Volume 1, Issue 5 (June 2011) - The 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