The day we had been waiting for has finally arrived, NCSY Kollel 2013!
150 NCSYers with their parents packed Terminal 4 at JFK Airport. After check-in we headed to the chapel area where we were greeted by David Cutler, Director of NCSY Summer Programs, Jen Goldman, the assistant director, and literally hundreds of slices of pizza.
Even with a slight delay on the runway, we landed on schedule at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. We loaded the buses to Beit Meir, the campus of Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim, our home for the next six weeks.
The first full Kollel gathering took place at 5:00 with mincha in the Beis Medresh. Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, Director of NCSY Kollel, gave a short orientation and introduced some of the talented people working with us this summer including Mike Kahn, our head Madrich, and Andrew Israeli, our Co-head Madrich.
After dinner we headed to the Old City of Yerushalayim. Our first stop was the roof of Yeshivat HaKotel with its unparalleled panoramic view of Har Habayit. Andrew Israeli spoke about the opportunity and potential that we have in front of us in the next six weeks.
We had the special privilege of davening maariv as a group at the Kotel.