Sorry - only a little time...

I had every intention of writing every day, but we left Paris early Thursday morning for Switzerland and after a full day of events we traveled overnight by train to Austria, (which will be an entire blog post on its own!). This is the first time since I was in my room in Paris on Tuesday night that I have jad access to the internet. I apologize.

I will leave you with one experience I had yesterday in Basel, Switzerland - as I mentioned we left our hotel in Paris and took a bus to the train station. Aboard the train - we had a three and a half hour ride to Basel Switzerland. I sat with 3 partners and we discussed issues of Zionism today. It was a pretty intense discussion, and before we knew it - we had another group of 4 join in on our conversation and then another pair. It kept on getting larger and larger - it was quite exciting and what was most amazing of all is how passionate we all are about Zionism. How much we love Israel, Judaism and how this motivates us to want to define our issues and find solutions to them! This is the true purpose of our trip.

Anyway - once we got to Basel we boarded a bus to downtown Basel. It is a very small town, so it was not far. We walked a few blocks until we reached the casino. No I did not go gamble. It actually has no gambling. It is a concert hall - but once upon a time it was where the FIRST zionist congress was held in 1897. We heard the details of how that day in 1897 came about, we had Israel's Ambassador To Switzerland, the head of JNF, the president of WIZO (Womens International Zionist Orgainzation) speak to us, (to name a few). As i listened to the speaches, I couldn't help but reflect at what this moment meant to me. Never in my life would I have dreamed I would be standing the this spot. In Switzerland, in Basel, in the Casino, and all in honor of Theodor Herzl. As I was thinking, we all stood to sing Hatikva. I started to sing, as did the other 120 particpants in the program. I looked up and saw the Israeli flag, and could feel Theodor Herzl there. I imagined him standing there in 1897 and how he would have felt if he could have seen us singing. I felt the impact of that day in 1897 and as I sang I started to cry. I had to stop singing - even if I didn't want to - as I knew if I kept singing I would have a puddle of water, by my feet, in a matter of seconds. It actually took me until the end of the song to compose myself. It was a moment I will never forget.

There is SO much to tell you, and I have even received some suggestions (Thank you!), but I have a half hour until Shabbat and I must get ready. I promise I will fill you in on more details and answer your suggestions too (Phil - yours was an excellent one!), just be patient - we leave for Israel on Sunday and supposedly I will have free time there.


Shabbat Shalom.