Today was the first full day of North American Kennes 2013 and what a day it was! We started out with breakfast, of course, but then we jumped straight into our tribe meetings, or our "tribing" as our own Kayla Goldstein has taken to calling it. In my tribe, Naphtali, played a fun game that simulated how European Jews reached North America and we also discussed who the first Jew to reach America actually was. Turns out the guys name was Jacob Barsimson, who knew? We then tried to guess where the top ten Jewish populations in North America were. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh didn't make it onto the list, but we still have an admirable Jewish population of 42,200 Jews! ![]()
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We then congregated in the auditorium to hear our guest speaker, Avraham Infeld. I don't think I was the only kid in the crowd who was laughing, amazed, and shocked, all at the same time. This guy was amazing! Right off the bat he told us he would be telling us three stories, four reactions, and five legs. His stories were interesting and funny, which kept all of us engaged. The reactions and the legs he spoke about were very thought provoking and I expect the tribes will all be having discussions concerning them.
From 1 pm to 5pm we had a nice long break! Some people went swimming, others hung out, a lot of people napped, and I read some of my summer reading books (don't worry mom, dads, I won't leave it until the last minute)! We then returned to our tribes and thought about our values and the similarities between the values of Jewish communities all over North America . We talked about what qualities make our generation unique, one of which, of course, is new technology. We also got these awesome little notebooks that we will be using during the rest of our time here. Our tribe decided after the meeting that we wanted to all sit together during dinner, and it was honestly one of the nicest dinners I've had. It was really interesting and fun to talk to and get to know my tribe mates even more.
After dinner, we had an awesome event, compliments of Robbie Gringrass and Adam Mader! This show involved some story telling by Robbie, entertaining musical additions by Adam and amazing songs in Hebrew by the duo. After an amazing performance, they closed with "Hebrewman," a song that I learned in Hebrew school! One of Robbie's stories was about how his young daughter had been affected when they had to constantly worry about missiles during one of the recent wars. It really made me sad that a young girl visiting family, outside of Israel, was too scared to even step into a house without a bomb shelter. However he went on to tell us that when they returned home and she saw her friends and neighbors under a sukkah, she recovered from her fear and was glad they had come back.
This led a song called "Only Here" or "Rak Po." The lyrics describe the flaws of Israel, but the narrator always wants to return to the only place he feels he belongs, despite this places flaws. After the performance, we had another tribe meeting. We pondered where, or what, our, "Only Here" was. We were then asked to express what our "Only Here" was in either a written or drawn form in our new notebooks. Mine was family and I wrote a poem about it. One boy drew a picture of his house and some people made bullet point lists. It was a meaningful activity and I really enjoyed it. We then had our final Kennes Maagal Lilah, as the Israelis will all be arriving tomorrow. We celebrated the news that Felicia, our awesome JC, will be remaining with us for the remainder of our trip. We also discussed how we would enjoy having deep conversations during our Maagalim and we have made plans to do so in the future.
After a long and tiring, but fun day I can't wait to hit the hay! I also can't wait to see the Israeli teens tomorrow and to start Congress! Goodnight everyone!
--Kiley Spitz Cohan
P.S. Wifi is really bad in the dorms, so it might be difficult for some kids to make contact over the Internet. I think I am speaking for my entire cohort when I say that while we are all having a good time, we all really miss you and love you to the parents!