Time Is Flying... Israel IS More Amazing Than Ever! I Wish I Could Stay!!!!!

The past two weeks of TRY have been amazing though it is sad to realize how fast they are passing.  3 weeks from now, I will be back home.

The last Shabbat I stayed with Maia and German again, German had his police van so he gave me a tour of the car and when it was time to go to the bus station, he took me in the car! It was really funny to watch the cars move to the other lane because they were scared of the car! At the station, I met up with my friend Jenna and Naomi to catch the same bus back. On the bus, a Shomer Negiah guy was flirting with them and tried to convince us that he was a drug dealer but then said just kidding. 

On Sunday night it was lag Baomer, we had the awesome opportunity to walk around the streets of Jerusalem and see the massive Bon Fires.

On Tuesday we went on a Tiyul past the green line to learn about the settlements. We went toGush Etzion, a settlement which was built 3 times after being destroyed, one of the most brave battles of the War of Independence was fought there. We then went to Efrat to listen to a right wing speaker tell us about what he thinks should happen with the Palestinians. He said that we need peace, but that we cannot have two states, it has to be under Israel.

On Thursday we went to volunteer either to a soup kitchen, or to a farm. I volunteered at the farm and we began to clear the rocky Jerusalem land from locks to make it suitable to farm. Later, we walked to a beautiful synagogue and met up with the shutaf kids for sports day. It was really a great experience, the kids were happy to see us and we were happy to see them! I was having fun, but then I fell during the obstacle course and hurt my toe L We then had our free night early at emek rafaim. I went to go eat at a really good vegan restaurant with my vegetarian friends.

Shabbat Yachad, Shabbat together was really fun! On Friday, we had the amazing opportunity to go to a soccer game. It was great because I really miss soccer, and it got me into the mood for the world cup this upcoming year! Even though the game was really bad, it was still really fun! The team we were chearing for won the game 9-1. We then came back and it was time for Shabbat! I got ready, and I went to Shir Hadasha, the orthodox synagogue that has a mehitzah (Separation between men and women) but women wear tallit and read the Torah. We then had Shabbat dinner, and I crashed early because I was so tired.

            On Saturday I woke up at 6:00 to go to my madrich, Avihai’s synagogue. On that day I learned that Yemenite Jews sound like a herd of goats when they pray, and that goat noises should now replace all of the sleeping music on my Ipod. Everyone was out. We then came back and I slept until 1:00. We then had free time until 4:30 when it was mincha. We had activities and by the time we were done it was time for havdallah.

On this past Tuesday, instead of going on a tiyul, we had an ICC project. We were assigned to different groups and given an article to write topics on. My group chose the topic Yizkor (Rememberance) and we went to Yad Vashem and Har Hertzel to interview 10 people. Out of all of the interviews, my favorite one was when we met an aboriginal survivor from Canada in Yad Vashem who was sent away from home to rehabilitation schools to become more “Civilized” Like what happened to the native Americans in America.

            On Thursday we woke up at 1am and got on a two-hour bus ride to the middle of nowhere in the Negev. We got out of the bus, and began hiking. We hiked for an hour and a half and we had 35 minutes to our selves to watch the sunrise and the beautiful mountains. We then hiked up to David Ben Gurion and his Wife’s grave, the first prime minister of Israel.

We then went back to the hava and we were all exhausted. We slept until 2:00 and then did homework all day until our free night, I went to Ben Yehuda with my friends and walked around for two hours.

Women of the wall

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a Women of the wall protest. WoW is a group of women who gather at the kotel every rosh hodesh to pray freely, out loud, with tallit and tefillin. I have allways wanted to go to a WoW protest because I believe that everyone should have the right to pray freely without being persecuted for what they believe in.

We woke up at 6:00 In the morning, got in Taxis and drove to the Kotel. The first taxi on the street we hailed had a religious driver and he said that he would not take us. We then hailed another taxi and after the worst taxi ride of my life, we got off and began walking towards the kotel. At first sight of the plaza, there were thousands of people. I thought that this was normal at first because it is rosh hodesh! Only later we learned that all of the people there were Haredi (Ultra orthodox) trying to block the monthly protest. After finally pushing our way through the crowds, we made it into the area were the service was being held. A handful of police officers had barricaded the area so no one protesting could enter. For the first time, the police were defending WoW because a court order was passed that the WoW are doing nothing wrong and that no more arrests should be made. We began to pray, and it was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had in my entire life. We drowned out the whistles and the yells of the Haredi men who were trying to stop the service. When I turned around again, hundreds of soldiers and police were there, the haredim had turned violent.

They began calling the people trying to protect us Nazis, and called the women whores. A man started yelling at me and he said “You are not Jewish! Why do you support this? Take your tefillin off now!” I was in shock. Soon enough they began throwing things at us, garbage, water, coffee, and even a chair! The police and Haredim began hitting eachother! 

Two of my friends from TRY: Meital and Jenna

 We decided that it was time to leave, we did not know at that time that the Police had made a pathway for us to go through so we tried leaving by pushing through the haredi women. At first, they would not move, but then, my friends put me in the front so I could push through because the Haredi Women are Shomer Negiah (Do not touch men) All of the sudden, it felt like I was moses and the red sea had parted. When we got to the end of the crowd, there was a police human chain, which would not let us out so we went back to where the services were. We found the actual exit and went through. The soldiers and police had ran out of barricades so they made a giant human chain through the entire plaza of the Kotel. As we went through, the haredi men tried to break the blockade, and called my friends whores. We eventually got out, and I thanked as many soldiers as I could. We were trying to get into a taxi as fast as possible because the Haredi saw us leave and began to follow us. A teenage boy, my age, started yelling things at me so I just looked at him, smiled, and waved. We got into a taxi and went back to school. I will never forget this experience; it will stay with me forever.

On Shabbat I stayed with my friends Nate and Aden with my moms cousins. We went to the beach on Saturday and regained our much-needed rest. I also met a cat that was like a dog and it came to sit in my lap and would not leave. I should really stop petting cats because I am allergic to them. Oh well, time for our last two weeks of school!

This is The "Official TRY week 15 Video!"

 

Gadna Week... Ken HaMefaked(et)!

Everything leading up to Gadna helped us understand what it meant to be in the IDF. We learned about what it meant to have a Jewish state that we could defend without depending on anyone else. We learned about the heroes of Zionism

  and of the Jewish people.

The Shabbat before Gadna I went with my friend Noah to Herzeliya. We stayed with Chris an American diplomat, and his wife Rene. It was one of the best Shabbats I have had in Israel by far! We went to temple Friday and Saturday and without Noah and I, there would not have been a Minyan. There was almost no Minyan on Saturday, so instead of reading torah, we studied torah. One woman had a yortzite for her husband so she was really sad that there was no Minyan so we ran out and grabbed 3 people off of the street and asked them to come for kaddish. I have never had the problem of getting a Minyan because I am used to a huge community with a lot of people, but it felt great knowing that I made it possible for the woman to say kaddish. When we got back to Rene’s house she told us stories about her life which was really cool because she has lived all over the world. She is a biker and is really nice which surprised me.

            

 When we got to the Bus at the Hava we drove to the middle of nowhere to an IDF base called Sde Boker which is across the kibbutz from where Ben Gurion lived. When we got there we were told the basic rules and we were divided into four different groups called Tzevets. My tzevet was made up of 11 with two boys and nine girls. The mefakedets (Leaders of the groups) were really intimidating and had no souls.

After the first hours, we had our uniforms and mine was ripped and the pants had no buttons so I asked If I could exchange them but she said no and made me do push ups. We then went to an opening ceremony and at this point we had been standing for three hours. The mefakedets chose two people from each of the tzevets and chose two group leaders who were responsible for the group. From my Tzevet, Ironically Shira and I were chosen to be the group leaders. We had dinner and it was amazing compared to the food that we get fed at the Hava. After dinner they gave us an hour to get ready before we go to sleep and in that hour we all took showers and that was when we had our first encounters with the Israeli Juvenile delinquents who were there. They really liked calling us Big Macs and Whipping us with towels but while they were talking to us in English, I would answer them in Spanish.

I guess this is an IDF "red neck..."

When the hour was over, we got back in our Chet and the Mefakedet told us that we had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning. When we went to our tents, there was a mefakedet watching us sleep so we would not talk. All of the boys could not stop laughing and she was really annoyed. I asked to say the Shema and she yelled at me telling me to be quiet.

            The next day we learned a lot about techniques soldiers use to blend in and learned about how soldiers do things. We went to a big park and we ran, crawled, laid in bushes and camouflaged our faces with dirt. I carried a 30 pound container of water on my back all day and I was really proud of myself for carrying it all day.

When we finished at the park we walked back to the base for an hour. At night it was our turn to do kitchen duty and it was one of the highlights for me. We covered the entire dining room in soap water and we had to mop, but instead of mopping, we played hockey with squeegees and we used a spoon as the puck.

            

 The next day it was the same routine. Wake up at 5:30, roll up the tents, get in uniform and be waiting for the mefakedet in a chet at 6. Whoever was late whoever did not have a full water bottle and whoever was not standing in achshev was punished. I decided I was bored of following orders and that I was going to try my best to do push ups. I stopped counting after 400 push ups throughout the whole week. That day we had 5 classes on how to fire a weapon and learned all of the safety rules. 

Firing The M16

            The next day was the day that everyone was waiting for, the day we got to shoot the gun. When we got to the shooting range it was outdoors and it was very hot outside. We went 9 at a time and we shot laying down. We were ordered to sit down, then put our earmuffs on, lay down and pick up the gun, puck the magazine in the gun, cock the gun, turn the safety off, and fire. We had 10 shots and it was really cool to me because I have never shot a gun before. I was nervous to shoot it because I thought the recoil would hurt me but it did not. We did not get to keep the target we got to shoot at but I wish we did because I wanted to see if I was good or not. When we got back we had Sports Day and played physically challenging games.

           

  The last day, we turned in our dirty smelly uniforms and got into a circle with our mefakedet. She then told us to sit down and we said “Ken mefakedet!” she then said “No! Ken Amit!” We were all

Tzevet 2

really confused because she told us that under no circumstances we should call her by her first name! She told us about herself and said that she was from kibbutz Sde Boker! The kibbutz right behind were we went rappelling at! She also told us the story about her sister who was an officer in the IDF when she passed away and gave us her favorite quote a quote I will never forget. “The man who has been blessed is the one that can give without asking back and to get without ever forgetting”. It was amazing to know that she was not a mean person, but she was very nice. By the end of Gadna we were all exhausted from waking up early, standing, and running around all day. When we got back to school on Friday I had to hold back the urge to say “Ken Mefakedet” To my teachers! It was an amazing week that I learned a lot in and that I will never forget!


The TRY Gadna Week Video...