Lycoming student connects with cultural roots on summer trip

By Aliza Davner
Editor-in-Chief/The Lycourier

An old cliché says that college is a time for finding one’s self, an idea which Lycoming Senior Samantha Silverberg took to heart this summer.

Silverberg, a senior archaeology major and anthropology minor, spent 10 days in Israel as part of Taglit Birthright Israel, a program which sends young Jewish people to Israel at no cost to the student, “because going to Israel is considered by many an essential part of being Jewish.”

Silverberg learned about the program and applied for the trip “after my sister got accepted and went on her trip … a couple years ago and she had a wonderful time -- I wanted the same thing.”

Over the span of the trip, Silverberg and the other travelers visited numerous sites in many regions of Israel, including “Manara … Tsfat, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Sderot and one night we stayed in a Bedouin tent in the desert.”

“The morning after [the Bedouin tent] we went to Masada and the Dead Sea. We also went hiking in a forest of sorts called the Jilaboon.”

Silverberg noted that the greatest observable differences between daily life in Israel and the United States could be found “at the Kibbutz and the Bedouin tents.”

She elaborated that “at the Kibbutz everyone works together, it’s its own little community, and whatever job someone has they give their money to help everyone who lives on the Kibbutz.”

“And of course at the Bedouin tents, when we ate dinner on the floor with small mats for chairs. Our food was served on large platters placed on a wire ring in the center of the place setting. It was a very wonderful and interesting experience,” Silverberg said.

In addition to cultural experiences, Silverberg listed “riding on a camel in the desert” and “the group sing-alongs on the bus ride” as highlights of her trip.

While the trip ties into her Lycoming studies in the sense that “the archaeology program here deals mostly with the ancient Near East, and Israel falls into that category,” it certainly served a more personal purpose for Silverberg “The trip helped me to figure out where I want to take my Jewish faith and identity in future years.”