Today was Dead Sea day! We started off by meeting Oded Rahav, the first person to swim across the Dead Sea. Oded met Amnon in the army, and he went on to become an activist and spread awareness of how the Dead Sea is shrinking. We also spoke with 3 members of Kibbutz Khalia. We met with people from this specific Kibbutz because it is so close to the Sea and their livelihood depends on it. Being the group leader, I interviewed Nir. Nir grew up in Israel and then came to the United States for high school. She decided to enlist into the IDF after high school and returned to Israel where she grew up. She wanted to move back because of her experience in America. Nir was constantly bullied throughout high school for not only being Jewish, but also Israeli. Antisemitism was a daily thing for her.
We interviewed Nir because she speaks both English and Hebrew. Nir believes that, in terms of saving the Dead Sea, we are way past the point of doing little things every day. She thinks that if our kids and grandkids want to enjoy the special place as much as we have, then bigger things need to happen. She says that a big organization needs to be created. One with people receiving paychecks, to make it their job to raise awareness and lobby the government. Although she doesn’t feel a strong connection to the sea itself (the smell of it), she loves her community and wants to see hers and many others continue to live in peace there.