Chill level: 10 outa 10.

Summer has set in, folks.

My days over the last two weeks have been filled with learning Torah in the day - prep work for my program. I was doing some historical background research, looking at the book of Joshua and doing some other stuff here and there.

My nights have been filled with bars, friends and laughs. Jerusalem has lots going on - festivals, friends visiting from all around, summer vacation for Israelis (August is a common time for people to get at least some time to travel, be with their families, etc). I have also been finding ample time for knitting which is much appreciated cause i know my free time will drop precipitously once the school year starts in early sept. I am making a shirt for myself, which I will give picks of soon. I have been spending several hours knitting a towel for something called netilat yadayim - the washing of the hands. Essentially it is a towel to use when doing ritual handwashing - the one I designed and am knitting is specifically to be used for shabbat. (while the washing theoretically happens every time a Jew eats bread.) It is a wedding present for my good friends who are getting married in a few weeks here in Jerusalem. My first hand made wedding present - many to come! The design is out of a simple white cotton and has six leaves on a vine going from the bottom left to the top right corners. there are six leaves to symbolize the six days of creation and the seventh day is not represented as a "creation" because it is a rest, a break, from creation. It is made up of only two kinds of stitches and is made up of white cotton, as I said - this is what represents shabbat - simple livin'. the rest of the week has its complexities and stresses but shabbat is meant to be a break from those things. Nice eh?:)

I will post when it is finished but I am just so excited about it i had to put up pics.

So!

Now that the update is over, I can tell you about the coming few weeks (she jumps up and down in excitement!) I have a few friends who are in the country and I am going to Tel Aviv tonight to meet them. We are spending a few days beaching and partying and sighseeing in TA and then coming back to Jtown for a few days. Then we are renting a car and driving and camping all around the country. Then I come back to Jerusalem for my friends wedding and then it is back out again - this time to the south of the country and hopefully to jordan and egypt.

Plans are likely to change, but fun is sure to be had no matter what we do. Now I go to pack, meet a friend for lunch, last minute things before i head outa town.

I may be a little MIA for a few weeks while travelling around but I will be back in action starting in September cause my program is starting...one year down. Two more to go. Crazy.

super big hugs are being electronically emitted to you all.

Bethlehem

We went to Bethlehem for an afternoon. It was my first time going into the PA. It was my first time seeing the wall (up close – there are many parts of Jerusalem from which you can see it at a distance) that Israel has constructed, unilaterally, between Jewish and Arab settlements in the West Bank (and separating the WB from Israel). It is big and ugly and it makes life remarkably difficult for people living behind it. It is not seen as an ideal solution, or a solution at all, to the problem by nearly anyone on either side. For Palestinians it restricts their movement, cuts them off from their families in other areas of the WB, makes it difficult to work and obtain things like food, medicine, education, medical treatment. For Israelis they see their government spending their tax dollars on something that is big, ugly, very detrimental to the international community’s perception of Israel and cuts them off from a population which they are intimately connected to economically. I don’t bring up both groups to suggest that they are equally affected. But the reality is that all the people living here are affected by it and none see this as a permanent solution. It has made living in Israel safer. Things are no longer exploding every day. The territory that was once open and easily traversable is now cut off in most places with a concrete gigantic wall. And Palestinians are behind that wall cut off from the world, cut off from their jobs, their families, their fields. And from the hills of Bethlehem you can see into Israel – where the people are not behind the wall. Granted they are in front of it, so to speak, but they are living lives immensely more free in comparison.

The trip to Bethlehem: We took a sheirut (public transport vehicle:) from East Jerusalem to Bethlehem. We got into the bloody hot shared taxi and waited a few minutes for it to fill up before it would leave. After it was filled it drove a short distance to where there was a “checkpoint”. It is in the middle of East Jerusalem and consists of a person from the Israeli Border Control/Police getting on and looking at everyone’s documentation. We had our American Passports – which I will never look at in the same way again after this experience. Everyone else in the taxi was Arab. Each person had a permit – a piece of paper that was given to them to come into Israel – to work, see a doctor, study, etc. The soldier took each paper and looked at the ID card of each passenger. When she got to us we just flashed the fact that we had American passports and she didn’t even take them to look at them. She then got out of the taxi and spent a few minutes, while we sat waiting, to look through the documents and then after some time gave us permission to drive away. We got to Bethlehem about 45 minutes after we first go into the sheirut. The trip, without beauracracy should have taken about 5-10 minutes drive. From my apartment in south Jerusalem I can walk faster to Bethlehem than I can to the center of town.

We got out of the taxi at the entrance to Bethlehem, which is now surrounded entirely by the wall I was describing above. There is a lookout tower right above the area where we get out as is a sign that says “Peace be With You”. We go through the inspection/entry process and once again are waved through with our passports. Once we entered we were immediately descended upon by the cab drivers. I wasn’t at all surprised by this. I was disturbed by the fact that I wasn’t surprised. I knew to expect anyone connected to the service industry eagerly approaching any tourist in a place that should be full of tourists being the place that it is with its rich history but which is empty because of the tense political and security situation. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t have gone without someone who knew the area and preferably also a man. Our first stop was to the Basilica of the Nativity and St Catherine’s Church. When you go into the Basilica the door is very low (I almost got in without ducking though, so hah:) called the Door of humility. The door was built by Christians to prevent Muslims from coming in on horseback. It was one of those times when you wish your camera could capture smell. It is the oldest church in existence that has been in continuous use. Everything is faded – sometimes all you can make out on the artwork and trimmings is the gold filigree. A small part of the original floor still exists although most of it was destroyed over years of conquerors and fighting. From somewhere in the building we could hear people praying…I thought of Weeza. I wondered what it would be like for you, weez. I hope you get to go someday.

Afterwards we headed to the market – walking around the market and seeing a little bit of the city. At one point a car honked and I was so startled, not because of the honk but because I realized that I hadn’t heard a honk yet and if I had been in Israel I would hear honking constantly – that’s Israel. The people were very warm and interested to hear where we were from, not a surprising question from people who have such trouble leaving where they are (I do not suggest that Palestinians are alone in this fate – most of the human race is in their position). Our last stop before heading out of town was a restaurant my friend was a little crazy about. It was no chu chai:) But I believe him that it was tasty. Meat, who needs it! The salads were delicious though…

Our trip back was inclusive of our friendly and courteous experience back through security. Oh, wait. By friendly and courteous I mean cold and lacking any human contact. We went through a big room that felt like a warehouse complete with ramps along the ceiling for soldiers to walk around and observe what is happening. Most of the process includes you dealing with machines, going through with absolutely no human in sight besides the others going through with you. Only at the end do you see a face – to look at your paperwork. Our trip back was uneventful – as I wish it would be for all of Bethlehem’s residents every day.

I don’t want Israel to be unsafe for its residents. I don’t want Palestinians to suffer behind a wall, under an occupation. I do not want my people to be occupiers.

That’s it for now. G’night. Laila tov.

A New Friend

So. This past month I was at the Hebrew University taking an intensive Hebrew class. It was the best Hebrew instruction I have had. I don't mind the intensity - 5 hours in the morning and then doing somewhere between 2-4 hours in the evening of homework/studying. My Hebrew got loads better.

And, I made a new friend:).

As usual, with such new additions, I feel tremendously grateful to have him in my life now. Every time I make a connection, develop a friendship, with someone new who I immediately fall head over heels for - i feel as though my cup simply overfloweth. I mean, common, I have so much going for me already, so many blessings....now i get ANOTHER. Well...ok....I ACCEPT!!!

So. Why am I so fond of this new bloke? Well, you see, he simply shook things up for me. And if you know me at all you know how I like to shake things up:).

Now, what did he shake up? He brought me to a much more meaningful evaluation of my relationship with this holy/unholy land than anyone (including myself) has been able to do in a long time. Do yall remember last year I went to a place called Tekoa for a Shabbat? It is in the middle of the West Bank. It is in the middle of Palestinian territory. That excursion was a perfect example of me trying to figure this place out.

I made a promise to myself that I would do a lot more listening and “trying” than talking this past year. I never made the assumption that I would ever have a full understanding of the political, economic or social situation here. I knew I would lack clarity at the end as to my feelings, beliefs, etc. about the place, but I knew that was a better place to be than ignorance.

I knew that it would behoove me to sit back and listen up. Really, I did that in more than just my exploration of this place. Religiously I tried to be open to anything too. In the end I feel I have benefited from my attempts at observing rather than acting. But, problem was, I didn’t know how to get out of it.

I was looking forward to going back to America largely because of all my beloved ones over there. But I had another reason – I wanted a fresh look. I wanted to be able to come back here and have another go at it– outside of the bubble in which I live. What is this bubble I speak of?

I exist in a world in which we study Torah. We have Shabbat. We pray. We read. We go meet other Jews in pubs. At concerts. At festivals. We discuss Jewish communities. We discuss Jewish education. Etcetera. It is a VERY common thing here to run into sentiments like “Oh, you haven’t immigrated to Israel yet, you just live here? You really should move here permanently.” “build the homeland of the Jews, we need to put our efforts here” “I want to live here because it is a thriving Jewish community where I can be Jewish like nowhere else in the world” “I know that things aren’t great for the Palestinians, but I want to be safe HERE.”

The problem is that I don’t like the pressure to move here. And I don’t like self-inflicted ignorance. I don’t want to move here, most of the time. I once stood up in one of our community lectures last year and began my comment by explaining, like I was introducing myself at an AA meeting, “Hi, my name is…, I love galus [the diaspora].” I love living in the diaspora. Sure I understand that parts of my Jewish life can be expressed with greater ease here, but other parts of me can’t. But it isn’t only the pressure from people to move here (btw, I am not referring to my immediate community at my school – I really don’t feel pressure from my teachers in regards to this issue). It is that they seem to be overlooking the problems with Israel existing as it does. They seem to be willing to gloss over loss of human rights, democracy, and religious freedom that are part of this society. So this is my problem with the bubble – it is easy to fall into that and forget about the critique, to forget about others suffering when my life is so removed from it. This is where my new buddy comes in.

He allowed me to exit the bubble. He is critical and striving for honesty in intellect and in evaluation of the situation, and I was able to join him in that. It felt really good to hear someone talking a different talk than I have grown accostumed to hearing. It was relieving to be around someone who was willing to challenge himself and this place in a way that most are not willing to and often do not.

He also gave me many a laugh. That was a plus.

for example

do you remember recently when I said there are some things that happen in this country that make me want to hide under the bed? How about blatant racism?

From Haaretz:

Last update - 16:28 01/08/2007

"Petah Tikva schools refuse to accept 80 Ethiopian immigrants"

By Ayanawo Farada Sanbatu, Haaretz Correspondent

Eighty Ethiopian immigrant children, whose families transferred in recent months from absorption centers to permanent homes in Petah Tikvah, are still looking for schools that will agree to accept them for the upcoming school year .

The immigrants cannot be accepted to state secular schools as they have yet to finish their conversion process. The state-religious schools - where they are supposed to finish the conversion process - are not willing to accept them either, since the local authorities are concerned that they will scare off other students to private religious schools, leaving only the poverty stricken children in the state-religious schools.

Private religious schools in Petah Tikva are also unwilling to receive them.

"It is inconceivable that independent religious schools, which receive funding from the Education Ministry and the local authority, will refuse to accept children to their schools", the Ethiopian immigrants said on Tuesday.

"If the schools would refuse to receive children from other communities, the public would shout out. All our children want to do is go to school and then the army to serve their country. But when the state needs to supply them with the education they deserve, they turn a blind eye."

Abraharm Nagosa, Chairman of an umbrella group of Ethiopian immigrant organizations, said "the Education Ministry has abandoned the Ethiopian immigrant children once again. I call upon the education minister to address this issue herself and ensure that all citizens of the state receive the equal education they deserve."

The Education Ministry responded, saying "the ministry is aware of the issue and is dealing with it. A meeting took place Tuesday with the local authority and in the next few days a second meeting will take place between all the relevant parties in order to find a suitable solution to the matter."

The Petah Tikva local authority said in response that "director-general of the Education Ministry Shmuel Abuav met Wednesday with Mayor Yizhak Ohayun to discuss the matter and it was decided that the Abuav would summon the principals of the private schools in order to convince them to accept the children."