Nehama Dormont – a participant on BINA Gap Year in Tel Aviv, is summarizing her first five months on the program:

"There are not enough words to describe the life changing five months I have had. 

From the moment I stepped off the plane in August I have been swept up in a whirlwind of new and amazing people, places and experiences. I made a home in shapira with people who were not yet friends, not yet family.

I got to learn a new language, a new culture and a new way of learning. 

It was definitely hard being so far away from home, but I got to know so many new friends, which  welcomed me with open arms.

I got to experience the Jewish holidays in a new way, I walked in the streets with my friends on Yom Kippur and saw how quiet the city could become. I helped plan a seminar for my group and got to spend my Sukkot with them. I started volunteering with kids in an after school daycare and fell in love with it. I got to have Thanksgiving with my group and got to show some of the staff of BINA traditions from home. I went to the south and had an amazing week planned by my fellow Mechinistim (Israeli peers from the Mechina or Year of Service – post high school, pre-army programs).

I saw so many people put their all into seminars and projects. I got to see their hard work in action. Even kitchen duty gave me wonderful memories, and really bad garlic breath of course.

So much has happened in the past five months, there aren’t enough words to express how grateful I am for all of it. It wasn’t always easy and I wasn’t always happy, but I have gained so many wonderful memories, relationships and connections. I wouldn’t change any of it."