Wednesday, July 20, 2011

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.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

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.