My end of the trip slide show

I will be showing you the slide show of our whole trip.

Last trip to the Old City

Today we went to the Old City.  We went to the Wall (Kotel) for the last time.  We wrote another note and put it into the wall.  But I can't tell you what I wrote.  On the way there we went to Max Brenner's in the Mamilla Mall and got a chocolate syringe. It was amazing!

Lacrosse at Kraft Stadium

these are the lacrosse players

this is the lacrosse band

Yesterday night we saw a lacrosse game.  It was the first organized lacrosse game EVER in Israel.  It was really really cool because we got to play a little lacrosse.  We got to shoot a goal on the goalie and I scored!  It was very fun.

My friend Tzvi

I  met a friend a sports camp named Tzvi.  We became very good friends and even had a sleepover.  We had so much fun together.  Tzvi fell asleep during the movie at family night and I wanted to say goodbye to him so we had to wake him. 

this is me and Tzvi

All Star Sports Camp Family Night

A few days ago we went to Kraft Stadium where we have our camp to do Family Night.  First we played dodgeball, kids against parents.  Then we tested Coke, RC, and Pepsi to see if we could tell which was which.  It was kind of hard.  My dad was very good at it.  After that I played a little more dodgeball and after we watched a movie called Space Jam.  And then we went home.

Mitnapchim! In English, Bounce Houses!

A few days ago at All Star Sports Camp we had bounce houses.  A few of them had water and a few were just slides.  But we had SO MUCH FUN! 

That's me with a few of my friends.

This is me waiting in line for the Titanic, the steepest slide.

This is a counselor on a mini-slide.

This is the steepest non-wet slide.

Shabbat in Ofra

On our trip with the congregation, we had two tour guides and we went to one of their houses in Ofra which is a place in the suburbs of Jerusalem.  It is considered a settlement.  I will post an article about Ofra from Wikipedia:

"Ofra's establishment was part of a struggle between the Gush Emunim settlement movement, which was founded in February 1974, and the Israeli Labor government, which opposed Israeli settlement amid densely populated Palestinian areas. The establishing group first obtained jobs at a nearby military base on Mount Baal Hatsor, then in April 1975 got permission to sleep over in the abandoned barracks of a Jordanian army base, but then brought in their families and raised an Israeli flag. Though opposed by then Prime Minister, Rabin, and perhaps because of his opposition, Ofra was given the political backing by Shimon Peres, then a leading member of Rabin's government. After the Labour Party was defeated by the Likud Party in the 1977 Israeli election, the new government recognized Ofra as a community and paving the way for expansion into the surrounding hills."

I will post a few pictures of the park that we went to there.  The slide was steep but the material was very slow.  We met some kids at the park and they were nice but they only spoke Hebrew so we had a little trouble communicating.  But it was okay.  Then we met a kid from Canada but his parents were from Russia.  He spoke English and Russian but that's it.  That's it for now.   Here are some pictures.

This is the Ofra playground.

This is me in the tour guide's house.

That's just a view of Ofra.

sports camp/lame camp

For the past few weeks we have been going to two camps.  First we went to a camp called Camp Shelanu which means "camp that belongs to us."  It was very very lame.  The only good part about it was we swam for two hours every day.  Then we went to a sports camp called All Star Sports Camp.  It is tied for first with another sports camp, Cal Blue Camp.  You play sports all day and I looooove sports.  Almost everybody speaks English at this camp.  Not at Camp Shelanu.

Yemenites

We went to a Yemenite synagogue one Shabbat and it was very different.  They did a translation of the Torah reading in Aramaic which is an ancient language.  We got a piece of gum from the gabbai which is the person who gives out the honors and stuff like that.

TBA Congregational Trip

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while but here's a little about the trip that we took with our congregation which is a community of Jewish people who come and pray together.

The first day was Tuesday, June 21st.  My dad grew a beard to pretend that he was turning into a Hasidic Jew, somebody who is very very religious.  I saw my friends for the first time and I was so excited.  We went out to look at the Old City which is an old city that King David built.

Then the next day was Wednesday and we went through Hezekiah's tunnels which brought water into Jerusalem long ago.  It was really really cool because it was really cold on a hot day and although it was 45 minutes long, it was really fun.  The tunnels still have water in them, but don't drink it!  Before Hezekiah's tunnels, we watched a 3D movie about when King David was alive.  After that, we went to an archeological site and found a bunch of things like pottery, money from way back in the days, and glass.

The next day we explored the Old City and then we did a scavenger hunt.  A lot of people got all the answers right, but only two families won.  Then we went to a Western Wall museum and we were right next to what used to be the holiest place on Earth for Jews, the Beit Migdash.

The next day everybody went to the Holocaust Museum which in Hebrew is called Yad Vashem.  But the kids, like me, went to the zoo.  Then we went to Machane Yehuda which is the most famous shopping market in Israel.  That night we did a service, just the congregation, and my dad, the rabbi.  And I said that I wanted more RUACH!  Which is spirit in English.

Saturday was Shabbat and I don't have anything to say about that.

On Sunday, we went to the Dead Sea which is the saltiest body of water on Earth.  Then we went to Masada which is when King Herod lived in the mountains.  Then we went to Ein Gedi which is a place where you go into waterfalls, pretty small though, and hike up and swim. 

The next day we went to Tsfat.  A few people got tallits there, which are prayer shawls.  Then we met soldiers but the kids were in "army training" which was pretty hard.  We had to get into a full crescent in five seconds.  If we talked we had to stand on our toes and fingertips until they said stop. 

Then we went to a bomb shelter in the Golan Heights.  Then we went to an amazing chocolate factory called de Karina where you can make your own chocolate.  After that, we went to a movie and a map.  The movie was about sensing Golan.  They had all the senses like Hear Golan and they had sounds like they had raindrops "plop plop plop."  Then we went to a map and we saw colors like red, orange, blue going across the map.

The next day we went to an ancient Roman city called Bet Shean.  Then we went to Tel Aviv and went to the Mediterranean Sea which is one of the only beaches in Israel.

Then we went to Independence Hall which is the most important place in Israeli history because that is where Israel was declared a state in 1948.  It was supposed to be small, just Israel would know about it, and maybe some of the Arab countries, but THE WHOLE WORLD knew in 5 days!  Then we went to the Na Lagaat, Please Touch in English where we went into a very dark room that had NO light and you saw what it was like for blind people.  You had to make something out of clay only using your hands, not your feet!  And not your eyes.  I made the Western Wall and I tried to make an Israeli flag but it didn't come out the way I wanted it to.  Then we went to a hotel and did a last day ceremony and my dad made a slide show which I am going to show you in this post. 

Then we got on the bus back to Jerusalem.  I miss my friends.  :-( 

This is the archeological dig.

This is us going down into Hezekiah's tunnels.

This my friend Ethan with his dad and granddad.

This is a cute girl named Miriam at the zoo next to a monkey.

This is me in the Dead Sea with my mom.

That is me at Ein Gedi.

That is me with my friend Leah at Ein Gedi.

This is all the kids at Masada.

This is the kids at the zoo.

This is me at Masada.

This is me and Leah at the Abuhav synagogue in Tzfat.

That is at Tzfat candles and it's Noah's Ark.

That's my mom and dad with a soldier.

This is the chocolate tasting when we got to taste the chocolate at de Karina.

This is me and Marissa at Kibbutz Gonen.

That's me, Leah, and Josh being scared next to the sculpture.

This is me with a bunch of teenage girls who I sang for and loved me.

This is me and Micah with As and Giants shirts and Israeli soldiers.

This is us at Bet Shean sitting on the "toilets."

This is at Independence Hall where Israel was declared a state.

This is a sample of the sculptures we made at Na Lagaat in the dark.

This is the view of Tel Aviv.

This is me and Micah on the balcony in Jerusalem.

This is us in the hot tub at Kibbutz Gonen.

This is me with some older girls at the winery.

This is me with my friends Leah and Ethan.

Trip with Temple Beth Abraham

This week I've been on a big trip with my synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham.  I'll write more later, but here are some cool pictures.

Hezekiah's Tunnels with my buddies Ethan and Leah

At Western Wall

Floating in the Dead Sea

Ein Gedi

Masada

Synagogue in Safed

With my brother Micah and some Israeli soldiers.

With some older girls who liked my singing

                                                 

I'm on the Radio!

This is the host of the morning show which I was on.  His name is Adam.  

So, for the last two Sundays I have been on an English radio station called Rusty Mike Radio.  I had a private Hebrew lesson with the person who is trying to make a business out of the Ulpan (Hebrew language school) that my parents are going to, and he's on the radio every morning.  So I got to be on the radio.  He does "K'tzat Ivrit," which means "a little Hebrew," and he teaches the listeners a word.   The first word was l'hishava, which means to swear.  Not like to curse, but like to pledge.  They recorded me saying:  "Hi, this is Jonah, and you're listening to Rusty Mike Radio."  Every so often they play it during the day.

This Shabbat we did a sleepover trade with the family below, called the Greybers, who we knew from Camp Ramah.  My friend Benjamin slept over at my house, and my brother went to their house with his friend Alon.

The Bloom and Greyber boys on Yom Hazikaron,  Israel's Memorial Day

I'm starting to learn more Hebrew in school.  I met a friend from school at the park the other day.  His name is Benyamin, and he speaks French.  But we played some soccer together, so we didn't need to say much.  Then I said I wanted to go home because I was hot.  At that moment, when I was walking I felt something coming out of my nose.  I wiped, and there was blood on my hand.  We had no tissues to wipe it with, so I just had to pinch the bridge of my nose, and that stopped the bleeding.  

Our Little Mini Trip

Ok, so we've been on a trip for the past few days, and we went to a few places.  First, we went to the desert, called the Negev and rode camels.  On the way there we stopped at a tank museum.

 Next, we went to a kibbutz which is a place where people live and it is like a mini-town.  The first thing we did was settle in and we had a great Shabbat dinner which was very big.  I ate chicken schnitzel, also meaning breaded chicken.  The next morning we went to Shabbat services which is a place where Jews pray.  We met some very nice people that my dad and mom knew.  They were from Cranston, Rhode Island.  Then we went back to the kibbutz and we had another BIG meal except it was lunch and the people who were were staying with invited their whole extended family and there were about 14 people there.  In the afternoon we just hung around and in the night we did a special holiday called Lag B'Omer.  We made bow and arrows out of sticks that were lying on the ground.  And there was a huge fire and they put a huge block of wood on there and it got even bigger.  Then I played soccer with some Israelis who were only six and they were better than me.  Israeli talent, I guess!

The next day we left the kibbutz and went to Tel Aviv.  And then we went to some museums which were very fun but were sad too.  The first one was the IDF Museum.  It had tanks and other cool army stuff.  The IDF is Israeli Defense Forces.  Then we went to the Yitzchak Rabin Museum.  He was a famous prime minister and he made peace in Israel.  We had these little headphones and a tour guide and it was translated into English.  Then we went home.