Volume 1, Issue 5 (June 2011) - The Heschel School

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Eighth Grade in Israel “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.” —David Ben Gurion, 1956 Yom Haatzmaut in Israel By Daniella Nevid This year the eighth grade had the privilege of celebrating Yom Haatzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, in Israel, a truly special experience. Yom Haatzmaut has so much meaning and value to the people living in Israel; it means one more year that this world finally recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. The day preceding Yom Haatzmaut is Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli Memorial Day where all of Israel mourns the fallen soldiers. The effect of having one day of sorrow preceding another day of complete joy and celebrations is quite strong. The entire country goes from utter stillness to all around thrill and pleasure. Still there is a connection between both days that is very beautiful; everyone in the country cries for one another as if they were each other’s brothers, sisters, parents or children, and then the next day they all celebrate together as one family. There is no other nation that I can think of that has such pride in their Yom Hazikaron Ceremony in Be’er Sheva By Daniel Ernst In Israel, the majority of the population is bound by a unifying culture, and a unifying sense of patriotism. Although I am not Israeli, never before have I felt so much a part of this nationalism than at the ceremony commemorating Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day) in the city of Be’er Sheva. It was a cold night when we got off the bus in Be’er Sheva. We walked to a large square filled with seats, and a platform in front of the chairs. After everyone settled in, the Master of Ceremonies spoke briefly, and then the siren sounded. It was a shockingly loud, wailing siren. It was an air raid siren; its pitch went eyes on their independence day as Israel does. On Erev Yom Haatzmaut, the eve of Yom Haatzmaut, the country makes the transition between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut and that is when the festivities begin. Every city, town, kibbutz and home has some sort of celebration ranging from bonfires to concerts and festive dinners. As a part of our Israel trip the eighth grade had an opportunity to attend the city of Be’er Sheva’s Yom Haatzmaut concert. We arrived at the town plaza at Continued on page 10 up then down and back up; it sounded like someone was crying. It gave me goose bumps, and made the hair on my arms stand straight up. Its sound demanded that I think; I thought about how everyone in the State of Israel was standing at this moment, hearing the same siren I was hearing, and thinking similar thoughts. Israel is a unified country, unified through the young men and woman it has lost in the name of freedom. After a long, long minute, Israelis sat down, and the ceremony continued. It continued with tearful speeches and heart-wrenching songs. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t fully understand the complex language they were using; I knew what they were saying. And then came a family—a mother, a father, and a brother, mourning the Jerusalem: A Synagogue for Everyone By Aliza Astrow On the eighth grade Israel trip, the eighth grade had the opportunity to attend Shabbat services at different synagogues in Jerusalem. Each student chose from among several options where they wished to attend services. Each of the synagogues offered an out of the ordinary experience, and everyone enjoyed the chance to participate in Israeli services different from the ones we are used to in New York. The following are the divergent synagogues that students in the eighth grade attended. Shira Hadasha is a liberal modern Orthodox service, with a translucent mechitza. Women are allowed to lead the services and read from the Torah. There was a lot of singing, contrary to many traditional Orthodox services. Kol Haneshama is a Reconstructionist synagogue with a focus on Continued on page 10 loss of their young son Yonatan. The simplicity of their speech meant I could understand every word of the lamenting story of a mother answering a knock on the door one Erev Shabbat. During that story it didn’t matter that it was freezing outside, or how tired I was. I felt like I was mourning each of Israel’s losses, that I was mourning my own people. ◆ 4 ◆ Heschel Herald, Volume 1, Issue 5 The Abraham Joshua Heschel School
Masada By Coby Goldberg On the recent eighth grade class trip to Israel, one of the many places visited was Masada. Masada is a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea which King Herod built into a fortress as a place of refuge for himself in case of a revolt. During the First Roman-Jewish War, a group of Jews led by Eliezer Ben-Yair used the mountain fortress as a base for harassing Romans. The Romans then laid siege to Masada and after three months were finally prepared to breach the fortress and take the mountain. However, upon reaching the top of the mountain the Romans found that all of the inhabitants had committed mass suicide. After waking up at four in the morning and hiking to the top of the mountain in time to watch the sunrise, the eighth grade went to an overlook. At the overlook, when you shouted, there was a loud echo a few seconds later that sounded like many voices. At this point our tour guide had us shout the phrase that graduates of basic training in the army say as a sort of allegiance while atop Masada, “Masada lo tipol shenit”, “Masada will not fall again.” At this point I realized what Masada represented and why it is such an important place. Masada represents the beginning of the two thousand years of exile. It was the last place of Jewish resistance for two thousand years. The falling of Masada would represent the downfall of the Jewish state of Israel, a second exile, which is why Masada cannot fall again. ◆ Eighth Grade in Israel An Israeli Energy Dilemma By Ben Sternklar-Davis Israel’s lack of domestic natural resources such as oil and gas has been acknowledged for many years. David Ben Gurion foresaw the future when he set a personal example by choosing to settle in Kibbutz Sde Boker at the centre of the Negev, and established the National Water Carrier to bring water to the area. He saw the struggle to make the desert bloom as an area where the Jewish people could make a major contribution to humanity as a whole. From Israel’s beginning, the need for energy resources has meant that Israel has had to invest in greener, more efficient energy technology such as solar power and wind farms. Yet the recent discovery of huge reserves of natural gas off the country’s northern coast threatens the country’s adoption of greener energy. Israel uses its energy very resourcefully. It has almost constant sunlight and therefore it is capable of generating a great amount of electricity due to the hundreds of solar fields. Additionally, Israel has many hilltop wind turbines, Politics and the Israel Trip By Ronen Schatsky During a two-week-long experience in Israel, eighth graders had numerous opportunities to develop their opinions and feelings about Israeli politics. To determine whether this happened, this reporter briefly asked a representative sample of eighth graders whether the trip affected their views about Israeli politics; approximately one quarter of this sample answered in the affirmative. One of them, Sarah Joyce, states that she “used to think of Israel as just another country,” but now she feels it is “her home.” This has caused her to, “take a stronger stand in its politics.” It is clear that Sarah’s intimate experiences, with the land and its people, impacted her political interests. Apparently, the trip was somewhat successful in connecting students’ interest in Israeli politics. The assertions of other eighth graders, support which generate much wind electricity. It also has many water turbines. In 2009, about 120 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves were discovered in the Mediterranean, much of it within Israeli territory. Some months later, another field, sized at 8.7 trillion cubic feet, was found, and then a second, twice the size. These gas fields are so big that Israel could easily become an exporter of nonrenewable energy. Now some Israelis are concerned that the use of nonrenewable energy will force the renewable energy plants to shut down. On the other hand, if Israel can replace its coal-based electricity with gas, this might mean that the air will become cleaner and new technology such as gaspowered public transport and electric cars will develop. The discovery of such huge gas reserves could make a big difference to Israel’s economy. Many hold the hope that it will not affect the development of renewable energy, and will not mean a complete return to a wasteful and environmentally destructive time, especially since Israel currently has the greenest energy policies in the region. ◆ this. Lena Diamond, for example, describes greater awareness of the goingson of the State after the trip. Moreover, Dassi Kalmanofsky says that her preexisting opinions about Israel “became stronger,” mainly because of “the argument on the bus.” Dassi’s remarks highlight another aspect of the trip: the conversations among students, who seemed to become closer as the trip wore on. The said “argument,” really more a shouting match of opposing views than a disciplined expression of opinions, exemplifies a social situation that further developed students’ opinions about Israel. As often happens when students have strong feelings, few opinions could be fully expressed without interruptions from those with opposing viewpoints. So, it was not clear how much was learned from the perspectives of others, but, at Continued on page 10 The Joseph Slifka Middle School June 2011 ◆ 5
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Page 11 and 12: Hip, Hip, Hoorays for the Hot Summe
Page 13: Book Reviews By Hannah Zhukovsky Gr

Volume 1, Issue 5 (June 2011) - The Heschel School

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