Touring and training on a visit to Israel.

• Author: Berman, Aviva
• Position: Voices - Column

Last summer, while my friends were at the beach or working at day camps, I opted for a slightly different experience. Despite the tension in the Middle East, I decided, along with friends from my Jewish youth group, to travel around Israel for five weeks.

We traveled from the Golan Heights in the north to the port of Eilat in the south, stopping at every place in between. We ate falafel (a fried chickpea sandwich that is one of Israel's most popular fast foods), danced in discos, and picked up Hebrew slang. In the process, I formed a strong connection to Israel.

In the middle of our program, we had to choose among several options for a week: learning sea sports, two different treks, living on a kibbutz, and gadna, a simulation of the army's basic training. I chose gadna because it seemed like more of a challenge.

While I'm stressing about grades and college, my Israeli peers are preparing to enter the army. With the exception of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs, all Israeli teens must serve in the army after high school--boys for three years and girls for two years.

Sent to a base in the Negev desert, a handful of girls and I were given green army uniforms and assigned a bunk. We quickly adjusted to the army way of life, getting up at 6 a.m., eating small meals, and wearing the same uniform every day.

Needless to say, gadna (an acronym for youth corps in Hebrew) was a bonding experience. The...