Hello my friends!

First of all, I am so happy to continue writing to you from Israel. Last week, on Monday, I finally returned to school after more than 62 days at home. I was so happy to return to my school and meet my friends face to face.

And now a little bit about history: When Israel was a “young” country (about 60-70 years ago) most of Israel’s economy was based on the farmers and many Kibbutzim and Moshavim were founded (a Kibbutz or a Moshav is a very little town that was founded by few families). Near the city of Netanya, for example, many orange trees were planted and many of Nentanya’s citizens worked in the grove.

My great-grandfather and my great-grandmother did their “aliyah” from Budapest the capital city of Hungary to the Moshav of Be’erotayim, Be’erotayim, which is located in eastern Israel and actually just east from the city of  Netanya. Most of Be’erotayim’s citizens were Czechoslovakian and Hungarian Jewish immigrants. My great-grandfather and my great-grandmother had cows, chickens and also horses and they planted watermelon and corn plants. In Hebrew we call a farm – “Meshek”. In the 1970s my family moved to Netanya.  What I’ve learned from my family history is that only by a very hard work we got our one and only, state of Israel.

My school is called The Kfar Hayarok.  Kfar is a village in Hebrew and Hayarok is green in Hebrew – so, the “Green Village” in English.  Over the past number of years, Israel became a high tech empire and my school, which is also one of the best in Israel, wanted to keep the tradition and to continue to keep it’s Meshek – farm. Every year 9th Grade students need to work three hours a week in the Meshek.

I have the honour to be manager of the Meshek this year. My job is to decide who will work where and also what to do in case of bad weather (this week was 47 degrees celsius!!!). We have many cows, chickens and sheep and we also have a beautiful plant nursery. Some of my classmates work in our huge dinning room. I am so happy to continue my family tradition and also the entire tradition of Israel.

Usually my school celebrates the end of the winter and the beginning of spring time in the Meshek just before Shavuot holiday. Shavuot is also called “Chag Ha’asif” (the holiday of the harvest) and we celebrate another good year in our Meshek.

In Israel we both celebrate the “Matan Torah” combined with the harvest. Every year all of the students’ families are invited to visit the Kfar Hayarok’s farm and there are many exhibits that show the products of our lovely Meshek, like our dairy products, wheat and honey. This year unfortunately we won’t be able to celebrate in the same way.

On this occasion I’d like to wish a very happy Shavuot holiday to the entire AHS family.