The Awesomeness that is Israel

Hey everyone!

So I haven't talked about my actual Jewish history class in awhile. I figured that since we are at my favorite part of Israel's history, I would share my thoughts with you all.

Today we began learning about the 6 Day War. Before I get to what I really want to talk about, can we please pause for a moment and think about that. Israel, as a young, still under resourced State, won a war against multiple Arab countries in less than a week. Just so much "wow". That's just really damn amazing!! I can't express how cool and inspiring that is!

All of Israel's history is fascinating. Every little decision that was made affected the existence of Israel. From the Zionist conferences to the UN's voting on the Jewish State to the Independence War to the Declaration of the State of Israel to the 6 Day War. Every outcome was a result of a leader's decision, every outcome was a miracle.

One thing that I learned this past summer was not to simply focus on my Jewish history, but to relate it to me and my life now. This sounds sort of obvious, but once you focus on this, everything becomes so much more real and significant. 

Saying that, my parents met in Israel. It's where the met, fell in love, got embarrassed by the fellow Kibutzniks, scarred their hands picking fruit, and decided to move back to the States to get married and have children...like me. 

If Ben Gurion hadn't declared the State of Israel when he did, or if Yitzhak Rabin led the army into battle with alternate strategies, I wouldn't be here, in classroom 4, writing this blog. Naturally, life is full of "if's" and I could say many more less significant "if" statements that would change the course of my life. However, these miracles that made Israel a State are the truly important ones. 

And I'm not the only one. In my 8th grade graduating class alone, around six of us had parents who met in Israel. Israel has become so relevant to Jewish life around the world. 

I wish that Yitzhak Rabin, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and so many more great Israeli leaders could see that importance that they had on the growth of the global Jewish community. They were amazing. Their decisions were amazing. Israel is damn amazing.

So I'm going to try my hardest to enjoy my last month in this amazing country.

Have a great week!

Shoshana :)