Goodbye!

Hey Everyone

This is my last blog post from Israel. These past few days have been the strangest, saddest, and happiest days of my life. 

Let me start by giving an update. There were two planes for going back to America. The first goes to the East Coast and the most of the midwest. The second is the California and random places flight. I am on the second flight. The people on the first flight left a couple hours and it was most likely the saddest thing I have ever experienced and has been the first time I've cried in a loooooooong time. Through leaving my friends and family in America, all the programs here in Israel, the death camps in Poland, and everything else we've done, (we've done a lot here) saying goodbye to everyone who just left was the worst. I love those people so much and am already thinking about seeing them again. 

Currently there are about 30 of us left for the next flight and were chilling on the kibbutz for the day because our plane doesn't leave till tonight. This is the strangest I have ever felt physically and emotionally. I have got about 18 hours of sleep the past 5 days including 1 last night. I feel pretty nauseous from crying for a couple hours. And I haven't eaten anything today. All the crying makes you a little dehydrated and add it all up and that is my physical state. The emotional state is much worse. I already talked about loving everyone so much but it goes on for so much more. When will I come back to Israel? When will I see my friends again? Am I happy about going back to Dallas? Is EIE really ending? Did I do everything here that I wanted? There are so many questions and weird feelings going through my head right now and I don't know what to think. Right now, everything is terribly depressing and Tzuba is empty. As much as I love Israel and my friends and everything this feeling is horrible and inescapable and I want it to end. If I sound despondent, I'm not. I know I'll get over everything and life will go on but right now everyone doesn't know what to do. 

I'm only sad because EIE has been amazing. I enjoyed just about every minute of it and everything has been amazing. I keep on thinking about my brother coming home and talking about EIE and talking about his friends and his experience and then I remember that we are different people. I came to Israel and had my own experience and it was amazing. I made friends with people across the country and I'm closer with some of them than I ever thought. I learned enough Jewish History to overflow my brain. (Me and my friend Andrew make Jewish history jokes all the time and no one back home will be able to understand them. Its funny because they are so nerdy and dumb but also because we understand them. Heres an example

So its shmona b'av fools day and Yochanan ben-Zaki and Eleizar ben-Yair are chilling in a mikvah getting purified. Yochanan goes over to Elezair and says "Hey! The temple is destroyed. Haha. Just kidding. Shmona b'av fools day." Yair then proceeds to stab him in the back. 

If you understood that then col hacvod.  What makes it funny for us on EIE is that just about everyone understood that joke, even if they didn't get every detail.) This has been an experience I will never forget and I'm so happy I came.

When I do get home there will be a few positives. (This is me being positive.) There will be Mexican food, Wilma, privacy, my family and friends. There all going to be nice and I do miss my family and friends but leaving is so unnatural. I love EIE and I'm going to try and enjoy my last few hours. I'll be in Dallas soon and if you want to meet up just give me a call or an email. I think my email is somewhere on this account. Thank you for everything and this is my last post considering I made this for my trip to Israel. I love everyone and this has been more than amazing.

Joey Blatt

Its been a while.

 

Hey Everyone!

 

Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. There was nothing really exciting happening and then we were in the North for a couple days but now I’m back at Tzuba. This will probably be my second to last post here. I can hopefully get another one in before I leave in a couple days. It went by fast and its weird to think its coming to an end.

 

Exams are done and now I’m on summer break (kind of). My last exam was Thursday and then we went to the North on Friday. The tiyul to the North is called the security tiyul. We learn about the borders with Lebanon and Syria, the Yom Kippur War, both Lebanon Wars, and the general area. It was a lot of fun and really interesting. It was also fun to go places and learn without being the in the school setting. We joked about pulling out our notebooks and taking notes. In addition we did a lot of outdoors stuff. We swam in the Knerret, kayaked in the Jordan, and went on a walk to this waterfall thing. The waterfall was so pretty and so much fun. We walked in this field till we got this trench thing and then we walked through it and came out at this pool. Then behind that pool there was another pool with a huge waterfall. It was gorgeous. We all chilled and lay in the sun and swam. The water in the Knerret was perfect. IT was warm and clear and just a lot of fun. The kayaking was fun too. I was in a boat with a bunch of my friends and we splashed around and jumped on other people’s boats.

 

Learning about the borders was really cool. We first went to the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed after gaining in the 6-day war. I don’t want to get political but the Golan is a disputed territory between Syria and Israel. Both claim it. Luckily the border has been the quietest border since the Yom Kippur war even though there is no peace treaty with Syria. David, my teacher, was on border patrol there when he did his army reserve service there last year. He said it was pretty boring which is good. The Golan is really strategic because it’s elevated and has good land and over looks a lot of Israel and Syria. The views from the hills are really pretty. The North isn’t as green and pretty as it was during Pesach a couple weeks ago. It stopped raining and everything dried up like it does every summer. I still liked it though. It was hotter which was good and the nights weren’t as cold.

 

The Lebanon border unfortunately hasn’t been as quite as the Syrian border. There was the first Lebanon War in 1982 and the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Lebanon is a very unstable country. There have been civil wars, political assassinations, and power vacuums. Fattah came to power. Hezbollah has come to power. The Christians were kicked out of power. No one supports dictators but at least with a dictator, like with Syria and Egypt, there is stability. Not even Syria recognizes a government in Lebanon. Anyways, we learned about that border. We went to a border military base thing. There was an American there named Phil who was in charge on the base and he took us around. One really funny part was we walked to a wall, he picked up a rock and tossed it over and said with his thick Southern draw, “Lebanon.” We all kind of chuckled. But we saw the fences and the tanks and learned about the soldiers. All the soldiers were Druze and spoke Arabic and Hebrew. We went into a bunker and it was just really cool.

 

One really interesting thing we did was meet with Arab Israelis our age in the North. Arabs not in the West Bank have the same rights as Jewish Israelis but still identify with their Arab Muslim heritage before their Israeli citizenship. In the Middle East citizenship does not always equal nationality. It might be a hard concept but there are many ethnicities in the Middle East living in arbitrary borders. Back to meeting with the Arabs. They spoke Arabic, Hebrew, and a little English. Some spoke more than others. At first everyone was a little nervous because we didn’t know what to expect. But we had topic to talk about like where we live, sports, our friends, and things like that. They are normal kids living in another culture. They usually had bigger families and had different relationships with the opposite sex. It was really interesting. The most interesting question was about how they felt during the war. During the second Lebanon War there was a lot of rocket fire in the North and rocket fire is in very random. They fall on Arab villages as often as kibbutzim or anything else. They were all scared and didn’t really talk about being the minority or anything. Arab Israelis is a really sticky situation and people have been trying to solve the issues for a couple generations now. These kids were really nice and interesting though and I’m really happy we met even though it was a little awkward at first.

 

Later that day we met with a Druze man to learn about the Druze. The Druze is another ethnic group in the Middle East. They broke off from Islam in the 12 century (I think) and started their own religion. People have 73 lives but can only remember their previous life.  The religion is very close and people can’t convert or marry into the religion. If someone married another religion they lose their Druze identity. People can choose to become religious at age 15 and then they continue to learn about the religion. I hope to learn more about them because they were really interesting. The guy who talked to us was not religious but talked about his previous life. He used to be a Druze in Lebanon and when he saw the house he started crying and I think a lot of us didn’t know how to react to that. Some us were like “What the Hell?” and some were like “That’s amazing!”  The best part though was the food. The entire tiyul we were eating gross hostel schnitzel and we got sick of it real fast. The Druze brought out huge trays of food with laffa, chummus, lentils, beans, and it was amazing. I ate so much and it was one of the best meals I’ve had in Israel.  It was up there with Abu Gosh and Pesach.

 

Now were back at Tzuba. There's a really strange feeling here. We’re all dreading going home but trying to enjoy our last couple days with each other. We had a program the other night about our time here and just about every one was crying by the end of it. They also told us to start packing. The pool opened today and hopefully I’ll go soon. I also bought a really breezy Israeli white shirt and it’s awesome. I’m planning on weaning it today for Shavuot. A couple people volunteered to do a dance in front of the entire kibbutz and I’m going to do that. Then at 4 AM tonight/tomorrow morning were going to the Kotel for a big ceremony. I’m really excited. And lastly I got this really awesome poster of Ben-Gurion and Einstein chilling on a bench together with their crazy white hair and their infinite knowledge. Einstein is saying something like, “I came up with relativity and am considered the smartest person of all time.” Ben-Gurion responds by saying, “I founded the first independent Jewish state in over 2000 years and can speak 10 languages.” I can go on and on about how amazing each of them is.  

 

That’s it for now. I really want to go to the pool and I hope I can post again before I go back to Texas. And this is Reuven’s blog. I mentioned Reuven before but basically he is the smartest person whenever he walks into a room and made aliyah almost 40 years ago and never went back to American to visit or anything. He teaches here and everyone loves him.

http://malbisharumim.blogspot.com/

 

Joey

Quick Post

Hey! 

Yesterday was log b'omer which means everyone in the country lights bonfires. My class was having dinner in a park in Jerusalem with our teacher. It was a lot of fun and his band played. David's band is a cover band of Crosby, Stills and Nash. They were really good and I kind of freaked out when David first started singing. I like jumped and starting screaming because I was so excited. And then he had a solo and we all were freaking out. It was amazing.

One funny story of the night: Me and my friend, Molly, were standing by one of the fires with our other friend Emma. Then a little orthodox boy walks up to Emma and ask her to cook his hot dog for him. So Emma being a nice person gets closer to the fire and tries to roast this hot dog on a stick but the fire is really hot and she can't do it. She has to cover her face to protect herself and me and Molly are just cracking up. Then Emma asks the kid, Raphi, if its cooked and he goes, "Nope. Needs more." So Emma goes back and cooks it more and Raphi is showing no emotion and me and Molly are cracking up. Emma is trying to get it caught on fire to cook it but can't get close enough to the fire. Finally its done roasting and Raphi takes the hot dog. We were all laughing about it in a second. On top of it, Emma is a vegetarian. It was really funny. 

The kibbutz still smells like smoke from log b'omer. I have an AP tomorrow. English. Thats it. 

Bye!

Joey

Hey

Hey Everyone!

I think this is the longest I've gone without posting while still being at Tzuba. Sorry about that.  Stuff is starting to wind down a little bit but a lot has still happened. AP tests are starting and finals are soon so we can't have any more tiyulim.  

Yom Hazikaron started Tuesday night and ended Wednesday night. Yom Hazikaron in Israel has a different meaning than Memorial Day in America. Israel is constantly at war and everyone goes into the army so every family has some connection to someone who died in the army. Tzuba has two boys who died in the different wars. We went to the Tzuba tekes at the kibbutz cemetery. It was all in Hebrew and I didn't understand anything but I'm still very happy we all went. Tuesday night we went to the state tekes at the Kotel. We weren't guests of honor or anything. Everyone in the country can go. Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, and Gabbi Ashkenazi, the head of the military, spoke. My madrichah, Jomi, was translating. She did an alright job but we were all able to get the meaning of the speech. I also wasn't really able to see anyone speaking. It was really crowded and I was only able to see from people holding their cameras up and then looking into the cameras. But Yom Hazikaron was a very interesting day and I'm glad I was in Israel for it.

As soon as Yom Hazikaron ends Yom Haatzmuot starts. Its a very sudden transition but Yom Haatzmuot was a lot of fun. We were with another American high school for a bbq. It was an EIE vs. Alexander Mosk type deal where we played a bunch of sports. I played basketball and it was a ton of fun. I hadn't played basketball in a while and the kids on EIE aren't that bad. Only a couple people play basketball for their school and I used to play in middle school and for a bunch of teams. We won. We came back in the last couple minutes. It was a lot of fun. Then we also played soccer and volleyball against them. The best part of the whole outing was getting to grill. About 10 of us were grilling the whole time and we made so much food. We made hamburgers, chicken, and steak. There was enough food for two EIEs and afterwards we all got to take the leftovers back to our rooms. Shai, one of our madrichim, has a panini grill so we got some pita and anything we could find and took the leftover meat and made paninis in our roon. They were so good!  We only eat kibbutz food and fast food falafel so eating fresh cooked food was amazing.

The SATs were alright. We went into Jerusalem to take them Not much to say about them. I hope I did good. In Israel after high school everyone goes straight to the army and then takes time off and then goes to college in their late twenties. It has its advantages and disadvantages. When people are older they know what they want to do and know more about themselves. Most kids in America have no clue what they want to study when they are 18. So by going into the army and then working or traveling, Israelis are more mature when they start college But in high school they don't work as hard because college is so far off. Its different but to me it makes more sense. 

School is starting to get harder. Finals, APs, and no more tiyulim. It kind of sucks. This week we had a 5 day week and people were freaking out. We haven't had a 5 day week since the second week of school and school here is killer. 8 3o to 1 15 in the morning. then 2 10 to 6. Thats about 9 hours of real school. No journalism or art or fake classes. They are all legit classes and 5 days of school is pretty hard here. I know it sounds kind of weird because back home, its 5 days every week but its true here. 5 days is hard. I'm only taking 2 APs so thats not too bad. I have a slanted view on what is a lot of APs because at TAG I saw sophomores taking 4 APs, juniors taking 8, and seniors taking 7. Not everyone but a lot of kids. So only two APs really isn't that much and when people complain about 2 its a little weird to me. 

We started the modern period in Jewish history, which means the State of Israel. There a lot to learn and I'm happy that I'm getting a class on it and can piece together all the knowledge I've accumulated about Israel.  We got our review sheet for the final and there was so much information! So much more than an AP class. Its cool to think that we've learned that much though. 

Were going to Tel Aviv in a couple hours. I am really excited because we haven't really spent very much time in Tel Aviv. Only tiyulim. Tel Aviv is a really cool, modern city. It should be a lot of fun.

Thats about all. I come home in about three weeks which sucks a lot but the summer is going to be a lot of fun. Got to stay positive. I got to go but hopefully I'll get to post soon. Bye!

Joey

1st Week Back

Quick Updates:

We had a Jewish History Test yesterday and now we've started the modern state of Israel. 

We observed Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) this week. Next week is Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) and Yom Haatzmuot (Independence Day). 

We had two full day tiyulim this week, both to Tel Aviv. If Jerusalem is the spiritual center of Israel and Judaism, than Tel Aviv is the secular center of Israel. Its really cool. I got cool sandals.

The SAT is soon and APs start soon. AH!

Its finally getting warmer. Israel has a quick transition for winter to summer (about one week.)

I didn't talk about my roommates last time. They are David, Josh, and Rob and we have the best room by far. 

I'm wearing tevas with socks right now. It looks really good. 

And here is an article that David, my Jewish history teacher, sent me. It was written by Reuven, another Jewish history teacher here, and its about Hebrew.  

http://forward.com/articles/104667/

Back in Israel and Back at Tuba

Its been a while. And my two and a half weeks were action packed. I don't want to say every little detail that happened because that would take somewhere around 5000 words to say so I'll hit the high points. 

Poland. Everyone, remind me to never go back to Poland again. Its not that the country is terrible itself, its just that, for me, as a Jew, I can't escape the feeling of the Shoah. Poland has this odd spook. Its a giant Jewish graveyard. Judaism was there for centuries, flourished there for centuries. And in a matter of a few short years, Judaism was extinguished. Judaism in Poland is a museum. A museum not only to the Shoah but also to the way Judaism was before the Shoah. And now its gone and its not coming back. No one really wants to being it back either. And I don't blame anyone. The Jews that survived left because they couldn't stand to be there anymore. They went to Israel and to America and anywhere they could because they felt the same feeling that we did. So now there are about 4000 Jews in Poland, depending on how you define a Jew. Thats under the number of members of my synagogue in Dallas Texas.  So there's Judaism in Poland. Its a memory and a graveyard. 

In Poland we went to Majdanek, Auschwitz-Berkenau, a remake of a shtetl named Tikochin, Krakow, Lublin, and Warsaw.  Like I said, I would love to give all the details of every place but its been a while since we've been back and my fingers would probably fall off. So, I'll start with Majdaneck. Majdaneck was the first camp to be liberated because it was so far in the East and was easily reached by the Soviet troops. As a result the Germans weren't able to hide and destroy as much as they could have. The gas chamber is still there, the crematorium is still there, and I think almost every building is. There are no crumbling buildings like at Berkenau. As a result Majdanek is much more raw. Its in the middle of Lublin which is weird. It was built to be on the major road in Lublin. That kind of disrupted the mood because there are people that walk their dog past a death camp every day. But thats the way it is. The most overwhelming part of Majdanek was the massive, inconceivable amount of human ashes, all from bodies cremated at Majdanek. Majdaneck only killed about 78,000 Jews (Majdaneck was for Jews especially) and that pile was ridiculous. It was about the length on a basketball court in diameter and I don't know how deep it was. Easily over ten feet I could see. We had a small ceremony there and said kaddish.  Since Majdaneck was the first camp we visited, it had a different feeling for many of us. 

Tikochin, the shtetl, was very powerful. Before the final solution was brought up, Nazis had special squads that would take all the Jews of an area have them dig graves and then shoot them into their graves. This is what happened in the town of Tikochin. The city was reconstructed to remember the Jews and be as a museum. The synagogue is reconstructed and its very strange. The Polish people who lived there decided to do this. Then a quick drive into the forests outside the town are two mass graves and we had a ceremony there too. Tikochin was very eerie. The one good part was when we had a song session in the synagogue and in a way revived the Judaism there. 

A couple days later we went to Auschwitz-Berkenau. The camp is near the Polish town of Oswicien. Berkenau was the death camp built for the Jews and Auschwitz was the labor camp that held Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and other minorities. The weird thing about being at Berkenau was that we all picture a windy, cold, overcast day every day at a death camp. People are cold and are needy warmth. But it was an ironically nice day when we to Berkenau. The grass was green, the trees behind were pretty. It could have easily been a park. Nonetheless it was depressing and powerful. There's nothing that can be done to escape the feeling of a death camp. We went and saw the barracks and the remains of the gas chambers. The Nazis had time to destroy them before it was liberated. When we were walking, there was a pool of water and David Solomon, our vice principal, reached down and we all gathered and he reached down and picked a small white rock. He said, "This is what is left of European Jewry." It was a piece of bone.  

Auschwitz was the labor camp about a mile away from Berkenau. Its hard to be at Auschwitz because its hard to be in a death camp and a museum at the same time. Everything is in glass cases and guides take you around. It threw stuff off but it was still powerful. We were also all really tired and out of it because we had already been to Berkenau and woke up really early. It kind of looked like a college campus with the big buildings and the grass and such. Not how I pictured it at all. Auschwitz has the entrance sign that we've all seen with he German writing at the top. Berkenau has the train tracks that lead to the entrance. 

We're done with the camps. Krakow was a pretty cool city. We spent a couple days there and we walked around the town square and stuff. Warsaw was alright. We didn't really go out into city. The country side of Poland is kind of depressing. Its barren and could have been the exact same from the times of Communism. In Warsaw we saw the old Jewish cemetery that survived the Shoah and learned about the Warsaw ghetto uprising. By the end of the trip we were all pretty Jewish history and emotionally drained. 

The best part of Poland was probably leaving. Our plane was EIE and an Israeli tour group that we saw a couple times in Poland. When the plane left we all started yelling and cheering. The Israelis were really nice and cool and we all got along really well. When we landed we started cheering and sang Shalom Alechem. That was really cool. We were all ready to be back in the homeland after a week in Poland and it was so good to be back.

We stayed in Jerusalem for two nights, mostly just resting once we got back from Poland. Then we all went to different families for Pesach. People have family and friends and if someone can't find anyone to go with then they go with a host family. I went with my friend Jordy's family friend in Ranana. They were really nice and interesting. The dad had been in the peace core and the mom was Filipino and the son had just gotten out of the army and the daughter is going to enter the draft in July. All the dad's stories started like, "Back in 1985 when I was in the jungle in Borneo....." I laughed every time he started a story. Anyways, Jordy and I slept and ate for most of our two nights there. We were really tired from Poland and hadn't had a home cooked meal since we've been in Israel. The food at the seder was so good. I ate so much. And the seder wasn't too different. We were all really hungry so we kind of rushed though it. The two families there speak English perfectly. Like they speak it in the house. The weirdest thing about Pesach was being away from the same 118 people I'm with every moment. We talked about the people the entire time. We are all kind of in love with each other. But not being with everyone was weird. I can't imagine how weird its going to be to leave for good. 

From Pesach we went to the Kinerret in the North to start yam l'yam. I thought we were going to leave form one yam and walk the entire way to the other. But we took buses twice and it wasn't quite what I wanted it to be it was a lot of fun nonetheless. A lot better than Gadnah. We did hike a whole lot though. the first real day of hiking was pretty long. We hiked up to the top on the second tallest mountain in Israel. The second day was mostly downhill. And the third day of hiking was a bike ride all downhill to the Mediterranean. Everything was so pretty and this was one of the weeks that the North is still in bloom. I always talk about the North being really pretty and green and pretty soon, when it stops raining and starts getting hot it all turns brown and dry. But the flowers and the landscape and everything was so pretty. I would totally do yam l'yam again. And my group was really good. There were people that I usually don't spend a lot of time with that I got to be closer with. 

Getting to the Mediterranean was glorious. We were all disgustingly dirty after not showering for a couple days and sleeping (if you call it that) outside. We all went into the sea and splashed around and then went to Haifa. Haifa is really pretty and the shower was awesome. Probably the best shower of my life. We all hung out and rested after the hike. We also went to Bahai gardens which were so pretty. And one more thing. There is this game called assassin where each person is assigned to kill another person by whispering something in their ear with no one around to see it happen. The winner is the last person standing and you are supposed to be all secretive about it. We played that game in Haifa and it was a lot of fun. I killed one person. 

We were only in Haifa one night and then got back to Tzuba. We had classes on Thursday and today was the ACT and we've all just been getting readjusted. Unpacking, getting back in the swing of things, school. Me and my friend Josh pillaged the girls rooms for extra cubbies for our room. Nothing ground breakingly exciting here. It is 3:19 AM though and I should be asleep. So, good night everyone. This has been my longest post so far. Sorry, a lot has happened and I had a lot to say. I have one more comment on the Shoah that I wanted to save. The difference between this genocide and others is how it was carried out. Genocide is always terrible but their is a difference between people going around and shooting people as ethnic cleansing and a superpower using all of its resources and energy to carry out the systematic and organized extermination of a culture. Its what separates the Shoah from other genocide. 

Anyways, happy late Easter and happy late Pesach to everyone. I lost my phone and will be getting another soon. And everyone be good!

Joey B.

Going to Poland

This is my last post before Poland and I don't know if it will be 100 words. I still need to finish packing but I promised one more post before I leave. I don't think I mentioned that I am doing yam l'yam which is a hike form the Kinneret in the north to the Mediterranean sea. I am soooo excited! I am thinking about doing the north to south Israel hike and if is this is fun then I definitely will. Israel is so pretty, especially the North. My ipod was broken but now it works. One of my friends here has a brother who works at an apple store and I called him up. I still haven't found the word to describe how I feel about going to Poland. Excited/scared/prepared. I feel like we often dance around the Holocaust and now I will confront it. I didn't think this before but The Holocaust and this trip has been looming around everyone for a couple days now and I am ready to go. Its hard to explain. The Holocaust is hard to comprehend itself so its hard to explain feeling and thinking about it. I also go to my friend Jordy friend's house for Pesach. They sound like totally cool people. I can't wait to meet them. 

Thats all I have time for! This was actually longer than I expected. Everyone be good and safe and have fun while I'm gone. This post might have some errors because I typed it in about 15 minutes. 

Love y'all!

Joey Blatt =)

Shabbat!

Hey Y'all!

A couple quick updates. First, I believe I just hit the halfway point in EIE. Thats scary and really depressing. Its amazing here. Second, I leave for Poland at 3:30 AM on Monday. I've heard its Monday night and just Monday and Tuesday morning. So I think it is 3:30 Tuesday morning. Like midnight starts Tuesday, I leave a couple hours after. And its Saturday right now so I will hopefully get this post done today and get a quick goodbye post before I leave. 

This week was midterms and everybody was freaking out about them. I had a math test, a couple of English assignments that will count as a midterm, a physics midterm, a Jewish History quiz, a Hebrew midterm, and I have my APUSH test that will count as a midterm on Monday. That sounded like a lot when I just typed it but it really wasn't. School at home is a lot more rigorous but school here is harder because we have no time. My physics and Hebrew midterm weren't that hard. I studied a little bit for both and we reviewed in class for them. My math test was fine. I made a couple dumb mistakes which was all I got points off for. Jewish history was fine. I looked over my notes for about 10 minutes and it was all good. Everything together, school this week wasn't bad because of exams. It was just bad because we had so much class. 5 days with only one half day tiyul. 

The half day tiyul was about ultra-orthodox Judaism. Another word for ultra-orthodox is charadei so I'm going to refer to it as charedei instead. A charadei rabbi named Yeshua Weinberger came and talked to us first. We asked him questions about his lifestyle, and how he views the world and Reform Judaism. It was really interesting. The only thing I have against the charadei world is that they don't serve in the Israeli army. I believe if you are a Jew in Israel or make aliyah then you must serve in the army. No exceptions. And if something like your religion, or you are a Pacifist makes you unable to do certain jobs than you can do something else. Rabbi Weinberger explained that he is fighting the Arabs because they have a birthrate of about 6 kids per woman. Israel as a whole has a 2.5 or something birthrate. The charadei community has a birthrate of about 10. This may seem like it doesn't matter to some but Israel struggles with being a Jewish and a Democratic state. It is undemocratic for a minority to govern a majority and if this birthrate continues it won't be long until the Arabs outnumber the Jews. So by having lots of kids, the charadei community does more service to the country than most soldiers, is their argument. This may be true or not true but part of Israel is the army and everyone join.  We then went to a neighborhood in Jerusalem and learned about the development of chasidism, a type of charadei Judaism. The speaker was really interesting and the trip to Jerusalem was pretty boring. 

Since thats about everything thats happened this past week I'll talk about the trip to Poland and Czech Republic. We're gonna be learning about the Holocaust and Judaism in Eastern Europe.  I'm not really excited because excited isn't the right word about going to Poland and learning about the Holocaust. I'm definitely thinking about it a lot and thinking about the concentration camps and walking in there and seeing everything. The Jews who read this blog know this but I'm not sure if the non-Jews know. Everyone knows that the Holocaust was catastrophic and one of the most horrible events in human history. But it also resulted in the complete destruction of a civilization. Jews have been in Europe for over a thousand year dating back to the Romans. Western European Jews assimilated more than the Eastern European Jews because of persecution and the enlightenment. So Judaism was existed in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years. And Judaism there was different than ancient Judaism in Israel. It was life on the shtetl and in the cities, and every Jew spoke Yiddish. The Jews in Eastern Europe didn't identify with Poland or Russia or whatever country they lived in because they were Jewish. This Yiddish culture was destroyed in the Holocaust. The Jews that survived the Holocaust came to the US or Israel and only a few stayed. There was nothing left after the Holocaust.  I can't really be excited to learn or see that, so I'm just going to have to keep on looking for a better word.

Logistical stuff about Poland. I have one roommate the whole time, Rob. He's from New Jersey and he's one of my best friends on the trip. My two friends who I roomed with first, Aaron and David roomed together in the second room and are rooming together in Poland. If they have the same room again after Poland, then they will have been together for the entire trip. On the bus we watch Holocaust movies and shtetl movies. Fiddler on the Roof, The Pianist, Schindler's List. We went to Yad v'shem the Holocaust museum in Israel yesterday and I saw the actual pieces of paper Schindler's List. They were pretty crazy. Yad v'shem is pretty intense. We also go to Prague. Prague is supposed to be really pretty. I found my jacket that I lost that I got for Poland. We stay in youth hostels when we go around. 

I gotta go. My computer is running out of battery and dies often. And the plug isn't working. So I'll see yall later.

The Wedding and the weekend

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing good around the world and everyone did good who had exams or NFTY elections and had a good spring break. 

I promised more about the wedding. But let me start with the beginning of the day. I woke up at 8:45 (latest I've slept for a couple weeks). It was very strange because I was the only person on the kibbutz because everyone was on a tiyul to Sfat to learn about kabalah, mystic Judaism. So I got up and showered and me and my parents and Jake went to Jerusalem to meet up with my Uncle David, Aunt Seri, my baby cousin Tova, and my cousin Mordechai. We waited in the lobby of the hotel for them. We then all went out into Jerusalem.

First we walked to the old city. We stopped in a cigar shop and my dad got some cigars. It was funny seeing my cousin with tzitzi and a white shirt and black pants walk into a cigar shop, but thats Israel. In the old city we walked through the Armenian quarter. That was pretty cool. I saw a man wearing a black robe with a staff with a gold emblem on the top. I figured he was somehting important in the Armenian Church. For those who don't know the old city of Jerusalem is broken into 4 quarters: the Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Christian quarters. I always thought that it was kind of random that the Armenians got their own quarter. And the Muslim quarter isn't always safe for Jews and Americans. But the Arab shook is in there so Americans try to go and buy stuff. We aren't allowed to and since I don't speak Hebrew very well I don't think it would be advisable for me to go. The Jewish quarter has the Kotel. I think the Christian quarter has the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Anyways, we got falafel and shwarma in the old city. It was delicious. My and my brother each had a laffa and a pita, which is a lot of food. We saw the Kotel and my aunt Seri and Uncle David stopped to pray for a little. We were going to go to the City of David but decided not too. We were all kind of tired from walking around and the City of David is a big activity. So while my Uncle David and Aunt Seri were praying, my family and Mordechai went to the Israeli shook. 

The Israeli shook was really cool. It wasn't like Ben Yehudah street where its all Americans and tourists. There were Israelis and people sold all sorts of fruit and cheeses and fish. One kippah dude had this really nice kippah that I really like. It was like a city on the kippah and it was amazing but it was 85 shekel so I didn't get it. Maybe next time I'll spoil myself and get it. I did get a really nice green one for 8 shekel. Its 4 shekel to a dollar about. My brother got a KU kippah. And then I got gifts for people back home. But it was just a lot of fun to spend time with my family who I hadn't seen in a while and with my cousin. Mordechai was good in the shook. Someone tried to sell my mom a broken bag and he saw it. I also got a bowl and spatula for my refried beans.  When we were walking back to the hotel from the shook we saw these "religious" Jews dancing and freaking out. Mordechai explained that they're religion was based on not being depressed so they go around with a van blasting techno music and dancing in the street with their peyas bouncing around all over the place. It was really funny. Mordechai explained that it was BS and they use the name of a very special and important sect of Jews and it doesn't delegitimize the real group's Judaism but it makes them look bad and gives them a bad name. 

So we left the shook and walked to Ben Yehuda street for a little because it was on the way back to the hotel. We stopped and walked around for a little while. I don't think we bought anything. I got money from the cash machine. Then we caught a cab back to the hotel. Driving in Jerusalem is difficult. I could never do it. I barely stay alive driving in Dallas. 

Now we start the main attraction: the wedding. We all got dressed and went to the wedding. The father of the groom is my Grandpa's first cousin. So the groom was my mom's second cousin. My family kind of knew Nathan, the father of the groom, and none of us had ever met the groom, Suchi. (The "ch" in there is the same sound in "baruCH" or the sound they talk about in Meet the Fockers.) The boys were on one side and the girls were on the other and a barrier separated us. Judaism doesn't do this to be sexist. They do it to show morality. People get drunk and dance at weddings and we must stay moral so we separate. We mingled and ate the food. I mostly talked with Jake, Mordechai, my dad, Uncle David, and some of the younger guys who are there just studying for a year or two.  My brother, my dad and I were the only people not wearing black hats. In fact, Jake wore his new KU kippah, and I wore my Dallas Cowboys kippah that I bought with Mordechai a couple weeks ago on Ben Yehuda. 

The chuppah ceremony I didn't see too much of. It was really crowded and everyone was standing and it was in Hebrew. This was my first wedding of any sort, much less an Orthodox Jewish wedding in Israel. My brother, Mordechai, and a couple other people stood in the back talking. We were explaining the ceremony to each other. After the ceremony they go in a room and sign the ketuba and that is the first time they can touch each other. We talked about the bride walking around 7 times. Judaism is a religion of laws and everything has an exact way of being done, even if it always isn't. I'm pretty sure everything was done correctly in this wedding though.

After the chuppah ceremony we all started to funnel back into the main room and ate for a little bit and then we started dancing. The guys dance with the guys and the girls dance with the girls. I don''t think the bride and the groom ever dance with each other. It might be weird to some people that guys and girls don't dance together but it was a lot of fun. My bus group on EIE has the closest guys so it wasn't that weird to dance with about 150 other guys as it could have. Me and my dad even got to dance with the Suchi and Nathan for a little bit. Its not like guys are grinding on each other. You dance in circle and jump around and all sorts of crazy stuff. Its fun, not sexual like dancing at a club is or something. I danced with Mordechai, Jake, some of my cousin whom I just met, Yecheil who is Mordechai's brother, and a bunch of other people. It was so fun and different than anything else I had ever done. Not the dancing with guys, just the whole experience. 

The wedding also had beggars trying to collect money. At first I thought it was weird that they would just walk up and ask for money inside like that but no one else thought it was weird and I gave some money to some beggars. Many beg for an organization, like their Yeshiva, and others just for themselves. My Uncle David did business with one. He gave him a twenty shekel bill and took back some coins. I thought it was pretty funny.  All together the wedding was a lot of fun and I was really looking forward to it. I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and I think I was accurate. I really like seeing my family and it was a nice break from EIE and spending every moment with the same people, even though I love all of them to death.

Fast forward a couple days now. My parents left on Sunday. Its Tuesday. The wedding was on Thursday. It was really nice seeing my parents. I missed them and they missed me and we had a lot of fun together on Thursday and going out to eat and on the Islam tiyul, which I don't think I even mentioned. But its going to be nice to have things back to normal now. I don't want to say they messed up the balance of stuff because they didn't but having all the parents here was much different. I'll miss them and my brother and will be looking forward to seeing them when I come home. 

I'm done with the big events. I want to give my opinion on Hebrew. To many Hebrew might just be the language that people speak in Israel, like it was for me before I got here. But now I see it differently. It is the language of my people and of my heritage, even if I spoke Yiddish back on the shtetl. I believe all Jews have a responsibility to learn some Hebrew at some point in there life. Not to become fluent but simply to know about the language and appreciate it. The Jews have been remarkable in reviving the language. It was like Latin or Aramaic is where people can learn it and speak it if they want to but it is the only language to undergo a full revival into a spoken language. Tel Aviv was founded as the first Hebrew speaking city 100 years ago. They were pretty successful. But I plan to keep on learning Hebrew after EIE and I think every Jew should make an effort to learn Hebrew. Jews for most generations were united under a common language and it helped to create and reinforce a Jewish identity and today we have the privilege of learning Hebrew, the holy language of the Torah and of our ancestors. Jews should take advantage of this because Hebrew is more than just a language. 

I'm done now. I wish I started this post earlier but whatever. I hope you enjoyed it and it was kind of long but a lot happened. I will try to get another post before I go to Poland because I won't bring my computer there on on Yam l'Yam. I will probably have a computer at Passover but I don't know if I will get a post in. Its all good though. I like to keep you on your toes. 

Until next time,

Joey B. 

Hey!

Hey Everyone,

It's been a while since my last post and this past week or so has gone by pretty fast. 

EIE has a parents pilgramage trip in March so the families of the students can come and visit in Israel. My parents got here on Thursday the 12th and spent a couple days in the North called Zichron Yaakov. Its in the hills and the North at this time of year is gorgeous. Then they on Sunday they picked my brother up from the airport and came to Tzuba they're gonna stay here for another week! It's pretty exciting, pretty crazy, and pretty wierd having all the parents here. I don't konw exactly how to explain it. I'm definitely happy to see my family but its wierd (not bad or good) to have them at Tzuba. They don't know exactly what to do, where to go. They aren't used to our lingo or how we wear blankets outside when its cold out because we lost our jackets. But its definitley a lot of fun. Tonight my parents took me, my brother, my two friends-Aaron and David- our family friend who's here for the year-Micah- and my brother's friend-Zach- all out to dinner in Jerusalem and then we all walked around and met up with other families who were out. It was really cool. We're going to be doing a lot of other stuff together later this week that I'll be sure to write about.

My brother, Jake, got here Sunday. He went on EIE three years and the first time and only other time I came to Israel was to visit him on EIE during parents pilgramage with my parents, and this is his first time back to Israel. It's really funny to watch him be here because he thinks he can speak Hebrew, and tries to act like an Israeli even though he isn't. But he has a lot of friends here on gap year programs and from random Jewish stuff that we all do.  Its crazy that were all here together though.

All the parents brought thier kids food from back home that we can't get here. Number one food brought: girl scout cookies. Number two: easy mac. I got both of those plus the one food that I actually miss from home and will never get here: refried beans. All my friends laughed at me when they saw that my mom brought 4 cans that you can make in microwave. But it's true and I'm not milking the Texas thing at all with the beans. They are probably my favorite food that I can''t find here. The pizza and burgers aren't as good. The candy and sweet stuff is better. The Italian food is decent when someone takes you out for it. But the Mexican food isn't here.  And all my friends back home know that I love Mexican food. Heres a small story. When my brother was here three years ago, his friends said the only things he talked about was the gas station with the greasy tacos and his little brother. Its funny because I was talking about my brother for about a week before he came and everyone knows about my obsession with Mexican food. My roommate, Max, whose mom came brought him beef jerky and some candy. 

Last paragraph because its almost 1 AM. I still listen to country music all the time, usually just using the speaker on my iPhone. I have a crush on my Hebrew teacher, Sima. She has grand children. I see my cousins in a couple days because they are coming for my other cousin's wedding. I'm really excited about that and there will be much more on that after the wedding. All the Lerers are in Thailand together and I freaked when I found that out. It's spring break in Dallas so call me anytime. I miss all of you. My laundry wasn't too expensive this last time. Gilad Shalit talks have halted for now. It looks like Netanyahu will be the next prime minister with a narrow right wing government. We started the middle ages and Islam in Jewish history. 

I love all of you and stay good.

Joey B. 

Hi!

This is going to be a quick post.

Firstly, I just had a Jewish History test and it was pretty good. There were 10 short answer, an essay, a timeline, and 15 fill in the black type. It was really long. I used almost 4 pages front and back of notebook paper. It was on the second Temple period. You could of figured that out because I've been talking about that time period a lot in my other posts.

Purim in tonight and tomorrow and Israelis love Purim. People dress up and act goofy and its a really fun holiday. One custom is to get so drunk that you can't tell the difference between Mordechai, the good guy, and Haman, the bad guy. We're gonna have to skip that one this year. One Purim song says that those who enter the month of Adar, the month that Purim is in, will multiply their happiness. We're having a dance tonight and tomorrow we go to a parade. Today I'm a cowboy (original, I know. I barely dressed up.) and tomorrow I'm doing to borrow some clothes from one of the hippies and its gonna be funny. I do miss my mom's hamantashen. They are delicious and I've only got store bought hamantashen here that aren't as good as the homemade ones. 

Anyways, other quick updates. I stocked up on apple juice today, I'm planning on going with some friends to my friend's friend's house this weekend, and my Jewish history teacher got marriend so we had Baruch (my hero), Rueben (the smartest man alive), and Josh Wienberg (my brother's idol)  as subs. All of them were amazing but its good to have David back.

I love you guys!

Joey Blatt

Back From 12 Days

Long Time No See Everyone.....

I just got back today from a tiyul in Jerusalem about the second temple period, Masada, the Dead Sea, 4 days in the army, two nights in Eilat, and a night in a Bedouin tent. A lot for a week and a half. This is going to be a long post so brace yourself.

I think it was Thursday that we left for Jerusalem to start our trip. We had a full day tiyul about the Roman period, the second temple, King Herod, and all that. It was all really interesting. My teacher believes that the destruction of the second temple in 70 is the central event in Jewish history. It is the turning point because at that point Jews were exiled from Israel for about 2000 years. I don't think you can call one event the most central part of history that spans thousands of years but it certainly is very important. The Western Wall, Kotel, is the remains of the walls that held up the Temple and the Dome of the Rock is believed to be where the Holy of Holies was. We also learned about the different sects of Judaism. There were the underground freedom fighters, the rabbis who were content because they knew rebelling would end bad, the crazy purification freaks who ran to the desert, and the priests who were corrupt and buddies with the Romans. We saw the dead sea scrolls which is the oldest found TaNaK from about two thousand years ago. Almost every letter is the exact same and the previously oldest was from one thousand years ago. It was pretty sick. The best part of the tiyul was when David, my teacher, was explaining how people were called to prayer and I called everyone to prayer with my kazoo. The video should be on facebook soon. 

Then we made our way to Masada. We went to the hostel the night before and had an early curfew because we woke up at 3 45 so we could watch the sunrise on top of Masada. For those of you that don't know, Masada is the place where the Jews who escaped Jerusalem during the Roman period and kept Judaism alive for a couple years while holding out against the Romans. Its located atop a mountain in the Judean Desert in the east of Israel. After three years, the Romans broke through to find that the Jews of Masada committed a mass suicide instead of being taken into slavery They also burnt down everything they built except for the the food storage to show that they were perfectly capable of living there. Here is an interesting tidbit. When they excavated Masada a while ago they found the food storage and inside was an ancient Judean date palm seed. They did some crazy Jurassic Park stuff and now they have a Judean date palm tree growing . But they won't know if its will bear fruit because it takes a while for them to grow and they don't know if its a boy or girl tree. But the Judean date palm was supposed to be the most delicious succulent date in all of Israel and was thought to be extinct till now. Crazy. I like dates. I am very happy about this. You could make some symbolic metaphorical connection about it to Judaism like the people of Masada thought they were the last Jews and they weren't and the date palm was supposed to be gone and it wasn't. But Masada was really pretty and really cool. I liked it.

After Masada we went to the Dead Sea. I don't think I've ever been as miserable as I was in the Dead Sea. The water was freezing. My hands were dry so the water made them burn to the point I couldn't move them. And the water burned any cut or scrape of anything. It tasted terrible. Like if a drop got in your mouth it was disgusting. And after you got out you were covered in salt. And it was cloudy so tanning wasn't an option.  The only remotely cool thing was that since the Dead Sea is so salty anything floats. So we floated. But it was terrible. I never have to go in the Dead Sea again. But it was fun chilling with my friends for a couple days after climbing Masada and before Gadna. I also didn't pack enough so I bought two t shirts, both with camels on them. Thats all they sold there: camel shirts. I also took an epically good nap with my bud Jordy. We were exhausted after waking up so early to climb Masada. As terrible as actually being in the Dead Sea was, the trip itself was a lot of fun just chilling. 

From the Dead Sea we went to Gadnah. That was interesting. First we got broken up into our sevets which had a commander and 12 kids. There were only 4 people from my bus group so I got to meet a lot more people which was good because I really like the guys from the other groups. And the day we spent in field learning to crawl and the different kind of walks was really cool except that I still have cuts and bruises on my knees from it. We also had discussions about being in the army and being Jewish and making aliyah and the state of Israel. On Wednesday we got to fire M-16s. I missed the target with most of my bullets but it was a lot of fun and really exciting firing an M-16. That was all the good stuff. The bad stuff was we spent the entire time in one uniform which was gross after having kitchen duty the first night. It only got dirtier and smellier after that. I only showered once in 5 days. The worst part though wasn't not showering or anything like that. It was that someone told us what to do every second and we had to be in this spot in this formation in exactly this amount of time. I felt like a prisoner. The base we were out was in the desert and it was so beautiful and I could see the roads and the cars going and I felt trapped in a cage. It was pretty bad. I think I'm the only person who felt like a prisoner to this extent but its ok. It was only a couple days and its over now.  I now know that I have no interest in joining the army. Other kids liked it a lot and want to join the army or the air force.  I think that if you're able to do it for three years and enjoy yourself and make that commitment than thats great but I couldn't.

After Gadnah we went to Eilat. The bus ride there was long just because I was so anxious to shower and change clothes. I walked into my room taking off my belt getting ready to shower. It felt so good to get clean and put on cleanish clothes for the first time in a while.  All my jeans had been worn at least once but I did have a clean T-shirt from the Dead Sea where I ran out and had to buy two new ones. They both have camels on them; one with 4 Andy Warhol style camels and one with dancing camels. They are both pretty touristy but they were really funny. Eilat and the Red Sea was a lot cooler than the Dead Sea. The two best parts was that I snorkeled for the first time. There is a coral reef in Eilat and its was really cool. I saw a lot of fish and the water was really clear. They also explained that the Red Sea is the split between two tectonic plates and some other stuff and that its growing and it will eventually become a big ocean. The water was really cold and it wasn't perfect beach weather but anything was awesome after Gadnah (except for the Dead Sea). The other really cool was a hike though some of the mountains in the South. Israel is a beautiful country with lots of terrains and the South is very rocky and has the desert. It was really pretty and I saw a wild ibex. There will be pictures on facebook coming soon. 

After Eilat we went to the Bedouin tent thing for the night. We got there and it was drizzling and kind of cold. But the tents were the coolest thing I have ever seen. I freaked out. They were huge tents with rugs on the ground and a heater in the middle. So cool. We put our stuff down and then went to get tea and baklava because apparently thats what Bedouins do. The tea was almost good. I don't drink tea or coffee so it must have been amazing and the baklava was good. Then David Solomon, one of the administrators, led a little meditation thing before we went to bed. I was all ready to meditate and all that and I put my mattress down and I fell asleep immediately. It was the best sleep I got all night because the tent was pretty cold and I still had funny sleep patterns from Gadnah. I woke up before we were supposed to every time and went to sleep really early and was falling asleep in everything.  We ate breakfast in another massive tent thing and since it was raining and we couldn't ride camels yet one of the Bedouins came and talked to us about the lifestyle. They are sunni Muslims and people today are becoming more assimilated. It was interesting and afterwards we were supposed to ride camels but we weren't able to because of the rain. they were smellier and dirtier than usual. I was so ready to get back to Tzuba that I didn't care. And I've ridden a camel before. I don't remember when or where but in the back of my ming I've ridden one. Maybe at one of those carnivals at the JCC when I was little? I don't know. 

Last thing. I saw my old rabbi, Mark Kaiserman, yesterday. It was really good to see him because I think its only the fourth time I've seen him since he left Dallas a couple years ago. We talked about the Mets and Alex Rodriguez, and Israel and EIE and walked around Jerusalem. I also ate unkosher food for the first time in over a month. Seafood Linguini Alefredo something. Delicious. 

Anyways, now I'm back at Tzuba and I recently heard a good random fact. If everyone wanted to play the character Hamlet at the same time, it would be impossible because there aren't enough skeletal skulls in the world to do do. This post took me a while to write and I made a real effort to write it and I wrote it pieces of it at different times. I try to just sit down and get it done but I didn't have that kind of time and I really wanted to post. Anyways, I love everyone for reading this and if you made it through the whole thing then good job.

=)

Joey Blatt

I Got to Keep up with the Lerers

Joe and Lilly have been posting like crazy lately and I feel like I ahve to keep up with them. And they deleted their facebooks so everyone bug them about it so they will reactivate them. =)

Quick Updates: Tomorrow we go leave for Masada. We hike up Masada at 4 in the morning so we can see the sunrise and have services. Sick, I know. Then we are in the desert for a little bit chilling with some Bedouins I think. I'm not quite sure. And then we are in Gadna, the army, for a week.  I am not excited about it. We don't get that much sleep, its supposed to be freezing in the barracks, and I can't do pushups anymore. And I don't speak Hebrew so I'm not gonna know whats happening most of the time. But its whatever. And afterwards we go to Eilat for a day which is supposed to be awesome. Eilat is the resort of Israel. Its on the Red Sea and really nice. So I will be away from Tzuba for about 10 days which means...... No School! Yay!

About the Hmong people Joe and Lilly talked about. The only thing I know is that those were the people on Gran Torino that Clint Eastwood became friends with. 

The Rabbis conference is this week and people aren't going to be able to see thier rabbis. Some of the parents who are rabbis are coming early and seeing thier kids. Two of my friends parents are here and I'm going to see Rabbi Kaiserman after I get back from Eilat. I'm very excited about that. And Rabbi Stern and Rabbi Kasten are coming back to Israel in May and I might be able to see them then. So its all good. 

I have to finish some English homework and study for APUSH, but I just wanted to get a blog post in before I leave for a while. I don't know if I have internet and I wont be bringing by computer. Sorry it isn't longer. They've kept us busy these past couple days. 

Expect a post in March!

Joey B.

Hey!

It's late and I already had part of this blog written so I'm just going to finish it up. Its Tuesday night by the way. 

I'll start with last Friday. Every Friday we have a tzedekah project or something special and last week we went to a preschool and hung out with little kids. They were all really cute except that we don' speak Hebrew and they didn't speak Hebrew. It was fun anyway. Me and my roommates, David, Aaron and Alex, walked into the room and the kid was having a birthday party; he was turning 3. We were pretty lost with all the singing in Hebrew and various birthday festivities. It was really funny. We were al smiling awkwardly because the whole situation was funny. Then we went and played with the kids and there was one kid who we were having a conversation with somehow. It was really funny. One kid really liked Aaron. That was just cute. Then we wandered into another class and there was an adorable Ethiopian kid who wanted to play with my camera. I had it on a lanyard deal around my neck and he was tugging at it and it was funny. But then I later realized he was crazy. One girl was in the sandbox and he attacks her and pulls her hair. Another was standing on a table and he just pushed her off and then laughed about it. I told the teacher about him. We were there for about 2 and a half hours before returning to Tzuba. 

But when we got back to Tzuba we learned that our friend had to go back to America for a family emergency and it left a weird feeling around. It all hit us that we were away from home and our family and friends are a couple thousand miles away. But since then its we've been down and been praying for our friend. He's supposed to return soon and that makes us feel a little better. 

Thursday night (I forgot about Thursday) we went to the Jerusalem mall. It was your basic mall except that I felt like the annoying tourists we all don't like. It was fun though. They sold dried fruit for Tu'bishvat, crazy cool belt buckles with Che Guevara and Jewish stars on them that I should of bought, and school supplies. I also saw an ultra-orthodox Jew with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. It was really funny. But we just all walked around. School supplies and a coke were the only things I bought. A little planner and some post-its for my TaNaK. 

I need to blog more often because I forget what happened a couple days ago. I have Judaen to think about Saturday instead of just recalling the memories. But Saturday during the service I remember the Torah being carried around and looking back and see the Hills and the valley and mountains behind the Torah. It was one of the strangest moments because I had seen a Torah a thousand times and saw that same view everyday for a couple weeks now but something clicked. It was strange and amazing at the same time. It was just so pretty. We talk about the idea of Judaism, the peoplehood, being made up of the Torah, the land (eretz), and the people (om) and I saw all of it in one moment. Amazing.

Another moment when the view at Tzuba made me think was when we were in class talking about the boundaries of the West Bank and someone asked how close we were, David says something like, "Look out that window and over those hills is the West Bank." What?!? Right there. It wasn't scary but just another moment when it hit me that I was in Israel. I forgot when that question came up or why we were talking about the West Bank, but I remember David saying that. We get off topic in class about modern Jewish and Israeli affairs. The elections, Arab-Israeli conflicts, Israeli culture. Whatever. There's so much to learn and know and think about that it can be kind of overwhelming. My mom jokingly said a while ago that it won't be long till I'll know everything. We both laughed. There is so much to learn just about Jewish history that we won't get to. But I want to learn it because it is my culture and relates to me. Its a good thing that I don't know because I want to know. 

About school, we've had two tiyulim the past two days. The first we walked to a place called Safat or something like it. It was really pretty out and the place we went to was a nature preserve deal. We learned bout the seven native species of eretz Yisrael (grapes, pomegranate, olives, dates, figs, wheat, and barley), and we saw natural springs and crawled through some caves to get to them. It was really cool! Nothing like anything I've ever done! We learned that Israel is a country of local springs instead of great rivers and how people got to the springs and water sources and irrigation and all that. We also started the Niviim, prophets, part of the TaNaK. We learned about Deborah, Samson, Ruth, Giddon, and some other people. Deborah was the most kick butt of all the prophets.  Just thinking about what we learn in one tiyul for Jewish history class is so much more than any class back home. DISD should schedule more field trips once they get paper and teachers.

Our tiyul today, we went to Jerusalem and learned about David. The TaNaK is a "pro-David" story. It all leads up to David being king and today we learned about him being king and uniting the 12 tribes of Israel. We started in the old city and ate lunch. I ate a falafel, then split one with my roommate Aaron, then finished my friend Phoebe's. I can't help it if I like cheap delicious food. We then left the old city and made our way to Ir David (the city of David) where archaeologists believe David's ancient kingdom was. We saw another water tunnel but couldn't go in because it was cold and rainy. So we just learned about it and about David being king. He is also credited with making Jerusalem the capital city of eretz Yisrael. And the water tower is where it is believed that David and his troops infiltrated ancient Jerusalem. It was all very interesting. 

It would be wrong of me to talk about Israel during Febuary and not talk about Tu'bishvat. Tu'bishvat is 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat and it celebrates the birth of the trees and is a very big holiday in Israel. Israel has a very strong connection to the land and they try hard to take care of it and Tu'bishvat celebrates all of this. We ate dried fruits, and walked around the nature preserve natural spring thing. But Israel is experiencing a terrible drought and as cold and icky as the rain made today it was good thing. In fact I was reading an article and decided that I should try to make it rain so I suggested to my roommates that we play songs about rain to make it rain. The next day it rains. you're welcome everyone. We played When it Rains, Songs about Rain, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, Banana Pancakes, I Make it Rain, and some other rain songs. It worked too and I am very proud of myself because Israel needed the rain. 

The other and last major thing is the Elections. The polls ended about an hour and a half ago and it looks like Tzipi Livni of the Kadima party is going to win. We have been learning about the different parties and the way the Israeli government and elections works. It is very different than American politics. People vote for a party and each party has a leader and there are many parties. The main two candidates in this election were Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Bibi Netanyahu of Likkud. Netanyahu was expected to win but the elections here as so crazy that no one can be positive. And a party never wins a majority of Knesset seats. Kadima won 30 out of 120 and will have to make a coalition with other parties to have a government. That means that they will make deals with other parties to have a majority and be able to have a government. 

Its confusing and I don't understand perfectly but it much different that the American elections. Everyone should go research them because they are so different and Israel is a different place than America.

OK, I'm done for tonight and an very tired and still have to finish a little homework. So I will talk to everyone later and I will try not to wait so long between posts. Bye!

Joey

Hello

Hey Journal!

I left y'all on Shabbat afternoon. And a lot has happened since that, even though it hasn't even been a week. Its all been a ton of fun. 

After Shabbos ended we went to Ben Yehuda Street to be tourists. Ben Yehuda is your basic tourist/American/over priced part of a big city. The only things I bought was a San Antonio Spurs and a Dallas Cowboys Kippah and a falafel. As soon as I got the falafel though it started raining. Pouring. My shoes are just now finally dried. (I wore my mocasins which are like socks they are so worn.) We all kind of freaked and ate our food under an onning of some random Israeli shop on a side street of Ben Yehuda. But the best part of the night was seeing my cousin Mordechai. We talked about meeting up sometime because he's studying in Jerusalem and I was going to be in town. So we met up and hung out for an hour. It was really cool. We took pictures of random Chinese people singing and talked and caught up on things. We were only together for an hour and a lot of it was under an umbrella trying to not get too wet (epic fail). But I think he's going to try to come to Tzuba next week. We're still figuring it out. 

One of the big differences between Israel and America is that school starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday here. Its taking some getting used too. For instance, it is Wednesday and I only have one more day of classes. So, on Sunday I started my first full week of school and it has been nothing short of tiring. I have 8:30 to 1:15 of Judaica and 2:10 to 6 of general studies which adds up to a lot more school than in America. Anyways, this week has been marked by getting into a routine for school. After my 6th period I usually fall asleep or shower but today I'm doing the blog. Then everyone is done with school and we have dinner. But I've been trying to find time to do homework and people to do it with so I won't get too distracted. Its difficult. I do a lot during lunch but teachers here understand its difficult to get homework done with the amount of time we have so they don't assign as much as in America. But in return we have a lot more time in class. I was about to say "in school," but there is no school, just buildings so I had to go back, in case you were interested.  This is just the way EIE has worked so far. I suspect it will change becuase this is the longest stretch of school we have. Three weeks with virtually no breaks. It must sound nice to everyone in American and I think I sound kind of strange complaining about three straight weeks of school everyday. 

We had our first tiul in class format this week.  In Jewish History class we start with Adam and Eve because starting at the beginning makes the most sense, even if you don't have to accept that Adam and Eve were the first people or whatever. But the next part of the TaNaK is Noah and then Abraham and that is where people can start debating the accuracy of the stories. The Torah mentions peoples and cultures that actually existed and in class we have been comparing these people (Mesopotamians) to the original Jews and early Jewish history. For instance we compared the story of Noah to a Mesopotamian flood story. Anyways, we focused on Abraham and Sarah as the first monotheists and why they would only have one God so we went to Gezer, an ancient Canaanite City that was polytheistic.  We went there to learn about how its culture worked compared to what we know about Abraham and his lifestyle and why he could choose it.  If that sounds boring, its much more exciting when you see it then read about it in a text book. It was very interesting, and I'm not a huge fan of ancient history. I think that was yesterday. Individual days are hard to remember.

Those are the big things that have been happening since my last post. We also had someone from the army come talk to us about Gadnah (a week in the army). I cleaned up my room. Now you can get to the balcony. People have been getting sick so I'm trying to eat healthy. But when I don't like what they are serving I don't eat that much and show up late to breakfast sometimes and have recently discovered oreos dipped in white chocolate. But I also like the pita, salad, and at least one of the dishes too. I'm also trying to sleep more but I have to do homework at night because we don't get it done in class. I've also been milking the whole Texas thing a lot which is a lot of fun. I sing Willie Nelson and Pat Green, and wear my boots and my UT hat. People get a kick when I say y'all which I don't try to do. I have fun with it and keep it in proportion. 

So ya, I'm going to try to post soon. Probably won't be till after Shabbat. And right now I have to go to dinner so... Bye! I love you!

Joey B.

Shabbat!

Fools in America and Thailand,

I have a couple of things. First is a couple of personal shout-outs:

Lilly: You have the most. You would love all the madrachim. Like too much. I can picture you being obsessed. I played my kazoo for the first time today. My friend and I put out a bag for money and almost got someone's shoe. Pretty impressive. I woke up today to Casey Jones. So I woke up today thinking of you. Don't interpret that creepily. 

Joe: I probably spend a sizable amount of time talking about you. Someone asked if I had a crush on you. 

Brennan: I played my Jesus Loves Me  harmonica. It was great.

All Jews and gentiles in Dallas: I love you. 

Allison Dejulius: My kazoo comments go to you too.

Anyone I play the random fact game with: Israel is the only country with more trees in 2000 than in 1900. Biyah!

Jake: I'm trying to sleep more and eat some vegetables. Today I had some gross pea and carrot mess but I ate it anyway AND at dinner I had some cauliflower salad stuff. 

To any Rabbi I know who might stumble on this Blog: If you're going to conference in a couple weeks, contact me so we can meet up.

OK, I had my first full day of classes on Thursday. I have the lowest Hebrew, Jewish History with David who I think is awesome. Then I have Pre-Cal, Physics, AP Language, and APUSH. All my teachers are pretty nice. Some are kind of out there, but I've only had one class with each so its hard to make judgments yet. David, my Jewish History teacher, though, is really cool. He is American and now lives in Israel. He is always very enthusiastic about teaching and the material and seems to really enjoy his job.  I've only had two classes with him but I'm excited for more. I started to fall sleep in Physics because I was so tired and by the end of my last period I was just exhausted. I took a nap before dinner. Napping is always a great thing.

Today, Friday, we went to the Kotel (Western Wall) for Kabalat Shabbat. The Kotel is one of the most powerful places in the world. It represents a couple thousand years of Jewish History and heritage and culture and can be overwhelming. I didn't bring a note but am going to next time. I want to spend time to think of a good and meaningful note. We arrived there at sundown to welcome Shabbat and once we left the immediate area around the Kotel, all the guys got in a huddle and sang the Shechyanu. The girls did too, but we did it first. Copiers! And in case anyone is wondering, guys and girls have to be separate when at the Kotel out of respect for the more religious people. But the singing was very cool. We then boarded the buses to go back to Tzuba where we had Shabbat services, and a song session led by the students and hung out till about 1. Today has just been a lot of fun. One more thing that I just remembered about the Kotel. When we were walking there we walked past the Zion Gate and it had bullet holes in it from 1967, when Israel got back Jerusalem. Amazing!

For our tzedakah project, my group went to a soup kitchen to volunteer. I spent my time peeling potatoes and carrots. But what was really funny was that another volunteer next to me was from Memphis and knew my cousins in Memphis. What a small world the Jewish world is. I'm in Jerusalem volunteering at a soup kitchen and the guy next to me is from Memphis and knows my cousins. Really funny. About the soup kitchen though. Many people in Israel are in poverty because of the mass influx of immigrants that were unable to find jobs. Another problem is that many people, Holocaust survivors, have very poor Hebrew and are unable to find jobs, which puts financial restraint on them because they also need medicine. A Holocaust survivor shouldn't have to pick between medicine and food. But the soup kitchen was a good experience and it was fun to be with a different group of people than who I am usually with. 

Yesterday, we had a speaker named Danny Seigel. He was amazing. He's the kind of person I get really excited just thinking about because they're so cool, for those of you that know what I mean. He talked all about volunteering and tzedakah projects and how people can make a difference.  Completely amazing. He talked about how we, the EIE students and anyone else, could start a drive for a number of things. One example was car seats because many families cant afford them for their children. It is a simple thing and we may not think of it as a necessity but it really is. 

I had to check my last post to see if I talked about the archaeological dig that we went on and I hadn't! So, I guess it was Wednesday that we went to the Judean foothills to the east to explore some of the caves that the Jews built to hide in when the Romans were taking over about 2000 years ago. they carved them out of the mountains and there were some burial caves and other structures still there. Then we went into one of the caves that was still being excavated and started to search for any shard of pottery or stuff like that. I found a piece of pottery and someone even found a bone. A big one! It was crazy. It was just our first of many tiulim so there will be much more on that. 

Thats a lot for one post. Next time I'll break it up because I kind of had to go fish for the day and stuff. 

Joey Blatt

In Israel

Hey Everyone!

I made it to Israel safely after about 20 hours of traveling. I got to Newark at about 2 pm and then hung out with my uncle and aunt and cousins for a while before going back to the airport to meet up with the group. The first person I met in the airport was a girl named Jordan who happened to be best friends with two of the only people I know going, Molly and Zoe Stern. After hanging around the airport for a while, we boarded the airplane and started our way to Tel Aviv. I sat next to a girl named Melanie from Fresno and a girl named Rio from Carmel, both in California. (If you're wondering why everyone is a girl its because there are only 30 boys compared to 90 girls.) The plane ride was long but not too bad. I slept for most of it and talked and watched part of Wedding Crashers. We made it to the Kibbutz at about 6 pm on Monday where we met the principal, moved into our rooms, ate dinner, got our phones, and hung out for a while.  

Everyone I've met is really nice. Most people are from the Northeast or California. I'm the only Texan so I got to represent well. (I wore my UT shirt on the plane on purpose.) I have three roommates. One is from Northern Virginia, one from San Francisco area, and the other from Boston. They're all pretty cool so far. The food the first day was alright. Its going to take some getting used to. I brought Easy Mac and Pace salsa with me. And there is the Markilit which is a small grocery store on the Kibbutz, so hopefully I won't wither away too quickly.

Today we met our teacher for our general studies (math, science, etc.) and they all seem pretty nice. I sneezed while my math teacher was talking and it was kind of gross and thats as exciting as the teacher meetings were.

Most of this post was written at 5:30 am because I was jet-lagged and then I edited it because now its 6:15 pm. I have so much more to say and there will be another post coming soon! 

Joey Blatt

First Post

Hey Everyone! This Blog is so I can keep in touch with all my friends and family everywhere.

I leave in 4 days for Newark where I'll meet up with the rest of the 119 high schoolers for Tel Aviv. I stay in a Kibbutz outside of Jerusalem called Kibbutz Tzuba. I don't work on the kibbutz, just go to school and live there. I've been to the Kibbutx before. My brother went on EIE (the name of the program I'm going on) in Spring 2006 and my family and I stayed there. It's very beautiful and overlooks the village of Abu Gosh.

One of the focuses of the program is the Jewish History class. When we learn about something that happened in Israel, we then go to place where it happened. Since I love history and I love Judaism, what could be better? When we learn about the Holocaust, go to Poland the Czech Republic to see the concentration camps and learn about what happened there. I also take an hour and a half of Hebrew every day, plus my regular classes that I would take back in Dallas.

With 4 days left I am very excited and very nervous. I understand this is an amazing experience to meet new people and to learn about my heritage and can't wait to start. But I'm also nervous about meeting new people and how I don't know anyone and am not going with any of my friends from Dallas or camp. The conflict that has been going on does not worry me too much. The people I've talked to who ahve come back from Israel recently tell me that if they didn't watch the news, they wouldn't know there was a war going on. And no part of the trip goes in the area around Gaza within rocket range. But Israel is a small country and we're all going to be careful to where we travel and are going to accomodate any dangers that may occur.

This is all I have to say for now! I'll be posting pictures of Israel the kibbutz when I have a chance. And my address in Israel is:
NFTY-EIE High School in Israel
Kibbutz Tzuba
D.N. Harei Yehuda
90870
ISRAEL

Joey B.