Round the World with Rebs

Hi Friends! 

This blog has definitely been on the back of my mind and every day I think of something new and creative to share with y’all. Since it’s been a while, I hope you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the recap of the past 10 days or so. 

To finish up with orientation… After leaving Sde Boker, we traveled down south to a placed called Yerucham for more hiking and bonding activities. On our way to Yerucham, we stopped at an unrecognized Bedouin village to stay the night and learn about their culture. It was such an interesting night to say the least. Usually when traveling to a Bedouin community with a tourist group, you usually get the VIP treatment - camel rides, turkish coffee, hot fresh food, plush pillows and mattresses, etc. But we are not on any ordinary trip. On KIVUNIM they want us to get the non-tourist treatment, to do what others would not usually do. We arrived in the middle of nowhere and met with one of the elders of the community, Abu Yusef (Father Joseph). There were no paved roads to his house; no running water in his home or village, no electricity but from the portable generator. He spoke about growing up as a Bedouin (through a translator) and shared a few funny stories about his 18 children. After a delicious dinner (completely Americanized…we had Burgers) it was time for bed. We all thought we would be sleeping in a Bedouin tent under the stars, with a nice fire keeping us warm. But no, again as Kivunimers, all 58 of us crammed into a shack with sleeping bags. It took a solid 3 hours for all of us to finally fall asleep. Even at 19 years old, we still get the late-night giggles. 

The next day, we got up bright and early to meet with 3 inspirational Bedouin women. These women went against their social norms to get an education, create a name for themselves, and spread their story. The first women we met, was named Amal El Sana. When Peter introduced her to the group, he explained that with his first encounter with this extraordinary woman several years ago, he remarked to those around him that “I had just met the first Arab Prime Minister of the State of Israel!” This is how powerful and compelling she is. She began her story at age 5 years old when Amal was a little shepherd girl like her ancestors of 1000’s of year. Each morning she took a flock of goats, a few donkeys and a dog out to the field to graze. It was hard to imagine. This little girl went alone into the desert day after day without a second thought. But the woman standing before us was no traditional Bedoui. She is a powerhouse of political savvy, a pure feminist, she obtains raw impressive intelligence, and as her name literally means, she is full of HOPE. We learned of her imaginative refusal to accept the Patriarchal and Tribal roadblocks constantly put in her way: for an education of quality, for choice of husband, for political and social equality for women and for full citizenship as part of the Arab minority within the Jewish State of Israel for men and women alike. Today, Amal has been the recipient of many awards and much public recognition. After her speech, we all gave her a standing ovation - we all knew something magical had just occurred. 

After the Bedouin experience, we traveled to Yerucham to continue our orientation. We stayed in this Hostel that did not have an elevator. This is something we’re going to have to get used to; many of the places we’ll be staying abroad at will not have elevators and we’re going to have to haul our stuff up many flights of stairs. I’m glad I packed smart - I have a traveling backpack so everything can be stored on my back - it rocks. 

During one of our hikes in the Negev, our tour guide got a text saying that Gilad Shalit was back in Israel. Gilad is an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas militants on 25 June 2006, while in active service. In the first few weeks of October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Hamas had finally agreed to a prisoner exchange deal that would secure Shalit’s safe return. As part of the deal, Israel agreed to release 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners. It was a bitter-sweet moment for everyone. We were all so happy to hear and see that Gilad was safe and healthy, but on the other hand, we were sad to see 1027 murderers, bus bombers, and terrorists go free. When we returned to the hostel, we all sat and watched the news for hours, with hundreds of emotions running through our veins. 

Simchat Torah, ”Rejoicing with the Torah”, is a celebration marking the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah Readings, and the beginning of a new cycle. To celebrate, we went to a Moroccan synagogue to sing, dance, and pray with their congregation. It was such an amazing experience. The members of the synagogue did not speak any English, so our only means of communication was by singing the similar tunes of the prayers, laughing, and dancing with the Torahs. A few of the congregants were Persian, so I was able to converse a bit with some of the ladies, but my Farsi isn’t at any level to get past the meet and greet of a conversation. 

On October 21, we finally got to Jerusalem to celebrate our second Shabbat together. Being able to finally unpack our bags, meet our new roommates, and have a place to call home has never felt so great. We had friday night services in the park overlooking the Old City and enjoyed a nice Shabbat dinner in Beit Shumel. Beit Shumel is our upscale hostel in Jerusalem. It’s a 7 minute walk from the famous Ben Yehudah Street, the fun bars and clubs, and a 3 minute walk from Mamila Mall (a mall that includes fun cafes and shops). Our classes and meals are also hosted here. Most of the week we are served all three meals, but a few times a week we are given the option to go out into Jerusalem and eat at restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. We are also conveniently located next to a YMCA. A bunch of my friends and I bought memberships and go everyday together. We even attended a few group fitness classes that were taught in all hebrew. It was pretty funny trying to figure out what exactly we were supposed to be doing, but we got the main gist of it.  

Our academic schedule is long and intense (i’ll post a picture of it for you). We have Arabic and Hebrew classes as well as Middle Eastern Studies and Civilization/Society lectures. Next week our first essay on Greek Culture is due, and on the 18th we are headed off to Greece and Bulgaria! I’m in the lowest level of Hebrew and Arabic, but I’m learning fast and improving. I’ve been using both languages in my daily life (ordering food at restaurants and talking to the Arabic Beit Shumel staff) however, most people recognize my American accent and just reply to me in English. 

It’s been so fun here and I’m really having a blast. My friends are so great and I’m truly starting to feel like I’m at home. I would love to continue writing, but I have to go get some work done :(

STAY TUNED… I have stories about traveling through the Old City, Halloween in the Holy Land, Girls Weekend in Tel Aviv, and the adventures of my first time getting sick away from home! 

Thanks for reading and make sure to check out my facebook for more pictures! 

Hi Everyone! 

I’m sorry for not posting in a while - we finally arrived in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon - there wasn’t any internet access during the last week in the Negev for orientation. I now have a bunch to catch you up on and I’m excited to know that I have so many followers. 

This past week, we celebrated the Jewish holiday Sukkot at Sde Boker. We all decorated the Sukkah together as a Kivunim group, bringing in the holiday by lighting candles on the cliff, looking over the hundreds of mountains that we hiked just earlier that day. We also received our official Kivunim Sidorrim (prayer books) with a personal message to our group inscribed in each front cover from Peter Gefen. 

Kivunim is such a special program because it accepts people from every aspect of Judaism. During this year I’ll get to try different types of prayer services that I may not get to experience at home or in college. With that in mind, I decided that for Sukkot services I would try out the “alternative” service option. Peter led the service and instead of just going through the motions of every prayer, he chose two different prayers for us to talk about. We sat in a circle and discussed the meanings and how the prayers relate to us both literally and spiritually. We had some extremely interesting discussions and it was cool to see how everyone related to each prayer.

We then ate our first meal in the sukkah and enjoyed the cute decorations that surrounded us. After dinner, our RA’s (resident advisors, Jody and Amy….Jody is a male by the way) planned a small ice breaker for the group called “walk and talk.” We were paired with a random partner, of the opposite sex, and our instructions were to go away from the main campus for  30 minutes and have a simple “get to know you” conversation. We were given a few guiding questions to start the chit chat, but the hopes of the activity was that the conversation would flourish and break away from the simple icebreaker questions. I was paired with a guy named Max from New York. It turns out that Max went to Tanzania the same summer I went to Kenya! It was so incredible to finally find someone to share Africa stories with. Max and I both had such amazing experiences and those feelings can sometimes only be felt by people who went on a similar trip. We swapped Africa pics and now we’re buds, it’s great. 

As for “buds”… I’m starting to make true connections with a lot of guys and girls on this trip. I’m constantly known as the “southern girl” who says y’all or the “Persian chick from Tennessee” but beyond that, I’ve made some true friends. People are starting to create their friend groups, but more than that, we’re breaking away from our comfort zones and friends from home and it’s really nice. 

On the third night of Sukkot, we saw that on our itinerary it said “night hike.” Just take a quick guess on what the time frame was for this hike… 10 pm until 5 am. I’M NOT LYING! I was so freaked out, and not very excited. But as the day was leading up for it, the idea started to sound pretty frigging cool. We took about a 2 hour bus ride from Sde Boker and met up with our fabulous tour guide, Yisrael (who looked like Moses…). I was a bit nervous for the darkness aspect of the hike - I didn’t pack a flashlight. However, the full moon was so bright it lit up the whole sky and the entire desert. It was bright enough to read a book, no joke. Yisrael explained to us that if we want to be able to open our minds and fully accept everything that we will be coming across this year, and in life, we have to become as vast and open as the desert - to become one with the desert. To do so, we had to meditate, hike silently, and truly become one with the earth. We stripped down as much as possible (don’t worry we were still modest) and we laid in the sand. We had to feel every grain on our skin, we had to concentrate on every breath we took in and out, and we had to look out at every star. It was something that I cannot describe in words. I mean how can one become “one with the desert?!” It sounds crazy. But it wasn’t. That night made the most sense. Nothing has been more clear than what Yisrael was doing with us. He did not just guide us through history, nature, etc… He guided us to our true self. I kid you not, some of the craziest kids on this program were able to take this seriously and become one with the desert. As the sun was rising, we ate breakfast at the mountain top and then passed out on the way back to our bunks. We slept for most of the day, until Shabbat rituals that night. 

Bringing in the first Shabbat with the group at Sde Boker was magical. In the Negev, all of your senses really open up. I decided to join the more traditional service (the alternative service was just a little bit too different for me) which was led by Rabbi Dov and a few participants. Working with BBYO, services sometimes were seen as a social scene rather than a spiritual connection. For the first time, in a long time, I got chilles from a Kabbalat Shabbat services. I saw “the bros” of the group beautifully lead a service for us. They had no fears, they knew every word of every prayer… I had never seen anything like it. I now can’t wait to learn the prayers so that maybe in a few months, I can lead a service! I bet my dad is freaking out reading this and saying “yeah right, Rebecca…you have to actually go to services to learn the prayers” haha well daddy, I hope I can show you my fabulous skills one day! 

I have a lot more to tell you but this post is getting quite long… Tomorrow I’ll update y’all on the rest of orientation and the first few days here in Jerusalem! 

Love and miss you all! <3 

Hello Friends!

So it’s officially day three of Kivunim, but we’ve only slept for a total of 12 hours. We arrived at the JFK airport at 9 am and the adrenaline was definitely pumping through our veins. After checking my bags, and doing the “Hi, my name is Rebecca! I’m from Nashville, where are you from?” 59 different times, it was time to board the plane. Now, as weird as it sounds, I love long airplane rides… the different movie options, the guessing games of what exactly the plane food is made of, and of course, the interesting conversations you pick up with the people sitting next to you. However, this plane ride was much different. The movie selection was poor – there were only three different movies and they were all in Hebrew. The food was pretty decent. And the Kivunimers did not believe in sleep. Everyone was so eager to meet the different people on the trip, that we just kept rotating seats, starting up new conversations, as if it was a musical chairs game for 10 hours straight.

          After arriving in Tel Aviv, we took at 2-hour bus ride to the Negev (the desert) where we will be having our orientation programming for the next two weeks. We are staying on a Kibbutz called Sde Boker, which is about an hour away from Bear Sheva. I’ve seen some amazing landscapes in my lifetime, but I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I wake up every morning to the site of hundreds of mountains and the open bright blue sky (I will be posting pictures soon, so you all can see what I’m talking about).

After a quick intro session, we changed into our hiking clothes and went on our first “bonding” hike of the trip. Man, was I out of shape. We were hiking through a dry riverbed and up the mountains. At the first look of it, the straight plane of the riverbed seemed like no big deal, but just after a few short moments we were spiraling up the mountainside – at some points climbing up ladders imbedded in the rocks, which were at 90-degree angles. Let me tell you, my behind has never been so sore. However, it truly was an amazing site. At the top of the mountain, I felt like I was the king of the desert. I would look down and see the land that my antecessors trekked through for hundreds of years. And the fact that I accomplished it with my co-Kivunimers and truly pushed myself to keep going, even when the times got tough, made me feel so proud and truly solidified the fact that I can do anything this year.

Between the hiking sessions and bonding activities, we have begun our “Kivu-Thinking” sessions with Rabbi Dov (the rabbinical director) and Peter Gefen (the founder of Kivunim). In just the short period of time that I have know the 59 other participants, I have already gone into deep conversation about what it means to be a part of a nation, what a nation really is, if there is a God, what religion really means, and what being a Jew is all about. Although these conversations are intimidating at times, I feel so prepared from my high school years at Ensworth to contribute within the sessions. At EHS, we would sit around Harkness tables (which were just large dinning room tables) and we would discuss the information being taught in class, rather than just sitting through lectures. We were pushed to talk to our classmates, rather than talking to the teacher, as well as teach each other through discussion. So, in our Kivu-Thinking sessions, it’s just the same. We sit in a huge circle and debate/discuss our beliefs and thoughts about each topic, with a bit of guidance from either Rabbi or Peter. It is truly interesting to see whom I relate to and who believes something completely different. We all come from different backgrounds, but we are able to come together as one group, and join forces to create ideas that can truly change the world one day. I feel like my brain is on a high stimulation and it will only continue to grow and become powerful as we continue these sessions and visit the other countries this year. 

As for the social aspect, I have made so many amazing friends. Everyone here is incredible. I don’t think I have ever been a part of such a dynamic group of people before. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such interesting individuals. I know that these people will change my life this year!

So that’s about it for now. Tomorrow is Sukkot and I will for sure be updating you on the holiday and the rest of my adventures here in Sde Boker.

Thanks for reading! 

After a long 5 months since graduation, I am finally packed and ready to begin my journey abroad. For those of you who don’t know… I’m going on a 9 month, academically intense, program called Kivunim: New Directions. This year, I will be traveling to over 10 countries throughout the Middle East and Europe, while taking college courses in Hebrew, Arabic, and Judaic Studies. I’ll be living on a campus called Beit Shumel, in Jerusalem. It is the “Youth Hostel” of the Hebrew Union College Campus. It seems like a pretty cool place! You can check it out for yourself, if you so please at: www. beitshumel.com/english/

I honestly cannot believe the beginning of Kivunim is finally here. This trip seriously feels unreal. However, I’m ready. To be honest, I will miss the luxury of being able to watch Netflix 24/7, but I know hiking through the desert, learning a new language, and stuffing my face with falafel will be an experience of a lifetime.

During these last few weeks at home - especially during the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - spending time with my family and friends, truly made me realize how blessed I am. I know, I know, this blog is starting to sound “mushy gushy” but really… I’m going to miss everyone so much. That includes you, Mimi and Devo. I know the 60 people on my program will become my new family, and I am thrilled to bring them into my heart and go along this right-of-passage with them, together. However, the friends and family I have in Nashville, New York, California, Austin, Ensworth, and BBYO will travel with me in every country. I am constantly reminded of the people I grew up with, as well as the people I met just months ago. You all have made an impact on me and have truly shaped me into the woman I am today. 

I hope we can keep in touch throughout the year. I hope this blog will allow you to stay connected and involved in my life. Please feel free to contact me - I would love to answer your questions about my trip, or just to chat!  

I have many sources of communication this year! I have a facebook account (please friend me if we aren’t “facebook friends” already), I have an email: beccahanai@yahoo.com, as well as an Israeli Phone with an American phone number that can receive free texts/calls from the US. If you would like that number, please contact me personally, and I would be happy to give it out. I feel a little sketch posting it on a open website hahaha.. 

Thank you all again for reading my blog! 

Love you! 

Next post from the Holy Land :) 

XOXO, 

Rebecca