Famous People!

Yesterday, Nativ went to a MASA event in Jerusalem that featured speakers and workshops to prepare us for colleges next year, and it concluded with a speech by Bibi Netanyahu (THE PRIME MINISTER) and Hadag Nachash. I was also prominently featured when I spoke at the graduation for my MASA leadership program, and thus I joined the league of Netanyahu and Sharansky.

Nativ didn't go for the whole day, which was smart. We got there late and only had a few workshops before the grand finale. I enjoyed watching an interview with Natan Sharansky (recently appointed chief of the Jewish Agency) because he had a sense of humor and he seemed genuinely interested in the lives of the participants when they asked questions. There was a lot of security and many lines and a lot of waiting to do, so I got to frolic with my friends for a good portion of the day as well, and we even saw a wedding from the window!

Bibi sat two rows behind me (see picture above, he is seated beside Sharansky) and appeared quite disinterested the whole time, and in one of the introductory speeches, a girl said "thank you, Mr. Prime Minister" and he looked up for a moment. He really turned it on though, when it was his turn in the spotlight. His speech was great, from a speaking point of view, not incredible from a content point of view. He was very dynamic, didn't read from notecards or a teleprompter (at least not one I could see, and I'm pretty good at spotting them after four years under Mangione's leadership at Democrats Club), and he had perfect English. His speech focused a lot on making alliyah, which can be uncomfortable for some people, like me, to feel like that is the right thing or the Jewish thing to do (in Natan Sharansky's interview, he emphasized his support and need for diaspora Jews, and instead focused on the need to connect world Jewry with Israelis). Bibi was funny though, like when he started talking about the strength and growth of the Israeli economy in contrast with the failure of the economies in our home countries, and he said, "all those countries are great countries, great democracies, but this is YOUR country" and everyone went wild.

The evening ended with a rockin concert (picture at top) by Hadag Nachash (this is my third time seeing them: first at Cornell, second at the Yitzchak Rabin memorial) and they played all our favorite songs. It was fun to see how much more of their lyrics I understood now, as opposed to my first experience with them at Cornell in November 2008.

Today I worked on nativyerucham.weebly.com, spiced up the Nativ facebook page, showered with lice shampoo (Day 4 and still lice free!), and hopefully tonight I will visit my host family. Tomorrow is my last day of volunteering! Time flies....