Hello. I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing in the slightest. School’s over and yet here I am typing up a homework assignment for icnext. I gotta be honest, I have no clue what I’ve gotten myself into when it comes to icnext and Israel. And yes, I am fairly excited for this trip but that’s mainly the idea of walking through the streets of Israel. I can already say with full confidence that someone is going to make a joke about returning to the “motherland” or something to that extent as soon as we land in Israel and I can say with the utmost confidence that the joke is not gonna be funny.
Look, I have no problems with icnext. Amnon and Tina are genuinely funny people who clearly know more about Israel than I do. Put it this way, I’d rather go to Israel with Amnon and Tina then with a professional tour guide who just recites the same dull monologue over and over again. Of course there is also Zach Reizes. I happen to like the lessons we have with Zach, he tries to really get anyone and everyone involved in the state of Israel and the conflicts that it’s going through. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is ridicously annoying to try and understand of course, and I get its importance. But that doesn’t make it all of a sudden the single greatest thing to think and talk about. But Zach does a good job of making it easier to understand. Finally there is Dr. Noah Bickhart. The lessons with him can be interesting as the passages we read are weirdly fun to look deeper into…though some are not. Despite this Noah Bickhart himself is a very engaging individual and I do appreciate him trying to get us to actually think – and sometimes argue with one another – and find deeper meanings in passages meant to expand our perception and understanding of the world around us. But, my favorite part of Noah’s lessons is definitely how anytime a question is asked, he always, and I mean always, answers back with another question. It is frustrating but hilarious when he does this, but I realize (or maybe I’m just assuming for no good reason) that he’s trying to get us to think more for ourselves and learn that their isn’t always one right, solid answer.
Something I was told by multiple icnext veterans, is that icnext is very much one viewpoint and nothing else. I went into icnext with this mindset. But I gotta say, I was wrong. Now, I do feel that overall icnext is great at looking at everything from different angles. This results in moments where I am challenged in my thought process and feel as though the world viewpoint I was looking at has a ton of blindspots. Ultimately, here I am, leaving for Israel in just a few days time. I have no clue what’s in store for me in Israel, but boy, am I excited.