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.