Sorrow and Joy

I have a few moments in between volunteer placements (Gan in the morning, Kadima in the afternoon), because our water is finally on (it's been off for a day or so), and I desperately wanted to take a shower.

Monday we went up North to Atleat, an internment camp used by the British to hold illegal immigrants prior to the establishment of Israel. The British allowed only 10,000 Jews to immigrate to Israel each year, so Jews living in the British Mandate started bringing in people illegally. When the British caught people immigrating illegally, they were placed in Atleat. It's an internment camp, so there was certainly some trauma.

I will edit this post with more from Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut later as soon as I get back from Kadima and some afternoon Ulpan.

[2 Days Later :) ]

After Atleat we went to Mount Carmel, for a very short hike. It's a pretty nature reserve, and an amazing view. A longer hike would have been nice, but the trips tend to run extraordinarily behind schedule, so there are problems. We were also supposed to go to a Druze village, but that didn't happen either, which is a shame, because Druze food is delicious. Perhaps one of these days a trip will run on time, but that is unlikely, since delays don't seem to be built into the schedule. We have an overnight this week, so it will be interesting to see how that runs.

Finally, as the sunset we participated in a Yom Hazikaron ceremony at the Naval Training Base in Haifa. This was nice, and had a beautiful backdrop of the Mediterranean, but we didn't understand most of it. I like Yom Hazikaron, because it focus on the emotions of loss, rather than glory or pride. But it's hard to empathize when you can't understand the ceremony, so we didn't really connect with the presentation. The music was beautiful. I've seen multiple singing groups composed of soldiers now, and they're all very talented.

Tuesday during the day continued with the memorial for fallen soldiers, and then at sunset Independence Day began.

Independence Day was fun, but not remarkable. I didn't actually see any of the fireworks, which was disappointing. I hung out with some Israelis I had met during Pesach, a German and a Russian. Perhaps it was our location, but it didn’t feel like a particularly special night out.

Post Removed

I'm removing this post because I signed a contract stating that I would not write anything on the Internet that might damaged Oranim's reputation. I like to keep my word, so down goes the post.

Quick Update--Why April 20th Isn't Just a Day for Stoners

Today is April 20th, the official day for returning decisions to (most) international affairs graduate schools. My final result of acceptance/admittance looked like this:

Accepted:
Syracuse's Maxwell School (with Graduate Assistanceship and fellowship)
Johns Hopkins's School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna Center (in Italy the 1st year, small fellowship)
Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs
American's School of International Studies

Rejected:
Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School

Wait-Listed:
Georgetown's School of Foreign Service

I've made my decision, and while I'm still campaigning for additional aid, this fall I will be returning across the Atlantic to matriculate at the Johns Hopkins University, Bologna Center! It's safe to say that I'm super excited about this. :) I'll be calling the professors who provided my recommendations (thank you so much Dr. Huck, Dr. Howard and Dr. Gleiber!) to tell them about it in more details once the time difference makes this possible.

Tonight we are going to a performance of a play in Jerusalem for the beginning of Holocaust Memorial Day (Jewish holidays begin at sundown [the sighting of the first 3 stars in the sky counts as the official sundown] and end at sundown). The performance was organized by MASA Israel Journey, the grant giving organization that supports long term programs in Israel, including mine.

Tomorrow a siren will wail for two minutes, and the entire country will stop moving--people driving will get out of their cars, people in restaurants will halt their eating, and everyone will stand still for two minutes in memorial to those who perished during the Holocaust. I will write about it when I can, as well as about the rest of Pesach, which I promise will be posted soon.

How's that for a mix of joy and sorrow?

Sataf and Ramla

The same day that I first met Tali's middle sister (and her amazing mother-in-law Mazel) was the day we went on a hike to Sataf and a tour of Ramla. Sataf is an ancient town in the Judean hills near Jerusalem. It's built over a natural cave full of water. The living quarters were built above the water, and the agricultural space was under the water where it was easier to irrigate. Sataf is stunning. It's an easy hike to the remains of the village, and view is stunning.

The tour of Ramla was... just OK. Ramla is a beat-up city existing in a vaguely embarrassed stasis. Listening to kids from other cities in our program criticize Ramla, and whine about how they were worried the Arabs in Ramla would attack them made me incredibly frustrated. The overall theme of the tour was that Ramla is one of the oldest cities in Israel. It was established in the 8th century by Muslims and the huge tower and the remains of an aqueduct stand from that era. The central mosque in Ramla is a long rectangle (not the usual square), because it was adapted from a crusaders church. There is also St. George's Church (Greek Orthodox), which has some of the most phenomenal iconography in the Greek Orthodox tradition (Which I know about thanks to Iris, the teacher at my Gan, who is pursuing a PhD focusing on the techniques and themes of the iconography in the Ramla St. George's.).

That's it for tonight. I'll fill you all in on Pesach and such starting tomorrow morning. If you want to know about why we are "Jews" who speak "Ivrit(Hebrew)" while living in "Israel" (as opposed to, for example, the French, who speak French, and live in France), let me know, it's cool but a little dry.

I hope you enjoyed the barrage of posts!

Another Great Shabbat

So my fabulous host family continues to be wonderful. Before the entry on April 4th, where we went to Tali's sister's home, we went to Tali's mother's home. It was a lovely meal, during which I learned that my host father, Avi, is 1/2 Romanian. We were both excited about this little connection. The other exceptionally interesting thing was that the house we were in was in fact two houses. Tali's mother lived in the first, small cottage when she was married. When her family grew, they built a larger house, surrounding the smaller one on the side and on top. Now Tali's youngest sister lives in the small house, and Tali's mother lives in the larger house. It's very cool.

Also, for anyone who is curious, rugelach is 80,000 times better when heated--it was amazingly delicious.

Ethiopian Cultural Festival

At the end of March we were invited to an amazing Ethiopian Cultural Festival. Within Ramla there is a substantial population of Ethopian Jews. There was very cool food--super spicy, eaten with a sort of sour Luach-style bread as a utensil--and wonderful music and dancing. The scouts put on a song and dance routine that was phenomenal. There was also a professional group of Ethiopian dancers who were remarkable. If anyone has a chance to see Ethiopian dancing, take it!

Kadima El Amam

My main purposes in coming to Israel were to gain more international experience and to develop a stronger and more nuanced understanding of the Israeli-Arab conflict before starting an international conflict management degree program in the fall. To this end, I really wanted to work with a coexistence initiative, something with Israelis and Jews together. This is why my program placed me in Ramla. As a mixed city, there would be more opportunities for this kind of project.

Well, not so much it turned out. Despite research before my program suggesting otherwise, my coordinator could not find a coexistence program for me to join as a volunteer. So she developed a relationship with an Arab community center. Kadima is a nationwide program providing a full meal, tutoring, and a safe environment after school to at-risk children from low-income families. There are two of these centers in Ramla--one for Jews and one for Arabs. This is a function of the incredible need in the community, and the incredible divide. Ramla isn't a salad bowl, or a melting pot. It's a tv dinner--it doesn't smell very good, the contents look like someone didn't put a lot of effort into them, and each food is in its own space.

Two girls in my program volunteer at Kadima Ramla Yehudi (the Jewish Kadima). The kids there are pretty tough, which is fully expected given the circumstances they're surviving. I expected the same from the arab kids, only worse, since I'd be representing Jewish America. I was totally and completely wrong. These kids are amazing. They are thrilled to have us volunteering, and are incredibly sweet and kind. There's a major language barrier, because their English is very weak. Arabic to English dictionaries have been a huge asset.

The experience at Kadima El Amam reminds me a lot of working with Hispanics in the US. There's a culture that I can only experience as a tourist, regardless of my language skills. There's incredible need. But there's also the same problem of the predominant languge spoken at home and socially not being the language of majority in the nation (The kids at Kadima speak Arabic with weak Hebrew the same way some Hispanics speak Spanish with weak English and the way older Russians in Israel speak Russian but almost no Hebrew.).  They're natives of the country but they have been enclaved.

So I go to the center 4 days a week. Tahani, the center coordinator, is amazing and so welcoming. Working with these kids is eye-opening in so many ways. The poorest people in Israel are the Arabs and the Ultra-Orthodox (which seems semi-ironic). These kids will face substantial racism, as well as extraordinarily limits to their future as a result of their Arabic-heavy education. Volunteering at Kadima allows us to have substantial impact, which is wonderful.

Time to Play Catch Up

Deepest apologies to all five of you who regularly read this blog. I'm working on improving my frequency. This past week has been Pesach (Passover) Break, which means lots and lots of fun, nearly everyone out of school and work, and tons of events. So despite my best intentions, I've been MIA. The rest of April includes Holocaust Memorial Day, a trip to the Dead Sea, Memorial Day (for fallen soldiers), and Independence Day, so I'm going to try my best to keep on top of updating.

Since I last updated I've been to Sataf on a nature hike (in the Judean hills), been guided around the sights (mainly churches and 8th century Arabic buildings) in Ramla, had my first Israeli Seder (Sephardic-style), had a post-Seder luncheon (Ashkenazi-style), went to Rishon Lezzyion Beach, discovered Yam 2000 (a waterpark) in Holon, went out at the Namal (port) in Tel Aviv (twice), went Power-Parachuting in Rishon/Rechovot, and spent a lot of time at Tel Aviv beaches. Between today and tomorrow I'm going to try and cover as much of the last two weeks as possible, since Monday night more events begin.

I'm planning on creating a flickr or Picasa or shutterfly account where I can tag my photos from Israel. But that hasn't happened yet. Until then, please enjoy the selection I've posted on facebook (and I will find a more suitable format soon).
Album 1: Purim (and my birthday)
Album 2: February and some March
Album 3: The rest of March and some April

I have an amazing host family

I've totally lucked out with my host family--Tali and Avi are super welcoming and kind. Their kitchen has been under renovation for the past few weeks (something that I have sympathy with given the fact that our house still isn't finished, so we've been going to different family members homes for Shabbat dinner. Last weekend we went to Tali's mother's home, which was cool and I'll write about later.

This weekend we went to Tali's middle sister's home (Tali is the oldest of three). It was the sister, her husband, his parents, a 21 year old son, and a 6 year old son. Plus, we (another kid from my program, J, is now my 'host brother', since his host family didn't work out) brought along two girls from our program who are going to be Tali's sister's host children. A few minutes after I arrived, J, who is goofily funny, often unintentionally, in his deep sincerity to interact with everyone, was talking to the grandfather, who responded in Hebrew. His wife, Mazal, leaned over and said what sounded to me like "No se entiende. No se entiende." She was speaking Spanish! Finally, an older person I can communicate well with! Usually the older generations don't speak much English, and it can be harder. Last weekend Tali's mother spoke English, but her companion did not.

Well, I was so excited to speak with Mazal in Spanish, and she told me that she was born in Greece, but her family spoke Ladino. Ladino! Only complete Spanish nerds will be excited about this, but that includes me. Ladino is a form of medieval Spanish that is now spoken only by certain groups of Jews, since we were kicked out of Spain just in time for the groups to maintain what is now a unique form of Spanish. She also speaks Greek, Hebrew, Yiddish, some English, French, Polish (because of a neighbor) and Bulgarian (because her husband is from Bulgaria). She told me she loves languages.

Mazal also told me that she has been in Israel for 61 years--since Israel has existed! She moved here at 16, to Rechovot (a nearby town). They didn't have electricity or running water, but they were safe. She was just a girl when the Holocaust started. Her mother died in Auschwitz. I didn't dare ask where Mazal was during the war. She and her father came to Israel. Her son, Haim, told me that her family had been fairly aristocratic in Greece before the war, but after, she ended up in a developing country without utilities or any of the comforts of home, but alive.

Mazal asked me to come visit her. I gave her my phone number, and I really hope she calls.

I have the most interesting host family! Today my host uncle is taking some clients hang gliding, and then he's going to take some of us to the beach. And tonight is the beginning of Tel Aviv's centennial celebrations. They'll go on all spring. I'm going to try to catch up on my journal this evening, so I'll have lots of new posts soon. Maybe one of these days I'll succeed in doing two post of week, my goal.