InKredible Kids
A podcast with Kosher content geared toward empowering Jewish kids of all ages. We interview kids from around the world and have many interactive segments for all kids to enjoy. While having fun and learning new skills, kids will hear about responsibility, empathy, confidence, and more!
InKredible Kids
My Aliyah Story: From Texas to Carmiel - With a Harp in Hand
In today’s episode of the InKredible Kids Podcast, we’re hearing from a girl with a fascinating story — she moved from Texas to Israel years ago and now lives in Carmiel, a city that looks and feels very different from places with large American communities.
She shares what it was really like to adjust to a new country, a new culture, and a new language, and how over time she found her place. You’ll hear about the challenges, the surprises, and the ways she’s grown — plus some unexpected hobbies and interests she’s been able to explore along the way.
This conversation offers a thoughtful look at change, resilience, and discovering who you are in a new environment — and it’s one both kids and parents can learn from.
✨ Episode Sponsor: Rachel’s Place
Today’s episode is brought to you by Rachel’s Place, which is presenting Giolio: The Musical — an all-women, girls-only theatrical production.
Giolio is a magical, wholesome retelling of the classic Pinocchio story, filled with music, movement, and wonder. It’s designed to be enjoyed by girls, moms, and grandmothers together, with no one feeling left out of the experience.
📍 Location: Brooklyn, New York
📅 Show dates: February 28, March 1, March 7, and March 8
🎟️ Tickets go on sale: Sunday, February 1
If you’re looking for a meaningful, fun experience to enjoy together — this is one to check out.
👉 Get tickets and learn more here: https://risecharitableproductions.org/
Hey kids, welcome back to the next episode of the Incredible Kids Podcast. My name is Laura Searies, and I will be your host through this incredible journey. We are going to meet many incredible kids. They're going to share with us their stories. Some of them super cool and different like you've never heard before. And some you may say are just ordinary, but all of them incredible. If you have great ideas, email me today at iKidspodcast at gmail.com. And now it's time for Incredible Day! It's time for the joke of the day! Yay! Today's joke is brought to you by Hadasa and Sarah Esther S from Atlanta, Georgia.
SPEAKER_08:Why did the boy bring a ladder to the shell? Because he heard the rabbi say that we have to elevate our government.
SPEAKER_00:Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Incredible Kids Podcast. Before we get started today, I want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by Rachel's Place. And I'll tell you a little more about them later in the episode. But just very quickly, Rachel's Place is presenting Giolio, the musical. It's an all-women, girls-only production. It's coming really soon at the end of February, beginning of March, and tickets will be on sale this Sunday, February 1st at rise charitableproductions.org. And now, back to today's episode. I'm really excited about this one. Today you are going to hear from a girl who made Aliyah from Texas to Carmiel in Israel. You'll hear about her life, how she acclimated, how she got used to a new place, what surprised her, what she loves about it, and you'll discover that she has some really, really interesting hobbies. Hopefully, this episode will give you a window into what other kids' lives are like, and I think a lot of kids and their parents will find this really fascinating. We asked our Israeli listeners, what is your favorite part about living in Israel? Here's what they had to say.
SPEAKER_07:Hi, I'm four years old. My name is Yao. The reason that I love living in Awakiswell is because I live so close, I wish I lime.
SPEAKER_06:Hi, my name is Yaakov and I'm 10 years old. The thing that I love most about living in Israel is that I live in the Holy Land. Hi, my name is Loma. I'm six, and it's fun that we always go on trips and on rides. It's fun. Hi, my name is Ali. I'm eight years old. And what I love about living in Israel is that I have a lot of friends.
SPEAKER_09:Hi, my name is Shani and I'm 12 years old. I made Alia when I was two. What I love about living in Israel is that we can go to the slime and chuck a lot of times a year. I also love it that basically everywhere we go they have kosher food. Hi, my name is Taylor Fox and I'm 12 years old. I made Aliyah when I was nine. And what I love about Israel most is that we live pretty close to the Kota, so we could go there very often.
SPEAKER_05:Hi, my name is Atarabin and I'm 11 years old. I live in Bait Chamberlain, and my favorite part about living in Israel is the like amazing like sights and stuff.
SPEAKER_00:And now for today's interview. Miri, Miri, how do we say your name? Miri. Really? Yeah. I love that. I love that. You know why? Because my sister's name is Miri. So many people make the mistake of pronouncing it Miri. Do you get that a lot?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, friend, her name was Miri and she would hate when we would call her Miri.
SPEAKER_00:Correct. Cause it's just not her name. I totally get it also because my name is Ciri. So people call me Tsiri and it's just a different name. I still answer them. I don't ignore them, but I do appreciate when people pronounce it correctly. So Miri, okay, good to meet you. Thank you for bringing me on today. Of course. Tell us where you're joining us from. Let's start with that. Okay, I'm joining you from Carmiel, Israel. Okay, you're gonna have to explain a little more than that because it's not like saying Yerushelaya and the Kosal. It's already something different for a lot of people. Where is that?
SPEAKER_01:Carmiel is in the Galilee, in the north of Israel. Somewhere close to the border of Lebanon, but not that close. That's pretty high up.
SPEAKER_00:Pretty much. You're in super northern Israel. Israel is like a little skinny country. If you would just go up, up, up, you have the Galil region. What are some of the famous places that are within driving distance close by?
SPEAKER_01:Akh, as people call it Akra, Heifa, Tzva, Tiberia. I think like that's pretty much one of the famous the famous ones.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh. Okay, cool. So it's Carmiel, where you live. What kind of neighborhood is it called? Is there a name for the kind of neighborhood it is? What do you mean by night neighborhood? I don't know. It's not a kibbutz. Does it have like a neighborhood?
SPEAKER_01:So it's pretty like normal. It's way, way, way like way smaller than like your towns in America. We're pretty small. It's uh Russian, Israeli tiny bit Arab population, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:You're not Russian or Israeli.
SPEAKER_01:American, yeah. There's also a b uh actually a pretty a nice k American community.
SPEAKER_00:I know that your family came all the way from Texas. Yeah. How long ago was that? I think six, almost seven years. It's been a long time already. Does it feel recent? Does it feel like a hundred years ago?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I still remember the process of making Elliot. It's like pretty recent, a little bit like I don't know, so in the middle.
SPEAKER_00:It's not like a distant memory, but you're kind of used to it. Okay. Okay. Six, seven years is quite a long time. How old are you? Twelve. And what grade is that? Seventh grade. So you're in seventh grade. I mean that means that you were ready in elementary school.
SPEAKER_01:I came in, I think, in the middle of kindergarten school, right? The one before first grade. Uh-huh. I learned basic Hebrew, like which I can walk around and talk about in a month, a month and a half. Every single thing the my uh teacher would say, like every story and everything she would say, my friends which were American would all translate to me every single word she would say.
SPEAKER_00:Like in real time. Like she would say a few words and they would translate. Pretty much, yeah. Well I think so. Because you literally had no clue what she was talking about.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's rough. Especially for someone that age, where like everything is so new in general, a whole new language.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I went with my sister Estaliwa. She really didn't know anything. She was three then. She had a few years of kindergarten, too, I think. And she was with me, so I can help her in learning and Hebrew. So she was with me the first year.
SPEAKER_00:I'm curious to hear, like, I know you were probably not part of those initial deciding conversations where parents, like, you know, something obviously inspired your parents to move to Israel. Do you know anything about that? You were very young to be like part of the decision making.
SPEAKER_01:I think before they got married, they already thought about it. One day they said, okay, I think this is time to make a learn. We're at my mother's friend's house because we left, we sold the house. She's also lived in Dallas. We lived in Dallas, Texas. So we walked to her and we stayed over there. And then went to New York to my grandparents' house when my parents had their pilot trip.
SPEAKER_00:A pilot trip is explain what that is. It's very uncommon for somebody to just like, you know, pick up and even if you've been to Israel 25 times, but if you never had the mindset of we're gonna move here, we need to look to see what neighborhoods work for our family, schools.
SPEAKER_02:This is my home, this is the place to be.
SPEAKER_01:Pretty much my parents get out, even looking at the house. They were at Shabbat, someone in Carmiel's house. They like the community so much, they didn't really even check like their house, which we live in till today. They bought before they even checked it. That's how much they like the community over here.
SPEAKER_00:Sight unseen, they call it. Yeah. Carmiel is an interesting choice. So do you know what brought your family to Carmiel and not like Ramapi Chamesh or Ushalayam, where a lot of Americans tend to move.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, in Nefesh Banafesh, where we talked over there today about moving, the lady which we talked to, not me, my parents, she was in maternity leave. So someone from Carmiel talked, and she's like, come to Carmiel, check it out. They didn't have time before Shabbos, really. So they're like, Okay, we're just gonna go to Carmial. And then they went to Carmiel and they decided they want to live there.
SPEAKER_00:They went to her for Shabbos to the Nafesh but Nafesh lady.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. She has a whole family, girl my age. We we actually were friends. She greeted me first to kindergarten and she helped me.
SPEAKER_00:So your parents were basically going with like an open mind, and they were like, you know, we want to go to Israel, we wanna move to our specific plan necessarily of where or what then this was Heshgacha.
SPEAKER_01:They didn't really want to live in one of the places with like everyone over there is American.
SPEAKER_00:Right. No, you're integrated into a community. You mentioned before, it's a smaller population. It's almost like living out of town, probably, in Israel.
SPEAKER_01:We have in English, we have English class. So we have a special class for the ones who speak um English. We have the biggest class in the school of English speakers, 13 girls, which is a lot for the population. Shout out to them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's amazing. That's so great. That means if you have a lot of English speakers, they could all be incredible kids listeners. Because unfortunately, unless we translate the podcast into Hebrew, most Hebrew speakers would be very lost. I have to ask how you know about incredible kids.
SPEAKER_01:So we got the 24-6. We were scrolling around, looking around, and I looked in the podcast and it says it looks interesting. So I listened to the first one, and I was right away like this this is what I want to be listening to. Bingo! My sister started also looking at it, and Drew says we're doing this as a surprise for her. Oh my god. She doesn't know at this. So Esther Leba, you said her name is? Yeah, shout out to Esther Libera, which that's enough. Shout out, Esther Leba.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we don't have to whisper it now because she knows whenever she hears it. Oh, that's so cute. I love that. That's so fun. Are you very close, you and your sister? Tons of one. Closely in combat sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:When we're close, we like calling ourselves twins. She's 10 and I'm 12. So not exactly twins.
SPEAKER_00:And when you're not feeling very particularly close, we're not gonna say what you call yourselves. I think everybody knows exactly what we mean. Sibling rivalry is real. I think it's so cool that your family actually did it. A lot of people talk about moving to Israel, making Aliyah. A lot of people don't talk about moving to Israel making Aliyah. So for some families, it's a dream and it's just so hard to make it work. So it's incredible that it actually worked for your family. And for some families, it's just not even a conversation. Maybe they didn't grow up with that idea or know anybody who did it. So I think it's so cool that there's kids who are gonna listen to this and hear your story. The truth is we did an episode about making Aliyah a long time ago. It was our second ever episode, and it's been almost three years now since that episode came out. So we need to revisit the topic because there's so many more kids and everyone's story is different.
SPEAKER_01:The truth is I got some sort of inspiration for it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:One of them said he has two snakes in their house. I was always dreaming about having a yeah, I was always dreaming about having a snake and no one. And that was like, seriously, people really have snakes, it's not gonna be the weirdest person in the whole entire world. And my baby fought for my boss mitzvah snake. That was your boss mitzvah present? For my Bubby. Yeah. And where is it right now?
SPEAKER_00:Your snake. In his cage. In his cage? Hold on. So Nathan, who mentioned he has snakes, inspired you to follow your dream of getting a snake? Yeah. Look at that. That's so cool. It's like a snake in Israel, you know? It's like double whammy. It's not just like a snake and he lives it somewhere else. That is actually really funny. What kind of snake is it? Corn snake.
SPEAKER_01:And you and you hold it and stuff and like it like I was dreaming about having a really big one, but they only had small ones, so we started from the small, and then it's gonna get bigger. Right now, you have to hold it in your hands and it goes around your fingers, he gets stuck in your hair. Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_00:It's recent. You're 12 years old. How long ago was your bath metzpa?
SPEAKER_01:It was in January.
SPEAKER_00:That is so unique. Where did a dream of having a snake even come from, though? Like most people I know, these are girls.
SPEAKER_01:I was two ants which have a snake. When I'm with snakes, for sometimes it makes me feel like more calm and kind of like people feel like when they hold like rabbits and stuff like that. Like the cold on your neck. And I don't know. I slide a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Are you very sensory in general? Like you like different feelings of things and pretty much, yeah. Because I could see that actually, like the coolness and also the weight of it. Yeah. Wow, that is so interesting and different. So I guess you had that exposure. You said you have two ants with a pet snake, which is very not typical. Somebody was just sharing with me that a lot of people have a fear of snakes.
SPEAKER_01:Every single girl I told my class where we have a snake, each one of them was like, is it poisonous? Is it poisonous? I was like, I wouldn't have a poisonous snake.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know exactly the studies that were done on it, but a lot of people, a lot of humans on earth have a fear of snakes, and certain cultures have bigger fears of snakes because if you trace back their history where they came from, it kind of like gets passed down in your genes. It's like when you have like an intense fear of something, and it could be that like they grew up in an area that's like a desert, and maybe someone did one time get a poisonous snake bike. Because if you think about it, yeah, it's crazy because why are people like me living in thank god a neighborhood that does not have poisonous snakes ever? You know, like why are we scared of snakes? It's not a real risk to our lives, but we're still so scared.
SPEAKER_01:That's because of Carmel. We're on mountains, really pretty mountains. Me and my father, we like going on hikes. We have a dog, we go with the dog on hikes. Actually, something interesting is also one time on one of the hikes, we found like something from a missile, like before there was the war, which is just now, which it means it was like ancient. Like, and we found it in the middle of nowhere. That was super cool. But with the time we were walking, and suddenly we hear this sssss, we didn't know what it was, and the dog started barking. We weren't exactly sure what was happening. Then we looked back and there was this giant aloe in black, like one of the dangerous ones, but we were enough far away that we didn't need to stop and stand for life. You're able to move. Right.
SPEAKER_00:What would you do if you saw a poisonous snake? You know what to do?
SPEAKER_01:I'm supposed to because there's like a nice amount of poisonous snakes over here because we're on the mountain. Because you're in the mountain.
SPEAKER_00:So you have the reason to perhaps be nervous about it. Yeah. But you're just prepared. And we like to say we're not scared, we're prepared. What would you do? You seem to know.
SPEAKER_01:I think you're supposed to just stand up, not move, don't talk. And like you should never probably go on hikes by yourself without any adults and tell yourself our adult. So, like you'd have an adult with you, which wouldn't help you do it. And if you're in the street, there's gonna for sure be people around you and you can ask someone for help or something like that.
SPEAKER_00:Probably every single muscle in your body and your brain is telling you, run, right? Like that's what you would wanna do, but that's probably a really dumb thing to do. Yeah, that's gotta take a lot of self-control. It's like almost like with a bee. It's not gonna sting you if you stay absolutely still. How many people do you know stay absolutely still when a bee comes near them?
SPEAKER_01:No one.
SPEAKER_00:I always think it's funny when you see people doing like the bee dance, it almost looks like crazy when you're like running away from a bee when no one else knows that there's a bee. It's like from far, you see this person.
SPEAKER_01:I think only like some psychologists would be like the only person that like they somehow know how to like make their emotions out of all these different weird things. They're probably like a phabi good, then they want to move.
SPEAKER_00:You're saying people that have a lot of self-discipline. Yeah. Yeah, it's something cool that you can work up to. But now we did mention that you are in the north of Israel in a gorgeous area. I know that a lot of people who go on vacation to Arit Israel will try to go to your region in the north. There's a lot of fields and vineyards, maybe wineries. And then, of course, the major cities that you mentioned before, Ako, Saifan, all of that, all the way up there. My favorite place to visit in Israel, which I've not been to very recently at all, is Rocha Nikra. I love it there. It's so pretty.
SPEAKER_01:My currents were just there after.
SPEAKER_00:It's so pretty. But also, you know, all because you live kind of near there, it's not like next door, it's still a trip. Yeah. You're up there in the north in this beautiful region of Aris Israel. Also, it's fast, Mayron, like you mentioned as well. It's also not far. Yep, I forgot.
SPEAKER_01:Actually in um Mayrone. It's like really, really close to me. Like how far? So close. Like on Lag Boomer, all the buses stop over here. Because otherwise, it'd be terrible traffic. Log Boomer, it's packed in caramel suddenly with Hassine and wow, interesting. Because they can't all camp out there. Mm-hmm. Actually, I was uh on uh Mishbaha. I was a kidder party. Yeah, I did interviews with the kids in my own and around. No way. Could check Logboomer, last year. Yeah. You're chasting off and botchless screen.
SPEAKER_00:That's so fun. Because you're like the locals. Yeah. You're hosting all this crowd. That's so fun.
SPEAKER_10:Let's dance with them, shiver, shiver.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, let's take a quick break and then come right back as the conversation's about to get a lot more interesting. Okay, right from the start, let me be clear. This is an all-women girls-only show. Moms, daughters, grandmothers, aunts. It's the kind of experience that actually is meant to be shared together. Let me paint a picture for you. You walk into a theater, the lights dim, the music starts, and suddenly you are pulled into a whole new world on the stage. Rachel's Place is presenting Giolio the Musical, a brand new, beautiful retelling of our favorite Pinocchio story. Our kids don't even remember that story, probably, but will be nostalgic for so many of us. But this time, told through the eyes of the father. It's a story about family, love, relationships. It will have you thinking about your own relationships, friendships, mother-daughter bonds. It's filled with magic. There's singing, there's dancing, movement everywhere. So much happening at once, you won't even know where to look. Shh. Kids are gonna be laughing and singing along. Mothers are gonna be watching and feeling the emotion of it, and the grandmothers will be smiling and nostalgia will kick in for all of us. This is one of those rare shows where every single age is enjoying at the same time. The hope is that you are going to walk out and say, I am so inspired and I feel so entertained. And you'll notice how the inspiration will carry over into your life after the show and show up in different ways. This is a wholesome activity. It's an appropriate activity, it's the kind of night that you are going to talk about and cherish for years to come. Here are the deets. Tickets go on sale this Sunday, February 1st. The show will be in Brooklyn, New York with performances on February 28th, March 1st, March 7th, and March 8th. Tickets will be available on the Rachel's Place website, risecharitableproductions.org. And I'll put the link right in the show notes. Honestly, this is such a beautiful mother-daughter, girl's night out, or even a three-generational outing if you're lucky enough. An experience. Come on, we need to have more of those. Rather than all the stuff that we accumulate and keep buying, let's give our family experiences they'll love and cherish. Those are always the things that are worth saying yes to. So, who's going? Be sure to go to risecharitableproductions.org. Tickets go live February 1st. And now back to my conversation with Miri. Tell me what it was like at the beginning of the war. Let's go back a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:I think my father's friend a long, long time ago, he worked in the army and he's like, can't really tell you, but my advice is that you should make a mad, the bomb shelter. So we made a bomb shelter. We finished it on October 6th, 2023. You were working on it like on Homamoid? The workers.
SPEAKER_00:We lived only upstairs. That's I'm in the mod right now. So where is this? Is this like the main floor of your house? Yeah, downstairs. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:We did like a big construction. So that's like the biggest nice.
SPEAKER_00:That's the day before October 7th. Yeah. That is really, really unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01:So Kostatora in the shool, everyone was like starting to run around and moving. And like, we're not in the south. They're like, okay, there's like bombs that we're like, okay, we're used to it because like the south gets a lot of sirens and stuff. Mostly Shabbos, we all living upstairs. We were all felt like a little stuck inside of. a tiny house. This is a farming, the kids before we know. And we we wanted to go outside. My mother said, guys, I don't think this is the right time to go outside. And we're like, what why? She's like, okay, I'll tell you guys. A lot of people got killed today. Kansas I can remember what her words were. Right away every like started like I guess crying and screaming because it was like a big deal. And we right away we got like this big box. It's actually still right here in the Mohammed. And we filled it up with pajamas and clothing and food and in case there's a siren. The first siren we got was on the 10th of October. This is our first siren that we were all like in this empty room with a dishwasher because we were busy making also construction in our kitchen. It was like really scary because my uncle, he's a soldier, he was like, don't open the door even if someone says he's a police. Everything's like going super fast and my father had to put that tool I think it's called a range on the door to keep it closed.
SPEAKER_00:We all slapped in there. So most of the war in the beginning from October 7th those first few days, weeks months a lot of the war was fought in the south. Yeah. That's where they were attacked. That's where they were fighting attack.
SPEAKER_01:Okay and then Hezbollah it's the terrorists of Lebanon they started attacking us and we would get like one or two or like more sirens a day and like it's dangerous. Like they don't fall in your slime that much. But like for us like houses next to us like missiles were falling down and that was really really scary.
SPEAKER_00:Some of the houses in your neighborhood were hit by missiles.
SPEAKER_01:A car or there's a car which went on fire from getting hit by a missile like crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_00:It was much more real to you because you're so close to the northern border. You're so high up in Israel. Like we're not that high but we're closer. It's more of a risk in Yerushalayah it's more central so they get a siren it's a warning you should listen to it but it's not often that it's actually gonna land there.
SPEAKER_01:And then one of the scariest ones I remember me and my sister were sitting at the Mamad like Stam with the door closed you're listening to the boxcar children. You know what that is? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah like book on tape audio.
SPEAKER_01:So you're listening you're listening to one of the poison frog I think it's called and my sister this is still a still the same person.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Same sister. My twin the one that sometimes is your twin and sometimes is not yeah yeah and she said I think if there's a siren so I was like okay turn it off.
SPEAKER_01:So then like automatically you know when there's a siren you open the door you scream there's a siren right so I opened the door of the mamad I screamed there's a siren and suddenly I hear my mother yelling to you please come help me. She was holding two children also she was expecting my baby sister then I went up to go help her. Right when I got to the top the siren stopped and like even before the siren would finish there was like the most loudest booms you heard your whole life like houses are falling next to you and like not really houses are falling next to you but it's like this what sounds like that's what it sounds like yeah yeah so I ran and I got one of my sisters and we ran back in and we were stuck over my father was a night sitter learning. We even made up a name over there for like when your teeth I guess like when you know when you're cold and your teeth jump whatever they're chattering because of nerves. Yeah because we were scared. Yeah my sister Rosie her teeth started chattering whatever you call it and we named it popcorn because like that was the scariest timing we didn't come out until my father came back. I made up I don't know some line or should we set to make us feel better each time.
SPEAKER_00:In such a scary situation you need to do things like that to like make it lighter because it's just too much. Kids are not supposed to have these experiences. It's not okay.
SPEAKER_01:My two year old sister she already knew how to how to do the siren noises and it's all she remembers. She thinks that's normal. Yeah it was like the scariest scariest thing but the one siren which like you would think is gonna be scary we got like the second to most sirens after Tel Aviv but it was funny. We're like okay there's gonna be a siren we had no school we had fun my mother didn't tell us we have to do the school like we had a school on the phone like we would have to listen we're saying beforehand you didn't have so many warnings like you didn't know there was gonna be a siren. They were like so how yeah we would have a warning and be like okay there's a warning and everyone ran to the mad and then the siren would go off and everyone would be like oh yay there's a siren and like all this like it was fun. How crazy is that but you have to look at it that way right? Yeah then I had to say like this is not as funny as you think because people which are like in Tel Aviv it's not as good as it is for us over here.
SPEAKER_00:So we said keeping the balance of taking it seriously but also just like letting yourself enjoy and have a good time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah and then for three weeks we were off of school and then we came back to school and instead of learning for the last six days of school we only have parties each day did different trips and parts you guys needed that it's like whatever we'll catch up on learning a different time you know pretty much not the priority.
SPEAKER_00:I think that was a good choice that they made you've been through so much of these constant interruptions to your life after you've been through all of this how have you grown from it? How has it made you a different person or a changed person?
SPEAKER_01:I mean it was easier to domin then because like you had something to domin for also like somehow like feel a little more um connected to Amisrael in what way did you feel that connection more I also felt like this is like the giant Israel and there's like people like yeah we're in the same country but I felt really big.
SPEAKER_04:Then when when there was this war everything like became small so like we're all together we're all in the same Ahmedra unity unity unity unity even throughout the world but for sure even within Israel because there's so many different types neighborhoods and sections part and and somehow everything really mattered it felt like family being affected.
SPEAKER_00:You brought up in the conversation how you had these different tricks to kind of make things silly even though you were scared and you even made a name for your teeth chattering you kind of made a joke out of it so that it felt like you're a normal person. And I also know that music brings you comfort you play a really interesting instrument.
SPEAKER_01:Okay I play harped it looks kind of like a shape of a heart it has a lot of strings which connect I had like the small version of harp which I just played in the uh the last three weeks ago I played in the National Harp Contest.
SPEAKER_00:Wow yeah so if you were standing up where does it come to on you your harp the one that you play? To here. To your chin. Okay sorry for my chin.
SPEAKER_01:And then if you would be playing a full size harp we're talking about something that could be massive massive massive a few centimeters over my head like a head over my head yeah yeah it's crazy that that's the mini version right actually one of my highlights at the contest was they had a thing of all these different kinds of harps and I asked if I can play on the giant harps and just it felt like so like special and like it was like this giant thing on me so but it costs a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00:How did you choose a harp that's so unique.
SPEAKER_01:Okay so the sort's not that cool I was pretty musical my grandfather said he'll sponsor for me um music lessons that's generous I really wanted to play violin and my mother said that's like too squeaky to be playing especially if I don't know how perfect. So the practicing is painful for the listeners yes yeah but then what I wants is perfect perfect so we looked like what they do what should they have another conservatory like in our city while other instruments suddenly we see this like harp and it's like what is this instrument? So my mother checked we looked at all the different videos of what harp is and it's like yeah I want to play harp and then we started harping my sister she's five also just started harp.
SPEAKER_00:So you're starting a new trend in the fam. I think that's so beautiful it's definitely not like a cool instrument it's much more of like a classy soul stirring music calming to play.
SPEAKER_01:Yes and David Mala when we think of a harp from the Torah I mean that's what comes to mind David Interestingly I thought was interesting because when they had like the harp contest like they have a name and then they have like a pasuk from Penach but they picked something literally it said like kinor which is that violin and then it said um it's small like they wrote the mal harp but there is pasuks where it literally says over there the harp so I thought it was interesting but it really is a violin in modern Hebrew but it's also a kinor is a harp.
SPEAKER_00:What do you call a harp in Hebrew?
SPEAKER_01:Nevel. Neville I just thought about yeah both languages it's heart because it looks kinda like a heart but not exactly Nevel. The two last letters if you change them around it's live which is heart. Okay. And in English if you take out the P and you put in a T, it'll be heart.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting mostly the whole country couldn't send representatives to be in this challenge this competition.
SPEAKER_01:I played three songs Jerusalem of gold Uzundara which is some kind of like Turkish dance in Swan Lake actually in the middle playing in the contest itself the harp made this like little tick noise whatever and then when I got to playing that piece one of the strings like sounded like really off of tune. Imagine like I'm in front of like this whole entire thing. Oh my gosh. And then it didn't sound right so the one she was in charge of the harp contest she's like does he know how a tuner used the tuner to tighten the string yeah yeah and then my teacher came she checked and she's like okay the strings didn't break she finished saying the strings didn't break the strings broke at the spot so they had to take it away. Oh yeah yeah it's like something you cannot plan for you didn't find the right like my kind of harp so I got um my friend she also plays harp like it's like a different harp it sounds different prettier different amount of strings but I played it and I did it.
SPEAKER_00:They say roll with the punches you rolled with that punch right? Yeah I'm sure you practice tons on your harp and then you come and it's like wow. Do you play any Jewish music on it or you're not up to like inventing new things.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah so um at one of my Hanukka parties in school I like bringing my harp for only that and one year I did it with a girl my pastor and she played keyboard and I sound like see she's like playing by ear and I was like that's so cool I kind of want to do that too. It's such a bummer I can't then like I came home I was like okay I'll take a try. So I started playing a genu and suddenly I noticed I could do it. Since then I like asked people to give me names of songs and I try to play it and put it as well that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:That's so cool. So you didn't even realize that you really were more talented than you thought like you just hadn't tried playing on your own. That's so amazing. It's such a peaceful instrument I've never met a kid who plays the harp it's so different and beautiful. You know you did move to Israel and even talking to in the last bit that we've been talking like I almost forgot that you ever weren't in Israel because you're so comfortable and you have so much that you do on a regular basis and you're used to your community and you have your friends and you have your hobbies you're nominated by Mishbacha magazine to go be the reporter in Mayro and a lagbaomer like you're so comfortable and you have all this going for you but you are a girl from Dallas, Texas originally.
SPEAKER_04:I'm still a country ball but now I'm alive to dream come true do you ever think back to that?
SPEAKER_00:Is there stuff that you miss? How are your feelings about the move now?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah okay the two friends that I remember like really from I've met them both already one girl I met her two years ago in a restaurant in Lakewood. Lakewood brings everyone together yeah that other one came for Bus Mitso to Israel actually Mr. Bus Mitzo itself but whatever. And then we came to visit them and they came to visit us. So we met with them and then she keeps sending me letters but it's so hard to send letters from here. It's not like you put it in your mailbox and it sends you have to go all the way to the edge of the city go to the that place where you send mail like the post office the post office and yeah it's so hard. I've been trying to send her back letters but it's too hard so it's hard.
SPEAKER_00:Communication is hard as it is and then overseas and time differences and all of that is so so challenging for sure. Yeah. Now that it's been almost seven years or whatever.
SPEAKER_01:I made new friends over here. So I kind of like they're like gone but like they're not gone don't hustle so long. Like they're less than like what I remember and stuff like that. But I still like I remember that once in a while a lot of times I have dreams about um about your old friends. Yeah. Oh it's so sweet. I have a dream we met this like in a cafeteria in Mexico City Oh that's super random.
SPEAKER_00:But like it just goes to show it goes to show that like your early childhood friendships and memories really stay in your way we think and in our minds and hearts as we grow older. Even if you don't consciously remember them on a regular day, you know? It's very cool. It really makes a difference in your life. When you bring friends to your neighborhood and when you have people visit like this girl who came from Dallas what are you proudest to show them okay so like usually my seven year like bringing them around Crimea not just Crimea but like the whole Israel like what places I would bring them.
SPEAKER_01:Okay so in Israel I don't live here as a tourist this is where I live still unless I think about it like I like hiking so I'd probably bring them to hike. I do like the Negev, the south like the beach like those are all the places that you're nice.
SPEAKER_00:And what's so cool about Israel, the whole land of arts Israel is that there's so many different climates so many different types of activities that you can do and so many of them have holy you know they're written about in the Naviam and you can be standing on a mountain somewhere and you can say oh well this is the place where this rabbi from Perkyabos he said this on this mountain. Around Carmel there's a lot of them of the history. Of the history for sure and it's so cool but just in terms of like the nature aspect and the beauty and Hashem's beautiful world all different types and then the history and all that together that's why going to Artisrael besides for the holiness and the connection we want to have to Hashem is such an amazing place to explore and discover. I want you to share a piece of inspiration or advice to kids who either new Olim to Israel like they recently made Aliah and they're still going through the struggles of adjusting or to kids who are going in the next few months or they know that they might be going and they have certain questions, worries about it, what would you tell somebody kind of in your situation six, seven years ago?
SPEAKER_01:Living in Israel is a big schos and even though it's like hard at the beginning as it says I can't remember where but Erit Israel Nick next based I mean like you have to get it in like some hard things. So like first you don't know the language. It's acquired through challenges basically pretty fast if you like talk to your friends like somehow you're gonna learn Hebrew like for sure it's gonna happen. Yeah and even if there are some hard things sometimes it is hard and sad and scary but get over it together. Like I'm Israel Khaik everyone's together everyone's connected and together we get over it.
SPEAKER_00:I think also especially your advice which is so beautiful is inspired by the last two years of being in a war. Yeah that's what most of what I remember saying correct I'm saying but when you got there it was a much different environment right now like you know people probably think in America like oh my gosh you probably walk around scared all day is that true no no way not at all no way we're not scared I think in America we worry about you more sometimes right in that respect. Yeah we get over stuff like together and happily Miri it's been such an absolute pleasure to meet you you're making me really homesick for it as well right now as we're speaking but I've never been to Carmiel before and I can come come visit me next time I think it's such a cool place for people to put on their itineraries.
SPEAKER_01:It sounds like a wonderful place to live kudos to your family yeah can you make a few shout outs for sure yes okay so shout out for my twin Esther Luba and of course Rosie Emmy Dida and Pelly all girls which are the best sisters ever and they also listen shout out to all of you and to my friend Ayala I'm so happy that we got to meet thank you so much for being part of Incredible kids.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for having me and now it's time for homework oh come on not that kind. After listening to today's episode let's think about change moving from Texas to Israel Miri had to discover change different language different culture different lifestyle I want you to think about a time that you had to get used to something new maybe a new school a new class a new activity a situation that left you feeling a bit uncomfortable in the beginning. Ask yourself what was hard what got easier and what did you discover about you that you didn't know before and if you're listening with a parent talk about it together. Or if you're listening with a friend or a sibling and if you're listening by yourself talk to yourself because those moments of change they're usually the ones where we grow from the most and I just want to take a minute to thank every single one of you for being the best listeners ever to the Incredible kids podcast. If you enjoyed it make sure to follow us share with your friends especially someone who loves hearing real stories from kids just like them. A big thank you to Rachel's place. Make sure that you go check out their website risecharitableproductions dot org also find the link in the show notes and grab those tickets the good ones will go fast live on February 1st that's this Sunday you will not regret it.
SPEAKER_07:Well everyone until next time are you an incredible kid send your story to iKidspodcast at gmail dot com subscribe to the incredible kids podcast thanks for listening and remember you are all incredible kids
