Israel Day 1, Shabbat Shalom

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem. It has been a whirlwind since we arrived yesterday. This week's Torah portion, Pinchas, is so appropriate as I look back at the last 24 hours in Jerusalem. In this parsha, we are reminded of all of the names of the tribes and with whom is associated with each one. I'll get to that, but in the meantime - our first stop Thursday was at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village. Youth villages were originally establish to support children who came to Palestine right after the Shoah. Today youth villages are home to children who can no longer stay in their homes because of abuse, neglect or other issues. The facility offers a home to children who need help and a safe space. They receive counseling and other services. From the Youth Village we went to see a very different form of counseling. Below are two pictures. Each one is of a Holocaust survivor and a teen who has spent a year, talking, interviewing, and connecting on many levels. This program is called JDC Witness Theater. The culmination of the program ia a live theatrical performance where the teen and the survivor act out the survivors story. This was an incredibly moving program for both the teens and the survivors. For many survivors this was the first time they were able to open up and share their personal story of survival.

Our next stop brought us to a naval base to particpate in a meeting with Taglit-Birthright Israel participants. In our small groups we spoke with both the Israeli soldiers who join the group and the American particpants. Both the Israelis and the Americans discussed why the program was so profoundly impactful on them. This is Birthright's Bar Mitzvah year. It has been going strong for 13 years and has brought over 300,000 young adults to Israel. These young people would not have gone to Israel and connected with our ancestral homeland and Isralis if it were not for this program. We will all benefit from Birthright in the years to come. We attended the Birthright mega event Bar Mitzvah celebration in the Port of Haifa. It was an incredible celebratory production with the 3000 Birthright participants in attendance. They represented countries from around the globe including: Denmark, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, United States, Canada and I am sure other places I am forgetting. Not only was it so very exciting to see the money that we have raised in support of Birthright connecting our young adults with Israel, but also with Jews from around the world. The event was a spectacle of young adults who love Israel, but also grapple with questions about the country. Birthright allows the participants to explore, ask questions, and develop their own conclusions. Below are pictures from the event. Unfortunately they aren't great as my camera and cell phone batteries died and these were taken on my Ipad. Hopefully you will be able t see the magnitude of the event.

After an extremely long day we headed to Jerusalem looking forward to Friday and Shabbat rest.