After I got back from spring break we had 3 national holidays.
1. Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Rememberance Day) I attended a ceremony at my school and heard the siren sound from all over Jerusalem. It was a beautiful ceremony with musical performances put on my students from the International school that I attend.
2. Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Fallen Soldiers Rememberance Day) Once again I heard the siren sound twice on this day. The first time I was at an intersection in East Jerusalem and I barely saw any cars stop because many of drivers in that part of Jerusalem are Arabs. The next morning I went to Mount Herzl where Theodore Herzl is buried and I attended a ceremony there. It was the tightest security I've ever been through in my entire life. I was questioned about what I'm doing in Israel, why I came to the ceremony, if I had weapons, etc. After that we had our hands swiped to see if a bomb could be detected on them and then we continued through to the usual security where you walk through and put your bag through the machine. I'm used to the last part when I go to school, malls, or bus stations all over Israel. The Prime Minister and the Chief Sephardic Rabbi were at the ceremony as well.
3. Yom Haatzmaut (Israel Independence Day) This started at sundown after Yom Hazikaron and the entire atmosphere in the city of Jerusalem completely changed from solemn to happy and joyous. I went to a huge party that my school threw for the students right next to the Old City. The next day I went to a BBQ in a huge park with thousands of other Israelis to celebrate Independence Day. It was really neat to think about the fact that Yom Hazikaron is remembering the soldiers who fought and died to make our country what it is today and the next day we celebrate the fact that we are independent because of these soldiers.
At the end of the week after Yom Haatzmaut, I hosted a Musical Shabbat service in my apartment for my internship at Hebrew Union College. It was such a wonderful experience to share Shabbat with all of my friends. My roommates helped me tremendously to pull it off, and it couldn't have gone any better.
The next morning I woke up and climbed Masada (a huge mountain in the Negev where King Herod built a palace) with my boss that was visiting from the JCC back in Indianapolis. We rented a car and I was able to direct us there without a map!!! We climbed up the snake path and made it up eventually after taking quite a few breaks. After we were finished there we went to the Dead Sea and we floated for a while and on our way back to Jerusalem, we stopped to take a quick ride on a camel!
The next week I went to a folk music festival on the Sea of Galilee for 2 days and it was a blast. I camped out with friends, listened to a lot of music and went swimming! It was a fun and relaxing weekend! At the end of the festival, I went to meet my new co-music specialist for camp this summer at her Kibbutz. It was so neat to see where she lives and learn about the Kibbutz and her family. I'm really excited to work with her this summer!!
This week has been another great week on top of it all! The IU birthright trip has been here for ten days so I was able to see some of my good friends that are on the trip for about four days and celebrate Shabbat with them as well. It was so great to see some of my close friends seeing Israel for the first time and getting to experience it with them.
Well, that's it for now. Hopefully I will post one more time before I leave this beautiful, amazing country that I get to call home for only a few more weeks!
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