Zoey

Zoey י"1 Profile Since I was in third grade I was positive I was going to be in Frisch. Both my parents are alumni and I used to go to basketball games. When they told us that we were going to do this project with you guys I started basically screaming "That's my school!!!" Yeah, my teacher wasn't so happy about that. I was in the Chabad nursery school in Tenafly and then in Moriah until seventh grade, so I think I know a lot of you.

I really love it in Israel. I only miss a couple of things really, like blueberries and Six Flags. But the positives make up for the negatives. There's one amazing aspect of Israel I can't get over. It only really occurred to me relatively recently. In a book I was reading, there were several mentions of the Yupik people, whom are the natives of Alaska and have probably have been there thousands of years. I found myself thinking about how lucky they were, to know that this is there land as long as they can remember… you may think it odd, but I didn't see the parallel to Israel immediately. I suppose it's because either I haven't lived here long enough or because we were in exile for two thousand years. But the idea stays the same, Israel was ours, is ours, and will be ours. Our roots are too deep to look elsewhere. (Wow that came out corny.)

A couple of random things about me: When I was in fifth grade I was thoroughly obsessed with Harry Potter. I nearly cried when I didn't receive my acceptance letter to Hogwarts that summer.

I know all of Jack Sparrow's lines in Pirates of the Caribbean (1) by heart.

<span style="color: #1b7960; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">I'm a Bnai Akiva counselor in an Ethiopian community in Talpiot as of next week. I'm not going to have time for anything, and the bus rides are going to kill me. (I have to take two public buses to get there and on bad days I'll have to hitch hike.) But it's worth it. When I went for Shabbat to check it out, I fell in love with the people and the whole feel of the place. There was one thing that was really phenomenal that I realized during my stay was this: the people have gone through experiences fit for history books. A few days ago in a seminar for counselors I sat across from and Ethiopian counselor who moved to Israel when she was ten years old. She remembers how they traveled to Sudan on foot, about the thieves that hijacked them, and the total culture shock they had when they got to Israel and had running water, electricity, and real tile floors. These people are history happening now. I can hardly wait to start. (1/31/11- I started about a month ago and my campers are amaaazzziiinngg!!!!!) <span style="color: #1b7960; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">Anyway, I think that's good enough for this profile. Can't wait to work with you! (Also, Israel<span style="color: #1b7960; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">'s awesome, you should totally move here!)