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CNN Live Saturday
American Teen-Ager Goes to Israel to Study
Aired April 13, 2002 - 13:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Many foreign students have been reluctant to come back to Israel for studies, but one American teenager from New York has come back to Israel, following a spring break. CNN's Rose Arce and Jason Bellini have that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSE ARCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Deep within the heart of Harold Wepren (ph), Avota Tasham (ph), devotion to God. At nighttime basketball with brother Max, plenty of hockey and collecting the coins of American states.
(on camera): So you have like your own "Sports Illustrated" library going?
HAROLD JASHIBA, AMERICAN STUDENT IN ISRAEL: For the most part, yes. One day I was very bored, I actually put them in dates order. That was a little weird. I don't like to talk about it so much.
ARCE (voice-over): A 19-year-old kid from Queens, home for spring break, but with a difficult decision on this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day. Returning to school means Israel.
(on camera): So, you know, I look at this and your sports stuff and everything, and you seem like a really American kid to be going to Israel.
JASHIBA: If you look at me, I'm wearing a yarmulke, and I think I'm a Jew first and Israel is the home of the Jews, and I think it's important for me to go there and to be there as much as possible, especially in this time of really need for Israel.
ARCE (voice-over): Even if it worries his parents?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been watching and seeing what's happening, and it's very upsetting. I know that he's going back around the time this is all going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For every time we hear of some incident in Israel, you know, we -- our hearts pounded and, you know, our first was immediately to call Harold.
ARCE (voice-over): He decides to return on the midnight flight, El Al 008. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what did you do when you were home, nothing?
JASHIBA: I ate a lot.
ARCE: With a prayer for his safety and a plea for a window seat, on a 12-hour flight with 47 infants and dozens of returning teens.
So I watched his sad goodbye to his family and heard a promise to be safe.
My colleague Jason Bellini greeted him in Israel.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Harold arrived safely at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Moments after I met him, his cell phone rings. I asked Harold if he heard the news, that while he was in the air, another suicide bomber struck, killing eight Israelis. He had heard, but Harold is still happy to be here.
JASHIBA: You can't let the terrorists win, OK? By staying home, by staying in America, I'm just saying: You know what? It's really dangerous here. You're winning. You're winning the war. You can't let them do that. I probably won't be going out much. Before Passover, I went out a few times, not especially, but I had gone out. But my mom said I probably won't go out, I shouldn't go out so much.
BELLINI: Harold Jashiba (ph) is behind closed gates. The violence in all likelihood locked out of the quiet student community. But in Israel, it's impossible to know where you're vulnerable.
JASHIBA: It's even more dangerous than you realize, because people just walking amongst could just want to blow themselves up and you don't even know. You don't even know. You don't know who to look for. You don't know anything.
BELLINI: Tonight, he's not so much afraid as he is tired.
JASHIBA: I'm going to sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning. Tomorrow's the first day of school. I have -- we pray at 6:45 in the morning.
BELLINI: That's about the same time his parents, as they go to sleep in New York, will say their prayers for him.
For Rose Arce in New York, I'm Jason Bellini, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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