Date: July 18th, 2015
By: Maya Rotstein
This morning when I woke up, there was a different feeling in the atomesphere. I looked out the window and everything was quiet. All the shops were closed, transit wasn't running and the streets were dead. I realized, it was shabbat! After a yummy breakfast we all got to choose from 4 different shabbat services to go to. Being unaffiliated with a synagogue, i decided to try something new, and went to the orthodox synagogue. It was a beautiful building, with stain glass and hundreds of seats. The service was short which i was surprised by, but very interesting and we had some peaceful resttime at the hotel when we got back. Our next activity was run by Ma'or, our tour guide and Raquel. We sat at a sunny park in a beautiful part of the city, not too far from our hotel where we were invited to ask any sort of questions we had about Israel, its history and its complicated politics. It was really interesting to hear some of the questions people asked and how we sort of turned it into a discussion. Hearing different people's opinions really made me think about how lucky we are to be a very diverse group of people, and probably the most diverse throughout all of Diller. From then, we made our way down to the Old City, where we had a walking tour run by Ma'or. We vistied different sites that were important to the Jewish people's history and how we came to have the part of Jerusalem we have today. Certain sites stood out to me like the monument for the 48 Jews killed defending their homes, and the Zion Gate, where you could actually see bullet holes across the giant wall during an attack. Knowing about how we got to where we are today is really important because it creates a sense of belonging and continuity, as if you're own family had been living in this holy city for thousands of years. On our way back home, we met up with some other Diller cities and had Seudah Shlishit with them which was very nice. Meeting some of the fellows before Kennes makes me even more excited and gets rid of some of that nervousness that i get when meeting a group of new people.
We then had an amazing spiritual Havdallah in the courtyard near our hotel, where we performed the rituals and sang songs on the guitar. Then came the fun part! We had a couple hours on Ben Yehuda street where we grabbed a bite to eat with family and friends and did some shopping. Buskers and other kids our age filled the streets and it felt so right to be there with these people having similar, but totally different experiences as you. When i reflect on this day, i thought about all the history we talked and learnt about. Being both Jewish and Muslim, it is extremely important to me to know where your roots come from and the hardships we endured to get to where we are now, and this past day strengthened that feeling even more for me which i am very greatful for. I can't wait for tomorrow where we finally get to meet all the North American (and South African) cities and feel how it will be to become part of an International community of kids.
Love, Maya
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