Thursday, July 24

Hey everyone,
Tuesday was fun. We had classes as usual in the morning, and then after lunch, we met with a Haredi (ultra orthodox) man and had a discussion with him here at Tzuba. We learned a lot about the Haredi way of life and we had good religious discussions. He grew up in Brooklyn and later moved to Israel. The way the Haredi community views things is obviously different than how the Reform community does. They are much more strict and their lives consist of mostly Torah education. They study Torah multiple hours every day. After speaking with him, we went to Nachlaot, which is an Orthodox community in Jerusalem. Their sense of togetherness is amazing. It is a small relatively closed community, and then children just run around from very young ages. This was also a special day. Earlier, there was another attack in Jerusalem, similar to before except that nobody died. It was again a resident from East Jerusalem on a bulldozer. This is a new type of attack that is a problem for Israel because although Israel generally destroys the house of a terrorist, with these two, they have not yet because they are Jerusalem residents and that has not been done before. It is quite the dilemma for the government. We then went to the mall for dinner and a very little bit of shopping before returning back to Tzuba for bed. Wednesday was a pretty relaxed day. We had classes as usual, and then a lot of time to study and relax in the afternoon. I went to the pool for a little while and worked on my History midterm essay. They also told us some of the most exciting news ever. We are going to see Hadag Nachash, an Israeli hiphop group, one of my FAVORITE groups in concert on Saturday night in Jerusalem. I'm so pumped for the concert, because they are so good. Everyone here knows them and is getting very excited. Today, we had classes in the morning, and in a little while, we are heading out on a tiyul to a Kibbutz about 40 min away to learn about rural zionism. Later tonight, we will be going to swim at Beach Palmachim, and to have a BBQ dinner there as well. Tomorrow, we go to Tel Aviv and I am staying the night with some friends near Netanya. I'll write sometime soon
Ben