The KOTEL-Save the Date, July 2018

MONDAY JULY 13

OUR LAST DAYS in ISRAEL

FROM STACEY

I have been to Israel a lot. I am pretty sure I have been here 13 times, but I honestly am not sure. The thing that amazes me the most is that no two trips have been the same. I have been here for as short as a week and for as long as a year trying to decide if I wanted to make Aliyah. I have stayed on people’s floors and spent two months on a kibbtz. One week I stayed in a nice hotel, but mostly I have “lived” here- in apartments. That is what I enjoy the most (although you cant beat a good hotel). I like food shopping and feeling my Hebrew improve and getting annoyed at myself in the gaps in my skills. I like knowing my neighborhoods and feeling a sense of comfort there. What I love the most is that no two trips have been the same.

Each time I have been here, I have done something new. That is a pretty fun fact for me. This time the new was being in Tel Aviv for more than just a quick meal with friends. I swam in the Mediterranean with my kids (and even got nipped by an Israeli crab!), I watched the sun set on that same sea. I toured Jaffa and felt a new appreciation for a city I had not known before. I also went to Ein Gedi for the first time in 30 years (it was just as hot and just as beautiful as I remembered!). I watched Jerusalem shut down while walking with my kids on Friday afternoon and watched it wake up again on Saturday night. We wrapped up our trip with the “Night Spectacular” at the Tower of David in Jerusalem. That was another first.

I am planning to come back in July 2018 on a B’nai Tikvah trip- which I hope many people will choose to come on. It will again be a first! I am already taking notes of the “must sees” for us. I cant wait to see the country through the eyes of people who have not been here before or who have not been here since they were on USY Pilgrimage. I hope to try new things with all of you. I also hope not to cry as I walk through Mahaneh Yehudah market, like I did today!FROM BRUCE

What a difference a day makes. It is great to be home, to have two homes. Last year I was in Israel, in the same Jerusalem apartment without my family. This summer we completed that trip together.

There is always a threat of war in the middle east. Last summer I experienced the coming of age for a generation who was thought to lack the will to protect their land as their parents had. The word is they demonstrated resolve under pressure. This generation faced war and became a generation prepared to lead. Israel is in good hands..

The sense and appearance of the tension that I observed last summer was gone. I’m told by our Israeli friends life goes on as normal, according to your circumstance, there is always a chance that something bad can happen anywhere, you can’t live that way. We always felt secure, day or night.

Our friend Mirjam, a social worker, was born in Denmark, she has been an Israeli for over 30 years. I asked her about the Israel-Arab population, how they are functioning, she replied “like everyone else, they’re trying to make a living, put food on the table and make a life”. Mirjam added, although they work in all fields, as teachers and university instructors as well as doctors, nurses and medical techs, life is certainly more complicated for the Arab population. We all shop in the same stores.

Bashe “needed” new comfortable, pretty shoes.

The Rockmans, and Israeli-Arab and a soldier, we all “need” pretty new shoes.

Your prayers and aspirations live in the “Wall”. We all pray for good health and peace in Israel.

We made a few visits to the Kotel. Bashe and Rafi have different reactions to the “old wall”. Bashe appreciates our long history in Jerusalem and she is happy to see so many, so fulfilled in their experience, she yearns to feel the same emotional connection. It is good to question, I love Bashe’s honesty.

Rafi has a clear vision of his life, he smiles constantly in Israel, especially at the Kotel. It is becoming more difficult for him to express his feelings, when pushed he explained, “We always pray to the east, to Jerusalem, to the wall. Being here, my prayers seem clearer, this is where and what I’m praying for, to be closer to here, to God.”