What does it mean to be a part of Am Yisrael?

My interpretation of being a part of Am Yisrael is giving back. I think that giving back to the community is the biggest part of Am Yisrael. I also think that learning the history behind Am Yisrael is important. Being Jewish doesn't exactly classify as following Halacha, I think it is being a part of the Jewish people through the culture. Being in Israel allows me to be surrounded by Jewish culture all of the time. I feel most connected to my Jewish identity here because I am exposed to many different Jewish cultures. At home in Chicago, I do not have a strong Jewish culture. I love being here in Israel because I appreciate the Jewish culture more.

Jewish Community in Chicago

As I talked about before on my blog, I do not fit into a specific Jewish community or synagogue. I have been brought up with many different Jewish views and I do not fit into one category. I chose to look into The Chicago Jews News calendar to see the upcoming fun Jewish events in Chicago. There are so many opportunities to meet new Jews, have fun, and help the community. One that stuck out to me was an upcoming event that was about rising anti-semitism on college campuses. While I have been in Israel, I have talked a lot about this subject. Not only because I am in Israel but because this is a common thing that occurs in a lot of places, and is mostly on college campuses. Being home and being able to still talk freely about this and converse with others about this would be very nice. I like knowing that when I go home, there will be many things that I can do to reconnect with Israel and or the Jewish community.

Going home is very scary to me. I am extremely nervous to go back because I do not know what I am going back to. I have been gone for almost 4 months and so much could have occurred within that time. One thing I am looking forward to in Chicago is having all of these opportunities to reconnect with Israel without being there.

Size of Israel

In the past week I hiked from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea. It took about 4 days of hiking to cross from the East to the West of Israel. The views were beautiful and it truly payed off to see the ocean at the end. I came to the realization while walking, Israel is so small. I already knew it of course, but walking from one sea to another in about 4 days is insane. Israel has so much publicity and yet it is so small, half the size of Maine. How can one little state get so much attention, positive but mostly negative.