So, I’ve been pretty absent in this space during my stay in Israel but that has not been for lack of interesting material to write about. My studying and traveling has left less time for traditional blogging–both in terms of time for reading my normal amount of news and writing corresponding posts–but the reason I haven’t written a traditional travel log is that I wanted to collect all of my thoughts before actually releasing anything in writing. More specifically, I wanted to incorporate information from multiple visits to various locations that I knew I was going to do at different points in my trip. With only two weeks until I return and limited travel left, I have started finalizing all of the notes I have been taking. What will result, hopefully, is a series of posts in which each highlights a specific destination and when necessary uses it to discuss larger related issues facing Israel and the region.The first post, hopefully up within the next day, will be about the last two weeks of remembrance and celebration for Yom HaShoah (day remembering the Holocaust), Yom HaZikaron (day remembering Israel’s fallen soldiers), and Yom Ha’atzmout (Israel’s Independence Day) and my related trips to Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum) and Mount Herzl (the resting place of Theodore Herzl and the location of Israel’s cemetery for prime ministers, presidents, and fallen soldiers from Jerusalem).