Wow What A Week (Week 12)

Wow. Another crazy amazing week on Nativ. Instead of going day by day this week, I decided to write about the few main events that happened, since they monopolized most of my time. There were four key events this week: the conflict with Gaza, my Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Shabbat.

The ongoing conflict with Gaza was an immense part of this week. On Tuesday afternoon there was another siren in Jerusalem. I was in my Hebrew class when it happened. We headed to the bomb shelter, stayed for ten minutes, and then went on with our day as usual. The rocket landed in the Gush, the same place as the last rocket that was shot toward Jerusalem. I came up with an analogy for what being in Jerusalem when the siren went off was like. It feels like when you’re watching a scary movie and someone walks into the room and scares you. You realize after a few minutes that you aren’t really in immediate danger, but it still scares you. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, there was a bus bombing in Tel Aviv. This was really scary, because it was the first act of terrorism from within the country. Also, when there are bus bombings they frequently happen in Jerusalem. For the rest of the day Wednesday we were instructed not to take buses. Luckily on Wednesday night Israel and Gaza agreed upon a cease-fire! Of course, a few minutes after the cease-fire more rockets were shot into Israel, but after a few more rockets, things were calm, and have remained calm since.  This means that our staff Roni can come back to Nativ, and is supposed to get back sometime Saturday night.

Wednesday was an exciting day because it was my 18^th birthday! I had a day full of festivities. In the morning, my roommate Amanda bought me lots of yummy food for breakfast, like my favorite cereal and oatmeal. During my day at the Yeshiva, the Gift of Life foundation came. This is an organization that focuses on getting Jews in a bone marrow registry. It was perfect that they came on my birthday, because you have to be 18 to register. I signed for myself for the first time as a legal adult. It also felt good to do a mitzvah on a day that was so fun for me. Then, after my morning class my friends Adiva and Eliana bought me a delicious chocolate cake. They gave it to me at lunch, and candles and a song were included. I didn’t eat lunch, but I did have my cake and share with the people around me. Then I went to get my cartilage pierced. For anyone wondering, it didn’t really hurt, but has been sore ever since. Also, just to keep my family calm, this is the last piercing I plan on getting in Israel, so you can stop worrying. After that, I went out to lunch with my friend Julia and her mom. We went to this pretty outdoor café above the Mamilla mall. It was delicious, and so much fun. Then Wednesday night, I went out with a group of girls to get Sushi at Sushi Rehavia. When we got back, I found presents waiting on my bed. My roommate Miriam made me a peanut butter chocolate pie, Angela got me marzipan rugalach and spa night gift set, and Elana Pentelnik got me a really cute scarf. Also, my parents got me flowers, which Yossi picked out for them, and they are gorgeous. Overall it was one of the best birthday’s I’ve had in awhile. I definitely missed my friends and family at home, but my friends here made it easy to have a good time anyway.

On Thursday night we had Nativ Thanksgiving. All past nativers and their families are invited to come to Beit Nativ and have Thanksgiving with the current nativers. The Nativ a capella preformed two songs, and we had the best meal so far on Nativ. Then, the current Nativers go downstairs and have special activities. a cappella sang again, and we watched a slideshow that said what everyone on Nativ is thankful for, and had pictures up to this point on Nativ. It was weird not being with my family on Thanksgiving, but as Yossi pointed out, this is my new Nativ family.  

Shabbos was an amazing end to an already amazing week. Friday night I went to dinner at Miriam (my roommate’s) parent’s apartment. We had an amazing meal, and had lots of fun just talking and having a peaceful Shabbos meal. Saturday morning I woke up and went to davening at mayanot. It was about a 45 minute walk from Beit Nativ. I liked services there, but they were nothing so special that I would walk there again. The best part was that quite a few people from the Conservative Yeshiva daven there. After services I had lunch at my teacher Shiyah’s house. We had make your own burritos, and it was delicious. It was fun to bond with the other Nativ CYers, and to get to see a teacher outside of school. After lunch I headed back to Beit Nativ just in time for Mincha services, where I read the same Torah portion as at my Bat Mitzvah.  Overall it was the perfect end to the perfect week.

עם ישראל חי (Week 11)

Sunday

Wow! Today felt like such a long day. In Talmud class this morning we looked a Gemarah for the first time (since I’m in the lowest level we usually stick to Mishnah and Toseftah). It was so difficult and I left class feeling drained. The rest of my day at Yeshiva went pretty much as usual.

JET for tonight was cancelled because Mark (the teacher) is out of town, so I had lots of free time on my hands. I had a late dinner with Angela, and then we started watching one of my favorite movies, Matilda. Then I headed to be early, since I didn’t sleep well last night.

Monday

Today was a stay inside kind of day. It was on and off raining all day, yuck! This sudden change in weather also made my sinuses act up (typical me) so not much happened.

After Yeshiva I went shopping with my friend Cara. We had fun walking up and down Yaffo street looking in all the different stores. Neither of us bought anything, but it was still a fun adventure.

I spent the night at my second kippah making class (I forgot to mention the first on in last weeks blog). It’s taught by Yossi’s wife, and is so much fun. I’m not very good, but I’m still learning so hopefully I’ll get better. After that I headed to bed early for some much needed beauty sleep.

Tuesday

SHHHH don’t tell anyone but I played hookie from Yeshiva today. It’s actually not a secret, but I spent the whole day working on a video to send back to CRUSY (my youth group region) about why Nativ is so great. We spent all morning filming, then stopped for a lunch break. I had my first ever shwarma and it was delicious! On the walk back from lunch we stopped to get Hot chocolate and apple cider to warm us up. I then spent the afternoon with Ilana editing the video, which turned out to be really good.

Tonight we had an amazing speaker for Erev Nativ. Jonathon Kassler from AIPAC came and spoke to us about getting involved in Israel advocacy. He explained to us the importance of young leadership getting involved, and told us a few things we can do if we’re interested. I think it would be incredible to get involved, but I just feel so uneducated about some of the issues. Even living here sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. That’s something I really need to work on here; staying informed on the news in Israel.

Wednesday

Well staying informed about what’s happening in Israel has definitely been easy today because the news is EVERYWHERE! For anyone who doesn’t know, today the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) successfully assassinated Ahmed Jabri, one of the leaders of Hamas. Over the past several years, he has been essential in planning numerous terrorist attacks, as well as playing a key role in the capture and holding of Gilad Shalit. It’s unclear right now what this attack will lead to in the next few weeks. Over the past few weeks tons of rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, and its unclear if this number will increase or decrease as a result of the attack. Right now, the area in southern Israel around Ashdid, Ashkelon, and Beer Sheva is off limits to Nativers. Hopefully this restriction will end soon, because it means I can’t see Tracy and her family.

That’s essentially the only exciting news of the day. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going in the South, and Israel as a whole. Just to reassure everyone, I am perfectly safe. Jerusalem is probably the safest place in Israel, because it is holy to so many different people that it is almost never a target for terrorism. Also, if it becomes dangerous Nativ is very cautious, and will add additional safety precautions without hesitation.

Thursday

Things in Israel continue to heat up. The constant rocket fire in the South continues. I talked to Tracy today, and they were in and out of their safety room several times today. As of when I talked to them there had been no actual rockets falling in Even Shmuel. As for the rest of the country, a rocket landed just south of Tel Aviv this evening, and there were sirens in Tel Aviv itself. This is concerning because it is outside the 60 km range that Hamas’s rockets usually stay in. In terms of me, it means Nativ is no longer allowed to go to Tel Aviv for the weekend.

To make things very clear, I myself am perfectly safe. Living in Jerusalem I am probably in the safest part of Israel. It is highly unlikely that anything will transpire here. Also, people continue to ask me what the feeling is here. I can’t speak for the areas that are constantly under fire, but here in Jerusalem there is a feeling of uncertainty. No one really knows what is going to happen with the conflict with Gaza. I feel perfectly safe, but am nervous to see what will happen over the next week or two.

As for my actual daily goings on, today at Kehilla Midaberet (the Yeshiva’s weekly community lunch and discussion) Moshe, one of the students, spoke about his life. He is from Uganda, and spoke about his struggle to make it to Israel, and his desire to become a rabbi. Not only was it nice to get to know more about Moshe’s life, it makes me really appreciate the ease with which I got to Israel. I had almost no problems coming to Israel, thanks to the amazing Jewish community in Cincinnati, as well as my parents’ eagerness to send me on Nativ. Moshe really had to work to get here, and it’s really eye opening to see, and makes me appreciate what I have.

Friday and Saturday (Shabbat)

Wow. What a crazy Shabbat. I can separate the excitement into two parts: the conflict with Gaza and the Yeshiva shabbaton. The Yeshiva shabbaton was amazing. We spent the weekend up north in Arbel near the kinneret. We started Friday with an amazing hike. I had already done it on pilgrimage, but I didn’t really remember it and it was fun to do it with other Yeshiva people. Then we headed to the hostel we stayed at for the weekend. We spent the remainder of Shabbat bonding, learning, and becoming closer friends with each other.

As many of you may know, I’ve been trying to be shomer Shabbos. I figured since I was with the Yeshiva this weekend it would be easy since most people would also be shomer. Little did I know how wrong I was. None of my room mates for the weekend set an alarm, so Friday night I decided to set an alarm on my phone. When I looked at my phone I had a text from my room mate in Jerusalem saying that the emergency sirens had just gone off in Jerusalem. This was shocking news, because we never expected missiles to be shot at Jerusalem. I decided that in the interest of my peace of mind I would put aside being shomer Shabbos for the weekend to keep up with the goings on in Israel. Everything was fine in Jerusalem; the missiles landed south of the city in an open field, and no one was hurt.

 In the end, the biggest news was something we couldn’t find out from the internet. We knew that the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) had approved the IDF to call in 75,000 soldiers from reserve. We also knew that about 15,000 soldiers were actually called to immediate service. What we didn’t find out until after Shabbat was that one of our staff members, Roni, was called back to service. He left late Friday night to go back to his military base. Hopefully regardless of what happens he will remain safe. If a ground operation began in Gaza, the soldiers currently enlisted in the army would probably go in, and reserves like Roni would replace them in their daily jobs. There is no guarantee of this, however, so please keep Roni and all the other soldiers in your thoughts and prayers.

A lot of people are wondering what will happen next with Gaza. At this point, the general feeling is that there will be some type of ground invasion. Obviously no one knows anything for sure, but that’s what people are predicting. As to what this actually means, if there is a ground invasion things will probably get a lot worse. The more Israel pushes Hamas into a corner, the more they are going to try and prove they are still strong. This could include more missiles in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas. As for my safety, Nativ has given us very specific instructions what to do in case of a siren, and I still feel perfectly safe here. It has been a nerve racking weekend, but all is still well. 

Two For One (Weeks 9 and 10)

Wow. It’s been a crazy two weeks on Nativ.  I have been really bad at keeping up with my blog the past few weeks, but I’m going to try and do better this coming week. As for the last two weeks they’re a little blurry, but I’ll try to recount to details as best I can, but I’ll probably only hit the highlights.

Week 1 (Oct. 28-Nov. 3)

Sunday night (October 28) was the first night of JET (Jewish Educators Training). I wasn’t sure if I would like the program, because I’ve already worked in a synagogue religious school, so I wasn’t sure how much the course would help me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The class was amazing, and touched on exactly what I feel like I never knew when working at Northern Hills; how to keep kids engaged, when they’re learning things they might not care about in a setting they may not want to be in. I’m really excited to continue learning in the course. Of course, with all this talk of education I’m reconsidering what I want to do with my life again. I’m realizing that this is going to be a one of a few struggles I’ll be dealing with throughout the year.

Monday morning we started a new parek (chapter) of Kidushin, and the new material is more interesting to me. We are starting to get into marriage laws, which will be much more interesting then the laws of slavery we were discussing previously.

By far, however, Monday night was the highlight of my week. Nativ went to the MASA opening event. MASA is program that helps find funding for young adults to come to Israel. The opening event consisted of an Idan Raichel concert. It was absolutely amazing. I didn’t have high hopes, since I don’t know any of his songs. Regardless, the concert was amazing.  He is such a passionate performer, especially when he is singing about his Judaism. Only in Israel would I be able to see an Israeli artist, and have everyone in the room be as excited as I am. I don’t think I have smiled or laughed as much as I did tonight. At the concert I also ran into Debbie Karmel, a member of my synagogue who recently made aliyah. It was great to finally run into her, and hopefully I’ll be seeing her again soon.

The rest of the week was pretty boring, just going about my usual routine. For Shabbos Angela, Adiva, and I went to Tracy’s. It was such a relaxing and inspiring Shabbat. Angela, Tracy, and I had a heartfelt debate about the benefits and hardships of being Shomer Shabbos. She inspired me to return to being Shomer Shabbos for my time in Israel, and worry about what to do in America when I get home.

Week 2 (Nov. 4-10)

This week was another fairly average week. I’ve been getting homesick lately, so a major highlight of the week was skyping with two of my best friends Shannon and Jess. We used oovoo, so all of us were able to talk at once and it was absolutely amazing.

I also spent a lot of time this week trying to make my winter break plans. Angela and I originally wanted to go to Greece, but because it’s not the safest place right now we’re looking into a cruise. It’s very frustrating, however, because not very many cruises leave from Israel, and we’re having trouble finding schedules for the ones that do. Hopefully we’ll be able to work something out, otherwise we will make other plans.

This Shabbat was one of my favorites so far on Nativ. I stayed on base in Jerusalem, and just enjoyed the company of other Nativers. I talked to a few people that I don’t usually talk to, and learned how to play Jungle Speed. It was a very chill but very fun Shabbat.

Overall, it has been an uneventful but relaxing two weeks. Sorry again for the lack of details, and I’ll try to keep up with my blog more in the next few weeks.