Well Helllloooooooooooo, Laaa Laaaa Laaaaa

First off, I would like to welcome my younger brother (as you can tell from the photo, I can't use the word little brother anymore), Avery, to Israel. He will be here for five-six weeks on the Ramah Seminar program. He arrived in Israel early Tuesday morning after spending a week in Poland. I met him at the Kotel later that night. (Note: there is very little hair under that hat. And if you can't tell, he has a Detroit Tiger's hat on [My Tigers!]) He brought me a portion of a once-large salami and I brought him some fruit and rugelah.


For the past few years, my parents have participated in the Wheels of Love bike ride to support the Alyn Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation Center and Hospital in Jerusalem. Monday morning, I went on a tour of the hospital to see what my parents have been riding for. Let me tell you that I was amazed.

They welcomed me with this big sign. However, I entered through a different door and didn't see the sign when I walked in. But my tour guide showed it to me, and I posed for this photo op.


The things that do with the kids are incredible. The hospital believes that every person should be given the chance to achieve their full potential, no matter what challenges they must overcome. Through countless forms of therapy (Physical, speech, animal, humor, music, swimming, etc.) and mixing education with rehab, the hospital staff does this. Some of the stories that my tour guide told me are amazing. Because there are some many inspirational things that I heard and witnessed, let me highlight the one that I found to be the most.

At the beginning of the tour, we walked through the educational wing and popped into some of the classrooms. In the auditorium, there was a group of kids on the stage rehearsing for a production of an Israeli play. Since all of the kids have unique restrictions, the staff finds ways for them to participate in the performance. The quadrapelic children used a device that allowed them to make sounds by pushing a button with thier chins. They were all wearing costumes too, which were draped over wheelchairs and crutches, and were also very cute. No matter how much a kid was limited by their disability, the musical therapist found a role for them in the production.

I was so enamored with Alyn after my tour that I decided I wanted to spend time volunteering there. Here I am putting together rider packets for next year's ride.


Some of the blog readers will get these packets in the mail, assuming I put them together correctly. In the future, I plan on working with the maintenance staff doing whatever they need me to do.

After my tour, I went to see the new Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. It was an impressive exhibit. I spent four+ hours trying to read and take in as much as I could, but I still feel like there was stuff that I didn't get to. I think that how they incorporate the individual testimonies within the greater exhibit adds a unique dimension. Even after touring the new wing, I still think that one of the most powerful parts of the museum is the memorial to the children.


After I finished touring the museum, I went to the cloakroom to pick up my back pack and ran into my high school Hebrew teacher, who was at Yad Vashem as part of a conference for educators and was eating in the cafeteria. Interestingly enough, it was in her class that I read Night by Elie Weisel and Dan Pagis's poem Written With a Pencil in a Sealed Cattle Car. It was great to see her, and she was very impressed with my Hebrew.

I also found time this week to sit in on a session of Knesset, Israel's parliament. I have spoken to some rather fluent Hebrew speakers who said that they couldn't understand what the ministers were talking about when they went, so I didn't go in with high expectations.

Here is what I got out of my 20 minutes watching from the public viewing area that faces the front of the room:
• They mentioned the prime minister several times.
• They mentioned the Gush Katif settlers and statistics about how they have fared since the pullout.
• I need to improve my Hebrew if I ever what to consider becoming an Israeli politician.

Noteworthy from my experiece walking through security: It was the first time in my life that I was simply called Jacob. For those that are not aware, Jacob is my middle name but nobody has every called me it. Each Knesset visitor must present their passport to the security desk, which gives you a sticker with your name and purpose. My sticker read: Robinson, Ian Jacob (except it was right to left and in Hebrew). Two theories about why he called me Jacob: He didn't know how to pronounce "Ian" transliterated to Hebrew or Jacob was the last name on the line so that was easiest. I will go with the latter.


Did you know that you are not allowed to bring books into Knesset? I walked through and forgot that my book was in my pocket. The security guard reminded me and told me to put it in the "cloakroom."