An update between Holidays

Getting back into school after Passover break has been a little rough. I had my big year long Liturgy paper due and on my way to Shabbat lunch last week, manage to take a pretty bad fall down the stairs in my apartment. Luckily, no serious injuries, just bruises and lots of pain!
One of my education professors from LA was here this past week and I got to spend some time getting to know her. I'm getting very excited for LA!
As many of you know, last Sunday and Monday was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day). My friends and I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a very exclusive ceremony at Yad Vashem (Israel's Holocaust Museum) on Sunday evening. The president of Israel, Shimon Peres and Prime Minister of Israel Bibi Netanyahu both spoke during the ceremony. There were six torches lit by survivors who's stories were shown on a projector. Being at the ceremony was very moving, especially sitting amongst Israeli soldiers. Here are some pictures from the ceremony as well as a video clip from the end of the ceremony of everyone singing Israel's National Anthem, HaTikva.

On Monday, we had a memorial service at school. At 10am, a siren was blasted throughout Israel for everyone to stand for a moment of silence to remember. The siren has become political and some people choose not stand. I went out to the street with some of my friends and at 10am, people stopped their cars in the middle of the street to get out and stand. It was one of those experiences that you have to be in Israel to fully get. Of course as soon as the siren stopped, cars were back to honking and people went about their day. There will be another siren on Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial Day). After the memorial service, we continued at school with a day of study. I attended a discussion on "Suffering for Love" led by the director of the Year in Israel program, Yoshi Zweiback. One of our professors, Dave Mendelsson's (who will actually be coming to LA next year for the year) mother was in town and she spoke about her experience in the Holocaust. No matter how many times I hear survivors' stories, I cannot help but feel so grateful to be here today, practicing Judaism in such a free way.
Even though I am still here for five more weeks, things are really winding down, which ironically means, that school is extremely busy! I finished up my Liturgy paper and only have two papers left! Thursday morning I decided to go to Women of the Wall. I hadn't been since I last wrote about it. This was quite a different experience. I actually got to pray! With the exception of one man, it was quite a peaceful and prayerful experience. Nobody really bothered us.
Thursday evening we got tickets to go to the dress rehearsal for the Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel's Independence Day) ceremony. The ceremony took place at Har Herzl, actually right in front of his grave in the big plaza area. The transition between memorializing the fallen soldiers into Israel's Independence day was very much felt.
Friday, some of my friends and I decided to get out of Jerusalem and head to Tel Aviv for a day at the beach. We had a very relaxing and fun day!
It's Shabbat afternoon here in Jerusalem-one of my favorite times of the week. My window is open and it's fairly quiet outside. In a few hours I'll head to a park facing to Old City to share in Havdallah with several of my friends (a tradition we started in the summer).
It should be another interesting week of Holidays here in Jerusalem.

For now, Shabbat Shalom!