During our trip, we’ve been blessed by extremely frequent “Amnonisms”, or phrases that only Amnon Ophir would ever say. Because we’ve so greatly appreciated his many sayings, I felt that it was time to share our favorite Amnonisms with you. A special thank-you to the ever-dazzling Naomi Grant, who jotted a bunch of these down. Disclaimer: we really love Amnon and we at least hope he loves us so these all have great intentions.
To start off, here’s an uttering that Amnon states at least eight times a day, and at least 432687334 times while we went over our itinerary.
- ICNEXTite: “Amnon can we ride camels?”
- Amnon: “NO. It is MY trip not YOURS.”
Amnon also has his own form of government. Watch out in 2016 folks.
- Amnon: “This is my amnonocracy. What I say goes. Amnonocracy is our government and that’s it.”
Ah, he also is opposed to enjoyment.
- ICNEXTite: “Amnon this is so much fun,”
- Amnon: “do not say that! I do not like you having fun!” “I hate the word ‘fun!'”
In return, we occasionally make fun of our program.
- Naomi Grant: “You know you’ve made it big when you have a biography in our sourcebook”
Never forget about Zach’s sass, and if you continue reading, that he’s not in “the best 21”
- “We’re called icnext2? But that kind of sounds like ickynex. And besides, icnex2WHAT?!”
Because of the sheer number of Amnonisms, sometimes we feel bad about our own quotability.
- Naomi Grant: “I’m not as quotable as Amnon. I don’t think anyone will ever be.”
Amnon also chooses when and when not to be American. Usually he makes fun of us, but sometimes he’s included
- Amnon Ophir: “As we say in America, please elaborate.”
Amnon also isn’t afraid to pick favorites.
- Amnon: “There are only 21 of you left, but the best 21.”
We all know the real reasons behind our trip
- “This one time I was in Israel, but it wasn’t my trip; it was Amnon’s.”
As I’m sure Amnon made you ALL aware, the theme of the program this year is family. Today, Amnon informed us that next year, the theme will be the color blue.
First, some backstory on what we consider to be hard ball questions:
- Zach Reizes, joking during every ICnex2 session: “so, how does falafel describe your Israeli identity?”
And now, after hearing next years theme and realizing that we could replace falafel with Blue, have it be a real question still, but also sound stupid:
- Monica Sass: “so, how does the color blue represent your identity as an Israeli? Wait that works Asa hardball question but still sounds stupid.”
He isn’t afraid to admit his motives
- “This is not about you, it’s about the pictures.”
Amnon also may or may not be in Akiva next year.
- “If you don’t photograph the families I’m not going back to the US.” His daughter suddenly lost all motivation to take pictures.
Thank you to Amnon for being the best bald sunscreen latherer we could ever ask for!