JI: You are a social media pro and we noticed you didn’t have any posts from Israel. Why was that? And, since we believe in second chances, if you could post a single Snap or Instagram from your visit, what would it be? 

Booker: (Laughter) The reality is that I didn’t post at all on this trip through the Middle East. I decided to go dark for the first time in a while. For about ten days I didn’t post anything or access my accounts at all. Some of it was security issues as well as just giving it a rest for a while and really absorbing as much as I could in my role on the trip. When you’re on a CODEL, it’s a marathon, round the clock, nonstop, no sleep.

There were so many profound moments in Israel that I would have wanted to post. One of the more moving meetings I had was with Ethiopian Jewish leaders that was just incredible. I visited the Ethiopian National Project which was created by the government to fully integrate Ethiopian Jews into Israel's society. They’re still facing a lot of challenges with poverty, unemployment but the Ethiopian National Project is really doing an extraordinary job in empowering the Ethiopian community to be successful. So to meet with young people and others -- that was just a really a very moving moment for me, that I probably would have tweeted or snapped about. I did take a lot of selfies with the young people there so I imagine it might have popped up on some of their social media. 

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