Even though the second day of Encounter was technically shorter, it seemed to go on forever! Maybe it was the lack of sleep. The last time Molly felt that tired was at a NFTY event.

Here is Molly’s Top 5 of Day 2 of Encounter:

1. No need to hold back! We started off the day with what Encounter called “The Political Presentation”, which was an overview of current issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with Alex of the PLO’s Negotiation Support Unit. I think Kelly put it best when she said, “I never thought I’d be sitting in a room having a conversation with someone who works for the Palestinian Liberation Organization.” This was actually my favorite presentation, and I found it to be extremely interesting and informational. Alex knows his stuff and he was very articulate. The only unfortunate thing was how many questions didn’t get answered because we ran out of time. I would encourage everyone to go to the PLO Negotiation Support Unit website to check out the maps and fact sheets.

2. After meeting with Alex, we went to lunch at Ochegrap Park, which I believe used to be an Israeli army base that was turned into a national park with a center that works to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict.

3. While at Ochegrap Park, we listened to a panel of male non-violent activists. This was also very moving and similar to the women’s panel in that they all have personal tragedies that could easily have led them towards a violent reaction.

Ali Abu Awwad works with the Bereaved Families Forum, which brings together Israeli and Palestinian families that lost someone due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While he told us about the horrible story of his brother being killed, he also shared a story about when he saw an Israeli soldier cry at a check-point. Ali was the first person during the entire trip that really acknowledged that there is suffering and pain on both sides.

Issa Amro works with B’tselem, and shared his story about how he started using a video camera for his own protection, which eventually led to his involvement with B’tselem.

Sulaiman Khativ works with the People’s Peace Fund, and talked about the time he served in jail for trying to kill an Israeli soldier when he was 14 years old. While serving almost 11 years in prison, organizing hunger strikes, his values and approach to how he would personally deal with the conflict changed, and after being released from prison he got involved with the People’s Peace Fund.

4. On a lighter note - singing a niggun during closing circle back in Jerusalem that was not the Encounter niggun, was a welcome surprise.

5. A beautiful end to an overwhelming two days, was sharing Shabbat dinner with other HUC Encounter participants, Dave, Ally, Bethie, Jason, and Fran.

Professional development sessions just keep getting better and better! Tonight we got to spend one very special hour and a half with Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the URJ.

Here is our Top 5 of the evening:

1. Rabbi Yoffie’s challenge to us to take a moral inventory of ourselves

2. Rabbi Yoffie speaking about creating (not breaking down) community through the internet and blogs!

3. Rabbi Yoffie’s reminder of why supporting Progressive Judaism in Israel is so important (shameless plug: don’t forget to support Molly in the Ride4Reform, the 5-day bike ride to support the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism)

4. Not gonna lie - cheese pizza with onion

5. Rabbi Eric Yoffie tried with all his might to get out of recording a video for the blog, but we’re pretty charming.

A Brand. New. Shower.

You can control the temperature and everything!

It’s a two-fer holiday: Shabbat and Tu B’shvat! This Shabbat we had HUC-JIR services, led by our classmates, followed by a Tu B’shvat Seder.

Here is our Top 5 of the Tu B’shvat Seder:

1. Enough fruit and nuts to constitute an entire meal.

2. But we still had room for Jonah’s amazing peanut sauce noodles.

3. Experiencing the Tu B’shvat Four Cups of Wine. Turns out it does not taste good to combine white and red wine, but we do what we are told.

4. No retelling the Exodus story = less waiting for food.

5. It wasn’t really part of the seder, but our classmate Jodie Gordon’s D’var Torah was absolutely fabulous!

Longest. Best. Israel. Seminar. Day. Ever.

If you ever need to know how to get through a 12-hour day without Dave Mendelsson, just come ask us…we have first hand experience. And we’re not bitter at all.

Here is Molly and Bess’s Top 5 of Israel Seminar Day:

1. Starting off the day at Shorashim with Marc Rosenstein talking about Arab-Jewish relations in the Galilee. We’re hoping to get a shout-out in next week’s 10 Minutes of Torah…what else would he write in his diary?!

2. Meeting with Iman Kadah, a 21-year old religious Muslim woman from the Galilee. Iman has 16 older brothers and sisters (17 babies in 25 years…talk about population growth)

3. Most of our class ate a delicious lunch together prepared by Kamla Musa.  We say most of the class because Molly was exiled to another room with those classmates who chose to bring their own lunches.  In other news, Bess ate her weight in grape leaves.

4. Going to Zippori and seeing where Mary (that lady that gave birth to that nice Jewish boy, Jesus) was born.

5. BLAUPLUNKT

Molly’s highlight of the day was definitely watching Law & Order: Division of Field Investigation (that’s the Russian version of SVU) in Russian with Hebrew subtitles. If we’re going to go to the trouble to learn Hebrew, we might as well collect some information about the Russian justice system while we’re at it…you never know when that will come in handy.

Even though Molly is sick, she didn’t let that stop her from enjoying the beautiful sunshine on this lovely Shabbos day. Here is Molly’s Top 5 of the day:

1. Visiting the Mayer Institute for Islamic Art, which was interesting on the whole, but had two captivating collections (see below).

2. German photographer Helmut R. Schulze’s exhibit, “Afghanistan - Travel’s Beyond the Horizon” was an amazing collection of photographs of the landscape, culture, and people of Afghanistan.

3. The Sir David Salomons Collection of Watches and Clocks - there is no way I can describe how beautiful and unique these watches and clocks were, but you can see a few examples on their website.

4. The second adventure of the day was going to Lev Smadar, a movie theater and coffee shop. Before the movie I frequented Smadar, the coffee shop half for a nice cup of tea.

5. After visiting Smadar, I went to Lev (the movie theatre half), to see “A Serious Man” (or in Hebrew it’s called “A Good Jew”). Let’s just say I was less than impressed with the Coen brothers’ rendition of the Job story.