Shalom EIE goers!

Shalom! My name is Rachel Wolman. This was my NFTY EIE Israel blog.

I have decided to leave it up as a point of reference for all of you who plan on going on EIE.  I have it up here for you to read and look at, to see EIE through a 17 year old’s point of view. I went to Israel Fall 2007 through the NFTY EIE program. If you are interested in learning about the program itself go to www.nfty.org/eie

After EIE I decided to take some time to work. I worked at Temple Rodef Shalom from September 2008-June 2010 as a religious school teacher and a music/t’fillah specialist. I couldn’t of done my job without going on EIE. The work and learning I did from the program has helped me not only get jobs, but also understand the importance of Israel and Jewish history to a point where I taught Jewish History for two years to sixth graders through my own eyes.

In the summers I work at the URJ Camp Newman-Swig in California. I would of not had my job there if I didn’t go on EIE. This will be my third summer working as a songleader there. In the Fall I am going to be attending American Jewish University where I plan on becoming a Jewish educator or youth group director. I will get my degree in Judaic studies.

I would not be the person I am today or do the work I do today without EIE. I one day dream of working for EIE to give back as much as I got from this program. If you are interested in learning more about the program or have any questions at all, what so ever, I would love to hear from you! Please email me at RachelAnneWolman@gmail.com

If you or your child is going on EIE in the future, I recommend joining my facebook group, the EIE Advice Group you can find here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40495162555&ref=ts I have gathered lots of alum to help out kids going on EIE and even parents too.

I suggest when reading this blog to start at the beginning, to get a better sense of the entire program.

Thanks,

Rachel Wolman

Chag Samecha!

When I’m in the states, the holiday time is probably one of the worst times for me personally.

Although the Chrismas lights are beautiful and the songs are ever so catchy, I just feel so un-Jewish.

Being in Israel during this time of year actually feels like a dream come true.

I never thought that I would be in Israel now, but luckily enough I am and it’s absolutely lovely. I think the hardest thing though is being here with my mispacha, because Chanukah is such a mispacha holiday.

Last night my group got the privllage to go around the Old City (Jerusalem) and see all the lights. It was absolutely beautiful. Most people in the states go out and look at all the Chrismas lights, but here in the homeland, there’s not even one in sight. It’s such an amazing feeling seeing all of your people running around everywhere, davening at the Kotel, lighting candles, eatting bagles.

Oh yes, I had a fantasticlly fresh bagel yesterday. In some sense that added to the Chanukah spirit.

One of the coolest things about being in Israel also is playing driedel. Unlike the ones everyone else has, here we had a Pae instead of a Shin on one of the sides. Becuase great miracles happend HERE. :]

I think what truely got to me was when we looked at the Kotel. We have been to the Kotel before, but it was towards the beginning. After learning about all this history and we have fought for this, looking at it, on the holiday that is celebrating the rededification of the Beit Hamkidash, is actually incredible. I just stood there and stared at it, the people, the lights, it was beautiful. Night time in the old city is ever so lovely. I truely enjoyed it.

I hope this next week is lovely, Chag Samecha.

S.A.Ts J.E.Ws

This morning I took one of the main factors of whether Drew, ODU, VCU, George Mason, Goucher, and maybe a few other schools will want me to be part of their fantastic programs that they offer.

Honestly, I think the SAT is the pointless and stupid test that I waste five hours of my life taking where it does not show if I am smart or dumb, rather that I just suck at taking tests…and SATs. But, let me tell you, even though I believed that I wasted five hours of my life, I actually got somethings out of it that I never would of thought that I would of gotten out of this.

Cole (a fellow EIE program member of mine hailing from the dirty diiiirty south North Carolina) told me about how he get this sort of “rush” or “high” while taking big exams like so. At first, I thought he was crazy to even get such a thing from taking a test, especially the SATs.

We get the booklet, from our protor, this lady who is probably from the states wearing an overlarge vanilla colored sweatshirt with tight black pants and a pair of oversized black rainboots who is not messing around here. She calls out all of our names (around 40ish kids) as we all take the seats that she assigns us. I sit next to one kid wearing bring colors, an even brighter kippa, and the four corners of tzzit tizzit and another boy with large black basketball shoes on and his face rosy colored from running into the testing hall late. I had no idea what kind of experince one could get from taking the SAT in Jerusalem.

It was incredible. I got the “high” and “rush” of this feeling. I felt it in every word I wrote in my essay, in every question I anwsered, I actually felt good about what I did. It was amazing. I didn’t think that I would ever get such a thing. Not only did I get this “rush” I actually enjoyed in a little sense taking the SATs.

Another thing that truely made me smile and boggled my mind a little bit was the fact that I was in a room filled with Jews from all around the country and world. It was actually fantastic being able to take an American test with all Jews. Never in my life I would imagine that. I really liked that factor of the SATs in Jerusalem.

Plus I was with eight others of my EIE kids took it with me. Fantastic. Unfornately we all had to go back to Tzuba for lunch and the rest of our classes. We tried to eat out in Jerusalem and not have classes, but that totally didn’t happen. We did however miss our first periods which was really nice.

And I just woke up from a two hour nap.

I’m actually happy. :]

Tel Aviv and friends

Well, we all just got back from an all day tiyul all over Tel Aviv and such.

We are currently in the 1948s-1950s when Israel is totally a state and indepedent…ehh sorta.
We are learning about the Indepedence War and such. We visited all kinds of tanks and different places where important things happening like when David Ben Gurion annouched in May when Israel marks it’s indepedence and hows its the state of the Jewish people. AKA Realllll important stuff for creating the Jewish homeland and whatnot.

We actually got to sit in the place where it was annouced that Israel is an idependent state and heard the recording of David Ben Gurion, aka REAL awesome stuff.

We also went to this kibbutz where there was the only underground bullet factory that was used to help the Jews in wars. AKA it was realllll important. It was really cool to go down and see all the different machines and whatnot. I loved it.

So I don’t have anything else to really write about…but I have a rock named Rueben.

Shalom Chaverim!

Gadna and Lotan

So I just got back to the lovely Judean Hills at the beautiful Kibbutz Tzuba, for sadly my last month of EIE.

I know I’ve been slacking hardcore, so heres an update.

The past week has been one of the most tiring weeks of EIE ever. I just experinced a little of taste of what it would be like to be in the IDF (Tazal). It was amazing. My mifakedet was realllll nice. Her name was Raz and she’s 18 years old. Each of our groups had about 10ish people in them. My group was a strong power house group. I was very happy with who was in it. We had our issues, but it turned out lovely.

When we first got off the bus, I was actually terrified. All these women with huge M-16′s on their backs in the olive green uniforms were screaming at me in Hebrew in words I didn’t understand except for YALAH YALAH (Which means Let’s Go) and such. It was pretty scary. Then we all lined up and they just randomly put us into group where I met my mifakedet. After that we all got our uniforms. At first the pants that I had were wayyy too small. I went to my mifakedet and told her that my pants were too small.  And so she when into the room and pulled out some of the biggest pants I had ever seen. They were probably six sizes too big. But it was better to get pants too big then too small.

I thought that Gadna was going to be extremely physically challenging….haha NOT. We just had to run everywhere, but legit it was not hard at all in that way. I think one of the hardest thing was the first night when we had an opening ceremony we had to stand in achshev (attention in Hebrew) for two hours. The position is you take your feet and make a V shape and your arms are behind your back making a diamond in the middle of your back with your hands. If you try it and do it for a few hours, it KILLS. My sholders are STILL sore…sorta. But it wouldn’t be so long if those Israeli kids had respect. They would talk and fool around the entire time and sucked because it took longer to do EVERYTHING because of them. They are a bunch of immature teenagers. It just pisses me off, how they don’t care. But whatever I can’t do anything about that.

One of the days we went to the field. We got to crawl on the ground, learn different stances, and do all kinds of things. It was really intense. We also learned how to run away from grinades and how you have to count in hebrew. OH I got SO much better at counting in Hebrew. Its funny becuase I can probably count backwards better then forwards from all the times we have had to count down. That was also intense. We also had to make SOOO many Chets. That’s a Hebrew letter. It kind of looks like a rectangle missing one of the longer sides. Its mad intense. We can really chet it up. Which is real cool. We also had a lot of talks about our feelings at Gadna. AKA like every other NFTY program.

One of the high light’s of everyone’s Gadna trip in the past, and whatever is shooting a M-16. And you would probably expect me to say that, but I, Rachel Anne Wolman, did not shoot a M-16. I had the chance, but I didn’t. And I think I’m probably one of the only ones, but I didnt want to. I just dont think I’m ready to shoot a gun. And my mifakedet understood why, but one of the others didnt and yelled at me and told me that I was making such a bad descion.

Whatever. I hate guns.

But I learned all about the guns and different things. It was an amazing experince. Gadna was fantastic.

Then we went to Kibbutz Ketura, which is a REALLY nice kibbutz. One of the members is from Bethesda, MD and we played a little bit of Jewish Geography. Then we would go and work at Kibbutz Lotan. I got to cut pieces of date trees for a garden and then make a bench with earth. It was reallll tiiight. Playing with mud is so much fun and actually doing things for the enviorment is cool too. We also went to the desert and played in the sand dunes which was really fun and relaxing.

I’m back at Tzuba. i LOOOVEEE my new room. I’m so excited for it.

It includes, Leah from DC, Shana from Chicago, and Rachael Rubin also from Chicago.

Life is pretty good. <3

So I’m kind of bad at updating

Everytime I try to update, a ton of people IM me and I get REALLY distracted and never do it.

But tonight I’m sticking to my guns! That’s right!

EIE is amazing. We have recently gotten back from Poland, an extremely emotional yet amazing experince for me. That if you want to know more just ask me about it.

Today we had our Zionist tiyul where we learned about the first Aliyot ever made. It was really cool.

You never realize how much you apperciate this land until you realize what truely has happend to the people.

We leave for Gadna on Sunday..not much else.

Shalom.

Shabbat…Homecoming…Youth Workers…Poland?!

Okay, so I havent updated in a long long time, I’ve been super busy plus nothing that exciting has happend.

I led a meditation service for this past Shabbat and it was..interesting.

We also had the first ever NFTY EIE Fall 2007 Homecoming! The theme…A night out at the Tel! It was fantastic. Lyndsi and I were heads of homecoming commitee, and everything ran smoothly. We also had a water pong tournament going on during it. Ethan and I are partners and we beat Zach and Jordan. Its fantastic. :] We are going to have to finish that sometime…I’m not sure, but we got down with the first round and are on to the quarter-finals.

On Shabbat…more like Havdallahie time, the Youth Workers from all around the world…(mostly from america with the exception of the two Brits) came and wanted to learn about EIE from actual EIE kids. So we didnt have that much time with them, in fact we had enough time to go around and say our names where were from and what region we are in and what grade we are in, and they did the same except minus the grade and region but they told us where they are from and what they basiclly do for reform Judiasm. The first question to us (about 15 of us) asked a basic outlook and what we do on the program, and they didnt want us to sugar coat this at all. Everyone said that I should anwser the question, I did but I never got to finish because Baruach had to come and take us all to dinner. But I sat down with two of the youth workers and discussed EIE over dinner. All the other kids on our program did the same with them.

After they had Havdallah with us, three of the younger advisors came over to me and Rachel Friedman, and asked us for the real deal. They asked us about the drama and what it is really like. And so, I figured I probably won’t see them again I told them about the drama and what EIE really is like. I mean, they are all going to send their kids from home anyways, but they wanted to hear the real deal and I told them. It was fantastic. It made me miss those awesome youth advisors from my region and whatnot.

This Wednesday morning (at around 3am) we are going to be leaving for Poland. And we are doing all this prep and are going to have all these different kind of ceremonies. I’m singing Eli Eli and some other Israeli song. It should be interesting. I dont know if my group, or if I’m ready for Poland, but I wont have internet or phone access during the week of Wednesday to Wednesday, so don’t expect to reach me! Its going to be intense.

Also, here’s something to ponder on. If you had to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 of being a Jew or an American, where would you rate yourself and why? That’s what we did last Jewish History class and Gabe even let me lead the discussion. It was really good and intense. On average my class is probably a Seven. 10 Being Jewish, 1 being american. It was really good though. But thats something for you to ponder.

Have a good week, shalom

Pre-Poland

Okay so things are really started to get kind of chill and relaxed.

This week we have a million mid terms and whanot. What mid-terms do I have? Lets see…

Hebrew
Jewish History
AP US Government
English Paper mid-term
PLUS
An extra AP US Gov paper

I should get studying and started on that. Which is totally the plan…study party tonight with all of the chaverim on EIE.

Drama. Thats a pleasant thing on EIE. Mm.

Alicia Frances Wolman (my sister) was here. AMEN.

I dont have anything to say because theres nothing to talk about…and we don’t want to hear about little boring drama.

We are doing pre-poland things though.

And im going to write another D’Var for this week’s Torah Portion and going to lead services.

WOO

Chabad…Chassidic…Orthodox..ma!?

Let me start off with last night.

For all of those of you who read this who were there, now all of EIE knows where I get my chutzpah, hookus pookus, or whatever you would like to call it, from.

It was beautiful. It was the last night for most of the parents on the pilmigrage and they left with a big banquet with some fantastic food. It had so many courses just like the night before, but ten times better. It was lovely.

On to today.

Today we had a guest speaker come in named Rabbi Joshua Weinberg came and spoke to us about orthodox-y Judiasm. He is orginal from New York and grew up in that area, then in 1991 moved to Israel and made Aliyah with his mispacha. Then lived there and basiclly is just doing it up Jewish. He is an ultra-orthodox Jew, and an extremely nice man. Basiclly we all got to ask any questions we had about Orthodox Jews and whatnot. Since all of us come from reform and the few conversatives backgrounds, it was nice to see something different and actually get to understand their ways of life. I understand why they grow out their payas and whatnot. It was a good speaker too. We got to ask as many questions as we desired. It was interesting to learn about the women’s role in orthodox judiasm and how they see things. And if the orthodox women were to ever go on strike, it would cause a great rucus. But here’s the thing, the reason why the women subject was so touchy is because when we went to the Great Synagogue for Simcha Torah all the girls in the group (well not all but most) got extremely offended and angry when they had to sit on the balcony and wear long skirts. And all the boys got annoyed with the girls. But we just need to respect them, instead it just caused for great big arguments and whatnot. It was just ugly. I mean personally, I think its fine the rights that women get because thats the job that they are suppose to do in that society. That doesnt mean our society is like that. In fact in the reform, progressive, and conservative movements, women can do just about everything. And another thing that really struck me about what he had to say, how when Israelis come to America they question their idenity. Because in America, youre not just a “Jew” youre either orthodox, reform, conservative, or whatnot. It makes an Israeli question. But that shouldn’t have to happen. Labels are ridiculous and are meant for SOUP CANS. I mean, that’s just what I think.

Then we went to some orthodox neighborhoods. It was fine.

Have a good day. :]

S’Fat..Tzfat…Sfat?

I went to Tzfat…but people told me that they spell it differently…so whatever. If I could write it in Hebrew it would be a lot easier.

Yesterday, we all (including parents) woke up at a lovely 6:00am to ride a bus for two hours down the beautiful roads of Eastern Israel (right near Jordan) where we went and started off our tiyul at the crusaders castles. It was amazing the sites. We pretended to be Muslims and ran through the castles pretending to trying to take over and attack the castle. It was actually fantastic. Gabe was leading us all on and even our parents too. Unfortunately it was too early in the morning for anyone to get into, but Lyndsi and I were in to it and excited about it too. Plus Jess was used as a log type thing to take down the door and when we got through the madrachim poured water all over all of us, it was so funny. And so much fun we even yelled in Arabic. It was crazy fun. And then we had a bunch of lessons that day. But that was only the beginning.

Then we went to this random kibbutz for lunch.

After that we actually went to Tzfat and learned all about kabalah and Jewish mystiscism. It was really interesting the way that Gabe taught us. When I was in post-con this past year we learned about Kabalah but it just really made me bored. Anyways we went to the place where kab shab was created. It was actually amazing and we all started singing L’Cha Dodi. It was intense. Then we went to two different temples which were both Hasidic (I think). After that we went down to this little area and had a lesson. Plus we got to have some time to shop and haggle in the area. I got a car mezzuah! Its really cute and says Shalom on it. (in hebrew) and its silver. Its perfect to match my Silver Honda Accord ’02 model. Love it. And my mom got a nice necklace.

We all then went to this misada (restaurant) where they kept bringing us out food, lots of it. It was around five courses. Starting us with humus and pita, then more bread, falafel, then pasta with creme sauce and red sauce, and a weird greekish israelie salad, and then pizza. it was an intense eating experience. Im not sure what the place was called. It was good food though which was nice to have.

Today BG taught us Jewish History instead of Gabe, im not sure why. But its all tov. EIE is going well. Spirit week is fun. I dressed up as Zach and Zach was me today. It was really funny too.

Tomorrow we have another tiyul, im not sure where..but you all will find out.
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