Israel used to be just another picture in a textbook. It was another set of dates, another long list of names, another world. It was a photograph that was immensely important yet one could never understand why. Until I spent three weeks diving into Israeli culture through a BBYO summer program called Passport, Israel was simply a distant place—one I had not immersed myself in as I had in Florida, my home.

I traveled through BBYO with 44 other teens from 16 different states and Canada. This trip opened my eyes to new perspectives—foods, cultures, people. It allowed me to see the differences as...