We had one ticket there and one ticket back, with no specific plans in between. Our 10-day getaway to Israel started out as nothing more than a sketch: friends, family and relaxation. But the details, such as where we would stay, were to follow as a form of improvisation. All we needed were beds and a roof over our heads and we'd be satisfied (sure makes you appreciate the dorms).

I traveled to Israel this past winter break with Brian Fromm '11 and Simon Basseyn, a freshman at New York University, to visit friends who had deferred going to college in order to live in Israel for the year. We all agreed: The end of finals couldn't come soon enough. Our only plan was to stay over at our friends' yeshiva dorms in Jerusalem. We aimed to experience-albeit briefly-their new lifestyle, which we believed was all about socializing and carefree leisure.

A number of graduates from private Jewish high schools in the United States delay the start of their college careers by a year in order to live and study in Israel. When Simon, Brian and I chose to enter college immediately after graduating from North Shore Hebrew Academy in Long Island, N.Y., we acted on the assumption that spending a year in Israel would be a waste, one that would somehow prolong maturation and prevent us from experiencing the real world. If anything, it seemed that college itself, associated with secular education, expanding connections and meeting new people, would be the logical next step in the development of our characters.

In our minds, Israel had unjustly become synonymous with polar extremes. On the one hand, Israel seemed to represent a lack of seriousness that would in some way reflect the atmosphere of Jewish summer camp or even another year of senioritis in high school. And on the other hand, Israel was the hub of ultra-religious obsession and outright rejection of secular thought.

But over winter break, we discovered that, while both mentalities exist, they reflect a small percentage of the population. In fact, most yeshivas in Israel assume a middle ground educational philosophy, working to cultivate deep thought in self-assured individuals.

While living in Israel last year, Andrew Gluck '11 experienced exactly this sort of self transformation. Gluck said living in Israel for a year after graduating from Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, N.J. allowed him to thoroughly explore his personal aspirations and ideals. "Like myself, I think a lot of people are eager to get right into the college scene," Gluck said. "But the truth is, I didn't know what I wanted."

Gluck studied in Reisheit, a yeshiva located in the city of Be'er Sheva, about a 45-minute drive west of Jerusalem. Students in Reisheit are surrounded by the beautiful mountains of central Israel while they study Torah, Jewish philosophy and Jewish history.

Yeshivas like Reisheit understand that students will eventually re-enter the secular world, having to balance what they have grasped from their year in Israel with their potentially new religious outlook on life. This recognition of life outside religion almost seems to be the point of studying in Israeli yeshivas-to help students identify who they are in the context of college life and the secular adult world.

"Had I come to Brandeis without knowing what I wanted, I would have ended up doing what the crowd did but not really figuring out for myself as to what my goals are and what my values are," Gluck said.

Similarly, for Shira Kelin '11, a year in Israel allowed her to experience personal freedom and to redefine and re-evaluate her own character. Kelin studied at the Nishmat seminary, located just outside the old city of Jerusalem.

"I needed to figure myself out in a different environment," Kelin said. "And the way to achieve this was to be independent for the first time in a different culture and different surrounding-not just a vacation for 10 days, but to learn about myself."

Like Gluck, Kelin was given the opportunity to study different aspects of the Jewish culture and religion. However, Nishmat in particular takes a more egalitarian approach to Jewish studies and offers the studies of halacha (Jewish tradition) and Gemara (oral Jewish law) to all of its female students.

Jeremy Slosberg '11 gained new perspective on his future when he participated in a mixed-gender program called Netiv, in which he took classes at Hebrew University and took part in a community service program.

Because "Israel allowed me to be more relaxed and look at the bigger picture of things, I made sure to make my time useful in Israel," Slosberg said.

"It was time to understand when it was time to act like a five-year-old and when it was time to act like a 20-year-old," Jeremy says with a smirk. "I started to think and see things differently, putting certain things of higher importance than I had originally thought."

Simon, Brian and I saw evidence of the change in outlook that Slosberg described. Many of our friends-whether studying in yeshiva, seminary or a yearlong study program like Nativ, which allows students to take secular classes and find jobs within the community-demonstrated a new seriousness, an ability to separate the important from the nonsense.

We were impressed with our friends' newfound sense of responsibility in setting specific goals for themselves. Asaf Jacbos, one of our good friends who we visited in Israel, is studying finance in Israel this past semester before he enters Baruch College this fall. He hopes that studying the field prior to entering college will help make his work easier in the future.

Jeremy Goldstein, another close friend of ours, will attend Binghamton University this fall and is studying in Israel this year, already has plans for getting his boating license so that he can help give tours around the Kineret in Israel.

Ari Tretin, who will enter Brandeis as a first-year this fall and is currently a student at Yeshiva Shveelay in Jerusalem, has been participating in many community service opportunities, such as painting houses for poor families and boxing materials for Israeli soldiers in the army, as a means of bettering himself and the community around him.

Although the details of their undertakings differ, all our friends had become increasingly aware of remaining active and assertive in their interests and pursuits.

Interestingly enough, none of the first-years I interviewed who deferred a year in Israel prior to entering Brandeis considered that the year had prepared them academically. Rather, all remarked on their newfound independence, enhanced understanding of their personal values and how the experience facilitated their transition into college.

"I didn't think I would become so independent and self-[sufficient]," Kelin said.

Israel hadn't necessarily helped ready her for college in the academic sense, Kelin said. As in many yeshivas and seminaries, learning was viewed as optional in the material and amount students studied. Still Kelin views the year's opportunity to grow and learn about herself in Israel as invaluable.

Brian, Simon and I had expected to find our friends relatively unchanged. We were therefore surprised by how much more connected they had become with their religion and how determined they had become in planning their futures.

Not to totally discount the first-year experience of coming directly to college after high school, but having seen where my friends are in their lives and where I am in mine, I realized that maybe a year off to clear my head would not have been so bad. Perhaps a year off doesn't really mean a "year off."

"It was so important for us to take this trip," Brian reflected. "I mean, not only was it important, it was necessary to see how much we misinterpreted the experience."

Editor's note:?Brian Fromm '11 is a copy editor for the Justice.