More Than Being in Jerusalem

Last Friday, I woke up early in the morning to get to breakfast right when it opened with Mia, Maddy, and Deena.  Why would we do such a thing on the one day we can sleep late?  To catch an early bus to Tel Aviv, of course!  We went to Tel Aviv, staying at the apartment of Maddy’s friend from home, and had an incredible weekend.  On Friday, we decided to forget our plan of going to museums to instead walk around.  We found ourselves walking to Yaffo (we were in the south end of Tel Aviv anyway), stopping to appreciate street art along the way.  We gazed at the Mediterranean Sea, ate at a restaurant where all of the waiters were deaf (great food and a lot of fun because we had dry erase boards at the table; a couple days a week they have a blind restaurant open where you eat in pitch black; they also have a theatre group of the deaf and blind), and wandered into an art gallery. 

street art in Tel Aviv

For Shabbat, we did Kab Shab and maariv together at the beach, then ate the food we brought- challah, peanut butter, cheese, and a chocolate croissant.  We had a sang a little before birkat, and we did BBYO post-birkat singing (yai-da-dai…what do horses eat? HAY! Yai-da-dai…, David Melech Yisrael + abba/ima, kein/lo, etc.)  It wasn’t our plan, but we were asleep around 10 pm.  In the morning we went to The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv, but we left after Torah reading because we felt very disconnected at this shul.  Then we went to the beach, where we played in the waves and read in the sun.

I did not go to Tel Aviv for this purpose, but when there I found myself learning about who I am and what I want in life.  I don’t know if it was because I felt more independent than when in Jerusalem where I have school and Nativ programs or if it was because I was in the edgy, artsy south Tel Aviv, but this weekend meant a lot to me.  I realized, I do like cities, just not “downtowns”; I now don’t think I’ll mind being in Boston for 4 years.  I don’t like being a tourist, and while I want to go back to see museums, I think I get a better sense of where I am and enjoy traveling more by just walking around. 

So what are the implications of this?  I don’t know what I want to do during winter break.  The independence in traveling was so great that I feel I should take advantage of my opportunity to go to Spain or Italy for a relatively cheap price.  But could I have a comparably good experience traveling around cities in Israel?  And I know I want to go hiking for at least a few days.  What to do?  I should be able to do any two things with my 12-day break.  Help me decide!

Sunday was my birthday, and it was possibly my best birthday yet.  First of all, I got my Nativ 31 shirt that day (as did everyone else).  2^nd, I got a letter from my parents full of balloons in the mail.  3^rd, I received literally a million hugs (yes, Julia, literally).  4^th, Masa (an organization that has over 200 programs (including Nativ) for spending a significant amount of time in Israel) chose this day to have an Idan Raichel concert for all of their programs.  Even though I feel like I have permanent ear damage, the concert was a lot of fun (but I don’t see myself going to another concert of music I don’t really like being played too loudly to appreciate it…probably ever).

I don't know who the guy in plaid is, but the rest of us are Nativers, having fun at the concert.

On Tuesday, Erev Nativ was Stever Wernick, CEO of USCJ, speaking to us about the trends in the Jewish community and his goals.  There is a shift from synagogues to building-less kehillot (communities).  We discussed this means, and what should be done about it. 

Wednesday was a lot of fun.  After classes, I went for a run.  Then I went to the shuk and did some other shopping on Yaffo (the street, not the city by Tel Aviv) with Zach and Julia.  Then that night I just hung out in my room, laughing a lot, with a bunch of friends.  My final activity for the evening was looking at snorgtees.com and thinkgeek.com with Sarah, indulging our nerdiness with ideas like watches in binary, duct tape as a toolkit, and a wide array of science puns.

Thursday was the beginning of our Conservative Judaism Seminar.  Jules Gutin, the head of USY, came and talked to us, mostly looking at the results of a Nativ survey which asked questions about our formal Jewish education and Jewish youth groups.  Today and tomorrow he’s leading discussions with us by track.  It’s really cool how most USYers know Jules personally.  He comes to visit regions and summer programs to get to know the participants.  It’s not like this in BBYO, but this is sort of what international presidents do.

Just before getting on my computer to finish typing this, I came into my room after being out for a couple hours to find my bed covered in the balloons my parents had sent.  Apparently today is my birthday, too.

Trivia: Sigmund Freud and Theodore Herzl lived on the same street in Vienna [thank you for the correction, Mom], but at different times.

Shabbat Shalom!