This week, my class was assigned to write about what role I want Israel to play in my life when I go home. Wow. Just the thought of going home is hard right now, and imagining not being in Israel is tough. In reality though, I will soon be in Milwaukee, and Israel will remain right here. So how can I bring my own piece of Israel home to Wisconsin? After struggling with this question for a while, I realized that every little way this experience has changed me will be me bringing Israel home.

More tangibly, however, I want to bring Israeli culture and lifestyle into my everyday life at home. Next year I plan on taking Hebrew classes at my high school, which is a major step in bringing Israeli culture home. My goal is to someday be fluent in Hebrew, but that's a ways off. I also plan on keeping updated in Israeli current events, not only through security, but also in culture and everyday Israeli happenings. I want to be educated in what is happening in Israel so I can answer any question I am asked. Bringing back these cultural influences of Israel will help me stay connected until I can next return to Israel.

In the last few days, I've been forced to come to the realization that I only have a short time left in Israel. It has been an amazing three and a half months so far, but I still can't imagine going home. My time here has created new friendships, ideals, values - all things that I want to bring home and continue in my life in the United States. I have learned so many new things in Israel, and I really don't want my experience here to end.

One of the things I will be most mindful of upon my return is Israeli current events, along with the culture here. The biggest problem for Jews in America is simple ignorance of Israeli current events, and I don't plan on being uninformed. I also want to continue my Jewish cultural identity, which has evolved through my time in Israel, when I return to Milwaukee. I want to continue to learn Hebrew and develop my Jewish thought as well.

This week, in honor of Yom Ha'azmaut, I read an article from Haaretz about 66 Israeli women to know. Each woman, ranging from Jewish to Bedouin, young to old, contributed to Israeli culture and society in a multitude of ways, each different from the other. One woman that particularly caught my attention was Inbar Pezaro, a swimmer whose lower limbs are paralyzed. At the last Paralympic Games, Pezaro won three medals, contributing to her current eight medals in the last three Games. Pezaro was also named Sportswoman of the Year by the Israeli Paralympic Committee. When reading about Pezaro, I thought her achievements were particularly spectacular. As Americans, we normally read about Israeli politicians, maybe even filmmakers or writers; rarely, if ever, do we read about Israeli athletes. The only ones I have heard of are Omri Casspi and that one Olympic windsurfer. Reading about a female Paralympic swimmer was especially cool because it shows another side of Israeli culture, something I love to learn about. It was also awesome to read about Pezaro's achievement and her overcoming of her disability.

A few days ago we joined members of the URJ Board to see a Kobe Oz concert in Jerusalem. I was a little excited for the concert, but I didn't think it would be anything special. But now I have to give backstory: a few years ago, my dad had this album of Israeli music that he played over and over. I really liked the music, and my family listened to it all the time when we were in the car. Ever since we began to listen to Israeli music in Jewish History class, I've been wondering if I'll hear one of the songs from this album that I would recognize. The only song I had a distinct memory of was a song in which the singer used a recording of his grandfather at the beginning. Now back to the present. We got to the concert, and Kobe Oz came on. Immediately when he began to play, I had flashbacks to the music in the car with my dad. I had finally found who it was, and even more, I was seeing it live. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. From that moment on, I recognized almost every song he played, including the one with his grandfather. It was super cool to make the connection between my family and my time in Israel too. After the concert, I actually found out that my parents had seen Kobe Oz live when they were in Israel a few years ago, which was when my dad got his music. Anyway, the concert was great, as were the connections I made with it.

Today in class, we had a discussion about the massacre at Deir Yassin during the War of Independence in Israel. In Deir Yassin, fighters from the Israeli military factions of Irgun and Lehi attacked the Arab village, killing 107 Arabs including women and children. The attack and its aftermath were extremely controversial for both sides alike. In the aftermath, however, what happened at Deir Yassin led to around 700,000 Arabs fleeing Israel and the eventual creation of a Jewish state. Our discussion in class centered on what our reactions would be to the events at Deir Yassin. If possible, would we have stopped the attack? Was it a necessary evil?

I personally believe that no, Deir Yassin was not a necessary attack to preserve the future of a Jewish state. Yes, the outcome led to hundreds of thousands of refugees leaving, but the killing of innocent women and children is still inexcusable. Of course, knowing that this attack played a major role in the realization of the State of Israel, it is difficult to say that I would have prevented the attack, but I do believe that I would have attempted to stop it. In the moment, the soldiers did not know the eventual outcome, only the immediate future after the killings of over a hundred Arabs. Either way, this is a very difficult and controversial subject, and any situation like this is tough to comprehend.

For my next blog post, I am writing about one experience I have had with Israeli culture. For class, I recently read a short story by Etgar Keret titled "The Son of the Head of the Mossad." Keret's writing, even translated from Hebrew to English, is still impressive and well-worded. Most of his stories are a combination of dark humor, creepy things, and funny situations. I won't go into the details of this particular story, but I can say that it was especially dark.

In class we have mentioned that Israeli humor would be considered dark humor to outsiders, which I happen to love. The dark humor employed by Keret in his stories is especially dark sometimes, and the stories give a new view of Israeli society. I really liked the few stories I read, and I look forward to reading more of Keret's writing and to gaining a new perspective on Israeli life.

This is my first blog post in a while, and a lot has happened since then. We just got back from our long trip for Pesach and Yam L'Yam. To start, Pesach was very cool. My dad and sister came to visit, and we went to our former cantor's husbands brother's seder near Jerusalem. The family was Sephardic, so the seder was a bit different. First of all, they used lettuce as the bitter herb, which was interesting. Also, instead of traditional charoset, my favorite Pesach food, they served a sort of date spread as charoset, which was surprisingly good anyway. The seder wasn't too long, and it was fun, even though it was done entirely in Hebrew, which I couldn't understand.

After Pesach we began our sea to sea hike, Yam L'Yam. I won't go into all the details, but essentially I spent five days hiking, cooking my own food, sleeping in tents on the ground, and not showering. It was awesome. The last day was my favorite; we biked from our campsite to the Mediterranean Sea, which was beautiful. I think the trip was important because it gave us a broader view of the land of Israel. Instead of hearing about the land from our teachers, we got to hike it and get a real feeling for the importance of this land. We also got to meet some cool Israelis and experience a truly Israeli cultural rite of passage.

Tomorrow we leave Tzuba again, this time for thirteen days. We start in Jerusalem, then Pesach, and then Yam L'Yam, our hike from sea to sea. As excited as I am to hike the land of Israel, I am just as excited to celebrate the Pesach seder in Israel. First of all, my dad and sister are coming to join Jacob and I for the week, which I am super excited for. I also think Pesach in Israel will be a whole new and interesting experience. Whenever I am at home for Pesach, I never end up fully observing the holiday. I usually eat matzah at home, but not outside of my house. This year, however, I will have very few chances to break the Pesach kashrut, because I am surrounded by Jews 24/7, all of whom are observing the holiday. I also think it will be easier considering I have very little choice in the matter. All in all I am very excited to travel the country and see my family.

Now that I have been back from Poland for almost a week, I am able to reflect on the experiences I had there. Even one week is not enough; it will take much longer to realize the extent to which this trip had on me. From the sadness of Majdanek and Auschwitz to the sights of Krakow and Warsaw, the images and memories from Poland will last forever. But from all the things I saw in Poland, the message was always the same: we had a vibrant culture in Poland, which was taken away forever. No amount of rebuilding can ever replace the communities destroyed in Poland. The only thing we can to is remember and rebuild what we can, both culturally and religiously. And that is what I want to do – not only survive as Jews like I wrote about before, but to rebuild and remember what we had and what we can have.

Seeing the vibrant Jewish communities from before the Holocaust was particularly haunting for me. Going to Tykocin and seeing the remnants of a once vibrant, thriving Jewish community. Visiting the multitude of museum-like old synagogues in Krakow. These communities will likely never regain the level of Judaism they once had before the Holocaust. And so we must rebuild. Israel is now the land of the Jewish people, and just as Poland was the center of Jewish culture then, Israel must be its center now. The rebuilding stage in the post-Holocaust world has been going on for decades now, and my generation must be the one to continue this and create a Jewish cultural hub rivaling that of Poland. This means Jewish art, Jewish music, Jewish architecture, Torah study, every type of Jewish culture possible. And once this is created, as much of it already has been, it is our job to continue its tradition and not let it almost disappear again.

But just rebuilding is not enough. There are only sixty-six students on EIE yet countless of other young students around the world without this experience. To rebuild and continue the tradition of Judaism, we must educate everyone in order to keep Judaism alive. The vibrant Jewish life of Poland was destroyed by Hitler and Nazi Germany, and this must never happen again. Along with the rest of EIE, I visited Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Birkenau. The haunting realization of what happened in these three places was enough for me to want to continue Judaism more than ever. I wasn't necessarily sad in these camps, rather I was angry. Such an amazing culture with amazing people was completely destroyed, never to return. And so we must remember. We must remember the six million that died and the countless generations of their descendants never to be born. We must teach of the horrors of the Holocaust so it is never repeated. We must commemorate those who saved their Jewish neighbors and risked their lives for others.

When asked what I took away from Poland, I was almost confused. My experience led to the strengthening of my own Judaism, but this was difficult to put into words. I don't necessarily feel more Jewish, but rather more connected to the past, more in touch with the history of the Jewish people, a history which I want to continue. And there it is: I took away a collective memory of my people which I want to continue and enrich in every way possible.

Rabbi Emil Fackenheim once wrote: "Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories, they are commanded to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish People perish."

After returning from Poland and learning about the Holocaust, I agree with Fackenheim's quote now more than ever. As modern Jews, we need to keep our Jewish faith and culture in order to pass it on to the next generation. In keeping our faith, we will not give Hitler these posthumous victories and show that we are a strong people who can survive through everything. I personally feel responsible to follow Fackenheim's quote and preserve my own Jewish faith as I continue into adulthood. To accomplish this, I plan to remain Jewish for the rest of my life and raise my children Jewish, teaching them the same values I have learned in my life.

I feel that Fackenheim is completely correct in his statement. The need to preserve Judaism has always been pertinent, if not even more in modern times. I have no problem with assimilation (I am an extremely liberal reform Jew), but many people are straying farther and farther from traditional Judaism, and some could say that this is a problem. I think preserving Judaism  - both in faith and in culture - is one of the most important issues for modern Jews, up there with the conflict in the Middle East. We must continue to be Jewish in any way possible, to survive as a Jewish people, or, like Fackenheim says, the Jewish people will perish. Again returning to Fackenheim's quote, in a post-Holocaust world, Jews need to prove that we are strong. We need to uphold the Jewish faith and its vibrant culture to show everyone that we are stronger than Hitler's armies and the lasting impact of the Holocaust. Through preserving our faith and culture, we can accomplish this.

In theory, this idea is simple; in practice, however, it takes conscious decisions to uphold these values. I personally plan on remaining Jewish and following this quote in order to preserve Judaism. I will remain Jewish for my entire life in both faith and cultural values. I will hopefully lead a meaningful Jewish life, following the commandments I find meaningful. I hope to celebrate the holidays with my family and attend high holiday services. Most importantly, I want to teach my children the Jewish values taught by the Torah in order to pass down the faith to the next generation. This is how the Jews will remain a people, and this is how Hitler will not gain any posthumous victories.

Before traveling to Poland I don't think I felt this strongly about this issue. Sure, I knew that the Jewish people needed to remain strong, and I knew that I wanted to remain Jewish. But now I have a reachable goal, a reason for my Judaism. I believe Fackenheim could not have been more right in his reasoning, and I think all Jews should think about this issue.

I currently have less than three days before leaving for Poland, and frankly, I am still unsure of how it will go. I don't know if I will be emotional or distant, somber or not. Nothing I have or will ever do can prepare me for the experiences I will have in the next week. Maybe this trip will create a more emotional connection between the Holocaust and me. Maybe not. No matter what, I will learn a lot and probably forget most of it due to the emotional exhaustion of the week.

Two full days. In these days I have to pack my bags, move out of my room, and somehow attempt to prepare myself, both physically and emotionally, for Poland. I still cannot fathom the importance of this trip, and I don't think I will truly understand it until much later. The next week will be difficult and challenging, and I only hope to have a meaningful experience that I will remember forever.

I just finished reading yet another article about Israel. This article is about a new book by Simon Schama called "The Story of the Jews." From the article, it seems like Schama is essentially re-writing our entire Jewish history course and boiling it down into a few volumes. He writes of all the viewpoints on our history, which seems very difficult to put into words. I think it is important to see all viewpoints, because only then can you form your own opinions and ideas. According to the article, Schama also uses humor in his language. I think this too is important, because everyone, including the Jews, needs to be able to laugh at their history. From what I read, I think Schama's book seems very interesting, and I may read it at some point.

This week I read another article about AIPAC, the pro-Israel committee. AIPAC has always worked with the United States government in cooperation with Israel, and in recent years they have worked to stop Iranian nuclear missile development by promoting sanctions. Their bipartisan actions have come into question recently, even though it seems to be working. I think that AIPAC should continue to promote bipartisanship, because the majority of Americans support Israel in the long run. Only working with one party would  be bad for American politics as a whole, especially considering the political climates in the United States and the Middle East. In my opinion, AIPAC needs to continue to work with the entire United States government and not lose sight of the final goal pf peace in the Middle East.

Tonight was our first conversation about the Poland trip in just a few weeks. I honestly don't know how to feel about the trip. On one hand, I'm nervous for the rush of emotions at the concentration camps, but on the other hand I know the experience will be memorable for the rest of my life. I have learned a lot about the Holocaust from nine years of Jewish day school, but it has always felt almost distant; I had no family in the Holocaust, and I have met only a few survivors. The part of Poland that I am most anxious for is the pure reality of it. I will be there, where the Holocaust actually happened, and I don't think I will ever be prepared for that.

I recently read another article about an art exhibit in New York called "What I Be: Jews of New York." The controversial exhibit shows a spectrum of Jews from reform to orthodox. It was originally going to be shown at Yeshiva University, but the school pulled out of the project, which led to accusations of censorship. I agree that the exhibit, which shows people and their insecurities, can be seen as very controversial, and I understand the university's decision to back out. If it were my decision, however, I would have kept the exhibit at Yeshiva University. It would have given the students there a venue to see expressions of other Jews and maybe even express themselves. Even though it may be controversial, the What I Be project's goal is to promote conversation, and I think that this would have been achieved had the exhibit been at the university.

Today was our first day back at the kibbutz after ten days of travel. Over the past ten days we visited Masada, Ein Gedi, the Bedouin tents, Gadna, Eilat, and Kibbutz Lotan. While Eilat, with the sun and the beach, was my favorite part of the trip, my army experience at Gadna was definitely the most memorable of them all.

Truthfully, I was pretty unprepared for the army - I didn't really know what to expect, even for the five days we were there. I've never thought about joining the army, American or Israeli, and my mentality for Gadna was that I would just get through it and be done, but after completing my week, I can see that I actually had a good experience in the army. Aside from the inefficiency of moving in ten second intervals, I learned a lot in Gadna: how to shoot a gun, follow orders exactly, fall asleep without a pillow or any blankets, and a lot of Hebrew, which was probably the best part of Gadna for me. I have worked on improving my Hebrew a lot over the past month, and hearing the language spoken 24 hours a day helped my understanding tremendously.

Overall, my feelings for the army barely changed for better or for worse. I still think the IDF is an important part of Israeli culture, but it is not for me. I believe that I should try to do some service for Israel at some point in the future, but it probably won't be through the army.

In keeping up with the current issues in Israel, I have been reading some of Thomas Friedman's recent articles from Israel. I found this one especially interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/opinion/friedman-israels-big-question.html?ref=thomaslfriedman&_r=0

Here, Friedman writes about the effects of the BDS movement and US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to create peace in the region. He writes of the possible outcomes and different solutions for Israel and a proposed Palestinian state.

As I said before, I believe in a two-state solution. In a perfect world, Jews and Palestinian Arabs could live in the region peacefully forever, but sadly, from a realistic viewpoint, that just isn't possible. For peace to be created in the current state of Israel, some concessions will need to be made, likely including the West Bank. I believe in the right for a Jewish state by Jews and for Jews, even one that would occupy the entire region, but in today's world, with modern political issues, a two-state solution is the only solution. Jews can still have their rightful nation for Jews, and Palestine can finally have autonomy, hopefully ending the violence surrounding the region.

A few days ago, we had another thought-provoking discussion on intermarriage. Back in the days of Ketuvim and the Tanakh, intermarriage was a huge deal and strictly forbidden. Obviously, it is not as big of an issue in the modern world, but intermarriage continues to be a hot topic among Jews. In the same Nathan Englander story I mentioned in an earlier blog, a few of the characters discuss how intermarriage is the second Holocaust. I strongly disagree with this viewpoint for the sole reason that any comparison to the systematic slaughtering of twelve million people has to be pretty accurate, which this is not.

I feel personally connected to the issue of intermarriage, and I think that it is completely okay. My parents were both raised Jewish and have stayed Jewish for their entire lives (my dad is even a rabbi), but every one of their three combined Jewish siblings has married a non-Jew. Even in this case, two of them are still raising their children Jewish. I think that who a person marries should have nothing to do with either of their religion. If a Jew decides to marry someone not Jewish, that is their decision, and no one should be able to tell them they are wrong. Religion may be a deciding factor in some people's marriages, but those people should not be able to make the same decisions for other people.

http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/115428/a-synthetic-emergency-israel-divided-over-boycott-threat%E2%80%99

This week I read another interesting article about the BDS movement against Israel. BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, and the goal of the movement is to stop Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas by hurting the Israeli economy. I personally disagree with the BDS movement for many reasons. It's not that I think Israel should have vast control of the region; I think that with the current situation of the Middle East, a two-state solution is almost necessary. But what the BDS movement promotes - the economic sanctions against many Israeli businesses, the boycott of Israeli academic institutions - will in no way help anyone, Israeli or Palestinian. Instead of working towards progress, the BDS wants to force all the blame on Israel. With that attitude, no progress will ever be made in the region, and the true goal, peace, will never be achieved.

Earlier this week in English class, we had an interesting discussion about Orthodox Judaism and the rules and laws surrounding it. The conversation started while talking about a short story by Nathan Englander, a prominent Jewish writer. In the story, Englander partly writes about Orthodox Judaism, and in one passage, the characters talk about people who police them about the laws they follow. As we discussed, our class talked about judgment of others, laws and order, and the role of Orthodox Judaism.

I came away from the discussion with an interesting thought: all people need some form of order, and the only difference is whether they give it to themselves or let someone else give them order. Neither is better or worse, just a different viewpoint. In the case of Orthodox Judaism, Jews follow the orders of God to the letter. In many ways, this way of life is easier; if an Orthodox Jew needs an answer, he can look to the Tanakh or Talmud for a quick answer. At the same time, however, the Orthodox Jew has so many rules to follow it can be easy to get lost in the law. I consider myself to be on the opposite side of the continuum – I choose which laws to follow from the Tanakh based on my personal convictions, giving myself order in my life. All laws are meant to give order, and it is up to each individual to choose his path of order.

NFTY EIE is now almost two weeks in, and tonight I celebrate my second Shabbat in Israel. The past school week, our first full week here, has been hectic, somewhat stressful, and a lot of fun.

Yesterday we had a Jewish History tiyul to Sataf, just a short walk away from Kibbutz Tzuba. At Sataf, I learned all about Sataf and הנחל שורק (the Sorek Valley). As we looked over the valley, our class read stories from the Tanakh, including the story of Samson and Delilah, which took place in the Sorek Valley. We also learned about the agriculture and terraces built in Sataf. Overall, it was a very cool trip, and I learned a lot of valuable information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/what-drives-success.html?emc=eta1&_r=1

I recently read this article, entitled "What Drives Success?" It discusses the many ethnic and cultural groups known to strive in America, from Asians to Cuban-Americans, Jews to Mormons. What drives their success? How do these groups rise above struggles or situations in which they are placed? The author designates three significant factors: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. The significance of these factors reminds me of another book I read, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which also talks about cultural, socioeconomic, and societal factors that contribute to success.

The most interesting part of the article was how the combination of superiority complex and insecurity equally contribute to success, which, when you think about it, actually makes sense. At first, the superiority complex gives a child confidence to succeed, and the insecurity curbs the child's hubris and arrogance. This balance of confidence allows a child to know his ability, yet also to be modest about the extent of that ability; this dynamic is intriguing, and the article covers it extremely well. It is also interesting to see how different cultures achieve this dynamic in order to succeed.

Finally writing my first real post from Israel. Today was fantastic. We started off by waking up early and heading out on our first tiyul to do some archaeological digging. I got to dig around caves looking for pottery, crawl through small passages into larger rooms, and see some very old graves. I learned a bunch of Jewish history about the site we were at, and it was a really cool experience. Sadly, I forgot a memory card for my camera and could not take any pictures.

A bit after we returned to Tzuba, a few of us went up to Tel Tzuba, the ruins of an old crusaders' castle, by far the coolest thing I have yet to see in Israel. There were so many small rooms to go inside and walls and ruins to walk on. We explored the castle for a while and then came back. It is also my first Shabbat in Israel, and I am getting ready for that now. I am excited and will update later.

Hey guys! Today I found out that I need to keep a blog for my Jewish History class, so here it is. I'll be posting twice a week, along with any other small updates and pictures that I take. Some of my posts will have links to articles that I have read and commented on, so you can look at those if you want to. If you don't, that's okay too.

Eli