14 days

I can’t believe that this is one of my last blog posts while being in Israel. Our Jewish History teacher gave us a question to write about/think about as we head towards the end of our trip. He said: What role, if any do you want Israel to play in your life when you go home?

This question is kind of hard to answer! I obviously want it to be a HUGE part of my life but in reality I know that eventually Israel’s presence in my life will start to fade away. Some things that I would like to do in order to keep Israel in my life is: 1- NFTY! I am the new RCVP for my region and with that I hold the responsibility of bringing not just religion to NEL but also culture. (AKA ISRAEL!) 2- by keeping up with Israeli news and maybe even blogging about some interesting things I find out. 3- by keeping in touch with my EIE fam.  The last one you might say won’t keep Israel in my life, but I think it will. Being able to talk to my EIE fam about our time in Israel and sharing stories, will keep Israel in my life.

I think that the hardest part about leaving is going to be the fact that Israeli culture is just so much simpler and greater then American culture. Here everything is so straightforward and they care about life and living! Rather then material items or who’s popular right now. Another funky part about being home is that I won’t be living on my own anymore hahaha. And I also won’t be able to just like take a casual nap in between classes. Or like being able to walk right from my room to my best friends room. Or be living with my best friends! AHHHHHH its just gonna be very hard to adjust but its okay because I’m going straight to camp. Oops.

Back to Israel, I am most looking forward to being able to share Israel and my Israel experience with NEL. Being able to share the beauty and amazingness of Israel with others, especially Jewish teens, is something that I believe to be very important.  There is so much propaganda around Israel and I want people to know what’s real! I truly hope I can get this all accomplished. But I need your help! Spread the word on what’s really happening with Israel, not lies spread by anti-israel people. (which I can of course help you with.) But first this website is really good for Israeli news if you want to check it out- www.timesofisrael.com or a more left wing website www.haaretz.com

 

See you all in 14 days!

-Hannah

 

Ester Rada/Yom Ha’atzmaot/Yom Ha’zekaron

Shalom! I wanted to share with you about an up and coming artist named Ester Rada. The 29 year old from Kiryat Arba, recently became quite popular in Israel. Her style is a mix between Soul, Ethio-Jazz and Groove.  Rada grew up in a highly religious Jewish family. Her Ethiopian roots make her extremely unique. Her first EP was released, called Life Happens, in the beginning of 2013. I haven’t heard all of it but from what I heard its definitely funky, in a good way! She is also married to the singer Gili Yalu, who is the singer of Zvuloon Dub System, an Israeli reggae band. If you want to check her out, here is her website! http://www.esterrada.com/

Recently, if some of you didn’t know, was Yom Ha’atzmaot and Yom Ha’zekaron. Two of the biggest holidays in Israel. Yom Ha’zekaron is like memorial day in the states, but to a much higher level. Yom Ha’zekaron is a day to remember all of the lost soldiers both in battle and in acts of terrorism. I had never felt connected to this day until I witnessed it on a national level. Every single person in Israel has either lost a friend or family member or has a friend who has lost a family member or friend. Arev Yom Ha’zekaron (night before) we went into Jerusalem, to the kotel for a huge ceremony.

Then the next day was Yom Ha’atzmaot (Monday night to Tuesday). We wrapped up Yom Ha’zekaron and began the Yom Ha’atzmaot festivities!!!! We started with Israeli dancing with the members of the kibbutz which was SO SO fun then we went to Ben Yehuda street with basically every teen in Israeli. It was insane!!! We had a huge dance party in the middle of Ben Yehuda street!! The next day, the actual day of Yom Ha’atzmaot, we went to a beach and did Yom Sport (basically maccabiah) It was so fun, and the Israelis that were on the beach definitely got into alongside with us. (even though we didn’t let them play haha)

 

Hope you all are doing well, See you soon!!

Hannah

 

 

Kobi Oz/Teapacks

Shalom!

So I wanted to show you guys a brief little video from a really awesome concert we went to. We saw a man named Kobi Oz. He is a famous israeli artist, who comes from Tunisian descent. His band (during the 90’s) was called Teapacks! They were formed in 1988 in southern israel, in a city called Sderot. As a band, they wrote music that was influenced by there each individual cultures. As a group they had tunisian, morrocan, romanian, syrian, polish, russian, and yemenite cultures. There music is traditional israeli music, with a modern pop and mizrahi (eastern/arab style) influence. They were extremely popular here in israel and I thought it was pretty cool how we got to see him.

Here is a video of one of his most famous songs! Its called I Have A Girlfriend/יש לי חברה

And here is the official youtube link if you want to hear the whole song.

 

Shabbat Shalom! See you in 27 Days

Sabras and the 6 Day War

Shalom Chaverim!

I wanted to share with you all a term that is commonly used in Israel. Some of you will have probably heard this before but every time I hear it, I think its funny. Furthermore, a native israel is called a Sabra, (sabra being the fruit that grows on a cactus). Israel’s are called this because they are hard and rough on the outside but incredibly sweet on the inside. Just thought you all would like that.

Now on to some Israeli History. In June of 1967, Israel went to war with not just one country but 4.. AT THE SAME TIME! AND WON! How crazy is that. The Israeli army found long and hard against the egyptian, jordanian, syrian, and iraqi armies. Today we went to ammunition hill, which was really awesome.. for two reasons. 1- ammunition hill was a fortified Jordanian military post in the northern part of Jordanian-occupied East Jerusalem. We went through trenches ran around like we were actually infiltrating which was kinda stupid but funny. 2- it is the place where every person close jerusalem goes when they are being drafted to the israeli army. While we were there we saw a group of about 25-30 girls who were about to leave for basic training. It was so crazy to think that, that could be me in a year if I were a teenager in israel.

Well I am extremely tired, but tomorrow we are going to an israeli concert with the URJ board! Its going to be amazing. I will write a blog on it tomorrow night.

Lila Tov,

Hannah

Culture

Shalom chaverim!

 

I wanted to show everyone some Israeli culture stuff. Starting with some music. My madrechim and Jewish history teacher made a really great playlist for us.

HERE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx6nHdIBXfZqJX6xw-AOVhlevDIWaf1J_

And here are some other songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UAnc7lqJjM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_gFnDyi2Ho

I highly recommend listing to it. The thing I really like about Israeli music, especially older music, is that they are all about beautiful things. While we were in Poland, during one of our ceremonies, a couple of my friends and I sang a beautiful song called Arim Roshi. Arim Roshi means I will raise my head. The jist of the song can be summarized by the chords; I will raise my head, I’ll lift my eyes to the mountains in the distance and my voice will be heard as a scream, as a prayer of a human and my heart will call out. “Where will my help come from” The words are beautiful and in Hebrew are even more melodic.

Here is Arim Roshi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OphlJ7KY_U8

The next I want to talk about it an author named Etgar Keret. He is an Israeli author but he’s stories are translated into English and are amazing. He has a sort of dark humor (as most Israelis do haha) but its not just humorous. His stories are extremely weird yet engaging. When we were recently in Tel Aviv, I went to a book store and bought one of his books, after reading some stories from a different book for Jewish history. I haven’t had time to read the stories yet but I will let yall know when I do. Oh I think I forgot to mention, he writes books filled with short stories. Here are the names of some of his books; The Nimrod Flipout (book I have), Missing Kissinger, The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be G-D (book we read in class).

 

Lastly, Roman and Elaine are in the holy land!!! WOOHOO! How exciting! I can’t see them until Sunday because tomorrow I am going to meet the Israeli Staff for camp!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t be more excited!

 

Good Shabbos everyone!

Hannah

 

Oh ps I didn’t realize that my O’Ryan was actually Orion haha but if anyone was wondering that’s what I meant. (aka thanks dad  for the correction)

O’Ryan

I just came back from the experience of a lifetime. I was recently on a trip called Yam L’Yam (which means sea to sea). We hiked from the Kinneret to the Mediterranean Sea. Our first day we went on a water hike, which was really fun. Then we went on the LONG hike of the trip, which was around 6-7 miles. It took all day and was super hot and was um all up hill which was insane. The third day we did a half day hike because it was Friday, and then the fourth day we went on another water hike. Sadly, on the 5th day I didn’t participate because it was biking. Anddd likeee I don’t do bikes haha.

I think the most amazing part of the trip was when our tour guide, Guy, took us on a solo hike. It had just gotten dark outside and we walked back up the path, away from our camp site.  We all got in a line and one by one we were dropped off somewhere on the path. I lost track of time, but I think I must have been sitting/laying there on the path for about 30 mins. I was nervous at first, and started to become full of fear with every sound I heard around me. I looked up to the sky and say O’Ryans belt. Then I thought to myself, everywhere you go, you can see O’Ryans belt. And my fear went away and everything around me seemed to be at peace. Being able to recognize something when you are completely alone in the wilderness is an extremely comfortable feeling.  I guess I never realized before but every time the stars are out, I always look up at the sky and look for O’Ryans belt.

Upcoming Trip!

Shalom Chaverim!

I have a really awesome upcoming 13 days. Tomorrow we are going up to the kinneret for a Zionism tiyul! Then friday we go to Tel Aviv for another tiyul. Then its shabbbbbbat and we are going to be staying at a hostel in Jerusalem. Then sunday is ACT day ew ew ew. so not excited for the ACT. Then its MY BIRTHDAY WOOT WOOT! and Pesach! I am staying with a family friend of ours for seder (monday and tuesday) and then wednesday we go on a 4 day hiking trip called Yam L’Yam (which means sea to sea) We will be hiking from the kinneret to the mediterranean sea!!! It’s going to be amazing. SO much teva!! (nature) After that we are staying at a conservative kibbutz for the end of pesach. Its going to be a craaaaazy 2 weeks. and then after that it’ll be almost time for my grandparents to get here! I am so excited for everything coming up. I won’t have any internet for the next 2 weeks but I will blog a lot once I come home.

Hope everyone has a good Pesach!

-Hannah

Tecochen

As promised in my last blog, I would like to elaborate on the city of Tecochen. Tecochen was and is a small rural city in Poland. Before the Holocaust, Tecochen was majority Jewish. Tecochen, as my jewish history teacher puts it, is just like the town portrayed in Fiddler on the Roof. There was a shul, kosher butcher, and yeshiva; all things you would see in a jewish town. This all changed when the Nazi’s came and slaughtered the entire Jewish population of Tecochen. The reason why we visited this city is because its a great example of how the Holocaust impacted such thriving jewish communities.

Life. Tecochen as a city is small and tight knit. The community was exactly that, a community. We went into their beit kinnest (shul/temple) and saw the life that was their. The walls of the temple were covered in prayers. I thought this was really cool because, as aaron explained to us, they didn’t have prayer books back then, they either memorized the prayers or had them written down somewhere (ie the walls). I went around and tried to see if I could recognize some of the prayers and I could! Which was neat. We then had a tefillah services and reincarnated the city of Tecochen! It was awesome.

Death. We then went directly from our amazing tefillah and song session to the place that the entire community was killed. They purposefully did this because they wanted us to get a feel of what its like to go from living your daily live and doing fun things to being taken over by the Nazi’s and having your life flipped upside down. The took us into the forest and read us a first hand account of what had happened their. After we talked about the significance of the area we were in, we went to the mass graves. Its crazy to think that a once thriving community could be only represented by a shul, which is now a museum, and 3 mass graves. To think that in a matter of days an entire community and society could just be wiped out is a weird concept to think about. Its hard to grasp that concept and I think that by going to Tecochen and seeing the life and death aspect really show the impact the Nazi’s made on small communities all over poland and the rest of Europe.

Big Picture

My last two blog were more of the emotional aspect of my trip/experience. Now I want to focus on the big picture. The big picture as in how to educate people and how to ensure that this horrid event never happens again.

Going on this journey didn’t really change my mind or views on the Holocaust but it did give me a first hand experience on how the Holocaust still impacts us today. The entire jewish community of Poland was wiped out by the Holocaust and will never be the same. Going from city to city and seeing only the reminisce of shuls and jewish life really makes you aware of the impact. Seeing this makes me want to educate people even more then they already are. Ways that I think we can do this is by giving them examples of towns before and after the war, showing them the remains of the camps, and encouraging them to go visit.

The most impactful thing we did, besides visiting the camps, was visiting the shetle of Tecochen. My next blog post will go into much much more detail about this experience. By going to this town we could learn about what Jewish life was before the Holocaust. On the way to Tecochen we watched Fiddler on the Roof, which is the perfect example of what a thriving Jewish community looked like before the Holocaust. After watching that movie and then going to the town of Tecochen and seeing not one jewish person and barely anything  jewish, it opens your eyes to the complete destruction of the jewish people in Poland. By showing and telling the younger and future generations about towns like Tecochen, we can show the impact that the Holocaust made on the jewish people.

Another way to educate people on the Holocaust is by showing them what stood and still stands of the concentration camps; both extermination and labor camps. I don’t think that people understand how large and incredible these camps were and are. I definitely did not realize how large they were until visiting them and this really gave me a bigger sense of the number 6 million. Whenever we (as students) learn about the holocaust we don’t ever see past the Auschwitz 1 entrance, unless we actually go there in person. I feel that it is extremely important to show students and everyone for that matter, how vast these camps are in order to attempt to fully understand the number 6 million.

In my opinion the only way to complete the education process is by visiting the country of Poland, and Germany, to see the camps in person. I believe that every jewish person should visit the camps at some point in there life time. Its an experience that I will never be able to effectively put into words. I do feel like a changed person after seeing them for my own eyes and I don’t think you can truly say you kind of understand what happened during the Holocaust without seeing it (no one will EVER understand what happened and why it happened). With that said, going to see these sites in person helps you to comprehend a little bit of what went on. I know I keep repeating myself but its just so hard to explain in words the impact it has made on me and the impact it will keep making on other people. But the only way for that to happen is by visiting it for yourself.

Thus, I believe that in order to properly educate people on the Holocaust, we must teach and show them the camps and show them different before and after stories of jewish towns in Poland. These things are all very simple things that we can do to educate Jews and non-Jews, we just have to take the initiative and start educating!!!

Another thing I want to talk about is what is currently happening in the city of Krakow, because its unfair for me to say that the Holocaust completely destroyed the jewish community in Poland. Currently in Krakow and Warsaw there are JCC’s, which to me is unbelievable and awesome because like the JCC rocks. Seeing the Krakow JCC was something that was very shocking to me, especially because the women who talked to us wasn’t in fact Jewish but was a native polish christian who studied the Judaism, who know works for the JCC and has worked there for the past 6 years (I think thats what she said). The JCC Krakow is currently doing so many amazing things, like they have there own student youth group, senior group, and are working on so many amazing new programs. These new programs will not only try to attract the Jews in Krakow but will also try to inform the city of Krakow about Judaism.

Hope everyone has a good week, please comment with any questions you may have!

-Hannah

Auschwitz 1 and 2

Here is the journal entry from Auschwitz

Auschwitz-Birkenau

This place is disgustingly huge. I feel so sick walking through here. It’s so hard to be in the place where millions of Jews were slaughtered and tortured. As we first arrived, a group of Israeli teens came in behind us. There presence made me feel so protected and comforted. Seeing them walk in with numerous flags gave me such a sense of home.

This place never ends. Everytime I think we reach the back, we just keep walking. There’s so much destroyed. Yet there’s still so much here.

We get to the place were the nazi’s threw the ashes of the majority of the people murdered at auschwitz birkanu. I couldn’t help but cry. Knowing that so many people didn’t have a property burial or tombstone or grave. That they were just thrown away like garage into a pond. Something that I did notice is that there is a rose resting along the edge on the pond. It comforts me to know that people come here. And that even know all these people will never have the grave they deserve, they will always have people visiting them, paying there respects. I sat down by a tree staring at the pond for a solid 10 mins. Just thinking about what these people could have become. Once it was time for us to continue on. I stood up and said Kaddish. Then we began to walk to hell.

2000 bodies could be killed in a gas chamber a day. That’s the size of my school times 4.

73643

We were walking through the place were people were showered shaved and tattooed. I look up at the wall and see Sosnoweic written on it. The place where my family was from.

I just cannot fathom how this could go on for so long. And how people still managed to stay some what hopeful throughout.

I decided to light my candle in front of the gas chamber in Birkenau, in honor of my great uncle Chaim. And in honor of the rest of my family that died here. It’s weird because being at this place makes me think how lucky I am to know my zadie and how important he is to not just me but to all the Jewish people. I’m extremely lucky to hear his story. Told by him. And I’m very sad to think that generations after me might not be so lucky to have a Holocaust survivor tell them there story.

I hate it here. I just want to go back to Israel. I’ve never been more proud to be Jewish. I’ve been walking around with a giant Israeli flag wrapped around me. I never want to take it off.

We next had our ceremony then went to Auschwitz 1. I’ve never wanted to go home more. I’m counting down the hours until we go back to Israel. Auschwitz 1 is more of a museum. We have a tour guide. She speaks in monotone and barely shows emotion. I couldn’t image having her job. I just don’t want to be upset anymore. I’ve never been so emotionally drained.