Inbal Pezaro

This past week Haaretz news paper put out an article about 66 amazing Israeli woman everyone should know! This week one of our blog had to be about one of these woman.  I chose Inbal Pezaro. Inbal was born in Israel on kibbutz Yizrael. She was born with a rare blood disorder causing her too be paralyzed in her lower limbs. At the age of 5 she started swimming and at the age of 12 was already a competitive swimmer. Inbal took part in both the 2004 and 2008 summer Paralympics for swimming. She scored a silver medal on the opening day in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. Inbal set a new record for Israel with her amazing speed! The Israel Paralympics committee named her their sportswoman of 2013 after winning the international Paralympics  world champions in Montreal! Inbal is truly an inspiration for all, teaching everyone to stay motivated and continue to try when things are tough!

heres the link to the news paper

http://www.haaretz.com/news/independence-day

Yom HaZicaron and Yom Ha Atzmauot

Sunday May 4 2014 - Tuesday May 6 2014

This past week I had the opportunity to experience 2 holidays very significant to Israeli culture, Yom HaZicaron: Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and Yom Ha Atzmauot: Israel Independence Day.                                                

      Memorial Day began on Sunday night where all of EIE went to the Kotle to watch the national ceremony with speeches given by the president of Israel and parents of soldiers who passed away. The area was crowded with people and a community supporting one and other. It was so amazing to see how a whole country comes together and supports one another. This memorial day is much more somber than Holocaust Remembrance Day because every person who lives in Israel knows someone or knows of someone who has died in Israel’s battles whether it was 66 years ago or very recently. The following day a very mellow mood went through Tzuba. The chardar ochel was quieter. People respected one and other.  We participated inTzuba’s ceremony which took place at the cemetery onTzuba. Although I could not understand what the speakers were saying, it was so amazing to see a whole community there. Even soldiers in the army, who are not members of the Kibbutz, came because a member of kibbutz Tzuba had passed away and they were together in the same unit of the army, so they came to support the families. The day went on with the same mood. But…. suddenly dinner hit and it’s like everyone was a new person! For dinner we had a delicious BBQ followed buy a celebration with the Kibbutz with dancing and singing celebrating life and the country of Israel! In the evening we all got dressed up and went to BenYehudah which was crowded with people! People were dancing, shopping, and spraying each other with silly string! It was so amazing to watch a country go from sadness and mourning, and to change so quickly to celebration! I never really understood what it meant to show “country pride”. I feel like Israel is the only country to do it in the right way. Having the two very opposite days in a row is what makes Israel the best country in the world! It teaches us to appreciate how amazing this country truly is and it’s because of these people who fought in battle that we still have Israel! Yes we mourn their lives but we also celebrate their lives and thank them for everything they did to allow Israel to be 66 years old!  

At 2:00 Am we got back to Tzuba after an amazing night of dancing and celebrating! On Tuesday we continued celebrating Israels Birthday by having a beach BBQ! Wealso participating in an EIE maccabia games! We were all divided into four teams Pink, Green, Yellow, and White we were all given really nice jersey t-shirts according to ourcolour that say “NFTY EIE ask me I was there” on them! I along with three others were chosen spisificly by themadreihem to be a maccabia caption! W-H-I-T-E WHITE TEAM WHITE TEAM VICTORY! We had a tough day of weal barrel races, sand mermaid, and tug away! Drum roll please….The white team came in ……DEAD LAST!!! Oh well we still had tons of fun! After a BBQ lunch, a fun competition, and some swimming we packed up and headed back to Tzuba for a Pizza party dinner to end of Israel Independence day!

Coby Oze

Wednesday April 30, 2014

Last night EIE and the URJ board had the opportunity to see a private concert by Coby Oze. Coby Oze used to be in a very famous Israeli band called Tpacs. In 2008 Tpacs separated, but Coby still preforms on his own! Coby’s music’s allowed me to experience real Israeli culture and jam out to classic Israeli tunes with my friends. As Coby preformed, the lyrics were up on the screen behind him in both Hebrew and English. We were able to follow along and understand what his songs were about. I found it very interesting that almost all of his songs talked about God, Judaism, Israel, or politics. I was surprise that even these popular songs that play on the radio all deal with big issues. This is very opposite from songs on the radio at home which typically talk about relationships, parties and love.Pop singers don’t deal with religious or political issues because they may offend people and therefore the artist could lose fans. For Israeli artist that’s not the same problem. I find it funny how for me it is in temple where we sing songs about God and religion but in Israel the pop songs deal with religious issues.