Day 7 in Israel- Community Week

Our first full day of Community Week is officially complete. Hannah was our Moshe for the day and did a great job! The theme for our community week is movies. Each day, a different movie is selected to act as a guiding narrative for our activities, discussions, and encounters. Today's movie was "Chef" and it directly connected to all of the activities for the day.

We began our day at Atid Bamidbar where we met with Shai, the manager of Atid Bamidbar. Shai shared the story of the first settlers in Yerucham and how many of the first settlers were led to believe that they were in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. After our discussion with Shai, Lauren, Mickey, Eitam, and Kama passed out diaries for us all to use throughout Community Week.

Our morning was spent completing the Master Chef cooking competition. We were split into five different groups and went to homes of some of our Yerucham to cook different meals. After our meals were complete, we brought our food back to Atid Bamidbar for lunch. It was so great to try different foods from our communities (shakshukah and alfachores, for example) and share recipes.

After lunch, the famous Yerucham Cooking Ladies visited to judge our meals and tell us who the Master Chefs are. The representatives of the Cooking Ladies shared their stories of immigration to Israel and settling in Yerucham. It was incredibly interesting to hear how many immigrants were misled to believe that Yerucham was a large city when, in reality, at that time, it was a mere desert village.

Lindsy and Rivkah then lead a discussion about a story from Vayikrah Rabba in which Rabbi Yannai served as both a guest and a host. The discussion introduced us to one of the key components of our upcoming time at Congress. Some of the Yerucham teens then presented about the Israeli army and we heard a story from Noam about how his family was affected by the war last year. Inspired by Noam's story, we packed care packages for soldiers at bases close to Yerucham. We will be taking the packed care packages with us tomorrow when we visit the base.

We ended the night at a surprise birthday party for Avishay, Justin's host. It was lots of fun! We are looking forward to a lovely day in Yerucham tomorrow!