Rimonne Zakheim | JTA
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
High school. Gap year in Israel. College. Job. The path for a student at Berman Hebrew Academy, a Jewish day school in Rockville, Maryland, is typically clear.
But for almost a third of the class of 2023, who were in Israel when the war with Hamas broke out, that trajectory took an unexpected turn.
Instead of debating Israel’s right to exist in lecture halls, these Berman students are defending the state as members of its military.
In recent years before Oct. 7, about five members of each graduating class, or 9%, enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces. However, 13 from the class that graduated before the war began in June of 2023 chose to join the Israeli army, making up 28% of the graduating class.
For 80% of these young alumni, who had planned to spend a gap year in Israel before starting college, their year abroad began as war broke out around them. For many, the decision to enlist was not just about military service — it was about choosing to act instead of watching from afar.
“After all of us [Berman’s class of 2023] were there on Oct. 7, experiencing the war and Am Yisrael coming together, it pushed a lot of people who were on the fence,” Elie, 19, said.
Once a few decided to stay, “it was a snowball effect,” she said. “It makes it easier for everyone, that we have each other here to support each other.” Like all other soldier interviewees, Elie, 19, requested her real name not be used due to safety concerns and IDF rules.
Elie, an alumna of the Migdal Oz women’s study program who became an Israeli citizen in March 2024, began her service in late March, after an administrative delay.
“Before the end of high school, I was thinking more about making aliyah and joining the army,” she said, using the Hebrew expression for becoming an Israeli citizen. “Once Oct. 7 happened, I knew that this was where I think I should stay and I couldn’t really go back
to the U.S.”
Even so, adjusting to army life was tough for Elie. “I have to be willing to sacrifice myself and to devote myself to their [IDF’s] cause,” she said.
Each year, hundreds of American teens move to Israel to join the IDF as lone soldiers. Roughly a quarter of the IDF’s 3,500 lone soldiers annually are from the United States. In 2022 and 2023, Nefesh B’Nefesh, which helps Diaspora Jews make aliyah, assisted about 200 to 230 North American recruits each year in enlisting, many of them recent high school graduates.
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, those numbers surged, with Nefesh B’Nefesh reporting a 142% increase in aliyah applications during the final months of 2023 — many from teens and college-age young adults hoping to serve.
Since 2017, 35 Berman students have served in the IDF or Sherut Leumi, Israel’s national service program. Of those, 19 are from the class of 2023.
Berman is the only Modern Orthodox Jewish day school in the Greater Washington area. Tuition ranges from $14,715 – $30,155, with 30% receiving financial aid. Eighty percent of its students take a gap year in Israel.
Paco, a 2023 Berman graduate, joined a combat unit with his school friends. If it came down to him or a 40-year-old reservist with a family being sent into combat, he said, he’d rather be the one to go.
Paco had always considered enlisting, but it was a specific moment that compelled him to rethink his future. On Oct. 11, 2023, after running to a shelter in his yeshiva apartment during a rocket alert, he attended a lesson in his night class about Maimonides, the 12th-century rabbi and philosopher who had spent much of his life fleeing persecution. That sealed the decision.
“I combined those two experiences and I realized that Jews have been fleeing persecution for our entire history,” he said. “At a certain point, you gotta stop running; you have to stay and defend yourself.”
While his time in yeshiva solidified his decision to sign up, Paco said Berman also strengthened his connection to Israel from a young age. He said his 13 years at the day school filled his upbringing with Hebrew and love for Israel. The school held celebrations of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day; offered classes and discussions on Israel, and hosted Benot Sherut and Kollel Bachurim — young Israeli men and women who come to America and work in schools as part of a year of Israeli national service.
Another Berman student, April, 19, had known she wanted to enlist since 7th grade, but only finalized her decision during her year in Israel, after attending the funeral of a fallen soldier in February 2024. “I left bawling and felt so connected,” she said. “Then I knew I was making the right decision.”
For April, enlisting wasn’t just a choice — it was a calling. “It has been a dream of mine and everyone was very supportive of it,” she said.
“My time at Berman 100% shaped my perspective on Israel and the importance of going to the army,” said April, highlighting the same experiences as her classmates, including the Berman Mission, a school-wide sponsored Israel trip held every four years.
The school sees immigrating to Israel as a logical progression of its ethos and community.
“A natural outcome of so much of our teaching, learning and even touring of [Israel] as a school is aliyah,” said Rabbi Dr. Hillel Broder, head of school at Berman. He said that while Berman doesn’t promote aliyah as the only path, the students are well prepared to choose it if they wish.
David, 19, who cemented his decision to enlist in the IDF during his gap year, isn’t sure what will happen after his service. He says returning to college in the U.S. feels less certain. No matter what, “my plan would be to end up living in Israel so the question is, is there gonna be a short break in America or not?”
Though considered a “lone soldier,” meaning he does not have immediate family in Israel, David feels far from alone with support from family afar and friends in and out of Israel.
“For those who enlisted after Oct. 7, their motivation was perhaps more concrete than their peers before them,” said Noya Govrin, vice president of IDF Partnerships in the Nefesh B’Nefesh-FIDF Lone Soldiers Program. “Every soldier will say that one of their main objectives is to protect the State of Israel. Those who drafted after Oct. 7 were aware of the importance and impact of their service.”
