The Final Session of the Conference

October 23rd 2009 (Sorry about the quality of the pictures)
This evenings closing session was so incredible and so intense, that it needed its own post.
The Session was Called "Israel 2020- The Visions of Our Leaders" The idea was to have these leaders share their vision for Israel in 2020.
Nir Barkat- Mayor of Jerusalem, Who spoke earlier that day was the moderator.
Natan Sharanski- Chairman of the Executive Jewish Agency for IsraelEhud Barak- Vice Prime Minster, Chairman of the Labor Party (Left Wing Political Party)

Ehud Barak

Eli Yishai- Vice Prime Minister, Chairman of the Shas Party (Religious Political Party)
Eli Yeshai

Tzipi Livni- Chairperson of the Opposition, Chairperson of the Kadima Party (Centralist Political Party)
Tzipi Livni

Israel Maimon- Chairman of the Conference Committee- I don't really remember him speaking

Shimon Peres- President of Israel.
Shimon Peres

Barak, Yeshai and Livni were the three who spoke the most. Barkat and Sharanski each said something at the beginning but it paled in comparison to the discussion between the three political party leaders, so I'm going to skip over it.
Each of the three Barak, Yeshai and Livni were originally given ten minutes to talk about their vision. Then they were asked a question and had three minutes to respond. The another question and they had thirty seconds to respond. And oh my it got heated!
Livni said there are to options for the future. The first is to fulfill the vision of Israel. To have a fully recognized Jewish State that is secure and safe. She recognized that in order to achieve this goal some land may have to be given up to the Palestinians so they can have a Palestinian State as well. The second option was for their to be one state, where Israel currently exists, and while Jewish people would live there it would not be Jewish State and Jews would not be the majority. She wants to see the first option actualized, and doesn't believe that the second should even need to come to fruition. She also made a commentary towards how elections in Israel work, and how the political system needs changing. She said that the Prime Minster should be elected the people, thus so that the people can elect the majority party, and thus government will not have to give into the small factions. (She had run in the last election and was beat out by small political parties gaining too much power). Livni says that the small political parties do not deserve the amount of power they currently have in the current government structure.
Yeshai- If you do not know, Yeshai's political party is one of those small political parties Livni was referencing. Yeshai began by commending the amount of creativity and culture in the country. He then went on to address the conflict between Jews and Muslims. He said that Israel and the Israeli government has to stop blaming itself for how badly peace negotiations are going with the Palestinians. Israel has already made tons of concessions, and it is now the Palestinian's turn. He also criticized the Goldstone report, saying how dare they criticize Israel look how Israel has not retaliated against Hamas's rockets, look how committed to Peace we are. He closed this portion of his speech by saying the strength of the Jewish people is our unity.
Barak- Spoke about how everything derives from peace. How right now, one hand is on the gun as preparation for attacks and the other hand is reaching out towards peace (although I did not catch if he thought this was how things should be or what they need to change from). He spoke about the quality of life in Israel, and about how young people from all over choose to live here, when they could live anywhere else in the world. He says everyone deserves the chance for a fulfilled life in Israel, and how the State of Israel must continue to exist so everyone throughout history (Holocaust, past soldiers fighting for the establishment of the State of Israel )did not die in vain. He said in order to found a Palestinian State that will coexist side by side with the State of Israel concessions need to be made.
-Here comes the interesting part of the the discussion.....
The Reform of the Political System in Israel
Question From Moderator: What reform do you think the Political System needs?
Barak-Wants a two party system
Livni- Citizens need to be directly elect leaders thus not allowing small parties to reign. This will allow the majority party to make decisions that will reflect the majority of interests of the people of Israel and eliminate the need to haggle and compromise with the small factions.
Yeshai- Doesn't oppose change, he just doesn't know what type of change is necessary. He wants to preserve the status quo between religion and politics, or in other words, wants the system to remain as is right now because his super religious party has a lot power right now.
-sounded a little like the health care debate: everyone agrees that change needs to happen, but no one has a solution that will appease everyone.

Question asked by moderator: Do you think its time that one of the two chief rabbis of Israel is conservative or reform? Which led into, what do you think the role of Jews in the Diaspora is?
Yeshai- Reform Jews in the Diaspora are becoming assimilated, and are no longer Jewish because they don't follow the Torah to a T. The role of Jewish people in the Diaspora is to move to Israel and become religious. And if that doesn't happen Judaism around the world is going to be lost. Used Reform Jewish Movement in the United States as an example and how they are all almost completely assimilated, and have lost "the Jewish identity" (at this point he was booed very loudly)
Barak- Assimilation is important and more than that okay. Successful Jewish communities have lasted where assimilation has occurred. Open mindedness is important is important. He said there is more than one way to express one's Jewishness, he pointed out how there are Jews in the diaspora who know the texts just as well or better than the people in Israel.
Lvini- Is assimilation is happening everywhere, eventually it is going to happen in Israel as well. To speak Hebrew and to go into the Army does not make someone Jewish, it makes them Israeli, and there is a difference between being Israeli and being Jewish. To be Jewish means a connection to the faith and the culture. Not to necessarily be overly observant and follow the Torah to a T. She pointed out how the Israeli youth is becoming increasingly detached and what needs to be done is to determine some characteristics of what it means to be Jewish, and and find something that unites them.
Yeshai- If you start to compromise the "standards of Judaism" and break the rules then it is double assimilation.
Barak- If someone is willing to risk their lives for Israel then they are a Jewish, even if their mother is not Jewish.
The final word on this subject was Barak quoting Golda Meir- "Whoever wants to be a Jew deserves it".
My recount of this session is not nearly close enough to how intense and fantastic it was. There was enormous amounts of tension between all three panel speakers, and so many confrontational things said that it was just incredible.
Peres closed the night by thanking everyone for attending the conference.
On our way out back to the bus to go back to Beit Schmuel we met Natan Sharanski and Dr. Ruth

The Final Day of The President's Conference

October 23rd 2009
So the deal that KIVUNIM made with us was as follows. They wanted us to experience the conference but also to attend classes. So, if you went Wednesday morning and missed language classes then you were not allowed to go on Thursday morning. I had gone Wednesday morning so I couldn't go until the afternoon panels on Thursday.
I went to a panel entitled "Tomorrow's Cities: How can We Build Sustainable and Functioning Cities". It was absolutely fantastic. A lot of talk about sustainable living, and how to achieve it, and what steps are being taken around the world. Plus we met the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, her name is Naomi Tzur, and she is hopefully going to come talk to KIVUNIM at some point this year.
Nir Barkat- The mayor of Jerusalem was the moderator for this panel.
Shai Agassi- The founder of Better Place and the main man in the Electric Car idea in Israel. He gave us the statistic that more people are killed from problems relating to the emissions from cars than car accidents. Thus it is imperative that transportation be revolutionized to not have emissions. Vibrant cities get congested, because the more popular a place becomes the more people drive into see it, thus creating more traffic, and more pollution.
Beto Richa- Current Mayor of Curitiba, the pioneer city of Sustainable living in the world (Curitiba is in Brazil). Richa mainly was advertising tourism for his country and spoke very little about what strides he had made, and what strides his city had made.
Jamie Lerner- Former mayor of Curitiba and former Governor of the Parana region, which is the state that Curitiba is in. This man was easily the most interesting and accomplished man on the panel. He was one of the pioneers in achieving the level of sustainability in Curitiba. Some of what he had done; a complex and widespread bus system that had three qualities. The first was its accessibility, bus stops were everywhere and everyone was able to get on the bus, able bodied and disabled alike. The second was its size, each bus held about 300 people, making public transportation much more admirable. The third quality was that no matter where you wanted to go, and what time you got to a bus stop a bus would be there in under a minute. The transportation system was so vast that you never had to wait longer than a minute to get on a bus. Lerner also mentioned the possible implementation of these cars or rather carts in the city. Similar to bike rentals in Montreal a person could go and rent one of these cars and drive it around, then simply drop it off at another rental area. Public transportation again. These cars were very small, smaller than a Smart car, about 6 of them could fit in the space of a Volkswagen Passat. There was also talk of a future more vast subway system than the already existing bus system. There's a lot more that he said, this is merely of a sample of the kind of things that can be done.
Jeanne Mulgrav- Social Planning of Youth and Community Development Commission in NYC which provides money to youth themed NGOs. Unfortunately she really didn't talk about anything that had to deal with Sustainability, just what her job entailed and about how much they help kids. Which is great and all, but this panel was not the place for it.
Bob Watson- Spoke yesterday at the environmental panel. Today he talked about the importance of asking the right question. Figuring out what needs to be done, how to get from point A to point B and how to do in the most effective way possible.

The Evening Session of Day 2 of the Conference

October 22nd 2009

Since the last post was getting pretty long between the two panels that I attended I figured I talk about Wednesday Evening's Session in a different post. The title of this session was "Turning Crisis into Opportunity"
The people who spoke were
Moderator-Dr. Jacques Attali- From France, Commissioner for French Economic Growth.
Susan Rice- United States Ambassador to the UN

Susan Rice

Jose Maria Anzar- Former Prime Minister of Spain
Vaclav Klaus- President of the Czech Republic
Leonid Kuchma- Former President of the Ukraine
Stejpan Mesi- President of the Republic of Croatia
Ivanov Gjorgie- President of the Republic of Macedonia
Shimon Peres- Host of the Conference and President of the State of Israel

Susan Rice was just supposed to give opening remarks, but she ended up talking for quite a while. She mainly talked about the United States and their stance on everything, but it was interesting nonetheless and Susan Rice was an extraordinary speaker. Here are the highlights:
The United States remains fully committed to Peace of the State of Israel, This is forever and non-negotiable. (This statement caused a long lasting applause in the audience). In order to achieve change risks must be taken and strategic cooperative solutions must be attained. If this does not happen then violence, and crime, genocide, nuclear power attainment, and environmental disasters will continue to plague our world. She said that the whole world needs to work together to ensure that Iran and North Korea do not achieve nuclear power, and if they do, that they will be prosecuted to the extent of International Law. No more empty threats! On the part of the United Nations, as well as countries around the world. If something is said, then it needs to be followed through. Empty threats do not incite fear. She made mention of many other things, such as the war in Iraq, and how the United States is committed to achieving a democracy there, and how Al Queda needs to be stopped, and no country, anywhere should provide them with a safe haven. Her last line was "Change is begun by those on the field and not on the side lines."

The other speakers, from the other countries did not say anything all that interesting.
Stejpan Mesi from Croatia talked about how the middle east can benefit from cooperation, and how close Croatia is to the Middle East, and his experience in Croatia with conflict. His favorite line was "any crisis provides opportunity" and you cannot let the opportunity go to waste.
Ivanov Gjorgie from Macedonia spoke about how English is becoming the universal method of communication, and the internet enables people to feel more connected with the world. (For his speech as well as Mesi's I had to listen to a translator. Thus some of the meaning may have been lost because the translators were not very good).
I have no idea what Leonid Kuchma from the Ukraine spoke about because the voice of the translator gave me a headache.
Jose Maria Anzar from Spain talked mostly about how he is optimistic about the survival of the State of Israel, and how a Nuclear Iran is a BAD idea.
Then Peres spoke. His speech tonight was in English and was absolutely amazing. The only reason we stayed and listened to these other people talk was to hear him speak. He opened his speech with a critique to all of those who are criticizing the fact that Obama won a Nobel Prize. Peres said "Obama without a doubt should have been awarded a Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes are always awarded to those who have done stuff in the past. Obama is doing things for the future." Pretty strong way to start of his speech, huh?
He also said that the greatest accomplishment that can be attained is to enfranchise women and to treat them equally. He shared a brief anecdote as well. Peres is 87 and is questioned often about how good he looks for his age
Other person: Why do you look so good?
Peres: Why do you look so bad?
He closed his speech with this thought: The more we learn the more we realize we don't know, thus the more to learn.
This session listening to all of the people talk was absolutely fantastic. I may not have known the most about the political situation in Israel/Everywhere beforehand, but being right there when all of these incredibly accomplished World Leaders were talking was an experience like no other.
and Thursday night's conference was ten times better...

Day #2 of the Presidents Conference

October 22 2009
Sorry this post is overdue; this about the rest of the President's Conference that happened last week.
So we were invited to the Opening Gala, and there was a tremendous desire to return the next two days, to take advantage of this opportunity, so after some calls were made it turned out we were allowed to go back.
The structure and schedule of the conference for the next couple days were as follows; for both Wednesday and Thursday there was an opening panel in the morning on something (Thursday for example was about the Global Economic crisis) then there was a variety of panels that you could choose from to attend, then a lunch break, then a lunch break, then more panels, and so on and so forth. The last event of each evening was another big panel, and always had some fantastic speakers.
So, Wednesday
We weren't aware that we could attend the conference until after the morning opening panel was already over, so we went over to the conference for the mid morning panels. I went to one entitled Does the Environmental Crisis Threaten Our Future? There were four speaker there plus the moderator, none of them were incredibly famous, but I'll let you know who each of them were anyways.
Moderator: Israel Klabin, President of the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development. He didn't really say much, just introduced the next speaker, and made sure that each person followed their allotted time amount.
Israel Aumann- Professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem- Nobel Prize Laureate for Economics in 2005. This man was the best speaker at this panel, he told this story about how garbage is treated in Switzerland. How in order to throw out trash you were required to use these blue bags you could purchase for 5 Swiss Franks (i don't know what the equivalent is) and then the bags had to be deposited in special receptacles in town. The thing was, there was not limit to how many bags you could by, but by charging people for them, it created a theme where there was an overall reduction in the amount of waste being thrown out, and a trend in less packaged good being purchased (thus having less to throw out). Thus manufacturers began to produce their products with packaging.
This guy also kept referring to himself in the third person, and talked a lot about incentives and the need to give people something to work towards if we want a change in how we live, and how we interact with the environment.

Israel Aumann

Miriam Haran- PhD, Former Director General, Israel Ministry of the Environment. She spoke about what really needs to be done to not entirely kill the environment. She said that while doing what we can to reduce our carbon footprint is great and all, it isn't the entire answer. Also, she pointed out how limited the world is on resources, mainly water, and how the population is growing at a rate that will not be able to be sustained on the water supply currently.
Raffaele Tognacca- Chairman of ERG Power and Gas (ERG is an Italian Oil Company)- He didn't say that much that was that exciting, or that was that relevant to the panel (in my opinion).
Bob Watson- Chairman and CEO of EcoTech which is a Sustainable Living Company, and he pioneered the green movement (he also spoke at a panel I attended the following day). He spoke about how human's do not need to "save the planet". We need to save our species. He said that species come and go, and it is somewhat a test of natural selection. That if we can't figure out how to exist on the planet in conjunction with it, then we will simply join the ranks of the extinct. He said that the biggest problem and the first thing that needs to be done is to change the way people think.
Overall this panel was pretty interesting- Although nothing here was groundbreaking and there were no facts or statistics presented that I wasn't already aware of, it was still interesting, and the issue was impressed upon me more, that something needs to be done to change the way we live, and how our resources are used. Plus Israel Aumann was an absolutely fascinating person to listen to.

Panel #2 On Wednesday
Later that day I went to panel entitled Culture, The Arts and Tomorrow's Inspiration. The general idea of this panel was to understand how globalization and the new age of technology is affecting the arts.
Moderator- Ruth HaCohen Pinchover - Professor at Hebrew University. Again, she really didn't say much, just introduced each speaker.
Claude Lanzman- Producer of SHOAH (Holocaust Film from 1985)- He was a little hard to engage with, and listen to, because he had a very heavy french accent and spoke in a monotone. But what I did get from him is "the unavoidable never happens the unforeseen always". Although I don't know what the context was when he said this.
Chari Pere- Founder of "The Unmasked Comics Project" which is a comic venture that portrays social issues through comics. For example her co-author and illustrator of the comics distributed one at the panel called "The Green Prince" which is a about the Electric Car. She also has another well known comic that deals with the issue of a Jewish woman getting divorce papers. She talked about how classic movies and stories are no longer interesting to the younger generation and how visual arts are the still the strongest way to spread a message, but some areas of visual art are getting lost. Other than that, she talked a lot about how her work is combating social issues, and trying to get the young generation interested and active. She was a very engaging speaker and begun her speech by saying "The world wright now is too lazy, we all are on our Blackberries and I phones instead of reading a book or going out and doing something."
Gille Rozier- Founder of Yiddish Newspaper. He talked about the blogging phenomenon and how different writing a blog is as opposed to writing a book. He also talked about how mass publishing companies are essentially taking over the world, and controlling what we read, and putting small bookstores that sell "truly great literature" out of business.
James Snyder- Past Deputy Director of MoMa, current director of the Israeli Museum. What he said pretty much only related to museums, he talked about how some museums were spoiled in terms of what types of exhibits and artists they had access to. He also talked about how MoMa focuses on Modernism and looking forward while the Israeli museum focuses on both the past, the present and the future. Nothing he said seemed to relate that much to anything else he said, nor did he really relate entirely to the whole globalization issue. Nonetheless he was a good speaker.
Italy Talgam- Classical Musician. Spoke pretty much about how Goggle is taking over the world. It was unclear as to whether or not he believed this was a bad thing. He also talked about a lot of art is being represented over the internet. From images of paintings in a Madrid Art Museum being put up on Google to auditions for joining the Philharmonic were held over YouTube. He said that in order to determine who and what will survive in the growing age of technology its imperative that connections be made from people to people, and that everything isn't just left up to cyberspace.
Michael Arad- Architect working on the Ground Zero project. He talked mainly about architecture and made the point that the most impressive archeological structure occur under the most oppressive regimes (citing Russia). He pretty much talked about how architecture was the last true form of art, and how architects are true artists.
Overall this panel was incredibly interesting. It wasn't one that was designed to necessarily teach you something, or to inspire you to go out and doing something to change the world, but it was really interesting to listen to everyone talk about their various forms of art, and what their opinions were. My favorite person was the cartoonist.
This panel was very interesting

A Super Sweet Sunday

Sunday October 25th 2009
This Sunday was another programmed day, with the entire group, and the whole day was absolutely fantastic. But before I get to that, I'll recap the weekend a little bit.
This weekend was a Shabbat we spent together, so there were group plans on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday we went to the Kotel for personal time. There wasn't an organized group service, just time to spend however you wanted. There was a group of women on the women's side of the wall, doing somewhat of a Kabbalat Shabbat, with dancing and singing. So I joined in on that for a little while (after spending a few minutes at the wall). Then we returned to Beit Schmuel for dinner an Oneg then time for ourselves.
Saturday morning there were optional services to a variety of different synagogues, so I went to an egalitarian Orthodox synagogue, which means there's a mechitza (separation between men's and women's sides of the temple) but the women can lead parts of the service and read from the Torah. It was a very nice service, although something I wasn't entirely used to. The rest of Saturday was very very relaxed.
Which brings me to today. This morning/afternoon we met up with a group of Israeli students, about our age who had taken time off before entering the army, to study. These students had already taken one year, to attend Yeshiva or some other program, and then they had taken another 6 months to continue studying. Most of the people we met today will be drafted into the army in March. Regardless, they were really really interesting, a couple of them had spent time in the States, so their English was really good, and others didn't speak English at all.
We were all divided into three groups and went one of there places. A). To meet with a Israeli (Jerusalem living) writer. B). To meet with an Israeli (Jerusalem living) photographer. C). To meet with an Israeli (yes, Jerusalem living) actor and drama teacher, who had founded a theater group here.
I went with group B, and met with Yoram Amir, an Israeli wedding photographer. He took us around Jerusalem showing us where he worked, and where he had all of his photographs. He felt very strongly about how the old buildings in Jerusalem were being torn down in order for newer and not as historic or well built building to be constructed. He used the following example: Jerusalem is woman, and all of the old buildings are fine pieces of jewelry. The newer buildings however are like cheap pieces of jewelry. And who wants to marry a woman with cheap jewelry? The answer? No one. So if this continues, Jerusalem will never get married. A little obscure, but certainly interesting. Amir used the windows from these old buildings that were being torn down as his frames for his photographs, and showed us several examples. It was pretty cool, plus we walked around a lot of cool places in Jerusalem.

Views From The Photography Tour In and Around Jerusalem

In the Jewish Shuk

Mural on the Side of the Building

Photographer Yoram Amir

So then we came back and had time to freshen up before the Idan Raichel concert! The concert was part of the MASA opening event, so there were several speakers, and some performances by a group of dancers and a teen choir before Idan Raichel came on. But when he and his band did, it was absolutely fantastic. All the musicians are amazing, and superbly talented. They played for about an hour and half, and every song was just as great as the last one! It's really hard to convey how fantastic they are! I suggest you look up the Idan Raichel Project, listen to a couple songs, and that will give you a glimmer of how talented all of them are! It was so amazing!
And that was this weekend!

President's Conference

Tonight was the Presidents Conference hosted by Shimon Peres, the President of the State of Israel. http://www.presidentconf.org.il/en/
Our program was the only gap year program through MASA Israel (the overhead company that supports and offers grants to many, many programs in Israel) that was invited to the conference.
The people there that spoke included BB Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, Tony Blair, Mort Zuckerman, as well as a video greeting from President Obama.
There were many other foreign dignitaries that were in attendance, but didn't speak, including
All in all it was amazing, each speaker was very interesting, and very intense, although for Shimon Peres and BB Netanyahu some of the inflection and emotion were lost because I had to listen to a translator, and they translator was not very deep with her emotional use.
Between the speakers Israeli musicians such as Idan Raichel, who we actually met prior to the conference starting (A fantastic performer that we're going to be seeing on Sunday) and a childrens choir sang.
The Conference was fantastic, and there is a small chance we're going to be able to return tomorrow for other aspects and talks of the conference, but it is unclear as to what portions of the event we're allowed to attend.
It was incredibly unreal that we were sitting in the same building and listening to these political speakers live, even those who I didn't have much background on were still amazing to listen to, and I am seriously in awe.

Sunday Adventure In Jerusalem

So, as I said in the last post, every Sunday is reserved for trips in and around Jerusalem and this Sunday the original plan was to go to the Dome of The Rock, but due to current tensions surrounding that location, we had to make other plans.

We started the day by going to the Mount of Olives, which had a gorgeous view of Jerusalem. For those who may not know, the Mount of Olives cemetery is one of the largest in Israel, because it is said that when the Messiah comes and all the righteous are resurrected, those buried at the Mount of Olives cemetery will be first because that's where the Messiah will appear.

Views from Mount of Olives

From there we went to King David's tomb, where this sort of crazy old Hebrew woman told us all of these tips about how to achieve a "successful" life. On her list was; find a husband, wear plastic bags around your white socks, because it will not only prevent warts but will keep your socks clean, thus making you more religious, as well as some other tips. We also went to the room where the supposed last supper took place, although it is purely speculation that the last supper occurred in that exact location.

It is agreed by historians that the last supper took place on the second story of a building, and most likely in the same neighborhood as the place that we visited. But the building we were at was only a thousand years old, not two thousand, which is what it would need to be if this was the exact location. Regardless, it was pretty cool.

View from outside of King David's Tomb

From there we went to the roof of a nearby Yeshiva. The Yeshiva was essentially at the Western Wall, and had a fantastic view of the Dome of the Rock. There, one of the people who worked for the Yeshiva talked to us, but pretty much all he had to say was pro-Israel, pro-Jewish propaganda about how the Dome of the Rock originally belonged to the Jewish people, and how much larger the second temple was originally and how all of these other factors and people have only left the Jewish people with a small remnant, and how the Western Wall isn't actually the most sacred spot, the Dome of the Rock is, due to it being where the inner sanctum of the second temple was. Anyways, it got a little ridiculous by the end. I mean, it was interesting to hear, but it was completely one sided, and biased.

Views From the Roof of The Yeshiva, Over looking the Dome of the Rock and the Kotel

Glass Sculpture inside the Yeshiva

After this we had lunch in the Jewish quarter and walked back to Beit Schmuel, and then we had a discussion with a man named Ghassan Mansara, who is an Arab Sufi Shikh
He talked to us about his efforts in resolving conflicts between Muslims and Jews. It was very interesting, he talked about talking to certain leaders, and trying to get them to see and understand the value of coexistence, and he shared some personal experiences. All in all it was a very interesting day.

Almost A Week In Jerusalem!

So, we've been in Jerusalem since last Sunday.
We arrived in the city and stopped at the overlook (the first place we went on the synagogue trip), as a bonding activity as a group. It was beautiful, although a lot us just wanted to get to Beit Schmuel (the HUC dorm where we live) and settle in.
At about three in the afternoon we arrived at Beit Schmuel, got our roommates and keys and began, finally, to unpack our suitcases.
My roommates names are Tanya and Sara, they both went to school in NYC. One lives in the city on the Upper West Side and the other is from Great Neck. They're both very nice.
Pictures of my room will be coming, but i can describe it a little bit. It's a hostel room, and it has three sets of bunk beds, though the top beds fold up on to the wall, so up and out of the way. All three of us in the room really like orange, Sara and I have orange sheets on our beds, and Tanya has a bright orange blanket. It makes the room really bright. Other than that, there are two drawers under each bed, and a closet that the three of us share. We have our own bathroom, with a room for the toilet and a room for the shower, as well as one desk for the three of us. All in all, it's pretty good, there isn't an enormous amount of space, but it could be much much worse.
Daily/Weekly life in Jerusalem:
We take four classes: Hebrew (I'm in level 1)
Arabic, everyone is in the same level, although there are two different classes, Civilizations; which is the course to help us learn about all the countries we are going to be visiting: their history, culture and some modern day information
Middle East: Where we'll focus on understanding the countries surrounding Israel, their beliefs, religions, customs, etc. in order to try and better understand the social conflict.
Monday: We have classes. Hebrew and Arabic in the morning then lunch, then our civilizations course, then some free time, then dinner, then our Middle East Course then a group activity.
Tuesday: Tuesday is our social responsibility day. We are all required to take part in a community service project in around the city of Jerusalem. I, along with four other girls from KIVUNIM are going to be working at Weezo, which is a battered women's shelter up the street in Jerusalem. Right now all we're doing is sorting clothing (they operate a sort of thrift store for women who don't have a lot of money) but the hope is to be able to meet with the women over the course of the year.
Wednesday: Is another class day; Hebrew and Arabic in the morning, a group activity, a large chunk of civilization classes, dinner and then a night out to do what we want in Jerusalem.
Thursday: Hebrew and Arabic in the morning, lunch, and then Middle East in the afternoon, then dinner and sometimes a group activity and sometimes time to do what we want in Jerusalem.
Friday: Fridays are always free
-Once or twice a month we have free weekends, so from Thursday after programing to Saturday night, we are free and can do whatever we want within Israel.
When we have non-free Shabbats or Shabbat byachad (together) Fridays may include a small amount of programing, for instance, going to the Shuk, or some other market within Israel.
Saturday: Saturdays are always very relaxed; although this program does not associate with any particular denomination of Judaism it respects all beliefs, so for those who may want to keep Shabbat the program respects their beliefs and does not schedule activities that would make them compromise Shabbat.
-There are a fair number of modern orthodox students on this trip; more than I honestly expected, although only one of them observes Shabbat
-A good portion of the students are conservative
-There is a small number of Reform students, and that is certainly the minority.
-There are also a couple students who either do not associate themselves with one of the denominations.
The surprising thing here though is that the overwhelming the majority of students have gone to Jewish Day School their entire lives, and if they haven't gone their entire lives then they at least went through 8th grade. There are maybe six students out of 47 who went to public school at any point in their lives.
Sunday: Sundays are always reserved for group programing in Israel. The goal of Sunday excursions are to deepen our understanding and knowledge about what we're studying within our classes. So that may mean, going somewhere that we can learn something about the next country we're going to visit which connects to our civilization course. Or going to other religious sites in and around Jerusalem, whether that be a mosque or a church or something else, in order to increase our awareness of the social conflict.
That's our typical week while we're in Jerusalem, when we go to other countries it will be more like orientation with constant programming and group activities.

The third stop of Orientation

Day 6: So that morning we left Stay Boker and headed to Ketura. We all settled in for a pretty long drive and slept most of the way there. We arrived on the Kibbutz and met our tour guide as well as woman named Leah who had been there almost since the founding of the Kibbutz. This Kibbutz was founded by a group of students back in the 1970's who spent a year after high school on Young Judea's year course. The loved the country, returned to the U.S to get support for their idea (to found a Kibbutz) made Aliya, went through the Army then founded the Kibbutz. So we watched a video about the day the Kibbutz was founded and learned about the founders. Interesting Fact: None of the original founders still live on the Kibbutz. All but one are still alive (one died in a car accident) but the rest have moved away from the community. After this we had lunch, and some relaxation time, and then another hike! This one was up a nearby mountain, but the terrain was very very steep, and one wrong step could have sent someone to a very sorry end. We ended up leaving for the hike a little later than planned, and had to hike that last portion of it as the sun was setting. Then we had a barbecue planned for us by the Kibbutz as well as time to swim, although the water was pretty cold, and no wanted to get in.
Day 7: The next morning we woke up very early to begin a three hour hike that would take us to the top of a mountain from which you could see Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and of course Israel. The hike on the way up was pretty easy, it was more getting down this very rock mountain that took time, concentration and effort. But the view from the top was awesome. It was also the last day of Sukkot, so we shook the lulav and etrog from the top.

views from the top of the mountain overlooking several countries

Later that day we returned to the Kibbutz to get ready for shabbat, and Simchas Torah. Simchas Torah on the Kibbutz was an incredibly joyous and very very spirited celebration, with hours and hours of dancing, and singing, and punch and food, and all around fun. They repeated a certain portion of the prayers seven times, and each time took probably twenty minutes with all the dancing and such, so it got a little tiring by the end, but it was certainly a really engaging and exciting thing to be able to see and be a part of. Then was Shabbat dinner with the entire Kibbutz. It felt a bit like camp, all sitting around waiting for the chicken to be passed down the table. But don't worry, I'm still a vegetarian, there are plenty of foods to eat here. And lots and lots of vegetables. But back to Shabbat, after Shabbat we all just hung out.
Day 8: Shabbat morning services were not mandatory but it was mandatory that we go to Kiddush around 11. When we showed up for Kiddush though, there were still in the midst of round 4 or 5 of the Simchas Torah dancing and singing and it was quite a while before they took a break for Kiddush, let alone finished the service. We had lunch at one, and they were still going. After lunch was just hang out time, and some group activities, and then later that night, it was scheduled that the entire KIVUNIM group go to the Kibbutz pub. Before there are shocked minds: it's Israel, and being 18 means being legal.
Day 9: The next morning we left Ketura and headed to Jerusalem!

A Continuation of Orientation

In order to limit the extensiveness of one post, and to not make it drag on and on, I figured I split up orientation into at least a few posts.
Okay, so the last one left off with arriving at Stay Boker in the later evening.

Still Day 3: We walked to Ben Gurion's grave for the sunset and we could literally see the moon rise, it was an amazing site. Also Stay Boker, or our rooms at Stay Boker were on the edge of this enormous canyon, that we later hiked, so there was a fantastic view.
the view from Stay Boker

the sunset from Ben Gurion's Grave

Day 4: This day was pretty low key, we hiked the canyon that we overlooked in the morning/early afternoon. I ended up slipping and falling twice, and I have a couple bruises to show for it. But the hike was beautiful, even though it was really really hot. The rest of the day was just hanging out at Stay Boker with the group and our staff.

Day 5: In the morning we went to Israel's first solar energy field, and met Professor David Faiman who is an expert on solar energy. So we toured the plant, and learned some about the ideas and technology behind it.
the energy plant

Then we went on another hike. The hikes prior to this one had been more like walks, but this one was a bit more intense, with some climbing and steep hills involved. The good news though; I didn't fall. Later that day after lunch we went to the city of Dimona where a group of African American Hebrews live. This was a group of people who identified themselves as the 13th tribe of Israel, and believed they were fulfilling Dr. King's ideals by settling in Israel. Most of them had come from the states (the older generation) while a lot of the younger people had been born in the community. These people were incredibly interesting; as I said they consider themselves Jews but not Jewish, and they abide strictly by the Torah. Which means they are on a raw vegan diet, they fast every Saturday, they do not ingest salt with their foods every other day, as well as many other things. Other interesting facts about their beliefs is that they believe in polygamy, are against drugs and alcohol, as well as anti-abortion and anti-gay. These last two point angered me and a few fellow students. They do not believe in pre-marital sex, so the anti-abortion idea doesn't exactly apply, but the anti-gay attitude is certainly applicable in their society. They expressed homosexuality as a choice or a decision, I believe they used the example, "if someone choose that path" as opposed to something that is instinctual (which is my belief). But aside from that, they were truly a fascinating community. There is no violence or crime within Dimona, and they are known as the city of peace.
Day 6: This was our last morning at Kibbutz Stay Boker, so in the morning we packed up and headed to Kibbutz Ketura; an approx. three hour drive.

Orienation and Arriving in Jerusalem

This is the introductory post to what will hopefully be a year long blog.

For the next 8 months I will be in Israel, studying and learning with a gap year program called KIVUNIM.
It is a program founded for the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of the social conflict between Jews and Arabs, as well as experiencing Jewish life in Israel and by traveling to a variety of other countries including; Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey, India and more.

We arrived in Israel on October 1st, and then went to the desert for Orientation.
An overview of the next ten days is as follows.
Day 1: Hike, and tour and old synagogue as well as meet an woman who crafted things from Lulav leaves. She had made a hut entirely out of parts of the tree as well many baskets, rugs and other useful items. She helped us to make bracelets out of the reeds. The synagogue wasn't quite as cool, but it had a mosaic floor which was interesting. That evening was our first Shabbat together, and we had services and dinner, and we ate in the Sukkah at the youth hostel.
Day 2: Shabbats on this program are very low key, because while, the trip does not associate with one particular denomination of Judaism, it respects all beliefs, and there are many Modern Orthodox students on the trip. So we got to sleep late, and hang out. That evening there was Havdalah, and then later that evening we went on a Night Hike.
Day 2/3: Day 2 finished with a 6 hour hike through a canyon near Ein Gedi. We were led by this man names Yisrael, who was very spiritual and had spent a lot of time in the desert. We began the hike at about 11, and the plan was to climb out of the canyon in time to see the sunrise. Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it out in time to do that, and we were still walking when the sun rose, but we did get out by about 6, and were able to appreciate the early morning.
Day 3: We went back to the hostel for time to sleep and eat and then later that day we went to the dead sea spa, where we had time to spend in the sea.
Day 4: We left Ein Gedi, and headed to a Kibbutz called Stay Boker. Along the way we went to the Bedouin museum, to gain a little bit of knowledge about the culture and then we went to an unrecognized Bedouin village and met a woman named Amal (which means Hope in Arabic), who had been born into the Bedouin lifestyle and was unhappy with the roles that women were given. She has since spent much of her life trying to further women's roles in the culture, helping them to gain jobs and open their own businesses, all in a effort to make them feel more equal in society. We also met a man named Clinton Bailey who is the world's leading expert on Bedouin culture, and who knew Amal. Hearing about the Bedouin culture was incredibly fascinating; especially to hear Amal talk about all she's done, and how from an early age she didn't feel women's roles were correct was inspiring. After leaving the village we headed to Ben Gurion's home to tour it, and to learn a little bit about him. Then we went to the Kibbutz.

a small Bedouin hut in the unrecognized village
Bedouin Children