Three Yoms... Three Days... Shoah, Memory, Independence... Bitter Cold, Sadness, Exhuberant Joy!

When I last wrote a blog, we were finishing the Yam L'Yam walk and we were headed back to Jerusalem.  When we finally got back to Jerusalem, we began to prepare for Yom Hatsmaut, yom hazikaron, and yom Hashoah. On Thursday we went on a Tiyul to the king David hotel, and a British prison to learn about the British occupation of Israel during WWII. We learned about the underground military organizations of Israel who wanted to A) Not drive out the British because they were fighting the Nazis and then fight the British, B) Wait for the British to give them the land, or C) Fight the British because the army was busy in Europe. On Shabbat, I brought Shira with me and stayed with Maia and German who live near Rehovot. My dad married them, and I had a great time with them!  

 German is a member of an Elite Swat Unit of The Tel Aviv Police and Maia is one of the daughters of Rabbi Mauricio Balter.  They are like family to me! They have a baby named Maor who is only 4 months old, and he does not make a sound!

With my parents and Moshe who is really an awesome teacher!

One of the most amazing experiences of my life was being in Israel for Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Hatsmaut. On the week of the Shoah, we spent every day learning about the Holocaust. On Sunday night we went to a ceremony open to everyone on campus. The ceremony was all in Hebrew, and songs and poems were recited. The next morning, we walked to a busy street to hear the siren sound for two minutes. All of the cars pulled over to the side of the road and the drivers got out and stood in silence, traffic completely stopped. We held a ceremony and shared the stories of our families and how they survived the war. When we got back to the hava, we had an all day learning session in ICC class. Near 9:00 we ended the session by playing songs on the guitar and singing in the memory of the 11 million who died in the holocaust. At  this moment, I felt every emotion at once. Happiness because we are still here, and sadness for the ones who were senselessly murdered by the Nazis.

On Wednesday my parents came to visit me! I felt bad during their whole visit because I did not really want to be with them, I wanted to be with my friends, my family, TRY. I still cannot believe how fast time flies, I feel like I got here yesterday. 

On Thursday we went to Yad Vashem. I have been to Yad Vashem 5 times, but this was my sixth time, the first time I went into the museum. I never went into the museum because I was either too young or too scared, I did not want to learn about the holocaust or ever think about it because I would just get sad. In the museum, the huge electric fence poles from Auschwitz filled me with emotion. We went to the Children’s Museum, and our guide asked us to remember one name. I remembered Ziev Curtis, 13 years old, from Hungary.

At Palmachim Beach on Yom Hatsmaut...

For Shabbat I stayed with my parents and we visited 4 different families in one day, it was crazy! Right after school, we drove straight to Tel Aviv to visit my aunt Tali who came with the March Of the Living with the kids from Mexico. I was really happy to see her because I never get to see her, and I really love her! On Saturday we saw Yossi and Susan Silverman (Susan Is Sarah Silverman’s sister she is a reform Rabbi and very active in Women of the wall, Yossi owns a solar power company which he started in Kibbutz Keturah) Then we walked to Andy Green’s house (Rabinical student) who hopefully will be my father’s Rabbinic Intern in Las Vegas this coming year. On the way there, we saw Arie Hasit (TRY Recruiter). After that, my uncle Yahel and his wife came to visit us.

On Sunday Night, it was Yom Hazikaron. We held a ceremony and watched two documentaries on Michael Levin and Yoni Netanyahu. We watched the Ceremony at the Kotel and stood in Silence for two minutes to commemorate the 23,000 who gave their lives for this country.
The next morning we went to the Hava ceremony where we all stood in a garden and listened to songs and poems. It was not like the Yom Hashoah Ceremony, it was more powerful because it is still an ongoing event. More people are added to the 23,000 every year. Everyone in Israel knows someone who has been killed in the army or in an attack. It was even more sad than Yom Hashoah. At night we walked to a temple to have a ceremony to transition from Yom Hazikaron to Hatsmaut. We all sat outside and there was live music and a lot of people. Everyone was dancing and singing, the atmosphere completely changed from sad to happy in 30 minutes.  Below is a video of what the streets of downtown Jerusalem looked like on Yom Hatsmaut!

 

It was extremely weird. We then walked to Ben Yehuda Street to party. There were so many people, it was ridiculous. I have never seen Ben Yehuda more crowded in my entire life! After walking around Ben Yehuda for a little bit, I saw my friend Yoni who is in my USY chapter who came on march of the living! I then went to a side street off of Ben Yehuda where there was a huge concert and everyone was Israeli Dancing. When we got back to the Hava, it was 2 in the morning and my feet were killing me. I crashed on my bed. The next morning I could not feel my feet!

We got to wake up at 8, which was amazing because we never get to sleep in! We went to the beach and had a barbecue. Even though the weather was horrible, we still made the best of it! On Wednesday we went on a Tiyul to the Hebrew U to learn about possibly doing University here, which sounds really cool! On Thursday we went to the Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, the place were Israel was declared a State and The Palmach museum, which is a museum about the War Of Independence. These past two weeks have been extremely powerful to me, I am really proud to be Jewish. Off to Gadna!

At The Hebrew University Of Jerusalem!  What An Amazing Place...

Pesach in Israel... Yam L'Yam Walk And Did I Mention I Got Pooped On By A Cow?

The week before Passover we had two Tiyulim. We went to Meah Shearim on Tuesday to learn about the ultra orthodox community, It was really interesting to learn about how different they are from everyone else, and how they do not serve in the army which is totally wrong in my opinion, and I still did not get to touch a fuzzy hat L. On Thursday we went on a Tiyul to the Zoo in Jerusalem where I was attacked by a tree. After the Tiyul to the Zoo, we went back to the Hava and said our goodbyes to everyone who only came for half of the program, which were two of my very good friends Nate, my roommate, and Sarah, who was the only senior who came on TRY. Everyone was really sad to see them leave because we were all so close to them. After they left, all of TRY left the Hava to spend 6 days at a host home of their choice.

  

Pesach Menú at Café Cafe

 I stayed in Ber Sheva with Rabbi Mauricio Balter who is like an uncle to me. He is one of the leading Rabbis of the conservative movement in Israel and he is one of my dad’s best friends, he is originally from Uruguay and made Aliyah with his family about 20 years ago. He came all of the way from Ber Sheva to Jerusalem to pick me up which was extremely nice. On Friday he took me to a place where food is premade for Shabbat and you can take anything, put it in a container, and pay by weight. To my surprise, the food was amazing. He then took me to an amazing restaurant to where troubled teens were taught to be chefs. Friday night, I went to temple, and after we had a great dinner. On Saturday I went to temple again and they gave me the honor of dressing the Torah, I was half asleep while they called me up so they had to call me up twice to wake me up. There were a lot of people because it was the assistant rabbi’s baby naming. On Saturday night we went to the mall to eat, they took me to Sushi which I tremendously miss. Sunday I slept all day because TRY has deprived me of my sleep. On Sunday I went to the mall with his daughter, Shani, and then he took me to the movies to watch Argo. On Monday, Erev Pesach (The eve of Pesach) ,

I went to temple before the Seder. The Seder was amazing, my first seder in Israel, AND it was only in Spanish. This was the first time that I was not at home for the Passover seder, and I really missed the way we did it at home, but it was fun to try something different. Tuesday was the last day I spent in Ber Sheva,

I rested all day so I could function for the rest of break! For dinner we went to a restaurant called CaféCafé. The restaurant was Kosher for Passover, and to my surprise, the Gnocchi that I ordered tasted better than any other gnocchi I have ever had, and it was kosher for Passover.

 On Wednesday I was reunited with the TRY group and we went North to do Yam L’Yam which is a hike from Lake Kineret to the Mediterranean Sea. Because we did not have enough time to do all of it we did half of it. On the first day we walked 3 miles and on the second day we walked 7. At night we made large campfires and everyone gathered around the fire. We set up our own tents for the night and shared a tent with 2-3 other guys on the trip. Even though it was freezing outside, it was not that cold in the tent because we all huddled up for body warmth. On the third day we went repelling at an arch which was covered with goat poop one foot deep at the bottom, it was so gross but it was fun to slide in. My shoes changed a shade of color from walking in it. The way up, which was supposed to be a “Nature walk” Turned out to be harder than hiking up the hard path of Massada. I loved Yam l’yam, even though I got sick, It was still an amazing experience. I did not like going 3 days without a shower, and I smelt worse than I have ever smelt in my entire life, I smelt worse than my dog Nacho, but it was okay because we all smelled bad. I also became a professional nature pooper.

We spent Shabbat on the only Conservative Kibbutz in Israel, Kibbutz Hannaton. Shabbat was nice and calm, we went to temple Friday and Saturday. On Saturday we got a tour of the kibbutz, and a cow pooped me on.
At night we went to a party boat on a kineret which was really fun, even though it was infested with spiders. It was like the movie Snakes on a place, but instead it was spiders on a boat. I really wanted to try and walk on water, and prove that I am The Mesiah but my Madrich would not let me jump off. After the party, we had some free time at the outdoor market. On Sunday we went on a Tiyul to learn about Zionism and the foundations of Zionism. We had a couple of stops, first being the grave of Naomi Shemer and Rachel the poet. Then we went to another grave more north where we learned about Joseph Trumpeldor in Tel Hai and the place where 12 IDF soldiers were killed by a rocket from Lebanon that hit during the second world war. On the way there, it really surprised me to see how full the Kineret was, there was no more beach, just steps into the water. After a long while of being sad, we went to Raft on the Jordan River! Since there are only 10 boys and 34 girls, I am always in a group of girls. The raft man, called us up by saying “Ladies!” and then he noticed me… “And dude!” Rafting down the river was fun although I got lost in splashing the JAP boat so one person on my boat did all of the paddling, and she took it competitively seriously. After rafting we went back to the kibbutz, and we were all very tired.

            Monday, our last day on the kibbutz, and the last day of pesach, we had a lot of free time. At the end of the day we had a bond fire. It sounds boring, but it was amazing. We had Druze make Druze food which was really good. We also had live music, coming from everyone who could play guitar. I played and sang a song called “falling slowly” in front of everyone to my beautiful girlfriend, Shira. It was a great night.

            On Tuesday we woke up at 6:30, which not too many people were happy about. We went on a Tiyul to learn about minorities in Israel starting by speaking with Israeli Arab kids. At first it was interesting, but then it was sad to hear from them that they really hate Israel. It was shocking and disappointing to find out that they do not know about the holocaust, and that they commemorate “The Disaster” Instead of Israeli independence day. After that we went to the Bahai Gardens in Haifa to learn about the Bahai, And then we went to a Druze village to learn about the Druze. The Druze were cool to learn about because they are kind and peaceful people who support Israel. After an introduction to the Druze, we were able to walk around a Druze market place and buy stuff. Dad, if you are reading this, THANK YOU! My China Bargaining skills came in handy. It was sad to hear that some of my friends bought 5$ Things for 40$!! One lady tried to convince me that something plastic was hand made and was not plastic!

            When we got back to the Hava, everyone was sad that break was over but happy. I walked into my room, and was sad because one of my roommates was gone, the room felt empty. Can’t wait to see my parents next week!

           

Here is a Video of our TRY group during Havdaalah at Kibbutz Hannaton when Pesach ended!