(catching up....)
To our dearest parents,
Shalom from Kennes! Today we woke up to an unfamiliar setting with a new room. We got a good night sleep and woke up to a new day. We had breakfast, which was not very good (but it's alright because Leehee is getting us snacks. Yum :) ) Then we went into our color groups. We really like our color groups and have started to bond already. We talked about North American Jewery and who were the first Jews in our communities. Did you know that Rodef Shalom was the first congregation in Pittsburgh? We then had to decide which cities in North America had the largest Jewish communities and we were surprised by the results. We also discussed whether we were unique as Jewish North American communities to the other communities in the diaspora. It was so interesting to hear the opinions of other Jewish teens from across the country. Then we had lunch...still waiting for that food from Leehee....
After lunch we had a break and then listened to a guest speaker named Avraham Infeld (he has 15 grandchildren in Jerusalem. Wow. Such a fertile man.) He talked to us about the five legs of Judaism- community, Hebrew, Israel, covenant, family. He also told us cool stories and said that Judaism was a nation not a religion. We all enjoyed him. After that we all took naps which were very refreshing. Then we had more discussions in our color groups about our generation as Jews and values we want to give to future Jewish generations. It was hard to decide on 5 values that we all agreed on. It was interesting to see how all our values as individuals differed from others.
Then we had dinner and there was potato burekas and they were delicious. We went up for seconds. After our delectable dinner we went to a cultural evening with the performance f a guy named Robbie Gringrass. He was from England and had a love affair with Israel so he made Aliya and now lives on a kibbutz near Karmiel. He sang songs and told us stories about his life and Israelis. He was cool and funny and we gave him an encore. Then we talked about his message in our color groups. Then we had our night circle and we all gave each other medals in lieu of the Olympics which are happening tomorrow.
We love you all and are making lots of new friends from all over the U.S and Canada. We can't wait for the Israelis to join us tomorrow!
Peace out
Sincerely,
Tova and Sophie ( and the rest of our cohort)
To our dearest parents,
Shalom from Kennes! Today we woke up to an unfamiliar setting with a new room. We got a good night sleep and woke up to a new day. We had breakfast, which was not very good (but it's alright because Leehee is getting us snacks. Yum :) ) Then we went into our color groups. We really like our color groups and have started to bond already. We talked about North American Jewery and who were the first Jews in our communities. Did you know that Rodef Shalom was the first congregation in Pittsburgh? We then had to decide which cities in North America had the largest Jewish communities and we were surprised by the results. We also discussed whether we were unique as Jewish North American communities to the other communities in the diaspora. It was so interesting to hear the opinions of other Jewish teens from across the country. Then we had lunch...still waiting for that food from Leehee....
After lunch we had a break and then listened to a guest speaker named Avraham Infeld (he has 15 grandchildren in Jerusalem. Wow. Such a fertile man.) He talked to us about the five legs of Judaism- community, Hebrew, Israel, covenant, family. He also told us cool stories and said that Judaism was a nation not a religion. We all enjoyed him. After that we all took naps which were very refreshing. Then we had more discussions in our color groups about our generation as Jews and values we want to give to future Jewish generations. It was hard to decide on 5 values that we all agreed on. It was interesting to see how all our values as individuals differed from others.
Then we had dinner and there was potato burekas and they were delicious. We went up for seconds. After our delectable dinner we went to a cultural evening with the performance f a guy named Robbie Gringrass. He was from England and had a love affair with Israel so he made Aliya and now lives on a kibbutz near Karmiel. He sang songs and told us stories about his life and Israelis. He was cool and funny and we gave him an encore. Then we talked about his message in our color groups. Then we had our night circle and we all gave each other medals in lieu of the Olympics which are happening tomorrow.
We love you all and are making lots of new friends from all over the U.S and Canada. We can't wait for the Israelis to join us tomorrow!
Peace out
Sincerely,
Tova and Sophie ( and the rest of our cohort)