Milk and Honey Today... Big Apple Tomorrow

I hope that you can excuse the delay in my posting a new entry on my blog. I been extremely busy meeting with two of my good friends Bibi Netanyahu and George Mitchell. You see, it seems that there has been tension between the Obama administration and the Israeli government over the entire settlement issue. I have been trying to help them to find common ground, but so far to no avail, I been unable to figure anything out. I'm still optimistic...

The big news regarding Kotel6 is that in a year the entire establishment will be moving to the Big Apple. Though rent is a bit higher in NYC, four years of schooling at HUC-NYC is calling as well as a shoe-box apartment somewhere in the five boroughs.

Besides, trying to get the peace plan back on track and being wicked excited about NYC (I might need to get rid of this word from my vocab now that I'm not living in Boston)... I've been working on my Hebrew, attending some concerts, the Jerusalem wine-festival (which was awesome!), playing tennis, and continuing to eat as much falafel and shwarma as possible.

Last week was Tisha B'av, and some Jews would call it the "saddest day in Jewish history," as it is the date in history when the first and second temples were destroyed. On Tisha B'av many traditional Jews fast, refrain from wearing leather shoes, do not bathe, read the book of lamentations, and gather at the Kotel the entire night. (To me it sounds similar to what they do every day....) As a reform Jew, I rarely commemorate Tisha B'av... because 1. it is during the summer months and we are on vacation and 2. we're not really focused on rebuilding the second temple and going back to animal sacrifice. I did however mark Tisha B'av by attending a service and visiting the Kotel. The wall was packed with lots of croc wearing folk, tearful eyes, and some colorful characters. Pictures from my visit are below...

The Kotel6 Pose

reading lamentations at the Kotel

A random guy I met at the Wall

Unfortunately, this past week Israel was also witness to baseless hatred, when two Israelis were killed (a 16.5 teen year old girl and a 24 year old man) on Saturday night and several others wounded when a masked gunman bursted into a gay community center in the heart of Tel Aviv and opened fire. The story was all over the news in Israel, and secular Jews were pointing fingers at ultra-Orthodox communities for in-sighting hate. The Tel Aviv police have not found the murdered and have not uncovered a motive either. To show our support for the two that were murdered and for the gay and lesbian community in Israel, I attended a vigil with many of my classmates in Jerusalem. Here are some photos from the vigil too.

The signs read... Only 16 and Here is not Iran

On a more uplifting note... I'm heading to a Kibbutz up North for Shabbat and staying with a random family. The Kibbutz is said to have a great pool (I'm excited --- no sarcasm here) and the largest dance club in Israel (I'm pumped --lots of sarcasm here). I'll make sure to update you on my adventures.

But for now... Shalom,

ERBP