Rabbi Arthur Ruberg wrote this reflection about his relationship with Israel. Here are a few excerpts:

This summer I thought a lot about my very first trip to Israel exactly 50 years ago. In July and August of 1963, I went on a program for high school juniors sponsored by Camp Ramah. It was only the second year of operation of the National Ramah Seminar in Israel that thrives to this day. Looking back, it was a summer that changed my life.

I went to Israel that time not because it was the fulfillment of a dream. Far from it. In fact, the previous summer, I told the director of Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Rabbi David Mogilner, of blessed memory, that I had no desire to go to Israel, and wouldn’t he please let me instead come back to camp as a staff member. I’ll never forget his answer.

“Archie, going to Israel will be more valuable to you than all your years at camp and Hebrew School put together. You have no choice. You’re going next summer!”

He also writes,

“During the week after I came home in August of 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech on the mall in D.C. I, like many other young people at the time, was moved by Dr. King’s speech and by his dream of an America of racial equality, harmony, and understanding. But now my commitment to a just America had to share mental space with another commitment—a passion for the State of Israel and its people. I now had my own personal dream—t h e dream of getting back to Israel—if not to live, then to study, to visit, to spend time, and to maintain and deepen the connection that began that summer.”

You can read the rest of his reflection on Jewish News here.