Day 3 - Jestin

Day three and complaints nowhere to be found. Walking through the streets anticipation grew as we went in to a room and got the five star treatments. Two speakers came in and inspired us with not only their words of wisdom, but also with things such as life, success, and completing our tasks. The first speaker Ed Koch was a former mayor in New York and taught us how to deal with issues that are both personal and true to what is going on right now and how to stand up for ourselves. The second leader named Letty Cotton Pogrebin taught us how important it is to fight for what believe in, and that in certain situations you can rise above the occasion and beat what the status quo believes you can be.

Walking to our second destination game was on! We walked through the streets of New York and worked out. The ADL or Anti Defamation League was a real eye opening. We learned about what the program does and how they operate. We also learned a lot about stereotyping and how to stop it before it comes up. Our lives and legs were both craving more fun.

After lunch we found ourselves headed towards Chinatown. New signs, and people graced us as we made our way to the oldest known synagogue in America. When leaving we headed towards the Tenement Museum. We enjoyed our hosts and their creative way of bringing us back two centuries really worked because now we actually could walk through a tenement and see the people who actually lived there. Our question “What is an American?” struck up many different ideas about who America really was. The conversation was nice and really showed where us were at ideas at the moment.
The final moment of the day was synagogue. B’nai Jeshrun was fun and creative at the same way. Dancing, singing, and fun interactive situations really added to what made the moment nice. All the males wore Kippahs/ Yamulkes and we really were thrown into the service. The best thing of service was the end. All of CL and the class leaders all went down to the front and reached arms around each other as the congregation sang and admired what our program did as a whole. It opened our eyes about how important this program is and how much we have to do to make sure that we do what was set forth for us to do.

The final walk back to the hostel was a long and tiring journey. Feet hurting, our mind was ready for pizza and relaxing. Another long day that changed our lives. We are yet learning….. Everyone’s well!