Day 32 - Y2i and Cinema City (Netzach)

We started off the day by waking up at 7:15, which has become the average wake up time during the past 5 weeks. There was a wedding last night so for some, they would say the wake up was rather early.

We boarded our busses after a delicious breakfast at our new hotel, Ma'ale Ha'chamisha. One of the nicest hotels we will come across on our trip. After about a 45 minute bus ride we arrive at our destination, ready for the Y2i community day. I was a bit apprehensive for this day as I knew we would be meeting lots of new people which can be intimidating, but I was excited to see Lehava and people I already knew from both Chavaya and BJE. I looked around the room and at that moment I realised how lucky I am to have this opportunity to be in Israel, our homeland with many other children the same age and religion as me coming from all over Sydney and some Melbourne. I realised that we are extremely lucky to be able to live this experience along side our peers in an extremely different environment to the classroom, and the reason this was possible for many, was because of the extremely generous donations made by y2i, the same organisation that had organised this day in order for us to meet other people like ourselves. 

We all entered the auditorium for an introduction of the day which included two speakers from each group, BJE, IST and Chavaya. This gave us a debrief of what is to come during the day, and we got an insight in what the other groups have been up to, which could later be used as a good conversation starter.  During the bus ride, sheets of paper were passed around for you to sign up for two activities of choice. You would do these during the day with the other kids from the different programs that signed up for the same activities as you. The options were: juggling, drums, improv, henna, graffiti, ODT (outdoor training), and folk dancing. This was a good opportunity to meet people you haven't already and it made it easier to interact as you were split up in more intimate groups based on similar interests. At the end of the day, we all went back into the auditorium and a band performed for us. Most people from the audience got up and danced their way to the front of the room. It was really nice to see everyone mix together and put aside their differences. Despite the fact that many had only met a few hours before, everyone danced to the band together as if we had known eachother for a long time. This really opened my eyes and made me realise a deeper meaning to what is happening in front of my eyes. It showed me that no matter where you come from, who your friends are, where you are in the world, Jews are able to come together which for me, was really special as only a few weeks before this day, I was standing in the exact place in which this disastrous, barbaric occurrence happened in Poland. And today us privileged Moriah and Masada kids, who live in a world where everything is handed to us and at our fingertips, are standing in this room united together.  

We ended off the day by saying our goodbyes and departed to cinema city with all of IST to watch J.K. Rowling's new movie 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'.

Today really made me think about how hard our parents have to work to pay for not only this trip but for our lives and thanks to y2i, they made the trip a lot easier for us to be here.

Ella