Our Last Days...

Day 11

The word “torture” comes into play on this day in Israel, or at least that is how some of us referred to it. Today we toured around the city of Jerusalem. Our first stop was the Davidson Center to learn all about he Temple Mount and excavations. Following the informative presentation from Ofer, we davened at the old exit of the Temple mount.  It was very meaningful to pray at this place, having walked the stairs that our ancestors climbed thousands of years ago. 

Alluding back to word “torture”, it was a very sunny, hot day in Jerusalem, which added to fact that Ori made us walk around the ENTIRE day. Who knew there were so many stairs in Jerusalem!  We toured around Jerusalem seeing many sites and holy places.  Most interesting were the views and understanding the significance of were we were standing.  Before 1967 we would not have been able to enter some parts of Jerusalem.  It is hard for us to imagine this.  

We enjoyed another delicious lunch or tuna or salami sandwiches.  Ori keeps reminding us to drink water, which we do, but then we have to take sharutim breaks.  In the afternoon we explored the tunnels along the western wall.  This was amazing.  It is all so massive and only a small part is even showing.

L’hitraot,

David

Saturday, May 21

Our last Shabbat in Israel was a great day.  After getting to sleep in, we all ate breakfast and had an activity with Ori.  We all looked at maps of the State of Israel depicted in different ways.  Some of us chose the map that looked like a candle and thought it meant that Israel was a new beginning for each of us.  Others thought that it meant Israel was like wax, slowly melting away.  Some other maps chosen were a kite flying over New York City and a clothes line.  We went to a park and davened in a very special way.  Ryan led an interesting discussion about G-d.  Next we ate lunch and went back to our rooms for Shabbat naps.  We then had a Shabbat party and went for a walk around Nachla’ot and Yemin Moshe, two neighborhoods in Jerusalem.  If you look around the area of Yemin Moshe, you will see what used to be no man’s land when the borders of Jerusalem were first made.  We could also see the security fence.  We stopped by a tent for Gilad Schalit and learned more about him.  He has been held captive for 1792 days.  We each took a symbolic yellow ribbon that shows we support his family.   We then went back to the hostel for dinner.  For Motzei Shabbat, we went and saw The Night Spectacular, a light show at the Tower of David Museum showing Jerusalem’s history.  We then went back to the hostel and watched a documentary about Michael Levin, an American Oleh who died in the Second Lebanon War in 2006.  It was very emotional for most of us, but we then got rested up for our last day in Israel.

L’hitraot, 

Nathan

Day 14

Today, our last day in Israel, was fun but we are all sad to leave. In the morning we zipped our duffel bags up, ate breakfast and loaded our luggage into the bus. We first visited Yad LaKashish, where elderly people are taught arts and craft skills and can sell their work. This program helps elderly people feel good about what they are doing and can provide for themselves. After watching them work and admiring what they made we went to their gift shop where we bought things like jewelry, kippot, magnets and more. We next went to Har Herzl, a cemetery for soldiers, prime ministers, presidents and many other brave and heroic people who helped Israel in different ways. It was named for Theodor Herzl, a man who devoted eight years of his life to try and establish a Jewish state. He died before Israel became a state in 1948 but without him we might not  have Israel. We visited Michael Levin’s grave and also talked about a group of 35 soldiers that were killed. We also visited the grave of Ori’s friend, Nimrod Cohen.  Lunch was next and by request we ate at a park with a large slide that we had wanted to visit. Our last program was at Ne’ot Kedumim where we talked about Israel’s landscape during Talmudic times. We crushed up a plant called hyssop and planted trees. We then went to Jaffa where we talked, played games and ate dinner. We are currently at the airport waiting to board the plane and we can’t wait to see everyone on Monday.

See you very soon,

The 8th Grade

Yad Vashem

Day 12, Friday 20

Today was a difficult day because we went to Yad Vashem. It was a very hard topic to grasp on to. It shocked us that the Nazis could do the terrible things that they did during the Holocaust to Jews and other people who were different from them.  We went through the memorial museum first and learned all about how the war began and why, and about the Ghettos that the Jews were held in. We also learned all about the concentration camps and what happened to the people that the Nazis kept there.  After that part of the museum we went to the children’s memorial which was really hard for us because we heard names of kids our age who died, and it was hard for us to imagine children like us in that situation.  After Yad Vashem we went to Machane Yehudah and walked around for a while.  We ate falafel and shopped both at the marketplace and at a street filled with jewelry and art made by local artists.  Now we are preparing for Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom,

The 8th grade

PS~After Shabbat we will tell you all about our exhausting, yet interesting day yesterday.

exploring the "depths" of Jewish history

Wednesday, May 18

When we ventured off to Israel, who would have thought we would turn into archaeologists.  Today, we went to an archeological site in Bet Guvrin where we went down into caves and excavated them.  Our class found objects from around the time of the story of Chanukah in the “Wilma” cave.  This was one of the five thousand caves around this archaeological site.  Afterwards, we formed a bucket brigade and brought up all of the buckets of dirt and found items.  We sifted through them to make sure we didn’t throw out any items from this site.  Then, we went down into a cave that has not been excavated yet.  It was lighted by candles and we had to go through all kinds of obstacles.  Hadassah overcame her fear of claustrophobia and went through the whole cave.  While climbing through one of the holes, Nathan fell down and landed onto one of the candles.  (FYI ~ Mom, I’m perfectly fine.  I never caught on fire.  The class kept an eye on me and I am still alive and healthy. Love you!)  Next, we explored Cave 61, which is one of the only caves that has been fully excavated.  It was amazing to see the olive press from this time period.  We got onto the bus and drove back to Jerusalem where we were dropped off at the City of David.  We ate lunch and and watched a movie about how the city came to be.  We walked through Hezekiah’s water tunnel that was built before the destruction of the Second Temple.  We sloshed and slogged our way through the tunnel, as our leader, Ori lead the way.  It was dark and dank and narrow and a little frightening.  Afterwards, we came back to the youth hostel to clean up and eat dinner.  We are all ready for a full day tomorrow!

L’hitraot, 

Jessie and Nathan

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From the heights to the depths, the highs and the lows of the Negev

Tuesday, May 17

Day 9

It was a beautiful morning when we opened our eyes to the site of a lighted bedouin tent, everybody slowly and calmly getting up from the the mattress spread out on the tent floor.  It was still dark outside, and the birds just stating to chirp.  (Descriptively written by Ori, our madrich.)

Our day started at four o’clock in the morning and everyone woke up on time.  We hiked up to the top via the Roman path.  Unfortunately it was a very hazy day and we didn’t get to see the sunrise.  We davened shachrit and then began our adventure.  While we were on top of Masada we had a tour led by our madrich, Ori.  Ryan, Mrs. Kurtis, and Ori all acted out different parts to show us the history of Masada. It was very hot even though it wasn’t the sunniest part of the day. While we walked down the snake path, we encountered soldiers. Ori explained to some of us that they were  in training.  When we were close to the bottom, the soldiers were lined up in two lines. Leah asked Ori if she could run in-between the lines, and he said whatever makes her happy. So Leah and Jessie ran in-between. As we drove from Masada to the Dead Sea, a few of us took little naps. When we arrived at the Dead Sea we all go changed into our bathing suits to go and float. Everyone went in, even Mrs. Kurtis came in with the six of us.  Ori and Ryan stayed out to take pictures of us.  We unfortunately didn’t get to use mud but instead, before we left, we got to get some frozen yogurt. We ate some yummy snacks before we drove to Jerusalem.  We ate lunch in the park before we walked to our Youth Hostel. We arrived at around one o’clock.  We unpacked our suitcases and backpacks, took nice cleansing showers and had to got ready to walk on Ben Yehuda street.  We all were done early so we sat outside and just chillaxed before we went shopping. Following Ben Yehuda street, we came back and ate dinner at the Youth Hostel and then we all had a PARTY in the boys room.  Don’t worry, Mrs. Kurtis and Ori were our chaperones. 

L’hitraot,

Leah, Ori, and Jessie

The Weekend - Our First Shabbat

Sunday, May 15

After walking around the streets of Tzfat doing some shopping and visiting a synagogue, we all went our separate ways for a nice quiet Shabbat with our families.  Saturday night we reunited and began our touring again.  Our first stop in Tel Aviv was Independence Hall, where we learned about the beginning of the State of Israel.  The room we sat in was the exact same room that David Ben-Gurion announced the birth of the State of Israel.  This was Meir Dienzengoff’s home that eventually became the first art museum in Tel Aviv.  We listened to Ben-Gurion’s speech and sang Hatikvah.  Afterwards, we split off into boys and girls to do a little shopping in the Shuk HaCarmel.  We met up to swim in the Mediterranean Sea.  We ate strawberries on the beach, and after putting on dry clothes, we went for lunch.  Then, we finally made our way to Rabin Square and talked about the “Sticker Song” by HaDag Nachash, an Israeli band.  The song is made up of bumper stickers with political statements.  We went to Yitzchak Rabin’s memorial where we saw the exact place of Rabin’s assassination.  It was very meaningful to see where this tragedy occurred.  All ten of us traveled to the Palmach museum.  Here, we walked through an interactive exhibit describing the years of the Palmach before becoming the Israeli Defense Force.  There we learned how the State of Israel came to be independent.  The Palmach soldiers were very brave and gave so much to our people, sometimes causing them to lose their lives.  Some of us were falling asleep towards the end, and luckily we got a nice long bus ride to the Negev to sleep.  We checked in to our hostel and ate dinner before collapsing in our rooms.  Speak to you soon!

L’hitraot from the Negev,

Hadassah and Nathan

P.S. Sorry that the blogs are our of order...a little mishap.  See you on Monday!

life in the desert

Day 8 - Monday, May 16

Today we began exploring the Negev.  After waking up, and having breakfast we learned about David Ben-Gurion and visited his grave in the Negev, where he and his wife wished to be buried.  We went on a "grueling" hike though Ein Avdah, where we learned about flash floods and listened to sounds of the Negev.  The hike was a lot of fun and very tiring so we went back to Sde Boker, the place we were staying, and had lunch.  Following lunch we had ice cream and choco-b'sakit, a favorite Israeli chocolate milk treat.  The milk might have come from some of cows that Ryan milked.  Then we traveled to Mitzpe Revivim. Mitzpe Revivim is a kibbutz in the Negev that is built over a large amount of brackish water, and one thing this kibbutz has learned to do is grow plants using this type if water. The kibbutz is also home to a simple military complex with an ammunitions room, a headquarters, nursing bay and radio room which was very important during the war of independence.  After looking around the kibbutz and learning about it we went to the bedouin tents. We were welcomed with tea and coffee by two bedouins and they taught us about the bedouin culture and their way of life. Shortly after that we got to ride the camels. We then got on the camels and began riding up and down the trail.  After the camel ride we went back into the settlement and ate dinner provided by the bedouins. We dined on kebob, chicken, rice with chick peas, a variety of pitot, humus, and salads.  We ended our evening with a quiet activity and fire made by David, Ryan and Ori.  As we settled onto our sleeping mats we drifted off to sleep, awaiting the 4 am wake up call.

l'hitraot,

Stephanie and David 

PS: Sorry for the delay, the sleep in bedouin tent package didn’t come with internet. 

Overseas!!! peace.love.ISRAEL

Day 4- Thursday, May 12th

Today our big class of 6 went to the Bahai Garden in Haifa. From there we saw the view of the city of Haifa. Ori pointed out the cities of Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, and we could also see the view of the border of Lebanon. From where we were standing we got to see the beautiful garden with the lovely flowers and trees. While walking through Wadi Nisnas in Haifa we saw many different pieces of artwork.  This part of Haifa is where the Jews, Christians, and Muslims are able to get along very well and live together.  It doesn’t matter what religion you are. 

We went to lunch, at the MALL!!! and ate in the food court. We then went to visit our pen pals at the Emunah Center in Afula. All the kids that go to this program have difficult lives, being either neglected or sadly, abused mentally and or physically. There are around 200 kids that live there currently. Kids can come there starting at the age of 5 and usually stay for 4 years. The people that work there said that after a few years they try to get the kids back to their homes and families, but it is difficult. Sometimes the kids will stay in the program until they turn 18. Our pen pals were so happy to be able to meet us and we were psyched to see them. It was a challenge to talk with them. They speak English like we speak Hebrew, very tentatively. After we made our Israeli flags in the art room, our pen pals took us to view their rooms. We then attempted to play soccer (they call it football). Then we got to make challah for Shabbat. While they were baking we visited the PETTING ZOO!!! Jessie was so good with the bunny (SHOUT OUT TO KEVIN...DAD I WANT A BUNNY FOR MY BIRTHDAY =D LUV YA ;)) Soon it was time to leave so we gathered together and said our goodbyes. 

Ryan and Ori were very impressed by how dirty Leah was able to get without even trying. The last thing we did during our fourth day was sailing on a party boat. At first we just danced but about halfway through the trip one of the DJ’s came over and taught us how to drum.  We had a fun time trying to find our rhythm.We finished our cruise dancing to the dock.  A great time was had by all.

L’hitraot,

Jessie, David, and Nathan

<3 

PS: we are sorry there are no photos.  they are taking forever to upload.  we are going to see if they can go into the newsletter.  hopefully!!!