The Movement for Reform Judaism

The shnatties are currently on the final part of their programme. The group is divided between Karmiel where they are living in a flat and teaching English at a High School, Holon and volunteering at MDA (Magen David Adom, the ambulance service) and Haaretz and the desert, where part of the group is part of the way along a hiking path from the South of the country to the North (shvil Israel), which will take them almost three months in total. Below is the report that is written each week by one of the shnatties and sent home to parents and the movements.

Hello to all of you and i hope your enjoying having better weather then us at the moment. We arrived in Karmiel a bit apprehensive as we all didn't know that much about the programme. We turn up in the coach and see our Madrich standing there waiting for us and 'The Boss' Orly 50 metres behind him. We get off and take our stuff off and head towards our new flat. All 12 shnat
b'irnicks were extremely anxious to see what our new flat would look like. To our excitement the flat was lovely. Three floors including a outside floor. There is a tv and video player and a well equipped kitchen.

We settle in for about 10 minutes and then start with our orientation seminar. Doing all the various games and talks about us all so our new madrich can get to know us. This goes on for a for a few hours. Then we go for our first walk around Karmiel towards a place called Beit Gil which is an afternoon club for children with Special needs, which is one of our options for volunteering. Then we go back home with an overly long walk with a failed short cut taking us further away then we wanted. We go back and we carry on with my orientation stuff.

That night we start to settle in, order the pizzas and start on an amazing game of sardines! We then conclude our first night with a film.

The next day we woke up with a huge storm! Several people had woken up during the night. I however didnt wake up at all. This wouldnt be the last crazy part of the day. Our madrich Oren turns up 20 minutes late having had a crash so left us for the day. So we embark on a fateful tour of Karmiel with a the director of international relations from the municipality of karmiel. This goes without a hitch. We then return to the house, where we find clothes all over the place and money taken from a burglary which happened in the space of an hour of us not being there. We then continued the day with the police and forensics in the house and having to get our
fingerprints taken. We then met our crazy sex therapist ulpan teacher which lightened the mood.

Then the next day we visited two of the primary schools that we will be volunteering in and then to a leisure centre and an afternoon club with children with special needs. We then rushed home, got our bags and we got on the bus and went to Har Haluz which is the only reform community in then north of israel. where we have been staying with host families and meeting the youth of har haluz!

peace out, yom tov,

josh Dubey Dubell LJY-Netzer

So this week we started Magen David Adom (the Israeli ambulance service) in Bat -Yam (near TelAviv), living in Holon (near bat-yam). O, have netzer got you a flat in Holon? I hear you ask. Well, not exactly. We are living in an old age home! Not just on the site, but actually in it. Our next door neighbours are old people! Its very strange. Whilst on the tour, we suddenly found ourselves in a hospital! But on the plus side, all the staff are very friendly, there are great local shops, and its only a 25NIS cab ride from where we are volunteering.

On to MDA: well its been great. The uniform is possibly the best part of it, along with the slight god complex which comes along with it. We had our induction the day we arrived. The guy was really friendly, and basically made out as if the station is going to bend over backwards for us. They are getting us extra parts of the uniform, giving us chances to go on ICU ambulances with more experienced crews. Bat-yam is the 2^nd busiest station in the country so we were told to expect a lot! The first day we had calls almost non-stop which was great. Then today there were hardly any, but it meant we got to know the station, the ambulance, and all of the other staff a lot better. There's not much else to write about it unless I carry on about our accommodation, which I'm sure you don't want to hear about!

Arieh xoxo

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