Thousands of Lives Saved

                                                      

  By: Elon Ohayon,Grade 9

The Iron Dome is an Israeli invention that was made for the purpose of defending human lives. 

The system works like this: The device is aimed on the missile that was fired from Gaza or elsewhere. The target locks on the missile and fires a rocket at it. The missile and the rocket collide and explode in midair.

The purpose of this invention is to hit the missile before it hits the ground and harms innocent people.

Reflections from the Secured Room

By: Daniel D. 10 th  grade, Ort Afridar, Ashkelon

I wanted to share with you what I have been going through these past few days. Even now, as I am writing to you, tremendous explosions are being heard here.

As you know, Ashkelon, my beautiful city, is currently under missile attacks. As you already know, Ashkelon has been suffering this intolerable situation for several years.

Luckily, I sleep in the secured room, but not all people here are lucky. There are homes that do not have a safe room. Those residents should go down two floors, or hide in the stairwell. Imagine that you have 30 seconds to take cover. Before the 30 seconds are over horrific explosions are heard. When the “Code Red” siren goes off, I already know what to do. I close the window and close the curtain, and mother closes the room’s door. Lately, the window has remained closed, as there is no time to close it after the warning. Depending where you are you can have only 30 or 15 seconds to get to your safe room.

Going to the bathroom is a task, not to mention taking a shower. “Code Red" siren has caught us in some unpleasant situations.

In order for me not to get bored, since it is not easy to be indoors a few days in a row, I'm trying to keep myself busy like playing on my cell phone, board games and especially listening to the news.

Another thing I do while I am in the secured room is to be a good representative of our wonderful country. This is my second year on "Young Ambassadors” project. It is a blessed Project run by ORT, who explains our country to those around us. My mother and I, who is also with me on the project and coordinates it at school, do publicity through Facebook. I am in touch with people overseas, on a daily basis, by writing and by phone, and glad to hear they are supportive of us and give us moral support.

My grandparents live not far from us, but because of the situation we do not see each other, just talk on the phone.

Once in a while we are throwing out the trash, the siren catches my mother and me in the stairwell.

I love my country and know we have to be strong and eventually we will prevail.

                                                                

Advanced Technology in Israel - By Michael Terry

I never liked museums until I went on a trip to Jerusalem during a Bar Mitzvah process.  I had to learn Tefillin and wear a Talit.  We went to the Wailing Wall, then we went to a room near a cave and received headphones.  I thought to myself, “I’m not going in there”.  The Rabbi said to be very careful, stay with our group, and don’t touch anything.  I thought it was safe now that the whole group was going.  The headphones were there instead of a person guiding us through the tour.  We walked through the dark cave and felt the writing on the walls.  This had a cave-like atmosphere.

                As we made our way through, we came to a point in the tour where there was a glass floor!  Beneath the glass floor we could see 30 feet down and no one would budge.  Everyone was afraid of heights all of a sudden.  I thought I would fall as I had started walking, finally, the Rabbi went on across, leading our group and showed the next site in the tour.

                This was the most amazing part of the trip!  We then entered a virtual special effect room with holograms, lights, and a huge light mirror with reflections of everyone on the other side glowing.  As we moved on the tour, we went through a long stairway to a room of crystals and more glowing effects with different words on them and ancient signs on the walls.

                One of the reasons we were there was to read some of the stories in the Tanak and Torah through my Bar Mitzvah process.  We slowly made our way through the end of the tour and everyone was tired, mostly hungry.  As we came to the end of the tour, we gave our headphones to the woman at the end of the hall and then we left to go home, exited to tell our families about our big day! Now I take back everything that I said about museums.  After that experience, I feel that museums can be exciting and adventurous.

The Western Wall - By Shani Ozeri

The Western Wall is very tall. It’s about 30 meters high and 488 meters long.

The Western Wall is very special and it means not only to the Jewish religion. It is also important to the Islam and to the Christianity. When people go to the Western Wall, it’s mainly because they want to pray. (It has a special praying plaza.)

There’s this old tradition, that when you’re there you write a special wish or request from God on a little note, and you plant it in between the bricks of the wall. I for one, really love the Western Wall, and it is highly important to me and to my religion. Whenever I go visit there, I feel this great halo of sanctity and holiness around me.

When you come near there, you already start sensing all these great signals that something really intense is about to happen. If it’s the scent of an old concrete, or starting to hear people praying

so hard and with so much belief that they sound as one. And then after you’re there, you just can’t stop admiring the beauty of this great wall. (well, me anyway.) And then, as I touch this magnificent wall, I just start shivering and crying immediately. That much I care about this wonderful place.

As a Jewish and as a person who likes nature wonders I highly recommend to people to go visit there. Even if you’re not a part of any religion, it is still very exciting to witness this outstanding wall.

Azrieli Buildings - By Meriel Agadi

My favorite place in Israel is Azrieli buildings.

Azrieli buildings are located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Azrieli buildings has three buildings, according to the higher has a 49 floors.
I love them very much because they represent the modern Israel, and not how people in the world that portray us..

A lot of people visit every day Azrieli buildings, so loud in there but still has a nice feeling.
There’s a smell of “something new” and Justin Bieber’s perfume from Super Farm (-;
Azrieli buildings show people in the world, that Israel is a modern and beautiful, and it does not just desert and camels as people think .

Hope you liked my essay, and come visit Israel soon!

Love you a lot, Mariel.