Dear Parents,
Because of sukkot, it was a short week but nonetheless, it was packed with a variety of activities.
On Sunday, the students went to their internships and volunteering programs as usual. Every week the Madrichim visit the students in their internships in order to see how they are doing and give them advice about personal and professional growth. You will be pleased to hear that we are getting great feedback from all their supervisors and mentors. Your children are doing great things!
Amongst other things, the students are working at veterinary clinics, fashion studios, schools, and kindergartens, startup companies and more. After a month of internships, it seems that most of the students are enjoying their jobs and feel that they are developing personally and contributing in a meaningful way at their place of work.
The sea sport group went to a water park. The students had a blast, the weather was great and they came back with a smile on their faces. The entrepreneurship group had an extra session, titled “Where and How Do You Start?” run by the entrepreneur Robert Frolinger.
In the session, the students learned the importance of the product when putting together a business plan. They discussed ways to increase the products’ advantages and learned more about the competitive world of business and startups.
The groups had their regular apartment meetings with the Madrichim in the evening. This time they enjoyed fondue together as a method of getting to know each other better and developing better communication within the apartment.
On Monday evening, we built a Sukkah together. The students worked together to build an amazing Sukkah. While working they listened to music and ate snacks and pizza. The atmosphere was great! After finishing building the Sukkah, the students made decoration in order to give it a more personal touch.
On Tuesday, we had our second history tour in Tel Aviv. It is always amazing to find out how much culture, history, and knowledge is available right under our noses in the amazing community of Tel Aviv.
We met our tour guide on Rothschild Boulevard right next to an amazing mosaic made by Nachum Gutman, a famous Israeli artist. The mosaic tells the history of Tel Aviv, in a beautiful way.
Later we went to the Shalom Meir tower to see more works of art and pictures from the early days of Tel Aviv’s construction. There is a huge model of present day Tel Aviv at the tower. The students thought it was incredibly impressive and they were able to identify many of their regular hangouts in the model. It seems that they have already managed to get to know the city really well.
After the Tower, we went back outside to Rothschild Boulevard. We walked around the boulevard and stopped next to all kinds of buildings with amazing architecture. We learned that the two main architectural styles in Tel Aviv are Eclectic and Baoause. It was a great educational experience for everyone.
This week in Parsha and Pizza we met for a Pre-Sukkot session with Rabbi Marc. We learned about the different reasons for sitting in the Sukkah. Firstly, the Sukkah serves as a reminder of the Exodus story. As the Israelites wandered around the desert they were covered by the Clouds of Glory, a divine miracle, and they also built huts in order to have shade from the sun. The group noticed how interesting it is that the same moment in history can reflect both the godly element and the human. We heard about the importance of leaving our comfort zones and moving from our stable and secure houses into the temporary home of the Sukkah. Part of the idea is to make us realize how vulnerable we are and how reliant we are on God to protect us. Rabbi Marc also explained the tradition of Ushpizin – every day we invite an esteemed guest to ‘visit’ us in the Succah – generally a famous Bible character. Through the holiday of Sukkot, we can learn lessons about hospitality and opening ourselves to others
Sukkot is this weekend. The students are free to enjoy the holiday with families and friends. There is a Sukkot dinner at the local synagogue and plenty of activities around the city.
The Madrich on call for the holiday and the weekend is Sahar.
Parents, if you are sending packages to your children, please make sure that you write either your child’s phone number or his/her Madrich’s number on the front in order to make sure we can process them easily.
Next week we are going to continue enjoying everything the holiday has to offer. We will go to a festival In Moshav Mevo Modiyim and to a big communal Sukkah at Tel Aviv’s harbor.
Wishing you and your families Chag Sameach and all the best.
