Feb 5, 2012 - Our First Day in Jerusalem!

Finally, it was time to go to Jerusalem, the holy city, the place so many people have yearned for and prayed towards/in/at and died for. The old city of Jerusalem is about 30 miles from the kibbutz, so we left just after rush hour traffic so that we could have as much time there as possible. On the way there, we ran into some bad traffic - the road going into Jerusalem is 2 lanes and there is no shoulder - so when a car breaks down, it makes traffic for miles. After more than an hour, I finally started to see the old stone-looking...

Feb 4, 2012 - Shabbat on the Kibbutz, and... The Kibbutz!

Hello, all! This entry is going to be a blend of Shabbat on the kibbutz and a description and brief history of the kibbutz where Ari lives. First, we start with the history. =================================== The kibbutz was founded in 1936 by religious pioneers from Germany and Czechoslovakia. It used to be located in the Negev, not far from Gaza. However, after Israeli independence was declared, they were fired upon by snipers and with missiles from Gaza, until finally Egyptian forces stormed the kibbutz and killed more than half the...

Feb 3, 2012 - Ari's Tekkes! (graduation ceremony)

First off, let me say that I will upload pictures once I have the right cord and figure out how to do it. Hopefully tomorrow night! So... Ari's tekkes yesterday - it was awesome to see all the families of the young men in Ari's unit, Jews from every background imaginable, from Ethiopian to Ukrainian, religious and non-religious... Everyone was so excited and proud. I met up with Morris and Naomi Schultz, friends of ours from Olney, Maryland, who used to own a sheep farm. When Ari was a boy, he worked for them during lambing season, cutting...

Feb 2, 2012 - Let there be olives!

Yay! Finally I made it to the Holy Land! I was rescheduled on a flight that was to leave Istanbul at 12:30am, and I felt lucky for it. I met a few people who had been stuck in the airport for 3 days so I was trying not to despair. But, despite the snow, the plane finally got off the ground, and we began the flight south to Eretz Yisrael. I sat next to a big bear of an Israeli man who said that he did construction all around the world, and lived in Modi'in. He then began to tell me of other Turkish Airlines flights he'd been on that nearly...