Art Blog!

Hello Everyone,

I'm back once again, but unfortunately I am no longer in Israel. I have returned to my home, the frozen tundra also known as Minnesota. I just wanted to post again to tell all of you that I have created another blog recently, this time it is for a class at school. The class focuses on photoshop, as well as producing photography itself. It is mandatory to post your creations to this blog, and to write about what you learned while creating the photo; I thought maybe some people would like to leisurely look at some magnificent art pieces as they continue on there day. If you are interested heres the website for the blog: http://maxsandlermediaartsblog.blogspot.com

Bye, Have a great rest of your day.

Goodbye Everyone...

I wanted to do one final post to let all of you know that it has been a blast voicing out my trip to all of you. This trip has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. My life has changed in ways that I can't describe. Throughout this journey I have changed as a person and have become the person that I really want to be in life. I want to personally voice my sorry to all of you for the lacking of blogs towards the end of the trip. I feel terrible not staying committed, but if it makes it any better I had the greatest time on the trip in the last two weeks. I also want to thank the people who made it possible for me to go on this trip. First my mother, you are truly awesome, without you I would have never have been able to have this experience. Next Dad, thank you for being my friend, father, brother, and role model, you are an amazing person and I couldn't ask for a better Pada, thank you. Thirdly, Sophia, thank you for being the single child for two months and for taking care of the puppy, I miss you a lot. Lastly, I want to thank all of the people who supported me in going on this trip, such as my synagogue, Adath Jeshrun, the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, THANK YOU EILAT. I want to give a special thanks to Eilat Harel for telling me to go on this trip, as a little kid you always talked to Ely and I how we are going to go on the Muss program to Israel. I thank for your insight, and without you I might not have had the unforgettable experience that I had these two months. I also want to thank the Minnesota coordinator Andrea Nadel for making this trip possible. Some other important people on my journey that have helped are David Mitchell, Mordechai Cohen, GILA, DON, Felicia Hamburger, and so many more. I made so many friendships that I will take with me throughout my whole life. 34 new brothers and sisters that will always have a spot in my heart. Thank you all for helping this trip be so amazing. Here is a very funny video from our AP euro project that I thought you might want to see.

Thank you all so so much, I had a blast telling you about my trip

Hope you had fun reading about my journey,

For the final time,

Quote:"Don't be sad that its gone, but be happy that it happened"

Free Weekend and some other pictures

Yo

Me and Erel with the girls, Lital and AD

INON, the coolest person ever.

I had a great weekend with my friend from California, Erel. We went to his dad's friends house, located in Zichron Yaakov. A fun fact about this family that we stayed with is that the dad was from Houston and came to Israel to bring the sport of baseball to the Israelis. He is all baseball all the time, and so are his daughters. They both play on the national softball team for Israel. On Friday we hung out and ate dinner at their house with all of their in laws and family that came into town. Then at night we walked around the city of Zichron, which is very pretty and relaxing. Once we were back Erel and I stayed up until 3 a.m watching movies. The next day we went to the closest baseball field which was around 40 minutes away, and we played against the national Israeli team!! It was very cool indeed. Then we had a couple problems on the way back home, but it was all worth it. Long story short we met a man named Inon who was our savior. We talked to him on the first train, and he happen to be on the train back to Hod Ha Sharon also. Thank god he was on the second train because I guess our train that we were supposed to switch onto after the first train was broken, so Inon told us that we have to get on a bus. Without him I would still be in the train station. Also he told us stories about how he was in the army and had the highest profile, 97, and how he was an executive sniper in the army. He was also into the ladies and insisted on us talking to most of the Israeli girls that we walked by. He said he wants to move to Latin America because of all the "sexy" women. He said he lives about 10 minutes from where were staying, and that he might come and say hi. I hope so, he was really cool. Thats pretty much it, other then I just finished my final in SPanish, which was hard, but in a good way. Only a couple days, gots to live it up!:)

Zichron Yaakov at night, amazing

My second family, the boys, Aaron-Noah-Jake-Me

The baseball diamond

Yoga at its finest

Negev and Magnificent Hike and Ben Gurion's House

Cool picture of Ben Gurion, located inside his house.

On the mountain of the hike up the mountain, beautiful.

Another picture on our trek.

Welcome back,

I have some more pictures for you all. These are ones that I took on our trip in the Negev(the lower half of Israel). In the Negev we went to the house of Ben Gurion, hiked up a mountain or two, and had DOTS at Hod Ha Sharon. It was a very fun day. Life is good and is going great. I woke up today with everybody scremaing, and it turns out that there is a lice epidemic...We all got checked and the interesting part is that all the girls had lice, while all the boys did not. I guess boys don't taste that well. Also I got asked by the Israeli kids to go and play soccer last night, they knew my first name and said that I should play with them every night. It was a big confidence-booster. Another thing is that when they picked teams,(there were 4 teams that switch off on the court depending on who wins the match (whoever scores 2 first, or 10 minutes)) I was picked number one over all of the Israelis and kids that go to school there. It felt very cool.

Cool picture, I don't know how I took it, but I kind of like how it looks.

Stone that was sued as makeup in the past, this rock is the red, mostly used on the cheeks.

The sun on the hike, very majestic and wonderful to look at.

The Sunset, breath-taking

Dinner at the Hod, a bakery shop we went to after Falafel eating

Airplane at a museum place that we went to.

Mosey acting like Mosey in a make-shift bomb shelter in Sderot

Pictures- Sderot and Mordechai's house

Alex after a scrumptious meal at Mordechai's house

Elana and I on a mountain, we look like bro and sis.

Hello everyone,

These past couple days have been awesome. We went to the city of Sderot, which was consistly bombarded by bombs on a daily basis. We went to go see all the shelters of the city, and how stressful there life is. Then later that night we went to our Core teachers house for dinner, and it was bottom line amazing. Think of a jewish dinner with tons of food, and then add on top of that the fact that I hadn't had a real home-cooked meal in a while. It was superb, and wish we could do it every day. Today we went to Ben Gurion's house and the Negev.

I will post pictures of the Negev sooner or later, I have some pretty good ones

Live long and prosper,

Max Sandler

The remnants of bombs that dropped daily in Sderot, there were 296 rockets in 2 weeks at one point

Erel enjoying his masterpiece at Mordechai's house, he loves Guacomole..

I caught my brother Efe sleeping on the bus, he looked so majestic

My plate at Mordechai's, pakced to the brim with delicious and filling food.

Efe modeling with his meal, he was very excited, he eats a lot of food.

Right on the border with Gaza, in the outskirts of Sderot

2 WEEKS!!!:(:(

Hello Ya'll

This is just going to be a short blog, kind of like a Public Service Announcement. There is only two weeks left on this wonderful trip that I am on, and it has been a wonderful journey which I enjoy, and going to continue enjoying. I just want to let all of you know that since there is such a short period of time I am sadly going to be cutting down on my blogging:( I just want to live up these last couple days and not worrying about what I am going to type at night. I will try to pictures on the blog just so I can sort of stay in contact with all of you, but the telling about the days portion is for the most part over. It is very time consuming.

Please no one kill me, I am truly sorry. I'm in Israel for only a little bit longer and want to focus on my trip for the past couple days.

I Love You All,

Maxwell Bailey Sandler

Friday..

Hello Everyone,

I will tell you about the events from where I left off last time. After I was done writing the blog I went to AP European history class and we talked about the chapter that we read over the weekend. We were an hour into the class when Don, our teacher, decided to be so kind and let us finish our video project. Thank you Don, because we have kind of been procrastinating on the project, due to the fact that we are in Israel. We worked on the project for about an hour and a half and actually got a lot done. By the time were done it was around 12:00, so we went to lunch. And on Friday lunch it is the same thing every time, pita with tuna and egg salad, which I don't mind since you can never mess up such an easy thing. After lunch Isaac and I packed to go to my uncles house for the free-weekend. We left Hod Hasharon on bus 947 at around 1:18 p.m. It was a longer bus ride, but I have become used to sitting on buses for extended periods of time. At the bus station we were met by Alva and Eitan who took us to the car where I saw my uncle Ben. Once we got to his house we decided to go on a nice walk around the neighborhood. We walked all around the area while Ben told us the history of the buildings, and while Alva and Nur(my other cousin) told him to stop telling me about the history. When we got back to the house we decided to watch a movie, Two Guns, It was pretty good, but very long. After the movie we had dinner and after dinner laughed a lot. Once the laughing died down Isaac and I went to our rooms and got ready for bed, we barely get any sleep on this trip so we went to bed farely early...and woke up at 12:00. Now I am just sitting here on the bed waiting for Isaac to get out of the shower. We are going to Tel Aviv today, it is going to very fun and I will tell you all about it when it is over.

Bye,
Son of Stacy and Noah, brother of Sophia, The One and Only Maxwell Bailey Sandler

Sickness is taking over, Acco and Rosh Hanikrah

Todays Language of the day: Spanish brought to you by my counselor.

Hola, como estás (hello, how are you?)

Yesterday was a really fun and relaxing. We started out the day by going to the Atlit refugee camp, the place where Jews trying to get into Israel were put under the McDonald White Papers and the British Mandate. IT was very interesting to see that even after the Holocaust Jews made the trek across the Europe knowing that they most likely would end up in another form of a holding camp. After our visit to the camp we drove for about an hour to the Acco Prison, where Jews were known for uprising against the officers of the prison in order to be set free into the land of Israel. Also interesting, since we got to stand inside of the cells and went inside the gallows(place where they hung people). After our prison visit we went to Rosh Hanikrah. This place is located in the Northern most tip of Israel, right on the border of Lebanon. It is important to uor class and the Jewish people because it was the location where the British built a railroad system going from Palestine to Turkey in order for them to trade goods and move military supplies much easier. It also was in a beautiful location, jutting out onto the ocean. It also had lots of caves and tunnels located inside the mountain that were spectacular to look at it. The water was so clear that you could see the floor covered in sea shells and rocks vividly, even thought it was around 100 feet in depth. All this was fun, but my experience was scarred by illness once a gain. It started towards the beginning of the day, and progressively got worse as the day carried on. By the time we got back to the dorm, after DOTS(Dinner on the streets, we receive 40 shekels to buy dinner wherever we want and I had a scrumptious baguette full of shnitzel, salad, hummus, and other Israeli-type things. It was so good), I was totally drained out. I took a nice long shower, but it kind of made the whole situation much worse. So because of that I went to bed last night around 8:30. I woke up today around 6:50 still feeling the effects of whatever sickness I have. I did not go to breakfast, but instead studied for my Spanish test, It was very easy thanks to my teacher Gila. I told her I was not feeling to great and after the test she let me leave early, almost two hours early actually. She's the best. Now I am sitting in the main community area typing up this blog. I'm sorry for not doing one last night, here are some pictures to make up for my lack of consistency:)

 

Adios muchachos (Bye, muchachos)

Yad Ve Shem and Girls Night

Todays language of the day: Swahili brought to you by "my favorite person in the whole entire universal solar system" Elana Levine.

Hello and welcome back to the show. Today we are going to talk about my journey of the day..da dah dahhhhhhhh. The day started out with us waking up at 6:45 a.m because it was a Tiyul day. Todays tiyul consisted of us going to Yad ve Shem, the #1 Holocaust museum in the world. It was fantastic and the architectural design of the museum was like no other. The museum perfectly portrayed the Holocaust perfectly. The main museum part was in a long corridor located underground, where we sanked through the galleries portraying tons of pictures and stories from the Holocaust. The coolest part about the museum was that in the end of the museum we ended up in an open area showing the state of Israel in all its beauty. After we were done "museuming" we went to the children's memorial room where they had about 5 candles that reflected against the mirrors in the room that made it look like there were millions of candles floating in the air. There was also a voice in the backround saying the names of the kids that were killed in the Holocaust, their age, and their place of origin. It sounded like God was speaking their names. It was jaw-dropping, and recommend that if you go to Yad Ve Shem you must go to the childrens memorial center. After the museum we got a talk to by a Holocaust victim. This event had become one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be listening to such an amazing person with an amazing story. I have heard numerous survivors tell me their story but this one was different. SHE WAS ANNE FRANKS NEIGHBOR, AND BEST FRIEND!! what are the odds of that? When she told us this "fun fact", my heart jumed a little knowing how amazing it was to be in the same room with someone who knew one of the most significant persons of the Holocaust. It was also nice to hear her background story, in that she was one of the "lucky" ones in the terrible Holocasut. She was able to keep all of her luggage and belongs into the workcamp that she was sent to . I also found it interesting that her grandma was able to be one of the 220 jewish refugees who would be sent to Palestine, but decided not to go because she wanted to stay with her grandchildren. After the talk we came back to campus and had an event where we dressed up as the opposite sec. I happily dressed up like Izzy miller for the activity, and I must say I pulled it off very well. Then our counselors set up games and other things such as making a skit and acting like someone on the trip. I have a couple pictures courtesy of Izzy. It was a fun and sad day all in one.

Kwaheri(bye)

Pada & Casper, my two favorite boys that I miss a lot

Me, Gabe, Noah as girly-girls--I coudn't find the good one of me and Izzy, but I will keep my eyes  peeled.

Holocaust museum, and Rona's house.

Todays language of the day: Turkish brought to you by Efe who is fluent in the language.

Meraba herkez (Hello everyone)

Today was a jam-packed full of information and facts about the Holocaust. We started out the day going to the museum about the physical rebellions of the Warsaw ghetto's. There were tons of pictures and stories about the people who were living in the ghettos during the time, and their courageous acts of  defiance by going against the Nazi soldiers. We also learned about other heroes that acted against the Nazi soldiers, spiritually, morally, and physically. The main value I learned from all of our lessons today was that the people going against the Nazis is to "Not go like sheep to the slaughterhouse", which I think is a very strong quote. After we left the museum we went to go hike Mt. Carmel. It was pretty steep, but thats what made it a good hike. It was very nice out today, not too cold or too hot, the ideal weather conditions for a nice hike. I am so thankful to be in Israel right now, but even more thankful that I am not in Minnesota right now. I know that the weather is consistently below10 degrees fahrenheit and that they have canceled the school the past couple days, which never happens in Minnesota. After our hike we went to our teachers house, Rona, the other classes teacher. She is really cool and invited us to go and pick fruit at her house. I don't really like fruit but she had 4 kids and a dog, which were much more fun to play with then a couple of oranges and grapefruits. The dog reminded me of casper, the dog's name was Wubbie and it looked like a longer hair, dirtier casper. It made me miss my puppy/brother:( After everyone was done picking the trees we came back to the dorm, and now we are going to whach the movie Defiance, a movie about the holocaust and how people rebelled against the Nazis. It is going to be interesting, and I am looking forward to it. Other then that life is still good, and I am still loving this experience. I regret nothing, and if I had to choose again I would do the same exact program.

Created by Susan Gurstel_THANK YOU!

Wubbie!!!

Ba-Ba (Bye- but I think he is messing with me)

Holocaust Education and more, plus soccer

Todays language of the day: English brought to you by lack of computer power

Hello my fellow friends,

Today was a day full of education that lasted for 8 hours today. We started out the day talking about the the reason why Hitler came into power, and then slowly progressed into the anti-semetic laws that went against the jews of Europe. I knew most of the information, but there were a couple eye-opening things that I never heard about. Tomorrow we are going to one of the Holocaust museums that show the rebellious actions of the Jewish people. I am looking forward to this tiyul because I don't know much about how the jews rebelled against the Nazis, and what progress they made in their attacks. Also today  I was able to play soccer again with the Israelis. We played a game of world cup and I showed them once again that I am a force to be reckoned with. After soccer I played basketball with all the boys on our trip. I played my usual kind of game, I made 4 three's and missed all of my lay-ups, I am getting used to it. That is pretty much it, life is good, and I want to stay here longer.

Goodbye everyone.

Regular day

Todays language of the day: French brought to you by Emily Eigler

Bonjour (hello)

Today was very boring, same as usual. We had CORE class for first part of the day and then I had regular sequential classes. The memorable parts of the day include Gila letting me go from Spanish class and telling me I am doing very well in her class. It made me happy. Another thing that was pretty awesome is that Gabe, Isaac, Noah Bernstein, and I decided to play "wall-ball" with a basketball and a 90 degree wall that is facing our dorm and the australians dorm. It was super fun and we got really into the game, and by the end of the game almost everyone was playing the makeshift wall game. Other then that the day was pretty chill, I kind of liked it like that. Well thats pretty much it, I have nothing else to say, other than I am wearing a kippah now. It is really cool, and I think I am going to wear for the rest of the trip. I am going to wear it not only because it brings me closer to Judaism, but Izzy is going to buy me two more kippahs if I can wear it the whole entire trip! And I kind of want another one. Oh and by the way the kippah is Boots from Dora, and I really want a blues clues kippah before the end of the trip

Adieu (farewell)

Jerusalem, What are the odds?

Today's language of the day: Botswanian brought to you Isaac

Dumella mrr (Hello)

Today was awesome. It started out with me waking up at 9:30 a.m, I was able to wake up so late due to the fact that Gila said I didn't have to go to class today. I LOVE YOU GILA. Then I woke up and took a nice long hot shower. Then mosey and I started to study for our AP euro test, and went over the sheets of work that Don gave us to study. It turned out the test was easy, and all we had to do was tell the definition and significance of the main principles in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Then after class we only had a round 30 minutes to pack and get everything ready to go to Jerusalem, luckily we left on time and I don't think I forgot anything. Then we took an hour bus ride of the city of Jerusalem. Our first stop, even before the hostel we went to the Machena Yehuda Shook in Jerusalem. It is my favorite place in Israel, by far. I love the atmosphere and the different people you see around every corner. Also it was friday in the shook, so everything was in full swing, and the streets resembled the State fair in Minnesota. The reason why I wrote as the title of the blog" what are the odds" is because of what I saw in the shook. So after we got dropped off by our bus driver we walked into the the shook from the main entrance, I was looking all around and all of these memories came rushing into my mind. I was looking to the right and all of a sudden I saw a familiar face, I looked again closely; it was my cousin Ryan Fish. I went over to him and we talked about how crazy it was to see each other at such a people-filled place. It was super cool, and I spent the whole rest of the day on the lookout to see if I would happen to see hime again. While we were in the shook me, Isaac, and Gabe all walked together and had our specific missions. Isaac's was to find parve arugala, Gabe's was to find a drink of some kind, and mine was of course to find the buckwheat man and get fresh buckwheat cakes. I you do not know what I am talking about their is a guy who has a "rice-cake" making machine that shoots out hot-rice cakes and then he gives them out for people to try. The best part is that it is not rice that is in the cakes, it is buck-wheat, a very delicious grain, especially when it is hot and shaped in a circle. I did not get anything while we were at the shook, but it was nice just to walk around and be home once again. After the shook we went back to the hostel and got ready to go to the Western Wall. All the girls put on their skirts and all the boys put on their nice khakis. We then all walked down to the Western Wall from our hostel (which is not that far away). Once we came the Kotel it was packed. Bodies with white kippot covered the wall and the area in front of the wall. The group then split up into the boys and the girls. I made the trek into the Western wall main area and was immediately bombarded by the praying of the Hassidic jews and also the celebrating that followed. This was my first time going to the Kotel on Shabbat, and I totally recommend it to anyone who wants to get the full experience of what being Jewish really is in the land of Israel. During the celebrating that I was mostly involved in I noticed another familiar face, it was Yossi Cats. He went to Hopkins and was now a Hassidic rabbi that was leading the celebrations at the Western Wall, it's pretty cool. He noticed Jacob who was wearing this Hopkins Hurt shirt(ultimate team). Then we started naming off all the alumni from the past Hopkins Ultimate Frisbee teams such as Justin Kaminsky, Josh Klein, Eli Leonard etc. He knew all of them. Then the second person that I recognized was Sydney Usem, who is in Israel on a Yeshiva program for 2 weeks. He was a counselor at a camp and a close friend who I see at my synagogue sometimes. It was also pretty amazing how I was able to find him in such a large crowd of people, but nonetheless we were all Jewish and celebrating Shabbat. At around 6 we left the Kotel and went back to the Hostel to have a nice Shabbos dinner. After dinner we did an activity where we got to know each other better. It was kind of like speed-dating, and I met all the girls and had a nice meaningful conversations with all of them; the activity tightened our bond as a group. After dinner we had a nice session for chilling and just relaxing. I went on the roof with a couple people and we looked out and saw the pretty view of the city and talked about our up's and down's in life. It was eye-opening, and It made me feel really great ful for what I have today. Now I am going to bed and tomorrow morning I am going with my CORE teacher to an Orthodox synagogue, I am so excited, it has been one of my dreams to do ever since I was able to sing the Sh'ma:)

Sala sentle(Bye)

Judaism

Hello everyone, thought I would give you something different. I had to write an essay on my Jewish values, so here it is...

A Jew Today - A Personal Story

By: Max Sandler

            I believe that my idea of Judaism is very unique and one of a kind. I live in Minnesota where there is not a massive Jewish population in the state, but yet they are noticeable. I like to think of myself as an orthodox conservative, if that makes any sense. I think this because I follow the ways of conservatism and its core values and beliefs, but on the other hand I think of myself as much more religious and spiritually close to God and Judaism than the average conservative Jew is today. I feel that certain things make me more Jewish. A key aspect for me is that I go to synagogue every week. I volunteer at my local synagogue for four hours a week every Shabbos(SMP, Saturday Morning Program), and tutor 5^th graders preparing for their bar-mitzvahs, and also growing to become better Jews. I was once in their shoes, as a sprouting young child, and all I remember was how cool/awe-inspiring the tutors were; and I knew from the first day that I wanted to move up in the ranks at SMP and tutor kids one day also. Another reason why I tutor kids is for both the fun and Jewish experience that I get, I love working with kids, and its even better when you are teaching them something important, like Torah trope. Another main reason why I think as myself as a stronger Jew is because I keep Kosher. My dad lived his whole entire life kosher and my mom “converted” to kosher-ism when they got married. It is my way of life, and I couldn’t imagine living any other way. I don’t know what it is but it makes me feel special, like I am one a kind. It may sound strange to people that I have never eaten a cheese-burger or had bacon, but its me, and if my parents gave the decision to me if I wanted to stay kosher in my life, I would most definitely stay the way I am; and I would also say thank you to my parents for raising me kosher. The value that I most recognize myself with in Judaism is celebrating the Jewish holidays, but most importantly having Shabbat every weekend with my family. The holidays are my favorite part of the year, by far. I love coming together with my outer family members and enjoying each others company while celebrating the Jewish holiday. It may sound weird but my favorite holiday is Passover, and the reason behind this is that it s different and makes you think about both your past, present, and future life. That’s what I like about Judaism; it opens your eyes to all of your surroundings. On Passover we learn about the Jews in Egypt, and we symbolize this struggle by eating the unleavened bread, matzo, and restricting ourselves from food that rises. For me its very interesting to step into the shoes of these people living in Egypt awaiting to take back the land of Israel, and I love how we can commemorate their true bravery by stepping into their shoes and “struggling” with them. Passover is my favorite holiday, by a long shot. My second favorite holiday is Shabbat. I believe that everyone should have the same connection that I have with my family, it is truly awesome to have such a perfect family who is so close to one and other. I feel that Shabbat is what binds all of us together. The week may have been the worst 5 days of our lives, but we always end the long period of time together, as one family. We sing the prayers on Shabbat, light the candles, and eat fresh homemade Challah made by the best cook in the world, my mom. The spiritual connection is fantastic. It is my day of rest and I resist to day any homework and restrict myself from going out with friends and doing rigorous activity. Once school ends on Friday I all of a sudden get butterflies in my stomach and happiness sweeps over my body. I am not only happy that the week is over, but I am happy that Shabbat is coming. Shabbat may be 52 times in a year, but I treat like it only comes once in a millennium. One word to describe my attitude towards Shabbat is Love, simple as that.

            Now lets talk about the future for myself, regarding Judaism. I have many hopes and goals for myself when I get older and what kind of Jew I want to become. My main aspiration is to be more connected to Judaism in some kind of way; it does not have to be anything specific such as studying Torah once a week or going to services every morning, but something that will make a difference on others and myself. I already feel a strong connection to Judaism, and when people ask me what I see my self as I say the following “I am a Jew”. Judaism is a defining factor in how I live my life. What I mean by this is that I base almost all of my actions from the Jewish perspective. I think to myself, would this be against or for Judaism, meaning that will it benefit me as a Jew being involved in certain situations. Jewish faith contains all of my thoughts on life. I want to be able to spread this same love for Judaism that I have. I want everybody to feel that Judaism is a part of his or her lives, and that it is very evident in how they are living. When I grow up I hope that I will keep my same values that I have today, and build on this lifestyle. I want to look back on my life when I’m older and say to myself that I made the right decisions, religiously, and not have any regrets on how I lived my Jewish life.

            I would say that Israel plays a huge part in defining who I am as a person and how I live my life as a Jew. I am a very strong believer in the idea of a Jewish state. I believe that everyone that is Jewish should at least come to Israel once in their life, and maybe even make aliyah. It is a magnificent place to be and to explore. It is packed full of Jewish heritage and history. This is so true, for example, the normal relative age for artifacts found in Israel can be around 3000 years, and they act like it is not a big deal. The cities and the stories of Israel help people discover both the struggle and the happiness the Jews have had over time. I would call myself a Zionist, because I push the idea of the Jewish state to just about everyone that I see. I want Israel to become more powerful in terms of its Judaism aspect. I believe that the country should strive to become more Jewish like it was in the old times, I want Israel to become more of a Jewish state then a state with Jews. Doing the interviews about Judaism with people on the streets today in Tel-Aviv really opened my eyes up to people’s values and beliefs towards Israel. The main thing that really surprised me is that almost all of the people would define themselves as being more Israeli than they are Jewish. I would think it would be the opposite, but their reasoning behind this value made a lot of sense. To sum up all of the peoples responses, they said that the reasone why they think that they are more Israeli is because Tel-Aviv is more like a “New-York Israel”, and has transformed into a Jewish city; and in this transformation Judaism has sort of been lost in the process. They all said that the Jewish ideals have changed over the time, and the influx of technology and modern society is affecting the Jewish population in both a negative and positive way. I was cool to see a different perspective and Judaism. These encounters also helped make my loving for Judaism much stronger, the conversations sounded like they had lost their faith and have sort of assimilated into society. And assimilation is the one thing that I never want to do ever in my life, even in things other then Judaism. My goal in life is to never conform to what society wants me to become, but to do the opposite, conform society to what I want it to become.

BYE EVERYONE, TREAT OTHERS LIKE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED.

Sickness is key to nothing.

Language of the day: Brought to you by the one and only Noah Bronstein

Ciao (Hello)

Today was a day indeed. It started out with all of us waking up at 6:15 in order to be ready for our tiyul. Our tiyul was in two separate areas. The first area was two hours away up north in a place where labor zionists began their movement and tried to rebuild the land. We had a lecture on top of the mountain, and that was around the time when I started to feel pretty sick. All of a sudden a rush sickness fell over my body while Mordechai was talking; the symptoms were runny nose, coughing, and my whole body felt like it was going to explode. I could barely walk, yet persevered through lecture. After the lecture we went towards the Lebanon border and took a nice hike through the valley bordering the two countries. It was nice but had lots of stairs, which weren't so great, since I could barely walk yet alone lift my legs up in the air. During the hike there were a lot of pretty vegetation growing everywhere and many waterfalls streaming down the cliff of the Lebanon border. After the hike we went to a graveyard that meant a lot for the zionist movements. It was a place where Rachel, a key leader of Zionism values and helped teach a lot of the foreign immigrants( from Russia mostly) how to speak hebrew. It was very interesting to see her burial and her about her inspiring story. Then we went to a city for DOTS, Dinner on the streets, and me and mosey both shared a nice big pizza. Now we are back at the campus and have to get ready for bed pretty soon, because we have another tiyul tomorrow, and I am still kind of sick and hoping to get better before tomorrow. SO good night everyone and love your family.

Salve (Bye)
P.s Hi mom and dad, I am both glad you made it back home and sad that you are back in Minnesota so soon, it was fun seeing you. See you in 4 weeks!