Being Me

Yes... I am still here.

2011-05-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hey all... so I know it has been over a month and a half since I last wrote.... so here I am. We are just one month out from being done with Shnat... and still as busy and enjoying it as much as ever. So what has Ethan been doing exactly... one may ask... and that is why I am writing once again. So...

Jerusalem Journeys, one of my electives has been great. Every wednesday afternoon, a intimate group joins Haggai, the director of our Machon on some off the beaten path sites, hidden treasures, and beautiful hikes in and around Jerusalem. They are definately a highlight of the week... as the afternoon is very relaxing, interesting, and every tour ends with an ice cream run before we head back home! Some of the places we have visited are: the Ethiopian church right near Mea Shearim, which is a beautiful Ethiooian Orthodox Church just off one of the main streets in Jerusalem, in which one can step into and feel they are in a completely different country, if not a completely different world. We also visited the house of and learned in depth about HaRav Kook, one of the great Zionist and Jewish thinkers of history.

Beautiful doorway near Rav Kook's house

The almighty Rav Kook

Shaun, a South African friend, trying to be Rav Kook

At the Ethiopian church (unfortunately no pics from inside)

On a separate a JJ (Jerusalem Journey), we hiked to Tel Tzuba, right next to Kibbutz tzuba, where NFTY's EIE High School Program takes place. Tel Tzuba is "the site of an ancient Jewish settlement.. and in 1170, a Crusader fortress, Belmont, was built there to guard the route to Jerusalem. Belmont was conquered by Saladin in 1191. The adjacent Arab village of Suba was the scene of fierce fighting during the 1948 War of Independence due to its strategic location overlooking the road to Jerusalem."

Haggai, our guide

Rob, an Australian friend in JJ's

Really cool house in Suba, the Arab Village where we ended our hike

In JJ's, we also had a tour of Mount Scopus, home to the world famous Hebrew University, and visited the beautiful Jerusalem War Cemetery, home to the graves of British soldiers who fell in World War I. Each stone contains the unit insignia, soldier's name, age and date of death. We also visited the Museum on the Seam, a very edgy museum displaying lots of politically influenced pop-art. The museum, for the second time, challenged my opinions and gave me new energy to strive to understand not just both, but all, sides of the Israel/Palestinian conflict fostered in this region but which affects the whole world.

View of East Jerusalem from the Museum on the Seam

Beautiful half burnt tree near the cemetery

Incredible view from Mt. Scopus

On our most recent Jerusalem journey, we toured around our own neighborhood, Talpiyot. Seeing as we live here for 4 months it makes sense to know a bit about the exact land that we live on. Where we live, in Kiriyat Moriah, is actually just over the Green line, what was, pre-1967 {i.e. Six Day War, an-Naksah (The Setback in Arabic)}, territory of Jordan. Especially with the current public intercourse between Israeli PM Netanyahu and US President Obama, it is a treat seeeing first hand how any land swaps could personally affect people, even gap year students from abroad. We were also shocked to learn that the apartment blocks right next to our campus was, at one point, an airport servicing Jerusalem. We ended the day at Ramat Rachel, now a kibbutz on the outskirts of Jerusalem, gazing upon the beauty of Jerusalem landscapes and examining in amazement how close we live to the West Bank and even Jordan.

Unfortunately what many of the original houses in the area look like... run down. But surprisingly, someone lives here

Used to be an airport

What happens when JJ's takes over a playground

Jordan in the distance from Ramat Rachel

We have also had many Yommei Yisrael (Israel Days) where we learn about a different aspect of Israel as we meet and hear from speakers from Israeli society and take trips to visit different places which cause Israel to function the way it does. On our day of Israeli culture, we visited Beit Avi Chai, a cultural center who "addresses major issues and fields of thought and creativity in Jewish and Israeli society. Beit Avi Chai seeks to collect and publicize the various facets of Israeli-Jewish society, provide them a forum, and let them influence Israeli society and culture." We met with the director of Beit Avi Chai and learned how they work with foreigners and Israelis alike in order to help them understand and integrate more with the Israeli culture. Through movies, stage productions, classes, and arts workshops, Beit Avi Chai places its participants into Israeli culture and leads them on a path to better cultural integration in and out of the State of Israel. We finished the day with a session at the Cinemateque- a famous Jerusalem movie theatre, which often hosts special festivals as well as international films. During our special private screening, we learned a history of Israeli movies. Starting pre-1948, we watched portions of 12 different films made in Israel throughout its history and examined how Israeli cultural as a reality and in films, has changed thorughout the years. It was a very special treat to learn lecture style in a movie theatre in between screenings of movies from Israel's largest film archive.

historical epic which interweaves the story of the first wave of Jewish European migration to Palestine, at the end of the 19th century, with an unusual love story between Fania, a young Russian immigrant, and Yechiel, a native Jew. It was a great chance to learn a bit more about Israeli movie making and how much the history of Israel plays into what is shown on the big screen here.

My Passover (Pesach) break was great and relaxing. Seder on a Moshav near Netanya with family friends was really interesting. I was challenged at reading the whole Seder in Hebrew and even some Aramaic, but the company was really nice. The days after were also great, as I saw some of the beauty of the Emek Heffer region of Moshavim (lots of villages, originally meant for farming communities to develop the land of Israel). I also spent lots of time in Tzur Hadassa seeing how it is to keep Passover when everything, from bread to cookies are made for Passover. I also really enjoyed spending lots of time in nature as we enjoyed the beautiful weather over Passover break. I ended my Pesach break in Kfar Saba, doing lots more relaxing, a bit of seeing the country, and hanging out in the area. The break was very refreshing and enjoyable, and I hope to be able to spend Pesach in Israel sometime again in the future

Tehila and Yedidia, with whom I had lots of fun over Pesach

The Alexander Stream, leads to the Mediterranean

And has huge turtles in it

Sunset in Kfar Saba

We have had some great experiences on many different Yom Yisrael tour days. We learned all about social challenges in Israel, as we met with a representative from a group who provides "Ethical Kashrut" certificates to lots of businesses around Israel. The whole idea is to provide places where handicapped people can dine, relax, and shop, without having to deal with daily struggles as a result of their handicap. With the same organization, I chose to take a handicapped tour of Emek Refaim, one of the main shopping and dining streets in Jerusalem. As we made our way up and down the street, we experienced what it is like to get around, in stores, on busses, and at banks, as if we were in wheelchairs, blind, deaf, with crutches, or a combination of the four. It was incredible to experience what this is acutally like and to observe people around you.

For Yom Hashoah, we had a Yom Yisrael all about the Holocaust. We met with some survivors, learned the role of survivors in Israeli society and in Jewish youth education, and ended the day by watching a movie about modern day anti-semitism. Focusing much on the US, it was very scary to see the reality of Neo-Naziism and how similar it is to what actually happened in the holocaust. Even though we often use the phrase "never again" when talking about the holocaust, nowadays, we let much pass right before our eyes without fighting for change.

The day of Yom Hashoah was incredible. Starting with standing out on a main street during the 2 minute siren for rememberence, we were shocked at how politicized the event is, as we watched many drivers, especially Arab cab drivers, continue to drive among the siren, during which everyone is meant to stand still and silent. We continued the day with a Machon ceremony and finished the day with a youth movement ceremony with people from all different youth movements all around Israel. It was amazing to see how so many youth came together from totally different political and religious backgrounds to remember one of the worst tragedies to the Jewish people in history.

When the siren goes off... some get out of their cars

Some stand at street corners

She broke out into tears

At the Youth Movement Ceremony

Even Tzipi Livni, a big Israeli politician, spoke

Ending the ceremony with lighting of memorial flames

We had a really interesting Yom Yisrael over the Green line. We started by visiting a settlement in the Gush Etziyon region of the West Bank. It was interesting and quite frustrating to see how many people move to settlements just for ideological regions, even though they may often be at risk in terms of safety. Nonetheless, we also met with many people who made the situation sound very attractive, because there are also many cases where Jewish Settlements get along with Arab villages who they neighbor. For the second part of the day, we went to possibly the most conflicted city, Hebron. In Hebron, there is a very strong history for the Jewish people, and there is a very strong and large Arab presence. We visited some of the histoical sites and met with students in a Yeshiva in the Jewish sector of Hebron. It was very sad to see the state of the few Jews who live in Hebron. The city looks like a war zone, with no commercial life whatsoever and with armed soldiers at every corner and with guns pointed from every rooftop to the ground and towards the fences that border the Arab sectors. The quality of life is horrible for both groups there, and it was really depressing to see how sad the conditions people choose to live in really are.

For Yom Hazikaron, Israel's national memorial day, we attended two different ceremonies. On the evening before, we went to a MASA sponsored ceremony, for gap year participants, which was mostly based on immigrants from our own home countries who made aliyah and unfortunately passed away while serving in the Israeli army. The day of, we attended the national ceremony at Har Herzl, the National millitary cemetery. The cemetery was packed, with people and flowers and every single grave. As we joined in the ceremony and the silence during the rememberence siren, almost everyone was brought to tears. The power that masses like that have, when all standing in silence for the same reason, is huge. We all left shocked and many with new thoughts about Israel, its society, its security, and its army. It was one of the most impacting experiences, and difficult to deal with, that I have had this year on Shnat.

Lowering of the flag

Flowers for the graves at Har Herzl

Hundreds of memorial candles

At the Navy Memorial, flowers floated upon a pool of water

The eveining after memorial day, Israel celebrates Yom Haatzmaut, Independence day. For this, I went back up to Emek Heffer, where I celebrated as we watched a community production, very similar to celebrations of the founders of the state. Almost everyone in the community got involved... from dances, to entertainment, to anything else you can think of, it was loads of fun. There was lots of Israeli folk dance, many of which I knew thanks to GUCI, and ended the night with a great fireworks display. The day of Yom Haatzmaut, I traveled to a Moshav near Kfar Saba with some friends from Australia to parttake in the ISraeli tradition of a celebratory BBQ. We ate tons of good food, relaxed in the pool, and had a great Yom Haatzmaut. We each ate enough to last us through a few days when we didn't have to eat the well below average food at Machon.

All in good fun for celebration of Israel's independence

Relaxing after stuffing ourselves at the BBQ

I'm really sorry... but for the rest of the post there will not be any photos because my computer is messed up. As soon as I (hopefully) fix it, I will post some pictures... because they help show my writing a lot more than just words.

Last week, we all headed up North for our last big tiyul (trip with hikes). We started bright and early sunday morning, and I will explain the tiyul day by day:

Sunday: Volunteering in Carmel mountains (where the big forest fire was) by cleaning up and clearing brush in strategic areas so as to prevent future fires.
Druze hospitality and learning in Osafia, one of the biggest tourist Druze villages in the Haifa region. The food was, as it always is, delicious.
Hike around the Carmel mountains, very close to the fire region.

Monday: Water hike near Mt. Meron and Tzfat.
Tour and free time in Tzfat. I ran into a gap year group from Karmiel with a friend from Charlotte)

Tuesday: Roller coaster down a mountain in the North
Swimming and Ice Skating at the Canada Center in Metula
Visit to Lebanon Lookout point (really cool, learned about politics of living on a border kibbutz)

Wednesday: Big waterfall water hike- rappelling included... down the waterfall!

Thursday: Syria lookout point
Galita chocolate factory -yes we made ourselves sick from eating too much during our chocolate making (more eating than making) workshop
Visit the the Sea of Gallilee (Kinneret)

Thats all for now! Look out soon (not another two months) for a post about this past week and about the (almost) end of Shnat!

Until next time- Ethan

What's Been Going On?

2011-04-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

I am back. Hello. Here we go:

So in short, the rest of BFL was great. Some of the highlights were a day at Neot Kdumim, a biblical nature reserve, where we had a chance to herd sheep and learn about the outdoor practices of biblical times. I really enjoyed my class in Campus Entrepreneurship, where we learned about starting up non-profits on campus and beyond... and we also had a great musical performance by Matt Bar, who performs with Bible Raps, in which he tells biblical stories through rap. Its very entertaining, and he is a very talented and funny person. We ended the week with a very nice, but also a bit cheesy graduation ceremony in which we were all handed diplomas for our leadership training.

Director of MASA at the Opening Ceremonies

Our group building guide at Neot Kdumim- this was when we were taking shelter from the rain... in a snake house

Our new friends before we herded them

And after

Matt Bar : Bible Raps

Assistant/ Story Teller

After BFL, we had a closed Machon shabbat, during which we participated in group services, had a great Shabbat dinner with host families, and relaxed around Jerusalem together. It was a great weekend, with an afternoon full of Frisbee, and it was good to have a large amount of time just to relax with the Machon group.

The following week was a normal week, only to be followed by Purim. In Israel, Purim goes on for days. The streets are full of costumes, parties, and celebration for the Feast/ Festival of Esther. As a Machon group, we heard the Megilla read aloud, and on the eve of Purim, we walked around a lower class neighborhood of Jerusalem and handed out Mishloach Manot, or gift baskets, to allow people to celebrate Purim. The day of Purim was full of parties and street festivals, where children all over were shooting firecrackers into large crowds, which was quite scary. I also made a visit to the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim to see the craziness and wild ruckus going on to celebrate Purim.

The group before touring Mea Shearim on Purim

Entrance to the neighborhood

Oh yeah... we're in Mea Shearim

Part of the Purim Parade

In the center of town... so many people dressed up

I hope they were dressed up as crazy people for purim... at one point they were talking to the dog

Entertainment everywhere

At the end of the week, I attended a MASA cultural evening with a lecture by Israeli Short-Story Author Etgar Keret, who was very interesting and showed us a short film made of one of his stories. The event finished with a concert by Muki, a famous Israeli musician, who sings in lots of different genres, and gave a great concert. I spent a relaxing weekend after the concert with Ori in Tel Aviv. We ate some great Hummus in Yafo, and relaxed a lot. It is always great to be at his house, and every time I am there, I feel I am part of the family.

This past week consisted of a week long trip into the south. On Sunday, we visited Nitzan, where many Gaza settlers were placed after the disengagement. We met with some people, and heard their personal stories from the disengagement, and saw their current living situations. Unfortunately, because the issue is so politicized, many people have not moved out of their temporary government housing. Whether this is because they are trying to make a political statement or because of financial setbacks, it is very sad to see the conditions they are living in, especially when many tell of their past lives before the disengagement. Afterwards, we visited Sderot, the main border city with Gaza, and learned all about life on the violent border. We visited the police station, where every missile/ rocket which had landed from Gaza is taken. It was very strong to see so many missiles and see first hand the reality of the lives of people who live in Sderot. We also visited a park and a school, where everything is made to protect children from missiles. In the park, the play structures double as bomb shelters, as do many classrooms in the school. The city had developed to become a secure place where life can go on, even when being attacked by missiles from Gaza.

Police station in Sderot

Every bus station doubles as a bomb shelter

A spent grad missile up close

Ketushas, Qassams, and Grad Missiles- all which have fallen on Sderot in recent years

The playground, where the fish is also a bomb shelter

The sign on the fish, telling people "When the siren sounds 'Color Red' take protection behind the orange line (which is inside the fish)"

Bomb Shelters all through the school yard. When the siren sounds, you have a maximum of 15 seconds to take cover

Monday consisted of a beautiful hike at Nachal Peras, a camel ride, and an evening of Bedouin hospitality. We learned about the Bedouin culture, drank Arabic coffee and Bedouin tea (yum!) and had an incredible Bedouin dinner. We also had a chance to hear some Bedouin folk tales and music, which were beautiful. Before bedtime, we had a movement workshop and dance performance, which was very cool. We learned to work together in movement, and to express ourselves through relaxation.

You can see some of our trail at the bottom right side

Josh catching up the the group

The group was given a task to make the shape of a Star of David

At first, they had little success

We could see more once everyone sat down

Our sunset desert camel ride

Our camel guide

My first class ride

Sad to see us go

Tuesday, we hiked Ein Ovdat, which is right below Sde Boker, where David Ben Gurion is buried. The hike, which wove along a stream and waterfall, was beautiful, and though a bit challenging, lots of fun. At night, we camped out with a bonfire in the Eilat mountains. Our campsite was beautiful as we looked out at the surrounding mountains. Wednesday was a huge hike at Mt. Amir and its surrounding, with some extra off the beaten path climbing and activities along the way. The group, which a few hours in shrunk dramatically because a lack of water (don't worry, we rerouted to a road for the bus to pick up, they weren't stranded) was great, and we had lots of fun and joking while hiking the beautiful trails and eating at our memorable lunch break. The break was at the peak of a mountain, and because everyone was so tired, anything anybody said was really funny. We had a great hour long laugh/eat/drink delicious tea session, and then finished the hike. In the evening, we relaxed at our hotel in Eilat around the pool for a bit, then enjoyed an evening on a disco party boat out in the Red Sea Gulf of Eilat. Afterwards, we all went back to the hotel for an incredible night of sleep after lots of hiking and camping.

Ibex at Sde Boker

Beautiful Ein Ovdat

We had to climb a lot

But it was worth it

My hiking group in the distance

A machon staff member excited for the big climb ahead

Yeah... that is what we went up

The Ramon crater viewpoint

We took turns on the highest point at the viewpoint. Some rested.

I celebrated

Our campsite at night

Our long hike started just after sunrise

A nice water break

Challenging, but fun, and always with an incredible view

We got to climb in these chimneys a little and up the mountain behind it. We weren't supposed to... but it was really fun!

Much of the mountains are sandstone, which forms amazing shapes when faced with water.

The group after we dropped some

Our hike guide and Machon educator building a tower for a mid hike game/challenge

Just towards the end of the hike

Thursday morning brought even more fun as we enjoyed a morning on the beach. We had water sports such as Banana Boating, Ocean Kayaking, and Paddle Boating, as well as an effort to throw a Frisbee while in the ocean. I was brought back to water polo days as I tried to tread water and throw a Frisbee, at which we were very unsuccessful. After the morning on the water, we cleaned up and headed back to Jerusalem. We were all pooped and had an early night followed by a sleep in. Friday evening, I had a great Shabbat meal and evening with the Perlman/ Bruders from St. Louis. We talked a lot, especially about Machon (which Rabbi Perlman also participated in) and enjoyed a great meal together. It was a perfect ending to a great week of adventure around Southern Israel.

One last quick comment: Which the Bruders came a great care package from home with some delicious homemade cookies (thanks Mom!) and a box of girl scout cookies. I am worried about the radical changes going on back in the US while I am abroad, because my box of Samoas are now called Caramel DeLites- there are blasphemous changes going on that I am not sure I am okay with. I have yet to try them, but if there are any changes to the cookie itself, I am going to have big problems with the Girl Scouts of America Association. That is all.

Shabbat Shalom. Miss you all. I'm out!

MASA Building Future Leaders Conference

2011-03-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hey Readers- I'm back with somethin' new!

So I am writing from the 2011 Building Future Leadership Conference organized by MASA in Jerusalem. So, you may ask what is this conference with a crazy name and what is this strange name MASA. I'll start with MASA, which is an organization heavily funded by the Israeli government who organizes, sponsors, and markets lots of long term study programs in Israel. So, my program, Shnat Netzer, along with hundreds of other post high school, semester abroad, and post undergraduate programs is a MASA Recognized program. In addition to working with the programs directly, and giving substantial scholarships to long term students in Israel, they host a number of events throughout the year to bring together what is called the "MASA Community." These events are things such as concerts, lectures, etc, and their flagship event, the Building Future Leadership Conference (BFL).

BFL is a one week conference for gap-year and post undergraduate participants on MASA programs. There are almost 500 hand selected participants who have come together for a week of learning through experience, lectures, and lots of other stuff. I am only at the end of the 2nd day, but we have already had a packed schedule.We started the first day with opening ceremonies including a speech from the CEO of MASA, which became the first of many times we have heard about being the "leaders of tomorrow" and the "keys to the future of Jewish programs in Israel." We also had a session titled ""The 5 Legged Table- Jewish Identity in the 21st Century" which was a great lecture by the dynamic speaker Avraham Infeld. We heard about Jewish leadership throughout history and were challenged on the ideas of who were actual leaders: the Jewish heroes we all know about, or those who worked behind the scenes. The rest of the afternoon consisted of getting to know our main activity and discussion groups and then some time to prepare for our evening gala.

We had a very nice gala dinner at which we heard from one of Prime Minister Netanyahu's top advisors who has been crucial in the transformation and development of Masa from the side of the Israeli Government. We also learned about an incredible organization, Nu (if you never look at another link of mine, look at this one), who creates T-shirts for a cause like you've never seen before. Their t-shirts, from the front, look like any other well designed graphic tee, but on the inside, close to the heart, is printed the story behind the artwork. Even more, each shirt supports a cause directly related to the story on the inside of the shirt. After a presentation from the company, we were presented with the shirts for the BFL event. On the shirt is a butterfly made of words connected to Israel, leadership, and the youth, and on the inside is a story about leadership that goes something like this:

In a small village, there was a little girl, and a wise man. The girl decided one day to try to fool the wise man, so she caught a butterfly, and headed to the man's house. She planned to ask the man if the butterfly in her hands was dead or alive, and depending on the man's answer, she would either let the beautiful butterfly go free, or crush it in her hands. She arrived to the old man, and proposed her puzzle. As if without thinking, the wise man answered, "Little girl, there is no answer, for the power is in your own hands. You have to decide whether to do good or to do bad"

This story relates to leadership because each one of us has the power to decide. To decide how to lead, what to lead, and where to go with our leadership. At the end of the night, we were all touched by the story and happy to have such a cool new (or should I say NU) shirt.

This morning, we started at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial site and museum. As always, the museum was touching and heavy, but this time, we toured it from a leaders perspective. As we walked, we discussed how leaders, whether bad or good, had an impact on the Holocaust and what different styles of leadership did to the end results. In the afternoon, I attended a workshop on Campus Entrepreneurship, my first of 3 sessions on the topic, which covers how to create new and build already existing organizations for Jews, in support of Israel, or anything else, as we move to universities all around the world next year. Using some "cutting edge tools" and techniques, we began our preparation to be future leaders in college.

In the evening, we had a program in the style of "open space" programming put on by ROI which is " a global community of young Jewish leaders... [whose] objective is to cultivate a prestigious international network of young Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s who are at the forefront of local, global and virtual initiatives that offer innovative and diverse paths for connecting to Jewish life. Very simply stated, it is a form of free anarchy in a program. We began the program by writing any topic we desired on paper on the wall and assigning it to a different letter or number. We then had two different rotations where we were allowed to freely attend any of the topic discussions at different points around the hall. Although I, as were many others, were skeptical at first about how this would work with 500 people, it turned out to be very cool. According to the "Rule of 2 Feet", at any point that we did not feel comfortable or useful in a discussion, or anytime we felt like moving, we were allowed to move to a new topic. This allowed us each to cover many topics, and although people were constantly moving, discussions continued as each new person"Who is a Jew, and who decides", "Social Workers' Strike in Israel", "Racism", and even "Judaism and Black Magic," where we made comparisons of the two beliefs and traditions, and made a huge list of some serious and some funny compare/contrast points between the two. If I can get my hands on the list, I will post it sometime soon.

I ended the night with a forum on opportunities with Masa Israel in North America in the future. There are lots of opportunities to get involved in different Jewish and non Jewish communities I have been part of in the past and will be part of in the future, so I am already excited, but keeping my options open for the future.

We have another 4 days of packed leadership programs, so its off to bed for now, but I will definitely post about the rest of the conference sometime soon. Take care, and think about that butterfly next time you make a leadership decision.

I'm out. Ethan.

p.s. sorry about no pictures this time. I'll try to get some from the conference for next time.

Talkin' Bout A Revolution

2011-03-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

Shalom and Happy March. I know it has been almost a month since I last wrote, but there have been some big transitions since I last wrote, and so its been crazy busy. As the title implies, there's lots of change and craziness in the region, so I figured I would keep with the trends. But all joking aside, everything in Israel is fine, actually great. Its interesting being so close to lots of revolutions, but the feel of society and culture hasn't changed a bit. Every once and a while, a bit more than usual, there are heightened security risks because of political unrest in the region, but we are all still very safe as is Israel and all the people in it.

So, what have I been up to? Well, I moved to Jerusalem, and I have begun the part of the program called Machon L'madrechei Chutz l'Aretz or for English speakers, Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad. It is a educational program where the Netzer participants join with about 60 participants from other movements and join in learning and experiences that will make us better Jewish leaders when we go back home. We have lots of classes, but I will get to specifics later. The first few days of Machon, we had an introductory and bonding trip, with some hikes, lots of outdoor group building activities and numerous opportunities to get to know each other. The camping trip was in the Northern Arava, so it was fun to be back in the region where we spent our first month (on Kibbutz Yahel). The first day, we had a long hike with lots of group building. We had a beautiful view of Ein Bokek and the Dead Sea most of the day, and it was lots of fun getting to know some new friends. On Machon, we are broken up into homeroom style groups, which are our core groups. Most of the bonding trip was spent with them so we could know each other. The second day of the trip, we hiked part of Ein Gedi, called Nachal Arugot, which was beautiful. It is a harder and longer hike than the classing Ein Gedi hike, but lots of fun, and ends with beautiful waterfalls and big pools we swam in. After the hike, we went to the beach of the Dead Sea for BBQ lunch and bonding games. We got close as we were challenged with some fairly difficult tasks. Although, some of the tasks that I have run while working the Migdal at GUCI, so we had a bit of an edge sometimes. While completing the tasks, we got a glimpse of a desert sandstorm, which have been frequent because the lack of rain. It was strange but made the sun look so cool.

When we got back from the trip, we had a free evening, then started on our real orientation week. We learned how Machon works, about classes, policies, and all that fun stuff. For the free weekend, I trekked down to Beer Sheva to spend some time with Cousin/Aunt Terri and some Israelis from Camp Sabra (in the US). It was lots of fun to relax for the weekend, and as soon as I got back on Sunday, classes were rolling.

So for my schedule. Each day is packed with classes, besides some free evenings and some special afternoon activities some days. Here are my classes:

Hadracha: This is a leadership class. I chose the technique track, where we learn a lot of the really nitty-gritty stuff about Jewish Youth leadership. It's a great class, and my teacher, who is the director of Machon, is incredible. We use tons of visual aids and models to learn, and I leave every class so satisfied.

Hebrew: I am in my highest Hebrew class thus far. For those of you who know Ulpan levels, I am in Kita ב+. This is a huge step up from my last class, and although it is a challenge, I am excited to greatly improve my Hebrew.

Israel Update- Politics: This is our modern Israel class, and I am in the political track. We learn lots about the current political system and events, and other world events that relate to Israeli politics. For example, this week we talked about the revolutions around the Middle East and the current J-Street (a left wing Pro-Israel PAC in the US) conference. The growth of J-Street will impact US/Israel relations, so we are all excited to see what happens.

Israeli Society through Music: We look at lots of Israeli and Diaspora music as we discover more about Israeli society. We are currently looking at music from the 70's in Israel and the US. It's cool to see that although the situations in each country were very different at the time, lots of the music matched up in style and intention.

Story of the Jewish People-The Jewish Bookshelf: We study texts, from the Torah to modern day books, as we examine, in depth, the history of Judaism and its followers.

Zionism/ Israel: Pretty self explanatory, right now we are learning about the roots of Zionism, and we will get to modern/different types of Zionism by the end.

In Depth Focus- Zionism: We go more into the challenges and questions throughout the development of Zionism.

In addition to all these classes, every Wednesday, I have a class/elective on Israel Activism. We plan and partake in social action for the betterment of Israeli society, and learn lots about political activism in Israel. It is a great new perspective on activism and I can't wait to get involved in some big projects. Also, every Thursday afternoon is called Yom Israel, where we take trips out and learn about Judaism, Israel and Zionism as we tour some off the beaten path sites. This past week's trip was an intro to Israel and Zionism in the field, and it was very interesting as we visited a layered archaeological site that represents many different socities who lived in this land. It was beautiful, and succeeded by a tour of the old border with Jordan and some history of the Old City. Unfortunately, my camera died, so I don't really have pictures of anything we saw, except a few landscapes.

We have lots more going on every week, such as encounters with different groups of teens from Israeli society, Sunday selections, where we get an opportunity to learn, usually through something with the arts, and evening programs or Beit Midrashim- really cool and personal study sessions with some great educators. The week is packed, but we have amazing classes and teachers, and are constantly having fun and learning new ideas, so we stay motivated to keep going.

As Machon goes on, I will get more in depth with all of my classes and activities, but for now, its just a sampling.

Two more things I want to talk about.

Last Saturday, I attended a rally in the center of Jerusalem against racism. Although it was all in Hebrew, when I tried, I found I could really understand what was going on. It was really cool, with estimates of 1200-1500 attendees, all from youth movements in and out of Israel. Although it was anti-racism, it was run by a very left wing Israeli movement, so it turned to be pro Reform, Secular, Ethiopian, Russian, and Arab in Israel. It was a great experience to take part in a political rally in Israel. As can be seen in the pictures, there were all different groups there. A big one was called שלום עכשיו (Peace Now). It was joined by a few different political parties, such as מרצ (Meretz, a left wing, Zionist, social democratic party), and עבודה (Avodah, the Israeli Labor Party). There were some great speakers and musicians, and it was lots of fun.

And last but definitely not least, I had a great Saturday with a whole group from St. Louis, including my Cousin/Aunt Terri again. We all toured around the old city in the Arab market, had lots of good food, visited cool sites and lookout points, and did some good shopping. It was fun being back in the market and seeing some merchants and friends again. One in specific, a Jeweler named Yosef, who thanks to my mom, knows the whole family, was really happy to see me again. When I walked into his shop, he gave me a great big hug, and told me that he was busy so to show the people I was with around the really cool store. It was lots of fun, and he and his brothers who run the store made me feel so welcome, and now I can't wait to go back. It was a great St. Louis/ Arab Market filled day, and a great end to the intro to Machon.

I am now well into the program, and loving it all. I will continue to write about Machon and other stories, so be on the lookout. This upcoming week, I have a special leadership conference, which I am really excited for, so I will try to update sometime during the week. Hope all is well back home, and keep in touch. That's all folks!

-Ethan

Hug Sameach

2011-02-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

-----The title of this post is a joke. It is hug a Jew day, so I decided to crack myself up by using my joke way too many times. On happy occasions, you say Chag Sameach, so its a little play on words. I know, I'm dumb. You don't have to say it.-----

Well the time has come. I am leaving Karmiel tomorrow afternoon. Its been a great 3 months, with an awesome last two weeks. Here's what I did.

Work with Host Dad-
I went to work with my host dad... he is a salesman for imported American baby formula in Arab villages all around the north of Israel. It was really cool to meet lots of arabs in the real world, unlike our usual staged meetings. We were treated everywhere we went with lots of hospitality and friendliness. Everyone I met was very excited to have a chance to practice their English, and only one decided to talk to me about the importance of learning about Palestine. It was a bit of an awkward moment when I heard Palestine, but we had a nice conversation nonetheless. I had lots of fun travelling around the north all day and seeing lots of villages and cities. We got to talk a lot, about his work and other things, and by the end of the day we were very tired.

A typical Arab Village House. They start with one level. And as the family grows (children get married) more floors are built and each couple gets a floor.

Cool view while driving.

Afula, one of the Jewish cities that Amir also works in.

More Afula, some grafitti I liked

A Arab village castle. The house in the center was HUGE!

Paratrooper Ceremony-
Two weekends ago, I went to Jerusalem for a ceremony for a friend of mine from GUCI, Sam Kahn. He made aliyah and was having a ceremony to recieve his gun along with the rest of the new Paratrooper Recruits. It was an incredible ceremony at the kotel with tons of people. We were very proud of him, and after the ceremony we celebrated with some delicious food.

Paratrooper Flags with Israeli Flags

His Legal Name in Israel is now Shmuel, so we made a sign

Sam is always serious.

His unit.

Were so proud.

Ori and other people from GUCI came to support, and sport some new winter fashions.

Tsur Hadassa -
After the ceremony, I spent the rest of the weekend with family friends in Tzur Hadassa, a community right outside of Jerusalem. It was an incredible relaxing weekend. Great shabbat dinner with some of their friends, lots of fun with their two kids, Tehila and Yedidia, and a trip to visit some beautiful mosaics. We were very lucky to see the newly uncovered mosaics, because since then, they have been covered up again to protect the beauty. We also all made our way to Jerusalem saturday night for a Debbie Friedman memorial concert. The concert and havdallah were moving and I ran into tons of people I knew, including my next door neighbor from St. Louis, lots of GUCI friends, and Emily (Bruder) Pearlman, a longtime family friend. The evening was a nice end to a great, busy weekend!

Absolutely beautiful nature reserve where we saw the mosaics

A 360 Stop Motion View of the Surroundings when we saw the mosaics

Yedidia was a trooper all day!

The mosaics- well some of them

And some ruins. Its amazing how perfect the columns are.

Wild fennel.

Tehila and a friend in amazement of the horse walking by.

Last Day in Majd El Krum-
This past week we had our last day at the Arab Elementary school. It was a great day of teaching 6th graders about emotions. We had lots of fun activities with them including face painting. After teaching, the staff at the school thanked us for our work with some delicious falafel all around. Although stressful at times, I was really happy to get to work in the Arab school, because we got to see something that many people don't have the chance to. I now understand more in depth how the arab villages work, and through friendly conversation with some of the teachers, I understand more of why the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is so hard to overcome. The things I learn during this volunteering opportunity will stay with me for life.

Trip to Akko-
For our last wednesday trip, we spent the day in Akko. We had a great guide who taught us a lot of history. We visited a Mosque, a Bathhouse, a Prison where Hagana members were held and some killed before and during the war of Independence. We spent lots of time in the market, ate delicious hummus, saw the beautiful coast, and ended the day meeting with participants of a leadership gap year for Israelis. They are doing lots of things just like us, and we had a chance to meet and talk with them about why we are all doing what we are doing. It was great to meet a group of Israeli teens just like us!

We had a beautiful day.

Inside the Al Jazeer mosque... just one man praying.

I was ready to jump in.

Finishing High School Tutoring-
Today I finished my time at the high school, but the second to last time was really the peak. Our main teacher was sick for the day, so all of a sudden two of us were in charge of a class. We had to give practice english assignments, take role, and it was a crazy situation to be in. Being just one year out of school ourselves, and after the assigned work was done and there was an hour and a half left, we made a decision. We didn't tell the students to leave, but we didn't tell them they had to stay. So eventually all the kids left and we were able to go home early. Don't worry, the teacher was okay with our decision, which just goes to show how much more relaxed the schools in Israel are.

Nazareth-
6 of us took a day trip on Friday to Nazareth. It's a huge tourist town, and so we decided to take a look for ourselves. It is the biggest Arab city in Israel, with a mostly Christian population, and so we had lots of fun visiting churches, the market, mosques, a synagogue, and lots of other holy sites. The biggest, and most beautiful church was the Church of The Annunciation, where Mary was told she would be the mother of Jesus. It was raining all day, so at one point we took a break in a very cool, partially off the beaten path coffee shop. We were the only people there, but as you can see in the pictures, it was a great escape from the rain and reminded Ben and I a little of Dahab, from our trip to Egypt.

The beautiful, yet dreary, view that I woke up to

Nazareth

There are beautiful mosaic works all around the Church of The Annunciation

This piece was given by the United States

Some friendly linen salesmen

Our Rainy Day Escape/ Coffee House

Just one part of an amazing spice mill and shop in Nazareth. It's famous.

A bit like Christmas in July, there was a Ramadan sale in February. Ramadan was in the fall.

Last Saturday With Host Family-
I spent one last official day with my host family, although I plan on coming back to visit. After a little shoe shopping trip with the girls, we had a huge lunch and spent the afternoon talking and watching movies. We had lots of fun, and it was great to leave knowing that I always have a place in Karmiel.

Final Dinners-
Saturday night, we treated Galit to dinner out a a Italian restaurant in Karmiel. It was a nice evening with great food.
Sunday night, we had a banquet dinner with all the people who have made our time in Karmiel so special. It was lots of fun to honor everyone, especially Galit, who has done everything for us over the past three months. We had a chance to say goodbye to all of our families and friends from Karmiel, but with promises of meeting again sometime soon.

So here I am. Sitting in an empty room wrapping up the time in Karmiel. It has been awesome, but I think I am ready to move on. I already miss the city and people who I have become so close with in such a short time, but I know I will return. Tomorrow we pack the bus for Jerusalem, where we will have two seminars.
1. End of Options Seminar- all three options will return to Jerusalem and meet up once again to find closure on the first half of the program. We are all excited to see each other as one group once again, but also excited for...
2. Yachad (Together) Seminar- we will meet the southern hemisphere participants from Australia and S. Africa. We will be spending the rest of our program with them, so we are very excited to welcome new additions to our group.

I will probably not update until I am settled into Machon in a week and a half, so be on the lookout.

Miss you all back home!
-Ethan

Post Number 24

2011-01-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Folks,

I hope you enjoyed reading about McFalafel. I promise I will try it soon, although it has not been getting good reviews. Back to the beginning of 2011, right after chofesh (break).

So I returned to Karmiel, and started on another great week. It was good to get back to volunteering, and all of the kids at our volunteer places were very happy to see us again. For our Wednesday trip, we learned all about Aliyah (Immigration to Israel), first meeting with a group of really nice Ethiopian teenage boys who's families had made aliyah. It was shocking to learn how much they try to rid themselves of their previous lives, including culture. Nobody tries to speak their native language, they learn to cook and eat Israeli food, and they almost never travel back to visit their homes. The Ethiopian aliyah to Israel is a really incredible thing that they do not at all take for granted, and it was really great to learn about it first hand through dialogue with the teens. After, we visited an army base that has a big program for new immigrants or teens who don't have strong Jewish Identities and want to. The program, which is optional, serves as a cultural immersion program and counts as a portion of the compulsory army time. It is a very neat program that does a lot to make Israeli society more welcoming and open. We met with some participants in the program who told us all about their stories and their experiences in the program. They also all told us we should make aliyah... which many of us brushed off our shoulders easily, after all, we are very accustomed to people telling us this. While at the base, we were interviewed by a reporter for the English IDF Press, about our program, about our time in Israel, and our possible interests in Aliyah. Who knows... maybe I will be on the IDF website soon! We also met with some adults who had made Aliyah from the US and England and we talked with them about their stories and challenges. It was very nice to get a chance to learn about aliyah without feeling like we were being brainwashed into making aliyah ourselves.

I spent the weekend in Karmiel, having a chance to spend some more time in the city, seeing more of the parks and areas I hadn't yet seen. The following week was also normal, at least at the beginning. One afternoon when I was tutoring, not many kids showed up so I had a chance to one-on-one tutor which was a totally different experience. I really felt like I was helping the kid with English grammar and writing, whereas we usually are only able to read and talk. It was very rewarding to see how I was actually having an effect!

Our Wednesday trip was all about the Northern Border of Israel, and so we started with a visit to Mt. Hermon, which was the location of a crucial victory in the Yom Kippur War. Being the tallest mountain in Isrrael, and one of the only places that gets snow, it is now a beautiful ski resort. We arrived and took a ski lift to the very top, enjoyed some tea, learned about the history, and played in the snow a bit. After a while, we were so cold so we made the descent and headed to our next destination on the day's tour. We met with Ishai Efroni, one of the deputy commanders in the North during the Second Lebanon War. He took us on a tour of the Northern Border, stopping at the point where Goldwasser and Regev, two Israel soldiers who were killed in the war, were kidnapped. We learned about the presence of Hezbollah near the Lebanese border with Israel. We were intrigued to see the war front up close and personal, and it made the situation, although not so violent now, very clear to us. After the tour, we visited the hospital in Naharriya to learn about its incredible, full functionality, underground hospital. Being the closest hospital to the border with Lebanon, its bomb sheltered underground facilities were the first in Israel, paving the way towards government funding for underground care facilities in times of war.

Mt. Hermon

It was so beautiful... especially with the morning sun!

Nobody was skiing, but some were sledding

Forced smiles... we were actually freezing!

1st Snowman of the Winter!

There is also an army base at Mt. Hermon, and there was a soldier with his incredibly cute puppies standing near all the tanks.

He used his scarf (part of the uniform) to keep the black lab warm.

The point where the bodies of Goldwasser and Regev were taken during the Second Lebanon War, there is now a little memorial in place.

The border with Lebanon. There are Hezbollah bases to the left and right in the picture.

The underground hospital, used only in times of war.

One of the most amazing sunsets I've seen on the way back to Karmiel from Nahariyah.

The day after, Thursday, I headed to Jerusalem with 3 others for the Annual Netzer Veida (Conference). I was one of two NFTY representatives as we met with representatives from 13 other countries around the world for a week of "Education, Experience and Policy Making for Netzer Olami." It was a great chance to network and learn from peers just like me but from around the world. We all left with great new ideas to bring back to youth movements and camps, as well as some new decisions for Netzer. To my great happiness, we decided to throw out the vegetarianism policy of Netzer Olami, making it much easier to get a protein fix on Shnat (its not that big of a deal, we just used to make it seem to be). We also voted on and passed a proposal to pair one region of NFTY with a different snif (branch) of Netzer to create a better relationship between NFTY and Netzer. Rio (the other NFTY Rep) and I are very excited to have pushed for this proposal and bring it back to NFTY. I loved meeting lots of people from all around the world and seeing two friends from Netzer Russia who I met at GUCI this past summer. We all left the Veida very tired but feeling successful after a great week!

The Design on our Veida T-shirts

Upon return to Karmiel, we had a closed weekend, so we spent lots of time with the group in the house having fun with different programs, song sessions, and meals together. We also had a great Tu Bishvat Seder as part of Friday night Shabbat services at the local Reform community. While there, we also proudly presented a English siddur (prayerbook) that many of the Kamiel Shnatties had helped make beautiful. We spent lots of great time with our host families, eating way too much and just hanging out. Although its only been a bit over 2 months, I really feel comfortable with my host family, and I love that we all joke around a lot when I am with them. As Amir, my host Dad likes to say, I fit in perfectly with them at the crazy house! We finished the weekend with some bowling with our host family siblings. All 30ish of us had lots of fun and a bit of friendly competition as we finished the weekend off with a roll! (pun intended)

After Bowling

So here we are, just over two weeks left in Karmiel. It is getting a bit sad, after all, we really feel at home in Karmiel, and this means our year is half way over. Nonetheless, we are very excited for a change of pace as we move to Jerusalem. We have a busy few weeks coming up, so stay in touch and I will hopefully find time to write a bit, and definitely post some pictures!

I hope all is well wherever you all are reading this from, and Happy Tu Bishvat!

I'm Out~
Ethan

A Post About McDonalds

2011-01-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

So as many of you probably know, there are quite a few McDonalds in Israel. Some Kosher, some not, some in busy locations, some in rural highways. But now, every McDonalds in Israel has one thing that ties them togehter. As of the past week or so, you can now get FALAFEL at any Israel McDonalds. I recently saw the add for this, and it is a crazy idea, and very strange to thing about the decision of Big Mac vs. Falafel Sandwich, but I also thought about something else.

In an age where everything is becoming identical, all countries are westernizing, it is a very nice idea to put commonly found foods in a specific countries McDonalds. It represents a difference in the cultures, countries, and more importantly the people who consume its food. I think it is a very nice idea that a place such as McDonalds, which so easily binds the food industry of one country to the next, is making strides toward localization, toward building back the identity of culture in an individual country. While it is nice that each country is becomming more developed, what comes with that is a loss of individuality and culture. So despite all the negativity that is often associated with The McDonalds corporation, I commend them for this move, because it is working towards better things, and I just get a kick out of the fact that McDonalds has Falafel.

As for the food itself, I dont really like McDonalds, and even less in Israel. But I am going to have to try the McFalafel, after all, I am living in the McMiddle East and it only makes sense to experience every opportunity that comes my way. I will let you all know what the verdict is.

Some Good Pictures of McFalafel McDonald's Israel

The Bennett's Take on Israel- Part Deaux

2011-01-21T15:35:00.000-08:00

Hey There Old Friend,

It's me again, Ethan. So its been a few weeks since this happened, but I will now talk about the time in Jerusalem over break with my family.

It was really great to arrive into Jerusalem, especially since I hadn't been there since orientation seminar the very first week of my gap year. We arrived, checked into the hotel, and decided to go out for a bit. We walked around a lot, did a bit of shopping, and then got to bed early. The following morning, we woke up early to make a day trip to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. While we were initially worried about some rain, we got to Ein Gedi and Michelle, Abby, and I were able to hang out in the freezing cold, yet really fun beautiful pools and waterfalls at Ein Gedi. We hiked a bit, saw lots of animals, and relaxed some. We even ran into a boy with a St. Louis Cardinals hat, who turned out to be from Yokneam, St Louis' Sister City, explaining why he had the hat. After, we headed down the road to get some lunch and take a dip in the Dead Sea. Right as we arrived, the sun peaked out and we had great weather from there on. We all got covered in mud, including hair for Abby and me. We started walking to the water, when we realized it was much further than 3 years ago. The water level is so rapidly decreasing that you can see the difference from year to year. So we had a dip, washed off the mud, and relaxed in the healing waters, despite the stinging pain anywhere we had a little cut. After spending some time being healed, we made our way back up the the showers, with a dip in an ICE COLD pool for Michelle and myself, cleaned up and headed out. We couldn't have visited the region without a stop at the Ahava Lotions factory, but then we actually headed back to Jerusalem.

So we got back to Jerusalem, cleaned up, and got another early bedtime. The next morning, we visited an incredible museum, called the Museum on the Seam. It is in a building that used to be a British Police house on the borders of Israel and Jordan, but inside it is a very modern art museum. Containing some really edgy yet thought provoking modern art, we happily spent a few hours there. After, we made a necessary visit the Machane Yehuda food market on Friday afternoon right before it closed for Shabbat. We picked up some delicious Halva at the Halva Kingdom and some other food for New Years, grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel.

At this point, my family proved to be much smarter than me. On the walk home, it started to drizzle a bit, so we talked about getting cabs. Since 4 people could fit in one cab, I told them to go ahead and I would walk... after all, it was just a drizzle. Right as their cab door closed, the heavens broke open with torrential downpour. I immediately got soaked, and as I continued to run towards the hotel, my clothes got heavier and heavier. I soon gave in and took a shared taxi a bit down to road to the hotel, and magically had arrived at the room and changed into dry clothes before the rest of the family even arrived. We rested a while, cleaned up for Shabbat, and made our way to Tzur Hadassa, right outside of Jerusalem, to spend Shabbat and New Years Eve with some family friends. We had a great evening, and were planning on making it back to the hotel to spend New Years with the family, but unfortunately due to bad weather, we spent midnight in taxis travelling back home. Nonetheless, when we got there we celebrated a bit with each other, ate more food, and then hit the sack to get some rest.

We spent Saturday in the Arab market in Jerusalem. Its very fun to shop, observe, and wander around, and this time I had a very incredible experience:

A few years when I was in Israel for a whole summer, and I became acquaintances with a t-shirt salesman in the Arab market. We talked a bit, I came and saw him a few times, and he even offered me a job being security in his shop. So that was that. I remembered the meeting, but I was quite shocked when three years later, as I walked past his shop again, and we made eye contact, he said "Ethan?". I was stunned, and also very happy. We talked some more, he told me that he now has 3 shops, with spices, shirts, and other gifts. It was very exciting to talk to him again, he gave me his phone number, and once again offered me a job. Not that I am going to work for him, but it is very exciting that we both still remembered each other and I hope to talk with him more and get to know him a bit better.

The rest of the time in Jerusalem was busy and lots of fun, filled with walking on top of the walls of the old city, more sightseeing, shopping, eating, seeing people we knew, and relaxing. It was really great to be with the family and spend time in Jerusalem, and it was very sad on Sunday when I had to say goodbye. I took a bus, train, and taxi in order to get back to Karmiel, but I eventually arrived and prepared myself for work the next day. It was a great week or so with the family over break, but it was time to get back to work. Theres lots more to come, including a special week in Jerusalem, so be on the lookout!

Here's some pictures!

This is the first in my series of pictures of interesting people, see more below!

The Bennett Girls

After I took this, he said "Thank You"

He looks like a spy in a movie to me!

The Bennett's Take on Israel

2011-01-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Hey There Old Friends, It's Me Again!

So on to the family visiting. For my chofesh (break), I got to spend a week travelling around Israel with my family. It was really great to see them, and I loved visiting some places I haven't been before. So their visit went like this. They arrived on Christmas day, which was also Shabbat, so I made my way to Tel Aviv on Friday morning and spent the Christmas eve and morning with Ori Luzia, who I worked with at GUCI this past summer, and now we're good friends, and his family. They have become my family in Tel Aviv for the year, so it is always great to go spend some time there, and even better this time because I was able to get some sleep before meeting my real family at the airport. So Saturday afternoon I made my way to the airport to greet my family.

-A word about the greeting hall at Ben Gurion airport... there is a beautiful welcome hall for the international terminal, named Terminal 2000, where many Israeli families and friends wait for arrivals of their family and friends. There is also a line that is clearly marked "do not cross" which everybody crosses in order to welcome people 5 seconds earlier than they would otherwise. So there is a running joke how its such a "pushy, typical Israeli" thing to do to disregard the rule of not crossing, and as I eagerly awaited the arrival of my family, I found it to be a very interesting thing. So I thought about it, and then, my family walked through the doors and as if there was no line to hold people back, I joined the crowds and made my way forward to welcome them. After the fact, I realized that it was really funny, because in the moment, there is no line at all, and it becomes the norm, almost a tradition, to just go... because after all, we are all taught not to procrastinate and always to do things as soon as we can.

So we headed toward the center of Tel Aviv, and because it was Shabbat, our rooms obviously were not ready, so we enjoyed some delicious dinner in Jaffa, a walk in Tel Aviv, and a beautiful evening on the coast.

Jaffa (Yafo) at Sunset

Michelle at Sunset

After a great evening, we returned to our hotel, began to get situated in our rooms, and some of us got very comfortable. (she may kill me... sorry Michelle)

We spent a few days in Tel Aviv. We had some more time in Yafo, shopping in the gypsy market, meeting some really cool artists, and enjoying the scenery. We also we blessed with beautiful weather, which Abby, Michelle, and I took advantage of with a day at the beach. I should note that this is the first time I have swam in the Mediterranean since coming to Israel this year. We also took a little trip to Holon, which is near Tel Aviv and went to a really cool design museum. Holon has a famous design institute and recently built a very cool design museum. The building itself is incredible, with lots of different colors and shapes. The architect actually used no paint or dyes on the metal that it was built with, but instead used natural oils that are meant to take new colors as they age. This will all be clearer with pictures below. The exhibit at the museum was also very cool, and we enjoyed the trip very much. While in Tel Aviv, we also had a great dinner with Ori and his family. Our families had a lot of fun really getting to know each other, and we had a great evening. As if our 3 days in Tel Aviv wasnt enough, we also met with other family friends, the Litz's, who live in Kfar Saba (I talked about them in a older post), went to the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv- Neve Tzedek, saw another art museum, and did lots of walking and shopping.

Sunset from Yafo

Tel Aviv from Yafo

"Oh the things you can see in Israel"

A really cool picture Michelle took

Very cool shoe in a personalized shoe exhibit at the Design Museum

Robots made of Dyson vacuum cleaners

The very cool building. All natural colors.

The girls

It was quite mesmerizing from almost any angle.

After Tel Aviv, we headed up north. We spent some time in Tzfat, which was really nice. We visited lots of the artists, and saw some new stuff in Tzfat, like a magnificent view from a rooftop. It was good to be back in Tzfat and actually spend time wandering the streets and observing the strange yet mystical attitude of the city. We then came to Karmiel, during which I showed the family my house, where I hang out, and all around the city. It was very exciting being a tour guide for my city, and I loved finally showing them about all the beauty of Karmiel that I often talk about. We spent the night in Haifa, which is when I was able to introduce my Karmiel host family to my real family. It was really great, and everyone really hit it off. We enjoyed lots of food (once again) and getting to know each other through more than just what I tell each families. We spent the following morning in Akko with some time in the Arab market there, where we saw a shark for sale at the fish stand!!! We also saw an incredible Tunisian synagogue that has the most beautiful tile mosaics I have ever seen. Having only seen the train station in Akko before, it was great to spend some time there and see what the city has to offer.

Baha'i Gardens

Bay of Haifa

Mom and Dad

The mosaic

In a spice shop

Yes. Shark. Nuff said.

Anybody want some creap?

After our trip to the North, we headed back down towards Jerusalem. We did tons there, so I will do one more post with everything Jerusalem, so this is all for now. Its bed time for me, so Lilah Tov (goodnight). Take care everybody! Be on the lookout for another post soon!

Shana Tova! Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of all ages,

Hello there. Its been three weeks since we last spoke, but I am actually going to do two separate posts. Two weeks of the normal program in one, and then the week of break with my family for the other.

After the week of the Chanukkah trip, and my weekend in Kfar Saba, we all returned to Karmiel for a normal week. On monday, I worked in a high school in the morning, where we are really getting to know the teachers and some students. We are enjoying it a lot. It's definitely a different experience being in a high school and being at the same level as the teachers. We do a lot of different things to help the English students, and lately, in addition to helping with their oral skills, we have been recording reading tests for a big test they will all take part in throughout the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, we had a day trip to Jerusalem for a special day with SELA, the group of Russian New Immigrant Teens. We were their guests for the day as they traveled to Jerusalem to learn about the Israeli government, tour the Kenesset, and partake in a ceremony in which they received their Israeli identity cards. Here is a picture of them once they received their ID cards:

The next day, we had our usual Wednesday trip, and the focus was diversity in the Galilee. We started the day with a meeting with the director of a youth center in Dir Al Assad, a neighboring Arab village to the West. He is an incredible person, who despite disagreement with the town's officials, has made great strides toward interaction and friendship with kids in his village and Jewish kids from Karmiel and the rest of Israel. The amount of respect that he has from kids and other youth workers is amazing. We then moved on to the East side of Karmiel to a Bedouin High School. We participated in a dialogue on life, culture, Israel, and religion with some students at the school. While in the past, most Bedouin's have lived in Shanty-Town-like communities, most now live in villages in which they are advancing to catch up to the technology of modern day. It was really interesting to chat with them, and then we got to see some of their villages. We ended the day with a visit to a Bedouin mosque where we met with the Imam. It was cool to see how the mosque plays a part in the community and how youth is not really gathered on a religious level, as it is in the United States, but instead they form groups on purely social levels.

Our educational Rabbi, Marc, giving us an intro to the day at an outlook over Karmiel

Galit, our program coordinator on the right with myself and some other Shnatties

Meeting with the Bedouins.

We did a speed dating like activity to get to know each other

The group of new friends

I began to get a bit sick, so the next few days were filled with lots of sleep, but we had a interesting hebrew class at the bus station. We were given the task of finding different information about buses in Hebrew. And so we got quite a bit of real life Hebrew practice which was good, despite the need to step way out of our comfort levels, especially since all staff at the station had been asked to refuse to respond to English.

The next week was another packed week. It was another normal week, but I started noticing that we are really getting to know the people at our volunteer locations. For those of us at Kef Li Aviv, it is really rewarding seeing how happy the children are to see us when we return each week to work and play with them for a few hours. Sunday night, we had a great program with older teens from Karmiel, some of which we had met on the trip to Eilat. We spent the evening completing group building tasks and games. I really enjoyed these, because they were similar to group building tasks that I have participated and coordinated at camp in the past, but some totally new ideas. I was taking notes as we went with hopes to reproduce some of the activities at camp in the future. We worked as one big group on some tasks and for others we split up and had some competitions. It was great to be with them again, we are becoming friends and as we get to know them more, its very fun to run into people all around town that we know.

On Monday afternoon, we had our first meeting with some Druze youth from Bet G'uan. We all immediately hit it off, and had lots of fun talking about the two cultures, learning some Druze traditions, and even getting into some personal discussions and touchy topics, despite it being the first time we all had met. We are all anxiously awaiting our next meeting with them, which will hopefully include a chance to try some Druze food, which is supposed to be amazing. The following morning, we worked in schools in Magd el Krum and Dier al Assad, our two neighboring Arab villages. Those of us who worked at the elementary school, we definitely had an experience. We were given a chance to teach the kids lots of English, all focused around animals. They enjoyed all the fun activities we planned, but even so, they were crazy. At any point throughout the day, there were at least 10 kids running wild. It was quite stressful at times, but in the end, I think we all had lots of fun.

Meeting with the Druze and talking about life.

For some cultural experiences, we taught the Druze some Israeli folk dances

Then they taught us the Druze traditional celebration dance

Presentation of Identity Posters

Wednesday consisted of a trip to Tziporri to learn a bit about the ruins found there and how the old city of Tziporri functioned. Then we moved on to Tzfat, where we were guided on a scavenger hunt through the town that allowed us to explore up and down every street. We then met with some Kabbalists who blew many of us away with the magic of Kabbalah. We ended the day with some tea, coffee, and Klezmer music. As we descended Tzfat to go back home, we had a beautiful view of sunset over the mountains. We had a great day, and many of us plan on returning to Tzfat for some more time in the artist's colony either over chofesh or further in the future.

Tzfat at sunset

Another post on the family visit over break will be soon to come!

The Big One

2010-12-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

Howdy Folks~

I have so so much to write about, so here we go.

So the first weekend in Karmiel, I had Saturday free, and so I spent some more time with my host family. After sleeping in a bit, we hopped in the car and headed North. Soon we were at Rosh Hanikra, the Northern most site on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. At Rosh Hanikra, besides its historical and geographical significance- it was the point where British troops came into modern day Israel via tracks cut through the mountain during the time of the War of Independence- it is a magnificent, beautiful, natural wonder. There are grottos that weave in and out of the mountain, and you can tour the caves to different view points of the seawater splashing into the rock. It was really cool, and gave a great view of the ocean and down the Northern coast of Israel. Here are some pictures:

My host sister (Ofri) and I standing right next to the border with Lebanon

My host family and I inside the grotto

The beautiful coast looking towards Haifa

After Rosh Hanikra, we came back to Karmiel for late lunch. It's normal in Israel, since everyone is off work for Shabbat, to have a relaxing family day on Saturdays. This also usually includes a big cooked meal late in the afternoon. We all got to the house and had a great afternoon eating tons of Cholent, which is a traditional Jewish slow cooked food. It was absolutely delicious with rice, beans, beef, chicken, and Kishke (if you dont know what it is, click on the word... its a link). It was so filling that I didn't have to eat till lunch on Sunday.

The following week was short, starting with two days of volunteering and more meetings from to end off Karmiel orientation. On Tuesday, we had an olive oil day. Because Hanukkah was soon upon us, we had a chance to learn all about oil and its history. We started by visiting some ruins of old oil presses... it is now very clear how it took 8 days to make new oil in the story of Hanukkah.

We then had a chance to get in touch with our creative side. We first made Roman Style oil lamps, which was really fun:

My final product.

Then we headed off to a new location where we actually got to partake in the oil making process. We picked olives which was very fun. It was incredible to see how many olives are on just one tree. Then we learned how the modern day presses work, then tried the oil with some fresh pita for lunch.

the pro at work

Gathering all the olives after knocking them off trees

The modern day electric press with influences from the original style

Yum... lunch. On the Menu: Fresh Pita, Tomatoes, Tahina, Labeneh, Olive Oil, Salads (not pictured)

We had a great day learning about olives and left oiled up for Hanukkah and our next adventure. On Wednesday, we met with the rest of the Netzer participants in Karmiel and volunteered at a food bank. It was great to be back with the whole group. After volunteering, we all boarded the bus for Shelomi, a town about 30 min Northwest of Karmiel. Shelomi was the home base for our 2nd Keshet Seminar. I say home base, because this time, instead of having some heated and some calmer discussions with participants from other movements around the world, we spent most of the time on trips. I signed up for the track titled "Economy, Industry, and Tourism of the North." We did some really interesting things. We started at an incredible industrial park called Tefen. This park was full of normal industrial buildings, but also home to a huge school, beautiful sculpture gardens, museums, and some non-traditional industrial park factories. We visited a soap factory started by a woman named Gamilla. She is a Druze woman who started making natural olive-oil soap out of her kitchen, and as her soaps became well known and there became world-wide demand, she moved to a larger factory at the Tefen. Nontheless, all methods are still traditional ways, using almost not machines at all. She also does great things for the community, providing a place of work for Druze teenage girls who often aren't allowed to work in the villages.She's an amazing woman who still works and makes sure each hand cut soap is perfect. We also learned about injection molding, a company called Iscar which makes hi grade cutting tools.

The Industree Model of Tefen Industrial Park

Me assembling my injection molded plastic puzzle toy.

Arkadij doing the same

The final product

The whole group with our assembled puzzles.

The time at Tefen was really interesting, but the second part of the day was even better. We moved on to the economy and tourism part, where we had a chance to learn about a winery and goat milk product factory. We had a wine and goat cheese tasting, and learned all about organic farming in the North of Israel. We finally moved on to our last site visit, which was the farm where all the goats whose cheese we had just eaten live. We arrived just in time, because only 3 hours before, 3 kids (baby goats) had been born, and we were given a chance to hold them. They were SOOO cute!

Where's Waldo? I don't know, but I spy with my little eye one goat.

3 Hours old.

More goats. Yum (well, their cheeses of course)

The rest of Keshet was great. We had some good time to catch up with the Netzer people, we had a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony with the Mayor of Shelomi, we saw a show by a great story teller, Robbie Gringras. After the few days, we were very worn out.

So for the weekend, all of the Netzer people came to Karmiel since it was so close. We had a great time, with Hanukkah Celebrations, parties in Karmiel, and lots of food. The time came though that we had to kick out our guests, because last week, the Karmiel Netzer participants had a special opportunity. Since it was Hanukkah, and all the kids were off of school, the youth clubs in Karmiel organized a youth trip to Eilat. We were able to join, and it was a blast. We had some really great hiking, although our big hike got cancelled because we were behind a group of 500 on the trail. We camped out all 3 nights, once in a Bedouin tent and the others at a campsite in tents. Wednesday morning, we got a chance to clean up the littered beaches of Eilat, which was great, because the litter, despite making the beaches gross, gets into the beautiful coral reefs. Wednesday afternoon, we visited the Casuei Sand Dunes which was mighty fun. As part of our trip, we had some fun time off in the center of town, and on the boardwalk where all the night life is. By nightlife, I partially mean Chabad Rabbi's singing and dancing aorund the town because of Hanukkah. Pictures are below. We also had a boat ride one night around the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba. It was chilly on the water, but beauiful views of coastlines in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and even Saudi Arabia. Very cool perspective. The trip was great and we made friends with lots of people from Karmiel. We all hope to keep our new friendships throughout our year in Israel and beyond.

After getting booted off a trail by 500 people, we ate.

Chabad + Hanukkah = Cherry Pickers and Menorahs

Our Hanukkah on the Beach

The group after lighting candles

Eilat at Night

Some Netzer girls

Wierd Light Bubble Belt Buckle, but good picture of me with Emily and Kyla.

Cleaning up garbage

My new friend Kfir and I. He was one of the counselors... the majority of the trip was 14-15 year olds

At the sand dunes.

Talking strategy with Elad for the one footed race down the dunes.

And there I go

Here is a series of me running up the hill. It was hard. Can't you tell?

Throwing sand into the wind yields cool results

I forced some people to spell GUCI with me. It worked... almost.

Running down was the best part

On the boat with some friends

Jordan on the Left, Saudi Arabia on the Right

Sophie and Kyla decided to take a ride on the human slingshot. I never would have.

Although they enjoyed it.

Even though they were way up in the sky.

Yay its Hanukkah! Lets dance with Chabad!

Beautiful morning sky over the Gulf of Eilat.

On the way home, we drove up a really really windy road. It was scary.

This gives a bit of perspective on the road. Wow... right?

The white blimp in the sky is the Israeli big brother. It is how intelligence supposedly gathers information.

We stopped at the colored sands. There were a ton of different colors in the hills, and we each filled a glass bottle and made natural sand art. Truly magnificent.

Well, as you can see, the trip to Eilat was very busy. So this past weekend, I got some great rest and visited family friends, the Litz's who live in Kfar Saba, a city about an hour away from Tel Aviv. It was great to see them, eat a lot of great food, and relax a ton. We spent Friday morning in Jerusalem for brunch and shopping in the Machane Yehuda food market... which is amazing on Friday mornings.Overall, I had a great last few weeks, and am always looking forward to whats ahead.

Remember if you have any questions, just post as comments! I'd love to hear from ya'll!

A Quick Word

2010-12-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Hanukkah Everybody!

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated. I have been having a great time in Karmiel... we have ended orientation and are actually volunteering and keeping busy with other things around the city. This past weekend I was on another Keshet seminar, this time I learned about Economy, Industry, and Tourism in the North. It was a great learning experience and it was great to see all the other Shnatties back together again for 5 days. We have been so busy, and this upcoming week will be even busier, since I will be traveling with the youth/ teens of Karmiel on a Hanukkah trip ending in Eilat. We will be in and around the South of Israel visiting sites, hiking, and camping quite a bit. We are all really excited!

I will write a proper update towards the end of the week/ beginning of next week with details about Karmiel, Keshet, and the trip... but for now, I wanted to say a few things about the fires in Israel.

First, I am fine and there haven't been and still aren't any threats to Karmiel from the fires. We are in the North, but we are a significant distance away from the Carmel Mountains, which is where it all started. I'm not sure how much you are hearing in the US and other places, but there was originally one fire, started by negligence in a Druze village, and because Israel is in such a drought, the dry forests easily caught fire. At one point, there were 7 forest fires around Israel, six in the North and one in the South. The cause of the fires following the first big one is yet to be determined. At this point, we are being told that all the fires are under control, thanks to great emergency work of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force), Israeli fire crews, and fire crews from around the world, including an incredible fire fighting 747 from the US. There is a lot to be done still by means of restoration. Unfortunately, a whole kibbutz, Beit Oren, and many other homes and developments have been burnt to ashes, and in total, there have been more than 50 deaths from the tragedies. We are all hoping the crews have a easy final step in ending all the craziness. To keep up with the aftermath, I suggest looking at jpost.com or haaretz.com. They are two big Israeli newspapers that I have been frequenting to stay on top of the issue.

Thats all for now... I am having a great time, and am full of Sufganyot (doughnuts) especially after our Hanukkah party tonight. Remember you can always comment on the blog or email me if you have questions!

I'm out--
Ethan

Long Time No Write

2010-11-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

Howdy All,

So you may be asking yourselves, "What has Ethan been up to in the Holy Land?" But have no fear, because I will tell you.

So, because I have a lot to talk about, I am not going into detail for some of the things. We have had two more Wednesday trips off of the kibbutz. First we went to Kibbutz Lotan (http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/), which is a Reform Kibbutz just down the road from Yahel where we learned about eco-living and were given the opportunity to help them out with some of their projects. Lotan is a really cool kibbutz who, aside from some farming and agriculture, has a whole branch of environmental work. We learned about their eco-huts made of mud, we learned how to make mud bricks and seed balls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball), which are a cool invention to cut down the waste of seeds in a region that doesn't get much rain. Karmiel was really fun and interesting, and they are definitely setting an example for how Israelis and Jews around the world should try to play their part in the world community.

Our last trip was into the Negev once again. We visited a huge crater at Mitzpe Ramon, which was really cool, but even cooler as we rappelled into it. We visited Sde Boker, where David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, is buried, had a beautiful hike, and got one last chance to soak in the beauty of Southern Israel while living there.

This past weekend, we had our Kibbutz Closing Seminar, which was exciting looking ahead, but also sad because the whole group will never be together for a long amount of time the whole year. We had lots of fun activities, educational sessions with some of the Netzer tzevet (staff), and had a lot of time to prepare for the next step of our journey through Israel. We ended the weekend with a big poike, which is a traditional Israeli cooking method on a fire. We sat around the bonfire for hours and enjoyed some relaxation before breaking off onto options.

On Sunday, we had a long drive from Yahel to Jerusalem to drop off the group of people who are going to be hiking on the nation-wide Israel Trail, and then the rest of us made our way up North to Karmiel. We were all very excited to arrive to civilization and the first night, we met our program coordinator and went over some first night things. All 15 of us are living in one house, so we had a chance to move in and get situated, and make some group decisions about responsibilities in the house.

Monday morning, we got started with orientation. So far, we have met tons of people, visited many possible volunteer locations, and had a chance to set our bearings in Karmiel. It is a beautiful city with about 52,000 residents, many of whom are Russian immigrants. We visited a place called Kfar Yeledim (Children's Village), which is an incredible village for foster children, where families live with as many as ten foster children. We also went into the neighboring Arab Village, Madj el Krum, where we will be teaching English once a week in the schools. We have learned a lot about the city of Karmiel, its surrounding areas, and our volunteer options. I am very excited to actually get to volunteering and I will write more about my choices as soon as I figure them out.

Tonight, we had a very special opportunity. We attended a final ceremony for Gadna, which is a one week sampling of the army. Many of our host families' children were participating, so we drove out to a nearby army base to watch and support. It was really cool to watch, and it was very special, especially when everybody joined the soldiers-to-be in uniform in singing of Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem. It was a moment that I think I will remember for a long time, because, speaking for the whole group I think, we really felt part of the Israeli society and our connection with the Jewish people was dropped right in front of our eyes for those few minutes. It is hard to put into words what I felt, but it was special.

Things are going great in Karmiel. I love my host family already, they are so nice and welcoming. With just one visit to their home, I already feel comfortable asking them about anything and in our first meeting, we talked about A LOT... from serious topics such as Israeli politics to simple things such as curfew for kids. They are really nice, and I look forward to fostering an even better relationship with them in the next 3 months. I also really like my house mates from Netzer. While it could easily be a zoo living in a house with 15 people, we all get along nicely and keep up our responsibilities. We appreciate how well we work together, especially after hearing horror stories of the past.

Thats it for now... as I do more here, I will go into better detail. I'll post some pictures, although more pictures of Karmiel will come in a few days.

-אתן

Learning how organic human waste is made into compost

The final result of our seed ball class

This is what went into seed balls

Seed ball directions

Making seed balls

The final result of making mud bricks

Two of the really cool mud houses on Lotan. These are where teen volunteers on their Eco Program live

Some Shnatties at Sde Boker

Mitzpe Ramon

Bus Security Guards Double as Rappelling Experts. Who Knew?

Our first group shot in Karmiel. Right before we met the Mayor

There is cool painting all over the city. This is just some windows along the street.

Fun rooftop sculpture

Monkey's are strangely human when you feed them. This one was really nice... he likes peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches. (This was at a zoo where disabled people have a chance to work... and it is one of our volunteer options)

Two kids at the Children's Village preparatory school with their teaching aid.

View of the Rabin neighborhood in Karmiel on the left with Madj el Krum off in the distance on the right.

Just the main street which we live off of.

נס גדול היה פה - A Great Miracle Happened Here

2010-11-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

You may be asking why I have used the Hanukkah saying as my title, since Hanukkah is a few weeks away...so I will explain.

Today, while working on the date bags, there were lots of clouds in the sky, which one, made for an incredible sunrise glow on the Jordanian Red Mountains, but also surprised us all. As we worked, it started to drizzle, and then actually started raining. While this may not be an actual miracle, it is very exciting because the Arava (where I am living... which is part of the Negev desert) very rarely gets rain. All of Shnat Netzer along with most everybody on the Kibbutz was very surprised by this desert phenomenon, but thankfully it didn't last long because once it stopped, we were able to keep working on the bags and FINISH!!!

The massive piles of date bags which we were given the task of folding/rolling, which we never thought we would see the bottom of, has been depleted. Everyone was so excited as we rolled the last stack of bags, and its just in time, because we only have one more day of volunteer on kibbutz. So thats it for the little check in today. I have a trip tomorrow, and we have a big surprise so we will see, and then I move up to Karmiel on Sunday... and I am very excited for that. I'll write again soon!

That's all folks!
Ethan

Egypt Pictures

2010-11-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

so the photo is horrible... but here we are at the border!

Our hotel in Dahab

The restaurant at our hotel

Just some of the coral reefs

Aren't snorkels flattering?

Our hut where we ate in Abu Galum

The Bedouins dont really care about comfort on camels... just wanted to get us there and back

The Abu Galum fisherman at sunset

Relaxing on the beach

The fish looked unreal

The sunset at our kibbutz when we got home

Trip to Egypt

2010-11-12T04:10:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I decided to travel to Egypt (Sinai specifically) with two friends from my program. We took a bus to the border on Thursday evening, and we encountered our first luck of the weekend en route. We started talking to two Israelis who were also traveling to Sinai and they offered to share a cab with us once we crossed the border. We had no idea where we were going, so we gladly accepted. After walking over the border, it was clear that we were in Egypt. The atmosphere was totally different, which was quite a shock to us. We expected another mid-east country... but in comparison to Israel, Egypt is 40 years behind. So we crossed, and our Israeli friends, one of whom spoke fluent Arabic started bargaining with the cab driver. This was our first experience with Egypt's bargaining, which we heard was much different than Israel. You can bargain for ANYTHING in Egypt, even a bottle of water in a grocery store. It's crazy. So thirty minutes cab ride and our driver, Samy, whom we became friends with, pulls into a place called Paradise. He got out of the car to say hi to all his friends and they started showing us around the place and our room. All along the Red Sea coast of Sinai there are little bungalow villages that you can rent for a few nights like a hotel. They are all pretty gross, but we didnt know that before hand.

We had heard from many people back in Israel that there are nice places so we talked with the driver and decided to continue on to a city called Dahab. We arrived and he showed us to a nice hostel and things were good. We sat down for some dinner at the hostel and talked with the manager, who was a really nice 20 year old guy who we became friends with over the weekend. He told us all about Dahab and treated us to Bedouin Tea, which is the best tea I've ever had. We talked about things to do and decided that the next morning we would get up and go an a Jeep Safari/Camel Trip/Snorkeling Trip.

Friday morning, we were awoken by our "wakeup call", a knock on the door, and after we got ready, we were greeted and started on our trip. The jeep first took us to an incredible snorkel spot called The Blue Hole, where we first sat down for a bite to eat and tea, and then we snorkeled. We were lucky to be on the jeep with two Israeli's, a father and daughter, who had been to Dahab multiple times before and showed us around to the best places. The father knew the owner of one of the beach front restaurants near Blue Hole, which became our home base for the day. It was great to meet the two Israeli's, because they took us under their wing and made the whole day much better. After snorkeling we took a camel ride to a national reserve called Abu Galum. It was supposed to be the best snorkeling/diving in Sinai, but we couldn't find any reefs. I swam along most of the waterfront and found nothing. It was quite disappointing, but we spent some time relaxing on the beach and it was nice. As part of the day's trip, we were served lunch in a Bedouin hut, and it was delicious. We had a traditional Bedouin meal with salads and rice, but also had great fish that was caught no more than 25 minutes before we were served. After eating a relaxing, my German friend Arkadij, who was born in Russia, taught us a Russian card game called Durak, which supposedly every Russian in the world knows.We played for a while, relaxed some more and it was really nice. At one point, a man who lives in Abu Galum came over, and somehow we got to the topic of camels, and we learned all the commands for camels, which came very handy on our ride back. We had a need for speed, so we yelled the commands and ran the camels past all the other groups of people on the path. It was fun to watch as 3 teens, an American, a German, and a Brit ran past them looking like camel pros. Once we got back to our restaurant at Blue Hole, we took some more time to relax and enjoy the sunset and some more Bedouin Tea. We then got the jeep ride back home to finish off a great but tiring day. After cleaning up, we decided to go out on the town. Dahab is a beautiful beach front town with restaurants and Bazaar shops all along the promenade. We did a little shopping and then went to bed.

Saturday morning, we slept in a little, and then decided to do some more snorkeling. We got a ride to a place called Three Pools, which was even better than The Blue Hole, and it was less populated. I got tons of underwater photos, which I will post on here soon. We spent the whole morning on the beach, went back to the hotel, cleaned up, had lunch and packed everything up. We were so tired after a great weekend. We got a taxi ride with our friend Samy and the two hour ride back to the border crossing felt like nothing since we all fell asleep. We crossed the border back into Israel, and we were very happy to be "home". Much of this joy may have been because it was the first time the whole weekend we were in air conditioning! A few bus rides later and we were back at Kibbutz Yahel sharing our stories with the group and hearing about everyone else's weekend adventures. It was great to be back home after an adventurous weekend!

All in all, I have come to the conclusion that Egypt, despite being a beautiful country with incredibly nice people, is crazy. It was definitely a shock to see how different two neighboring countries, Israel and Egypt, could be. The culture- society, way of life, city development, and even food, was so different, even though we were just a few hours away.

Thats all for now, pictures are soon to come!

-Ethan

Pictures from Last Week

2010-11-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

A great lookout into the Eilat mountains

We got into some interesting terrain this time. This was the easy stuff. More to come later.

At one point, Hagar, our Madrich (leader) for Kibbutz, stopped to teach us a song about all the Kibbutzim in the South Arava.

This is the crazy viewpoint from above the canyon. To the right is Egypt.

Some of us decided to be true tourists and put up the peace sign. Hooray for cheesy!

I'm really not that big...

Rio took a chance to breathe right near a cliff into the huge valley

Here is some of the rough terrain. At points going down, everyone had to hold onto a railing... there was even a point when we had to climb down a rickety ladder.

Lunch on the trail is always delicious and revitalizing.

Beautiful.

Back in Israel

2010-11-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone:

Sorry its been a while since I last updated. Here's what I've been up to. We had normal week after keshet seminar. We had a really cool session about the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) where we focused more on the cultural aspect of the army and not so much of the political conflict that often comes up on the topic of the army. In the field, the big piles of bags were finally getting to an end, and then the other workers decided to deliver huge new piles, so our work with the date bags are nowhere close to over. On last Wednesday, we took another hike in the Arava. It was a beautiful hike through the Eilat mountains... we learned about the daily life of Bedouins in the desert and made a few stops at beautiful lookout points. We spent quite some time at a cliff overlooking an incredibly massive canyon and riverbed... and the view was like nothing else. Ill post pictures later.

We had a great afternoon in Eilat and got back to Kibbutz with time to relax a bit before getting a good night's sleep. Thursday, we volunteered in the morning, and I was asked to help in the kitchen. It was a lot of fun getting to know the chefs and being able to actually cook most of the food to be served for lunch that day. We really got to know the chef, Johnny, and we learned about the Kibbutz and his story as we worked.

We all are getting into the groove of things, and daily life here feels more natural that before. The group is getting along, and we are starting to really connect with each other. Each one of us is feeling more comfortable with the community. I am really excited for the next week as we become more and more a part of the Netzer community and as we try harder to integrate with the Kibbutz community.

I will post some pictures and then share in another post what I did this last weekend!

L'hitrayot,
Ethan

First Desert Trip... cool hikes

2010-11-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Our first Wednesday trip consisted of tow hikes. First was to some crazy sand dunes where we got to play around and second was to the Red Canyon, which is right around where some historians say the real Mt. Sinai is. We had lots of fun and cannot wait to do a longer hike on our trip tomorrow!

Off into the horizon from our first stopping point on the hike.

Rachel gazing into the distance during a water break

Only 10 minutes into the hike... a bit pitiful

Our first view of the dunes.

We had some time to run around and down the dunes. Lots of fun.

Except when we fell down of course...

Shady spots are great for learning. You can see our desert hike guide in the top left talking to us about the biblical history of where we were hiking.

I saw some of the most beautiful rock formations as we hiked into the red canyon.

Here's Kyla climbing deep down into the canyon... believe it or not, I fit down there too!

It was so cool to be inside at the bottom of the canyon, but the best view was from above.

Arrival At Yahel

2010-11-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

The following pictures are from our first glimpse of Kibbutz Yahel. We were introduced to the Kibbutz with a walking tour. Our first sights were absolutely beautiful.

Two of my friends from the program. Arkadij from Oberhausen, Germany on the right and Josh from Birmingham, England on the left.

Our first Kibbutz friend, a cow.

One step of the date packing process... these are getting ready to go into sorting. Yum.

The beautiful view out my window.

Happy November

2010-11-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Sorry its been so long since I've written. I had a full week on Kibbutz and we've been working, learning, and having a lot of fun. We have been working in the date fields.... where we have been closing up shop for the off season. To be precise, that consists of stacking and rolling up huge 12 foot mesh bags in groups of 24. The mound of bags for us to old grows everyday and we may never finish, but we have fun out there. As for learning, we have had sessions about community, Israel, and modern Zionism, and its really interesting to see all the different viewpoints in the group. We had a really fun session called "Beseder, Lo Beseder" meaning "Cool, Not Cool" where there were about 50 topics that we all had to classify as either cool or not cool.... these led to discussions of topics from Gilad Shalit to Brittany Spears. While some topics were funny, it really made us think during certain topics.

Every Wednesday, we have a trip off of the Kibbutz. Last week we took two small hikes to incredible sand dunes in the desert and to a beautiful Red Stone Canyon. We ended the day in Eilat with some time on the beach. The hikes were a great chance to see the beauty of the South of Israel, and it really made us think as we learned about the relation of our land to the Torah, and about claims that one mountain we were on is supposedly the real Mt. Sinai. As part of our day, we also went to a lookout point over Egypt. It was neat to be able to see Jordan, Israel, and Egypt all in one glance, and its wild to see how the markings of the border have changed so much with time and advancement of security measures. What used to be large rock pillars to signify a line has now become high security border fences. Despite the unfortunate fact that the original simple border is gone, it was easy to see that Israel knows what it is doing security wise.

This past weekend, we made the trek to Jerusalem for our first Keshet Seminar of the year. During this Shabbat, we gathered with 200 participants from other Zionist year long programs. We were of all different sects of Judaism, and it was a interesting and controversial weekend that definitely made everyone on Shnat Netzer ready to return to Kibbutz Yahel.

Now we are back at Kibbutz, and we had a great day in the date fields today, with enough breaks for eating all the pomellos we can, of course. The group is so obsessed with Pomellos.... we even had a pomello party the other day where we played games such as "hot pomello" "pin the tail on the pomello" and other crazy pomello games. We also had a great Halloween party last night, and we gave some Israeli's and Australian's their first ever Halloween experience. It was really funny trying to hold a serious meeting beforehand, because everyone already had their costumes on.

The food has been pretty good... we eat lunch in the dining hall, and its great having such good variety everyday. For dinner, we cook meals as a room, and I am proud to say I have come up with some great dishes. Tonight, we had Moroccan style couscous with fresh picked dates, and other fruits and veggies. yum!

As for pictures, for simplicities sake, I am going to try to start posting lots of pictures on here. I will do separate posts of just pictures and maybe captions, and please comment on whether I should stick to this or link you to a better photo website.

I am having a great time, and everything around me on the Kibbutz is so beautiful. I miss you all... keep in touch.

-Ethan

Here and There

2010-10-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hello People,

So where am I? Right now I am in Tel Aviv, but we will get to that later. I have been down south in the Arava at Kibbutz Yahel. We arrived Monday Tuesday morning and had a great welcome tour where we learned about the Kibbutz and ate some Pomellos... which is a citrus fruit they grow there. They are delicious. We then unpacked the bus, moved into our rooms, and had some rest time. Wednesday morning, we joined together as a group, and started our kibbutz orientation. We learned about what all we're going to be doing, and decided as a group how we would build our own Netzer community among the larger Kibbutz community. Every week, we will work three and a half days, have educational classes one day,and take a trip off of the Kibbutz every Wednesday, and then we usually have Shabbat chofesh (free day). Every week will be busy and very exciting, and I'm excited to get involved in and learn more about the Kibbutz. We then had a chance to shop for some groceries and get started on dinner. On the kibbutz, we only eat communal meals in the Chadar Ochel (dining hall) during lunch, so that leaves us to cook dinner and prep breakfast as individual rooms (mine being a room of three guys)... but thankfully our cooking hasn't been to horrible yet.

Thursday morning we got to work. Our first day of work, we were given special placement, and for about 5 hours we stood around tables peeling and wrapping sticker labels for fancy dates. There were supposedly 11,000 to complete, and while we didn't quite reach the goal, we go pretty close. After working Thursday morning, we had lunch and then got started with Hebrew lessons. We first took a placement test, and it was pretty rough for most of the group. Out of 33, there were probably only 3-4 who made it past the first few questions.

After class Thursday, the weekend started, and 4 of us decided to take a bus to Tel Aviv. Its really nice having good public transportation, and there was a bus stop right outside the gates of our Kibbutz. When I got to Tel Aviv, I met up with my friend Ori, from camp GUCI, and he has been a wonderful host to the city. Yesterday, Friday, we spent the whole day around the town, starting with an incredible hummus place in Old Jaffa, where only the locals go... it was quite possibly the best hummus I've ever had. Then we walked around a lot, saw some flee markets, ran some errands at the mall (since the Kibbutz is in the middle of nowhere), and eventually showed up at his parents art galley. His family owns a really neat art gallery right in the center of town, and I really liked the sculpture garden, but the real reason we went was to meet up with my parents, who were in Tel Aviv for the day and wanted to see the gallery and me! It was good to see them but sad to say goodbye (even though it was like the 4th time we said goodbye!) I joined Ori's family last night for shabbat dinner at his grandparents house, and had a great meal and very interesting conversations.

Today, I'm just relaxing, and I will catch a bus back to Yahel tonight, ready to start more work on the kibbutz and learn more Hebrew. This next week will be a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to see what our Tiyul (day trip) on Wednesday will have in store!

I will leave you with a picture of a Pomello... its sort of like a sweet grapefruit.

-Ethan

we are here

2010-10-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem!

So we had our first visit to the Old City today, which was pushed along by a photo scavenger hunt. We had lots of fun and it was very nice to be back at the Kotel, even though a bird pooped on me right as I approached the wall. My group said it was a sign... but of what?

We then had time for shabbat prep, and we lit the shabbat candles together and walked to Kol Haneshama, a reform temple in Jerusalem. Services were good, and it was cool to see that all the tunes were similar even though everything was in Hebrew. I even saw an advisor from youth group who is now living in Jerusalem while her husband is at school. It was very funny, because we both made eye contact during the service, but had trouble figuring out how we knew each other.

Well, that was my friday. Its nice because we have a bit of down time tonight and tomorrow, and then we finish up orientation and head south to Kibbutz Yahel.

I'll leave you with pictures of my group in Jerusalem.

-Ethan

Jerusalem City of Gold

2010-10-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

I would like to first apoligize for the length between the last post and now... as we have been very busy on our Klita Seminar, or week of orientation. I arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon with all of the American and a German, where we met half of the English participants. We immediately hit it off, and it was really cool to have an automatic relationship with these people because 1: were all Jewish teens and 2: we all come from very similar Jewish youth movements. So we spent the evening relaxing and getting to know each other, but went to bed with time to sleep because we had to be ready to go at 6 am! Nothing like trying to force the jet-lag out of us. So at 6 we met up with the other British participants who arrived at 4 and had an opening ceremony for the year at a lookout point over Jerusalem. Despite the time, it was very exciting. We all joined in songs and it was amazing to see how other than some slight pronunciation difference, we all sang the same tunes and songs in our different youth movements.

So we went back to the hostel and were given some time to sleep, and after lunch, we started orientation sessions. They have continued all throughout today, and we have gone over things such as Netzer and Judaism, Israel, Security Protocol, Technical procedures, and more, and we all feel ready to actually start. Tonight, we had a chance to hear from and present to each other about our youth movements. It was really cool, and everybody was blown away to hear that NFTY (from the USA) had over 8000 participants every year. This was especially wild to Netzer Barcelona participants who have never had more than 80 (but they are very new, and partially on this program to learn how to go back and grow).

So tomorrow, we have a tiyul, or trip into the Old City of Jerusalem with some former Shnat Netzer participants, and this should be fun... and then we have shabbat. We will be going to the largest reform congregation in Israel, so it should be quite an adventure. Ill have much free time in the next two days (shabbat) so I will hopefully update you with more, and pictures, so check back soon.

Out-
Ethan

I'm Here!

2010-10-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

Things are great. Got into Tel Aviv yesterday, and had a night for a good meal and some R&R. This morning, I met the Americans and the German participant at the airport, then headed to Jerusalem. I am now in a room with 3 British and 1 German participant. We will meet more British kids tomorrow and the group will be full at 33 participants. We will start official orientation tomorrow with everybody, but for now things are pretty relaxed and we're getting to know each other.

It was great to drive into Jerusalem today, things look pretty much the same here as two years ago... very lively and I'm ready to explore. Bye for now!