Ready to Depart!

Hello to all of you avid blog readers who will be following this year's JDC/Tufts Hillel short term summer service trip to Almaty, Kazakhstan! My name is Adam Kornetsky, and I am serving as the student coordinator for this year's program and I am thrilled for all of us to finally get traveling! As I sit here just about 24 hours before our group will be meeting at JFK, its hard to contain my excitement for all of the incredible experiences our group is about to take part in. I am sure that many of the trip participants share with me the anticipation of trying to imagine what it will be like on the ground in Kazakhstan. We wonder not only what the culture, the city, and the natural surroundings we have heard so much about will look like, but we also wonder in what state will we find the Jewish community of Almaty and what we can do to help. We have fund raised and collected in-kind goods to present to various members of the Jewish community and we are so thank full for all of the support we received from family, friends, community leaders, and others. And so the journey begins. Tomorrow we will begin our 30 hour journey that will include plenty of travel games, perhaps a few hours of shut-eye, a wonderful day in Kiev, Ukraine in which we will visit with some members of the Jewish Community and conduct a memorial service at Babi Yar and finally 6am arrival on the ground in Almaty on Thursday (8pm, Wednesday, Eastern Standard time). Look for updates in the days to follow. This experience promises to have a drastic impact on the live of all who are involved and we hope it will serve as one more link in strengthening the global Jewish community. See you on the other side!