Welcome

Welcome to JFS School's official Blog. This is our third year of the blog and represents a chance for our new team of intrepid student journalists to write what's on their minds. The Autumn term’s blog theme focuses on “Inspiration” - so stay tuned for some fantastic creative writing.


Thursday 11 December 2014

INSPIRATION: Visiting Israel

This year I have the opportunity to visit Israel in June on a school trip. I have been inspired to go to Israel ever since I was old enough to learn about the importance of Israel and what makes Israel an interesting place to visit. Israel means much more to me than just a country in the world; it is special to me in many different ways.

Israel is the home of the Jewish people. Hashem promised to give the Jewish people the Land of Israel, (Canaan during the time of the Torah), as the home of the Jewish people. The Land of Israel is described as “a land flowing with milk and honey”. This description defines Israel as a special place, a country like no other. In Israel a large number of Jews live together as one family. As Jews we are all related, if you go back hundreds of generations, maybe even thousands of generations, you will find that you (as a Jew) are very distantly related to the three forefathers - Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaacov. Visiting Israel for me is a chance to see the home of Judaism.

There are a number of landmarks in Israel that I would like to visit, including the Kotel, Mount Sinai, Masada, the Dead Sea and the Dome of the Rock. I have been inspired to visit the Kotel, because of all the connections that you can make with it - the Kotel is the only part of the Jewish temple that is left. I think that visiting Israel, especially the Kotel would complete my Jewish identity. It is important to learn about Jewish history; to see this history through the landmarks in Israel. Israel is bursting with Jewish history, which makes the country so special and significant. The Dead Sea is another interesting place in Israel that I would like to see: I have heard that you can float on the Dead Sea because the water is so salty. This makes the Dead Sea unusual compared to other seas and inspires me to visit it.

Another reason why I am inspired to visit Israel is to experience what daily life is like there and to taste genuine Israeli food.  From what I know already, day to day life in Israel is different to daily life in London, for example school days are different, from about 7am in the morning until about 1pm in the afternoon. Another thing that I know is that some people in Israel live together, as one community, in kibbutz and work together to prepare meals and other activities like this. I don’t know very much about daily life in Israel but I am intrigued to find out more about what life is like living in Israel.


To sum up, the reason for my inspiration to visit Israel is to learn about Jewish history, daily life in Israel and to able to make stronger connections to Judaism. If I was chosen to go on the Israel trip it would certainly be a memorable experience for me that I wouldn’t forget. A trip to Israel would be amazing!