ISS: July 26 by Leah Bessner

When originally being faced with the task of planning a day about Judaism on Tisha Be'av, such an important day in Jewish history, my group and I were stressed out, however we took a step back, thought about it and discussed and decided that we should base our day around loving our "brothers" since the reason why the second temple was destroyed was due to baseless hatred.

We spent our day at Beit Cohen, a home for adults with special needs that provides them with the care and support they need; including helping them find work and live normal lives. Before volunteering with the people living there, we had a few activities and discussions. Since many people were fasting, we kept the day pretty relaxed. We learnt about how the court works and had our own debate, we did some teamwork activities and read some stories of people in the times of the destruction of the temple.

Later in the day we had a workshop run by our staff about memories and what forms our personal identities and the identities of our cities/countries. It was very interesting and helped us reflect on what truly formed who we are today. Finally it was time to meet the people living in Beit Cohen and despite the language barrier, we had tons of fun doing arts and crafts and making mobiles with them. Then we summed up the day, handed the power over to the Culture Day committee and went back to our host family's homes.