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Vibrant and beautiful

My Israel Story – A kaleidoscope of colours

Abigail Greenblat shares the many shades of Israel she experienced while on BJE’s Nesiah program.

By Abigail Greenblat July 13, 2023, 6:30 am Edit
  • Enjoying the sunrise over the Kinneret.
    Enjoying the sunrise over the Kinneret.
  • Abigail Greenblat (right) with a friend on Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem.
    Abigail Greenblat (right) with a friend on Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem.
  • A tour guide enlightens Abi and her group on the Shvil Israel hike.
    A tour guide enlightens Abi and her group on the Shvil Israel hike.

WHEN I think back on the extraordinary experience I had on the Board of Jewish Education’s (BJE) Nesiah trip to Israel, I think about the incredible vibrancy and beauty of the land, and I see the many colours that came to form my own personal ‘Israel story’.

The first colour that stands out is white – that was the colour I saw as I looked out over the city of Jerusalem for the first time, feeling the thousands of years of history take shape. It was the inside colour of the little hole-in-the-wall synagogue we stumbled upon on a sunny Saturday morning, where the passion for prayer brought all my friends and myself to tears.

Red instantly brings me back to the many pomegranates my friends and I shared; the sweetest and most exquisite we had ever tasted, we used our hands to claw a handful of the precious seeds. Red was the colour of the Bedouin tents, where I and 170 of my new Jewish friends from all around Australia slept one night and learnt about the fascinating Bedouin culture. Red was the colour of the campfire that we sat around and sang songs as we looked out into the boundless desert.

And of course, lavender was the colour that I will never forget; the colour of the desert mountains that began to fade as the sun set, while my friends and I watched in awe from the top of an arid cliff.

Green was the colour of the magnificent and mighty mountains of the Golan, the spices in some of the most incredible food I’ve ever eaten, and the lush plant life managing to thrive in the desert that we observed on our hikes. Green was the juicy pomelos I picked at the kibbutz where I instantly felt at home, and at peace.

Yellow reminds me of the scent of lemons and olive oil that seemed to follow our group as we toured the beautiful Druze village of Isifiya. There, we adventured through sloped narrow streets of exuberant walls splattered with Hebrew and Arabic graffiti until we arrived at the top of its peak on Mount Carmel.

Finally, blue, a colour I’ll always remember as the eternal azure of the most spectacularly ornate synagogues and buildings in the mystical city of Tzfat. It made us all marvel at the beauty of the thousands of years of Jewish history, culture, tradition and its incredible resilience despite all odds.

The most moving and inspirational part of my experience in Israel was not any specific colour itself, but the kaleidoscope of incredible people I met throughout the journey. With Jewish teenagers from all corners of the earth, I had the most incredible conversations about Judaism and life in our own home countries. I heard from people who had triumphed through such immense pain and challenge, and people who were experts in Judaism, archaeology, nature, culture, history and conflict.

Being able to experience Jewish life and culture through the lens of so many varying Jewish communities, practices and time periods strengthened my appreciation for my own Jewish community back home, because it made me want to celebrate our own unique experience of Judaism out in the seemingly far-flung outpost of Melbourne, Australia. Here the sound of a tram rattles by in the distance as I engage in a Kabbalat Shabbat service. It’s the city where I speak and learn Yiddish, and where we celebrate Succot in the springtime as the flowers bloom and fill the air with the sweet scent of jasmine.

For me, visiting Israel made me realise how incredible the continuation of the Jewish people really is, whether celebrating Chanukah in a chadar ochel in the frosty Kinneret, or on the beach back home in Melbourne with friends and family.

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