Several Lehigh students traveled there through Tamid, a fellowship program offering experience in Israel\u2019s economy by consulting with startups and conducting capital market research.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/LIFESTYLEBAUMANSUMMERINISRAEL091425.jpeg\")
Lehigh students participating in the Tamid Fellowship pose together during their summer program in Israel. The experience offered opportunities for cultural connection and personal growth amid the uncertainty unfolding around them. (Courtesy of Jedd Frydman)<\/p>\n
What began as a summer full of exploration and connection soon became a test of resilience. Students part of Birthright and Tamid found themselves confronting the realities of life in a country at war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jedd Frydman, \u201827, who first went to Israel for Birthright before staying for Tamid, experienced that night of chaos firsthand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said electric scooters are popular in Israel, so he and his friends decided to scooter back to their apartment. The ride was long, so they stopped on the side of a highway, hoping a public bus might still be running.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tapped on the glass, explained our situation to the driver, and told him we were American just trying to get home,\u201d Frydman said. \u201c(The driver) said, \u2018I just finished my route for the night, I was going to bring the bus back, but I\u2019ll drive you guys home.\u2019 So we got on the bus with our scooters, and he literally drove this massive public transport bus to our apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Birthright, Frydman explored the country \u2014 Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the north and south \u2014 and said it allowed him to connect deeply with the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the second half of the trip, five or six soldiers joined his group. Frydman said he became close friends with many of them who were his age. In Israel, the majority of citizens over 18 who are Jewish, Druze or Circassian must serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Men serve a minimum of 32 months, and women serve at least two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After completing Birthright, Frydman joined the Tamid group, working in an office with Israeli companies four days a week until the night of the sirens. The morning after, Tamid\u2019s staff knocked on students\u2019 doors, telling them they were moving to a hotel on Tel Aviv\u2019s beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frydman said the group had to shelter three or four times a night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d get an alert on your phone saying missiles were incoming,\u201d he said. \u201cSince Iran\u2019s pretty far, you\u2019d get 15 minutes to prepare. You\u2019d wake up, get dressed and then hear sirens. That\u2019s when you\u2019d go.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the hotel shook when a missile landed within a mile. Without bomb shelters, students ran down 13 flights of stairs to the basement each time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Annie Sherman, \u201827, a member of Tamid, lived in an apartment in Tel Aviv with 21 other girls. She said when they ran to the bomb shelter at the complex she was staying in, it wouldn\u2019t open.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us knew what to do,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cSome ran down to the parking garage because you need to get underground. Some went back to our apartment and were hiding at the bottom of the stairs. That went on for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Days later, Tamid relocated students to Eilat on Israel\u2019s southern tip near Egypt and Jordan where they stayed until leaving the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sherman said in Tel Aviv it took around 10 minutes for rockets to reach the city, but in Eilat, where bombs were closer, they had only about a minute to find shelter after an alert.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Frydman said it\u2019s sad Israelis have grown accustomed to this way of life. He said witnessing the conflict firsthand brought him a sense of compassion and empathy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us we have grown up with active shooter drills, for them it\u2019s bombing drills,\u201d Frydman said. \u201cIt puts things into perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
After multiple relocations, students were told to pack up and board a cruise to Cyprus and Rome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Frydman said it was sad to move and leave the 16 people who shared his apartment as they were just getting to know each other, and no one wanted to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellee Segal, \u201827, also participated in the Tamid Fellowship Program. She said the program\u2019s supervisors handled the crisis as best they could and worked tirelessly to get everyone home safely.<\/p>\n
Segal said the program managed to arrange the cruise on very short notice, working tirelessly for days to ensure everyone\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
When Israel became safe to return to, many Lehigh students went back to complete the program. Sherman said she felt a stronger pull to return because of what she\u2019d experienced, which gave her a new perspective on the conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn America, we don\u2019t have to worry about what Israelis and people in other Middle Eastern countries constantly think about,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cWe were taken to the Gaza strip and got to hear firsthand accounts of why the war started, the Hamas and Israel conflict. It gave me a new perspective, seeing the impact on daily lives of Israelis and Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said the program included various speakers, including an Israel Defense Forces soldier, who had lost his arm and his leg in combat. She said much of the program focused on hope and perseverance of the Israeli people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were so happy we came back,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cIt was definitely interesting how even though they have experienced all of this, they still think we\u2019re the resilient ones.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wailing sirens echoed through Tel Aviv in late June, sending shockwaves through an outdoor venue of more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[7192,153,155,154,1197,8235],"class_list":{"0":"post-10145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-5-min-read","9":"tag-bethlehem","10":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-feature","13":"tag-student-campus-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}