June 15th Departure - Hasbara Israel - Day 2

Wednesday July 18-2008

Greetings and Salutations,
Day two of our adventure was full of many interesting people. We started the day with breakfast and head over to the Jewish Quarter of the old city. Our first speaker of the morning was our lovely campus coordinator Elysha Ames. She spoke to us about what communicating for Israel meant. We started working on real tactic on how to talk about Israel. On day two we’ve already got knee deep into the nitty gritty of what Hasbara really is.

Our second guest of the day was Ken Spiro, who began educating us on the History of the Land of Israel. He spoke quickly with a large message. The group was full questions and we ran out of time to pick his brain. We all left Ken’s speech beaming so happy about what we have been learning. We all felt so lucky to be able to have the opportunity to learn from him. We would get to meet up with him again on Wednesday, but we were on our way to the next destination, the Kinesset.

The Kinesset, (the Israeli parliament) was quite an experience. We were told no cameras or cell phones allowed, and individually had to pass through the security. It was as tight as airport security. We then went in through the outdoor compound into the main building. The Chagall hallway was spectacular. There was three giant tapestries, each one representing a time in the Jewish written history, the past present and future. The tour guide did a wonderful job of describing Chagall’s vision of the times. The other pieces of artwork were tile mosaics scattered all over the floor and another giant mosaic on the wall. All the pieces must have taken a tremendous deal of time and patience to create.

Onwards to our meeting with Michael Eitan member of kinesset. The fact that we were talking with Mr. Eitan was very exciting. This was a man who was currently on many committees. He was quite verbose and remained politically correct when faced with our challenging questions. After our meeting we got to sit in on Kinesset in session. It was interesting to note that there were only about 20 members of kinesset working out of a total 120 seats in the house. Let’s just say it seemed rather empty.

After what seemed like already a full day, we got to hear from Itamar Marcus. Mr. Marcus is the founder and director of the Palestinian Media Watch, an organization that monitors and translates Palestinian media sources. We were shown current TV clips that propagated messages of hate. It was appalling to see what the TV was teaching the Palestinian children. Something in the presentation triggered something in most of us. I’m sure we were all pretty excited to bring these videos back to our campuses.

As discussions dwindled down we were set loose to have a free evening. It was quite an exhausting day, full of so much information that my brain is a little sore.

Your Israeli Correspondent

Amy

Over and Out

Poland and Israel- Day 2

The group woke up early for their packed day of touring. They started off the day with a drive to Lublin, where they visited Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin. Although the Yeshiva is empty now (and under a restoration project), the fellows were able to bring it back to life by learning some Pirkei Avot there, followed by singing and dancing. Afterwards they left for Majdanek, another death camp, but this one is very much in tact. The fellows were able to visualize the Nazi crimes and expressed shock and anger at the extent of the cruelty. The group then headed to Markova where they visited the grave of Rav Eli Hemelech. There they danced and sang in his honour.

Poland and Israel- Day 1

Following their delayed departure from New York, the Poland-Israel group landed in Warsaw and headed straight for a tour of the remaining Ghetto walls. Then they headed to Treblinka, one of the death camps. The students saw how today nothing remains there but monuments erected in the memory of the victims. The fellows were educated with a vast amount of history regarding the camp in order to help them truly feel the reality of what occurred there. They then returned to Warsaw where they stayed overnight.

June 15th Departure - Hasbara Israel - Day 1

Greetings and Salutations from the holy land! The Hasbara Fellowships group has arrived and the trip is going great. Our long flight was well worth the wait as we arrived into Tel Aviv at 8 am Monday, the beginning of the week in foreign territory. The feeling as we got off the plane was of welcome and excitement. As a tired group met with our Madrichim, we all started learning each other’s names and schools and majors. We learned that the students from this trip came from as far and near as West coast Canada and the States and covered all the way to East coast. Even though we were all from very different places in North America (even as far as Texas) we all shared at least one thing in common, our love for the Holy Land. And we had all made it here together.

After we all got our rental phones and figured out T9, (thank god for T9) we began our journey to Jerusalem. The bus ride was all yawns and smiles, and when we finally made it into Jerusalem we were glued to the windows. We were in awe of the scenery, the buildings and the trees. The homes and the shops, the synagogues and the churches all seemed so unreal. As we made it into the Jewish quarter we were greeted by a large group of IDF soldiers. We ate a beautiful breakfast and played some ice breaker games to get to know each other better.

After a lot of laughing and learning some rather interesting facts about the group we did a short bus tour of the old city. Our trip leader gave us a brief rendition of the history of the borders of Jerusalem how they came to be how they are now. The history of the walls that Jerusalem has always had and the new walls that are being built were explained.

A very Jet-lagged group parted ways with our guide and the Men and Women parted ways and we checked into our hotels. We all took a much needed nap before we met at a local bar called Zolly’s. We shared stories and laughs.

Thus was the end of day one.
Your Israeli correspondent,
Amy

Over and Out