Week 4
Day 22- Thursday 12 December- Sderot
Post by Charlotte Lyons and Doran Lee
Today we embarked on an interesting and remarkable journey to Sderot. Sderot is a town located on the boarder of Gaza (less than a mile from it!) It has been a major target of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. First, we went to a viewpoint looking into the Gaza Strip where we learnt about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that began with the establishment of Israel in 1948. We learnt about the history of the Israeli-Gaza conflict and the tremendous complexity of the situation through a controversial and thought provoking class discussion.
We then arrived at a local outdoor park where we were all so shocked to see that this large, snake-looking play equipment was actually a bomb shelter. In classes, we spoke about the terrible affect the rocket shooting has on the town of Sderot and what it meant to live in a town that is under constant threat.
20191212_122611.mp4We then visited the JNF Sderot Indoor Recreation Centre. Because children must always be within 15 seconds of a bomb shelter, an afternoon at the park turns into a potentially dangerous activity, forcing children to spend most of their time indoors. The Jewish National Fund has built a secure indoor playground as a gift to Sderot’s families.
We thoroughly enjoyed playing on the equipment and speaking to Jackie from JNF who told us about why he chooses to live in Sderot. He explained to us that five of his nine grandchildren have PTSD from the attacks and can’t sleep at night and cry out loud. We learnt how the mental and psychological damage here is real and how teenagers can’t even go out without an adult accompanying them in Sderot. People who live in Sderot can feel like their lives are being controlled. We all took different things away from visiting this town, however it was unanimous that today has definitely enhanced our appreciation of the local people who face these challenges and their deep faith that this will all come to an end as well as making us feel incredibly grateful to live in such a safe country, city and neighbourhood.
After dinner, we went to a high school and middle school Israeli youth movement to bond with the teenagers who are our age there. We played many games, and shared our ruach dances with them. It was an amazing experience to see how people our age live their lives across the world!
We cannot wait for our free weekend to begin tomorrow!
Day 23 and 24- Friday 13 and Saturday 14 December- Open Shabbat
Post by Noam Meretz and Ruben Mihalovich
This weekend provided everyone with the opportunity to explore Israel and spend the Shabbat away from campus with their family and friends. Most of our peers spent their Shabbat relaxing at their family's homes: watching Netflix, lots of TV, being force-fed meal after meal after meal and then lazing around in bed. Of course, many other fun activities filled up our days away from campus.
For those who did not leave campus spent the weekend relaxing and catching up on sleep. After our usual shopping haul before Shabbat, the free Shabbat on campus was filled with snacks, fun, sleep, and countless hair dying and straightening. Furthermore, everyone loved the purple schnitzel for lunch on the Saturday and the self-made breakfast in the morning.
As always, the free Shabbat was an incredible experience will remains a highlight of the Chavayah trip.
IMG_6123.MOVAaron Lemberg
IMG_6127.MOVAriella Tracton
IMG_6120.MOVZac Greenberg
Untitled.movLara King
IMG_6122.MOVJono Schach
Day 25- Sunday 15 December- Hand in Hand School (Kfar Kara)
Post by Tara Linker and Jessica Lowy
Today has been a very relaxing but interesting day. We were able to sleep in this morning (yay) and began the day with a class. We starter class with an amazing drum meditation run by one of our teachers, Akiva (see video below!!). After, we learnt all about the legality of settlements in the West Bank. We also watched Israel’s winning Eurovision song (Toy by Netta) from 2018 and had a fascinating discussion on whether or not this was a song which was positively representative of Israel. After class, we broke for lunch and headed off towards the hand in hand (yad be yad) school for Arab and Jewish children. We toured the campus a little bit, played with the kids at the kindergarten and asked some of the students questions about their time at school. It was very eye-opening and we were glad to have had the opportunity to be exposed to a unique perspective on the relationship between Arabs and Jews. Then, we had some free time. The day was overall amazing and valuable and has contributed to our overall Chavayah experience.
Day 26, 27 & 28- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 16, 17, 18 December- Hike in Makhtesh Ramon
Post by Cooper Levit, Ari Merten, Zac Greenberg and Aaron Lemberg
20191216_145219.mp4After a very steep & difficult climb to the top of a ridge line we took a break with a group of Israeli students. Our teacher Akiva tried to get a song going until...
We had an amazing experience hiking through Machtesh Ramon. It a “crater” formed by an ocean which eroded the valley over millions of years in the Negev desert. The hike was 3 days long and by the end we had travelled 45kms. Through steep mountains and down tricky terrain we all hiked and made our way down into and across the largest machtesh in the world.
The first day we hiked down into the machtesh and passed many mountain goats along the way. It was a unique experience as our teachers and madrichim had never hiked this path before. Because of this we had to call the Dean of Education, David Mitchell, whose sandals and socks led us up and down the ridges inside the machtesh. At the top of the first mountain we sat down for a well-deserved break and met a group of young Israeli hikers, suddenly we were all singing Salaam together and enjoying each other’s company. Eventually we parted ways, but the singing didn’t stop. After settling into our tents and eating food, we all sat around the fire and sang many more songs together.
After waking at the crack of dawn we packed up, ate our breakfast and got on the road. An early mountain climb followed by a steep decline saw us reuniting with our Israeli friends again as they played a game of “who could run down the mountain the quickest without falling.” The next part of the hike was a flat road which allowed us to have some amazing conversations and play some awesome games. After running up a massive hill we walked along the ridge where some of our teachers engaged in a mock fight to teach us about the relationship between science and religion, which provided us with a good laugh and some interesting questions. Our hike for the day ended with the madrichim giving us a partner who we haven’t spoken to much before. This ended the day with a really nice conversation before a delicious dinner and an ‘early’ bedtime.
Our final day was amazing with a hike up a mountain and down the other side. Finally, we ended with a solo walk where we could think to ourselves for a few minutes. We then piled onto the buses and headed back home.
20191217_061607.mp4Not a bad way to wake up in the morning!
