hochglaube and Weinstein-Sears decided to participate in it. Weinstein-Sears shares that he not only applied for this opportunity because he “loves to travel” but “was inspired by past foreign exchange students Rachel and Rebecca” who traveled to Israel through the same program. He goes on to say that he thought it was “such a cool and unique opportunity” when he heard Emery students were living in Israel and the possibility of participating in this program one day “motivated [him] to continue studying Hebrew throughout high school.”

Hochglaube and Weinstein-Sears were accepted into this program at the end of the first semester, and have been looking forward to this trip ever since. Hochglaube explained that she was most excited to “make friends that speak another language and who live somewhat differently to [herself].” Similarly, Weinstein-Sears was thrilled for the “opportunity to really get to know people”  and “experience Israel as not a tourist, but just as an everyday person.” 

Yet, despite their excitement to go live in Israel and the kindness of their new friends and host families, living in a new country has come with its challenges. One difficulty is the language barrier and as Hochglaube explains “I am so thankful that a lot of people speak English because I was surprised to learn that my Hebrew was much worse than I thought it was.” She then says that “this language barrier has resulted in me only becoming friends with people that speak English since I cannot have meaningful conversations in Hebrew.” However, even though this language barrier exists Weinstein-Sears shares that “everyone has been very understanding and welcoming” and they both hope that this experience will allow them to improve their Hebrew. 

Throughout their time living in a new country, Weinstein-Sears and Hochglaube have noticed many differences between the lives of people in Israel and their own lives in America. Interestingly, both Weinstein-Sears and Hochglaube emphasized that they were surprised to observe the differences in the dynamics of friendships in both countries. Hochglaube shares that in Israel “physical affection is extremely common.” She further explains that “whenever I meet someone new or start a conversation with someone I am immediately greeted with a hug and that was not common back home.” Weinstein-Sears noticed some differences as well, stating that, “at the end of the day, you can see friends genuinely they care so deeply about each other and I feel like that’s just not something I see a whole lot back home.” 

Regardless of some of the challenges they are facing, Hochglaube and Weinstein-Sears had a blast in Israel, enjoying the food, music, and culture within it. They both encourage all of their peers to participate in this program in the future and Weinstein-Sears advises those who do to “relax, even though it may seem scary at first, everything will be fine.” Hochglaube and Weinstein-Sears are clearly having a great time in Israel and are undoubtedly going to have stories of their many great adventures when they return.