By Alex Rubin Everyone has heard about the 40 years Jews wandered in the desert after being freed from Egypt. It might not have been for 40 years, but the Nachshon fellows got a taste of the dry desert by hiking through the dry waterbed Nahal Peres. Our day started with a scenic drive down […]
By Emily Rebenstock After spending the morning listening to political speakers, learning about controversial boarders and trying to understand the complexity of the conflict in Israel, a visit to Deer Land was exactly what we needed. As our bus neared our destination, I looked out the window to see a landscape covered in trees and […]
By Alyse Feldman This past Shabbat we spent in the community of Alon Shvut. Throughout the day on Saturday we were presented with speakers who came from all walks of life and had all different viewpoints. My favorite speaker was Ruth Lieberman. She is a resident of Alon Shvut as well as an advocate on behalf […]
By Jonathan Marx When building a Jewish experience, you can’t have it all. This was the important, albeit difficult, lesson that we learned in our session learning with Rabbi Ethan Tucker of Mechon Hadar. Rabbi Tucker walked us through a fascinating theory that explained the thoughtful creation of religious practice and ideology. Essentially, he led […]
By Didi Poliak Rabbi Leon Morris’s session was one of the best yet. As a Reform Jew, it was very nice to hear from someone who grew up with a similar background to myself. I got many things out of Rabbi Morris’s session, but perhaps the most interesting thing to me were his comments about […]
By Sarah Jarvis Tzfat is one of the holiest most spiritual places in the world let alone in Israel. It is home to many different traditions and varying ways of life that help make it the unique city it is today. Throughout our weekend in Tzfat we got to partake in various traditions and customs, […]
By Aaron Berner When in Rome, do as the Romans do—so the saying goes. For my first time in Tzfat, the mystical city, I decided I wanted to immerse myself as much as possible. One of the great things about Cohort 2 of the Nachshon Project is our incredible diversity, and one of the times […]
By Ari Friedman When we first arrived in Tzfat I was extremely excited to be back in such a mystical city. The schedule noted a visit to a mikveh. Mikveh’s are ritual baths used primarily by women but are also used by men. I had entered a mikveh once in the Old City of Jerusalem […]
By Dylan Singer While on our Shabbaton in Jerusalem, we had many incredible speakers about a variety of topics and one of those people was Rabbi Ma’ayan Turner. She talked to us about her experience with editing the Israeli Reform movements’ siddur. She talked about the struggles with including women in prayers and making these […]
By Jonathan Marx After our trip to Har Herzl with Aviv Warshavsky, we continued on to Ammunition Hill to continue our discussions of Israeli military history and culture and the power and motivation behind defending one’s country and one’s beliefs. Here, we were taken through a real-life reenactment of the dramatic 1967 battle - running […]
