Here and There

Hello People,

So where am I? Right now I am in Tel Aviv, but we will get to that later. I have been down south in the Arava at Kibbutz Yahel. We arrived Monday Tuesday morning and had a great welcome tour where we learned about the Kibbutz and ate some Pomellos... which is a citrus fruit they grow there. They are delicious. We then unpacked the bus, moved into our rooms, and had some rest time. Wednesday morning, we joined together as a group, and started our kibbutz orientation. We learned about what all we're going to be doing, and decided as a group how we would build our own Netzer community among the larger Kibbutz community. Every week, we will work three and a half days, have educational classes one day,and take a trip off of the Kibbutz every Wednesday, and then we usually have Shabbat chofesh (free day). Every week will be busy and very exciting, and I'm excited to get involved in and learn more about the Kibbutz. We then had a chance to shop for some groceries and get started on dinner. On the kibbutz, we only eat communal meals in the Chadar Ochel  (dining hall) during lunch, so that leaves us to cook dinner and prep breakfast as individual rooms (mine being a room of three guys)... but thankfully our cooking hasn't been to horrible yet.

Thursday morning we got to work. Our first day of work, we were given special placement, and for about 5 hours we stood around tables peeling and wrapping sticker labels for fancy dates. There were supposedly 11,000 to complete, and while we didn't quite reach the goal, we go pretty close.  After working Thursday morning, we had lunch and then got started with Hebrew lessons. We first took a placement test, and it was pretty rough for most of the group. Out of 33, there were probably only 3-4 who made it past the first few questions.

After class Thursday, the weekend started, and 4 of us decided to take a bus to Tel Aviv. Its really nice having good public transportation, and there was a bus stop right outside the gates of our Kibbutz. When I got to Tel Aviv, I met up with my friend Ori, from camp GUCI, and he has been a wonderful host to the city. Yesterday, Friday, we spent the whole day around the town, starting with an incredible hummus place in Old Jaffa, where only the locals go... it was quite possibly the best hummus I've ever had. Then we walked around a lot, saw some flee markets, ran some errands at the mall (since the Kibbutz is in the middle of nowhere), and eventually showed up at his parents art galley. His family owns a really neat art gallery right in the center of town, and I really liked the sculpture garden, but the real reason we went was to meet up with my parents, who were in Tel Aviv for the day and wanted to see the gallery and me! It was good to see them but sad to say goodbye (even though it was like the 4th time we said goodbye!) I joined Ori's family last night for shabbat dinner at his grandparents house, and had a great meal and very interesting conversations.

Today, I'm just relaxing, and I will catch a bus back to Yahel tonight, ready to start more work on the kibbutz and learn more Hebrew. This next week will be a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to see what our Tiyul (day trip) on Wednesday will have in store!

 I will leave you with a picture of a Pomello... its sort of like a sweet grapefruit.

-Ethan

we are here

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem!

So we had our first visit to the Old City today, which was pushed along by a photo scavenger hunt. We had lots of fun and it was very nice to be back at the Kotel, even though a bird pooped on me right as I approached the wall. My group said it was a sign... but of what? 

We then had time for shabbat prep, and we lit the shabbat candles together and walked to Kol Haneshama, a reform temple in Jerusalem. Services were good, and it was cool to see that all the tunes were similar even though everything was in Hebrew. I even saw an advisor from youth group who is now living in Jerusalem while her husband is at school. It was very funny, because we both made eye contact during the service, but had trouble figuring out how we knew each other. 

Well, that was my friday. Its nice because we have a bit of down time tonight and tomorrow, and then we finish up orientation and head south to Kibbutz Yahel. 

I'll leave you with pictures of my group in Jerusalem.

-Ethan

Jerusalem City of Gold

I would like to first apoligize for the length between the last post and now... as we have been very busy on our Klita Seminar, or week of orientation. I arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon with all of the American and a German, where we met half of the English participants. We immediately hit it off, and it was really cool to have an automatic relationship with these people because 1: were all Jewish teens and 2: we all come from very similar  Jewish youth movements. So we spent the evening relaxing and getting to know each other, but went to bed with time to sleep because we had to be ready to go at 6 am! Nothing like trying to force the jet-lag out of us. So at 6 we met up with the other British participants who arrived at 4 and had an opening ceremony for the year at a lookout point over Jerusalem. Despite the time, it was very exciting. We all joined in songs and it was amazing to see how other than some slight pronunciation difference, we all sang the same tunes and songs in our different youth movements.

So we went back to the hostel and were given some time to sleep, and after lunch, we started orientation sessions. They have continued all throughout today, and we have gone over things such as Netzer and Judaism, Israel, Security Protocol, Technical procedures, and more, and we all feel ready to actually start. Tonight, we had a chance to hear from and present to each other about our youth movements. It was really cool, and everybody was blown away to hear that NFTY (from the USA) had over 8000 participants every year. This was especially wild to Netzer Barcelona participants who have never had more than 80 (but they are very new, and partially on this program to learn how to go back and grow).

So tomorrow, we have a tiyul, or trip into the Old City of Jerusalem with some former Shnat Netzer participants, and this should be fun... and then we have shabbat. We will be going to the largest reform congregation in Israel, so it should be quite an adventure. Ill have much free time in the next two days (shabbat) so I will hopefully update you with more, and pictures, so check back soon.

Out-
Ethan

I'm Here!

Things are great. Got into Tel Aviv yesterday, and had a night for a good meal and some R&R. This morning, I met the Americans and the German participant at the airport, then headed to Jerusalem. I am now in a room with 3 British and 1 German participant. We will meet more British kids tomorrow and the group will be full at 33 participants. We will start official orientation tomorrow with everybody, but for now things are pretty relaxed and we're getting to know each other.

It was great to drive into Jerusalem today, things look pretty much the same here as two years ago... very lively and I'm ready to explore. Bye for now!

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm sitting at JFK Gate 6 waiting to board... and I dont have much to say. I'm excited and nervous, and really really sleepy. My goal for the next day is to get to Israel safely and find a comfortable sleeping position. I think there is wifi on the plane, so I may post again, but if not, then more is to come in Israel.

I get to Israel Monday and will spend the afternoon and night with my parents and their group, then Tuesday morning I head off to Jerusalem for orientation. I cannot wait... Talk to you later!

Peace Out~
Ethan

A question.

Should the font be like this?

Or should it be like this?

Coming soon to Israel: Ethan Bennett

Well, I'm a few days out here... and trying to keep sanity while packing and doing everything else I want to before I leave. My official departure date is 10.10.10, which is kind of cool. I have an evening flight, so I will get into TLV sometime mid Monday.  As promised in the last post, I will tell you more about the program I am on and as much of the actual itinerary of the year as I know.


Here we go.
I will be participating in the Shnat Netzer (Netzer Year) gap year program. This program is run my Netzer Olami, which is a Hebrew acronym for Noar Tzioni Reformi Olami, or the Reform Zionist Youth of the World. There are different youth movements throughout the world who are part of it, one being NFTY (the North Am. Federation of Temple Youth), which I have been a part of since 7th grade. So in addition to the 6 US participants, there will be people from RSY and LJY (the two British movements, standing for Reform Synagogue Youth and Liberal Jewish Youth), Netzer Russia, Netzer Australia, and others. One of the reasons I picked this program is because of the international factor.


So to the schedule. When I arrive in Israel, after a night in Tel Aviv, I will be heading for a week of orientation in Jerusalem, where I will meet other Northern Hemisphere participants and learn more about the year's plan. From Jerusalem, I head south to Kibbutz Yahel, a Reform Kibbutz in the Negev. I will be living and working on the kibbutz. I am very excited to experience and learn more about Kibbutz life. I am told we will be working as date packers, which will definitely be a fun learning experience. After Kibbutz, I will be headed up north to a city called Karmi'el. It's website can be found here: http://www.karmiel.muni.il/openningeng.asp .
In the beautiful city of Karmiel, I will be volunteering in a wide range of opportunities, more of which I will tell you about later. After Karmiel, I will head to Jerusalem, and will be on a 4 month leadership development program called Machon L'madrichei Chutz La'aretz (Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad). Here I will learn about many things all guiding towards the idea of being a Jewish leader (in any form). I am very excited for this program, and cannot wait for the opportunity to learn from people who are just like, and completely different, than myself.


Well thats a glimpse of my year to come. I'm super pumped and know it will be great. Let me know if you have any questions. I am going to leave you with a picture of the date palms at Yahel. Yum.






Im out~
Ethan