We’re going to get right into it today.

Here is our Top 5 of the Day:

1. Triangles, squares, circles - ahhhh, we don’t understand! Today in Israel Seminar we continued our “Dialogue Efforts” theme and had to prioritize the possible identities of Israel. Each shape represented a different identity (a Jewish state, a state of Jews, or a state for all its citizens) and each size represented its importance. Impossible activity.

2. Molly finally got her passport back from our friendly travel agent, Eva Goldberg (no relation), complete with a visa to Belarus. Which means…

3. Molly could finally cash that check she’s been holding on to for weeks. MONEY!

4. River Noodle Bar. It’s like walking into America.

5. Any day with Sasha, an SO (that stands for significant other, in case you forgot) of RRC, is a great day! Let it be noted that Sasha called Bess and still refuses to even take Molly’s phone number. He’ll never let that first impression go…

Spaghettis at Mamilla Mall was all abuzz with FSU Pesach Project supporters!

Here is our Top 5 List of Celebrity Sightings:

1. The entire HUC-JIR Cantorial Class!

2. Dave Mendelsson was spotted there in the early hours, enjoying a bowl of Muesli.

3. A table full of Kol HaNeshama members, including Terry, Terry’s daughter, and Terry’s daughter’s friend.

4. Fantastic Rhea Hirsch Education classmates who ate at Spaghettis not once, but twice!

5. Abraham Joshua Heschel, waiting for Michael Marmur, with a rose tucked in the manuscript of his soon-to-be-published posthumous book, Man in Search of Spaghetti.

Bonus Sightings:
-Bess AND Tess
-Danny Schiff and family were seen walking towards Spaghettis, and we have complete faith that he was, in fact, on his way to support the FSU Pesach Project.

Special shout-out to Marc Rosenstein, who, we are almost positive, was there in spirit.

Thank you to Noa (KH member and manager of Spaghettis) for generously supporting the FSU Pesach Project, and a big thank you to Amanda and Rachel for organizing this event!

It’s been a busy semester, but Molly was finally able to get back to her Jerusalem Synagogue Adventures this Shabbat. For Kabbalat Shabbat services, Molly attended Mevakshei Derech, a community that recently joined the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism.

Here is Molly’s Top 5 of Her Visit to Mevakshei Derech:

1. This wasn’t actually the first time I tried to attend services there. The first time I went, they had just changed their service time to an hour earlier, so I missed services. This time I had confirmed that services would start at 5:30 pm. I arrived at 5:25 pm and the place was completely shut down - no lights, doors locked, no one there. So I walk around the corner just to check things out. When I return no more than 3 minutes later, the synagogue is up and running - lights are on, doors are unlocked with a welcoming committee standing by. An impressively quick turn around.

2. This community chooses not to have a rabbi. Their Executive Director/Cantor Iris Beth Weiner, leads services. She sits in the congregation for Kabbalat Shabbat, and then stands up for Ma’ariv.

3. This was an atypical Reform congregation in that their biggest crowd is for Saturday morning services. Upon arrival, there were about four other people there, and by the end we had a minyan. Cantor Weiner reassured us that Shabbat Shacharit is definitely the service to come to.

4. Our good friend and summer intern, Chaim Shalom was there! Apparently Mevakshei Derech is where Chaim does his student internship.

5. After Kabbalat Shabbat and before Ma’ariv, the Cantor started a friendly discussion of the weekly Torah portion, which soon became a hot debate among the Cantor, Chaim, and the man sitting behind us.

For Israel Seminar this week we met with three people to hear their perspective on some of the contemporary issues concerning the Arab-Israel conflict.

Here is Molly’s Top 5 of the day:

1. Aryeh King (Yes, his name is ‘Lion King’) is a soft-spoken guy (at least by Israeli standards) and we met with him outside in a courtyard of the City of David, so it was difficult to hear a lot of what he was saying. That being said, it was hard to miss his comment that he thinks there should be an end to democracy, a return to kingship and a rebuilding of the Temple.

2. Our second speaker, Orly Nir, works for Ir-Amim and took us to Sheikh Jarrah to talk about Jewish settlement activity in East Jerusalem.

3. Yossi Klein Halevi was our third speaker and he was amazing. Probably one of our best speakers of the year. He represented the “far-center” which he believes is the majority position in Israel. You can check out Yossi’s articles at: http://labs.daylife.com/journalist/yossi_klein_halevi

4. When asked about Diaspora-Israel relations, Yossi articulated exactly what I’ve been feeling and haven’t been able to express, which is that American Jewry is missing the maturation that has already happened in Israeli society, which is a multi-dimensional relationship with Israel and the conflict. Challenge accepted.

5. Yossi Klein Halevi’s personal HUC tour given by yours truly. It was probably about as informative as Jon’s guided tour during the summer.

Who knew Molly had family living in Israel that she’d never met!? Okay fine, we all did. But the big news is that Molly finally got around to meeting them. Molly traveled up to Netanya to spend Shabbat with her cousins, the Bilders.

Here is Molly’s Top 5 List of Newly Discovered Cousins:

1. Hana - Hana’s mother’s name was Molly (named after the same shared relative I was named after) so we obviously got along well. We spent most of the day sharing stories about my grandma, Aunt Shirley, Uncle Sid, and Sugar Ray Robinson.

2. Itzak - Itzak is Hana’s husband and works for Ford/Mazda (same company here in Israel). He’s a quiet guy, but very sweet, and he liked me because I played soccer. We basically spent the weekend watching Israeli soccer games together.

3. Aviram & Noi - Aviram is Hana & Itzak’s son and lives with his girlfriend, Noi. They took me out to Max Brenner with some friends for a yummy Shabbos chocolate snack.

4. Hanit & Shimon - Hanit is Hana & Itzak’s daughter and is married to Shimon. They live right outside of Tel Aviv in a little neighborhood with lots of animals. To be honest, I don’t really understand how the place works. All I know is I saw more than 10 peacocks walking around like they own the place. Basically my worst nightmare.

5. Leah - As it turns out, Leah and I have a lot in common. We both like candy, singing, arts & crafts, and watching Dora on channel 77. So what if she’s 4 years old? I am many things, but I am no ageist.

Day Two of HUC’s Mid-year Colloquium:

The title sums it up.  We spent the hours between 8:30 AM this morning until 3:30 PM this afternoon being immersed in Heschel’s life and works.  Instead of delving into his plethora of written works we’ll just give you some tasty tidbits about his life.

Top Five Fun Facts About Abraham Joshua Heschel (courtesy of Michael Marmur)

1. He lived in five different cities in his lifetime: Warsaw, Vilna, Berlin, Cincinnati, and New York (He was brought to the US in 1937 by our very own institution of high learning - The Hebrew Union College)

2. He wrote in five different languages: Yiddish, Hebrew, German, English and Heschelish

3. He was raised in a prominent Hasidic family and despite pursuing a secular education he managed to achieve the unachievable by not being ostracized from his Hasidic community.

4. When asked how he identified himself Jewishly he replied, “I do not regard myself as a noun in search of an adjective”. ZING!

5. His American street cred was increased because of his close friendship with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (King is rumored to have carried Heschel’s The Prophets with him.  Further, they both referred to the other as a modern day prophet - BFFLs!)

No one ever said rabbis are good at math (although we know one future rabbi that loves a good logic puzzle). Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback and Sara Lee put together a fabulous three-day program entitled, “Visions for Jewish Life in the 21st Century: Perspectives and Issues” and today’s session was on a Reform vision for Jewish life.

Here is our Top 5 of the first day:

1. The 1999 Pittsburgh Principles for Reform Judaism. ooh, ahh…it sounds so official. Rabbi Daniel Schiff started out the day with an analysis of the 1999 Pittsburgh Principles, which he was positive we were all familiar with. Obviously we keep a copy posted on the living room wall of our apartment.

2. O.M.G. - have you ever actually read the 1999 Pittsburgh Principles?! Here is just a sampling of the so-called principles of Reform Judaism: “We affirm the unique qualities of living in Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, and encourage aliyah, immigration to Israel.”…we do?

3. If we are making statements that we know to be untrue, it begs the question, are we serious about these aspirations? If we aren’t, why write them down, and if we are, we need to take them much more seriously. Rabbi Schiff relayed a story about how when Franz Rosenzweig was asked if he wears tefillin, his answer was, “not yet.” Rabbi Schiff asked if we are appropriately spending our time writing the platforms and principles of Reform Judaism instead of spending our time living and being Jewish. We do believe, here on Moshe Hess, that there is value in creating a vision and renewing that vision to define each generation as new leadership develops.

4. After pointing out all of the discrepancies of this masterpiece document (we still love you, Richard Levy) we were then challenged to identify three of the principles that we would be willing to affirm as personal Jewish commitments, and flesh out how we would make those principles a reality in our future congregations and/or Jewish Day Schools. This is more challenging than it sounds.

5. At the beginning of the session, 1 out of 5 people in Molly’s small group were open to sending their future children to a Jewish Day School. At the end of the session, after developing the perfect Reform Jewish Day School, 5 out of 5 people were excited about the possibility of sending their future children to a Jewish Day School (still making no promises though). Sneak peek - our ideal Reform Jewish Day School will be part of an interfaith campus with a vegetarian cafeteria.

For the truly bored, you can check out the YII Midyear Colloquium blog (Yoshi loves blogs more than we do).

So, funny story.  Remember that time that we put three months of hard work into getting the student discount on our Jerusalem property tax?  Well, apparently our hard work only ended up helping our landlord’s mother.  Somehow in the mix up we paid Hanna’s taxes instead of our own…we know, we were surprised too.

The point is, because of all of this and needing to pay the 2010 tax (and fix the 2009 before getting an ‘Execution Order’), we were blessed with another day at the Jerusalem Municipality.   We apologize in advance for forgetting a camera on this memorable day…On to the Top 5!

1. Finding the ‘archives’ where our 2009 paperwork is allegedly being stored.  Don’t worry, they were easy to find as they were stuffed in cardboard boxes stacked three high and ten wide against a wall.

2.  We learned that for 44 shekels you can officially declare something (new vocab word: התציר means declaration) - in this case we had to declare that we were students and reiterate the fact that despite being American Jewish girls that no, we are not supported by our parents. Also, this office uses the advanced filing system called “throw all papers together into a cabinet”.

3. Waiting for our number (G70) to be called.  When we walked in they were only on G30.  Contrary to popular belief numbers do not need to be called in order and in fact can be called in reverse order for a few moments as well as having the numbers disappear all together on the screens informing you of the progress (or lack there of).  Also, someone with less time and a better number had to leave so lucky for your favorite girls of Moshe Hess moved up to G55.  FYI: This waiting process only took 90 minutes.

4. Being lucky to encounter 3+ Israelis working at the municipality that helped make this process possible and trying to hold it together when we were told that we successfully received the discount!

5. Because nothing can go completely smoothly (clearly) we were told that we had to pay the tax for the entire 2010 year instead of for the six months that we will be in the apartment this year.  You’re welcome Allie and Sarah

Process from start to finish: 4.5 hours

In this week’s Israel Seminar, we studied the rise of the Third Sector in Israel and the decline of the centralized welfare state, specifically looking at social justice and environmental issues and the role of NGOs in effecting policy in Israel.

Here is our top 5 of the day:

1. Our first guest speaker, Naomi Schahter, from Shatil, spoke about the place of the Third Sector in the weakened welfare state and specifically about the organization she works for, Shatil, which is the New Israel’s Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel.

2. For the second part of the day, we split up into two groups. We know everyone will be shocked to hear that Molly chose the group that discussed environmental issues and lobby work in Israel. This group met with Dr. Alon Tal of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Dr. Alon Tal is also a political activist and a leader of the Meimad/Green Party in Israel. Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHICEBGWrcE for a video introduction of Alon Tal.

3. Dr. Alon Tal solved the great mystery of what to do with our aluminum cans in this country…and no, the answer is not to throw them away.

4. While Molly was learning about the Green Party, Bess was learning about how the NGO BeMa’agalai Tsedek (Circles of Justice) works on issues such as disability and poverty in Israel.

5. The highlight of Bess’s group was when they took turns trying to navigate Emek Refaim (a popular street full of shops and restaurants) in wheelchairs. There were many obstacles such as cobblestone streets which sometimes had holes, but the most difficult obstacle turned out to be all the cars that park on the sidewalk - another charming feature of life in Jerusalem!

While Bess was in Amirim this Shabbat, Molly spent the weekend recovering from Encounter with some nice rest and relaxation.

Here is Molly’s Top 5 of this Shabbat:

1. There is nothing like a bike ride around Jerusalem on a beautiful Shabbat morning. I rode up to Gilo, the neighborhood I lived in during EIE. Maybe next time I’ll stop by the Ben-Gigi residence to say hello….

2. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I watched a decent amount of 24.

3. Cleaning the apartment gave me a great opportunity to catch up on my podcasts.

4. Started Harry Potter 7 - the end is finally near!

5. No homework = best. decision. ever.