Westhampton Beach Teen Joins Mission to Help Israelis in Need

Laila Levin of Westhampton Beach was on a bus with about a dozen classmates participating in a mission trip to Israel when their ride screeched to a halt, everyone rushed out and huddled on the ground for cover as rockets flew overhead.

The 16-year-old Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) student watched as the Iron Dome — Israel’s defense system that intercepts rockets fired into the country — destroyed the rocket before it could hurt anyone on the ground. The eye-opening experience gave her a fresh perspective on life in America.

“Me and all of my friends were balling our eyes out because we’re not used to it, but for all of the people in Israel, it’s a daily thing now,” she recalls of the experience. “It was really scary.”

That was the first day of her Chivuk Mission — “chivuk” is a Hebrew word that means “to give back” — in the first week of December, when she and her classmates traveled the country meeting Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, volunteering on farms, and meeting survivors of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

The group was on their way to meet a local mayor, but there were too many rockets being fired that day, so they made a detour to talk to those wounded in action on the front lines.

“We went to meet the soldiers at the hospital that were injured, and one of the soldiers there had a stroke from his injuries and could barely get the words out that he was trying to say,” she recalls. “We got to meet them and hand them gifts and food.”

And that is at the heart of why this teen decided to make the trip in the first place.

“Me and my friend were talking about it, but we were really hesitant because we didn’t think it was safe at all there, but then we decided that we wanted to go and help, and it would be a really nice thing to do,” she recalls. “And when we got there, besides the one rocket, it was really not scary at all. I felt really safe there, and everyone felt really safe to be there.”

The group went to barbecues with the soldiers every night, where she was also taken aback by her conversations.

“We were just talking to one of the soldiers and joking around like, ‘Oh could we get in your car?’ because they offered us a ride before, and they were like, ‘No, we’re going to Gaza,’” she recalls. “It just puts it into perspective how these soldiers aren’t phased by going into Gaza. It seems so crazy to us, but it’s just normal there. They just go into Gaza and fight, and they don’t know what could happen there.”

Her biggest lesson learned?

“In one day, anything could change and you never know what can happen,” she adds. “We met this one girl that was at the Nova Festival, and she hid in a dumpster for hours and watched her boyfriend die in front of her eyes. And she couldn’t scream out for help; she had to stay silent. It really puts everything into perspective. If you’re in America, you don’t understand what’s happening until you’re actually there experiencing it.”

Levin says she looks forward to going back as soon as she can.