2019 Israel Trip

Sunday’s bloggers are Ruby and Asher: After a restful Shabbat we woke up early for a morning full of chesed (acts of kindness) and volunteering. We headed straight for Yad leKashish where 270 elderly men and women create beautiful art works and find a home and family. Yad leKashish provides income for all those elderly and makes life meaningful. They work in the crafting studios in the morning and then have lunch together as a community. After buying gifts for our family members and thus supporting the artists we traveled to Pantry Packers. At Pantry Packers we used their machinery... Read More

The bloggers for Shabbat were Hannah K. and Isaac: Today, we woke up at 8:30, being that it was Shabbat, so we were able to get a couple extra hours of sleep. After Friday’s late night, we headed right downstairs to breakfast and enjoyed the first meal of our day. When we were all done with breakfast, our teachers gave us options of what synagogues to pray in. There were several orthodox synagogues, a Chabad, and a conservative synagogue. Some chose the conservative synagogue and joined a beautiful service in the middle of Jerusalem. Others went to a traditional Sephardic orthodox... Read More

Friday’s bloggers are Ruby and Phoebe: It was time to head out of Tel Aviv this morning , and we took an hour long bus ride to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. There, we had an interesting, yet long, tour of the museum explaining the events and stages of the Holocaust. Next, we had our lunch in a small park and spent some time there playing in the playground. After, we took a short bus ride to Mount Hertzl, a military cemetery. We toured the graves of fallen IDF soldiers and learned about their lives and Israelis’ experience of going to... Read More

Thursday’s bloggers are Sam and Isaac: After a fun night out dancing and singing for Yom Ha’atzmaut in Rabin Square, we woke up exceptionally late at 8:30 this morning which was really nice. It gave us plenty of energy for the days ahead of us and a peaceful start to our jam-packed day. We began with breakfast at the hotel followed by our daily tefillah. After that we took a brief bus ride to the beach where we relaxed and swam. While we swam, there was an air show to celebrate Israel’s birthday. After about an hour and a half... Read More

Wednesday’s bloggers are Hannah W. and Gideon:   This morning we woke up in our new hotel in Shefayim and went down for a special Yom HaZikaron tefila, where we learned the stories of a few fallen soldiers and victims of terror. After that we had breakfast and drove to a school on the kibbutz where we are staying. There we split up into groups and met with Israeli eighth graders to compare and contrast our lives, and Memorial Day in our respective communities. We then had a powerful tekes where we learned the stories of 10 fallen soldiers from... Read More

Today’s bloggers are Libi and Meyer! This morning at four am we woke up to a cold breeze in our tent. We quickly got ready and headed off to a challenging but fun hike up the Roman ramp of Masada. We quickly reached the top within 15 minutes. We were all tired, but excited to learn about this great historical place. We started with a special tefillah and after participated in a performance that taught about the history, made by our tour guide Orna and the teachers. After that we took a cable car down and had a quick picnic... Read More

Monday’s bloggers are Noah L. and Jacob: This morning we woke up in our beautiful hotel, which we embraced as an upside of our changed travel plans. Because of the cease fire, we were able to continue with a regular day today. First we ate breakfast at the hotel. Next it was off to Ein Avdat, where it was a particularly hot hike – our first really hot day. Even though we were boiling, we got to see a beautiful oasis and waterfall. After that we went to David Ben Gurion’s grave in Sde Boker. We played a trivia game... Read More

Sunday’s bloggers are Sammy and Naomi: Sunday was a fun filled day even though our plans changed. We were supposed to go down south for sand boarding and other activities, but we got to go on a water hike instead. Exploring the water hike that led to the Kinneret was cool. At first it was freezing but once we continued, there were just smiles on kids’ faces. We jumped around and splashed each other. Getting the teachers was awesome. We once again got back on the bus, but had to go on an alternate, longer route. However the fun didn’t... Read More

Todays bloggers: Moav and Sopher! Today was Shabbos, and boy was it hard for us silly teenagers to be off our phones! We woke up late, at 8:00, and had a delicious breakfast (we liked it a latte.) After breakfast, we had a meaningful Tefilla where many of our students read Torah and had Aliyot. The students were so involved, they even had a minyan after. We both took part in it and it was amazing. Later, after we all got to know the other school better and ate lunch, we went to the Kineret beach near our hotel, and... Read More