Wednesday, February 23, 2011

February 23

With a full day between myself and the Convention festivities, it is time for me to debrief. Unfortunately, there is too much greatness to share than I can fit in one post. Fortunately, it is my blog, so I can post as many times as I want. I will, therefore, post a little bit each night, for a total of five or six total posts.

First, I want to start with the most basic. NFTY is home. NFTY is home for so many different types of people. There were people there who had 1000 friends at their school, none as good as their NFTY friends. There were some there who had no friends back at school, and only were able to feel comfortable when surrounded by fellow Jews.

I will never forget how welcoming we were. I will never forget how WELCOMED I felt. I will never forget how amazing it was to see young Jews reach up to grasp their dreams, whether it be delivering a D'var Torah, singing in the teen choir, or shaking Dan Nichol's hand. It is unbelievable how much empowering goes on in our youth movement.

That being said, we cannot have this be this way if we don't work at it. For every moment that we enjoy our joy and peace, we must fight to maintain it. It is through hateful words and unkind actions that we can ruin all the work that was done before us. We need to be the ones who actively welcome everyone in, whether they have friends back home or not.

Everybody means the world to somebody. To NFTY, somebody means the world to everybody. And that is a beautiful thing.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

February 22

After a beautiful NFTY Convention 2011, here is just some of the response:

going back to school today was WAY too difficult. let's all go back to NFTY convention. please? ♥

texas ♥ convention ♥ nfty ♥

I said what's up Dallas. what's up? Jump on it! And by "it" I mean sexy potatos, beefsteak tomatos, floors shaking like an earthquake, Tony from Uganda, voices that don't exist, planes that leave too late, and so much more. I want to go back to Texas!!

NFTY Convention, what was your favorite/most memorable experience. 1 2 3, GO!!! ♥

I'm home. NFTY withdrawal time... :'(

listening to Jewish Rock Radio to help fuel my NFTY withdrawl

NFTY CONVENTION WAS AMAZING!! I LOVE Y'ALL

NFTY Convention was amazing!!! I miss and love you all, especially kutz 2010 kids

I will post my own words tomorrow. Tonight, I'll let NFTY do the talking.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

February 8th

The Superbowl is always a time of high excitement and enthusiasm. Whether you like to watch the game or just the commercials, everyone had something to cheer for Sunday night. The game was too close to call, the commercials were clever, and the half-time show was great.

We also have Christina Aguilera. Her rendition of the National Anthem was highly anticipated. They talked about it on Sportscenter, Pardon the Interruption, and on most other sports talk shows.

When it came time for the actual performance, she did a great job. Except for one line. She messed one up. She repeated part of one line, while skipping another.

On the news yesterday, the anchors discussed her performance and read some twitter posts (tweets) about it. Both of the first tweets said that she butchered the anthem and that she owed an apology to the nation for her ghastly mistake.

It is very easy to be critical of the girl's performance for someone sitting on the couch watching. I think these people have drastically undervalued the pressure that comes with this kind of performance. Millions of people all over the globe are watching you, waiting for you to start the game. It is no surprise that the pressure got into her head a little bit and caused her to bungle the words.

It is here that we all need to pause for a moment. We sing the National Anthem before sporting events to generate a sense of national pride and to create a sense of pride in our country before competitions. It gives us unity and it gives us strength. We, as a community, benefit more from having Aguilera botch the words, rather than having nobody try at all.

We, as a community, need to appreciate the value of the spirit of the words, rather than the words themselves. And we need to have a little patience. Although she is an international superstar, Christina Aguilera is still human. She is allowed to get swept away by the excitement and get a little nervous. We have to appreciate the fact that she had what it takes to do it at all.