What does it mean to be a part of am yisrael?

Being a part of am yisrael is complicated, yet very rewarding.  There are many complex ideas and traditions that play into it.  Personally, am yisrael provides a culture as well as a religion.  Many parts of the culture that are meaningful to me are the holidays and traditional foods.  The culture is more prevalent when in Israel.  In Israel, days off of school revolve around the Jewish holidays and the main language spoken is Hebrew.  When in Israel, you do not have to go out of your way to keep up with the Jewish aspect of your life because your always surrounded by it.  This is a really cool aspect of being part of am yisrael and being in Israel also.

Another important part about being a part of am yisrael is Israel advocacy and education.  It is important to educate the non-educated and then leave them to make their own decision based on their knowledge.  This is especially important when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  People need to be educated when choosing positions on any subject, and this is very important when it affects am yisrael. 

Am yisrael provides a community that stems from ancient times.  Even though, there are disagreements sometimes, when it gets down to it everyone has each others backs.  Being a part of am yisrael means you get a culture, a community, and a lifestyle all in one. 

Anat Hoffman

Recently, Anat Hoffman came and spoke to us about her organization Women of the Wall and the other social action based activities she's involved in.  Her missions include obtaining equality for all in a way that will fall into Israeli society.  I have had a couple experiences with Women of the Wall.  My first was last winter when I got to light Hanukkah candles at the Kotel. After that we also got to have a personal talk with Anat Hoffman.  It was very interesting to hear a lot of the things she was advocating for in Israeli society.  This year I had my second experience with Women of the Wall and we went for Purim. Still it was a very cool experience.  Anat Hoffman came and spoke to our group and explained what she was about.  However, this was the same as the first talk I listened to from her.  The difference was me.  She mainly focuses on issues regarding the Kotel.  However, since being on EIE I have become aware that the average secular Israeli does not really care about Kotel rights, since it does not directly affect their everyday life.  The question was then brought up of non religious marriage and if she is fighting for any rights regarding that.  Then, she went into an explanation saying she has tried and is still currently trying, but she usually does not bring it up to American groups considering it is not something that affects us. Anat Hoffman is coming to my synagogue in June. This will be the third time I hear one of her talks and I am very curious to see how she portrays herself, Women of the Wall, and how it compares to the other talks I have heard from her. 

Yam L'Yam (Sea to Sea)

Just call me Forrest Gump because I just walked across the country.  Even though Israel may not be even close to as big as America....we still traveled the whole width.  It was so crazy fun!  So I'm basically gonna take you guys through the gist of my days. 

Day 1:
We started at the Sea of Galilee.  We did a super easy water hike and then went to our campsite.  We had a cute first night bonfire and roasted marshmallows (kosher for Passover obviously).  Then, we got to sleep under the stars.  No, we didn't have a tent, they just laid out a tarp and gave us all sleeping bags.  Quite a first camping experience. 

Day 2:
This was the hardest day of all of them.  We woke up at 6ish and started our hike about an hour later.  About an hour in, we stopped and made ourselves breakfast.  Each group is given 2 burners, a bag of apples, matzah, salami, spices, cooking oil, rice, and chocolate spread.  This is given to us each morning and we eat it for breakfast and lunch.  Also, we have to carry all of this with us, as well as 4.5 liters of water.  Let me tell ya it gets pretty darn heavy.  So, we continued to hike for the rest of the day and most of it was uphill so it was very difficult.  We took the occasional break and about an hour break for lunch.  We continued out hike until around 5 and finally made it to our campsite.  Even though the day was hard and tiring, it was still so much fun and one of my favorite days of EIE.

Day 3:
They gave us tents this night :-).  We woke up and got ready to go for another long day of hiking.  Still a super fun day.  This day we got to do self navigation, so each group got a map and a walkie talkie and had to navigate ourselves to our checkpoints along the way and our destinations.  This went interestingly because I was in charge of navigating for my group and we went to the wrong way within the first 30 seconds.  But, we ended making it to lunch perfectly fine.  On the way we passed by wild cows just roaming the forest and tons sheep being herded all by one man.  It was so cool to see.  The day was a little shorter than the previous and was still a lot of fun.

Day 4:
This day was a water hike!! So much fun.  The whole day we walked past streams and small natural pools and we would stop and get to swim and explore the secrets of them.  My friend and I discovered a waterfall and climbed up it.  It was one of the coolest experiences.  Also, the whole hike was beside and stream so we got to adventure and create our own slippery path to navigate it. 

Day 5: 
This was our last day, and do not get me wrong I loved it, but I was really looking forward to a shower, not sleeping outside, and indoor plumbing (did I mention there were no toilets unless you count the bushes).  This day we rode bikes and finally made it to the Mediterranean sea.  It was so cool to be able to look into the distance and see the approaching sea.  Then, we rode our bikes right up to the sea and were able to run and jump into the ocean.  It was soo much fun and definitely made it on my list of most fun  days.

Yam L'Yam was challenging and very rewarding.  The distance we traveled on foot everyday was a crazy accomplishment for all of us.  It was so much fun and a great experience.

Still in Israel!!!!!

Hello fellow humans! Nice to make your acquaintance.  I just have so much anticipation to update everyone on my past week.  However, first I must begin by telling you guys that I got back from Poland about a week ago. It was an intense experience, but no worries I will try to communicate my feelings and the horrors to the best of my ability.  These will be in an essay that I am writing for Jewish history.

On a lighter note, the past week has been choc full of wonderful times and activities.  We had Sunday off since we got back to the Kibbutz at the ripe ole time of 5 am.  Also, let me tell ya there is nothing like coming back to a home as amazing as Israel after a lengthy and draining trip.  Then, we had school for a couple days, but even school in Israel is a billion times better than school in the US.  We two trips last week, which include a tiyul (trip) to the north and to Tel Aviv.  We went to the Kinneret aka the Sea of Galilee.  It's so beautiful there.  During this tiyul, we went to the first Kibbutz in Israel, which was established in 1909 (my mom and dad may remember that) (lol because they are old), it was very interesting to see all the hard work and struggles that people went through in order to create this settlement.  We also got a super beautiful view over the yam (sea).  Do my Hebrew skills impress you yet?

Another tiyul we went on was to Tel Aviv!!! Yay, it was super, super fun.  My Jewish history teacher is a certified tour guide (he also has a secular wife) (that needed to be included because everyone on EIE with me will get the joke).  He took us on a graffiti tour in his neighborhood, so he basically knew it like the back of his hand.  He lives in a "super hipstery" (his words) part of Tel Aviv called Florentine.  The graffiti encasing the neighborhood ranges from artwork belongs in a museum to a pre-schooler trying to write his/her name for the first time.  Regardless, the whole place has a ton of personality and seems to be an amazing place to live.  We also got some free time to walk around Tel Aviv by ourselves (woot, woot party!!).  It is so amazing to experience the rush to complete the shopping for Shabbat and be in the shuk (the market) while this is taking place.  Everything about it just intensifies the love I have for being here, because there is just something different in the air. I will not be able to feel that once I get home. We ended our week with a Shabbat service themed around friendship, which just seems so fitting.

Some miscellaneous things that I would like to include are EIE is halfway over :-( .  I love it here (if you were not aware yet).  My friends here are amazing.  I am just learning so much all the time.  This upcoming week we are going on two more tiyuls; one to Tel Aviv and one to Jerusalem to see a jail (????).  These are supposed to be super fun and interesting.  Also, MY BIRTHDAY IS FRIDAY!!!! WOOHOO! That's about it for now, catch ya on the flip side!

Hello everyone, I missed you!
sorry I haven't blogged in a while I just got rescued from a juvenile detention center in Siberia.
It was hard, but educational, just like my time in Gadna. So if you aren't aware Gadna is a week long taste of the Israeli army, which many Israeli teens experience to prepare them for the army. While many people use Gadna to release enough tears to fill an entire ocean, I had an amazing experience.
I had so much fun messing with my commander, and tryimg to make her laugh when she tried to be super serious in front of us. However, I succeeded in making her laugh and smile on several occasions. Also, just a little tip if you plan on going to the IDF, they do not enjoy it when you march behind them or salute them.

Some of the highlights of my Gadna experience include, painting my face with mud, engineering the construction of my tent, cleaning the dinning room and kitchen for 5 hours (well kind of), braiding the Israeli girls hair, and trying to make friends with my commander (and failing :-( ) . I loved braiding the Israeli girls' hair, failing to make friends with my commander, cleaning the dinning room and kitchen for the first 15 minutes, then I proceeded to lead my group in many musical performances including (but not limited to) High School Musical, Camp Rock, and Annie. But above all I just enjoyed living the life of the IDF soldiers.

Just like in regular life, not everything in army life is perfect. Sometimes you need to put your big girl panties on and shoot the gun (literally). Shooting a gun was not fun, it made me sad. Also, sleeping in a tent while the big bad wolf is trying to blow your tent down, is not ideal, but thanks to my panties I got over it and had an overall fantastic time during Gadna.

This article is about the interactions between Goliath and Saul.  Both of these men are very easily defined.  Saul is certaintly worthy and capable of being a king, while Goliath relates more with a warrior.  Throughout the article, it is able to communicate a sense of the connection or lack of between apperances and reality.  Then, everyone is thrown off by the misconception of looks when David, who is only a shepard, turns out to be one of the most accomplished kings and warriors in the Israelite society.  A quote written in the artcle: "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him; for it is not as man seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" is able to identify the main theme that is being communicated in the story of Goliath and Saul.  David, who ends up winning in the end, owes his success not to God, but to his faith in God. 

The last sentence of the article perfectly defines the whole things and relates it back to life today. "When thinking about world conditions today, and in particular about the real sources of Israel’s strength as a nation, careful readers of the David and Goliath story might do well to bear in mind its central message: things are not always as they are seen, or as others wish us to see them." This quote is saying that sight is a bias sense to rely on.  If you rely too much on it, you could morph the reality into what you wish was there.  This is important to realize and be aware of in life.  Everyday, people are judged based upon their looks, gender, and the color of their skin.  Based on this, people's oppurtinity's are either dimished or increased depending of the other person's judgement of them.  This is a problem because the person may not always be suitable for the position or whatever

David's Secret Weapon Article

As many people know, David and Goliath both competed in an epic battle.  Within this story, there is a theme of defining people based on their appearances.  David, who is a shepherd, was thought to not have the ability to become king.  However, he soon becomes one of the greatest kings the Israelites have ever seen.  The idea of not judging someone based on their appearances or your immediate judgement is very important.  They also related this idea to the modern day society. "When thinking about world conditions today, and in particular about the real sources of Israel’s strength as a nation, careful readers of the David and Goliath story might do well to bear in mind its central message: things are not always as they are seen, or as others wish us to see them."  This idea is very important considering Israel appears to be a very small, insignificant county.  However, they really are a center for technological developments and other advancements that are being used around the world.  In modern times and from the biblical period, the idea of not defining things based on their first appearance is still prevalent, and will always be no matter the time period.     

We have successfully completed our second week in Israel!!  Time is really flying by so quickly; its crazy.  I already feel like I've known these people for years.  I guess that's what happens when you spend all day everyday with  people..... okay anyway this was the first week when we started going on Tiyuls.  A tiyul is basically a trip, some are half days and some are full days.  On half day trips, we still have our general studies classes in the afternoon.

So, I'm sure everyone is curious about what I have done on these trips so far because you are all living vicariously through me so I will begin to describe them now.  So, last Sunday we went to a Tel.  A tel is a civilization on top of civilization on top of civilization and so on.  It was super cool see some of the advanced structures that have lasted so long (like older than my parents long) (love you mom and dad).  That was a half day tiyul so we still had all of our classes afterward.

On to the next trip, we went to Sataf.  This was so cool and beautiful.  First, we had to walk like three miles to get there.  Totally ridiculous that they made us walk there in the morning, right?  Actually, that's what I thought going into it, but turns out the hike was one of the highlights of the trip.  During this tiyul we explored some of the irrigation systems that were used way-back-when to water the crops.  Now, this isn't your typical flat group farm.  It's more set up as shelves upon shelves of crops in a line.  So, we got super deep into the water streams and we ended up exploring caves, and some of them were so small you were literally (not figuratively) crawling on your hands and knees through them.

Our next, and one of my favorite trips, was an archeological dig.  For anyone that has heard me say the world archeological, you know that my pronunciation is hilarious.  So, for now on every time I say archeological, picture it in my voice.  We explored excavated tunnels from the ancient times that people used to live and hid from their enemies in.  It was crazy how small the spaces were.  I asked our tour guide if I could move into one for a day, and she told me they didn't have WIFI down there so I immediately rescinded my request. Along with the tunnels we did some digging and found a few bones and pieces of pottery.  Also, we had the chance to explore some ancient burial caves.  This trip was very fun and I also have to say, I learned a lot.

Friday, I had a chance to go off the Kibbutz.  I went to northern Israel to a place called En Hashofet.  One of the friends I made here on EIE invited me to go with her to her grandparents house.  They live on a rather large kibbutz and it was super nice.  This opportunity was really great for me because I got to test out my sub par Hebrew skills.  But, this made me realize I know more than I think, and I can actually hold a short conversation.  I also made the effort to listen to others conversation (this is different than eavesdropping, it's for educational purposes) and try to figure out what they were saying.  My guessed turned out to not be too far off, and some were even completely correct. 

All and all everything is great (besides the food sometimes). I love my friends and everything we have done so far.  This week is looking to be hard and boring because we have full days of classes almost everyday :-(.  But, next week we are going on a 10 day trip!  Stay tuned for more.

Wednesday was National Israel Remembrance Day.  Some of the top world leaders spoke to commemorate this day.  Some of the most important people that spoke, and that were highlighted in the article was President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli ambassador to the United States Dermer.  It is a well known fact that Obama and Netanyahu are not the best of friends; however, they are still able to get business taken care of.  Obama advocates for international tolerance for the world.  In turn, this would solve Israel's constant security problem.  However, some think that it would be more beneficial to just focus specifically on the Israeli security problem as this would be an "easier" task to accomplish for an immediate fix for the Israelis.  

Specifically, this article focuses on several Holocaust speeches that were given by various high-ranking public officials.  Obama gave a very supportive speech saying "That is why like many Jews, I take great comfort in the rebirth of a sovereign Jewish state in our ancestral homeland, in the Jewish people once again having a voice, a refuge, and most importantly, the power to defend ourselves." I find it comforting that Obama gave his direct support to Israel, and that the leader of the country I live in strongly supports the existence of a Jewish state.  Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, is specifically proposing that direct Jewish support is necessary.  It is important that we are able to recognize, as the article stated, that both Obama and Dermer's views can coexist.  I really appreciate that both of these views are pro Israel, and it should provide comfort to everyone that there is support for them.

First Shabbat

We celebrated out first Shabbat in Israel! This first Shabbat was so super special because 1. it was our first one in Israel and 2. we went to the Kotel!!!! As soon as we got to the Old City, it was like I had never left from last year.  I walked right in alongside my friends and immediately began recognizing the shops and streets.  Then, we made our way to the place on the wall where it is "acceptable" for men and women to pray together.  This is where we held our very first Shabbat services as EIE Aviv '16.  Yes, I know so super cool.  Even though we were sitting freezing our butts off at the service (we sat on cold concrete steps ha ha) (not funny), the feeling of being at the wall for our first Shabbat was indescribable.  Post Shabbat services, we went to the other section of the Kotel where the men and the women have to be separated.  Let me paint you a picture, the men's side is a Gucci purse and the women's side is a satchel from Walmart.  If you aren't picking up what I'm putting down, the men's side of the wall is about double the size and quality as the women's (not even salty lol).  But that didn't diminish the great first of many Shabbats I will experience with my new, but already best friends. 

Honestly, seeing the men's side being so much bigger does kind of make me personally feel bad.  I understand that in traditional Judaism, it seems slightly out dated and misogynistic that the wall is still unequal.  Anat Hoffman, a known fighter for women's rights in Israel and leader of Women of the Wall, is an inspiration for me as a reformed Jewish woman.   

Hi everyone!! So as many of you know, I am studying in Israel with a program called NFTY-EIE for the spring semester of my junior year.  My plane landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday around 2:30pm Israeli time (so back on the East Coast it would be 7:30am).  However, not everyone from the program was there the first day due to many plane cancellations after the snowpocolypse.  Anyway, not a big deal the rest of the people arrived by Wednesday.  So, now we are all settled and together on Kibbutz Tzuba, our home for the next four months.  

Since we were waiting for people to arrive, we have not really done very much so far.  On Monday, since everyone was completely exhausted, we just did a couple ice breaker games with our fellow EIEers and then were free to go to bed.  Tuesday, we woke up and headed to breakfast.  Breakfast is pretty cool since it’s not the standard “pancakes and bacon”.  They serve many things, including salads with cucumbers and tomatoes (Israeli Salad), pita bread, and chocolate filled croissants.  After, we prepared some posters for some of the people arriving that day.  Lunch is also an interesting experience.  So far, I have basically eaten the same things for lunch and dinner.  I usually eat schnitzel, rice, and hummus.  I would say it’s excellent.  However, one of the nights we were served pizza with corn on it!! It was super weird; I would not say it’s my favorite.  

Wednesday, we were given an orientation to our classes.  First, we were placed into Hebrew classes.  The range of Hebrew skills is from fluent to not knowing anything.  We had our first Jewish History class Wednesday, too.  It seems pretty tough, but our teacher said as long as we put in a lot of effort we will be fine. :-)  We were given our general studies schedule and introduced to our teachers.  They all seem super nice and classes start on Thursday.  Sooooo excited (lol not)!!!!!!!!!

Well, everything is so super fun so far, and I am ecstatic to be here.  I have made so many new friends and memories already, and I cannot wait to make more!  I can’t wait to tell y’all (as my new Texas friend says) more and especially about our first trip, which is coming up soon!!

The idea of being surrounded by so many people just like me is surreal. I have never been in an area which is so densely populated by people that share and hold the same beliefs and values as me. The new things I have experienced within just the past couple days are countless, and I am sure they will only increase. The people here are great and I am so excited to continue with the rest of my adventures.

Shalom (for now :-)) ,

Amber Soffer