2011 NYC Trip

Sun­day, June 19

Melissa: After our late night in Times Square, we slept late, packed, had our Shacharit ser­vice in the boys’ suite, ate bagels and lox, and hopped on two vans to LaGuardia. We arrived back in Fort Worth Sun­day evening, exhausted but happy that the trip went so well.

Sat­ur­day, June 18

Mea­gan: On Shab­bat, we walked to ser­vices at Kehi­lat Hadar. It was a very inter­ac­tive ser­vice held in a room of a school. The ser­vice was a typ­i­cal Shab­bat ser­vice. Sev­eral peo­ple in our group were given hon­ors in the ser­vice. After­wards, we walked back to the hotel, made our­selves sand­wiches, and took much-needed naps.

We then split into groups to go to the JCC or Cen­tral Park. I went on a run through Cen­tral Park with Jerry and Sarah. It was absolutely gor­geous weather and the park was beautiful.

After Shab­bat ended, we walked across the Brook­lyn Bridge at night and then went to Times Square.

Fri­day, June 17

Dorie: Bright and early Fri­day morn­ing we embarked on our walk­ing tour of Bor­ough Park, a large Hasidic com­mu­nity in Brook­lyn. Step­ping off the sub­way, I felt like I had entered a time machine. The com­mu­nity func­tions much the same as it did in the mid-1900s in Europe. Among the places we saw in Bor­ough Park were a mik­vah for kitchen uten­sils, many yeshivas, and a com­pletely kosher gro­cery store. Our tour guide, Jeff, explained the Hasidic cus­toms to us, includ­ing mar­riage, school­ing, and chil­dren. For exam­ple, a Hasidic fam­ily has an aver­age of 9 chil­dren! At the end of the tour, I felt like I had a much bet­ter under­stand­ing of Hasidism and real­ized what a fas­ci­nat­ing group they are.

After a relax­ing after­noon at the hotel, we headed off to Con­gre­ga­tion B’nai Jeshu­run for Fri­day night ser­vices. Once there, we enjoyed a beau­ti­ful ser­vice that included a four-person orches­tra and danc­ing dur­ing L’cha Dodi. All of us were blown away by the ser­vice, and I hon­estly didn’t want it to end. After­wards, we had a pasta din­ner and were joined by Rabbi Cather­ine Clark and her hus­band (Rabbi Clark offi­ci­ated at our High Hol­i­day ser­vices back in the fall). Then we headed back to the hotel for a rest­ful Shab­bat evening.

Thurs­day, June 17

Sarah: We started the day at an Ortho­dox syn­a­gogue for Shacharit ser­vices. After much dis­cus­sion, the whole group came to the con­clu­sion that we are so happy we are Con­ser­v­a­tive. The way they prayed seemed more method­i­cal and habit­ual rather than spir­i­tual, joy­ous, and inspired. Not to men­tion the fact that the girls were so sep­a­rated, treated dif­fer­ently, and weren’t allowed to wear our tal­lits. All in all, it was an eye-opening expe­ri­ence that helped us gain a bet­ter appre­ci­a­tion for the level of Judaism we practice.

After that, we walked from Bat­tery Park to the Museum of Jew­ish Her­itage for an amaz­ing and com­pletely over­whelm­ing inspi­ra­tional tour given by both a Holo­caust sur­vivor and child of Holo­caust sur­vivors, Sami. Instead of read­ing the labels for the pic­tures and watch­ing the videos, we got a much more per­sonal tour from some­one who expe­ri­enced the hor­rors of the Holo­caust. We all learned things and were touched by Sami’s story of being exposed to med­ical exper­i­men­ta­tion in the Ukraine camps. Every­one left with a new respect for the mot­tos to “Remem­ber” and “Never Forget.”

After that inspir­ing tour, we ate at Taam Tov in the Dia­mond Dis­trict. We then walked around Rock­e­feller Cen­ter, explor­ing the his­tory that can be seen from the streets of New York. Com­pletely exhausted, we took a quick rest on the bus, and then vis­ited the main event of New York, the Empire State Build­ing. We got a tour of the city from an expert (Jerry), and enjoyed gor­geous weather as well as beau­ti­ful sights like an aer­ial view of Cen­tral Park.

Fin­ish­ing off with pizza and Chi­nese food, we hopped on the sub­way (or train, as New York­ers call it) with a feel­ing of suc­cess, hav­ing learned so much in just one day and been so utterly inspired. It’s some­thing we will always remem­ber, and def­i­nitely never forget!

Wednes­day, June 16

Benjy: So we started our day off by wak­ing up at the “kill me now” hour of 6 o’clock. After leav­ing the hotel, we made our way to the Man­hat­tan JCC, where we slept…I mean meditated…for a peace­ful 20 min­utes. We then took an all-inclusive tour of the J, and made our way to the roof top, where we could see the sky­line view of Man­hat­tan and downtown.

From there, we acquired our degrees at Colum­bia, then moved on to the Jew­ish The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary build­ing, where we took a tour of the cam­pus. We then read a few classics…you know what, that’s an under­state­ment. We got a good look at Jew­ish doc­u­ments that dated back to even the 13th century.

After grab­bin’ some kosher grub, we went to the world-famous Bronx Zoo. We saw such attrac­tions as Dora The Explorer 4D Adven­ture, rode a carousel, and rode a choo-choo train (yes, we are all in high school), as well as a plethora of rare and beau­ti­ful ani­mals. From the great mind of Mea­gan came this: “The best thing I saw today was the Dora The Explorer Adven­ture.” There even were ran­dom pea­cocks roam­ing around.

Any­way, we moved on to din­ner, and enjoyed some awe­some felafel, as well as pizza, for the lame-o’s. So that’s how life is so far for us Con­fir­ma­tion­ers in the Big Apple! Now I have to get some sleep.

Emily: The tour of the JCC was amaz­ing! They thought their 7-STORY build­ing was too small, which seems crazy to me because we don’t even have one in Fort Worth! I wish we did, how­ever, because it was so neat! Def­i­nitely big­ger and bet­ter than any YMCA. The tour of Columbia/JTS was also really cool and has led me to be inter­ested in attend­ing. I’m so used to being the only Jew at my school that it was so neat to seee an entire school ded­i­cated to Judaism and another one full of Jews! The Rare Book Room Pre­sen­ta­tion at the JTS Library was prob­a­bly my favorite thing today. I felt really proud and knowl­edge­able when­ever we were view­ing the old books and man­u­scripts because we know al the his­tory and peo­ple for them! (Most of them, at least.) And the lunch at JTS was DELICIOUS and so cheap!

Tues­day, June 14

Jerry: It was partly cloudy and in the mid-60s when the Con­fir­ma­tion class of 2011 arose and embarked on yet another day in New York City. We were all very tired from the jam-packed day before. We could only imag­ine what was in store for us today. We began our morn­ing with a nice Shach’rit morn­ing ser­vice in the boy’s suite. We led our­selves in a brief reli­gious ser­vice to wel­come in the morn­ing. From there we left the hotel and went straight to Bat­tery Park, where we caught a ferry to Ellis and Lib­erty Islands, and explored the life lived by immi­grants wish­ing to begin a new life in the United States.

To bet­ter our under­stand­ing of the con­di­tions and his­tory behind immi­gra­tion, specif­i­cally Jew­ish immi­gra­tion, we headed over to the Lower East Side, where we took a tour of the old­est East­ern Euro­pean syn­a­gogue in the coun­try. While we were walk­ing through the Lower East Side, we bumped into a famil­iar celebrity we knew. So we got the oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence see­ing one of our favorite movie stars. It was quite an experience.

We con­tin­ued on to the Ten­e­ment Museum, where we wit­nessed a liv­ing his­tory exhibit. We saw the liv­ing con­di­tions expe­ri­enced by most new immi­grants in the Lower East Side. We inter­viewed a Sephardic girl named Vic­to­ria, and we role-played in order to enhance our learn­ing expe­ri­ence. We took a lot away from this expe­ri­ence, includ­ing a bet­ter sense of under­stand­ing for the aver­age immigrant’s life. After the Ten­e­ment Museum, we took a jour­ney through Chi­na­town (Mott St., specif­i­cally) and had din­ner at a kosher chi­nese restau­rant called Bud­dha Bodai, where our taste buds soared and our appetites were overly sat­is­fied. If all this wasn’t enough for one day, we stopped in Grand Cen­tral Sta­tion to mar­vel at the archi­tec­ture and beauty of the renowned train ter­mi­nal. From there, we then returned back to the hotel to regroup and reflect on the day’s events. Day two: New York City = Success!

Sarah:
Although it was del­ish,
I ate too much knish
and now I’m going to walk around
just thinkin’ bout that dish!

Mon­day, June 13

Mea­gan: We got picked up at the air­port by a really funny guy named Avi.
Emily: After land­ing, we took a pretty inter­est­ing tour through Harlem with a Jew­ish tour guide, Jeff Alt­man of Time­line Tour­ing, and stopped at a syn­a­gogue, Old Broad­way Syn­a­gogue.
Max: This syn­a­gogue was kept open by a Holo­caust sur­vivor, Rabbi Jacob Kret.
Sarah: My favorite part of the day was prob­a­bly Fine & Shapiro (kosher deli) because it was the true real­iza­tion that you can eat all kosher AND enjoy the deli­cious food that NYC has to offer. Best pickle and corned beef reuben ever!
Bree: It was so cool see­ing Times Square, with all the bright lights and Broad­way shows every­where.
Mea­gan: Then we went to the mar­ket for gro­ceries (Fair­way), and it was fun. The most excit­ing thing was the market.