By Aaron Berner "More than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.” It is one of the oldest Jewish cliches in the book, but it is nevertheless a useful window into the unique importance of the seventh day for the Jewish people. Shabbat is undeniably a crucial aspect of Judaism around the world. […]
By Leah Spellberg When I decided to come on the Nachshon project, I knew that I would be joining a group of people just like me who in some way wanted to become leaders in their Jewish communities. What I didn’t know before I came was how we would learn to become those leaders. Within […]
By Jonathan Marx After a night of reflection, prayer, and delicious food, we concluded our first Shabbat evening together in Israel with an enlightening session of text study. Rather than focusing on the week’s Torah portion, we looked at different English translations of the Prayer for the State of Israel from Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and […]
Mindspace, located in the middle of high tech Tel Aviv, is a co-working space that houses companies of all sizes, with individual meeting rooms, communal kitchens, and open spaces that encourage collaboration and inspiration. While Mindspace is aesthetically the coolest office building I’ve ever been inside of, what’s happening inside of Mindspace is even cooler. […]
By Didi Poliak On Friday afternoon of the opening conference, after almost a week of being at Shefayim, we sat down in our own spaces to write, and reflect, about our goals for the upcoming semester. When I was in the process of learning about and applying for The Nachshon Project, I thought I knew […]
By Jazzie Morgan In the Torah, we read about Nachshon being forced to step out of his comfort zone in order to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt. Similarly, the first week of The Nachshon Project forced each of us as fellows to step outside of our comfort zone. For me, the moment I […]
By Jake Levine On our third full day in Israel, we were lucky enough to tour Tel Aviv through the lens of “the first Hebrew city in two thousand years”, a remarkable feat when considering it was founded before the State of Israel was anywhere near a reality. Led by our in-house tour guide Jamie […]
By Lara Rodin The week so far had been a whirlwind of excitement: new friends, new experiences, and most importantly new ways of looking at things. After having begun our Shabbat with exciting mind puzzles and team building games, our minds had been stretched nicely before Shabbat afternoon. After a warm and restful day under […]
By Peter Young It’s hard to believe that we have been in Israel as Nachshon Cohort 2 for less than three weeks. We have already had a lot of incredible experiences and one of my favorite moments was our post-Shabbat drum circle at the opening conference. As someone who has played drums for many years, […]
By Ben Hersch Twenty-four hours after landing in Israel, 22 Nachshon Fellows set out to understand how Israel, the country where we would be spending the next five months of our lives, evolved from a desert to an oasis. It is easy to see the the results of Israel’s arduous journey from desert to global tech […]
