Spending the day at school, by Josie

The second morning of the Israel trip has been great!  We started our day with some P.E. activities, like basketball, dribbling, and scooting with a partner across the room while standing on stools (and trying not to fall!) We bonded as a group by organizing ourselves by birth dates and first names.  

Rabbi Goor and Yoav playing basketball (at least trying to!)

After the P.E. activity, we entered a classroom to learn about the meaning and values of Zionism.   Lucky for us, right downstairs in the courtyard there were representatives from different Israeli political parties for a special mock election (since Israel is having elections next month).  We were then divided into groups and instructed to create a powerpoint presentation about the meaning of Zionism, whether it still exists. and the views of a political candidate and how they represent modern day Zionism.  

We went to the rally to get information from different representatives of different parties.  We presented our powerpoint slideshows and presented it to the judges (who happened to be both heads of the partnership, Chaya Ben Dror from Tel Aviv and Ahuva Ron from the Jewish Federation).  

Karen and Noa (one of the Israeli Partnership coordinators)

Meet Harel, Ironi Yud Dalet's Head of School

And the winners were....

This activity taught us different meanings of Zionism and how we can play an active role as Jews both in Israel and around the world.

Students then attended a very fun Chemistry class where they did different experiments to learn about volume and chemistry reactions.  

After spending the day at school, we got on a bus and went to the Ytzchak Rabin center, a museum about Israeli history and Zionism, dedicated to the life of one of Israel's prime ministers.

Karen's note:  We will be heading south for the next two days (to the Beduin tents, Masada, Dead Sea, Ein Gedi, Sde Boker and other amazing places). Wifi might not be available, so please be advised posts might not be available until Tuesday.