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Posts Tagged "jewish heritage"
Israelis at HBHA!
March 16, 2023
Hello HBHA family,
This week, we have been honored and excited to welcome 11 Israelis- 9 high school students and 2 chaperones, to our school. This group is from Ramle, our sister city in Israel, and they were generously hosted in the homes of HBHA families during their time here. Next year, our juniors and seniors will be seeing them again during parts of our bi-annual Jewish Heritage Trip to Israel. This has been an amazing opportunity for us to exchange culture and ideas, and for our kids to get to know the people of Israel, not just its history and culture.
We were so proud to be able to share with them how we celebrate Purim, with our whole community in costume, the reading of the Megillah, and our festive Purim Carnival. On Wednesday, our 10th and 11th graders, along with the Israeli group, took a bus to visit all the sites of the old Jewish Kansas City, including former synagogues. It was important for our own students to see the history of the Jewish community in Kansas City, and it was a fascinating way for our Israeli visitors to see pieces of Kansas City as well.
On Thursday, the Israeli group visited many of the current synagogues in Kansas City, seeing the beautiful diversity of Jewish thought and practice in our community, and continued from there to KU Hillel and Chabad. Today, they spent time with our younger students in the classroom, talking about their experience as Israelis and even teaching a short lesson on computer coding.
I am proud of our school. We continue to foster a love of Israel and relationships with the people of Israel. We are pursuers of peace, who fundamentally believe that each person is made “B'tzelem Elohim”- in the Image of God. We are proud Jews, and independent and ethical thinkers, who are capable of hearing complex and divergent opinions and making sense of them. This is core to our mission as a school and our mission as a people.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our partners at the Jewish Federation, whose generous support helps us in so many ways, but whose vision and generosity helped make this Israeli delegation possible. We all leave this week richer people, with new friends and relationships, a deeper understanding of one another, and excitement for our future.
Warmly,
Adam Tilove
First Day in Israel
March 22, 2022
After a very long flight and a late arrival, we finally got to our hotel in Kibbutz Amiad and got a much needed rest. Tuesday morning, we hit the ground running at 7am and headed up to Gadot overlook to see the strategic importance of the Golan Heights to the security of Israel. We also got to daven Shacharit right there, which made it a much better backdrop than our usual Beit Midrash:)
We then continued for a hike in the Banias, where the water is flowing after a very wet winter in Israel. Everything around us is in bloom, and it felt amazing to be outdoors. We then proceeded to Buk’ata, which is a Druze village in the Golan Heights (one of 4 such villages), where we ate the most delicious lunch.
We also spoke with Nusiba, a Druze woman who was a true warrior for women’s rights in the Druze culture. She explained to us what the druze religion is about and what life looks like for the Druze people in the Golan Heights, post 1967. It was both a delicious and interesting experience, and we were so lucky to have Nusiba open her house to us.
After lunch, tea and dessert, we took a Jeep tour around the Golan, off-roading and exploring off-the-track spots, orchards and cows. We once again saw what was left from before 1967, and how the Golan has developed in the past 50 years under Israeli control. The jeep tour was bumpy and fun.
We concluded the day at the BenTal mountain where we learned about the war in Syria, who are the major players and how that affects Israel. We were also able to see how close everything is and why it’s important for Israel to preserve its strategic spot on the Golan. We are all jet-lagged and somewhat tired, so tonight we’ll wrap up with a short evening activity, and welcome the rest of our group to Israel.
Tomorrow is a brand new day and we have much to see and do!