This research explores the impact of a year studying in Israel on Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) rabbinical students' emotional connection toward and knowledge about the State of Israel and the Jewish People. We want to better understand the students' beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that emerge from their experience including "ideological dilemmas" that they confront and negotiate. The study is based on a series of three interviews conducted with 10 students at the start and end of their year in Israel, and again in their third or fourth year of school. Findings are presented along a continuum of belonging and connection and suggest that understanding how these future rabbis relate to Israel and the Jewish People is strongly tied to how they negotiate their American and Jewish identities and to their different perceptions of Judaism: as a religion or as a civilization.