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.

The Hebrew Language

I recently went to Tel Aviv to visit my brother Elie. While walking around on the streets of Israel, I didn't know what I should have been listening to because of the many sounds that occur at once. My ears were mostly focused on people speaking hebrew throughout the streets. It finally hit me, the Hebrew language. It fascinates me. It is truly the only language that is the language for a religion. Hebrew is the language of the Jewish people. I found it interesting that I came across this realization while being in Tel Aviv because it is the first Hebrew city that was founded in 1909. The Hebrew University was founded in 1918, 30 years before Israel finally became its own state. Hebrew is so important to the Jewish people and we will always have Hebrew even if we do not have Israel.

SFSU Speech with Nir Barkat

On April 6th, the mayor of Israel, Nir Barkat was invited to speak at San Francisco State University. Within the first 10 minutes of his speech, anti-Israel protestors interrupted and didn’t allow him to speak because of their loud commotion and distractions. I believe in freedom of speech but at the same time, the way that these people acted on their beliefs was not respectable. They did not allow Barkat to express the purpose of why he came all the way to SFSU in the first place. 

Journal in Poland

Tykocin Forest 3/28/16
We didn't know where we were going. We were silent and scared. We were taken to a forest where we sat in a silent circle. My teacher started to try to explain where we were and what happened there. I couldn't help but look at the trees surrounding us. Those tall and lanky trees covered the whole forest. They were old. Those trees were standing in those exact spots when the Jews were walking to their deaths. My teacher told us a few things about that place. He told us that the Jews were stripped of their clothing and forced to look directly at their future. Their death. One by one, Jews were shot by the "angel of death". Once we got to see the 3 main graves, I was shocked. It's one thing to learn about these events, but seeing it was much different. I had no emotions to show. All I could think was why. Why us? Why the Jews? Why. We were told when the Jews were walking into the forest, they were forced to sing HaTikvah. We got the privilege to walk out while singing. None of the Jews that entered that forest got to leave, we did. It was extremely empowering to be able to do that for the ones that did not get the chance to.


Lublin 3/29/16
In Meidonik, no emotions showed. No emotions could show. Many questions were going through my mind. How could this happen? Why? Looking past the barbed wire, the fog was shown. It was a rainy day. Beyond gloomy and rainy. While walking through the gas chambers, it could not be process into my mind the horrific things that happened where I was standing. The room for undressing and cutting off all body hair. The room that had tubes lining the ground that used to carry deadly gases. Throughout those rooms, their was a blue ceiling. It occurred to me that it was blue because of the gases that were used to kill. Trying to imagine the thousands of men stuffed into those small rooms who were stripped of their dignity when forced to bathe to death. Why. Why would this occur? The location of this specific camp is directly in the center of town. It was not hidden. They had nothing to hide.
As walking through the crematory, only confusion crossed my mind. Seeing the doors that thousands of corpses were thrown into was insane. Next to all of those doors was beautiful detailed butterfly. Ironic. When it got time to see the final memorial site, it finally hit me. The big round dome that covered a huge pile of ash. The Nazi's did what they wanted. Dehumanization the Jews. They did. But why can't I wrap my mind around the fact that thousands of people were killed where I was walking. Because I am a human. The Nazi's were not. They were monsters. The reason I can not understand why they did what they did those things is because I am human.


Auschwitz-Birkenau 3/31/16
Looking at the railroad tracks, I was trying my very best to imagine the horrific things that occurred, but I could not. We were told a few stories of people and each was worse than the next. We walked through the men's side of Auschwitz #2 until we were led on the path of the Hungarian Jews. My ancestors. They were taken directly from the trains and led on the walk to death in 1944. There are four stones standing that said in 4 different languages "To the memory of the men, woman, and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. In this pond lie their ashes. May their souls rest in peace." Behind was a tiny pond that I know has thousands of ashes of Hungarian Jews. Any Jews. Again, I struggled with emotions. Why? Because it is unimaginable the things that occurred where I was standing. I got to light my candle and place it near the pond because I wanted to remember those people who did not get the proper burial and proper way to end their lives.
I am not a good writer. I never know how to phrase things. In the moment, I didn't know how to get the words out. Being able to see the destruction of most of the buildings is terrifying. I had so many questions by the end of my day at Auschwitz #2. How long did it take for the Nazi's to set up the camp? Why did they destroy it if most people knew about it?
Looking at the gas chambers, crematories is a scaring thing. Over 1 million Jews were killed where I stood. I was at the worst place on earth. All I wanted was to leave. If I couldn't stand 4 hours there, how could they stand much much more?

What makes someone Jewish?

In Jewish History class my teacher continuously asks us "what makes someone Jewish?". I truly do not know. Some people answer "knowing prayers" or "having a Jewish parent" or even "if someone says they are Jewish that makes them Jewish".

I am Jewish. I say that I am Jewish. I have two Jewish parents. I know prayers. I am Jewish. But what makes me Jewish?

I was enrolled from a young age at a Jewish Day School where half my day was dedicated to studying the Tanach, Taffilah, and Rabbinics. Even with those hours of focused learning, I do not know what makes someone Jewish.

I have grown up in a Jewish household. In my family we celebrate main holidays, all of my siblings and I had a bar/bat mitzvahs, and mezuzahs placed on each door, but how do those things contribute to someone being Jewish?

This question comes in my head a lot because I am living with over 60 Jewish kids. We all have one thing in common; we are Jewish. How does that connect us? What is connecting us?