The teens had an amazing week in Ashkelon and special thanks goes to the following people:
Noa Nagar-Halevy for coordinating the Diller Ashkelon Teen Fellows and for working so hard on this past week’s schedule and program development
Avichai and Gal, Ashkelon junior counselors who have worked with the Ashkelon teens throughout the year and helped the teens take on leadership roles in planning this past week’s activities
Sammy for working on the logistics pieces to insure that everything went so smoothly
Nicole Rosenberg who took all of the absolutely amazing pictures and works with Sigal Ariely to make sure that the Baltimore-Ashkelon connection is the most incredible partnership!
Friday’s pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nikirose/Photos16JulyMatnassBurtonMeitar#
Sunday’s recap:
The group left Ashkelon really early (before 7 am!) and headed south towards the desert. They started off at Ain Ovdat, which is a hike and then went to S’dei Boker, which is where Ben Gurion is buried. The teens also toured Ben Gurion’s house. After the tour, they went to the campsite where they cooked a delicious home made dinner! Ronen led an optional meditation session and afterwards Ronen led through an exploration of the stars.
Congrats to yesterday’s Diller super star, Claire Postman!
Today’s recap:
The teens awoke with the sun and Henry Sholk and Laura Gevarter, today’s chanichim toranim led morning exercises and shared information about desert and Tisha B’av. They headed to an overlook at the Roman Crater and then journeyed to Jerusalem where they checked into their hostel. After they relaxed and showered, they all came together for pre-Tisha B’av programming. Each of the teens were asked to bring a meaningful object and they shared with the group why that object is special to them. After all the teens shared their object, they put them in a pile and those items were taken away from them until Tisha B’av is over (Tues. night), which will help the teens explore what it means to lose something that is special to them.
Amos Levi met the group and gave the teens an overview of Tisha B’av and its significance on their way to the Old City(http://www.hillel.org/jewish/holidays/tishabav/default, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B'Av)
The group joined thousands of people as they walked through the Old City and the teens read Eicha (Book of Lamentations) on a rooftop in the Old City. After they read Eicha, they walked down to the kotel. The teens had free time at the kotel and were amazed at how many people were gathered there. As a side note--while the Ashkelonians were volunteering at Weinberg Village in March, the seniors wrote notes and the teens brought them to put in the kotel!
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