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Dear Parents, After another incredibly fun and meaningful week on NCSY Israel ID, it is so nice to welcome in a relaxing Shabbat. Although we will not spend this Shabbat together as a group, we are all looking forward to coming back together and kicking off the second half of ID on Sunday morning. Our week started off heading down from Hispin to Tel Aviv with a couple stops along the way, both geared towards teaching our group about what Jewish life looked like thousands of years ago. We baked pita, rode donkeys and davened Mincha in an ancient Shul. Monday was an emotional day as we spent time in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, hearing from the brother of Ilai David; Evyatar. We completed our evening in Tel Aviv with army training on the beach in what was a truly memorable and challenging experience. On Tuesday we went for our group’s first visit to the Kotel and had the time to daven there, followed by a tour of the Kotel Tunnels. We made our way up to Haifa afterwards and spent our day seeing the Bahai Gardens and the famous bridges of Park Nesher. At night we went to Rambam hospital in Haifa for a night of learning and davening in the zechut of a Reufah Sheleima for Binyamin Ber ben Chana. Ben is a student of mine from Toronto who was recently wounded in an attack on his base in the North of Israel. Our teens wrote letters of encouragement to Ben and his family and brought various gifts and flowers to brighten up their stay in the hospital. The family was so incredibly touched by this display of support from our group and have reached out to me multiple times thanking us for this beautiful effort. We capped off our week riding the cable cars of Haifa and touring the ancient ruins of Caesarea. It was a truly memorable and powerful week and I am sure that we can all use this Shabbat to relax and get ready for another awesome week ahead. Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Kurtz
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