Twice weekly for the duration of IST 2001 Daniel Bennett, CAJE Executive Director will share IST information and commentary with you. Daniel has been to Israel 13 times, led the IST trip three times over the last twenty years, and enjoys sharing his reflections with you. All of his entries will be preserved on this web-link, with the most recent appearing first.

Index to Updates:

Tuesday, July 31

What a great culmination to a wonderful, emotional summer. These final few days included seventeen ISTers becoming B'nai Mitzvah at the Kotel (including two for the first time), a tour of the ancient Kotel Tunnels, and a wonderful final banquet in the Jewish Quarter before visiting the Kotel one last time and heading to Ben Gurion airport. Did I mention the annual IST Talent Show? Perhaps I shouldn't - Israel will never be the same! Suffice it to say that with the comedy acts, a slide show, song and dance numbers and the famous video we bid farewell to Israel with laughter - as well as with tears.

Six weeks ago I shared with you that the day our teenagers began their sojourn in Israel was one of the two most exciting days for me of the entire summer. Tomorrow, with G-d’s help, they will returned safely - my other favorite summer day. On reunification day at DIA – this year August 1st - the parents will all head home with their exuberant, exhausted teenagers whose lives have been changed, forever. August first for CAJE means we have completed the task of introducing Jewish teenagers to their homeland, to their Judaism and to themselves in a brand new way, that we've equipped them with a very important toolbox that will serve them throughout their lives as adults and as Jews. This year, especially, we are proud to have done that.

When we see each tired face emerge from the airport runway, as we witness the hugs the teenagers have both for expectant friends and parents and for each other, as we hear their tales, feel their excitement - we will know that these were souls who had taken a sacred step. (Their bodies, on the other hand, will take each step only with the aide of adrenaline – the teenagers will sleep well tonight, as will we...)

As each ISTer leaves DIA with loving friends and families, each will be returning to a world they left six weeks ago that will never look quite the same again. Most will begin the long reunion schedule of formal and informal post-IST events culminating in the December reunion that will include the Israeli counselors. Most will voluntarily return to Hebrew High, despite demanding senior-year schedules – some will return for the academics, most for the connections. And we will smile and weep with them at their graduation ceremony next Spring because we will know that thanks in part to the journey of IST 2001 the Jewish world will be in loving, confident, and capable hands in the next generation.

CAJE is proud to run the Israel Study Tour, made strong in part because of the committed partnership with the synagogues and the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado. I've very much enjoyed writing to you these last two months, and I hope I've helped you feel closer to the experiences of our teenagers.

Please call us or e-mail me (dbennett@caje-co.org) with questions or feedback, join us in honoring Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ellen Beller at our annual CAJE Dinner on August 26, 2001 at BMH/BJ, and continue to look for ways to access the teenagers’ passion and newfound knowledge and excitement. May your weeks leading up to the Holidays be ones filled with blessings and growth.

B’shalom – with peace and wholeness,

Daniel

Friday, July 27, 2001

Shalom!

Some of the ISTers are simply not ready to come home.  Perhaps this year, even more than in years' past, the group wants more of this magical connection to Israel and to its people.  Teen Israel trips have at their core the mission of connecting young Jews to things of meaning.  We've all seen how young adults struggle if they can not find connection, so CAJE takes that mission very seriously.  We really strive to give them thought-provoking feeling-inducing Jewish experiences that will serve them for their entire lives. And one of the best ways to do that is to expose them to the people of Israel.  While previous IST weeks connect us to the land, the history, the religion, the challenges, this last week especially is about connection with people.

I mentioned to you when I last wrote that Wednesday was Tzedakah Day in Jerusalem.  How moving it was for our teenagers to actually do something to contribute to Israeli society.  Through their experience of helping those in need in Israeli society teenagers build those precious life-long relationships with Israel's people, its society.   Later that afternoon they headed for the Ashdod beach, and a final dip in the Mediterranean.  Be sure to check out the photographs!  Traditions are established quickly on IST, so these teenagers expected to be treated to an Israeli barbecue at Yigal's home in Ashdod - and they were! IST 2001 has now officially experienced the second annual Yigal-Opens-His-Home-To-IST-After-The-Last-Dip-In-The-Ocean barbecue, and the teens loved it.

Thursday included a mifgash, or meeting, with a group of tsofim - Israeli scouts.  The scouting movement in Israel is still quite strong, and the two groups became one for discussions, sharing, and a day of activities that included rock climbing outside Zion Gate!  We proved once again that communication is universal and not impeded by language barriers.

This year we've been cautious about exposing the group to unnecessary risks, so a trip to the ever popular Ben Yehudah Street was replaced by CAJE's first ever IST Merchant Fair at Bayit V'Gan.  Steve Zerobnick brought local merchants to the youth hostel for an evening of shopping.  With tourism so low the merchants were very accommodating and happy to sell their wares.  Those ISTers who budgeted wisely over the last six weeks had enough shekels left for gifts.  Others, who devoted the past six weeks to making sure that they never passed a coke or ice cream stand without checking it out, will bring more modest gifts
to friends and family in Colorado.  Perhaps they all know that the best gift we will all receive will be at DIA next Wednesday when they come back to us…

Due to possible security concerns we modified our annual program, Jerusalem, the Crossroads of Three Religions. We still visited mosques and churches, but some sections of Jerusalem weren't safe enough to visit them all.  Israel will always be a land holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians; I pray that we will learn how to live together.

It's hard to believe that this is the final Shabbat for our now-experienced group.  They will form committees and plan it themselves - the Kabbalat Shabbat, the meal, the worship, the singing and dancing, the program.  Some will rest, and most will probably decide that there's enough time to do that next week.

In Denver this Shabbat my wife and I will host a reunion of CAJE's first annual ICF Trip (In Your Child's Footsteps), a ten-day Spring tour open to parents of former ISTers.  Perhaps some of you will join us next Spring and give yourselves the gift of Israel.  At our reunion tonight we'll relive our memories - as our ISTers will for years to come.  But let's not rush them - they don't have to look back for another five days.

I wish to each and every one of you a wonderful Shabbat filled with blessings.   

Daniel

Tuesday, July 25, 2000

Israel is a land of tremendous contrasts, many of which we've discussed before.  The topography and climate changes quickly and radically, and one can experience military tension and true tranquility almost in the same moment.  And where else in the 21st century do camels still stand next to deisel busses, posing for the camera and oblivious to the humor?  This contrast of ancient with modern is present constantly.  For example, the tourist may view the walls of Jerusalem's old city as a glorious reminder of our links with biblical and ancient history; for the modern Israeli they are also a barrier that adds many minutes to an already beyond-belief-congested rush-hour morning commute.

This week our group stepped squarely into the modern Israel - while always remembering to keep one foot firmly rooted in the ancient past. Such historic events as the 1948 decalaration of Israel's statehood were relived at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, and a visit to a museum of military history helped the teenagers put modern Israel's struggle for survival into context.  It also was a wonderful way for those who chose Gadna for Options Week to get the big picture.  For today's Americans this struggle for survival can often seem abstract; for Israelis it is all too real, and our group now understands that a little better.

Remember bringing in the $2 (or $5, or $10 depending on your age!) to Hebrew School each Tu B’Shevat to plant a tree in Israel? Remember joking that your day to water it is Tuesday?  Well, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) continues its mission of making Israel green, although now it has added the very real problem of trying to solve Israel's chronic water shortage to its sacred mission. By the way, from our Do You Know Department:  it costs more to plant a tree in Israel oneself  than it does to send money to have one planted!  Go figure… The group was lucky to visit the Kennedy Memorial in the Jerusalem Forrest and see the plaque marking the location of the Max and Zelda Frankel Grove.  Yashar Koach, Max!

As you know, about half of the ISTers visited Poland on their way to Israel.  Now in its fourth year, the IST Poland Extension has enabled almost 150 teenagers to connect with the world of Eastern European Jewry that was all but destroyed by Hitler.   Those teenagers who were on CAJE's IST Poland Extension become guides for their fellow ISTers as we visited Yad V'Shem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.  One of the trips most memorable and most difficult days pushed our teenagers to ask the unanswerable questions: What would I have done if I were there?  How could this happen?  Where was G-d and where was humankind?  How do I respond when it happens again and again? Could it happen to my People again?
 
This week will conclude with true tzedakah - volunteer day in Jerusalem, a chance to help the elderly, the poor, those elements of Israeli society often overlooked.  Almost eight decades ago David Ben Gurion dreamt of a "normal" society in Israel, where Jews would make up all elements of a modern society.  His dream is reality, in all its splendor and shame.  This will be an opportunity for our teenagers to have the gift of trying to help - in our own, small way.  I’ll be back with a final Shabbat update this Friday.  Until then, shalom.

Daniel

Friday, July 20, 2001

Only this Shabbat and next remain for IST 2001 in Israel, and I am struck by the contrast between Shabbat for us in Colorado and in Shabbat for our teenagers in Israel.  The connection with amcha, with our people across time and across geographical boundaries is so easily made in Israel; here we must work to make that connection happen, week after week.  That's what Shabbat means for many - an opportunity to make that timeless, spaceless connection...

"Masada shall not fall again" became the informal slogan of the Jewish State by the 1960's. The barren mesa in the Dead Sea Region had been fortified by King Herod in the first century to protect him from enemies both real and imagined. And when Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 C.E., a small band of zealots retreated to the fortress and taunted the Romans from the top. Josephus, the historian tells us that they poured water over the side to taunt the soldiers who were dehydrated in the sun below. But the Romans used slave labor - mostly Jewish slave labor - over the next three years to build what is called The Ramp, actually another man-made mountain alongside Masada, to bring their war machines to the palace walls. What they found were corpses, Jews who chose to die by their own hand rather than submit to torture and slavery.

Yesterday, after a short evening's sleep at the mountain's base, our teens climbed the Roman ramp and watched the sun rise over the Dead Sea. I've found few views in my life more spectacular, peaceful, holy. Then they toured the massive ruins of Herod's palaces, visited one of the first synagogues in the world, relaxed in a cistern the size of our Federation building, and processed the history. When they descended via the serpent path they had the whole day in front of them.

"Masada shall not fall again." Ask the teenagers when they return what that means to them in light of the last three decades of Israeli history and in light of the last ten months of Intifada and terrorism. Still try to negotiate? Refuse to give up any land? Learn to live together? Take risks? Remain united and strong? IST challenges our young people to ask the hard questions, and the answers are never obvious. All Israelis agree that Masada must not fall again, and they wonder - as do we - what path today will assure that result.

Masada is usually both a hot tourist spot and a hot desert spot - very hot.  The group really felt the temperature, and was very happy to return to more temperate Jerusalem just an hour away.  Unfortunately, this year Israel has fewer tourists, and our group experienced the mesa as an uncharacteristically quiet desert summit; Jerusalem also has far fewer tourists than usual, a reality not lost on our group.

Most of our group is staying together this Shabbat in Jerusalem, while a few dozen visit close friends and relatives.  This is an important chance to rest and unwind before the final push. The next ten days are spent based in Jerusalem, and in many ways are the most intense of the entire summer for our staff. They must help the teenagers to pull together all of their summer experiences so the ISTers return home with the tools to process what they've learned. They also must help keep the ISTers safe, and help them to continue to make good choices - a task that is much harder now that the teenagers feel so comfortable with each other and with their surroundings. And we have a wonderful staff that is up to the challenge.

May your Shabbat be filled with blessings and peace. I wish you shalom.

Daniel

P.S. Please visit the photographs section to see the trip in action; enjoy!

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

I shared with you last week that in many ways Israel's south seems like a different county, filled with sea and sand and sun. Not that our teenagers need a special invitation to enjoy things like snorkeling, sunbathing, and free time shopping on Eilat's seaside promenade.  The teenagers work hard, but they play hard, too.  The rest of their Eilat visit consisted of para-sailing, swimming in the Red Sea, and an evening boat cruise in the gulf.  The ISTers even davened mincha together as the boat left the harbor. All in all, Eilat earned its reputation as Israel's favorite port-of-call. And now, a cautious disclaimer:

You know all this already.  With teenagers it is important to set clear limits - but not too many.  So IST has a clear expectation about really important things, like rules concerning alcohol and other drugs and regulations concerning safety.   I am proud to tell you that our staff reports very few concerns in this area - this is a very good group!  I also must tell you that  although we strongly discourage the practice of tattooing and piercing, we do not set rules in this area, and some see this as an IST right of passage.  So, while most of your children were mere spectators, we understand that the body-artists in Eilat are counting their profits this evening.

Self-expression is important for every teenager, and we use our influence to help them make good decisions.  So while some slept in, thirty-five elected to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to climb Har Zefahot to watch the sunrise!  Tomorrow they will all complain as we rise early to climb Mt. Shlomo.  But they will gasp as they watch the sun rise in the east over Saudi Arabia, gaze on Egypt to the west and Jordan to the north.  The Gulf of Eilat will stretch out to the south, its waters flowing past Sinai’s shores to the Red Sea.  So, for those of us in Colorado, we may want to ask ourselves, “what did we do before breakfast today?”

We've all been following CNN and reading the Jerusalem Post on-line, and we know that security continues to make the news.  For some, security means surgical strikes with helicopter gun ships on hamas targets, for others it means proceeding with diplomatic efforts.  While the south of Israel seems very far away from conflict, IST did participate in a difficult and wonderful program in Givat Haviva.  Trained, sensitive guides served as fabulous facilitators in helping the teenagers to understand some of the conflict that often occurs when Arabs and Israelis live together.  Visiting an Israeli Arab village, ISTers discussed the realities and the struggles of building a society in Eretz Yisrael.

Later this week, IST will leave the south and head toward the Dead Sea, the world’s lowest spot.  No trip to Israel is complete without the Dead Sea, Masada, and Ein Gedi.  For many of our summer trips these next few days are one of the top highlights. After this week we are in the home stretch with only a week to go.  Many of our teens know exactly how many days until we see them at DIA.  And experience tells us that few will be ready to part from their IST experience on August 1.

Shalom until Friday,

Daniel

Friday, July 13, 2001

CAJE and ISI work hard each summer to give our teenagers chances to interact with Israeli teens, to experience Israel through the eyes and hearts of their contemporaries. But we find it to be very difficult to do: most Israeli teens are on summer break, it is hard to find groups to interact with us, many of the situations we do set up end up feeling a little bit artificial, and often language is a barrier that is impossible to transcend with any spontaneity.

So with excitement I report to you that on Options Week one of our IST options was a Sea-to-Sea hike, a difficult and beautiful trek across the breadth of Israel. Fifteen Ethiopean Israeli teenagers representing the Society for Preservation of Nature in Israel hiked with our group. Steve Glickman reported that it was, "the most phenomenal and amazing experience for all of us." What a wonderful thing to see teenagers from different cultures bonding; the cultural and language boundaries disappeared as they worked, ate, tossed around a football, and hiked the land together. They taught each other Hebrew and English slang, and we found out that Caucasian hair looks great in corn-rolls, too.

Arts & Culture was another popular option - did ISTers in Colorado really think that in Israel they would have an opportunity to learn calligraphy for writing a Torah scroll? What an opportunity for summer tourists to connect profoundly with ancient Jewish values. They also spent time with noted authors and enjoyed a concert. But it was only when they made their own tie-dyed tee-shirts and visited a kosher McDonald's that fast food culture and the 1960's met face to face - and all in Israel on IST 2001...

The Gadna option is always chosen by the most teenagers. Their motto may have been, "never attempt this at home," but while participating in Israel Defense Force training they gladly rose with the dawn, exercised hard every day, and learned to accept even arbitrary discipline. Honest! We hear that they "really got into being soldiers." For many the experience was a way to come to know what their peers in Israel will experience when they graduate high school in just one short year. For others it is a chance to try on a foreign way of life, and struggle with the question, "could I ever do this?" May the day come soon when military realities are no longer a major part of Israeli society, when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation."

Much of the Israel Study Tour is devoted to exploring Israel's history, national identity, antiquity, religion, and people. But just as fascinating is the land, itself. Israel is a very small country, not much larger in geographic land area than New Jersey. But the land is one of great natural diversity. Within miles one can traverse entire eco-systems, and the plant life and animal life - not to mention the elevation and climate - change completely. During the winter months one can ski on Mt. Hermon in the morning, and after a three-hour car ride float in 90-degree heat in the Dead Sea.

For our teenagers that contrast is no less remarkable. This week they bid farewell to Israel's north - the Galilee and the Golan, an area of the country where they hiked in lush river canyons, and thoroughly enjoyed the sources of much of Israel's fresh water: the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee, the Kinneret. Now they head south to the Negev where they will hike a true desert, snorkel tropical reefs, and descend into the Makhtesh, a large crater of unknown origin filled with diverse and unique flora and fauna.

The southernmost region of the Negev is only a five-hour car ride from Jerusalem, but it is easy to forget you are in the same country. The locals refer to the population centers in the north the way inhabitants of distant islands refer to the mainland. And Eilat, Israel's port to the Red Sea, is a vacation land for tourists from all over Israel, the Mediterranean, and even central and northern Europe. This will be an exciting week for our teenagers, and it will culminate next Thursday when the group climbs Masada! But I'm getting way ahead of myself. There's plenty to come before that...

So, again, I wish to each of you a Shabbat Shalom, a Sabbath of peace and wholeness!

Daniel

Tuesday, July 10

Risa Buckstein does such a wonderful job coordinating the IST program from the Colorado side of the ocean.  Only those who send their children to Israel with CAJE each summer can grasp the diversity of skills needed to select and supervise an outstanding staff, nurture families, balance difficult finances and provide for teenagers this high level of Jewish educational experience.  I don't get the opportunity too often to acknowledge publicly her dedication, or to praise her commitment to a very special group of teenagers.  On behalf of our community: thank you Risa.

IST is a group experience, and one of its strengths is teaching Jewish teenagers to work together toward common goals.
So what better way to conclude our visitation weekends than with an all-Jewish all-IST Opympics?  We call it Maccabiah; your teenagers call it fun.  Four teams, lots of competitive energy, and sixty-eight winners.  The staff did a great job organizing the event, and invites you to check out the photographs (coming soon) on our web site.

By the way, those who traveled to visit friends and relatives returned safely after a wonderful, restful Shabbat, and those who stayed behind at the Tzuba Guest House had their first down time since Colorado - by now that seems like a long time ago to them and to us, as well. What a luxary to look out the window of one's suite at the guest house after sleeping in on a Shabbat morning, and seeing a panoramic view of Jerusalem!  A dream?  For many, yes... Ok now - back to reality.

Many of you know that CAJE is one of several dozen community-wide Jewish educational agencies located in cities across the United States.  (Most large cities have a Central Agency, a Bureau of Jewish Education, or a Jewish Education Center.) You may also know that many cities no longer offer community-based teenage Israel tours as CAJE does, and most of those who normally run tours cancelled this summer because enrollment was so low.  But the community tour organized by our friends at the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education, whose numbers had dwindled into the teens, is in Israel this summer on a modified program.  We were thrilled to lend a hand to our west coast friends and invited them to join our group for Options Week, which began yesterday. What an opportunity for both groups to make new friends.

Options Week!  We are gratified that we are able to offer this experience in the middle of the trip when a little diversity is needed.  The teenagers select their activity, this year choosing between:

I'll fill you in on their Options Week progress when I write to you on Friday.  Until then: only 22 days until we greet them with tears and junk food at DIA.  I know that for some this is a long time off.  For our teenagers, however, if this year follows suit, they'll be the last ones off the plane and will wonder aloud when they can go back.  It's not that they don't love us.  They have simply fallen in love also with their homeland, their heritage, their distant cousins, and their religion.

Shalom until Friday -

Daniel

Friday, July 6, 2001

As I write these words in Denver, Shabbat has already begun in Israel. Tonight marks IST's third Shabbat in Israel and our first of two visitation Shabbats. For most of the summer our teenagers' time is highly structured during their six-week tour, so there is little time to see friends and relatives. We have also learned over the years that giving our teenagers individual experiences in Israeli homes for Shabbat adds to their understanding of Israeli society. While these visits are still a highlight for some of our teenagers, a larger group than usual will not visit Israeli homes; rather, these ISTers will spend time at a Kibbutz Guest House with staff, swimming, sleeping, relaxing.

Why? Security. While things in Israel seem quite safe these days, we have made a decision to allow our teenagers to visit Israeli homes only if they know the families well, only if IST parents in Colorado can have a frank conversation with the host families and can be assured that teenagers will not be unsupervised in Israeli cities over Shabbat. In years past, our wonderful partner in Israel, Steve Zerobnick, placed ISTers with Israeli families, many with close Denver connections. But we decided that unless parents knew the host families well we were better off this year keeping students with the group. So, although relaxing on Kibbutz isn't a bad thing, not all of our teenagers will have the opportunity to experience Israeli home hospitality. Rest assured: all will eat and sleep well this Shabbat, and will head out to Options Week ready for adventure and learning.

Speaking of Steve Zerobnick, we all owe a debt of gratitude to CAJE's Israeli partner, the founder and director of Israel Studies Institute (ISI) in Jerusalem. Steve is truly our partner, worrying about sick teens as much as Risa does, concerned about security as much as we all are. Year after year ISI's staff is the best assembled for any teen tour, and Steve's intuition and programmatic skills are invaluable. ISI staff love our children as much as we do, and feel the responsibility for their safety as strongly as we do. Indeed, without a partner like ISI on the ground in Israel I'm not sure CAJE would have been comfortable sending IST this summer.

Allow me to share with you a quick "we may be far away from home, but..." July 4th story. After their American-style (ok, hot dogs don't really fit on pita bread) picnic ISTers began to sing Birkat Hamazon, the traditional prayer we say together after every meal. Birkat Hamazon is an IST institution, often recited with energy and spirit. No sooner had the prayer begun when the sky in the distance lit up with the glare of a massive fireworks display. Fireworks are not rare in Israel, but were still not what our teenagers expected - even on their July 4th holiday. As the fireworks exploded overhead, they "went nuts, singing, dancing, shouting, cheering." Despite the half-hearted attempts by our staff to explain that this was a municipal fireworks display from Tel Aviv, our teenagers insisted on believing that it was a special gift from IST! I can't be sure how hard our staff really tried to convince them otherwise...

Sunday we bid farewell to the north, the portion of this saced land IST will remember as the place of outrageous water hikes, rock climbing, political briefings and historical awakenings. After a fun-filled Israeli-style Maccabiah inter-group olympics, we head off to Options Week. Most teenagers have selected Gadna, what ISTers call "the army," while others hike Sea-to-Sea or pursue Arts and Culture. As always, details to follow, film at six...

Shabbat Shalom!

Daniel

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

As IST begins only its second full week in Israel, its participants are starting to appreciate how dynamic a classroom the Land of Israel really can be.  On Shabbat our teenagers enjoyed a restful day in Tzfat, nestled safely in the hills of Israel's north. By Sunday the group had begun to experience Israel's other reality.  The famous Brooklyn Mike gave them a security briefing from a lookout point at Kibbutz Misgav Am, less than 100 yards from the Lebanese boarder.  Later, as they ate lunch, they could hear the mortar fire exchanges in the distance on the slopes of Mt. Hermon.  Then they awoke Monday morning, looked out the windows of the dormitory rooms at the Keshet Field School, and watched Israeli army tanks on maneuver!

The contrast between military life on the one hand, and the peacefulness of Israel's countryside and ancient cities on the other, is not a special lesson reserved for this year's trip.  This is Israel's reality, a reality that has existed for Israel's entire history.  Fortunately IST was never in danger, and I'm sure the teenagers will tell you all three military experiences were very cool.  Still, we pray that with G-d's help the IST tour some day will no longer experience Israel's military reality...

Tomorrow is July 4.  Over the years the significance of July 4 for most Americans has diminished. In its early years - when our country was young, when memories of our War for Independence was still fresh, when wars were still being fought on American soil - July 4 meant more than a summer day off the watch fireworks and relax with friends and family.

Independence Day still means a great deal in Israel. For Israelis it is celebrated on the 5th day of the month of Iyar, and because of Shabbat this year it was observed on 3 Iyar, April 26th.  Later on in the summer our ISTers will visit Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, where only fifty-three years ago David Ben Gurion pronounced the creation of the sovereign county of Israel.

Over the past six decades Israel has been involved in no less than six wars, and again today she withstands challenges both internal and external to her existence and sovereignty. This past April I had the honor of being in Israel leading CAJE's IST Parent Trip, In Your Children's Footsteps, and we joined millions of  Israelis who pause on their Independence Day to give thanks, to acknowledge the price of freedom, to recommit to keeping freedom alive until the next year's celebration.

It is altogether appropriate that our teenagers will bring their culture with them as they celebrate our July 4 tomorrow with a barbecue and campfire in Hurshat Tal, a beautiful northern Israeli park.  Israel's north is beautiful and green, even now after several year's of below average rainfall.  Over the last two days the group has completed a water hike through the lush canyon of a Jordan River tributary, kayaked on the Jordan, and helped out the Israeli economy by buying sandals at the Naot Sandal factory.  Please don't tell anybody that reports are that one can buy Naots cheaper at Park Meadows.  These are, after all, souvenirs - and a precious IST legacy.

The group took time to process what they have learned of Israel's precarious position in the Middle East, and to challenge themselves with a peace-simulation game. We play this game each year, and with the politics this year it was especially timely.  As ISTers debated the rights and the wrongs, made alliances, and brokered plans for peace, they intricacies and difficulties of Israel's security became real.

Keep checking in on our web site - we are expecting some new entries by the teenagers and new digital pictures from Israel shortly.  I'll be back in touch this coming Friday, and Risa and I welcome your feedback,

Happy Independence Day!

Daniel

Friday, June 29, 2001

I know we say it every year, but this group of young people is an exceptional group, indeed: their level of interest, their maturity, their commitment to Judaism and to personal growth, their willingness to cooperate with staff, how much they care - already - for one another. Sounds like your children, no?

Tourism is down significantly in Israel this summer, but our teenagers did connect with a South African Jewish group before they left Arad. Conversation, frisbees, flirting - teenagers are the same all over the world. Then, despite many minor scrapes, cuts and bruises from the wildreness experience, they were ready to hike Mt. Arbel on Thursday without a complaint! Perhaps they knew of the reward awaiting them: Tzfat!

I know I told you that there is nothing like being in Jerusalem as Shabbat descends. But perhaps being in the northern city of Tzefat and watching the sun set over the ancient hills is even holier. Centuries ago those hills were filled with the spirit that brought Judaism Kabbalah, our mystical tradition. And as the sun set on our IST teenagers this Friday night, they were all a part of that tradition, together singing L’cha Dodi as they looked out over valleys surrounding the ancient stone city.

Winding north from the Sea of Galilee toward Tsfat (also called Zefat or Safed), driving through groves of mountain pines, feeling the crisp mountain air, one can almost taste Colorado. But there the similarities end. Our teenagers toured ancient synagogues, visited modern art galleries and a candle factory, and enjoyed a pre-Shabbat swim in a nearby pool. The trip's young men even braved the ice-cold waters of a pre-Shabbat mikvah near the ancient cemetary.

Tzfat is one of the four Israeli cities that has maintained a continual Jewish population since Biblical times. Even more than in Jerusalem you can feel the history through your pores as you walk the ancient, narrow streets. It is difficult to visit any site in Israel without feeling like you are part of our people’s history. In our country, a two hundred year-old building is preserved as historic, while in Tzfat many of the six hundred year-old buildings are still in use.

CAJE's greatest fear during every IST summer is illness or injury to our teenagers. But IST is a teenage group with a challenging itinerary, and we always have our share of bumps, bruises, and twisted ankles. And since they travel in close quarters, share drinking water, and sleep less than we'd like them to, ISTers often share their colds and flu as well. In that respect, this summer is no different than any other.

As many of you may have heard, we had a medical emergency this week that was not ordinary, and we are very relieved to say that the child is recovering very well. One of our ISTers became seriously ill during the desert experience with a condition commonly referred to as water intoxication, a potentially very dangererous illness. She wound up in the Intensive Care Unit of the Beersheva hospital where she received exceptional care. We are grateful to the entire IST team and our partner in Israel, ISI, for their quick response. We especially want to note one of our medics, Nir, and two of our cousellors, Stacy and Shira who were there 100% present for her during the critical care stage of her recovery. We are so very grateful to report that this ISTer is looking forward to rejoining the trip soon!

Our plan is to return now - as quickly as humanly possible - to worrying about run-of-the-mill stuff like colds, flu, sprained ankles.....

What’s next? Worshiping in one of a variety of unique Tzefat synagogues Saturday morning, a nice lunch, and rest. Then more rest. Then more rest before embarking on a series of one-day tours in Israel's north. The IST tour has a breakneck pace: we want our teens to drink in every drop of Israel they can. And it’s hard to convince teenagers to take advantage of the precious few sleeping hours they do have. Perhaps this is why we have Shabbat!

Shabbat Shalom,

Daniel

Tuesday, June 26

Dear Friends:

If you've ever stood on a windswept rock ledge with the sun setting behind you as you looked down on Jordan to the east and the Negev wildreness to the south - you may be able to picture what our ISTers saw tonight. If your adventure followed a dawn to dusk uphill hike during a three-day Judean Wildreness experience you might know what they were thinking. But you'd have to be a seventeen year old Colorado ISTer to have any understanding of what they felt.

For those of you who were lucky enough in your youth to attend summer camp or go on a teen tour, you know that the pace is packed and intense, that each day seems like a week, each week a month. Friendships are created quickly, and deep bonds with physical places are made quickly and usually sustained. Add to that a challenging desert experience that we've found to be the best medium for group building and personal accomplishment, and you may begin to understand the magic of IST.

We've finished the most demanding part of the experience, including today's hike hrough terrain that included dry river bed (wadis) and barren hills. Israelis call them mountains, but that's because they've never seen Pike's Peak... But the challenge for our teenagers was formidable, and they did very well: they helped each other, shared water (even when we told them that wasn't the healthiest practice), sang songs to lift their spirits, cheered each other on when the road seemed too long, doctored each other's scrapes and bruises. And they did it all without indoor plumbing and toilets! The desert experience helps each individual to realize quickly that they are capable of accomplishing much more than they originally thought.

This is a wonderful wilderness, seemingly barren but filled with plant and animal life. It is dry, but look out for flash floods during the winter months. And all signs of civilization disappear five minutes from the road. What better place to explore one's spirituality than the Judaean Wilderness? What better place to do some serious group building than the very place where 3200 years ago Joshua and Caleb told Moses and the community that with G-d's help we can do anything? As they sat silently on a desert solo one evening the teenagers may have asked themselves the same questions the twelve scouts asked as they set out to do a reconnaissance of the land: is the journey going to be safe? what are the people who live there really like? is this place really the land for me? will I really be able to call Israel "home?"

Over the years CAJE and ISI have develped solid means of dealing with illness and injury, and the safety of our participants is always foremost on our mind. So, we held over a dozen teens back from their first day of hiking for reasons ranging from sprained ankles to resperatory ailments to heat-related illnesses to strep throat. We find the medical care of our medics, of the army, and of the local doctors and hospitals to be top-notch again, this year. And we pray that we will not need their services often.

Finally, what better way to introduce our teenagers to IST morning worship than in the wilderness. Each morning participants chose from three minyanim - traditional, liberal, and learners'. Each minyan is taking on its own identity, already, and many of the ISTers are stepping forward to aide staff in facilitating daily worship. The colors of the emerging landscape in the desert are breathtaking as the group praised G-d and begins its day in prayer.

After one final night camping in the wilderness our group will be off to Arad. They will have earned their stay in a comfortable hostel with a swimming pool before they begin their preparations for Shabbat in the north.

Shalom,

Daniel

Friday, June 22

Dear Friends:

CAJE staff and lay leaders thought long and hard about IST 2001. We received input from friends locally, nationally, and in Israel. Some told us that we must not cancel IST this summer no matter what, that we must not let Israel's foes take that precious opportunity away from our teenagers. They believed that it was our responsibility to make a statement with our trip this summer. Others felt that Israel is just too dangerous now, and that we needed to cancel the tour to assure our children's safety.

In the end, neither camp held sway. CAJE's leadership, in consultation with our partners (the synagogues and their rabbis, and the leaders of the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado) responsibly decided that CAJE would run the trip if - and only if - we could do so safely. CAJE has sent teens to Israel for 30 years, and we know the educational value of IST as one of the best means to connect young Jews to their Jewish identities and communities for a lifetime. But despite the benefit, we would make no political statements with our teenagers. We would weigh risks and benefits and proceed only if the benefit outweighed the risk.

But there can never be guarantees of safety, and every Israel trip is a risk - Israel has been at war for its entire existence, and Israelis learn to live with war and terrorist attacks. So, neither would we be held hostage to fear. As long as we believed the real threat to safety this summer was not substantially greater than in summers past, CAJE would offer the tour to families. And so, we did. We counselled families for months to help them to decide if the tour was right for them. In the end 69 embarked on IST, leaving almost as many behind. CAJE respects both those who decided to accompany us and those who decided not to do so. We deeply respect each family's tolerance for risk and its personal assessment of the risk in Israel this summer.

This Friday I can rejoice, for the entire group is safe in Israel spending Shabbat together.  For the first time in recent memory every piece of luggage arrived with them!  That's no small wonder!

Our teenagers are beginning a journey as Abraham and Sarah did almost four thousand years ago.  Their itinerary is varied and wonderful, and please rest assured that it will be evaluated for safety concerns daily and revised if necessary.  So after the group who slept very little in four rain-soaked Poland days rested, everybody stood on the panoramic overlook on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, a safer vantage point than the Promenade. As they looked into the valleys surrounded by the Judean hills, upon the sacred stones where for four millennia the history of our people has been forged, our guides told them that like Abraham and Sarah’s journey, the impact of their trip would be a result of their own personal choices this summer.

Our staff speaks so highly of our teenagers - already. They do make a good first impression... Those from Heritage Tours who guided the Poland-extension rave about their alertness, maturity, and stamina. And Steve Zerobnick, an ex-Denverite who runs ISI, and for as many summers as we can remember has been our tour provider and partner in Israel, tells us that his staff is already impressed with IST, the largest community-based teenage group in Israel this summer.

The ISTers who comprised our Poland extension had a deeply emotional trip marked by sadness, anger, and finally resolve. How can one tour the remains of what sixty years ago was the world’s greatest Jewish community, visit its camps of destruction and chronicle its virtual disappearance without being changed?

How much more meaningful was their first trip to the Kotel - the Western Wall, where those exterminated in Europe's Holocaust never stood as free and proud Jews. As the summer progresses and the two groups quickly become one, once again, those who witnessed Poland will share their experiences, tears, resolve.

And now, as Colorado prepares for Shabbat our teens are together praying, singing, visiting, breathing the cool, calming air of Shabbat in Jerusalem. I can tell you that there is nothing like it! They will sleep (or at least we will offer them the opportunity to sleep) and awaken to breakfast and attendance at a choice of Jerusalem synagogues, followed by group-building activities.

Each Friday and Tuesday, I'll write these updates, but feel free to call us in-between. Also, check out our voice updates at 303-321-3191 x32.

CAJE feels so honored every year to provide this life-changing Jewish experience for our community’s teenagers. This year we will be even more alert, and pray a little bit harder for their safe return. May we all smile at their transformation, kvell and worry together until August 1 – when we’ll sleep better, too…

Shabbat Shalom,

Daniel