It’s that time of the year where we snuggle up next to our bag of chocolate bamba and feel all gooey inside. Sure, you could send a bouquet of flowers, a Hallmark card, or a ‘poke’ on Facebook, but we all know there’s no better way to say, ‘I Love You’, than while on the most romantic internship program this country has ever seen.
So get in your heart-print PJ’s, crack open that Ben & Jerry’s, and read these absolutely adorable Career Israel love stories. Aw!
Meet Sarah and Oren
Sarah kissed her family goodbye and boarded her flight to Israel to begin her journey on Career Israel 9. When she finally got to her row, she was shocked to find that her seat was next to a young man who was also travelling to intern on Career Israel. “He was very attractive and had a great smile,” Sarah says of her first impression of Oren. Later, as the group received their room numbers in Beit Leni, the two realized that they would be spending the next five months living next to each other! Sarah says this was completely by coincidence, but we all know these two were hit by the Career Israel cupid.
Sarah began interning at Hillel at Tel Aviv University, while Oren worked at a GPS Enterprises Ltd in technical support.
You can now find the couple living together in Cincinnati. Oren works at an IT outsourcing company, Pomeroy, and Sarah works at Cincinnati Hillel as the Program and Engagement.
Meet Michael and Leah
Leah and Michael had their first moment at Career Israel 11 orientation in Jerusalem. “We had mutual friends at home”, Michael remembers. “Leah looked exotic and was shorter than I – so I realized this could actually work.” When Leah, who interned at Chimes, an after school program for children with severe disabilities, found out that Michael was interning at Magen David Adom as an emergency first responder, she thought to herself, “A doctor! My parents would love that!”
Leah’s favorite memory is their first date to Max Brenner. “I ordered dessert and the waitress asked if we wanted whipped cream.” Michael assured Leah to get whatever she wanted, so Leah said yes to the waitress. Soon after the couple finished their dessert, Leah found out the hard way that Michael was allergic to whipped cream! “Needless to say,” Leah describes. “The rest of the afternoon was not pretty.”
These days, you can find Michael and Leah living in together in New York City. Leah is a Masters candidate in Early Childhood/Special Education at NYU and Michael works for World Wide Medical.
“Michael’s southern blood is surviving the cold,” Leah reports. “We both love living here.”
Meet Jessica and Henrik
After finishing her term as program director at Hillel, Jessica decided to go on Career Israel to gain some international work experience at the JCPA – Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs. “I remember that first day of orientation when everyone was going around introducing themselves,” says Jessica. “There was someone from Boston, someone from Los Angeles, and then there was this guy, Henirk, from Denmark.” During their first week on the program, Henrik began holding Jessica’s hand. “When I asked him about it, he said he just wanted to be friends. Confused, I asked him if he held all his friends’ hands and he actually said yes. I thought maybe it was a Danish thing.”
After the program ended, Jessica returned to California before starting law school in Washington, and Henrik went back to Denmark. After a few days of being separated, Henrik decided to spend the summer in the States with Jessica.
“I thought it was crazy because we’d only known each other for a 5 months during the program, but he said let’s just see how it goes,” says Jessica. Within two months, Henrik proposed and they were engaged.
You can now find Jessica and Henry living in Los Angeles with their two year old son, Oren. “Henrik knows about a million Danish kids song that he is teaching to our toddler”, says Jessica.
Jessica, now an immigration attorney and Henrik, an electrical engineer for a consulting firm in the valley, just celebrated meeting on the program 6 years ago last week –Mazel tov!
