Keshet seminar

So over the weekend along with being our last weekend with the boys before Yeshiva and Midrasha, we had what is called a Keshet Seminar. A Keshet seminar is something that the organizers of the Zionist youth movements create so that different movements can meet and learn about different ideologies and movements, Bnei Akiva was the only religious youth movement among many reform movements that have all come to Israel for a gap year program. While it was really interesting to socialize with different movements, it was mostly the British youth movements so the Americans were pretty much the minority and knew no one from other movements; a majority of the Americans on Lehava, except for three of us left for the weekend, but three of us stuck it out and had a pretty nice time. It was interesting to have discussions about Israeli politics and different ideologies, and the way that the different movements had difference opinions from each other as well as when different movements that would usually disagree, ended having the same views of some things. My peulot were on the theme of Jewish music and film, so we really could discuss different traditions and orthodox practice with reference to music and film, it was really quite interesting and enjoyable. Otherwise we had the usual Shabbat, with singing, eating and rest. After a closing peulah we came home to Beit Yehudah for the last night for Machon.

Last week of Machon

This week was the last week of Machon or Leadership Institute for our group before we split to go to Yeshiva and Midrasha. We had the last classes of most of our tracks, as well as a seminar about the Kibbutz Movement. All in all a pretty average week except coming up to Tuesday when, me and three other people from Lehava were invited by our program leaders to represent Bnei Akiva at the Knesset, in a afternoon listening to the Knesset speaker and Education minister about the importance of youth movements in the future of Israel. I was really honored to be chosen amongst the four to represent the movement. On Wednesday, we had a fun day that including ATVing in Jerusalem and of coursing packing up at Beit Yehuda for the last time. After that we spent a couple of hours volunteering at an absorption center for Ethiopian immigrants to Israel where they learn about society and how to live in a more developed place, using money, learning Hebrew and other things such as that. I found it very heartwarming to see the appreciation of all the children for our visit and the gifts we made for their families as well, I now understand what my stepmom was referring to, what it truly means to appreciate everything that's given to you. After volunteering, we had a closing seminar from our Rosh Machon about the importance of what we learned on Machon and really how it applies to our leadership in the future. We then went to a restaurant for a special last night of Machon dinner that included speeches from some avid Machon students and some impressions of the memorable characters in Machon.

Aliyahs,Midrasha and Yitzhak Rabin

This week was themed around the mitzvah of Aliyah as well as the minorities of Israeli society that were caused by this mitzvah. On this week's Israeli film night we watched a fantastic movie called Live and become which told an amazing story about an Ethiopian boy who gets passed off by his Christian mother as a Jew by giving him to a Jewish woman who lost her son that morning, his mother did this during the time of Operation Moses to save him. The movie tells the story of his life and how he deals with racism and keeping his big secret in Israel, as well as his adoption, bar mitzvah and marriage. I highly recommend it but I warn that it has a very strange ending which was quite unnerving. Besides the interesting movie we learnt about minorities in Israel and met people who made Aliyah and how the process was and what their challenges/regrets have been since their Aliyah. We had our normal tracks in the week as well, sometimes a waste of time otherwise can be interesting. Wednesday was special because of Yitzhak Rabin's memorial service at Har Herzl, where we heard the Prime Minister and Simon Peres speak about Rabin's memory. On Thursday, we went to the Yitzhak Rabin Museum in Tel Aviv which was very interesting but I definitely would've liked it more if it had been earlier in the day. As well as the man activities and many opportunities pertaining to Yitzhak Rabin's memory, we also had some light shed onto the next section of our program, Midrasha. I have new found excitement with the information about our schedule and activities in Midrasha that have made it more appealing to me, I'm now kind of excited more so than I was before.

Shabbat in Ein Gedi

The Shabbat this week was very special in its location, in one of my favorite places in Israel, Ein Gedi. It began on Friday with another session of Ulpan and packing in a hurry. Then we were on our way, the journey from Jerusalem to Ein Gedi isn't long around an hour and a half, but we made a bathroom/water stop, at the same spot on my last trip to Israel that I rode a camel, it was a deja vu moment for me. When we arrived to Ein Gedi we had lunch and then went on a hike to the waterfalls, its always so lovely to walk in Ein Gedi it really is amazing. During Shabbat we stayed in the Ein Gedi field school right above the park which was quite amazing because of the ibex that just wander around the bunks and dining hall and well trafficked areas of the field school. I really enjoyed the desert environment that we were in that Shabbat it was a very unique weekend. We had seminars about brotherhood, trust and responsibility, as well as drama skits about scenes from the Torah. After lots of card games on Saturday and Havdallah that evening we came back to the Jerusalem, after a really great weekend in Ein Gedi.

Sderot, the Gaza border and East Jerusalem

Today was an especially fascinating day for our group,Lehava. We learnt more about the conflicts that face Israel regarding the two state agreement and settlements. We started the day in East Jerusalem learning about the settlements and that considerations that the municipalities and government needs to consider in the agreement of a united city of Jerusalem. I really found this to be an interesting thought, whether Jerusalem should become a united city and take down the ever controversial security fence, facing dangers that the fence reduced; or they can keep the status quo, what seems to be the safer option. After this we went to lunch and then continued our journey to the once unknown city of Sderot back in 2000, it has now become what some call the bomb shelter capital of the world. Sderot is a city about a kilometer from the Gaza border making it very vulnerable to terrorist agendas in the Gaza strip. Since the beginning of rocket fire from the Gaza strip towards the city in 2000, bomb shelters have become essential to the lifestyle of people living in Sderot. Since the Second Intifada, thousands of Qassam, mortar and Grad rockets have been shot at the city, since then the rocket fire has decreased significantly to around every other to every two days, which is unbelievable to think of as a reduction. These attacks has caused lifetime psychological and physical trauma and shock for the people living in Sderot, especially the children growing up in such an environment. It was very interesting to listen to the stories of people living in Sderot and their families and how they have been affected by the rockets, for instance one of our guides worries constantly about his grandfather who has a lack of mobility in his age and his grandson worries about him when a siren goes and whether his grandfather will make it to the bomb shelter in the allotted time. The radar based alert system, gives citizens 15 seconds to get to a safe place such as a bomb shelter before the rocket hits, this is an unbelievable life to think about, to only have a 15 seconds to live, to come out of the safe place to find the rocket hit right where you were standing 15 seconds prior. I can't even imagine what it's like to live that daily. We went to the overview towards and actually saw a live rocket shot within the Gaza borders which was unbelievable to see, also quite frightening. After that we went to the security fence at a military compound near the Gaza border, near to where Gilad Shalit was abducted and has since been in captivity for around 4 years since 2006. I was really amazed by this day, it really opened my eyes to the truth behind what we see on the news. After our day in Sderot we went back to Beit Yehuda to pack for our free weekend.

Sukkot break and Simchat Torah

The first day began in Jerusalem with another great journey to the shuk to buy lulavs and etrogs, dates for me, in preparation for the holiday in the coming week. We then were bused to the central bus station in Jerusalem, where everyone went all over Israel to their different Sukkot locations, I headed on the bus to Rishon where I met with my cousins for lunch at an Italian restaurant for some beef carpaccio and other delicious food. Later that night, for the first night of Sukkot we went to my 2nd cousin's in-laws for dinner, where his mother made the most delicious molasses chicken. The next day was pretty chill, we pretty much just slept and hung out at home, that night my 2nd cousin had a birthday party to go to at a really cool pub, where the inside looks like a wooden ship and had a really delicious beer that tasted like cherries called Creek. Friday was spent relaxing at home again, and then Shabbat dinner was at my 1st cousin's house where I met her husband's family. Saturday was spent the way Shabbat should be spent, doing absolutely nothing. Sunday was a stressful but rewarding day, after trying to find my way to Tel Aviv after four buses and plenty of language barriers, let me explain something when most tourists go to a information booth in Israel, they usually expect the person in the booth to speak some English but just my luck the girl doesn't speak a word of English. On top of that, just my luck,I'm on the bus apparently lost and so I ask the bus driver where to go, no he doesn't speak English, I ask a person on the bus doesn't speak English, I ask the bus of 45 people if anyone speaks english. No. Just my luck, in a country where 8 out of 10 people speak English there's is only one person on the bus who does, just my luck. But after all of that, I found my way to sunshine at the beach, where the water was warm but refreshing, after washing the sand off and getting back into my clothes from my swimsuit. My boyfriend and I went to lunch at a kosher restaurant that had a sukkah for their patio seating, it was nice food, always so many options for food places in Israel. We continued walking around Tel Aviv until finding a comfy bench to chill out and people watch, always an entertaining hobby. When I had to go back to Rishon, I got lost yet again, because of the misunderstanding or confusing bus route, but thankfully my cousin came to my rescue and came to get me. I've decided I can't be left alone without someone who speaks Hebrew, trying to figure out the buses with a language barrier, doesn't end well. With a few more days of hanging out it became Wednesday pretty quickly, so I had to bid my cousins farewell and head back to Jerusalem for Simchat Torah. When everyone got back to Beit Yehuda, we were back on the road to an ultra-orthodox community where we stayed in midrasha and yeshiva high school, the festivities began Wednesday night with our exploration of different synagogues in this community and their different ways of celebrating the holiday. First to a synagogue where the girls aren't allowed to even dance with the Torah, so the girls spent a lot of time watching the boys dance, enviously. We then went to another synagogue that had the same routine, girls had to be separated as usual but even allowed in the courtyard of the synagogue. So I found what was more comfortable to me, the Chabad was down the street, so I went and had a great chat with the women at the Chabad synagogue in this Jerusalem, I didn't realize how much I missed the welcoming atmosphere of the Chabad until I had to go to other synagogues as a guest. I was so happy to be there and to talk to the women, they invited me for Shabbat so I plan on going back someday in the near future. The next day after more davening and dancing, without the Torah for the girls (I've realized that Simchat Torah is not the best holiday for women), we went to the hospital to sing and dance in the halls of a hospital, which I personally didn't participate for one reason. I don't believe that it's a good deed to deprive someone who is ill and recovering in the hospital, I wish they would have asked who specifically wanted to be sung to, as opposed to bursting into rooms and being loud and disturbing these patients. After we got back from the hospital early, we found my friend with something kind of interesting. They caught a kitten in Jerusalem, there is quite the stray cat problem in the city so it was crazy that they caught this little 9 week (approximately) kitten, we took care of it the whole day and there was a split in the group of people who were happy to have the kitten,named Yochanan, as our group mascot and others who didn't agree with taking a stray from the street and keeping. So the kitten got vetoed by popular vote, but he was the cutest little thing with blue eyes, black coat and white socks. The kitten definitely made me miss my cats at home, so my family at home its your task to make up for my absence and give my cats a extra kiss and snuggle for me.