Summer 2016

At the GIVE WEST banquet tonight, two NCSYers shared reflections from their summer experience here on GIVE WEST. Read them here and be inspired as well! THANKS YOU ALL FOR READING!

Speech #1: Mattie Lefcoe (Virginia Beach, VA)

Earlier this year I was talking to one of my very close friends about my summer plans and what I wanted to do. Last summer she went on a cross country trip with her mom and said verbatim “everyone is always traveling to different countries when our country is beautiful on its own.” I never really looked at it from that perspective of that I have such Bracha right in front of my eyes and instead of focusing on that I always saw what I didn’t have. A little while after I had this conversation with her my parents won the ncsy Purim GIVE raffle which means I’m on this trip by the grace of Hashem for free. I took this as a sign that Hashem wanted me to see his wonders that I so called took for granted. When I got here and started traveling and seeing all the amazing things we’ve seen I realized that the experiences of the west coast wasn’t something I took for granted rather than what I have in my everyday life. As many of you know for a while during the trip I was having some phone complications – thank you ima and abba for all your help – yes it was an inconvenience and annoying to not be in touch with my friends but I was forced to look out my window literally and see all the amazing things I would’ve missed if I did have my phone. Don’t get me wrong I was totally okay with getting my phone back. I know that midnight mission was an experience that none of us will ever forget but I want to talk about what it meant to me. As I was leaving when the 11th and 12th grade went I over heard girls saying it was fun and they had such a good time, things like that. It got me thinking about how I felt about the whole thing. Leora Suissa can definitely vouch for the fact that I pretty much almost lost it the whole time we were there. Seeing the pain in some people’s eyes vs. seeing the strength in others. I went from wanting to cry tears of pain to wanting to cry tears of happiness based on the strength I saw in some of these people. When I left I was in pain because I had heard about this part of the world but I never really knew it to be true until I saw it for myself. I don’t like to think of myself of someone who takes things for granted because I know that everything is from Hashem and she’asi li kol tzarki everything I have I need and everything I need I have. Before GIVE I never really had an appreciation for chessed the same way I do now. It inspired me so much everyday to see everyone with bright smiles excited to help others and when I go home I really want to do more for my community. I saw this summer right before my eyes that one small gesture can make a difference for someone’s day.

And while I’m Talking about people who made a difference in everyone’s days Leah, Adina, Rina, Shayna, Yehudis, Daniella, Isaac, Sara, and achron achron chaviv Leah you guys literally made this summer the best summer ever so when ncsy was making the shirts and bags they were talking about u guys.
If I had the time I could go around and say something about everyone and how they made my experience here special and honestly it comes down to the girls who were here. Every morning I would wake up and thank god for the amazing new friends I have. I have learned so many things from everyone whether it was how to dab, how to say Cinamon in Hebrew, or how to sleep for 6 hours at most every night and still be a functional person the next day – well kind of. My point being that I have formed friendships and bonds here that some people aren’t even fortunate enough to experience in their whole lives and to make it even more amazing I got to know all of u and spend time with all of u while having the time of my life.

Speech #2: Eliana Raskas (Silverspring, Maryland)

There is a Hebrew saying אל תסתכל בקנקן אלה במה שיש בו ; we are not supposed to look at the outside of a jar but rather what is inside the jar. Whenever anything new in life comes about, it is very easy for me to judge on a superficial basis without knowing what’s on the inside. Give West has taught me that the inside is what really matters regarding both new friends and the Chesed we did. Over the course of this summer at a few of the Chesed opportunities, the people leading the program for us, had previously served time in jail. Once they revealed that to us, my initial reaction was to distance myself from them. However, after seeing an inmate at the LA food kitchen, and Carlos from midnight mission, and how both of them turned themselves around and made themselves such better people after their time in jail, my perspective changed. Those men were a lot more than just their jail record. They were men who transformed themselves and became such better people on the inside and I can learn so much from them. If they can completely change themselves on the inside then I can take small steps to improve myself and my way of treating others. However, this idea regarding judging based on what is in the inside is not only about people; it was also very relevant for our Chesed activities. Remember places like the midnight mission or the old age home where a lot of us were not so excited before we went in. Some people like me were nervous and overwhelmed. However, once we had done the activities, we all felt super accomplished and felt like we had achieved so much. This new perspective which we gained through doing Chesed, is one that will stay with us forever.

As our favorite song from give west says:
העושה מצוה אחת קטנה בשמחה
יגלגלו לו לעשות מצוה גדולה מהראשונה

Someone who does one small Mitzvah gets a little bit of happiness; but it will lead him to do a mitzvah greater than the first one. I feel that all these small Mitzvahs that we have been doing throughout Give West, will lead all of us to make a greater difference and to do even more Chesed.This program is hopefully just the beginning of our life of giving.

But these Chesed activities and touring would not have been possible without all of you .You all added so much to my summer and made it a truly amazing summer for me. I really cherish all the friendships I made and really hope we all keep in touch.
We are all also super lucky to have had an incredible staff that really saw us for who we were on the inside. They all saw the greatest potential in us and helped bring it out over the course of this summer.

To our 5 amazing advisors: You guys are the best!!! You made amazing Chaburas that taught us all so much and it was so fun to chill with all of you this summer.

To the best assistant director, Sarah: Thank you for making incredible rooms, leading inspiring shabbos discussion topics and groups, and for always just being around to talk to.

To Daniella and Isaac: Thanks for being such a devoted camp mom and dad. The food was amazing throughout all of camp and thanks for just being there to talk to and listen to all of our food requests!!!

To Leah, the most incredible director I could have asked for: you were such an inspiration to all of us throughout the whole entire summer! Your amazing shiurium, your inspiring stories, and your time and devotion is really what made this summer one of the most inspiring Summer’s for me.

Overall, I would like to thank the entire staff as for making this the Best.Summer Ever.

So my Bracha to all of us is that we look not on the outside of the jar but on the inside. That we don’t just judge and look at things by their cover. It is looking inside of people and only judging after truly experiencing that will help make the world a better place. Hopefully, all of us will continue to increasingly take on more Chesed challenges wherever we are, so that together, we can take on the challenge of making this world a better place.

We can’t believe that today was the last day on GIVE WEST. The day started out early in the morning as we boarded the buses to Deschutes River Rafting! The white water rafting was a blast — the perfect last activity of the summer. We got wet, bonded, and swam through the rapids as well! After drying off and a yummy lunch outside, we headed back to Portland, changed, and got right back on the bus for the GIVE WEST banquet! After a delicious meal in the JCC, the advisors presented each GIVE WESTer with a super cool GIVE WEST zip-up, after reflecting about some of their greatest accomplishments this summer and most admirable character traits. The night ended with a re-cap video, chagigah, and tons of pictures (of course!) as we said goodbye to all of our new GIVE WEST friends. This summer has been unbelievable, inspirational, and SO MUCH FUN. Thank you all for reading our daily blog, coming on this trip, and we cannot wait for summer 2017 to begin!!!!!

We survived the drive to Portland!! We finally pulled up to the NCSY office in Portland to daven and eat breakfast after the long overnight drive! We even found a Starbucks close by to energize us for our last GIVE WEST chessed of the summer. We excitedly headed to Camp SEED, where “it’s fun to be Jewish”. Camp SEED is a program open to all Jewish kids in the Portland community, whether they have a background of Jewish education or not! We had the opportunity to join in teaching them Jewish values and having fun with these awesome children! When we arrived, we split the GIVE WESTers into three groups each doing a different activity with the kids. The girls had the biggest smiles on their faces while dancing and playing games with the adorable kids. After dancing our socks off with the children of Camp SEED, we ate a delicious lunch in the park and then headed to the Portland State University housing to settle in and rest a little before our crazy afternoon. The entire GIVE WEST packed into a jet-boat ride to be splashed and spun around in the water!! The girls had a blast getting soaked, speeding down the river, and seeing the beautiful scenery of Portland. We then headed to the JCC of Portland for mincha and a yummy dinner. After dinner, we went to the gym and played a huge game of dodgeball and lineup. We can’t wait to see how tomorrow ropes the excitement that we had today!

Yesterday, we had a meaningful fast day in Sacramento. In the morning, we learned about why we fast on Shiva Asar BiTamuz, we learned in chaburas, and then the advisors role played various scenarios on what it means to act with sinat chinam versus ahavat chinam in our everyday lives. We concluded the fast day with a program on how we can implement ahavat chinam into our schools. The GIVE WESTers that go to the same schools joined together and brainstormed ideas about specific chessed projects and campaigns they can implement in their schools. Then we had a powerful activity that spread the ahavat chinam on our program. Everyone sat in a circle with their heads down. One by one, we chose a girl to come to the middle and posed a question like, “Tap on someone who inspired you this summer.” After this activity, the girls felt uplifted and empowered about themselves and their ability to contribute to those around them! After our break-fast, everyone packed their bags to prepare to head to our next destination: San Francisco.
Today was an amazing day in San Fran! We started off at the Jelly Bely Factory, enjoying all the goodies! Then, we had a blast walking across the Golden Gate Bridge through all the wind! It was so fun!! Next, we headed towards Union Square, where we took a trolley to Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman’s Wharf. We loved the amazing weather in San Francisco and loved seeing all the touristy shops! Then we had a unique experience of going to the Chabad family in Berkley, California for dinner. Rabbi and Rebetzin Leads provided us with a barbeque dinner in their home, and told us about their amazing experience of being a Chabad Rabbi and Rebetzin on a college campus! The girls really enjoyed hearing from them and loved schmoozing with them and their family. After our dinner, we headed out for our overnight drive to Portland! Here we come!!

On Friday, we continued our road trip heading from LA to Sacramento. Although the ride was long, it flew by for the girls as they enjoyed hanging out, learning with advisors, and watching A Walk to Remember and Inside Out! When we arrived in Sacramento, everyone got ready for our last Shabbos on GIVE WEST 2016! We made the most out of this Shabbos by soaking in all the inspiration and fun. We had an incredible tisch on Friday night which introduced the theme of Shabbos of Bein Adam LiMakom, man’s relationship with G-d. We had a blast enjoying all the singing and the Shabbos treats. On Shabbos day we joined the Sacramento congregation for a communal Kiddush. We then learned, ate lunch, played an exciting game of Fee Fi Fo Fum, and then had free time filled with games and learning! We ebbed Shabbos away with beautiful songs while hearing inspiring words from our advisors of their personal views on what it means to have a relationship with G-d. What an awesome Shabbos!

COLOR WAR in the house! What a fantastic day filled with teamwork, unity, and fun! The red, white, and blue teams all worked incredibly hard today to give their all to color war! Whether it was the basketball games, Chidon haTanach, cheering, dancing, and singing, they succeeded in making the day memorable! We have such a talented group here on GIVE WEST, and between last night’s talent show, and color war today, we were so privileged to see their talents shine in such a productive way! This morning we had a unique opportunity to livestream into YOM NCSY in Israel, a day where all the NCSY summer programs in Israel join together! Although we were across the world, it felt good to be a part of it virtually! After we announced the color war winner (GO BLUE!), we had the chance to wear our BEST.SUMMER.EVER shirts to the beach, where we ate dinner, and hung out by the water! What an awesome ending to an incredible day! When the girls came back to AJU, they packed up all their belongings because believe it or not, we are leaving Los Angeles tomorrow morning!! Sacramento, here we come!

Today on GIVE WEST we started off the day with chesed at the LA Food Bank. We unpackaged donated food and sorted it into categories. We sorted 9,360 pounds of food, which is 7,775 meals for the poor! After the LA food bank we headed to the Grove. At the Grove, we enjoyed a delicious lunch, shopped around, and took photos with our guest photographer Jonah Light. After the Grove we then headed to the friendship circle of LA. We met the founders of friendship circle who divided us into 5 different groups to help them prepare for their summer camp. After making bulletin boards, mason jars, and cutting up letters, we headed to an awesome dinner at pizza world. Following dinner, we headed back to AJU and had the epic annual GIVE WEST talent show. We saw sign language, dancers, lip syncers, comedy, actors, and even a pianist. Congrats to Cayla Muschel and Sorah Baila Fink on the big win! We better rest up, off to Habitat for Humanity in the early morning. JUST KIDDING!!! After curfew the advisors broke out COLOR WAR!!! Teams red, white, and blue started preparing for tomorrow’s full day of color war events! Happy Color War!!!!!!!!!

Blog written by: Yael Cinamon

What another amazing day in LA! The GIVE WESTers hopped on the bus this morning with much excitement to go help out at the LA Kitchen! When we arrived at the Kitchen, we were briefed about the purpose of the LA kitchen- to feed the elderly, homeless, and to train men and women in their culinary skills. Then, they set us up in the kitchen to cut and peel cucumbers, mushrooms, lettuce, potatoes, and tangerines! The girls had a blast doing this chessed as they were taught by the chefs as to how they should properly cut fruits and vegetables! For lunch, we ate delicious pizza at PIZZA WORLD! The girls had a fantastic opportunity to visit the Museum of Tolerance where they split up into two groups and were led by the two most amazing tour guides. They educated us on the Holocaust, hate crimes, and terrorism. The goal was to inform, remember, and gain strength and inspiration to stand up against people who are intolerant. After we ate dinner, we made our way to Moonlight Roller Skating Rink where we all skated away and had a blast!!