balagoons. Derived from balagan/chaos/ בלגנ

Sash and Eli (favs) in IDF unis

Manual labor, but make it fashion

Jenna getting bat mitzvahed in the old city!

Western wall. One of the most spiritually powerful moments thus far. I put a note in the cracks while the woman next to me sobbed and pounded on the wall in prayer. Music playing from the loud speakers covered up the noises of talking, birds chirping etc. And felt like a soundtrack to the whole experience. Somehow with all of these sounds and intensity, the strength of the wall and it’s ancient energy was so deeply peaceful.

Peeky Dome of the Rock.

The architecture and layout of the museum is designed so that you dip down physically into the Holocaust and walk back up out of it concluding with a stunning view of Jerusalem. The walls and floor are triangular slabs of concrete made to feel like they are closing in on you. Visiting Yad Vashem with the birthright crew was emotional and quietly intense. Many of the people we were with had family members in the wall of names and our group was obviously moved by the shared experience.

It wasn’t so much the facts of the terrible history that affected me, but the idea of “Free but not Liberated”. This concept first really struck me when our guide, Michael’s, mother spoke to us. She was very young when her camp was liberated but she did not have a true home for years after the Holocaust– their family and widowed mother bounced between their ransacked house in Poland to hateful neighbors to British military tents and camps to overcrowded starving ships to Cyprus and finally to a one bedroom apartment in a foreign country- israel. She still does not speak about what happened in the concentration camps, murdered friends and siblings, and is clearly deeply traumatized from events occurring in her very early childhood.

Zev and Co sang entirety of Bohemian Rhapsody

Went to a fascinating play in English, Hebrew and Sign Language. Most of the actors were hard of hearing. Jenna was able to translate before the show started even though Israeli sign language differs greatly from ASL. So beautiful and interesting to learn about the intersection between hearing and non-hearing worlds with the added Hebrew and unfamiliarity of Israeli culture.

free city wifi

Carmel Market, TLV

and Shuk in Jerusalem