I’m a person who reads the newspaper and watches the news every day. I’m constantly keeping up with the events of various countries aside from Germany, where I live, but a specific one took my attention more than any other: Israel.

When I told my neighbors, friends and family that I would be traveling to Israel for the summer, the first question asked was never “Where are you going?” or “What will you be doing?” It was “Why?”

My recent trip to Israel was the best experience of my life. The juniors at my school, the American Hebrew Academy, spent 10 weeks at the Israel-based Alexander Muss High School, attending classes every day except Fridays. Aside from secular studies, we spent four hours every morning studying Jewish history. Four hours seems like such a long time to spend on one subject, but we covered almost everything, from Abraham to present-day events.