Dear NCSY TJJ Bus 3 Family,

Greetings from the CITY OF GOLD!!

What an amazing Shabbat spent in the holiest city in the world! On Friday night we went up to the Kotel for a fantastic Shabbat Teffila!! We joined together with other NCSY Summer Programs as well as Jews from all walks of life (and from what I heard a couple NBA players, thank you Omri Casspi) in welcoming the Shabbat. Following our amazing Teffila we had a gorgeous dinner at Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh( Alma Mater of our advisor Paul), overlooking the Kotel plaza, what a view!!

We celebrated Shabbat day in Bayit Vegan where we had great sessions from our advisors and tremendous ruach, spirit, at shabbat lunch. We were joined by the Regional Staff from America, Rabbis Lerner and Riesel as well as Lauren Gluck. We had the opportunity to have a great court session with Rabbi Riesel ( don’t worry Allen didn’t need to pay in the end). As Shabbat slowly ended we conducted one last “ebbing” together as we heard words of inspiration from Rabbi Lerner.. For Havdala the NCSY TJJ Bus 3 Family were joined by TJJ Buses 3 and 5. Joining together with teens just like us to say goodbye to shabbat was so amazing!

On Sunday we started of the day hearing from Itmar Marcus, director and founder of Palestinian Media Watch, which studies Palestinian society by monitoring and analyzing the Palestinian Authority through its media and schoolbooks. Itmar was so interesting and insightful in telling us about the challenges facing the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. After learning about PMW we set off to Beit Shemesh where we met Rabbi Natan Slifkin, also known as the “zoo rabbi.” Rabbi Slifkin is a scientist and zoologist and has published several books on Animals in the Torah. Rabbi Slifkin not only walked us through his vast collection of animal artifacts but also his own personal zoo!! Everyone really enjoyed holding the snake and petting the turtles!! If you thought your teens were scared of animal check out the pictures online. We then headed back to the hotel for some downtime as the staff (and some teens) observed the fastof the 17th of the month of Tamuz, where there were tragedies that befell the Jewish People. We then headed out to break our fasts at Tzion Hagadol!

Best,

Rabbi Yitz

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