After enjoying a fantastic breakfast, we hopped on the bus, and headed off to Caesarea. There we learned about the Romans’ connection to the Jews and finished the visit off with snorkeling in the Mediterranean. Next we had an amazing falafel lunch, and played an enjoyable game of capture the flag. Our next stop was Beit Oren, where we drove around in ATVs. The last stop of the day was visiting a Druze village, where we had a delicious laffa snack, while learning all about how the Druze live their lives.

On the 14th of July, at approximately 7:30 A.M., I witnessed something that rendered me speechless. The night before, we had all pledged to come to davening on time in order to show respect and help our friend Daniel recite Kaddish, and I was completely blown away by how many people had stuck to it. Perhaps it was at this particular moment when I first truly felt that we were closer than a tour group, that we were family. With newfound enthusiasm, I went with my new family and took a hand in building a raft and racing in the beautiful Kinneret, enjoyed a refreshing yet short walk at Adamit Park, and explored the mysterious Keshet Cave along the Mediterranean Sea. But one thing is for certain: this is just the beginning of what appears to be a very promising summer.

Today ICE Israel had a pretty awesome day. We started the morning by visiting a kibbutz at the border which separates Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. One of the members, who has lived there for decades, told us about the true history of Israel and Palestine. He explained how he had fought for Israel in 4 wars, and he would never stop protecting his homeland. He also taught us that the best hummus can’t be bought-it has to be handmade. Next we went rafting on the river. It took us a while to get the hang of how to use the paddles and maneuver the rafts (some of us never did learn how). But the whole experience was extremely fun and cooled us off. Finally, we went to visit the grave site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. We took a look around the current Shul there. We also saw an ancient destroyed Shul right nearby, and we had the amazing opportunity to pray there with the gorgeous mountains surrounding us. It’s been less than a week since we got to Israel, but ICE is already proving to be an incredible and unforgettable experience.

ICE is a super cool trip! After making acquaintances with everyone for hours at the airport, we got to further develop our friendships on the 11 hour plane ride. It was incredible to first see the coastline as we flew over our gorgeous holy land! After that, we immediately got into some ancient Israeli action by doing some donkey riding and pita baking. We then drove up to our hotel in the rural city of Tzfat. I’m really excited for a scenic hike coming up!

Hi! I’m Andy… not the one from Toy Story. I’m from the beautiful state of New Jersey and have lived there my whole life. I just graduated YU (woot woot!) and I’m going into the incredibly exciting field of accounting. I can’t wait to spend to spend an amazing summer with all of you :)!!

Well, Guys and Gals,

We are back in the good old USA, but our hearts are still together in Israel!  Thank you all sooooo much for the BEST SUMMER EVER!!

If you have any great photos to add to our already 4000+ strong picture collection, don’t forget to send them in and we’ll put them up on the site!

WE MISS YOU AND CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL AT THE REUNION!!!

Today we did a bunch of mitzvahs! The day began with helping the needy in Yerushalayim, which is a big mitzvah and gave us a good feeling that we were able to help out some of our Jewish brothers and sisters who unfortunately find themselves in need at this time.

We then had lunch and headed into the Gush for paint ball. The course that we were able to play on was not just any paint ball entertainment facility – it’s an actual fully functional anti terrorism training facility, and our paint ball leaders were some of the same people who train army, police, and security forces in counter terrorism fighting techniques!

We then headed back into Yerushalayim for some fun bowling, because, honestly – who doesn’t love a good bowling night, eh?

Now, here’s the kicker – volunteering was obviously a mitzvah. But, paint ball and bowling, in a sense were mitzvahs, too! Why? Because, living our everyday lives in Eretz Yisrael is a mitzvah, so doing fun things like paint ball and bowling in Eretz Yisrael are mitzvahs, too! Just some food for thought 🙂 See you tomorrow!

Wow… where yesterday was such an crazy active day – where to begin?  Well, perhaps let’s begin with what we began with – Kever Rachel!  We began the day with a spiritual experience, visiting the tomb of our fore mother Rachel.  One of the amazing things about trips to Israel that you can’t get anywhere else is that you have a way to connect both to the modern State of Israel – the only Jewish country in the world, and also our heritage, as this is the land where our people and our spiritual heritage are from.  We always say it, you’ve heard it before, and it sounds really nice, but when we actually are standing in the place where Rachel, or “Mamma Rochel,” as they say, is buried, those things that we say all the time actually come to life.

We then headed for Kfar Etzion, with a museum dedicated to preserving the history of Gush Etzion before its fall in the Israel War for Independence, and those who lost their lives defending our land.  After that, we went to Givat Oz V’Gaon, a new development being put together in honor of and named after the three boys who were kidnapped and murdered by terrorists just over a month ago.  We cleared rocks and brush in order to make way for the foundations to be laid for a new Beit Knesset in their honor and memory.  Our whole group got to take part in actually building up the land of Israel.

Then, it was time for a little fun, so we went to Deerland Ranch Adventure Park for some ZIP LINING!!!  It was a lot of fun – we zip lined over a valley and got to have an off road jeep ride back to base!  Back at base, we met Member of Knesset Uri Ariel, who joined us for Mincha!

We headed back to our hotel, but first had a “Pizur” dinner, then, for night activity, we had Battle of the Genders!  There were crazy challenges and it was a lot of fun!  Picture, if you will, a mix between Double Dare, relay races, and Color War!  Things got so nuts, we got in juuust a little bit of trouble for making too much noise… see, BILT, we can be crazy too!  🙂

Finally, the winning team from Scavenger Stunt almost a month ago FINALLY got their ice cream party prize!  We made a bit of a mess, but  it was fun and we cleaned up – plus, we shared the leftovers with the hotel staff, so TECHNICALLY, it was their mess, too!  😉

So, we just had a GREAT final Shabbat in Yerushalayim – we did a nice hike Friday morning, followed by lunch at Machane Yehuda and a scavengar hunt in Nachlaot!  Then, we got ready for Shabbat and  davened Kabbalat Shabbat Friday night at the Kotel!  We also saw fellow NCSY groups JOLT, TJJ AP, and TJJ Ambassadors there, as well as many other friends.  We sang and danced and it was an awesome and very meaningful experience!

Shabbat day we spent at our hotel, the Jerusalem Gate, and it was very chilled.  We had a lot of free time, but got a good amount of thought provoking Jewish activities in, as well.  We capped it off with ebbing Shabbos away on the roof of the hotel, followed by a beautiful Havdalah led by our very own Yosef Galen!  We just got back from a fun night on Ben Yehuda Street and are looking fun to a great day tomorrow to start off our final week!