Kitat Arava EIE Fall 15 כיתת ערבה סתיו תשע"ו

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Monday, December 28, 2015

What we want to do from what we gained on EIE

On our final tiyul up in the Golan, we spent an evening reflecting and discussing. We each shared fun memories for our tiyulim, and shared our ideas on how to use the knowledge that EIE gave us.

As a class we hope to keep up with current events, continue with Hebrew, teach others, and keep up with Jewish holidays.

Rachael hopes to work on her writing and Facetime everyone to check in with everyone
Max wants to keep in touch and even use the Facebook
Seth wants to try things that he didn't know he wanted to do until EIE
Scott is going to try to find different things to do with the knowledge, he isn't quite sure what
Marina is going to get involved with her Temple Youth Group and try to light the Sabbath candles
Sarah cant wait to be a camp counselor and wants to keep up with debating on issues she feels strongly about
Ben also wants to continue the debating and work on defending Israel
Lexi is planning on making Aliyah but also wants to teach children about Israel
Zoe is going to teach as well as write Dvars for her community
Jacob is going to continue with his music, and maybe staff Israel trips in the future
Lana is going to do more Nfty and be more at her temple
Leah also wants to go to temple more, as well as observe holidays
Celia wants to explore the different range of views
Daniella hopes to become more comfortable in different synagogues and teach at her own
Lissie wants to work on social issues and advocacy and work hard to follow what she believes in
Noah wants to continue questioning and look into Chabad

We all have goals for ourselves and we all hope to help each other achieve them and share them.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A Thought In The Shape Of A Story

I really enjoyed this story. I enjoyed this story because it relates to our lives in America. Society thinks that we should only have certain thoughts when in reality its impossible to control ones thoughts and we think whatever we want to think. I would definitely recommend this story to anyone who likes a really good quick read.
I think the author is trying to put the message across that everyone was the right to think and be whatever they want and it doesn't matter what society thinks because in the end it comes down to your own happiness and if you are satisfiyed with the life you created for yourself. I Think that this story reflects contemporary Israeli society in a non-direct way. I think that Israeli society today is ver open to whatever and whoever but there are limits as to how far that will go.
I can view this story as Jewish literature because in Judaism we are so welcoming to all types of people and whatever they view life as, but in this story these people view life as the complete opposite. They don't think that people have the right to think thoughts of what they want in whatever shape they want.

-Zoe Coelho

Kneller's Happy Campers

Edgar Keret

This story is another afterlife story, where each person goes to different places depending on how they die. Mordy, who killed himself, essentially lives an everyday life just as it was before he killed himself. He met Kurt Cobain, found out that there are small miracles that happen all the time in that world, and helped an undercover agent bust a cult ring who believed one of their leaders was Jesus. All of this was unintentional because all he was trying to do was find his girlfriend named Desiree who killed herself to meet with fake Jesus. Along the way he meets a suicide bomber, a girl name Lihi who ODed and wants to find a way to appeal her place in the afterlife, and an Eskimo who starts dating his roommate.

Overall it is a very interesting story. I personally love short stories like these, which force your brain to take in new ideas. It shows how not only is there an afterlife, but each person goes to an afterlife depending on the way you die. This story shows the danger of suicide in a not very noticeable way, by talking about the affects your death can have on someone close to you, and also by talking about how much the afterlife for people who kill themselves is a shithole.

Friday, December 18, 2015

PIPES benjamin walton Etgar Keret assignment

Pipes
Etgar Keret
This chapter is about a boy who sees the world different from us and suffers from us ostracizing him from society. We begin the story with him in his counselor's office. The counselor runs an exercise where he puts a bunch of cards in front of him and ask him whats wrong. The boy can not tell right from wrong. The counselor points out that the person in the picture has no ears. The boy doesnt see whats wrong instead he sees another boy who just wants to fit into society like the rest of us. Years progress and he begins a job of building pipes and rolling marbles down them. One day he comes upon a pipe that acts as a black hole where no marbles come out the other side. Intrigued and wanting to escape humanity he tries to build a pipe big enough for him to go into. The day comes when such a pipe is made. He goes deeper and deeper until he sees the light of heaven. He talks with the angels and they tell him heaven isn't for people who only do good deeds, instead its a place to come to when your life doesn't treat you well. G-d wants life to be great and people who dont get the best experience get to try again in the hope that it will be better.

I think this is a beautiful story because it shows how as humans live to love each other and ourselves and only by that can we find true happiness. Life isn't about progress and how far we go. Millions of years can equal a single minute because of how meaningful it is. A first kiss, A baby breathing its first breath, An act of hard work paying off in the end, It's things that make you happy that define your meaning of life. Meaning of life is only defined by the person themselves. Next time you ask ”why does anything ever matter?” It doesn't. Unless you mean it to.

Etgar Keret: One Last Story and That's It

This story is about a demon that job is to take talents away from people. The demon gets to the house of a man, and the man does not give much hassle, and says thank you for the talent given to him and offers snacks and lemonade. He then ask if he could have one last story, and the demon says sure. As the man is taking his one last story, the demon realizes how kind and nurturing this man is, and finally gets the one last story, which was quite the moving story. The man then ask " what do you do with all the talent you take?" and the demon responds with a simple I don't know. After that the demon takes his talent, and complains about the 2 more people he must take talents from.
I think the author wants to share how hard it is to recognize all the talent one has, and how peoples talents go to waste easily. Relating to Israel, I feel as if a lot of movements and people get covered up by the overwhelming effects of the pure idea that they a the correct Jew and everyone else isn't. I also find it wrong that a Jewish state, is willing to oppress people, and not find them a home and comfort, because every one has their own struggles. I personally connected most with the part of the story when the man ask where does the talent go, and the demon doesn't know. I personally believe that if everyone in our world had equal opportunity, then we would have accomplished so much more in every way. There could be a kid destined to be a painter, but never has a chance too because his school doesn't have a art program, or another kid be find cures for horrible diseases, but cant afford to go to school and works multiple jobs just to eat. Many children hear the words " You can not do that because...". As a female, I have been told that I couldn't be smart or strong. I consider myself filled with a passion for knowledge, and strong enough to be able to work through obstacles. I think as a people we should build each other up, not down, and we can accomplish so much more. It is so hard to build each other up with the challenge over who's oppression is worst than the others. Well, I think my struggles of being a Jewish female teen are not any more important than a struggle of a black adult or child with a disability. I stand up for people, not any particular race, gender, religion, sex, or characteristic. We are people with Talents. We all want to tell one last story, and should embrace oppression with snacks and lemonade, not with a competition.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Katzenstein: Etgar Keret Assignment

In this short story called “Katzenstein”, Etgar Keret writes about a man that had always been compared to a person named Katzenstein ever since high school. The protagonist had been constantly compared to Katzenstein in high school by his mother who would put him down if he didn’t do as well as Katzenstein had done in a class. The main character had always felt Katzenstein’s shadow in his yard, at work, and everywhere he went. Years later, the man gets frustrated with his constant comparisons and decides to move away with his wife and son. The protagonist realizes that he happened to be on the same flight as Katzenstein while leaving Basel, except Katzenstein was in first class and had done better than him again. The man leaves his seat and is told to go back to his seat by the flight attendant just like everyone else on the plane but he knew that it included Katzenstein. The protagonist opens the emergency door while in the air, commits suicide, and finds himself in Hell. In the afterlife, he sees that the plane he was on had crashed and realizes that if he had gone back to his seat, like Katzenstein, the end result would have been the same.

I connected with this story because especially in modern times, people are either comparing people to others or are being compared to others. Wondering what other people think of us is something that goes through all of our minds at some point in our lives. Making judgements on others is something that we are all guilty of and I recommend this story because I feel that many people can relate to the main character and his fear of being judged or compared to others by the rest of society.

I can relate this story to the current conflict with Arabs and Palestinians because of the judgements and comparisons that Israelis have on Palestinians and Arabs and vice versa. I think that Etgar Keret is trying to say that nothing will change if there aren’t any efforts to try to change anything. Relations will stay the same if people run away or avoid the conflicts that they face.