Shvil!Shvil!Shvil!

 Sixty percent of Israel is desert. There are two deserts, the Judian desert (which is named after the Judians who lived and fought there), and the Negev desert. There are many cities and towns in the Negev desert (Beer sheva, Eilat, Yerucham, Arad), but most of the land is either nature reserves or firing zones for the army to practice in. Before the State of Israel the Negev wasn’t very developed, however after Ben Gurian declared a state, he made a goal to “make the desert bloom”, which is exactly what happened.

  For the past one and a half weeks I have been hiking on the Shvil Yisrael (Israel National Trail), with around ten other Year Course kids (number fluctuating depending on injuries), our incredible guide Yoav, and another logistics guy named Tom. “The Shvil” is a famous trail, which starts in the greenery of the North, comes down to the coast, cuts right to Jerusalem, and then finishes straight through the deserts of Israel, and down to the party town of Eilat at the Red Sea. The Shvil takes about three months for a normal seasoned hiker to complete.

 Because this semester is centralized in the desert, we hiked the lower half of the Shvil.

 Week two (or one for me because I was in Poland), was a big circle around Sde Boker, the Kibutz that Ben Gurian lived at. A normal day of hiking started at 6 A.M. We would pack up camp, make breakfast, and then hit the trail by around 8. We would hike for eight hours, covering different terrain each day. It was very challenging and hot. Our guide Yoav was an amazing leader and kept things lively. He taught us different Hebrew words for farting, and taught us about nature.

 Finally at around four o’clock we would see Tom’s truck in the distance, with a hot pot of soup waiting for us. We would then put up tents, make dinner, hang out by the bonfire, and then go off to bed. But the day didn’t end there. Just when we thought we could sleep, we had to wake in the middle of the night for Shmira (guard duty), which lasted about one hour each night.

 Trekking through the desert was an incredible and life altering experience. The long hours of walking gives you time to reevaluate and think about anything. The terrain itself challenged me both physically and mentally, but each time I was able to achieve whichever goal set forth, whether it was putting up a tent or climbing a gigantic mountain. At a glance there is no life in the desert, but after spending some time there one will find much beauty in the simplicity of things. And of course you go to the bathroom, eat, sleep, don’t take showers, and live all in the wilderness.

 For the last week of Shvil we hiked from our Kibbutz through the Eilat mountains, all the way to Eilat. The views were incredible! We also hiked along a fault line, and saw many different kinds of rock.

 On the last day we woke up 3:30 AM, and followed Yoav through the darkness up a mountain. From the top we watched the sunrise over four countries (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel), as well as the scenic Red sea.  What an amazing way to end the three-week journey. It was also very ironic to be walking basically through Egypt and then to the Red Sea (which is the sea that Moses parted), with the Passover story just a few days away. After breakfast we made the descent down to Eilat, and spent the rest of the day snorkeling.

 I’m off to Tel-Aviv for sports day, and then with Boston families for Passover. Over vacation I will be testing out my new hiking skills with my three best friends Jacob, Hershel, and Danny, as we journey from the Mediterranean sea to the sea of Galilee. And then to top it all off, a three day cruise to Cyprus! Happy Passover,

 Alex

Yoav peeing

Timna National Park.

Shmira Sunrise.

The Shvil symbol.

Canyoneering

Returning to Israel from Poland

Returning back to Israel from Poland was one of the most interesting experiences of Year Course. Our flight landed in Tel Aviv at around 4 a.m., and from there we immediately drove to Jerusalem to go the Kotel.

 It was still dark when we got there, and to be honest no one was really into it. People were done with the stress of the week, and just wanted to go back to their regular Year Course lives. Our guide, teacher, mentor, and father Allen stopped us at the Zion gate, and explained to us “that if this were any other trip we would just go back to our normal lives, but after the week we just had, we have the responsibility to bring all the stories of the lost soles to Israel”.

Walking down to the Kotel I started narrating in my head what it would be like for someone who had lived through the holocaust dreaming of maybe coming to Jerusalem one day, and was now doing just that. Every step was special. Seeing an Israeli soldier with long payot and a hefty M-16 for the first time almost made me laugh. For a whole week we saw pictures of Jews being murdered, while at the same time we ourselves didn’t feel entirely secure in Poland, with drunk guys pointing at our keepot and so on. All of the sudden it was just the opposite; a Chasid Jew holding a gun. Hitler(May his name be obliterated) would turn over in his grave if he could see that.

    

We all stood motionless in a circle in the Kotel promenade, Israeli flags waving all around us. Choking back tears the director of Year Course Adam told us how he had just met his old friend from the army, and that this moment was one of the most Zionistic moments of his life. After one week of seeing many sad things and never shedding a teardrop, hot tears rolled down my face. I was crying because a gigantic chunk of my people were murdered, and now their memories were with me. I walked to the Kotel and put my face to the 2,000 year old stones as so many Jews of do, and felt the future of the Jewish people on my shoulders. European Jewry was essentially wiped out in WWII. Now the focus is on Israeli Jewry, and of course American Jewry as well. It’s up to me; I’m it. Six million people are depending on me. The future of the Jewish people is in my hands. 

Poland Day 4: Auschwitz and Birkenau

 The infamous Auschwitz. When people think of Auschwetz, they think of the “Work will set you free” sign. This is part of Auschwetz camp one, but in fact the general term Auschwitz was given to entire complex of camps which covers 20k. Visiting Auschweitz one was hard, because my great grandfather Adolf David died from pneumonia there. We had a Polish guide who was from the area, and was very informative. It wasn’t a big camp, but they really tortured the prisoners there. It was originally built to house Soviet POWs, and was then expanded for Jewish prisoners. I felt somehow connected to the place, because of my great grandfather. We also saw a picture of a young girl named Marta being liberated, who we had the privilege of hearing from a few months ago in Jerusalem.

 Berkanau was the biggest concentration camp in the world. It was a death factory.   It was simply terrible and terrifying. It was hard to stay both emotionally and physically focused on the tour, because it was a three-hour walk. The conditions there were inhumane. They killed 1.5 million people, and for those who weren’t sent right away to the gas chambers were selected to work for a few months until their eventual murder. Ellie Weisel was a survivor from this camp. I don’t think there is a more evil place in the world. The prisoners were stripped entirely of their identities, and were reduced to a single number tattooed to their arms. History has never seen anything so cruel, and unfortunately this plight was towards my people. As much I would like to believe the Nazis weren’t humans, they were. It was their decision. Yes they were brainwashed, but the Holocaust was still a series of decisions made by individuals. I have seen the worst and leaned a lot, so what do I do now with all this information?

 I am a Jewish nineteen-year young adult, who this week walked into four concentration camps. This week I also walked out of four concentration camps. In 1942 who would of ever thought that this could be possible. But when I left, I took people’s memories with me. Memories of amazing people, who were killed for the incredible religion they lived by. That is my responsibility after seeing the aftermath of inhumanity, to take their stories with me, and to live the rest of my life as humanly as possible.

 We will be having Shabbas in the old Jewish quarter of Krakow. I will shower, shave, and put on much nicer than the ones I have been wearing this past week. After so much sadness it is time to rejoice. Isn’t that what Shabbas is for? Isn’t that what being Jewish is all about?

The infamous "Work will set you free" gate.

Thousands of Shoes were stolen.

The magic(weirdness) of Poland.

Poland is sord of a weird place, or at least the Jewish sites are-probably because most of them are places of dead people, or are old synagogues from decades ago. Poland is a huge country, yet somehow all the Jewish groups seem to flock to the same places.

 Anyway, on Thursday our group decided to travel to the countryside of Poland, to get away from other tourist groups. The bus rides were actually quite beautiful, with hills and some rare rays sunlight. At the end of the day we headed to a mass grave. We were walking on a small dirt path in the woods, when I saw another group heading towards us. I was a little surprised to see them in this slightly remote area, and assumed they were Israelis. As they came closer I started to recognize a few of them. Incredibly it was my best friend Danny and his Yeshiva! They had arrived that morning. What were the chances that in a huge country we would be at the exact same place at the same time.

 We hugged, talked for a little, and took a picture with all the Boston boys. “It’s a tough grave back there”, Danny told me. “The first time you go is always really hard”, I said. “That one is especially hard” said Danny. I wished him luck and we continued on our separate journeys.

 The grave we visited was of 2,000 small children and babies. How gruesome and tragic. So many futures were ended there.

 At the grave we wrote letters to our parents thanking them for everything, and for giving us the opportunity to come to Poland and learn.

  After an incredible Shabbat in Krakow, we headed to the cemetery to talk make havdalah and talk about the interesting lives of the people berried there. We visited the Grave of Rabbi Heller, who was the Chief Rabbi of Krakow, and was the great great great grandfather of Jacob Gilbert. As usual, there was an Israeli group already at his headstone. We told the group about the celebrity status of Jacob, and incredibly one of the Israeli boys was also a descendent of Rabbi Heller! Jacob got to meet one of his cousins. Something like 75% of all Jews are supposed to be descendents of Polish Jewry. But again, what incredible chances....or maybe it’s just Poland.

 Ok, back to Israel tomorrow. Can’t wait for some fresh Hummus and a week of hiking in the Desert!



Boston Boys meet in a strange place.

The Children's mass grave

Poland Day 2: Tykochin and Treblinka

Yesterday was a very intense day. We started in a quite Polish town called Tykochin, which was once a thriving Jewish shtetle. On the way there we watched the opening scene to the movie the “Fiddler on The Roof”. Tykochin was much like Anetevka. We went to a beautiful old Shul, which was used by the Nazi’s Yemach Shemo(May their names be obliterated) for storage during the war. We then walked through the town to the forgotten old cemetery. Many of the headstones were buried in hay, so we set out to overturn and right them.

 Almost the entire Jewish population of Tykochin (2,000 people which was roughly half of the towns population), were taken to the forest in August of 1941, and were killed in mass graves. We visited these two mass graves, along with two other Israeli high school groups who were also there. Here is an excerpt from my Journal.

“We just left the site of a mass grave, where the entire Jewish population of Tykochin was massacred. Why did this happen? They were smart Jews. They had decent lives. But most of all they were just people.

 We read an account from the Nuremberg trials. A woman was stuck in the death pit, with dead and living people all around her. When she got to the surface of the pit, she yelled for her family. What love, even in the worst moment. I imagined the people made from clay, clawing, swirling, and evolving in the pit, as the woman struggled for a gasp of air. Maybe I imagined this because that’s what those people are now: just clay.

 I was so angry at one point. A voice was screaming in my head saying something like “who would do this? This didn’t need to happen. This never should have happened.”

I’m joining the IDF. I can’t let this happen again. If I can’t personally stop terror, I will help to try.

The Poles did little. They were passive. We can’t be passive. The torah teaches how important a sing life is. We can’t pass that up. No matter what.”

 Next we visited the death camp of Treblinka, where 850,000 Jewish people were killed in one year. Thank god it is no longer standing. Where it stood is now a memorial located near the Lithuanian border. There were many other Israeli groups when we got there, as well as very high security, because the Israeli and Polish Ministers of education were there for a ceremony. The most incredible part of this visit was being able to walk out of the memorial, something so many Jews before me were never able to do.

Here is an excerpt from my journal:

 “There is nothing left of Treblinka. We can go there and try to remember, but it’s all covered up. The death has been masked by the evil creatures that were once the body parts of the well-oiled machine that once stood in the gray Polish forest. I read a poem to the our group called “I am remembrance”, which was written by the son of a holocaust survivor. It was very difficult to read the poem, both because the wind was howling in my face, and because the contents as very intense and emotional. After we finished I was relieved to walk swiftly out of the camp and on to the warm bus. What a strange and terrible place. Thank god the holocaust is over.”  

  It was a very challenging day, but it was important in understanding what happened in Poland. A fair question is “why go all the way to Poland just to see these terrible places?” To contextualize, before WWII Warsaw had the largest population of Jews second to New York City. We are talking about a gigantic, thriving, and intelligent Jewish communities, which were essentially wiped off the face of this earth. We have to come here and commemorate those people. We have to. 

Uncovering a headstone.

I AM REMEMBRANCE 

i am
blue and white striped
with a yellow star and a tattoo
of death
i
shower in fire
with my brothers hand in mine
he knows of no jew or catholic
muslim or christian
he knows only
that he wants to live
and i
i cannot comprehend
i cannot understand
i cannot forget what i have never known
i shovel the ashes of the death
with the "why" tearing at me
with the "why" burning me
with the "why" tattooed in the fire
of my
mind
and what have they known
but pain and suffering?
what have they become
but hunted and afraid
what will be left
but ashes and debris
if
they
forget
i wear the blue and white stripes of persecution
i shovel the ashes of the dead
i carry the tomorrows
that were burned
the hopes
that were shot
the dreams
that will never be
and i am a prisoner to what i have never known to the gate of that eternal night
born to chains, born to suffer
born to 1000's of years
of containment
exclusion
restriction
haunted by the agony
of the dead
and
the guilt
of the living
i am
remembrance
forsake me not
for it is the doom of man
that he forgets 

(c) 1993 Eric Sander Kingston

Poland Day 1: Warsaw

  I know I didn’t make a “Poland trip scouting report”, but there really wasn’t that much to say. Before today I did have many hopes and goals for this seven-day trip, but mostly I just expected the unfathomable sadness that is the Holocaust. I do think that will come, but today I experienced something different.

  

 Arriving to Warsaw Poland earlier this morning, I felt very apathetic towards the country itself and its people. I mean if you’re Jewish and someone says “Warsaw”, you immediately think of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the famous uprising that happened there. Three hundred thousand Jews were sent out of Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps, yet this morning hundreds of Israeli and American Jewish teenagers were doing just the opposite.

   

 Many of the stereotypes of Poland are true; it’s really cold, and there is some anti-Semitism. Besides these two factors, I found the city of Warsaw to be a regular clean and modern city, which is actually rather pleasant. You would never imagine that terrible murders were once committed there, because in fact after WWII the entire city was destroyed, and was then rebuilt into the modern hub it is today.

 The first site we visited was the massive Jewish cemetery. There were already many Israeli groups there, accompanied by intense Polish security guards standing watch. The idea of this Year Course trip is to not go to Poland just to say Kaddish and see the destruction of Polish Jewry, it is also to learn about the incredible life that Jewish people had in Poland prior to the holocaust. At the cemetery this is exactly what we did. We visited the grave of Y.L. Peretz, a famous writer who depicted Jews in a new modern way. We saw the grave of a man who had fought in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, stayed in Poland to become a Doctor, and later became an advisor in the Polish ministry of health. We also saw graves of many famous Rabbis and scholars. What incredible revolutionaries!

 In the large modern city that is Warsaw, there is only one remaining wall of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was a terrible place where Jews were kept until they were taken to the concentration camps. The Nazi’s organized these Ghettos, but it was actually the Jews themselves that governed the ghettos. Warsaw had the largest Ghettos, with a population of over 60,000 Jews. Although there were terrible conditions inside the Ghetto walls, the Jews living there actually found ways to keep their humanity and intellect intact. There was a secret orchestra in the Ghetto, as well as art, and some soup kitchens. In the midst of this horrible piece of Jewish History, the courage of the Jewish people amazes me.

  

 After visiting the Umschlagplatz memorial (which was the site where the Warsaw Jews were sent off by train to Treblinka), we visited the last bunker of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The story behind this site is sad but inspiring. After 300,000 Jews were deported to death camps, the Nazis kept 100,000 Jews who were mostly youth and laborers in the large ghetto. The remaining Jews decided they would not go like the others, and slowly organized the first Jewish resistance against Nazi Germany in History. Lead by the heroic Mordechai Anilewicz, the Jewish resistance fought bravely, catching the Nazis by surprise, and caused them to retreat several times. Eventually the Jewish fighters including Anilewivz ran out of firepower, and were forced underground. It was in this bunker, that Mordechai Anilewicz was finally discovered and killed.

 After the Shoa, one of Anilewicz last letter’s was found. He talks about how proud he was of the resistance fighter’s efforts. “ It is now clear to me that what took place exceeded all expectations…The last wish of my life has been fulfilled. Jewish self-defense has become fact. I am happy to be one of the first Jewish fighters in the Ghetto.

  So we have started from the beginning, and seen that even in the face of final destruction, some justice was served. Tomorrow will be different, as we continue through the history of the Shoa. But for now I am inspired. By Anilewicz, by Y.L. Peretz, and by everyone else in between. 

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising memorial.

 Old cemetery meets modern city.

 The remaining Ghetto wall

Commanders of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

 Found my old car

 The oldest Shul in Warsaw. The Nazi's turned it into a horse's stable during WWII. Horse stable it is no more!

Purim party week and Vicky comes to Israel.

Aaaaaand I’m back in Israel. So much has gone down since I got back from Rwanda. Firstly, Vicky Lyon came to Israel to visit me, celebrate Purim, and go hiking in the North. And that is exactly what we did. It was great to have her here, especially after just being at Agohozo Shalom, where most kids don’t have mothers. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks.

Purim: Simply  a better version of Holloween. I mean I was stunned by the spirit and dedication Israel showed in the days before and after purim. People were dressed up in crazy costumes during all times of the day, plus the parties were pretty crazy. Section one put on a flashmob in the Bat Yam mall, which was a huge success.

Scout trip to the North: During our semester in Bat Yam, we were privileged to live with fifteen or so Israeli scouts, who are taking a year before the army to volunteer. My roommate Shoam was the best scout ever, and I know I will come visit him in Israel for years to come. In our final week of Bat Yam, we all went to Kibbutz Levi in the North, and then to the Kineret. My mom came along and absolutely loved it.

IDC Herliya: We went this awesome private University to hear about programs after Year Course. There were some pretty cool speakers and programs, including an army program called Garin Tsabar, which brings together young foreigners who have just moved to Israel to live on a kibbutz together and complete their army service. Sounds like a great experience.

Moving to Kibbutz: I moved to Kibbutz Keturah near Eilat. It’s pretty awesome there. It’s basically like being at camp…

 Well I’m off for a seven-day trip to Poland, to learn about the holocaust, and the Jewish life that used to thrive there. It will definitely be a tough week. Hopefully this trip will give me new perspective, and will solidify the importance of Israel and Judaism.

Can’t believe Year Course is almost over! In a few months I will go back to Camp and then to the University of Massachusetts, where I will have to write long papers and will have to deal with my parents. Or I could just make Aliyah….

 Thanks for reading

 Alex

 My mom and I on a hike near the Kineret.

 The sunset in a place called Olga.

 Tandem bike in Tel Aviv.

A hedge Hog we found in the Desert.

Welcoming to a slow town in the beautiful Negev desert: Arad. Katz and I on a Shabbas walk.

Purim Flash Mob in the mall.