Nationalism and Holes and Rain!

By Emma Regev

I never know how to start these things!! ?? AH!

Nationalism:

This past Wednesday was a new holiday in Israel called yom aliyah. Aliyah literally means "rising up," but it's used in Judaism to refer to people moving to Israel. Aliyah is integral to Israel's existence as the state was built by people making aliyah to escape persecution in their home countries. The first few waves of aliyah to Palestine were in the late 1800s/early 1900s, mostly from Eastern Europe, followed years later by many other mass aliyot from places like Russia and Ethiopia. In celebration of this holiday, our program was invited to attend a big ceremony in Jerusalem as members of our sister youth movement, Hanoar Ha Oved ve Halomed (the working and learning youth). The event was, in simple terms, weird as fuck. As one would expect from an event solely celebrating the moving of people to your country, it was aggressively nationalist. There were a bunch of really-close-to-being-good performances, some awkward speeches from politicians, and a crazy half-hour long droning on from Israel's shitty, super right wing minister of defense who was wearing a polo shirt and facing away from the crowd the whole time. At one point someone was reading a speech on behalf of Israel's even shittier, on-Trump's-level prime minister, and his face was displayed on huge screens across the stage. It was very big brother-y. Even though the event was super strange, we got free food and it felt nice to all be wearing our movement shirts and representing our movement in public.

Holes:

Yesterday was Mira's birthday and one of the things they really wanted was to get an eyebrow piercing! It turned into a mass piercing party where about 15 of us travelled to the nearby city of Afula to get holes in our faces. I did a crazy thing and I pierced my eyebrow too! I really like it but I think its caused a bit of an identity crisis. Its always been a thing in my life that I don't know how to express who I am with the clothes I wear or how I appear externally in other ways. Also its a thing that what I look like on a given day really impacts how I see myself as a whole and therefore how I interact with people. Anywayyy, a large part of my identity has always been the innocent, silly, awkward Emma, or what my mommy calls "my squishy girl," so having an eyebrow piercing feels a little like that part of my identity is fading. I know its not though! And I've been making everyone call me squishy girl so that I still feel like one. You're welcome to join in :)

Rain:

Rain!!! Yayyyy!!! Today I woke up after a long, long night (we can talk about it on the groupme maybe but not here) and it was RAINING OUTSIDE!! At first it was disappointingly light, but then it got crazy!!!!! It was the strongest rain I've felt in a long time. We were all standing outside getting soaked from head to toe and shivering our butts off, but it was beautiful and refreshing and just what I needed.

Here are some pics :)





Our kvutza outside of the yom aliyah tekes (ceremony) :)

Left to right: Molly, Natasha, Emma, Hannah! A post-piercing pic. Also we're roomies :)

Holes in the face!! Tash pierced her nose :)

                                                    Rain!!!!!

More rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!




















                                                        Rain selfie!!!