What to Bring Home....

My prompt this week for my blog is "What role, if any do you want Israel to play in your life when you go home?" Now that is a fully loaded question that take a lot of thinking. Truthfully, I still do not believe that I'm going home in two weeks and I refuse to think that I am ever leaving this unbelievable country. 

I would really like Israel to still be a huge part of my life when I get home. How I plan to make that is a totally different story. I hope to keep speaking as much Hebrew with my friends as much as I can in Hebrew class and to some of my Israeli friends who live on the North Shore. I'm hoping to also be elected onto my temple youth group board for the third year in a row and I wan't to bring over current events from Israel to our weekly meetings or plan programs based on those current events. I'm so interested in learning more about the peace process and what the outcome might be. I'm taking an International Relations course next year at school and I hope that I can contribute as much as possible because of my experience here.

66 Israeli Women That You Should Know: Ester Rada

Recently, Haaretz put out an article of 66 influential Israeli women that everyone should know. One of them in singer and actress Ester Rada, whose music has a different style but very appealing. Life Happens, is one of her newer songs and personally I think its a really good song. 

I really like the influence that she has on Israeli youth especially for Ethiopian children. She's someone to look up to. I find her such a beautiful human being inside and out with an incredible voice and her drive to make bring her to where she is now is amazing.

I have already downloaded Life Happens on to my phone and I look up to her for her determination and successful rise from where she was to where she is now.

Suffering is Not a Competition

Recently, I was on the phone with my friend Evan and believe it or not we had a pretty intelligent conversation that stuck with me and kept me thinking. We started talking about how it has become a competition to see what people have gone through more suffering. When people begin talking about how terrible their life is, another person has to jump in and add their terrible news and try to make their news seem even more terrible. 

The point of this whole "competition" is to be the center of attention. To prove that you're suffering more. But its not about who's gone through more hardships or who's been hurt worse, its about getting the most attention. It's something that I personally find disgusting and I'm definitely guilty of doing it. 

The real reason we got on this topic was because of the talk of religion. How the Jews have been persecuted so many time throughout history but the only persecution and mass murder of Jews that anyone ever remembers is the Holocaust. The numerous other terrible times for the Jews are always forgotten because they're not as recent. 
You can't rely on one piece information to back up your argument and the Holocaust should not be a reason for you to be the center of attention. 

(I know this was a little all over the place but I feel like I covered what I wanted to and that's all that matters.)

Music

Music has been a HUGE part of my life. A day without music is impossible for me. Every night I go to sleep listening to Panic! At The Disco or Paramore on repeat.

But ever since I was introduced to Israeli music, my love of just music in general has been totally changed. I am so thankful that I was able to go to Chalutzim at OSRUI (a seven week Hebrew immersion program that I highly recommend to anyone) and learn from my two very musical Hebrew teachers all about music. Our class names were even Israeli bands. Mine was Hatikvah 6 (shesh) and now one of my favorite songs is one of theirs called Kol Yom M'Hadash. Its truly a beautiful song about how every day is a new day. It always puts me in the best mood after listening to it because it brings back memories and has such a meaningful message.

Another song I REALLY love that has helped me get through so many tough times is called Yihye Tov (Things Will Get Better). It's a beautiful song by David Broza, probably the one of the most talented guitarists in the world. If you don't know any of his songs I strongly suggest looking him up because he's got a beautiful voice and even more beautiful words.

So to get to the point, music has a huge influence on my life, but now knowing these Hebrew songs my library and taste in music has been changed and improved because of this wonderful piece of Israeli culture.

If you ever want any good Hebrew songs I have plenty and I'm willing to share. :)