This week, our group is spending their final shabbat together at Ein Gedi, after spending the week deepening their conversations and creating art projects based on personal reflections. We have below a recap from Matthew Samilow, from Florida. Thank you, Matthew! Our fifth and final week in Israel began Sunday with another batch of political [...]
What a week! After exploring urban Tel Aviv, our 2016 group moved over to Jerusalem, where we studied the history and current political and religious context in Israel today. We spent erev Shabbat together with Nesiya alumni at a reunion picnic in Jerusalem, and are looking forward to Shabbat here visiting different communities and continuing [...]
After a rejuvenating weekend with old and new friends, our group is back together - exploring new places and concepts. Sunday morning we regrouped in Tel Aviv, where we started off with an introduction to the city and a special experience with City Tree - Urban Eco Community (עץ בעיר), a swim in Tel Aviv's iconic [...]
This week, while our participants prepare for shabbat at their host families' homes, we have a reflection from Elena Press, a participant from Pennsylvania. What a week! After a spiritual and relaxing Shabbat in Tzfat we headed off to the North! Slurping on Popsicles and chatting with kids we built a bench out of recycled [...]
This week, after a meaningful start with a deeper look at community service and minority communities in Israel, was spent up in the Golan Heights - hiking, journaling, and learning from artists. On Tuesday we went up to Peki'in (פקיעין), a Druze town where we met with a local leader - Salach - who spoke to [...]
Nesiya 2016 has just finished their two days of community service, learning how important it is to give back to community and how helping others is a way to better society at large. Half of the group spent the day at the Neve Michael youth village building a bench out of cement and recycled materials [...]
Today we would like to share a review of Shabbat in Tsfat written by Nesiya 2016 participant Netta Remedi-Brown from Massachusetts: We spent this past weekend in Tzfat. After driving up the cobblestone road leading to the spiritual city, we settled in a quirky hotel where we would be spending Shabbat. We arrived on Friday in [...]
What a whirlwind week it has been! After driving up North to our base at Ohalo, we had a session of Participant Led Activities, and went to bed to prepare for a full day Wednesday. Yesterday we had an early wake up, and began to learn more about Israel's foundations - visiting Havat Kineret to learn [...]
Today we closed our powerful week in the desert with a visit to David Ben-Gurion's grave in Sde Boker. We had group discussions, did text study, and delved into Ben-Gurion's ideas for blossoming the desert. As our last activity in the South we enjoyed some pizza in Sde Boker, and then we were off! We are now [...]
Nesiya Alumnus Ariel Burger (Nesiya 1992) wrote a meaningful piece in the Forward this week reflecting on his last couple of interactions with Elie Weisel. He starts off: "I just heard the news that my teacher Elie Wiesel has left the world. For several years, I have said Havdalah at the close of the Sabbath [...]
