Masa Israel Journey Blog

November 01, 2007

By Erin Kopelow

Through the combination of business, creative and educational exposure at the PresenTense Institute for Creative Judaism and the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, Matt Bar's Bible Rap Project has the potential to become an educational enterprise in Hebrew school classrooms around the world.

“I ain't heard a sound from your side just silence / my hands are the paw of a bear or a lions who is this you send for to face my violence /how you gonna send a boy to do a man's job with a sling and some stones like I'm nothing but a dog.”

These are words from King David: “I am Goliath!” -- one piece of Matt Bar’s rap collection in a venture entitled The Bible Rap Project. What started as a personal...

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And so it begins: Masa 2007-2008

September 02, 2007

By Erin Kopelow

Nativ director Yossi Garr is standing atop a picnic table. In front of him congregate the record 104 Nativ participants (2 more will be joining the following week), who have just graduated high school and have come to study and volunteer in Israel for one year.

Yossi has dragged his heavy eyed participants, who landed in Israel only a few hours ago, off their buses in order to assemble here by the road that leads to Jerusalem. Although the participants are tired, they are obviously excited and as they stretch their legs conversations begin to ripple though the crowd emitting an energetic hum.

Yossi has stopped at this particular location for a reason. In front of us, he explains, lies Jerusalem. Behind us Tel Aviv. To our right is the Castel, a Crusader fort which saw...