Squirrel Hill teen visits Poland and Israel with Chabad
After three weeks of traveling and learning, Ben Pinkston returned to Pittsburgh with new friends and insights
Squirrel Hill resident Ben Pinkston discovered that the best plans can be those not made.
Months ago, Pinkston, 17, wanted to return to Israel. The Pittsburgh Allderdice student traveled to the Jewish state with Diller Teen Fellows in 2023, but as this summer approached, he couldn’t find a viable option.
On June 23, Pinkston, his sister and their mother, Jackie Braslawsce, were in Arizona visiting family. Pinkston received a message from Chabad of Greenfield’s Rabbi Yitzi Goldwasser asking if he wanted to go to Poland and Israel for free.
Pinkston and his mother couldn’t believe it.
“I was trying to figure out summer plans,” Pinkston said.
After hearing about CTeen Heritage Quest, a program run by Chabad Teen Network, Pinkston immediately said yes.
“The timing worked out perfectly,” Pinkston told the Chronicle.
Braslawsce needed to get her son to Newark for the flight, but there was a catch: Pinkston’s passport had expired.
Still in Arizona, Braslawsce contacted the nearest passport office and asked about obtaining a valid document.
The Pittsburgher said she was told that if she could make it there and bring the necessary materials, the passport situation could be resolved.
“We drove five hours from northern Arizona to Tucson, walked in with all of Ben’s stuff and walked out with his passport,” Braslawsce said.
Pinkston, his sister and mother returned to Squirrel Hill on July 6. Two days later, Braslawsce and her son caught a ride with a friend to Newark. On July 9, Pinkston was en route to Poland.
Things happened so quickly, Braslawsce said, that it was only on the way to the Newark airport that she and her son realized he didn’t know a single person going on the trip.
Additionally, Pinkston said, “I didn’t know what to expect with Chabad.”
The teen had traveled to Israel with Diller, a pluralistic program.
“I thought that being around more Orthodox Jews would be a little intimidating,” he said, but the experience delivered new insights and great friendships.
“I learned a lot from both programs (Diller and Chabad),” he said. “With Diller, the focus was on how to help the world and be a leader. With this one, it was more about Jewish heritage.”
Before heading to Israel, CTeen participants spent five days in Poland touring Warsaw and Kraków. They prayed in former synagogues, saw remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto and visited Auschwitz.
“It was pretty intense,” Pinkston said of the latter. “What we were hearing and learning was way insane. It was so nuts. They taught us so much about the Holocaust that we didn’t know.”
While traversing the concentration camp, a thought kept entering Pinkston’s mind.
“We’re living, and we’re in this space,” he said.
Pinkston credited the tour guide with amplifying the visit through impactful information and stories.
“He would tell us them in a way that you could feel it,” Pinkston said.
As the day passed, the teens made their way through Auschwitz I (the main concentration camp) and Auschwitz II-Birkenau (a concentration and extermination camp).
Before leaving the sites, Pinkston said he had the “privilege” of laying tefillin.
“That was special,” he said. Decades ago in that same space “were people who died because they were trying to wrap tefillin.”
Pinkston’s five days in Poland were educationally and socially enriching.
“We kids would talk about it during free time,” he said. “Experiencing this crazy place together, where a bunch of our ancestors died, brought us really close.”
By the time they got to Israel, bonds were solidified, the teen continued: “The trip was structured perfectly.”
Pinkston and his new friends spent two-and-a-half weeks experiencing the Jewish state by touring and volunteering. They went to Bedouin tents, helped at a pantry, planted crops in a farm and traveled to Hebron, Tel Aviv and Netanya, all while being based in Jerusalem.
Though battles occurred nearby, Pinkston said he felt safe.
“If you were there and didn’t know about the war, it would be hard to tell,” he said.
Braslawsce said she gauged the situation by contacting friends in the Jewish state before Pinkston traveled — but never considered not sending him.
“I wasn’t thinking that at all,” she said. Although some people’s “first reaction was ‘There’s a war,’ my first reaction was, ‘I feel like my son is safer in Israel than he is in Pittsburgh.’”
After returning home, Pinkston ran into a friend who he hadn’t seen since the start of the summer. The interaction was unfortunate, however.
Before encountering each other, he said, the two had argued over Snapchat about “the conflict.”
“I didn’t see him for two months and then the last time I saw him he ignored me,” Pinkston said.
But he isn’t making much of the slight.
“I think it’s stupid that some friendships are ending because of politics. I think it’s sad,” he said.
“I know for me I wouldn’t let it ruin a friendship. I think connections are more important than worrying about something that’s happening in another part of the world.”
Braslawsce said she couldn’t be prouder of her son.
“Judgment needs to be left at the door in every single way — whether it’s who you’re going with or what they are going to come out of this with — we need to allow people to have their own experiences and trust that our kids are old enough to make their own choices,” she said. “I feel like Ben is solid. He can make his own choices and he did.”
Reaching that point didn’t happen by accident, she continued.
“My kids are how they are because of the community they grew up in,” she said. “Being a part of a community is a gift. People here know it.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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