We returned on Tuesday the 6th to a siyur of Israel's Supreme Court, which ended up being quite fun--mostly because it was the first time we were all seeing each other again. We got into the court at about 10:30, despite having arrived at the bus stop at 9:00 and been in the court lobby at 9:45. We were given a tour by a heartily grumpy woman who made it clear she did not want to be touring a bunch of rambunctious Americans around the Supreme Court, demanding silence of everyone (which was quite hard for many of us when she was talking about "retired justices" because her British accent made it sound like she was saying "retard justices"). The architecture of the building was fairly interesting though, there were many pyramidal structures to it and symbolism from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures. I also learned that Israel does not utilize the jury system and that people are allowed to represent themselves in the Supreme Court. One last huge difference: the Israeli Supreme Court is not like the American one, where getting to make a case there is a privilege or great accomplishment--it has to hear every case that is brought before it.
We returned and made lunch, then spent the rest of the day doing nothing/going to the gym.
Part of the reason that the "week back" still felt so much like spring break is because that Wednesday was our only day of volunteering for the whole week. It was good to see Justus again, and he talked a little bit about his spring break--during which his daughter went to the crazy music festival Boombamella and his son took the car so he had to spend most of his break fairly immobile. Oh well.
Wednesday afternoon, we had to have a make-up class for missing classes during break and various other class absences to come due to holidays. It was just annoying because the class started at 7 and ended at 10, which, frankly, is just way too late to be stuck in a Year Course class right after spring break.
Thursday, we woke up early and drove down south for the Year Course tiyul that we had been promised for so long. It was nice to see the other sections. It was also nice to see the scouts. It was nicest, though, to see that the hike they had planned and bragged about was one that our section (and only ours) had done when we were in Arad. In any case, it was a bit longer this time, and with different company, so it was still fun. Additionally, I was forced to carry around a jerry can--a big plastic bottle full of water for everyone to share--and I made the task excessively obnoxious by throwing it everywhere. The entire hike was made quite fun by such shenanigans. At one point, where we stopped for lunch, Andrew was throwing rocks into a fairly large pond, and then Or asked him to "stop throwing rocks into the lake." After Andrew threw another one in, Or asked more sternly and made it clear that he REALLY didn't want Andrew to throw another rock in. Andrew then proceeded to throw a giant rock in, and, when Or started to get mad, simply said "that was more of a boulder than a rock, Or." At one point, Yael, the sports track director who was leading us in the trail, asked me what the name of the trail was, and I told her "Shvil Asinu C'var," which literally translates to "Trail We Did it Already." I had to repeat this to her several times before she realized I was making fun of Year Course for taking us on the same hike again. Andrew and I also took a very dangerous route at one point instead of getting wet, and harassed Or throughout most of the hike. All in all, it was quite fun:
After the hike was over, we drove to our Bedouin hospitality site. There we relaxed and mingled among different sections, rode some camels (nothing special, although it sounds like it. One of the girls in the religious program of our section, shalem, said "If you lean forward, it feels like a massage on your vagina!" Easily the highlight of the camel riding). That night, we received a hearty Bedouin dinner, had a bonfire, and had a massive party inside one of the bigger tents. We left Friday morning and returned to Jerusalem--all in all, the trip was pretty good.
Friday night, a small group of people went to services at a synagogue here. Not once in all my visits prior to this year nor all my time this year have I been so satisfied by a Friday night service in Israel. Kabbalat Shabbat at Shira Chadasha reminded me somewhat of services at home, and, although they had a mechitza (a separation between men and women in the synagogue that I'm principally opposed to), it was fairly opaque, women were leading parts of the service, the ark was split evenly on both sides of it, and it was drawn back several times during the service. It was an excellent experience with many tunes that I loved, and certainly a place I'll be going to every Friday that I'm in town for for the rest of my time here.
After services, we went to the big girls' apartment to have a potluck dinner as the first part of having a YJ shabbat weekend for Cera's birthday. After delicious dinner, lots of us came over to our apartment and hung out before going to sleep.
Saturday morning, I and several others held YJ Shabbat morning services in the beit knesset. Afterwards, we put on a botched version of parsha players for everyone on campus, and I spent several hours just lounging around.
On Sunday the 11th, I returned to volunteering once again. At volunteering, I was (and still am) doing research on Rachel Corrie. This is a very convoluted accident where an American girl standing in front of an Israeli bulldozer got run over and died, and, frankly, at this point, with 10 pages of research about it sitting on my computer, I don't want to talk much about it. If you're interested, I could send you a copy of the research to look at. But, trust me, you're not interested. :P
That afternoon, instead of classes, we had some peulot about the Holocaust, as Monday the 12th was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. At my activity, we were given several different events and asked which one we would put Yom Hashoah on. The events were things like Hitler's rise to power, Kristallnacht, Liberation Day, the conception of the "Final Solution," and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I chose (and this is ultimately the date that it IS set on) the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, because it's exemplary of the spirit of the new Jew in Israel, the Jew who stands up for themselves and won't take persecution silently. I thought it was pretty fitting and interesting. During the afternoon, a strange and harsh wind from the African plains flooded the country--the sky was hazy, and voluminous clouds of tan smog filled the air. It became cold and brisk and somber with a certain fitting discomfort. That night, we had a ceremony on the lawn of Beit Ar-El where we watched a video and each placed a rock with the name of someone who died in the Shoah next to a big tree. Immediately after the ceremony, everyone just went off in every which direction, off to do things for the night or go to sleep. I lingered for a while and looked at the rocks...sometimes I am astounded by how quickly people move past things. There's this idea that people die in several ways: their actual physical death, the death of everyone who knew them, and the death of their name, as in when it's not said anymore. I went on a short walk in the cold before returning to campus, where I watched Schindler's List. It had never seen it before; needless to say it evoked a strong emotional response. I had several conversations that evening, as well as the next day, about whether or not Jews would have the state of Israel if the Holocaust hadn't happened. Ultimately, I think we might have, but much later on if at all, and certainly not with the same spirit.
Monday morning I went to volunteering as usual, but at 10:00 walked outside with Laura to hear the national siren go off in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. It's a very loud air-raid siren that goes off in all of Israel for three minutes, and people all stop what they're doing to stand in memory. Cars stop and people get out of them in the middle of the highway; indeed, the entire nation halts, if only for a short moment. That afternoon, we didn't have classes but we did have mifgash dira with Emma, which went the same way it always does. That night I went to do stand up at the comedy club once again, but this time more spontaneously, which didn't turn out nearly as well as the first time did. Oh well--some parts were still funny, but it was just not nearly as funny as my first performance was. I'm still trying to find the right blend of improvisation and preparation for the act.
Tuesday the 12th was the WORST. SIYUR. EVER. My apartment awoke quite late by accident, and thus decided we were not going to go on the siyur. That is, until Emma called us and told us that we absolutely had to be there and that they were waiting for us (already 45 minutes late or so). Thus, we put on our Year Course shirts and shuffled down to Beit Ar-El to begin a day long tour with a Hadassah lady telling us all about Hadassah medical care in Jerusalem and how great Hadassah is. We went to several sites just to hear her talk before ultimately going to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital to hear a doctor talk about working with Israeli relief teams in Haiti. Aside from this one interesting part, the highlight of the day was fitting far too many people inside a revolving door:
The most convenient part about the siyur was that by the time we got back home, the gym was closed. Thus, that night we converged in a fairly large group to go play basketball. We went to a park nearby, and about half an hour into the game, Scott fell as he was trying to juke around someone. As he fell, he heard his ankle pop, so he thought it might have broken. People in the park were quite concerned, and someone said that we should call an ambulance (Scott was in quite audible and visible pain), so I did. By the time the ambulance arrived, Scott was not in nearly as much pain (or at least it appeared this way), so the ambulance took its time going to where else but...Hadassah Ein Kerem. I went there two too many times that day. It was the first time I've ever rode in an ambulance, which was kind of cool, but mostly concerning at the time. Long story short, after an x-ray and examination, Scott had nothing broken but did have a very sprained ankle, which they wrapped up and told him he had to get crutches for (what kind of a hospital doesn't give out crutches?!). After Emma bought us some treats, we went home and went to sleep.
Wednesday was volunteering in the morning, once again Rachel Corrie, and then a class once again in the late afternoon to make up for not having had classes on Sunday. Wednesday afternoon also had some activities on the schedule (i.e. "Conversational Hebrew"), that, as usual, did not happen. In fact, when I arrived at campus looking for conversational Hebrew on that Wednesday, I instead found a group of people meeting with the new shaliach (Israeli ambassador-type person) to the Young Judaea Midwest region, which I'm a part of. This is someone who both I and Karin will be working with at camp this summer, so it's a bit frustrating that neither of us were told about the meeting--in any case, though, I met her and briefly talked to her before storming home in childish frustration (not actually) over this and the lack of conversational Hebrew. In class that evening, we got an assignment to begin designing our ideal synagogue with our partner (Andrew), which, of course, nobody has started on.
Thursday was the usual business--volunteering, then Ulpan and writing class. We had a test in Ulpan and got time to just write some in my other class, which was good. After class, I did a small bit of planning for my trip to Tzfat that weekend. That night, we drank some of the things that Scott had bought at duty-free after his cruise during spring break and then proceeded to go to Ben Yehuda street (nothing too special, really) before going home.
Friday morning, after Andrew decided he wanted to stay home that weekend, Cera and I left for Tzfat. The timing of everything was perfect--we arrived at the central bus station, had lunch, and managed to take the last direct bus to Tzfat after a bit of hearty confusion. We arrived at around 3 that afternoon and met up with Shoshana, the owner of our "hostel." The youth "hostel" was actually just an extra apartment she owned that she gave us the key to. It was actually pretty funny, because when we first walked in she showed us a small room and asked if it would be okay, but then we basically had the entire apartment. After walking around for a bit that night, she took us to Shabbat services, which were interesting--not exactly done in a way I liked, but interesting nonetheless. I was surprised at the amount of Americans there. Halfway through the service, the lights went out because of construction happening down the street, which was a relief for me because I had been feeling self-conscious about forgetting to bring a kippah. I felt like every time someone looked at me all they could think was "no kippah." After the service was over, I ate at the soup kitchen across from the synagogue with several other men. I kept wanting to leap into the conversation, but at every opportune time something negative was said. For instance, one of the men mentioned Jerusalem, where I currently live, only to go on to say that it was a useless city where nobody could study Torah anymore--only in Tzfat can Torah be studied! After dinner, during the walk home, I had a long talk with Shoshana, who is Romanian (like my grandparents), about the Holocaust and about Israel in general, which was quite intriguing.
Saturday, we walked around all of Tzfat and enjoyed the beautiful views and true Shabbat atmosphere, something which I do not get living in the secular part of Jerusalem (I guess the man from dinner the night before has a point).
After exploring the city and being fed to no end by Shoshana, we caught a fairly late bus back to Jerusalem.
And then, there came Sunday the 18th. I awoke and went to volunteering as usual, but then, in the afternoon, we began to have program about Yom Hazikaron, "Remembrance Day." It's like the Israeli version of Memorial Day, except people don't have barbecues and enjoy a long weekend here--it's very somber and important for most of the population. That afternoon, we had a brief presentation from our madrichim about their experiences with Yom Hazikaron that ended up being quite poignant. That evening, we were taken to a MASA event (MASA is an organization that's affiliated with many many gap year and summer programs in Israel) for the beginning of Yom Hazikaron that I thought was pretty trite and cliche. It was seemed pointedly made for Americans and almost cheapened the memories of the people it was trying to commemorate with its cheesiness. The only meaningful part of the whole event was at the very beginning, when yet another national siren went off and we all stood in silence for several minutes.
Monday was the actual day of Yom Hazikaron. All of Year Course went to Har Herzl and volunteered, handing out flowers and water bottles to people who were mourning. On Yom Hazikaron, people from all over the nation come to Har Herzl to commemorate the people they know (often family) who died in military service. Additionally, each member of the army is required to go and visit a specific grave in order to make sure that none of them are left unvisited due to families not being able to come or not having any living descendants. It was intriguing to see the huge hordes of people walking around and visiting their (mostly childrens') graves, telling their stories to others passing by. After spending an hour in the morning handing out flowers, I got a chance to walk around. At 11, yet another siren went off, and then Andrew and I made our way into a giant ceremony on the top of the mountain. By the time we got in, though, it ended, so we only saw the stage, but had heard the President (Shimon Peres) and the Prime Minister (BiBi Netanyahu) speaking over the intercoms throughout the mountain.
Afterwards, Or gave Andrew, Nathan, and I a ride home in his car. Despite the fact that it us the better part of 2 hours to traverse a 20-minute drive, we had a good time--Or made the mistake of leaving the windows down, thus we were yelling many different things out of the car in a childish, stupid, but wildly hilarious way. They were particularly funny when Andrew said them, because they were different phrases in Hebrew that either meant something horrible that everyone was used to or were something atrocious that Nathan or I made up. When we got back, the same group went to Avazi to eat. Avazi is a cheap place that serves good meat kebabs in pita that Andrew has been talking about for 2 months now; it was pretty good, I guess. :P
That night, I went to campus to have a closing ceremony for Yom Hazikaron and the beginning of Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli independence day). I returned to my apartment afterwards and got dressed up before going out. Of course, Yom Ha’atzmaut ended up being exactly what I expected from Israel and Israelis: one giant, raving, extravagant party of pride and exorbitance. On my way to Ben Yehuda street, I saw fireworks sprout off the tip top of a skyscraper’s roof. I arrived at Ben Yehuda street and hung out with various Year Course people for a while before going with Nathan and his cousin to do some Israeli dancing outside of Jerusalem's city hall. After dancing, I went with a small group of people to the shuk, which ended up being a gigantic party, as well. There were erratic foods that I have almost never seen in Israel before (for some reason an abundance of egg rolls) and makeshift bars set up in the middle of the walkway. It was crowded beyond belief, and it took us almost an hour and a half to walk from one end of the market to the other (something that usually takes 5 minutes, 2 or 3 if you're rushing). Granted, we were dancing around and stopping to try out different foods, but still. Nathan and I caught a bus home at around 1 and went to sleep.
Tuesday was the actual day of Israel's independence. There was a barbecue on campus at around 12 and I spent most of my day there, enjoying time off, talking to people, and generally being ridiculous with Andrew, Nathan, and Scott. All in all, it was a pretty fun day.
Wednesday, I went to volunteering and had class late in the evening. There was nothing whatsoever interesting about Wednesday. It was probably one of the most routine, mundane days I have had this year.
Thursday, I went to volunteering again (where Justus has started to ask me ridiculous questions about the Rachel Corrie case, such as whether the entire bulldozer was moving or just the blade when it killed Rachel--what difference does it fucking make?! Some of these questions I end up finding that there are no answers to, and I just have to lie to him about them and try to convince him that the information is irrelevant). Then I had Ulpan and writing class, which was business as usual. After class, I rushed to pack and took a direct bus from the Jerusalem central bus station to Bat Yam--there was a party that night on the beach for three of the scout's birthdays (Nitzan, May, and Maya). The party ended up being on a scale which I never anticipated: usually, when someone says that people are congregating for a party at the Bat Yam beach, it is simply sitting on the beach and drinking, then maybe going swimming depending on how drunk everyone is. This time, however, there was a giant DJ stand and tables with food and drink, as well as torches and carpets on the beach. It was a very fun party, and I enjoyed seeing all the scouts again. I also got to stay at Tomer's new apartment (HUGE) that night with several of his roommates from other sections on Year Course, which was a hilarious time. We turned into robots, talked about how we've each been in the past months, and started to draw some things on the other roommate's faces who were asleep.
Friday, I awoke and went with Scott to Shuk HaCarmel in Tel Aviv. I bought some things before heading back to Bat Yam to take a taxi with Emilie, Tal, and Lizzy Feldman. I went to a seminar to meet the mishlachat (Israeli staff members) coming to camp this summer. The seminar was at Kibbutz Shfayim and was a good deal of fun. We simulated an entire Young Judaea Shabbat with the Israelis, with Friday night services, Parsha players (a funny skit about the torah reading of the week that we prepared and performed for them), Havdalah, and Israeli dancing on Saturday night. The food was delicious (and free), the room was big even though the bed poked poles into my back (but I'm not complaining, it was free), and it was so excellent to meet the mishlachat working at my camp and get to see Noah Gallagher, the director of camp, again. He always cracks me up. I also had a chance to get closer to Or, one of the Israeli madrichim in Jerusalem. I got home late Saturday night.
On Sunday, I woke up and went to volunteering. Afterwards, I went to campus for z'man madrich (a weekly meeting we have to have with our madrichim) and had to give a presentation about the importance of being on time. Our apartment had been a half an hour late to the Yom Hadassah siyur, so our punishment was to prepare a presentation about the importance of being on time. This consisted of getting up in front of the entire section as an apartment...and having me talk for 5 minutes. It ended up being quite the debacle, but also fairly funny. We then had an hour lecture from Mel, a very old and offensive man. I've talked about him before, and I'd rather not go in-depth about his disgusting personality once again. Suffice it to say that it was a lecture I have heard before, but, even if I hadn't, I would have been equally as bored.
I returned home for a bit before going to class (Zionist Art), and afterwards, Nathan, Scott, and I went out to BaBa, a delicious salad place that my volunteering often orders from. We then returned home.
Monday, I went to volunteering in the morning and then class and Ulpan in the afternoon, as well as an optional class that was being taught by Mike Schwartz, one of the madrichim, about basic written Arabic. I started to get familiar with some of the letters. Learning a bit of Arabic was also one of my goals coming to Israel this year, so starting on it (even though it is now the last stretch of the program) has been quite fulfilling. Monday was a very full day--after class, I went for a quick run and then went to a short Israel update talking about recent news with Or. After that, I went and did stand-up at the comedy club again. It was better than it was last time, but not as good as the first time--I think I'm only gonna do it once more before leaving, and try to go out with a bang.
Today (wow, I can't believe I've written up to here now!), I went on a siyur to the West Bank. We visited Hebron and Beit Lechem; we were toured around by a very right-wing settler who told us many things I didn't realize about most settler's opinions and lives. He carried a pistol around with him that he said he had whenever he walked around during the day. We visited Hebron to see marat hamachpala, an area with the graves of many Jewish ancestors, and went to Beit Lehem to see the grave of Rachel the matriarch. It was very interesting to be in the West Bank for the first time, and to hear what it is like from the side of the Jewish settlers who live there (who I think should leave, but let's not get into that-it's a very complicated situation). All in all, it was a good siyur.
The last month now should be fantastic, and I'm looking forward to taking advantage of many opportunities before I leave. I am excited for camp this summer, but of course sad to leave my friends and homeland here. I will try to make an effort to put up more blog posts in the last month here as I come closer and closer to camp and returning to America. I hope you are doing well, and feel almost definitely (as I haven't talked with many people in quite some time) that we should talk soon--this week is particularly busy for me, but in the next several amazing weeks we should definitely talk! Take it easy, world, talk soon!
:D
