Day 4 in Israel

Shabbat shalom,

Another beautiful day! Today is our teaching day. Each of the Rochester educators went to his/her matched school to spend 3 hours with his/her matched teacher. I accompanied Debby Baker to MOR (Modiin Maccabin Reut Middle and High School campus) for the morning. There we received the Red Carpet. We met with Sara, Assistant Principal of the high School (Ruti, the principal of the h.s. was in Poland with 180 seniors for the week), Batsheva and Esti, Principal and Assistant Principal of the Middle School, Eitan, teacher of a text-based values program introduced into the middle school this year, and a graduate of the high school, who an army course to be a finished a course to become an army spokesperson just yesterday. Accompanied by the omnipresent cakes and drinks, Sara presented a powerpoint on the school, giving us a complete overview of its population, program, vision, goals, etc. Afterwards we happily met up with Anat Yaeger, who had been part of a previous delegation to Rochester. Anat walked us through both schools and brought us to her 7th grade English class where the children bombarded Debby with questions. We just missed an Arabic language and culture class, but were impressed to learn that this class is required in grades 7 - 9. MOR is truly an exemplary school. Debby hopes to connect Eitan and his program with a 10th grade World Religions class at Brighton High School.

Meeting up with our colleagues at the Iriyah (municipality) at 11:30 a.m. all reported that the morning went well in other schools and classrooms. Fron here we went by car to Mini Israel and ate a picnic lunch outside the front gate. Especially those of us who have not been to Israel or visited many years ago were entirely pleased with this miniature overview of the country's highlights, and we did learn that the model is the largest of its kind in the world. For me, the highlights included all the dwarfed bonsai plants and bushes around the sites (which I had never noticed before) and our guide, Shimon. Shimon is a Jew from India who came to Israel at a young age. He served as a Mosad spy in Lebanon for 24 years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He regaled us with some personal stories along with those enriching the exhibit. In addition to the exhibit area, more than a few of us were thrilled with the Ahava factory store on site.

Mini Israel closes at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, so gratefully all of us were able to return to our host homes by 3:00 - 3:30 p.m. after hugs and kisses. I had hoped to blog much earlier today, but as my host family informed me, the wireless is very, very slow on Friday as so many are "off" from work for the day causing a wireless traffic jam. I was unable to get on t0 the internet before now. At Yozma, it was a thrill for me to be greeted by Rabbi Nir Barkin by my first name and as an old friend and also for me to recognize so many congregants, including Beth Atar (wife of Sammy Atar, former P2K steering committee member in Modiin, Yuval Newman, cousin of Bruce, Helene, Ron and Karen Newman, colleague Elliot Fix and his host, Gila Miller, and my own Aunt Vicky). Back at Aviva's after services with her children and their families, we enjoyed no less than 10 dishes on the table and a dessert ("kinoo-ach" in Hebrew - a new word for me) of chocolate melted over fresh pistacchio halvah. It could not have been tastier.

We have come a long way in three days and not just in miles. We have forged strong bonds with our hosts, learned new Hebrew words and expressions each day (each hour), become acquainted with our matched schools and teachers, experienced more of Israel than thought possible in this amount of time, ate until beyond satiation, and have begun meaningful conversations about what it means to be a Jew in Israel. May we all have the strength (and photographic memory) to bring it all back with us to the U.S

Shabbat shalom,
Jan