Leahpi

Well. I am officially back home in the US. But before I talk about that, let me sum up my last week in Israel. Last weekend, after my cousin Lisa left me, I went to my cousins for Shabbat, and then Saturday night, I went back to my friends's house where I had been staying for a few weeks. I spent Sunday with my friend Abigail, walking around town, and just hanging out, and said goodbye to all my friends in the house, pack up my stuff and went to my cousins again, for Pesach. So, Monday night was the seder. I went to my religious cousin's house in Bnei Brak. It was all of my favorite cousins who I have spent a lot of time with over the last 9 months, religious and non religious. ... read more

Part 2... Day 3- Today we drove to Zfat, in the Galilee. Zfat is one of the holiest cities in Judaism, after Jerusalem and Hebron. It is a beautiful little town on the top of a mountain, and is home to the Jewish mystics of Kabbalah. It also happens to be my most favorite place in all of Israel. You can just feel these special, spiritual, mystical powers flowing all around you. As a very religious city, where Kabbalah was developed in the 16th century, there are dozens of small synagogues, mostly after specific rabbis. We went to a few of the more important ones. First was the Abuhav Synagogue, named for Rabbi Yitzhak Abuhav, a famous rabbi from Spain who lived in the 15th century. Abuhav wanted to make it to Israel before he ... read more

So, my internship is over. Goodbye to Branco Weiss (the name of the organization). It was a bumpy ride, but not without its positive moments and people. So, I wanted to tell you guys about some of the special teachers and students I met while working in these schools in Israel. Yasu is a thirty-something man. He came to Israel from Ethiopia, part of the lost tribes of Israel. In the 1980s, the Israeli government found this “lost tribe” of Israel, in Ethiopia. At the time, Ethiopia was a very dangerous place for Jews, as there was a war going on. The Israeli government at the time, decided that they needed to do something to rescue these newly found Jews. They did a secret military operation and airlifted hundreds of these Ethiopian Jews. This wasn’t like ... read more

So, I have been sick. It has been most unfortunate, especially at the end of my program. Thankfully, I am FINALLY starting to get better (thank you antibiotics!). So, with all this free time of lying in bed, although most of it, I was too lethargic to be able to do anything, I've had lots of time to think about lots of random junk, and I thought, hey, its time for some anecdotes and political commentary maybe. I'm not sure how many of you were aware, but a couple weeks ago, there was a suicide bombing in Eilat, in Israel. Eilat, is the southern most tip of Israel, and is known purely as a resort town, and major tourist destination for Europeans. I only happened to hear about it when I was at one of the ... read more

Happy New Year!!! This is my official new years greeting to all my readers, even though its already a week past. Here in Israel, the holiday is mysteriously called Sylvester... but I'll get to that in a few minutes. So, I last left off on my return from my trip to Eilat and the Negev and Chanukah. That week, I returned to work, my teaching English to the troubled kids. While the situation has gotten better since the beginning, it is still often a completely disorganized mess. At this point, it is beyond ridiculous, but I have mostly given up on trying to fix it, since the program is only for another 6 weeks (GULP!!!!!!) However, I am working a lot more hours than I was in the beginning, and that is about the only improvement. ... read more