Ambassador Blog, Uriel Cohen
Sometimes the only way to reenact the events of the past is to relive the emotions of our predecessors. On July 25th, TJJ Ambassadors traveled to the city of Tel Aviv. Named, among other things, for Theodore Herzl’s book Altnoyland, meaning “old-new land,” it is in reference to the land of Israel. “Tel” means “ancient hill” representing the old land and “Aviv” means “spring” representing the new land which would be immersed in foliage. Not only does this indicate the archeological significance of the land and the new vegetation that immigrants embedded with it, but it is also an…
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Ambassador Blog, Heather Marcus
Over the course of the last week, the girls have spent three incredible days with Michlelet, an all-girls NCSY program that is also spending an amazing summer in Israel. Because the Michlelet girls spend a much larger part of their day studying Torah, we were concerned about the change of pace and whether or not we would mesh well with them. All of these insecurities were quickly put aside when the Michlelet girls embraced us onto their beautiful campus on the first day that we spent together. It was as if we had known each other for months rather…
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Ambassador Blog, Shira Nesenoff
I always wondered why I had to pray east. Why should I face the closet door when I could face north to the beautiful trees in my backyard? If G-d is all over, why cant I speak to him from any direction? I discovered the answer to this question at the first sight of the Kotel on TJJ Ambassadors. This time that I saw the Western Wall, I couldn’t cry as I had the first time I had when I saw the wall 4 years before. This time was different. My body had a yearning to stay forever. It…
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Ambassador Blog, Doreen Khakshour
Elaine Hoter is an inspirational woman who suffered a great tragedy. On what began as a normal Shabbat evening in 2006, her son, Gavriel Hoter was murdered by two terrorists at the young age of seventeen. Among all the people studying at the university over the weekend, only Gavriel and three of his other friends volunteered for kitchen duty. Although these four deaths were a great blow to the student’s families and friends, these four students saved the lives of the hundreds in the other rooms. Unlike many of my friends on the trip for whom this…
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Ambassador Blog, Eliana Pransky
It’s Day Four and we are all already exhausted. Starting off in Jerusalem, we’ve already been to Ammunition Hill, the Kotel (twice), the City of David with its water tunnels, all over the Old City, Machaneh Yehuda, Malcha Mall, Ein Prat, a beautiful natural spring, toured the Knesset, and participated in a team-building ropes course. Our first day out of Jerusalem we visited the First Aliyah Museum, stopped by the house of one of NCSY and TJJA’s biggest supporters, Mr. and Mrs. Stechler, and snorkeled for Tekhelet. We are now back on the bus for a good two-hour drive…
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Ambassador Blog, Vivian Grinfeld
Traveling! We’ve barely been here a week, yet we’ve seen so much. From the Western Wall to Zichron Yaakov, we’ve seen it all. Not only are we visiting exciting places, we are also learning about the land, relating it to the Torah and history. Judaism! On this trip, we’re learning about being Jewish in our own way using prayer and tefila workshops every day. The topics are exciting and interesting every time with a constant stream of questions from everyone. Jewish! Beside the fact that almost everyone we meet is Jewish, (which is really cool), we are…
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Day 1 - 07/07: Arrival, Ammunition Hill, Western Wall
Hello all! I just wanted to update you on the status of the TJJ Ambassadors group! We landed today at around 12:45, and went straight back to the hotel to unpack and rest, and for a brief orientation. We then went to Ammunition Hill, home of the battle that allowed the State of Israel to secure control of the old city of Jerusalem during the Six Day War. We learned how the soldiers who fought in the battle did so through the lens of the Mishna in Pirkei Avot, "Ethics of Our Fathers" which states that "The…
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Welcome to TJJ Ambassadors 2011!
Flight Information: We want to make sure you are aware of our JFK airport arrangements for Wednesday, July 6th 2011. The group flight is EL AL flight # 2 departing JFK airport at 7:00PM. We will be meeting as a group at 3:00 PM at JFK Airport International Synagogue in terminal 4. Our program staff will be there to sign in your children and distribute name tags and tickets. We will then check in as early as possible at the EL AL airline counter together as a group. Please do your best…
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