'It's Beautiful': Regent Student Braves Wartime Israel, Studies in Hebrew University Exchange Program

JERUSALEM, Israel – Despite Israel's 7-front war, when tourists from around the world canceled plans to visit the Holy Land, a Regent University student decided to come here and study in a year-long foreign exchange program at Hebrew University.

Christian Aaron Cox, a business and management major, made his home at Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem as an exchange student for nearly a year, willing to battle the uncertainties in the Holy Land and the region for the opportunity to be here. 

"My mom always said about the Western Wall that it's the closest place to God. And she talked about putting the note into the Wall and how special it was. So ever since then, I always wanted to come to Israel,” Cox told CBN News.

When he arrived, he found a different and exciting world.

“Going to university here, walking through the streets, it's just a beautiful culture. It's just all different cultures and meeting like Druze, Jews, Muslims, Christians –there's a plethora of people, which kind of looks different (portrayed) on the media per se, but when you get here, you just see how beautiful a country it is," Cox explained.

“At my (Hebrew) university, I was educated with students from the West Bank. So, I was on the right (conservative) side, I had a Jewish person on the left (liberal) side, I had a Palestinian Muslim; in front of me there was a Christian, and it was all a melting pot inside of the university itself,” Christian recalled.

For his daily schedule, over the eleven-month stay, he took advantage of his surroundings.  He described his routine.

“I would wake up, have my coffee, do some studying, and then after that, I would go to the Old City. So, my days consisted of, either first I would go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and pray, and then go to the Western Wall, and then the Garden of Gethsemane. Or I would do a reverse of like Garden of Gethsemane, the Western Wall, and then the church of the Holy Sepulcher. And then after that, my courses this semester were at night. So, the MBA courses – because most people work – they started at like 6:30," Cox said.

He has also sensed the sadness and pain brought on by the war. 

“You do see the hostage posters everywhere, you know, little kids all the way to old. It's like the first person I met was on the light rail. I met a woman whose son was held captive, an American-Israeli. And, like, you could really hear the pain in the voice.”

He also found how Israelis deal with the regular Red Alert sirens and incoming rockets quite surprising.

“Everyone's very resilient here. And that was very surprising because, you know, when you see on the news, you see war and you think, oh my gosh, you're in a bomb shelter all the time. No. Here, literally the next morning or right after you go, eat breakfast, all the shops are open, everything resumes. It's insane.”

With his name being "Christian," there was no doubt about his faith, yet he still felt very welcome. 

“I have so many Jewish friends, like most of my friends who are Jewish, they're very loving to me, actually, and they thank me for being here. Never did I not feel accepted. And just, all the Shabbat dinners have been amazing.”

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Professor Abraham Silver teaches the 'Love of Jerusalem' at Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, overlooking the city. He taught Cox during his time in Israel.
 
Pointing out the landscape, Silver said, “And on this side of me is the Judean Desert, the Judean Desert, where Jesus went and spent 40 days, in solitude. The Judean Desert, where David fled, and in fact, right over here is the path that Jesus used to walk up to the city of Jerusalem."

According to Silver, the site is where Titus looked down on the Second Jewish Temple before destroying it in 70 AD.  On the one hand it’s about the past but also about the future, he suggested.

“Hebrew University – part of it is absolutely this incredible story of being in the Land of the Bible. But part of it is also a center of high tech and biotech and AI and nanotechnology. The image of Hebrew University is a pottery shard from the time of Jesus, alongside a chip from nanotechnology.”

Students connected to Western civilization often feel the reality of Jerusalem in their heart and in their faith.

“Christian felt that in a big way," Silver observed. " He was one of my students. He was an amazing student who got it, who got the power of being here. And that power was able to infuse his faith and make him a stronger person."

And, Silver noted, Hebrew University also gains from the foreign students. 

“There's this incredible, diverse population from America, from the Far East, from Europe that all come together and share their values and ideas and find their own selves here as they're sharing those ideas. It's a place with an incredible student life, both on and off campus. An incredible place to be in Jerusalem. And, it's Hebrew University.”

Cox describes living in biblical history as beautiful.

“Everyone here speaks Hebrew, the ancient Israelites spoke Hebrew. And it's just incredible because you hear the ancient language that is Hebrew in current Israel. The biblical prophecies come to life,” he stated.

He continued. “So, it's like all these things, it reminds you, you're in the Bible, you're in ancient Israel, you're in the Bible, and then even the Via Dolorosa or the Old City, it's like, Jesus walked here. The Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus was crucified. It says that He sweated blood because He was about to (be) sacrificed on the cross." As tears came, Cox said, "It's beautiful.”

“The people of Israel, the University, the Land itself – it's so much better than I could have ever imagined," he concluded.

Quoting Martin Luther King Junior, Cox says his message to the people back home is that Israel “is a democracy” and “should be fought for.”