Day 7 - Lehava - Jacob

Today was the 6th day since we arrived in the Homeland of the Jewish people. Today I woke up with excitement and anticipation. We started off the morning packing our suitcases and cleaning our rooms while saying a very sad goodbye to the amazing Hotel Ramada in Jerusalem.

We got all of our bags and brought them downstairs for them to be packed away in the bus where we were heading to a new location to stay for the next 6 nights.

We headed onto the bus with excitement about the places that Lehava was visiting today. The excitement got us all thinking about what we are seeing today, what is it going to be like and how is it going to make us feel. We arrived at the beautiful place of Cesearea. We learned about the history of how the Jewish people lived in a Roman enclave within Israel. We learnt about the importance of these significant places as we connected to them deeply through learning the history that took place hundreds and thousands of years ago. For example when our guide Bloomy was speaking to us he taught us the history that went on at the theatre. One thing that stuck with me was the important individuals who portrayed absolute resilience in the face of death. When faced with utter despair, they continued to preach what they believe, all stating that HaShem is the one true G-D. This was so deep and meaningful and it resonated within me deeply. I hope to show similar strength and assurance to my own beliefs throughout life and learning about them has allowed me to try and work on that.

Then we went on a bus heading to Atilt. Atilt was a refugee destination camp prior to Israeli independence, the purpose of which was to contain illegal immigrants arriving in Israel. We were taken onto a replica boat of what the immigrants had to endure. We were sitting in the boat and we were waiting for the director of the camp to start talking. We starting complaining about the heat, and the director said something that won’t ever leave me, “This is a small portion of what these poor immigrants had to go through.” This was truly hard for me and I immediately had an epiphany about what truly these poor innocent individuals had to go through. This made me have a much deeper connection and understanding with the Jewish people.

We discovered how the people who escaped the Holocaust and moved to Israel were treated horribly and put into cattle cars again not knowing if it was going to be their last day. This moment of realisation really hit me hard and I understood my role. Not letting other generations forget these tragedies, and remembering the people that sadly passed during this time.

We left Atlit, and headed to the markets and the people and the food was amazing and the Homeland of the Jewish people is something truly to be cherished.

Overall this day was one to be remembered and the lessons learned will never leave me. IST has truly been a life changing experience so far, and I’m so excited to create many more memories in the weeks ahead.

Jacob Weinberg