By Arielle Ladin

Today was another great day in the city that never sleeps. I personally love New York City and have been looking forward to this portion of the trip all summer. Our first outing of the day was to Ellis Island. We took the ferryboat from Battery Park and set sail in the footsteps of our ancestors.

Ellis Island was the first stop of many immigrants when they came to America. We learned how the voyage to America took many weeks and that many of the immigrants had their last names changed and had to pass medical exams and wait in long lines for citizenship. We were able to walk all over the Ellis Island Museum and also see the walls of the names of many people who immigrated to America. It was an amazing experience and I even found my great grandfather’s name on the wall.

Our next stop of the day was Wall Street. This is one of the wealthiest intersections in the world. We saw the New York Stock Exchange and spoke about how what happens there ties into the American Dream that our ancestors came to America in search of.

Next, we made our way to Ground Zero. We first stopped at St. Paul’s Chapel. This church is located in front of where the Twin Towers stood. This chapel is now a memorial to the 9/11 tragedy. We had the opportunity to walk around as well as talk outside on the steps about our reactions to the horrific events of 9/11. We were not able to actually see the grounds of where the towers once stood as it is blocked off by construction fences.

We rode the subway to midtown and walked around Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall as well as the NBC Studio store. It was a lot of fun.

Afterwards we came back to the hotel for a two hour rest and to get ready for Shabbat. We walked to Bnai Jeshurun Synagogue. It is a gorgeous temple and I really enjoyed the service. The synagogue was actually featured in the movie, “Keeping The Faith” which we watched on our way into New York.

When services were over we went to dinner at a delicious kosher deli. It was amazing. A perfect day in New York City.