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.