December 9, 2014 —Paparazzi! Now I know what it feels like, and I can cross walking along the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards off of my bucket list. You see, it doesn’t take too long to find out that JWRP does everything in style.
After a long day of traveling, we arrived in Israel with tons of excitement in the air. My Denver friend and director of recruitment for JWRP, Ariella Milobsky, was there to greet us with a huge smile and a huge banner (and a gorgeous scarf wrapped around her head). We took a group picture and loaded our buses for our first stop, Tiberias.
[alert type=”info” close=”true”]Chaya Parkoff and Ellyn Hutt are leading a contingency of 13 Jewish women from Denver this month for the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project. Chaya will be blogging about the trip and the experiences of the group here on The Jewish Experience Blog. If you’re interested in joining the next JWRP trip, contact us![/alert]
After settling in to our rooms, we were addressed by our trip director, the zippy Tzippy Lieberman, and then took part in an inspiring talk from JWRP Founder Lori Palatnik, who challenged us all to raising the bar with JWRP’s campaign “Don’t Blame, Don’t Complain.”
Now, I’m sporting a wrist band that I will switch from wrist to wrist each time I catch myself complaining or blaming. The goal is to go three weeks without switching wrists. So far so good … but then again it is hard to complain when you are surrounded by 200 Jewish women from North America and Israel, not to mention role models like Lori Palatnik and Nilli Couzens. It’s also hard to complain when you are treated to an incredible dinner on the Kinneret. I have never tasted salmon as delicious as I did tonight.
Red Carpet treatment for sure.
But it was the dancing and the paparazzi that blew me away! There were photographers and videographers everywhere. The lights were low, the music was loud, and the dancing was through the roof. I felt like a movie star — but this movie is my life and the star is me! And this is the case for each and every woman on this trip. Almost all of us are moms, and we wear many other hats as well. This trip is the time when we get to connect with ourselves, our Jewish souls, and soul sisters and our homeland.
This is the mission of JWRP. Bring it on! Can you feel the momentum?
