December 2009
36 posts
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Molly Goes to America
Molly is happy to be back in America, and here is her Top 5 of her first day back in Seattle:
1. Going to Starbucks with Erin and running into Megan along the way
2. Spending way too long shopping…at a mall…(I know)
3. Orange Julius - oh yes, I’m not ashamed
4. Home-made dinner with the family
5. Pre-gaming for the Sound of Music Sing-Along by watching the Sound of Music...
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“Just Bess on Moshe Hess…it’s not the same. Wait until post-winter...”
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Desperate Plea - Please Donate to the FSU Pesach...
Sorry to go all Ira Glass on you, but we need to raise $5000 for the FSU Pesach Project, and right now we only have $1,282. Yikes!
Here are the Top 5 Reasons You Should Donate to the FSU Pesach Project NOW!:
1. You can get in your last minute Tax Deductible Donation for 2009!
2. If you work for a large corporation that does “gift matching” (like Microsoft), HUC-JIR is a 501-c3 and...
“one semester down, eleven more to go…”
“Welcome to Jerusalem, Mama Wohlner and Nate!”
Kibbutz Gezer
Bess went to Kibbutz Gezer to hang out with prisoners…you should ask her about it.
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Interfaith Seminar
Just in case we missed Israel Seminar, this Wednesday we had an Interfaith Seminar that was technically not part of Israel Seminar, but was shockingly similar in structure.
Here’s our Top 5 of the Interfaith Seminar:
1. Meeting with Archbishop Aris Shirvanian, of the Armenian Patriarchate. Love the purple hat.
2. The security guard that tried to throw Molly out of the Armenian...
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Guest Blogger Jeremy Leigh on Israeli Films
Guest blogger, Jeremy Leigh, has been working on his top six Israeli films for at least a month. We wanted to explain the difference between Top Five Lists and Top Six Lists, but he’s a professor at HUC, so we figure he knows best…
Here is Jeremy Leigh’s Top Six List of Israeli Films:
1. אביבה אהובתי / Aviva Ahuvati (2007)
The ultimate ‘centre / periphery’...
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HUC-JIR Newsletter Fame →
Our video of Rabbi David Ellenson, speaking about the FSU Pesach Project, is the first item of business in this week’s HUC newsletter. A few more months of this kind of fame and we think Wikipedia will be begging to take us back.
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Last Israel Seminar Day of the Semester!
This week’s topic: Recent Immigration Waves from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. How topical considering our recent discomfort with the Mevasseret Absorption Center.
Here’s our Top 5 of the Day:
1. Our first guest speaker, Professor Steven Kaplan, from the Department of African Studies and Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University. Steven spoke about “the Immigration of...
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Surviving the Streets of Jerusalem with Vocab
Thanks to our rigorous Hebrew studies, we are well equipped with the necessary vocabulary, should we stumble upon a Godfather-esque situation here in Jerusalem.
Here are our Top 5 Vocab Words We Need to Know for our Test Tomorrow:
1. Stabbing (דקירה)
2. BIG fire (שרפה)
3. Corpse (גופה)
4. To be murdered (להירצח)
5. Prisoner (אסיר)
Apparently that’s what happens when our vocab list is...
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR CLASSMATE MARC KASTEN!!!”
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Sipur Hatzi-Russi →
Movie Day at HUC-JIR! Today we watched “Sipur Hatzi-Russi”, a story about a family in Ashdod; the mother is a Russian immigrant, the father is Israeli, and their son, Chen, is stuck in the middle (and also starts ballroom dancing).
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Molly Gives Her D'var Torah on Parshat Vayeshev →
A momentous day indeed - Molly delivered her D’var Torah at the student-led service.
Top 5 Highlights by Molly:
1. I had an amazing D’var Torah advisor, Rabbi Elyse Goldstein. Being able to study Torah with her was a very special opportunity that I am most grateful for.
2. I also got to spend some quality time with Gingy, searching through stacks of rabbinic texts.
3. My roommate...
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The F Word Cometh, Again. →
Rabbi Elyse Goldstein hosted a special women’s only learning session that Molly attended. It was a great evening filled with interesting discussions, but we’ll leave the details to our classmate, Jodie Gordon, who organized the event and is a much better writer.
(via jodiesays)
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“Happy Birthday to our fellow classmate, Jonah Zinn!”
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Amirim minus Jerusalem plus Food and Movies equals...
Molly and Dave spent a majority of their weekend in Amirim eating and watching movies. Here is Molly’s Top 5 of the Weekend:
1. Having a car - I forgot how much I love driving
2. Eating yummy food at all the vegetarian restaurants (and by restaurants, I really mean people’s backyards/living rooms). Highlights included whole wheat pizza and Dalia’s breakfast.
3. Best Meal -...
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"Qua?" Moment of the Day
A Story of Molly’s First Driving Experience in Israel.
Molly and Dave were heading out of Jerusalem for the weekend and needed to get on Route 1 going north. No problem, right? Except, oh wait…this is Israel and there are TWO route 1’s! That obviously makes sense.
Luckily Molly and Dave had their special GPS, “Yoni Regev”, on speed dial to help sort out that...
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As Seen in Meah Shearim
Everyone should know by now that Wednesday is the famous Israel Seminar day! This week’s session was about Haredim and the Shas, complete with a visit to Meah Shearim.
Here’s our Top 5 of Meah Shearim:
1. Having our first latke of the Hanukkah season
2. NEW fun fact (for us): Did you know that the Haredim have “kosher” cell phones? They can’t receive/send text...
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Cats for Gold →
We think we’ve uncovered the truth about why there are so many cats in Jerusalem. Don’t believe those stories about needing to import cats to take care of a rat problem. Once upon a time, Jerusalem was a city made of gold (they don’t call it “Jerusalem of Gold” for nothing) and some genius fell for the marketing scheme known as “Cats for Gold”.
Consider...