Whoa, I'm officially a Jewish woman. Unlike most girls, who become women at age 12, I became a woman at 20. Slow development! In all seriousness, the ceremony was pretty nice. There was a synagogue within Jerusalem's Shalom Hotel – yes, that sounds cheesy to use a hotel's synagogue, but any nearby ones would've been filled with ultra-Orthodoxers – with a real nice Torah and all. I said the prayers, and gave a speech that made a ton of people at the service weep. So many people that I didn't know came up to me afterwards telling me how much it moved them, and hugged me. I felt like Obama! Basically, my speech, which I just gave off of the top of my head, explained why I never had real religious eduation growing up and how my tumultuous childhood kept me from ever feeling as if I belonged to any family, and how Israel made me feel that the Jewish people on a whole are my family at large. At the military cemetery at Mt. Herzl two days prior, our guide explained how immigrants came to Israel after the Holocaust with no family left whatsoever, and when the country was attacked upon declaring independence in 1948, they joined the army and fought like hell for a place where they belonged, knowing that they themselves were the only ones who would fight for them. I used this story, and some other choice stories of Jewish survival of hard times, as a metaphor for my move to New York on my own and how despite my circumstances, I've kept on fighting. I can't believe I got a standing ovation and affected so many people like that! Someone even said I oughta run for politics. Shucks.

Later Saturday evening, we went to Ben Yehuda market and I picked up some souvenirs. I also got a cup of mint tea at a street cafe – they put real mint leaves in the tea here, and that amazes me. Sunday wasn't as comforting, when we walked to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial. I keep thinking about specific events, such as when 100,000 Jews and Ukrainians were slaughtered wholesale and thrown into the Babi Yar ravine in Kiev (thank you, Great-Grandpa Benny for fleeing Kiev in 1913 so you weren't one of them!), and the meticulously planned death factories such as Treblinka. There were disturbing images of starved, skeleton-like survivors taken by the Americans upon liberation, and films of hundreds of dead bodies being shoved by a plow into a mass grave. What shook me the most were the films of Jewish communities prior to the Holocaust, and the personal belongings of the victims. I saw movies of children dancing and singing, and of couples ice skating together, as well as wallet photographs of happy families. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend what could possess human beings to do this to other human beings. I held back my tears until we reached the children's memorial and saw pictures of little ones who had been exterminated. It absolutely broke my mind, and I wept bitterly, full of anger. I can't even properly express how I feel in writing – fucking Nazis. Motherfucking Nazis. That's all I can say.

That day, after lunch, we drove up to the wall between the Israeli and Palestinian territories on the West Bank, where there were bullet holes riddling the houses nearby. It wasn't a planned excursion by any means, but our guide wanted to take us outside of our comfort zones, and it was interesting to stand somewhere where a year ago, I'd have been killed. The wall was unfinished in this area, and I was able to stand on the hill overlooking the Palestinian settlements. I always thought when hearing about Arab and Palestinian settlements and villages that they'd be made up of shoddy shacks, but they're actually rather nice Mediterranean-style houses with pink roofs. Those West Bank settlements really looked like the wealthy suburbs of South Florida, and that's food for political thought. Either way, it's strange how this country is such a war zone, when aside from the occasional pockmarked wall, it's serene and beautiful in the majority of places. Quite the paradox.

In the evening, Taglit Birthright held the “Mega Event 2008”. There were 7,000 Jewish young adults from all over the world, gathered in a small stadium. Finally, I learned about the philanthropists who made this free trip possible for so many people. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who will likely resign soon due to a corruption scandal, addressed the audience on how he hopes they love Israel, and that Israel loves them. The event was also host to fireworks, great singers, and surprisingly non-cheesy sing-a-longs about peace in English and Hebrew. Something unsavory unfortunately occurred, and but I'll put it in another post. Regardless, there's something to be said for singing John Lennon's "Imagine" alongside thousands of others on a lovely summer's night in Jerusalem.