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