Eighth Grade Blog

This has been a very mixed emotional day for us because we had to quickly transition from Yom HaZikaron to Yom HaAtzmaut. In the beginning of the day we met up with our twinning school in Hod haSharon and we watched a tekes (assembly) with them for Yom HaZikaron and had lunch. It was amazing how quickly we bonded with the Israeli kids. Lots of us exchanged contact info and we hope we’ll stay in touch.  We had a very detailed demonstration on how to make our falafel from their principal! Then we went to ANU, Israel’s museum of the... Read More

Today we woke up in Jerusalem at 6:45 and ate breakfast. We got on the bus and went to pray at Har Hadar, a mountain at the edge of Jerusalem with a monument on it.  Then we went to hear Jessica (not our teacher) speak about her experiences about being Muslim and how it compares to other religions. After that, we went to shuk hacarmel where we were given 50 shekel to get lunch and other things. After the shuk, we made our way to a playground across the shuk to bond and meet up. After being at the playground... Read More

Yesterday we woke up and ate breakfast. Then we went to the egalitarian section of the Kotel to pray together. It was a powerful experience to pray in front of a wall that people thousands of years ago used as a wall. Then, we went inside the church of the holy sepulcher and saw the place where Jesus supposedly died. Then we went to a charity organization and helped pack food for families that need food. Then we ate dinner at shuk machane yehuda and stayed in the shuk for a bit. Then we went back to the hotel in... Read More

Today was one of the most fun days. We did so many things like going through Hezekiyah’s water tunnel and being an archaeologist for 2 hours. The water tunnels were very fun. I was really scared because it was extremely dark, but I was able to get through. When we sifted dirt from the first temple, my team, Daniel, Robin and I didn’t find anything at first. After 2 buckets we found a burnt bone. But the crazy thing happened next. Once we finished digging through our third or fourth bucket of dirt we found a small slab of marble with... Read More

Shabbat Shalom! Today was our first and only Friday in Jerusalem and we sure did make it special. We started our day with a trip to Har Hertzl (הר הרצל), the largest cemetery in Israel for the burial of the country’s leaders and political figures. It is also a place of burial for the thousands of Israeli soldiers who lost their lives in the wars of Israel and the victims of actions of terrorism. We even got to visit Hannah Senesh’s grave, which was recently changed after a 70 year old mistake was discovered by an 18 year old student... Read More

Today we started our day by waking up in the Bedouin tent! We ate a yummy breakfast there and got on the bus and headed to Masada. At Masada we hiked to the top of the mountain, did tefillah, heard our tour guide’s family connection to the Holocaust, took two minutes of silence to remember the Holocaust during the siren, and learned a bit about the history of Masada. We then ended our Masada tour by taking the cable car down. Next, we got back in the bus and drove up to the Dead Sea. There we had lunch and... Read More

The day started with an early wake up at 6:30am (12:30 in our minds because of jet lag.) We started by going to an overlook of the Negev to do tefila. It was mind blowing! We then went to a museum dedicated to Ilan Ramon. We learned about Ilan Ramon and how he was the first Israeli in space, and how he and six other astronauts died in a tragic accident. After the museum we went on a hike at Ein Avdat with some amazing scenery and a waterfall. Then we went to Sde Boker, the town where David Ben... Read More

Hello everyone! We started the day on the plane. We had two meals and a lot of fun hanging out with our friends. When we got to the airport in Israel, we passed security, took a COVID test and then went on the bus to take another COVID test! Everyone tested negative-phew! After that we drove all the way down to Mitzpeh Ramon where we checked into the hotel and ate dinner. After that we looked at a map and got a run down of our plans for the next two weeks in Israel! We are looking forward to traveling... Read More

Monday, April 25th: The Senes 8th graders are at the gate, waiting to board the plane to Israel. We are all super excited (plus full of the snacks we bought while waiting) and can’t wait for the adventure ahead. Here are some photos to fill you in on our journey so far!

Happy April and Happy Spring to everyone! Humanities Over the past few weeks, 8th Grades have concluded their study of the nonfiction novel Just Mercy, in which lawyer Brian Stevenson defends his clients on death row. The students ended the unit with a discussion-based Socratic Seminar that they led completely independently. Students did a wonderful job questioning and dialoging with each other in a respectful manner on a contentious and controversial topic! Students are now reading Maus by Art Spiegelman and we are studying the Holocaust in history class. Using curriculum from Facing History’s Holocaust and Human Behavior unit, students... Read More