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Jamie Feller spent four weeks doing Israel’s “greatest hits”: a pre-dawn hike in the Negev to witness a desert sunrise, trudging knee-deep in water through Hezakiah’s Tunnel in the City of David, rafting down the Jordan River.

But in the end, the most elemental experience proved the most memorable.

Jamie Feller at the Western Wall

“Going to the Western Wall on Tisha B’Av — there were so many people there,” says the 16-year-old San Ramon resident about the observance of the Temple’s destruction. “People all around me were crying. I’d never seen anything like that, so it was sad in a way, but I was happy to be there.”

Together with 84 other Jewish high school sophomores from across the Bay Area, Jamie spent most of July crisscrossing Israel as part of the annual Let’s Go: Israel trip.

Sponsored by the East Bay-based Jewish Federation and its Center for Jewish Living and Learning, Let’s Go: Israel has been a teen staple in the Bay Area for more than 20 years. This was one of the largest Let’s Go groups in years.

Feller was following in the footsteps of her older sister, who did the trip a few years ago, regaling Jamie with endless stories about Israel upon her return.

Helping to lead the tour was Tomer Zur, a shaliach (emissary) from the Jewish Agency for Israel, who recently completed a 10-month mission in the Bay Area. He worked closely with the CJLL’s Oren Massey to design the trip.

Zur recruited from among area synagogues and after-school Jewish education classes. He says there is a big difference between Let’s Go: Israel and the popular 10-day Birthright trips, free for young Jews making their first trip to Israel.

“Birthright is like a promo,” Zur says. “It gives tastes of everything. [Let’s Go: Israel] is four weeks, a full education program.”

Zur says his itinerary was designed to expose the teens to the real Israel. So mixed in with snorkeling adventures off the beaches of Eilat, he made sure the kids also met Arab Israelis, Ethiopian immigrants and other refugees.

The aim of the trip was “not to give them an opinion,” he says, but to “try to help them get one, a real one, not related to what they heard in school or what the rabbi told them. At the end of the day, they saw many aspects of Israel and now have enough tools to start thinking about their own opinions.”

For Feller, that hit home when she stood with her friends on the Lebanese border.

“It was kind of scary at first,” she says. “I don’t think anyone had been in that situation. It made me understand more how big a deal security is in Israel.”

Seller says she “grew up a little bit” on the trip, and made some close friends.

As for Zur, he is now back home in Israel, his term as a shaliach over. He says the trip turned out to be meaningful not only for the teens, but for him as well, even though he already knew every inch of his homeland.

“My idea was to show them Israel through my eyes,” Zur says, “and what happened is I saw Israel through their eyes. My love for Israel grew bigger through this program.”