Well, we leave for the airport in about 18 hours. Our last day will be one of relative relaxation here at the INCREDIBLE rooftop pool at this hotel and a last visit to the beach. Some of this I will be doing "solo" as some of the JFI'ers from Modi'in are coming in to Tel Aviv to see Sarah one more time. A few words about JFI here. Of course I don't know the other JFI groups but this one really does seem to be exceptional. Sarah is very sad about leaving them and already talking about when she can come back.
You know, when she was applying to participate in JFI several folks told us that this would be a life-changing experience. Well, it certainly has been. For one thing, I have a daughter who is much more self-assured. Example: We needed to ship this package home. So we were at the post office in Modi'in (Reut actually, but it's part of the same greater Modi'in area) and it seemed that they were on "siesta". It was about 1:30 PM and the sign said that they re-opened at 3:30. We were in the anteroom to the post office but the windows for the clerks all had blinds drawn. We could hear folks in the back. I said to Sarah, "I wonder if we can leave this thing here until they re-open" (it was VERY heavy and we had just schlepped if from the car). Normally, Sarah would have said something like, "I don't know. Why don't you ask?" Instead, she got up, walked up to the window and said -- in an assertive tone, "Slicha" (= "Excuse me"). No answer. So, rather than giving up or looking to me to do something she said, a bit louder, "Slicha b'vakasha" (= "Excuse me, please!). A woman came out and Sarah asked the question and we were able to leave the box. Another time, we were in J'm and I had pooped out. My sister-in-law was with us and Sarah said, "Mom why don't you take a cab back to the hotel and we'll meet you in a couple of hours?" She then proceeded to hail a cab for me -- and give the driver directions about where to go!!!
Perhaps even more important than Sarah's new-found self-assuredness is her very different perspective. She has commented to me several times that after seeing what she saw in Poland she realizes how privileged she is and lucky to be free to pursue whatever path her heart desires. She now sees studying for the SAT's and going to college as a privilege that was denied to so many others and which she wants to embrace. Moreover, she has several times said things like, "You know, my outlook on life has really changed. I just can't imagine someone not going to school because they woke up and had a pimple on their face! Or being upset that someone is wearing the same outfit as you are. None of that stuff really matters. There are REAL problems in the world and if you're going to be upset, be upset about THOSE!" Wow!!
She has also expressed some concern that she may have some difficulty relating to some of her school friends who did not share this profound experience. The good news is that she feels that she has grown MUCH closer to the JFI kids (both Israeli and American) and is so glad that she can always talk to them -- and that most share her new perspective. Last night she said, "You know, I really feel like the JFI'ers are now my 'go to' people." Needless to say, I am more than delighted!!!
So, the wedding! What an experience. First of all, it was EIGHT HOURS LONG!!! Okay, the first two were spent taking pictures, but once the rest of the guests arrived it went on for six more hours and the last four or so were spent in NON-STOP dancing! [Non-stop for the kids that is. Some of us "older folks" needed a breather -- or more than a breather -- here and there.] It was a special privilege for us to be in attendance. Sarah and I were the ONLY family from my cousin Janice's (the bride's mother) side and we were truly treated like honored guests! Her dad is over 90 and couldn't make the trip and neither could either of her sisters. Both she (Janice) and Nechami were SO happy to have us there. Even though we didn't "fit the mold" (we certainly dressed much more modestly than usual -- long skirts, elbows covered, no low-cut tops -- but we were wearing sandals, I did not cover my hair, and we apparently failed to get the memo that black was the order of the day) we were literally embraced by my cousin's community. Many folks came up to us asking if we were "Lizzie and Sarah" (I am Lizzie to my family and Sarah found this most amusing since everyone at the wedding was referring to me by that name!) and told us how much they had heard about us and how happy they were to meet us. We were constantly drawn into the dance circle(s) and often into the center to dance with Nechami and other family members. Later in the evening, folks even brought chairs into the center of the circle for Nechami (who HAD to be exhausted) the mothers, grandmother and me to sit on while they danced around us!
First, a bit about the ceremony itself. Nechami, the bride, was seated on what could only be described as a "throne" prior to the ceremony. She was reciting psalms -- and davening furiously (I suspect this helped to let off some of the nervous energy) -- and people (mostly her friends from school) would come up to her and either ask her (or sometimes hand her notes) to pray for certain things (apparently -- often for them to find a chussin (husband) soon). It seems that they believe that the bride, on her wedding day, has kind of a direct line to God (I am SURE that they wouldn't describe it exactly like that!). At one point, we heard singing coming from the men's side. My cousin Janice (Yael to her Israeli friends and I had to keep remembering to switch names when speaking to them!) placed a veil (and I mean a VEIL -- opaque white embroidered square) over Nechami's head completely concealing her. The men then came over, singing and escorting Yehoshua (it kind of comes out "Y'shua" when they say it) -- the groom. The rabbi lifted the veil a bit and -- I am told, because I couldn't hear-- that Yehoshua said, "Yes, it is she." This ceremony is referred to as the bedekken and hearkens back to the famous Leah/Rachel "switcheroo" in which Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah first while he thought he was marrying Rachel! No one wants to chance this kind of thing happening again so the groom actually identifies the bride right before the chuppah (which is how the ceremony itself is referred to -- even though we think of it as referring only to the covering under which the bride and groom stand). Then the groom is led, by his father and the bride's father (or maybe it was the rabbi -- I just don't remember -- and, frankly, everyone was dressed so similarly -- the men that is -- it was sometimes hard to tell them apart at a distance) each carrying candles, to the chuppah. A word about this particular chuppah. The wedding was held in a reception hall which is part of large shopping complex in the community in which my cousin lives. The wedding ceremony itself, traditionally, must take place outside. So the chuppah was erected in the parking lot -- no kidding. After the groom had left, the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom -- again each carrying candles -- led the veiled (and for all intents and purposes, blind) bride to the chuppah. [You should know this necessitated a 3 story elevator ride -- just a tad anachronistic given the very "traditional" feel of this whole thing -- couldn't exactly picture the wedding in Fiddler on the Roof with the bride riding in an elevator! On the other hand -- as Tevya would say :-) -- it was probably a better idea than trying to lead a veiled bride down three flights of stairs!] Once at the chuppah, the bride (and both moms) circled the groom 7 times (no easy trick given the relatively small space AND the fact that the photographer was -- literally -- crawling in between the parties to take pictures!). The ceremony itself is very brief -- no drash by the rabbi as we are accustomed to -- just the essentials: reading of the ketubah, blessing and drinking wine, placement of the ring on Nechami's finger with the requisite "Harei at m'kudeshet li....", breaking the glass, and then seven blessings -- each recited by a different "Rav" (=rabbi) who first needed to thread his way through the assembled masses to get to the chuppah (everyone was just sort of squeezed in around the chuppah -- no seats or rows or standing up when the bride comes in or "Here comes the bride" or any of that). The photographer was ridiculous -- although the "regulars" did not seem at all disturbed by this and seemed to take it completely in stride -- and a few times actually offered to take cameras from those in the crowd to take a better picture for them (since he was, literally, in the face of the bride and groom)!! I had a hard time explaining to Sarah that a Jewish wedding is really not a religious service. We spoke about what is required and it is, as I understand it, really very little in the way of pomp and circumstance. In fact, again, as I understand it -- please correct me if I am wrong -- even a rabbi is not necessary (except to comply with state law). So long as the ketubah is given, the ring (or something else of a certain value) is given to the bride, the groom says the formulaic words making his wife holy unto him, and there are three witnesses it's a done deal. All the rest is -- pardon the levity -- window dressing! Oh yes, there is also no, "You may now kiss your bride." Immediately after the ceremony the couple is ushered to a special room in which they spend about 45 min. together, alone, for the first time in their lives, BTW. Up until this time not only have they not kissed -- they have not TOUCHED one another. They were also required to not see or speak to each other for two weeks leading up to the wedding (I believe this is custom more than rule). Both bride and groom have been fasting all day leading up to the wedding so food is provided for them and they break the fast together and have the opportunity to spend some private time together. Then -- again, forgive the irreverence -- all hell breaks loose! The bride and groom are ushered into the reception amidst great singing and dancing. The bride's friends actually constructed a kind of canopy thing which she and the mothers came through to enter the reception.
As you might guess, being an Ultra-Orthodox wedding, there was a mechitza (separation screen) between the men's side and the women's side at the reception. [BTW, you should know that this did not prevent many women -- including Sarah and me -- from sneaking a peak to see what was going on over on the other side.] At first, this seemed awkward to us -- how could it be that the bride and groom couldn't dance together?!! But, you know, as the evening wore on, Sarah and I came to have an entirely different perspective. First of all, it was unmistakable that EVERYONE who was there was there because they wanted to be -- they were genuinely there to celebrate with the bride and groom and the families. No one was there because they were schlepped along as a date, or because the groom's father was their boss, or because they were hoping to "meet someone" or any of that. Also, EVERYONE -- who wanted to be -- was engaged ALL the time. No worries about having a "date" to dance with. One other big advantage to this arrangement was that, since the groom's parents are divorced there were no problems with who sits at which table and will it be awkward or any of that! And let me tell you, these folks take the directive to entertain the bride and groom on their wedding day quite literally. Nechami's school friends (remember, she is just 19 and just graduated from high school) had -- no joke -- about 15 different costumes that they brought out at different times (sombreros, or crazy wigs, or pom-poms like a cheerleader's). At one point, three of them came out in a costume that they were all inside of. At another there were several dancing in costumes that sort of looked like the Wall -- but I couldn't see what was written on them. Then they brought out this gigantic piece of white material (a circle with a hole in the middle) and the bride and her mom were ushered inside while everyone else held onto the material and danced around them waving it which made the bride's veil fly up in the air and made my cousin hang onto her sheitel (=wig)! The piece de resistance was when one of the friends came out carrying a big pole with balloons on it. They stood Nechami on a chair and gave her a flower with a point of some sort attached. Her job was to use this to break the balloons, one by one, as people danced around with the pole. Each time a balloon broke it released a shower of glitter which sprinkled all of us. Unfortunately, this also led to the one "backfire" of the evening. Somehow, Nechami got a face full of glitter necessitating her sitting down -- right in the middle of the circle while people kept dancing -- while her mom, mother-in-law and SARAH tried to get it out of her eyelashes, mouth and just about everywhere else! Several times during the evening, Nechami pulled Sarah into the center of the circle to dance with her. Oh yes, we saw the men lifting Yehoshua in a chair and dancing with him and, all of a sudden, Nechami was on a TABLE and about a dozen of her schoolmates lifted her in the air and danced all around with her while she threw candy to everyone! So -- you get the picture? I honestly don't think I have EVER seen such an expression of unbridled (no pun intended) joy.
One other comment about the interaction between men and women. I have noted this in the past, but was again struck by how unbelievably warm these men can be without touching you. As Sarah said, "It actually feels like a hug!" Before the wedding, Yehoshua (whom we had not yet met) was sitting with his father having a conversation when Sarah and I walked into the hall to help set up the flowers (yes -- this was in large part a do-it-yourself affair). He immediately got up and came over to us and said, "You must be Lizzie and Sarah. Thank you so much for coming! I have heard such wonderful things about you and I know that Janice and Nechami are just thrilled that you can be here and so am I." Can you believe it?!!
Even though it was after midnight when Sarah and I finally got on the road back to Tel Aviv, we both felt unbelievably energized. We were each -- and both -- struck by how warm the community is that my cousin is a part of. Until now, to be honest, we had only seen the "restrictiveness" of it (e.g., women dressed in long sleeves and stockings in the middle of the summer in Israel, stopping everything so the men can go and pray numerous times a day, etc.). While I don't think this is the life for me, or for Sarah -- and while I still have some "issues" with the lack of choices that kids brought up in this community have -- both of us can now see the "up side" of this kind of life. Pardon the double entendre here (given the "dress code" for this community), but things are certainly not black and white :-) !!
Wow -- that was a long post! But -- it was a LONG wedding and -- even though it has made our time away several weeks longer -- we are SO SO glad that we stayed for it! It was, truly, a once in a lifetime experience. We will be back in Rochester late Wednesday evening and look forward to seeing you all soon!
Warmly,
Liz
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Day 28 - Going Down from Jerusalem, and Down, and Down...
Those of you who are familiar with the topography of Israel will probably guess that my next stop, after Jerusalem, was the Dead Sea -- the lowest point on earth!
As we left Jerusalem, on our way to Modi'in where Sarah was scheduled to spend the weekend with JFI friends, both of us commented that there is no other place quite like Jerusalem. It is truly a holy city and one that is clearly seen that way by an incredible diversity of people. Spending any time at all in J'm, one is likely to see just about every type of Charedi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jew (you can tell them apart by the style of their dress -- my "favorite" were the ones who wear a striped coat so it looks like they are walking around in their bathrobes!), Modern Orthodox, and secular Jews. But you also see all different sorts of Christian priests (again distinguishable by their dress) as well as Moslems of varying degree of "orthodoxy." And virtually ALL of these folks come in all colors :-). At least on the surface, almost all of these folks seem able to share this holy space without conflict.
After dropping Sarah off in Modi'in (along with a very large box of extra stuff that we shipped home rather than pay the exorbitant rates for extra luggage) I set course (thanks to the GPS) for Ein Bokek on the shore of the Dead Sea. It is about a 2 hour trip from the center of the country. And during the course of this trip, one goes down about 4000 ft in altitude!
Most, if not all, of you know that moving to Israel is referred to as making "aliyah". This word comes from the Hebrew root (ayin - lamed - hey) which means to go up. What some of you may not know is that the term has both real and symbolic meaning. Certainly the idea of making aliyah reflects a spiritual homecoming and "going up" to live in the holy land promised as a homeland to the Jews. The significance of this is exemplified by the term used to describe those who emigrate FROM Israel -- "yoredim" -- which means those who go down but usually has a significantly perjorative meaning. [BTW, there is an interesting book called "The Much Too Promised Land" which speaks about how many people see this land has having been promised to them.] But the term also refers to the fact that when one travels to Jerusalem one definitely goes up. The city is at about 2500 ft. ABOVE sea level. The surface of the Dead Sea -- said to be the lowest point on earth -- is at about 1400 ft. BELOW sea level.
The "plunge" begins in earnest about halfway into the trip. The road becomes one lane in each direction and snakes -- and I DO mean snakes -- downward through the desert. The posted speed limit is 90 kmh (which is about 55 mph) but anyone who would drive down that road at that speed has to be completely meshugina which -- pretty much -- describes most Israeli drivers! [Israeli drivers deserve a blog post all to themselves!!!] I did not go more than about 30 mph which meant that I was quickly leading a "train" of cars behind me. From time to time I would move to the right (in places where the shoulder was wider) and let the accumulated masses pass before continuing on. Interestingly, NO ONE blew their horn at me. This is remarkable only because in pretty much any other place in Israel people blow their horns at you if you are even a fraction of a second late going when the light turns green. In fact, in this country they have a signal that the light is ABOUT to turn green (the yellow light comes on along with the red) just so everyone can get ready to floor the accelerator pedal!!!
Driving through the Judean desert is an experience unto itself. From time to time you hear about someone (usually a pilgrim of some sort) getting lost and dying in the desert. When you see it you can readily imagine how easily this could happen. So, although dangerous to get lost in, it is beautiful to behold. Mile after mile of undulating hills which vary in color from almost yellow to a rich shade of red. Interestingly, all along the way you can see caves in the hills. These caves are much like the ones at Qumran in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and their are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of them. The story, as I heard it, goes that the scrolls were discovered when a goat-herd looking for a wayward goat happened, by chance, upon the cave that contained them. It could truly be described as a "shot in the dark." Makes one wonder what treasures others of these caves might hold.
The decline in altitude is very sharp. As a scuba diver one learns that you should equalize the pressure in your ears (usually done by holding your nose and blowing) about every 10 ft. on the way down. That is just impossible on this drive. You would be holding your nose the whole way! So I settled for occasional equalization and tolerating the discomfort the rest of the time. All of the hotels in Ein Bokek are located along a strip perhaps a half mile long (if that). I had made reservations at someplace called the Rimonim -- I thought. Turns out that that is the name of a chain of hotels and this particular one is called the Royal (which is all that is on the building). So it took me three or four trips up and down this strip (and "perfecting" my ability to ask where the darn place was in Hebrew -- for a major tourist destination, there appears to be a real shortage of English speakers) until I discovered that I had been driving right by it all along.
The hotel is "alright." It is clearly dated, but I came for the pool and the sun and they are maginficent! Every few hours some guy comes around to those at the pool offering fresh fruit or ices. They actually do aquaerobic classes at the pool which led to my quickly learning the difference between "go to the right" ("yamina") and "go to the left ("smola"). I needed these in order to avoid crashing into the person next to me! Actually, I have found another great way to learn some Hebrew. There are a couple of cooking shows in Hebrew and since it is clear what the person is doing, listening to the Hebrew allows me to pick up some new words and phrases. One guy constantly refers to the "mixer" (with a Hebrew accent) and I wonder if this is common or unique to him. The same goes for reading the Hebrew subtitles on English-language shows. You do just start to pick things up by hearing them all the time. Yesterday I "eaves dropped" on the conversation of a family sitting next to me at the pool who were deciding when to go up (l'mala) to their room and when to eat dinner (aruchat erev). At the pool you also here a lot of "Bo-ee" = "come to me" (generally shouted by mothers to their children). The same goes, BTW, for the beaches. The Israeli lifeguards are notorious for using their bullhorns to corral swimmers who may be venturing too far out. They generally call to the "yeled" (boy) or the "giveret" (woman) etc. and identify the person by the color of their bathing suit. Unfortunately, their cries sound so imperative that when you first hear them you would think that they had spotted a shark!! I said this to Sarah and she said, "Maybe they did. How would we know?" I assured her that the couple of hundred other folks in the water would probably be heading toward shore if that were the case :-) !!
So one more day at the pool and then I will pick up Sarah and we will be off to Tel Aviv for the wedding and the trip home. Although I have LOVED virtually every minute of this trip (okay -- not being honked at by the Israeli drivers) I am ready to come home. It's a long time to be away. Sarah has been gone even longer and misses her Dad and being able to text her friends (I'm not completely sure which of those is more important)!
As we left Jerusalem, on our way to Modi'in where Sarah was scheduled to spend the weekend with JFI friends, both of us commented that there is no other place quite like Jerusalem. It is truly a holy city and one that is clearly seen that way by an incredible diversity of people. Spending any time at all in J'm, one is likely to see just about every type of Charedi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jew (you can tell them apart by the style of their dress -- my "favorite" were the ones who wear a striped coat so it looks like they are walking around in their bathrobes!), Modern Orthodox, and secular Jews. But you also see all different sorts of Christian priests (again distinguishable by their dress) as well as Moslems of varying degree of "orthodoxy." And virtually ALL of these folks come in all colors :-). At least on the surface, almost all of these folks seem able to share this holy space without conflict.
After dropping Sarah off in Modi'in (along with a very large box of extra stuff that we shipped home rather than pay the exorbitant rates for extra luggage) I set course (thanks to the GPS) for Ein Bokek on the shore of the Dead Sea. It is about a 2 hour trip from the center of the country. And during the course of this trip, one goes down about 4000 ft in altitude!
Most, if not all, of you know that moving to Israel is referred to as making "aliyah". This word comes from the Hebrew root (ayin - lamed - hey) which means to go up. What some of you may not know is that the term has both real and symbolic meaning. Certainly the idea of making aliyah reflects a spiritual homecoming and "going up" to live in the holy land promised as a homeland to the Jews. The significance of this is exemplified by the term used to describe those who emigrate FROM Israel -- "yoredim" -- which means those who go down but usually has a significantly perjorative meaning. [BTW, there is an interesting book called "The Much Too Promised Land" which speaks about how many people see this land has having been promised to them.] But the term also refers to the fact that when one travels to Jerusalem one definitely goes up. The city is at about 2500 ft. ABOVE sea level. The surface of the Dead Sea -- said to be the lowest point on earth -- is at about 1400 ft. BELOW sea level.
The "plunge" begins in earnest about halfway into the trip. The road becomes one lane in each direction and snakes -- and I DO mean snakes -- downward through the desert. The posted speed limit is 90 kmh (which is about 55 mph) but anyone who would drive down that road at that speed has to be completely meshugina which -- pretty much -- describes most Israeli drivers! [Israeli drivers deserve a blog post all to themselves!!!] I did not go more than about 30 mph which meant that I was quickly leading a "train" of cars behind me. From time to time I would move to the right (in places where the shoulder was wider) and let the accumulated masses pass before continuing on. Interestingly, NO ONE blew their horn at me. This is remarkable only because in pretty much any other place in Israel people blow their horns at you if you are even a fraction of a second late going when the light turns green. In fact, in this country they have a signal that the light is ABOUT to turn green (the yellow light comes on along with the red) just so everyone can get ready to floor the accelerator pedal!!!
Driving through the Judean desert is an experience unto itself. From time to time you hear about someone (usually a pilgrim of some sort) getting lost and dying in the desert. When you see it you can readily imagine how easily this could happen. So, although dangerous to get lost in, it is beautiful to behold. Mile after mile of undulating hills which vary in color from almost yellow to a rich shade of red. Interestingly, all along the way you can see caves in the hills. These caves are much like the ones at Qumran in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and their are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of them. The story, as I heard it, goes that the scrolls were discovered when a goat-herd looking for a wayward goat happened, by chance, upon the cave that contained them. It could truly be described as a "shot in the dark." Makes one wonder what treasures others of these caves might hold.
The decline in altitude is very sharp. As a scuba diver one learns that you should equalize the pressure in your ears (usually done by holding your nose and blowing) about every 10 ft. on the way down. That is just impossible on this drive. You would be holding your nose the whole way! So I settled for occasional equalization and tolerating the discomfort the rest of the time. All of the hotels in Ein Bokek are located along a strip perhaps a half mile long (if that). I had made reservations at someplace called the Rimonim -- I thought. Turns out that that is the name of a chain of hotels and this particular one is called the Royal (which is all that is on the building). So it took me three or four trips up and down this strip (and "perfecting" my ability to ask where the darn place was in Hebrew -- for a major tourist destination, there appears to be a real shortage of English speakers) until I discovered that I had been driving right by it all along.
The hotel is "alright." It is clearly dated, but I came for the pool and the sun and they are maginficent! Every few hours some guy comes around to those at the pool offering fresh fruit or ices. They actually do aquaerobic classes at the pool which led to my quickly learning the difference between "go to the right" ("yamina") and "go to the left ("smola"). I needed these in order to avoid crashing into the person next to me! Actually, I have found another great way to learn some Hebrew. There are a couple of cooking shows in Hebrew and since it is clear what the person is doing, listening to the Hebrew allows me to pick up some new words and phrases. One guy constantly refers to the "mixer" (with a Hebrew accent) and I wonder if this is common or unique to him. The same goes for reading the Hebrew subtitles on English-language shows. You do just start to pick things up by hearing them all the time. Yesterday I "eaves dropped" on the conversation of a family sitting next to me at the pool who were deciding when to go up (l'mala) to their room and when to eat dinner (aruchat erev). At the pool you also here a lot of "Bo-ee" = "come to me" (generally shouted by mothers to their children). The same goes, BTW, for the beaches. The Israeli lifeguards are notorious for using their bullhorns to corral swimmers who may be venturing too far out. They generally call to the "yeled" (boy) or the "giveret" (woman) etc. and identify the person by the color of their bathing suit. Unfortunately, their cries sound so imperative that when you first hear them you would think that they had spotted a shark!! I said this to Sarah and she said, "Maybe they did. How would we know?" I assured her that the couple of hundred other folks in the water would probably be heading toward shore if that were the case :-) !!
So one more day at the pool and then I will pick up Sarah and we will be off to Tel Aviv for the wedding and the trip home. Although I have LOVED virtually every minute of this trip (okay -- not being honked at by the Israeli drivers) I am ready to come home. It's a long time to be away. Sarah has been gone even longer and misses her Dad and being able to text her friends (I'm not completely sure which of those is more important)!
Day 25 - Rosh Chodesh Elul
Chodesh tov to all! So this morning the Women of the Wall met to conduct services at the Wall. Sarah and I, and my sister-in-law, were among them. It was fascinating and wonderful.
To begin with I was shocked when we arrived at about 6:45 (services began at 7 AM) to see the entire men's side of the plaza in front of the wall completely filled! Given that this is Rosh Chodesh Elul which, of course, marks the beginning of the month in which the High Holy Days fall, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. But I had never seen it like that.
At a few minutes before 7 many other members of the group arrived. We were situated at the very back of the women's section of the plaza in front of the Wall. There were two police officers (one male, one female) there and it turned out that they were there to PROTECT us. There were also about a dozen soldiers lined up on the men's side of the mechitza facing the men. It was not clear to me whether this was the norm or whether it had anything to do with our presence.
All in all, it was a remarkably -- and pleasantly so -- peaceful gathering. Unfortunately, the founder of the Women of the Wall, and head of the IRAC (Israel Religious Action Center) -- Anat Hoffman -- was not in attendance. Apparently she is speaking in Australia. However there were about 20 "regulars" and another 10 or so folks like us. The service was very traditional which was a bit of a challenge for me. We were asked to bring our own siddurim and I brought the rather newly published Koren Siddur, written by the Chief Rabbi of the UK. I expected that it would be a traditional service and this siddur follows that pattern -- but also has English translation. Frankly, I surprised myself that I was able to follow at all given the absence of page number announcements, etc. Although I did get lost several times, others were more than happy to help me find my place.
When it was time for the Torah service we walked -- and sang -- together with the Torah (which had been held outside of the area during the first part of the service) to Robinson's Arch. You may remember that it was carrying the Torah (closed) to the service at the Wall that got Anat arrested about a year ago and that led to the picture-taking effort in which so many of you participated. One young girl was celebrating her Bat Mitzvah and there was great joy, candy throwing, singing and dancing. One of the regulars noted that she was not wearing a tallit as she approached the Torah and offered hers. The young girl accepted and seemed to be beaming. Turns out that, pretty much, a Torah service is a Torah service is a Torah service -- so that was easier to follow as were the closing prayers (Aleinu, etc.). Then followed the kiddush which included -- much to Sarah's delight as she has become a fan of this -- Bomba!! Bomba is the Israeli junk food. It looks rather like cheese doodles but tastes like peanut butter. We will bring some home, although someone told Sarah that you can buy it at Wegmans. Nu?!!
In any case, many of you know how much I was looking forward to this experience and it did not disappoint. My sister-in-law wore a tallit for the first time in her life (she is exactly my age). She also engaged the police officer in conversation, thanking him for his assistance. He told her that, of course, what we were doing was in opposition to the ruling of the Supreme Court. Israel may be the only place in the world where it seems that people regularly IGNORE the rulings of the Supreme Court -- and policemen protect them while they do it!!! I understand that the degree of protection and or harassment offered varies with who the police officer(s) happen to be, but it was pretty clear that these folks saw their job as letting us do our "thing" with a minimum of disturbance.
We really didn't seem to attract too much attention until we began to sing. At that point we started to receive very disapproving looks from some of the very traditional (apparent from their dress) women. A few shouted at us saying things (in Hebrew, of course) like, sheket (quiet), or just sha. But we also heard "Shame on you," and similar things. The regulars either didn't respond or simply responded with a smile and a "Chodesh tov." Only two women approached the group and screamed in the face of the leader. The leader just kept going and shortly the male police officer got in front of the shouting woman and told her that we heard what she had to say and it was time to move on. Right before the conclusion of the part of the service that we conducted at the Wall (the Torah service was held around the corner at Robinson's Arch) a woman approached who was really screaming, "You are all garbage," "You should go pray in the mosque," etc. Interestingly, two young women -- also Orthodox from their dress -- approached her, put their arms around her and quieted her down and led her away! We heard nothing from the men's side. It did seem to me that when we began to sing, their singing got louder on the other side but that might have been a coincidence. Certainly they did not shout at us or throw chairs or anything else as has happened in the past.
On the positive side, there were quite a few women -- also clearly Orthodox -- who seemed interested in what we were doing. Again, everything was said in Hebrew but I did hear one exclaim to the other -- in a positive tone -- something about the "chazzanit" (female chazzan = cantor). A few stopped to listen to us and several smiled and wished us a Chodesh tov. I may have been imagining it but it seemed to me that I saw some wistfulness in the eyes of some of the younger women, almost like they were thinking, "Wow, I wish I could join you." BTW, many of the Women of the Wall (WOW) would freely identify themselves as Orthodox Jews. There were also about half a dozen men who had gathered right behind us and behind the screen which marks the division of the plaza considered to be a holy space and the much larger plaza behind it. These men joined us in prayer and accompanied us when we went to read Torah. Two of the men were rabbis -- one on sabbatical in Israel. I read an interesting reflection on the WOW website written by a Orthodox Rabbi who was endorsing the right of women to pray freely at the Wall. He had also attended one of the WOW services and stood behind the screen. He commented about how it made him reflect on what it must be like to be a woman in the women's section of an Orthodox synagogue needing to bob and weave in order to just catch sight of what is going on at the bima!!
Now for a bit about dinner last night. This will be of particular interest to those of you who were in Sharon Shafrir's Hebrew 101 class at MCC a couple of years ago. We went to Beit Ticho for dinner. This is a museum and a lovely restaurant (mostly outdoors) in what was the home of a Dr. Ticho who was an ophthalmologist and is credited with having saved the sight of countless Arabs by offering free treatment in his clinic. His wife, Anna, was a watercolor artist and the house is now a museum containing many of her creations. There is also a lovely outdoor restaurant. My sister-in-law had eaten there before but she wondered why I was so insistent that we have a meal there. It turns out that Beit Ticho was the subject of a fairly complex Hebrew exercise that we completed in the class mentioned above. I was not going to miss the chance to visit the place live!
To begin with I was shocked when we arrived at about 6:45 (services began at 7 AM) to see the entire men's side of the plaza in front of the wall completely filled! Given that this is Rosh Chodesh Elul which, of course, marks the beginning of the month in which the High Holy Days fall, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. But I had never seen it like that.
At a few minutes before 7 many other members of the group arrived. We were situated at the very back of the women's section of the plaza in front of the Wall. There were two police officers (one male, one female) there and it turned out that they were there to PROTECT us. There were also about a dozen soldiers lined up on the men's side of the mechitza facing the men. It was not clear to me whether this was the norm or whether it had anything to do with our presence.
All in all, it was a remarkably -- and pleasantly so -- peaceful gathering. Unfortunately, the founder of the Women of the Wall, and head of the IRAC (Israel Religious Action Center) -- Anat Hoffman -- was not in attendance. Apparently she is speaking in Australia. However there were about 20 "regulars" and another 10 or so folks like us. The service was very traditional which was a bit of a challenge for me. We were asked to bring our own siddurim and I brought the rather newly published Koren Siddur, written by the Chief Rabbi of the UK. I expected that it would be a traditional service and this siddur follows that pattern -- but also has English translation. Frankly, I surprised myself that I was able to follow at all given the absence of page number announcements, etc. Although I did get lost several times, others were more than happy to help me find my place.
When it was time for the Torah service we walked -- and sang -- together with the Torah (which had been held outside of the area during the first part of the service) to Robinson's Arch. You may remember that it was carrying the Torah (closed) to the service at the Wall that got Anat arrested about a year ago and that led to the picture-taking effort in which so many of you participated. One young girl was celebrating her Bat Mitzvah and there was great joy, candy throwing, singing and dancing. One of the regulars noted that she was not wearing a tallit as she approached the Torah and offered hers. The young girl accepted and seemed to be beaming. Turns out that, pretty much, a Torah service is a Torah service is a Torah service -- so that was easier to follow as were the closing prayers (Aleinu, etc.). Then followed the kiddush which included -- much to Sarah's delight as she has become a fan of this -- Bomba!! Bomba is the Israeli junk food. It looks rather like cheese doodles but tastes like peanut butter. We will bring some home, although someone told Sarah that you can buy it at Wegmans. Nu?!!
In any case, many of you know how much I was looking forward to this experience and it did not disappoint. My sister-in-law wore a tallit for the first time in her life (she is exactly my age). She also engaged the police officer in conversation, thanking him for his assistance. He told her that, of course, what we were doing was in opposition to the ruling of the Supreme Court. Israel may be the only place in the world where it seems that people regularly IGNORE the rulings of the Supreme Court -- and policemen protect them while they do it!!! I understand that the degree of protection and or harassment offered varies with who the police officer(s) happen to be, but it was pretty clear that these folks saw their job as letting us do our "thing" with a minimum of disturbance.
We really didn't seem to attract too much attention until we began to sing. At that point we started to receive very disapproving looks from some of the very traditional (apparent from their dress) women. A few shouted at us saying things (in Hebrew, of course) like, sheket (quiet), or just sha. But we also heard "Shame on you," and similar things. The regulars either didn't respond or simply responded with a smile and a "Chodesh tov." Only two women approached the group and screamed in the face of the leader. The leader just kept going and shortly the male police officer got in front of the shouting woman and told her that we heard what she had to say and it was time to move on. Right before the conclusion of the part of the service that we conducted at the Wall (the Torah service was held around the corner at Robinson's Arch) a woman approached who was really screaming, "You are all garbage," "You should go pray in the mosque," etc. Interestingly, two young women -- also Orthodox from their dress -- approached her, put their arms around her and quieted her down and led her away! We heard nothing from the men's side. It did seem to me that when we began to sing, their singing got louder on the other side but that might have been a coincidence. Certainly they did not shout at us or throw chairs or anything else as has happened in the past.
On the positive side, there were quite a few women -- also clearly Orthodox -- who seemed interested in what we were doing. Again, everything was said in Hebrew but I did hear one exclaim to the other -- in a positive tone -- something about the "chazzanit" (female chazzan = cantor). A few stopped to listen to us and several smiled and wished us a Chodesh tov. I may have been imagining it but it seemed to me that I saw some wistfulness in the eyes of some of the younger women, almost like they were thinking, "Wow, I wish I could join you." BTW, many of the Women of the Wall (WOW) would freely identify themselves as Orthodox Jews. There were also about half a dozen men who had gathered right behind us and behind the screen which marks the division of the plaza considered to be a holy space and the much larger plaza behind it. These men joined us in prayer and accompanied us when we went to read Torah. Two of the men were rabbis -- one on sabbatical in Israel. I read an interesting reflection on the WOW website written by a Orthodox Rabbi who was endorsing the right of women to pray freely at the Wall. He had also attended one of the WOW services and stood behind the screen. He commented about how it made him reflect on what it must be like to be a woman in the women's section of an Orthodox synagogue needing to bob and weave in order to just catch sight of what is going on at the bima!!
Now for a bit about dinner last night. This will be of particular interest to those of you who were in Sharon Shafrir's Hebrew 101 class at MCC a couple of years ago. We went to Beit Ticho for dinner. This is a museum and a lovely restaurant (mostly outdoors) in what was the home of a Dr. Ticho who was an ophthalmologist and is credited with having saved the sight of countless Arabs by offering free treatment in his clinic. His wife, Anna, was a watercolor artist and the house is now a museum containing many of her creations. There is also a lovely outdoor restaurant. My sister-in-law had eaten there before but she wondered why I was so insistent that we have a meal there. It turns out that Beit Ticho was the subject of a fairly complex Hebrew exercise that we completed in the class mentioned above. I was not going to miss the chance to visit the place live!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Day 22 -- From the Five Star Dan Carmel to....
So, we are here in J'm. Staying at the Three Arches YMCA hotel. Yes, you read that correctly. It is very reasonably priced and more than meets our needs -- although Sarah noted that there is no TV in the bathroom :-)!! The location is terrific. About 2-3 blocks from Ben Yehuda and from the Jaffa Gate to the Old City. [For those who may not be aware, the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall is definitely the place to be at night in J'm.] We are actually located directly opposite the King David Hotel. In fact while we were having dinner tonight (the YMCA has a very highly rated restaurant with a beautiful terrace) we saw four police cars (with lights flashing) pull up to the front door of the King David. Sarah noticed and said, "There must be some sort of problem." I then realized that it was actually two police cars followed by a limousine and then another two police cars. The limo stopped right in front of the main entrance to the hotel. I explained to Sarah that many notables stay at the King David and this was clearly someone who warranted a police escort!
Okay, enough about the digs. I will tell you about two of our experiences in the last several days. First the serious one. Today, Sarah and I visited the museum at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot (Ghetto Fighters). This is a community that was founded by a number of survivors from the Warsaw and other ghettos. They decided that they wanted to build something to memorialize all of those who died in the struggle and rather than erecting a stone monument, they decided to establish something "living" which would endure and grow. The primary mover was a survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a very moving exhibit which included videotaped testimony from many of the members of the Kibbutz. Perhaps what was most impressive was their modesty. None of them seemed to see themselves as heroes. In fact, several commented that the only difference between them and those who supposedly "went like sheep to the slaughter" was being in the right place at the right time. Over and over these individuals stressed how impossible it was for them to believe that in the middle of the 20th century, one people would exterminate another. This was why people seemingly cooperated. They couldn't conceive of what the Nazis were actually doing. At the Kibbutz, there is also a newly opened exhibit memorializing the children who lost their lives in the Holocaust. It is called Yad LaYeled. Unfortunately -- for us -- this exhibit was entirely in Hebrew and therefore not very accessible to non-Hebrew speakers. The main museum's exhibits are all viewable in Hebrew, English or French.
Speaking of French, I have been struck by how, after Hebrew and English, the language one hears spoken most often here is French. In fact, I had a hysterical conversation in a mixture of English, Hebrew and French with a gentleman who needed directions at the Dan Carmel! It seems that an exceptionally large number of apartments are being purchased by wealthy French Jews who are concerned that with the rise in anti-Semitism in France (and elsewhere in Europe) they may actually need to emigrate to Israel. What is really strange is that there are essentially entire apartment complexes that are, for all intents and purposes, empty almost all the time because the owners only come for a few weeks here and there.
Okay, on to the fun experience. So Sarah and I went to this place called "Gan Garoo". It is a small zoo established by some Australian Jews in an attempt to enhance understanding between Israelis and Australians. Of course they have a Koala who was -- of course -- sleeping while we were there. But the real "draw" was the kangaroos. I have never been to a zoo where one could actually touch the kangaroos. I was always under the impression that they were very dangerous because they might kick. These were gentle as lambs. Several of them had joeys that they were carrying and it was fascinating. There were also some really young ones who were just adorable! They also had an enclosure with goats. Sarah got some food to give them and one of them practically knocked her down because he was so intent at getting his snout right up to the machine which dispensed the food! All in all, it was a really fun day and one which was most unexpected as part of our trip to Israel!
Tomorrow we begin our exploration of J'm. On Wed. we (my sister-in-law, Laurie, Sarah and myself) will join the Women of the Wall for Rosh Chodesh Elul. We are all really looking forward to this opportunity. I will certainly post after that!
Okay, enough about the digs. I will tell you about two of our experiences in the last several days. First the serious one. Today, Sarah and I visited the museum at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot (Ghetto Fighters). This is a community that was founded by a number of survivors from the Warsaw and other ghettos. They decided that they wanted to build something to memorialize all of those who died in the struggle and rather than erecting a stone monument, they decided to establish something "living" which would endure and grow. The primary mover was a survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a very moving exhibit which included videotaped testimony from many of the members of the Kibbutz. Perhaps what was most impressive was their modesty. None of them seemed to see themselves as heroes. In fact, several commented that the only difference between them and those who supposedly "went like sheep to the slaughter" was being in the right place at the right time. Over and over these individuals stressed how impossible it was for them to believe that in the middle of the 20th century, one people would exterminate another. This was why people seemingly cooperated. They couldn't conceive of what the Nazis were actually doing. At the Kibbutz, there is also a newly opened exhibit memorializing the children who lost their lives in the Holocaust. It is called Yad LaYeled. Unfortunately -- for us -- this exhibit was entirely in Hebrew and therefore not very accessible to non-Hebrew speakers. The main museum's exhibits are all viewable in Hebrew, English or French.
Speaking of French, I have been struck by how, after Hebrew and English, the language one hears spoken most often here is French. In fact, I had a hysterical conversation in a mixture of English, Hebrew and French with a gentleman who needed directions at the Dan Carmel! It seems that an exceptionally large number of apartments are being purchased by wealthy French Jews who are concerned that with the rise in anti-Semitism in France (and elsewhere in Europe) they may actually need to emigrate to Israel. What is really strange is that there are essentially entire apartment complexes that are, for all intents and purposes, empty almost all the time because the owners only come for a few weeks here and there.
Okay, on to the fun experience. So Sarah and I went to this place called "Gan Garoo". It is a small zoo established by some Australian Jews in an attempt to enhance understanding between Israelis and Australians. Of course they have a Koala who was -- of course -- sleeping while we were there. But the real "draw" was the kangaroos. I have never been to a zoo where one could actually touch the kangaroos. I was always under the impression that they were very dangerous because they might kick. These were gentle as lambs. Several of them had joeys that they were carrying and it was fascinating. There were also some really young ones who were just adorable! They also had an enclosure with goats. Sarah got some food to give them and one of them practically knocked her down because he was so intent at getting his snout right up to the machine which dispensed the food! All in all, it was a really fun day and one which was most unexpected as part of our trip to Israel!
Tomorrow we begin our exploration of J'm. On Wed. we (my sister-in-law, Laurie, Sarah and myself) will join the Women of the Wall for Rosh Chodesh Elul. We are all really looking forward to this opportunity. I will certainly post after that!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Day 19 - To the North
Well, I realized that I hadn't posted at all from Tel Aviv. Actually, that's because it was pretty banal stuff -- lots of beach and pool time. Restful and enjoyable for sure, but nothing to write about. But today we left for Haifa (on the Northern coast of Israel). First the hotel. We had reserved a room at the Dan Panorama but they contacted us and told us that they had overbooked and would we be willing to stay at the Dan Carmel (a more expensive hotel) for the same price. Lamah lo? (Why not? -- and, along with "nu" a favorite expression of Israelis). So when we arrived we expected to get one of the less expensive rooms, but I asked if they had a room with two beds. The guy said no, but he could give us a very nice room on their "Executive Floor" with a king bed. We took it.
Wow!!! We are on the top floor with a huge balcony which looks out on Haifa bay and -- a couple of firsts for me -- our room has a doorbell and a TV in the bathroom so you can watch TV while you take a bath!! Sarah is beside herself! It IS pretty cool.
We didn't get here until about 2'ish so this afternoon we decided to visit the "Illegal" Immigrant Detention Camp at Atlit (maybe 15 km away). Really fascinating. This is the camp in which the British detained a number of concentration camp survivors whom the Haganah was trying to sneak into Palestine (as it was called then). Think about the movie Exodus -- more on the true story of the Exodus later. So imagine that you have just survived the horrors of life in a place like Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen and you think that you are finally coming to the promised land. Instead, you wind up in a detention camp which is eerily reminiscent of the concentration camps. Of course no one was being exterminated or beaten, and the living conditions were somewhat better (people had their own beds in barracks that accommodated about 50 people each). However, barracks are barracks and these look an awful lot like the ones I saw at Auschwitz. They also were stiflingly hot in the summer and brutally cold in winter (no heat or fires allowed). As the detainees arrived, their first stop was the disinfection barracks where they had to strip and their clothing was placed in a disinfecting vat and they were powdered with DDT (to deal with lice, etc.) before being required to shower. Again, imagine what fears this must have aroused in these survivors who had so recently been interred in camps where gas chambers masqueraded as showers!! The internees were then separated into two sides of the camp (men on one side, women and children on the other) with a fence in between them. The camp was secured by barbed wire fences and guard towers (hard to tell the difference between these and those at Auschwitz) with armed guards. Additionally, they were counted morning and night. All of this must have been a horrible deja vu experience for these folks.
Fast forward, if you will, to October of 1945. A Palmach unit (the Palmach were the "strike forces" of the Haganah), led by none other than a young Yitzchak Rabin, engineered a prison break from the Atlit detention camp and 208 internees were freed. The plan was nothing short of brilliant. The Palmach got eight of its members into the camp about a week in advance under the guise of being Hebrew teachers. While teaching the internees Hebrew they also prepared them for the breakout so that there would be total cooperation. These operatives discovered that two of the camp guards were Jews and gained their cooperation. As a result they were able to sabotage the weapons of the British so that they were inoperable! After a daring escape in the dead of night, all of the internees were immediately resettled in kibbutzim. BTW, when the State of Israel was established in 1948, almost a fifth of its citizens were individuals who had been "illegally" brought into Palestine!
So the true story of the ship Exodus. The ship, originally named the SS Warfield, was American made and had actually been slated for demolition before it was sold to the Haganah and renamed the Exodus. BTW, it was also skippered by an American. Like most of the blockade running ships, it was in very poor condition. What was unique about the Exodus was its size. Most of these ships carried a few hundred passengers at most. The Exodus was able to carry >4500!! Clearly this was not a ship that was going to "sneak" by anyone and, because of this, it was intended as a ship which would "challenge" the British blockade of Palestine. Indeed, the Haganah hoped that its size and its sea-unworthiness (I know, I made that up, but you know what I mean) would force the hand of the British since detaining it at sea might well lead to its sinking. It embarked on its voyage on July 11, 1947 departing from France. When it approached the shore of Haifa it was attacked by British boats and boarded. In fact, three passengers were bludgeoned to death during this operation. It was brought into shore but the occupants were immediately placed on a boat (more seaworthy) and shipped back to France! Upon arrival, the passengers refused to disembark, and the French refused to forcibly remove them. What was the "solution" that the British came up with? Ship them back to Germany!! When the passengers got word of this they staged a hunger strike. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful and the ship was indeed sent to Germany where they were forced to disembark and interred them in DP camps. BTW, most of these passengers did, in fact, reach Israel after the state was declared.
An interesting aside to the Exodus story is that, although the passengers were unsuccessful in their initial attempts to reach Palestine, the ship carried reporters from all over the world and the outrageous story was covered extensively. It is believed that the outrage that this debacle represented had a direct influence on the members of the UN when they voted for the partition of the British mandated territory in Palestine which led to the formation of the State of Israel. For sure, I can't imagine that the British had this in mind at the time!!
So, tomorrow we are going to Rosh HaNikra (on the Lebanese border) and to an Australian zoo near here. I know -- what has that got to do with anything? Well, Sarah read about it in the guidebook and really wants to go and see the koalas. So, it is on the agenda. Saturday will be beach day and a tour of the Bahai gardens (which we can see from our balcony). On our way (?) to J'm on Sunday we will go to Akko and to Lohamei Hagheta'ot (a kibbutz that was established by fighters from the ghettos during WWII and which has a museum that memorializes this).
Wow!!! We are on the top floor with a huge balcony which looks out on Haifa bay and -- a couple of firsts for me -- our room has a doorbell and a TV in the bathroom so you can watch TV while you take a bath!! Sarah is beside herself! It IS pretty cool.
We didn't get here until about 2'ish so this afternoon we decided to visit the "Illegal" Immigrant Detention Camp at Atlit (maybe 15 km away). Really fascinating. This is the camp in which the British detained a number of concentration camp survivors whom the Haganah was trying to sneak into Palestine (as it was called then). Think about the movie Exodus -- more on the true story of the Exodus later. So imagine that you have just survived the horrors of life in a place like Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen and you think that you are finally coming to the promised land. Instead, you wind up in a detention camp which is eerily reminiscent of the concentration camps. Of course no one was being exterminated or beaten, and the living conditions were somewhat better (people had their own beds in barracks that accommodated about 50 people each). However, barracks are barracks and these look an awful lot like the ones I saw at Auschwitz. They also were stiflingly hot in the summer and brutally cold in winter (no heat or fires allowed). As the detainees arrived, their first stop was the disinfection barracks where they had to strip and their clothing was placed in a disinfecting vat and they were powdered with DDT (to deal with lice, etc.) before being required to shower. Again, imagine what fears this must have aroused in these survivors who had so recently been interred in camps where gas chambers masqueraded as showers!! The internees were then separated into two sides of the camp (men on one side, women and children on the other) with a fence in between them. The camp was secured by barbed wire fences and guard towers (hard to tell the difference between these and those at Auschwitz) with armed guards. Additionally, they were counted morning and night. All of this must have been a horrible deja vu experience for these folks.
Fast forward, if you will, to October of 1945. A Palmach unit (the Palmach were the "strike forces" of the Haganah), led by none other than a young Yitzchak Rabin, engineered a prison break from the Atlit detention camp and 208 internees were freed. The plan was nothing short of brilliant. The Palmach got eight of its members into the camp about a week in advance under the guise of being Hebrew teachers. While teaching the internees Hebrew they also prepared them for the breakout so that there would be total cooperation. These operatives discovered that two of the camp guards were Jews and gained their cooperation. As a result they were able to sabotage the weapons of the British so that they were inoperable! After a daring escape in the dead of night, all of the internees were immediately resettled in kibbutzim. BTW, when the State of Israel was established in 1948, almost a fifth of its citizens were individuals who had been "illegally" brought into Palestine!
So the true story of the ship Exodus. The ship, originally named the SS Warfield, was American made and had actually been slated for demolition before it was sold to the Haganah and renamed the Exodus. BTW, it was also skippered by an American. Like most of the blockade running ships, it was in very poor condition. What was unique about the Exodus was its size. Most of these ships carried a few hundred passengers at most. The Exodus was able to carry >4500!! Clearly this was not a ship that was going to "sneak" by anyone and, because of this, it was intended as a ship which would "challenge" the British blockade of Palestine. Indeed, the Haganah hoped that its size and its sea-unworthiness (I know, I made that up, but you know what I mean) would force the hand of the British since detaining it at sea might well lead to its sinking. It embarked on its voyage on July 11, 1947 departing from France. When it approached the shore of Haifa it was attacked by British boats and boarded. In fact, three passengers were bludgeoned to death during this operation. It was brought into shore but the occupants were immediately placed on a boat (more seaworthy) and shipped back to France! Upon arrival, the passengers refused to disembark, and the French refused to forcibly remove them. What was the "solution" that the British came up with? Ship them back to Germany!! When the passengers got word of this they staged a hunger strike. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful and the ship was indeed sent to Germany where they were forced to disembark and interred them in DP camps. BTW, most of these passengers did, in fact, reach Israel after the state was declared.
An interesting aside to the Exodus story is that, although the passengers were unsuccessful in their initial attempts to reach Palestine, the ship carried reporters from all over the world and the outrageous story was covered extensively. It is believed that the outrage that this debacle represented had a direct influence on the members of the UN when they voted for the partition of the British mandated territory in Palestine which led to the formation of the State of Israel. For sure, I can't imagine that the British had this in mind at the time!!
So, tomorrow we are going to Rosh HaNikra (on the Lebanese border) and to an Australian zoo near here. I know -- what has that got to do with anything? Well, Sarah read about it in the guidebook and really wants to go and see the koalas. So, it is on the agenda. Saturday will be beach day and a tour of the Bahai gardens (which we can see from our balcony). On our way (?) to J'm on Sunday we will go to Akko and to Lohamei Hagheta'ot (a kibbutz that was established by fighters from the ghettos during WWII and which has a museum that memorializes this).
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Day 15 - At the Beach!
Just a quick update here. Politically, it seems that things may be calming down a bit. Although there were a few rockets fired from Gaza after the cease fire was declared, it seems that they may be "rogues" and the major barrages of rockets have definitely ebbed if not stopped entirely. A rather crude measure of this is that the "Breaking News" line on Ha'aretz -- which has carried news of almost nothing but the rocket attacks and retaliatory raids by the IAF for several days now -- is talking about Syria, the prosecution -- or not -- of Strauss-Kahn in NYC, etc. Let's pray that this cease fire holds.
Learning more and more about Iron Dome. It is pretty amazing. Apparently, the system not only detects incoming rockets, but then decides whether a given rocket is headed for a populated area or not and targets only those that are most likely to cause harm to Israeli civilians. All of this must happen, obviously, in a matter of seconds (if that)! It is not perfect and the speculation is that those who are firing rockets toward Israel are trying tactics to circumvent the Iron Dome system (firing large volleys of rockets at once, targeting areas not yet protected by Iron Dome). Nevertheless, as others have observed, it's a pretty good system AND it protects Israeli lives WITHOUT HURTING ANYONE!! Seems that that has gotten little play in the press. The system was developed and is manufactured entirely in Israel, although a significant part of the funding for its development came from the US. Again, IMHO, not a bad expenditure of money -- a system which protects human life without harming anyone or anything else. Sounds like pretty good Jewish ethics to me :-). Others have observed that since this is the first system of its kind anywhere in the world, once perfected and production is scaled up it has the potential to be a pretty good income producing export for Israel! In a bizarre way, you could say that Hamas is helping the Israeli economy!!!
So we are in Tel Aviv for a few days. This will be "tourist" time for sure. Lots of beach time and hanging out at the port (for those who may not be familiar, the port at TA has been built up as a high end restaurant and shopping area). Also plan to spend some time in Jaffa and take in a few of the museums we have not been to before. Maybe check out that restaurant in Jaffa that is staffed by the blind and in which everyone dines in complete darkness! It is called the Black Out I believe. I will need to be sure to wear something I don't care too much about since I am fairly certain that a significant amount of food will wind up on my clothing!!
Will post again soon. Let's all hope and pray that the worst is over in the South -- at least for now!
Learning more and more about Iron Dome. It is pretty amazing. Apparently, the system not only detects incoming rockets, but then decides whether a given rocket is headed for a populated area or not and targets only those that are most likely to cause harm to Israeli civilians. All of this must happen, obviously, in a matter of seconds (if that)! It is not perfect and the speculation is that those who are firing rockets toward Israel are trying tactics to circumvent the Iron Dome system (firing large volleys of rockets at once, targeting areas not yet protected by Iron Dome). Nevertheless, as others have observed, it's a pretty good system AND it protects Israeli lives WITHOUT HURTING ANYONE!! Seems that that has gotten little play in the press. The system was developed and is manufactured entirely in Israel, although a significant part of the funding for its development came from the US. Again, IMHO, not a bad expenditure of money -- a system which protects human life without harming anyone or anything else. Sounds like pretty good Jewish ethics to me :-). Others have observed that since this is the first system of its kind anywhere in the world, once perfected and production is scaled up it has the potential to be a pretty good income producing export for Israel! In a bizarre way, you could say that Hamas is helping the Israeli economy!!!
So we are in Tel Aviv for a few days. This will be "tourist" time for sure. Lots of beach time and hanging out at the port (for those who may not be familiar, the port at TA has been built up as a high end restaurant and shopping area). Also plan to spend some time in Jaffa and take in a few of the museums we have not been to before. Maybe check out that restaurant in Jaffa that is staffed by the blind and in which everyone dines in complete darkness! It is called the Black Out I believe. I will need to be sure to wear something I don't care too much about since I am fairly certain that a significant amount of food will wind up on my clothing!!
Will post again soon. Let's all hope and pray that the worst is over in the South -- at least for now!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Day 13 - Israel is "Hot" in More Ways than One
I think it would be fair to say that despite the fact that the temperature has climbed higher as this week has progressed, the weather is hardly the only -- or the most concerning -- way in which Israel is "heating up." As I mentioned in my last post, I was in Be'er Sheva when the first air raid alarms since April were sounded. As I imagine most, if not all, of you know by now that those were only the opening volleys.
Things really escalated on Thursday with the infiltration into Israel of (what is estimated to have been 15-20) terrorists from Gaza. They attacked a couple of buses (one of which was blown up by a suicide bomber killing the driver who was, thankfully, the only person on board) as well as planting some bombs along the road to Eilat and shooting at several cars, killing two couples who were on their way to vacation in Eilat. [The photos of the smoldering shell of this bus is eerily reminiscent of the pictures we used to see all the time before the security fence was erected. While the construction of this fence was -- and is -- controversial, it cannot be denied that after its erection the number of devastating terrorist attacks which had previously been prolific declined to almost zero.] This then led to a retaliatory air raid by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) which killed a number of folks including at least one of the leaders of Hamas in Gaza. The response was the unleashing of something like 30 rockets being shot into Southern Israel (Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon). While most of these "missed" and a few were intercepted by Iron Dome (the mobile anti-rocket defense system which Israel has developed to protect communities in the North and the South -- and which was just deployed in April of this year!) several did fall in populated areas and there were at least three fatalities. Ironically, the three men killed were themselves Palestinians working in Israel. There were also 3 Egyptian policemen shot and killed by Israeli police (on Egyptian soil) as they pursued several of the terrorists.
So, all of this led to my making a change in my weekend plans. [This is hardly the most significant result of the escalation in violence -- but it is the one that effects me directly.] I had originally planned to return to Be'er Sheva for the weekend to visit with my niece and her daughter while Sarah stayed in Modi'in with some JFI friends. However, by Friday morning the situation in the South seemed sufficiently unstable to warrant a change in plans. Sarah was very nervous about my returning to Be'er Sheva right now and, frankly, I wasn't too hard to convince to do otherwise. As luck would have it, I was able to get a really good rate (last minute) on a hotel in J'm. This is the kind of place that I would never pay full rate for. It's called the American Colony Hotel and rivals the King David in terms of service and rates.
It's actually quite a remarkable place. It began as a home built by Rabbah Daoud Amin Effendi El Husseini for himself and his FOUR wives. Hence the need for a pretty big house :-). In the very late 19th century a family from Chicago -- the Spaffords -- moved to J'm after the tragic death of their four daughters in a shipwreck and purchased the home. They soon added rooms for visitors and it eventually became a hotel. It is a favorite place for journalists from all over the world to stay. Additionally, it has been host to a wide variety of notable guests including General Allenby (his walking stick -- with his name engraved in silver -- is displayed right outside my room!), Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev, Leon Uris, Marc Chagall, Peter O'Toole, Robert DeNiro, and Bob Dylan! It is built almost entirely of stone and has a very Moorish feeling. The staff fall all over themselves trying to make the guests comfortable. I must say that I have NEVER before checked into a hotel where I was offered a glass of wine while I registered!
Tomorrow it is back to Matityahu. Sarah and I will spend a couple of days exploring Tel Aviv and then we are off to the north (staying in Haifa for a few nights) followed by about five days in J'm. This will include our opportunity to pray with the Women of the Wall. All of this, of course, is based on the presumption that the conflicts here do not heat up to levels at which safety might be compromised.
Things really escalated on Thursday with the infiltration into Israel of (what is estimated to have been 15-20) terrorists from Gaza. They attacked a couple of buses (one of which was blown up by a suicide bomber killing the driver who was, thankfully, the only person on board) as well as planting some bombs along the road to Eilat and shooting at several cars, killing two couples who were on their way to vacation in Eilat. [The photos of the smoldering shell of this bus is eerily reminiscent of the pictures we used to see all the time before the security fence was erected. While the construction of this fence was -- and is -- controversial, it cannot be denied that after its erection the number of devastating terrorist attacks which had previously been prolific declined to almost zero.] This then led to a retaliatory air raid by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) which killed a number of folks including at least one of the leaders of Hamas in Gaza. The response was the unleashing of something like 30 rockets being shot into Southern Israel (Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon). While most of these "missed" and a few were intercepted by Iron Dome (the mobile anti-rocket defense system which Israel has developed to protect communities in the North and the South -- and which was just deployed in April of this year!) several did fall in populated areas and there were at least three fatalities. Ironically, the three men killed were themselves Palestinians working in Israel. There were also 3 Egyptian policemen shot and killed by Israeli police (on Egyptian soil) as they pursued several of the terrorists.
So, all of this led to my making a change in my weekend plans. [This is hardly the most significant result of the escalation in violence -- but it is the one that effects me directly.] I had originally planned to return to Be'er Sheva for the weekend to visit with my niece and her daughter while Sarah stayed in Modi'in with some JFI friends. However, by Friday morning the situation in the South seemed sufficiently unstable to warrant a change in plans. Sarah was very nervous about my returning to Be'er Sheva right now and, frankly, I wasn't too hard to convince to do otherwise. As luck would have it, I was able to get a really good rate (last minute) on a hotel in J'm. This is the kind of place that I would never pay full rate for. It's called the American Colony Hotel and rivals the King David in terms of service and rates.
It's actually quite a remarkable place. It began as a home built by Rabbah Daoud Amin Effendi El Husseini for himself and his FOUR wives. Hence the need for a pretty big house :-). In the very late 19th century a family from Chicago -- the Spaffords -- moved to J'm after the tragic death of their four daughters in a shipwreck and purchased the home. They soon added rooms for visitors and it eventually became a hotel. It is a favorite place for journalists from all over the world to stay. Additionally, it has been host to a wide variety of notable guests including General Allenby (his walking stick -- with his name engraved in silver -- is displayed right outside my room!), Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev, Leon Uris, Marc Chagall, Peter O'Toole, Robert DeNiro, and Bob Dylan! It is built almost entirely of stone and has a very Moorish feeling. The staff fall all over themselves trying to make the guests comfortable. I must say that I have NEVER before checked into a hotel where I was offered a glass of wine while I registered!
Tomorrow it is back to Matityahu. Sarah and I will spend a couple of days exploring Tel Aviv and then we are off to the north (staying in Haifa for a few nights) followed by about five days in J'm. This will include our opportunity to pray with the Women of the Wall. All of this, of course, is based on the presumption that the conflicts here do not heat up to levels at which safety might be compromised.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Day 12 - Dinner in a Bomb Shelter -- A Few Hours Too Early
Have had some "challenges" with internet connectivity these last few days, hence the delay in writing about a very interesting Monday night. Readers of this blog may remember that Sarah and I were invited to join my sister-in-law, Laurie in participating in an "iftar." This is the meal (dinner) that signifies the end of each day's fasting during the Moslem holiday of Ramadan (which lasts for a month). This particular iftar was hosted by the Negev Coalition Forum for Civil Equality -- a group of Jews and Arabs (mostly Bedouins) who have come together to work toward attaining full civil rights for all, regardless of religion or ethnicity.
It turns out that the city of Be'er Sheva (and, I am told, many other municipalities in Israel) will allocate use of a bomb shelter to a specific group which then uses it as a "home base" (kind of a club house) from which to operate. I didn't specifically ask this, but I assume that should the need arise for it to function as a bomb shelter that would obviously take precedence. The coalition has such a facility and this is where the iftar was held. I had never been inside an Israeli (or any other) bomb shelter. Above ground all you see is a small reinforced concrete building (which actually looks like nothing more than a hut.). The shelter itself is located two flights down and consists of several rooms made out of reinforced concrete. The rooms are air conditioned and the coalition has furnished them sparsely with a few couches and plastic chairs. The largest room was the one used for the iftar and all of the furniture was removed and replaced by colorful rugs and a few pillows, as the dinner is eaten "Bedouin-style" (i.e., sitting on the floor). There were a few chairs provided for those of us who are not too comfortable sitting on the floor for several hours. [There was no shortage of people willing to take advantage of these more comfortable accommodations!]
All of the food was set out in advance but no one ate until the Sheik (and he really looked just like what you would expect a sheik to look like!) of one of the Bedouin communities signaled that it was the proper time to break that day's fast (around 7:30 PM). There were huge trays of chicken and rice (which was yellow as the result of some sort of seasoning -- perhaps turmeric?), hummus with olive oil and satar (a middle eastern seasoning mix), tahini, these huge (perhaps a meter in diameter) pieces of soft, flat bread (like a very thin tortilla) which you just tore a piece off of and passed to the next person, several different types of olives and pickles, dates, and a scrumptious couscous-based salad with onions, other spices and craisins! By contrast, dessert was watermelon and pastries (which included brownies and ruggelach!). Everything was delicious and I actually ate a bit too much (something which those of you who know me know I am usually very careful not to do).
As we were beginning to eat, it dawned on me that although the room was full, there were no Arab women present. There were quite a few Caucasian women (and, of course, Sarah) and there didn't seem to be any "separation" of the men from the women present. We were seated, intermixed, with the men. It turns out, however, that Bedouin women do not eat with the men and so they were actually in the next room. It did feel a bit strange -- although I think it would have felt stranger to be asked to sit in the other room. After dinner, there were a number of "speeches" given largely by the Arab participants, but a few of the Jewish members of the group spoke as well. It intrigued me that although there were far more Arabs in the room than Jews, all of the speeches were given in Hebrew. One of the longest, and most animated, was given by the sheik and I must confess it struck me as quite amusing to see this guy in full Arab dress (including kaffiyeh = headpiece) speaking in perfectly accented Hebrew! It was clear that it was understood that all present (with a couple of notable exceptions -- namely, Sarah and me) could understand Hebrew, but Arabic would have been understood only by the Arabs and a handful of the Jews.
Overall it was a fascinating experience and certainly not one which could be described as your average tourist activity! The whole thing wrapped up at around 10'ish and Sarah and I returned to my niece Shlomit's home in Be'er Sheva for the evening. We were sitting around schmoozing when, at around 11:30 PM, a siren went off that could have woken the dead! It was clearly NOT a fire siren or an ambulance. I looked at Shlomit, she ran inside and grabbed the baby (who was asleep -- and who, BTW, slept through the whole thing -- I have NO idea of how!) and brought her back into the living room. She then explained -- quite calmly -- that that was a siren that indicated that Be'er Sheva was being fired on (almost certainly from Gaza). Sarah looked like she was going to faint and I asked, "So what do we do?" She said, and I quote, "We stay here in the living room where there are no windows and then we wait for 20 seconds after the alarms stop and see if we hear anything." This is the approximate amount of time that it takes the rockets to travel from Gaza to Be'er Sheva (or pretty much anywhere else in the Negev) so there really isn't much else you CAN do. Sure enough, about 15 seconds after the alarms quit we heard three booms. They seemed pretty distant and Shlomit confirmed that she thought that they were. She immediately turned on the radio and within about 10 minutes it informed us that, indeed, Be'er Sheva had been targeted by rockets from Gaza and that they had fallen in the outskirts of the city and there were no injuries. Shlomit told us that this was the first time this has happened since March. The next day we read that Israel had responded by targeting four Hamas installations in Gaza which resulted in killing one "gunman" and wounding several others.
Luckily, I suppose, I have never been subjected to an experience like that here in Israel (or anywhere else, for that matter) before. For some reason, I wasn't as shaken up by it as Sarah was. Perhaps it's because I know that in all of the shelling of Be'er Sheva over the last few years there have been no fatalities and only a few injuries. The rockets that have been used up until now are pretty unsophisticated and very difficult to aim (they're not like the ones used by the US, or Israel for that matter, which can target a specific location with great accuracy). The statistician in me viewed it as a Poisson distribution. [This is the type of distribution that describes a very, very unlikely event. It's sort of like if you drop a golf ball out of a helicopter onto a football field it is going to land somewhere, but the likelihood of it's landing in any one particular spot is infinitesimally small. Sort of like the proverbial drop in the ocean.] Nevertheless, it did bring home the potential danger under which many Israelis exist day in and day out. These are things that we simply don't worry about in Honeoye Falls, NY!!
Well, a couple of days ago we returned to the center of the country and have been spending time with my cousin who lives in Modi'in Illit (also known as Kiryat Sefer = Town or City of the Book; guess which "book" we're talking about). My cousin Janice is a ba'alat teshuvah and her husband Steve is a ba'al teshuvah (loosely translated this means "master/mistress of return", and is the term used to describe Jews who have been raised either in more liberal traditions or are completely secular and who then choose to adopt an ultra-religious lifestyle) often abbreviated as "BT's". Suffice it to say that my cousin Janice and my sister-in-law could not represent more divergent aspects of Israeli culture if they tried! Will write more about Sarah's and my reactions to being immersed in (and indeed, living in) this Haredi atmoshpere. For now, suffice it to say that we feel much like fish out of water!! Sarah is spending the upcoming weekend with some of her friends from JFI in Modi'in and I am returning to Be'er Sheva to spend additional time with my niece (and her adorable 3 year-old daughter who very patiently allows me to practice my Hebrew with her). For my fellow Hebrew students, you will appreciate that I am getting a lot of experience using feminine forms since those with whom I have been speaking Hebrew are almost all women. I will take a minute to brag here and tell you that my cousin Steve, the BT, asked me to pick of a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for him and I actually conducted the entire conversation with the clerk in Office Depot (yup, they have those here in Israel) in Hebrew! The only box I could find on the shelves was for the most basic version and I actually asked the clerk if they had either of the more advanced versions. It turned out that they had NONE of the versions of Windows in stock, however, the guy never switched to English while having this discussion with me! This either reflects the fact that I did a fairly good job with the Hebrew, or -- as is more likely -- he stinks at English and was stuck conversing with me in Hebrew even though my Hebrew is rudimentary at best! In any case, it was the first time that I had done anything like that so it felt pretty cool!!
It turns out that the city of Be'er Sheva (and, I am told, many other municipalities in Israel) will allocate use of a bomb shelter to a specific group which then uses it as a "home base" (kind of a club house) from which to operate. I didn't specifically ask this, but I assume that should the need arise for it to function as a bomb shelter that would obviously take precedence. The coalition has such a facility and this is where the iftar was held. I had never been inside an Israeli (or any other) bomb shelter. Above ground all you see is a small reinforced concrete building (which actually looks like nothing more than a hut.). The shelter itself is located two flights down and consists of several rooms made out of reinforced concrete. The rooms are air conditioned and the coalition has furnished them sparsely with a few couches and plastic chairs. The largest room was the one used for the iftar and all of the furniture was removed and replaced by colorful rugs and a few pillows, as the dinner is eaten "Bedouin-style" (i.e., sitting on the floor). There were a few chairs provided for those of us who are not too comfortable sitting on the floor for several hours. [There was no shortage of people willing to take advantage of these more comfortable accommodations!]
All of the food was set out in advance but no one ate until the Sheik (and he really looked just like what you would expect a sheik to look like!) of one of the Bedouin communities signaled that it was the proper time to break that day's fast (around 7:30 PM). There were huge trays of chicken and rice (which was yellow as the result of some sort of seasoning -- perhaps turmeric?), hummus with olive oil and satar (a middle eastern seasoning mix), tahini, these huge (perhaps a meter in diameter) pieces of soft, flat bread (like a very thin tortilla) which you just tore a piece off of and passed to the next person, several different types of olives and pickles, dates, and a scrumptious couscous-based salad with onions, other spices and craisins! By contrast, dessert was watermelon and pastries (which included brownies and ruggelach!). Everything was delicious and I actually ate a bit too much (something which those of you who know me know I am usually very careful not to do).
As we were beginning to eat, it dawned on me that although the room was full, there were no Arab women present. There were quite a few Caucasian women (and, of course, Sarah) and there didn't seem to be any "separation" of the men from the women present. We were seated, intermixed, with the men. It turns out, however, that Bedouin women do not eat with the men and so they were actually in the next room. It did feel a bit strange -- although I think it would have felt stranger to be asked to sit in the other room. After dinner, there were a number of "speeches" given largely by the Arab participants, but a few of the Jewish members of the group spoke as well. It intrigued me that although there were far more Arabs in the room than Jews, all of the speeches were given in Hebrew. One of the longest, and most animated, was given by the sheik and I must confess it struck me as quite amusing to see this guy in full Arab dress (including kaffiyeh = headpiece) speaking in perfectly accented Hebrew! It was clear that it was understood that all present (with a couple of notable exceptions -- namely, Sarah and me) could understand Hebrew, but Arabic would have been understood only by the Arabs and a handful of the Jews.
Overall it was a fascinating experience and certainly not one which could be described as your average tourist activity! The whole thing wrapped up at around 10'ish and Sarah and I returned to my niece Shlomit's home in Be'er Sheva for the evening. We were sitting around schmoozing when, at around 11:30 PM, a siren went off that could have woken the dead! It was clearly NOT a fire siren or an ambulance. I looked at Shlomit, she ran inside and grabbed the baby (who was asleep -- and who, BTW, slept through the whole thing -- I have NO idea of how!) and brought her back into the living room. She then explained -- quite calmly -- that that was a siren that indicated that Be'er Sheva was being fired on (almost certainly from Gaza). Sarah looked like she was going to faint and I asked, "So what do we do?" She said, and I quote, "We stay here in the living room where there are no windows and then we wait for 20 seconds after the alarms stop and see if we hear anything." This is the approximate amount of time that it takes the rockets to travel from Gaza to Be'er Sheva (or pretty much anywhere else in the Negev) so there really isn't much else you CAN do. Sure enough, about 15 seconds after the alarms quit we heard three booms. They seemed pretty distant and Shlomit confirmed that she thought that they were. She immediately turned on the radio and within about 10 minutes it informed us that, indeed, Be'er Sheva had been targeted by rockets from Gaza and that they had fallen in the outskirts of the city and there were no injuries. Shlomit told us that this was the first time this has happened since March. The next day we read that Israel had responded by targeting four Hamas installations in Gaza which resulted in killing one "gunman" and wounding several others.
Luckily, I suppose, I have never been subjected to an experience like that here in Israel (or anywhere else, for that matter) before. For some reason, I wasn't as shaken up by it as Sarah was. Perhaps it's because I know that in all of the shelling of Be'er Sheva over the last few years there have been no fatalities and only a few injuries. The rockets that have been used up until now are pretty unsophisticated and very difficult to aim (they're not like the ones used by the US, or Israel for that matter, which can target a specific location with great accuracy). The statistician in me viewed it as a Poisson distribution. [This is the type of distribution that describes a very, very unlikely event. It's sort of like if you drop a golf ball out of a helicopter onto a football field it is going to land somewhere, but the likelihood of it's landing in any one particular spot is infinitesimally small. Sort of like the proverbial drop in the ocean.] Nevertheless, it did bring home the potential danger under which many Israelis exist day in and day out. These are things that we simply don't worry about in Honeoye Falls, NY!!
Well, a couple of days ago we returned to the center of the country and have been spending time with my cousin who lives in Modi'in Illit (also known as Kiryat Sefer = Town or City of the Book; guess which "book" we're talking about). My cousin Janice is a ba'alat teshuvah and her husband Steve is a ba'al teshuvah (loosely translated this means "master/mistress of return", and is the term used to describe Jews who have been raised either in more liberal traditions or are completely secular and who then choose to adopt an ultra-religious lifestyle) often abbreviated as "BT's". Suffice it to say that my cousin Janice and my sister-in-law could not represent more divergent aspects of Israeli culture if they tried! Will write more about Sarah's and my reactions to being immersed in (and indeed, living in) this Haredi atmoshpere. For now, suffice it to say that we feel much like fish out of water!! Sarah is spending the upcoming weekend with some of her friends from JFI in Modi'in and I am returning to Be'er Sheva to spend additional time with my niece (and her adorable 3 year-old daughter who very patiently allows me to practice my Hebrew with her). For my fellow Hebrew students, you will appreciate that I am getting a lot of experience using feminine forms since those with whom I have been speaking Hebrew are almost all women. I will take a minute to brag here and tell you that my cousin Steve, the BT, asked me to pick of a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for him and I actually conducted the entire conversation with the clerk in Office Depot (yup, they have those here in Israel) in Hebrew! The only box I could find on the shelves was for the most basic version and I actually asked the clerk if they had either of the more advanced versions. It turned out that they had NONE of the versions of Windows in stock, however, the guy never switched to English while having this discussion with me! This either reflects the fact that I did a fairly good job with the Hebrew, or -- as is more likely -- he stinks at English and was stuck conversing with me in Hebrew even though my Hebrew is rudimentary at best! In any case, it was the first time that I had done anything like that so it felt pretty cool!!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Day 6 - Ha-Am Doresh Tzedek Chevrati!
So this (the title of this post) is my most recently acquired Hebrew. It means (roughly translated) "The People Demand Social Justice." Last night Sarah and I joined 20,000 (you read that right) others at a demonstration in Be'er Sheva. This was the rallying cry (with the first word being switched out on occasion for "Ha-Negev" or "Ha-Darom" (the South). The "agenda" was, as I described earlier, more money to be spent on housing, education, and health care and less on security. [If you haven't already done so, you can check out Day 5 of this blog for a more complete description.] The energy was electrifying! Took me right back to my anti-Vietnam war protest days. It was fascinating to see the diversity of the folks joining in this demonstration. First, there were folks from all over the country. The organizers (very loose, and possibly, although no one seems willing to talk about it, receiving some financing from NIF) of this whole business identify 2 cities each week to be the special focus for Saturday night and this week was Be'er Sheva's turn so people came from Tel Aviv, J'm (Jerusalem), Sde Boker, even Eilat. The demonstrators were of all ages -- and I do mean all. There were plenty of school age kids but also a number of babies, teens of course, and adults ranging up to very, very senior citizens. Finally,there were Jews, Israeli Palestinians and, I would imagine -- although obviously they are not identifiable -- Christians. The Jews were of every "stripe" -- secular (lots), Progressive (Reform/Conservative), and Modern Orthodox (the ones who wear the knitted kippot). The only group that I did not see represented was the haredim (= black hats). No comment -- but certainly not a surprise.
As I mentioned yesterday, Sarah and I marched with the Negev Coalition Forum for Civil Equality (again see Day 5 for an explanation). What an interesting group! Certainly there were a number of old "hippies" like my sister-in-law, then there were younger, Jewish Israelis. There were also Bedouins and other Israeli Palestinians. This is the same group that we will be celebrating an "iftar" with tomorrow evening. It was so enlightening to meet Palestinians who have no desire whatsoever to destroy Jews or the State of Israel. I had a very long talk with one, Faisal, in which we both agreed that fanaticism is fanaticism no matter what mask it wears. As I said to Laurie later, I can easily imagine having this guy as a neighbor and having my kids play with his. While it was a wonderful experience, it also made me quite sad. Just imagine how different things would be if people could just get to know one another and connect around their many, many shared experiences and values. Kind of gave a new sense of importance to John Lennon's "Imagine." If people (Jews and Arabs) like the ones I met last night were making the decisions there could easily be a peaceful -- even cooperative -- two-state solution. It might even be possible for all of us to share one common state in which all religious beliefs and practices were honored. Yes, I know, as Lennon said, "You may think I'm a dreamer" and I am sure that I am but this is a wonderful dream! We can only pray, and work, for it to come true. The beginning is, I feel certain, more groups like the one that I was with last night coming together and breaking down the imaginary walls which divide us.
In addition to the speeches, several very big name Israeli performers were on hand. Most notably, Noa, who is coming to Rochester for the big Federation event this fall. She was terrific despite the fact that they were obviously using gigantic amps and speakers which tend to distort things. Toward the end of her "set" she started the gathering chanting, "Ha-Am Doresh Tzedek Chevrati" and then gradually added in musical accompaniment and, before you even realized it, the thing had turned into a song!
Today, we set out to see the crater at Mitzpe Ramon. This crater is a geological one, not one formed by a meteor. It is often referred to as Israel's Grand Canyon and I can see why. Unfortunately the visitors' center was closed but we drove down to the bottom of the crater (this also happens to be the "scenic route" for going to Eilat) and climbed up like 130 stairs to a lookout. Well worth it, but the equivalent of something like 8-9 flights. Those of you who know me will be impressed :-).
Afterwards we went to an Alpaca farm which is owned by a friend of my sister-in-law's. We fed the Alpacas and the llamas. Most were in pens but a few were roaming free. We were warned not to feed these or they would follow us. Well, one was so cute that I gave him a handful of food. You can imagine what happened. Every time I tried to walk on, this guy moved so he was in my way. Provided great entertainment for Sarah and Laurie. Then, after finally losing this guy, I was feeding one of the llamas when he SPAT at me!!! Apparently they do this if they think that you aren't giving them enough food or aren't giving it to them fast enough. Again, much entertainment for Sarah and Laurie. As we were leaving the farm, we walked past the ticket booth and the woman there exclaimed :Oh, you got spat on!" like I had won some sort of a prize or something.
A piece of Negev trivia/advice to end with: "You never dry anything in the desert". So the other night I offered to dry the dishes which my niece was washing. I was told the above with the added info that by the time I got the towel they would probably be dry. Same goes for laundering clothes. Like many others in the desert, my sister-in-law has a washing machine but no dryer. She assured me that if we hung them outside (at about 11 PM) they would be dry by morning -- and they were!
As I mentioned yesterday, Sarah and I marched with the Negev Coalition Forum for Civil Equality (again see Day 5 for an explanation). What an interesting group! Certainly there were a number of old "hippies" like my sister-in-law, then there were younger, Jewish Israelis. There were also Bedouins and other Israeli Palestinians. This is the same group that we will be celebrating an "iftar" with tomorrow evening. It was so enlightening to meet Palestinians who have no desire whatsoever to destroy Jews or the State of Israel. I had a very long talk with one, Faisal, in which we both agreed that fanaticism is fanaticism no matter what mask it wears. As I said to Laurie later, I can easily imagine having this guy as a neighbor and having my kids play with his. While it was a wonderful experience, it also made me quite sad. Just imagine how different things would be if people could just get to know one another and connect around their many, many shared experiences and values. Kind of gave a new sense of importance to John Lennon's "Imagine." If people (Jews and Arabs) like the ones I met last night were making the decisions there could easily be a peaceful -- even cooperative -- two-state solution. It might even be possible for all of us to share one common state in which all religious beliefs and practices were honored. Yes, I know, as Lennon said, "You may think I'm a dreamer" and I am sure that I am but this is a wonderful dream! We can only pray, and work, for it to come true. The beginning is, I feel certain, more groups like the one that I was with last night coming together and breaking down the imaginary walls which divide us.
In addition to the speeches, several very big name Israeli performers were on hand. Most notably, Noa, who is coming to Rochester for the big Federation event this fall. She was terrific despite the fact that they were obviously using gigantic amps and speakers which tend to distort things. Toward the end of her "set" she started the gathering chanting, "Ha-Am Doresh Tzedek Chevrati" and then gradually added in musical accompaniment and, before you even realized it, the thing had turned into a song!
Today, we set out to see the crater at Mitzpe Ramon. This crater is a geological one, not one formed by a meteor. It is often referred to as Israel's Grand Canyon and I can see why. Unfortunately the visitors' center was closed but we drove down to the bottom of the crater (this also happens to be the "scenic route" for going to Eilat) and climbed up like 130 stairs to a lookout. Well worth it, but the equivalent of something like 8-9 flights. Those of you who know me will be impressed :-).
Afterwards we went to an Alpaca farm which is owned by a friend of my sister-in-law's. We fed the Alpacas and the llamas. Most were in pens but a few were roaming free. We were warned not to feed these or they would follow us. Well, one was so cute that I gave him a handful of food. You can imagine what happened. Every time I tried to walk on, this guy moved so he was in my way. Provided great entertainment for Sarah and Laurie. Then, after finally losing this guy, I was feeding one of the llamas when he SPAT at me!!! Apparently they do this if they think that you aren't giving them enough food or aren't giving it to them fast enough. Again, much entertainment for Sarah and Laurie. As we were leaving the farm, we walked past the ticket booth and the woman there exclaimed :Oh, you got spat on!" like I had won some sort of a prize or something.
A piece of Negev trivia/advice to end with: "You never dry anything in the desert". So the other night I offered to dry the dishes which my niece was washing. I was told the above with the added info that by the time I got the towel they would probably be dry. Same goes for laundering clothes. Like many others in the desert, my sister-in-law has a washing machine but no dryer. She assured me that if we hung them outside (at about 11 PM) they would be dry by morning -- and they were!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Day 5 (I think!) - m'Yisrael
Well, after one missed flight (I misread the 24-hour time), a night spent in the "bustling" Cracow airport -- where, BTW, virtually no one speaks English, and 36 hours without sleep (because I was afraid that I wouldn't wake up in time to catch my rescheduled flight in the AM) I am here in Israel!! Sarah actually took a train (by herself) from Modi'in to the airport to meet me. Then began the saga of the rented car (which was falling apart) and the GPS (which didn't work). PS -- after about 6 hours of driving around in circles (which, of course, we didn't realize we were doing) we hired a taxi to LEAD us to the community in which our apartment is located. Fast forward to next AM. After dropping Sarah off to visit with her Israeli JFI friends (she was in withdrawal after not seeing them for -- as she informed me -- 44 hours!) I headed back to the airport to get a car that was actually capable of going up hill without sounding like it was going to die and a GPS that not only works but speaks to me in English!!
Now for the good part. We, Sarah and I, are here in Sde Boker (about 45 minutes south of Be'er Sheva) visiting with my sister-in-law, Laurie, my niece, Shlomit, and her daughter (my great niece? I could never keep that stuff straight) Lia -- 3 1/2 years old. So what this means is that I am now in my Hebrew element -- preschool! I can count the pieces of the lego set with her and identify the colors; say kol hakavod when she throws a ball into a pail, suggest that we play b'yachad, ask her about what she wants to eat, etc. As far as Lia is concerned -- ani mideberet Ivrit (I speak Hebrew)! However, that means that she doesn't understand when I don't understand something that she says (like when she wanted me to change the channel on the TV). Luckily, we have a lot of translators at hand!
Later tonight we are all (not Lia) going to Be'er Sheva to participate in one of the demonstrations for social justice that have been sweeping this country. People can hardly speak about anything else. In case you haven't been following it, there are tent cities set up in almost all major cities (e.g., Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be'er Sheva, etc.). The issues generally have to do with the outrageous cost of living which has, for all intents and purposes, decimated the middle class in Israel. It turns out that 40% of the wealth of the country is owned by 10 families -- or so I am told. Of course, politics comes into play as well. Certainly a lot of money is going into security and specifically into the territories (both in terms of monitoring the Palestinians and protecting the ultra-Orthodox settlements). There is a very strong push for Israel to return the territories with some modest land exchanges (a la the suggestion of Obama). I find it fascinating that right under the surface is the issue of the power that the ultra-Orthodox have in the government. No one says it in so many words, but certainly there is unhappiness with the amounts of money that are spent on welfare programs (many of the ultra-Orthodox collect welfare because the husbands study all day and the wives are raising > 10 children! Add to that that virtually ALL of the settlements in the territories are populated by various ultra-Orthodox communities which need protection from the IDF, but in which almost none of them serve! What is most interesting is -- as was the case with the Arab Spring -- much of this organization has been facilitated by social media. It is becoming harder and harder to keep the "masses" in the dark (intentionally or otherwise). People are seeing that if they come together in a substantial way, change can be brought about. Certainly this has been the case with Egypt, etc. It has yet to be seen what the effects will be here in Israel but folks do feel some urgency with the threatened attempt by Hamas to ask the UN to declare a Palestinian State. The feeling here is, and I agree, that negotiating such a situation would be far preferable. I'm sure that I have oversimplified the politics of all of this, but I wanted to give you a flavor of what is transpiring. Will try to get some photos tonight.
On Monday night, Sarah and I will accompany my sister-in-law, Laurie, to an "iftar" in Be'er Sheva. Laurie is an active member of the "Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality" which works for recognition of the rights of the Bedouin tribes that are so prevalent here. So, you might ask, what is an iftar? Well, it is the break fast that occurs each night during Ramadan. It has been the practice of the Negev Coexistence Forum to sponsor an iftar each year, and Monday is the night this year. It will be a mix of Arabs (some Bedouin, some not) and Jews. Again, it should be interesting and not exactly your average tourist experience :-). Some of you may remember that on our last trip to Israel, Sarah and I went with Laurie to one of the Bedouin schools at which she works with teachers of English and had a chance to meet with the students of one of the classes. Marc says that Laurie is "still a hippie." I agree -- and so does she, but she takes that as a compliment. Again, for those who may not be familiar with the issues, the Bedouin have been "concentrated" (boy, I just realized what a potentially "hot" word that is) into a number of cities/towns that are recognized by the State of Israel. However, many have been raising sheep, etc., on their tribal lands for generations and don't want to live in these much more modern towns. So, they have established their own communities (made up largely of tin shacks). The problem is that Israel refuses to recognize them. Occasionally they have even forcibly made them move, but more frequently they just refuse to provide services to these communities, so they often have no electricity, water, sanitation services, etc. Hence the push for "civil equality". Again, for those of you with a more sophisticated understanding of these issues, please forgive the oversimplification. As in ANY conflict, there are certainly two sides to the story!
So I must sound kind of anti-Israel. Not at all. I wouldn't devote the time and money to spending the time here that I am if I didn't love this country deeply. Indeed, if I didn't love it so, I probably wouldn't care all that much about what I see to be some injustices in the way that it runs.
What is exciting is that the so-called "peace movement" which has always represented a minority (often a very small one) has experienced massive growth in the recent past and so the clamoring for the government to settle the Palestinian issue and pursue a "two-state solution" has never been stronger. The concern voiced by many in this movement is that it will only take one substantial security threat/breach and the government will be able to redirect attention to security to the exclusion of the very significant civil problems.
Okay, that's my political lecture for this trip. As I sign off, my niece, Lia, is watching some American super-hero program which is dubbed in Hebrew. It is just a scream to see this guy who looks like Spiderman (although he is probably someone else) speaking Hebrew!
Now for the good part. We, Sarah and I, are here in Sde Boker (about 45 minutes south of Be'er Sheva) visiting with my sister-in-law, Laurie, my niece, Shlomit, and her daughter (my great niece? I could never keep that stuff straight) Lia -- 3 1/2 years old. So what this means is that I am now in my Hebrew element -- preschool! I can count the pieces of the lego set with her and identify the colors; say kol hakavod when she throws a ball into a pail, suggest that we play b'yachad, ask her about what she wants to eat, etc. As far as Lia is concerned -- ani mideberet Ivrit (I speak Hebrew)! However, that means that she doesn't understand when I don't understand something that she says (like when she wanted me to change the channel on the TV). Luckily, we have a lot of translators at hand!
Later tonight we are all (not Lia) going to Be'er Sheva to participate in one of the demonstrations for social justice that have been sweeping this country. People can hardly speak about anything else. In case you haven't been following it, there are tent cities set up in almost all major cities (e.g., Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be'er Sheva, etc.). The issues generally have to do with the outrageous cost of living which has, for all intents and purposes, decimated the middle class in Israel. It turns out that 40% of the wealth of the country is owned by 10 families -- or so I am told. Of course, politics comes into play as well. Certainly a lot of money is going into security and specifically into the territories (both in terms of monitoring the Palestinians and protecting the ultra-Orthodox settlements). There is a very strong push for Israel to return the territories with some modest land exchanges (a la the suggestion of Obama). I find it fascinating that right under the surface is the issue of the power that the ultra-Orthodox have in the government. No one says it in so many words, but certainly there is unhappiness with the amounts of money that are spent on welfare programs (many of the ultra-Orthodox collect welfare because the husbands study all day and the wives are raising > 10 children! Add to that that virtually ALL of the settlements in the territories are populated by various ultra-Orthodox communities which need protection from the IDF, but in which almost none of them serve! What is most interesting is -- as was the case with the Arab Spring -- much of this organization has been facilitated by social media. It is becoming harder and harder to keep the "masses" in the dark (intentionally or otherwise). People are seeing that if they come together in a substantial way, change can be brought about. Certainly this has been the case with Egypt, etc. It has yet to be seen what the effects will be here in Israel but folks do feel some urgency with the threatened attempt by Hamas to ask the UN to declare a Palestinian State. The feeling here is, and I agree, that negotiating such a situation would be far preferable. I'm sure that I have oversimplified the politics of all of this, but I wanted to give you a flavor of what is transpiring. Will try to get some photos tonight.
On Monday night, Sarah and I will accompany my sister-in-law, Laurie, to an "iftar" in Be'er Sheva. Laurie is an active member of the "Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality" which works for recognition of the rights of the Bedouin tribes that are so prevalent here. So, you might ask, what is an iftar? Well, it is the break fast that occurs each night during Ramadan. It has been the practice of the Negev Coexistence Forum to sponsor an iftar each year, and Monday is the night this year. It will be a mix of Arabs (some Bedouin, some not) and Jews. Again, it should be interesting and not exactly your average tourist experience :-). Some of you may remember that on our last trip to Israel, Sarah and I went with Laurie to one of the Bedouin schools at which she works with teachers of English and had a chance to meet with the students of one of the classes. Marc says that Laurie is "still a hippie." I agree -- and so does she, but she takes that as a compliment. Again, for those who may not be familiar with the issues, the Bedouin have been "concentrated" (boy, I just realized what a potentially "hot" word that is) into a number of cities/towns that are recognized by the State of Israel. However, many have been raising sheep, etc., on their tribal lands for generations and don't want to live in these much more modern towns. So, they have established their own communities (made up largely of tin shacks). The problem is that Israel refuses to recognize them. Occasionally they have even forcibly made them move, but more frequently they just refuse to provide services to these communities, so they often have no electricity, water, sanitation services, etc. Hence the push for "civil equality". Again, for those of you with a more sophisticated understanding of these issues, please forgive the oversimplification. As in ANY conflict, there are certainly two sides to the story!
So I must sound kind of anti-Israel. Not at all. I wouldn't devote the time and money to spending the time here that I am if I didn't love this country deeply. Indeed, if I didn't love it so, I probably wouldn't care all that much about what I see to be some injustices in the way that it runs.
What is exciting is that the so-called "peace movement" which has always represented a minority (often a very small one) has experienced massive growth in the recent past and so the clamoring for the government to settle the Palestinian issue and pursue a "two-state solution" has never been stronger. The concern voiced by many in this movement is that it will only take one substantial security threat/breach and the government will be able to redirect attention to security to the exclusion of the very significant civil problems.
Okay, that's my political lecture for this trip. As I sign off, my niece, Lia, is watching some American super-hero program which is dubbed in Hebrew. It is just a scream to see this guy who looks like Spiderman (although he is probably someone else) speaking Hebrew!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Day 3 - Auschwitz
Well, I now understand why people kept saying to me, "You're really going by yourself?" Even the guide -- an older, very sensitive and extremely knowledgeable Polish woman -- asked me if I had come alone and checked in with me several times during the visit to make sure that I was okay. I had been warned that most people find one particular thing that just overwhelms them. For me it was the display of children's clothing and shoes. There were a pair of shoes that looked just like the first "walkers" that my Mom bought for Sarah. You know the kind -- the kind you have bronzed. It was impossible for me to look at that display and not feel for the pain and terror -- and abject helplessness in the face of such powerful evil -- that the parents of these children must have experienced.
Interestingly, in stark contrast to the evil that this place embodies, it seemed to elicit incredibly kind and thoughtful behavior from the visitors (at least those in my group). Example: When we got to Birkenau (the death camp part of Auschwitz) we began by climbing up to the top of the administrative building (maybe four flights of stairs). I was pretty whipped by then (in part, I'm sure, because I really hadn't eaten -- I know, I know, those of you who know how important it is for me to eat regularly will probably be saying, "What was she thinking?" But from the time I got up this morning I just couldn't seem to stomach even the idea of food. I finally had a big glass of milk before we left and a tangerine on the way, but that was pretty much it and it was now 4 in the afternoon). Anyhow, I quickly realized that I had almost the entire group behind me on the stairs and I was clearly slowing them down. We got to one of the landings and I said to the folks behind me, "Go ahead." They said, "No, no. It's fine. Take all the time you need." And this older German guy, with whom I had chatted briefly, said, "Can I give you a hand?" It kind of reminded me of how nice people were to each other right after 9-11. It was, I think, the result of all of us suffering from a kind of mass trauma all at the same time. Well, that is what happens on a visit to Auschwitz. Would that we could all treat each other with such tenderness all the time.
I truly believe that no amount of reading about or watching movies about this place can prepare you for the enormity (and I mean the physical size) of it or for the incredible depths of depravity to which people sunk here. Perhaps what is most disturbing is that these horrors were perpetrated not by one person (Hitler) or even by a select group (SS). No, most of the perpetrators were "regular" folks. As Hannah Arendt wrote in her book about the Eichmann trial (which is, IMHO, deservedly controversial for its seeming "compassion" for Eichmann among other things) what is so very striking is the "banality of evil." Auschwitz is just huge! We walked only a small part of it and we would come out of one block (that's how they refer to the buildings or barracks) and the guide would be directing us to another. I found myself thinking, repeatedly, "You've got to be kidding. There's more?!!" I am not going to bore you by recounting facts that you have probably heard many times before. I will, instead, share some of my reactions as well as a few new (at least to me) learnings that I had.
First, the decision about whether to take pictures or not. I actually took two or three at the very beginning, but I quickly stopped. It was making it feel like a sight-seeing trip and I was worrying about who walked into the picture, etc. For me, this was a pilgrimage. But there was, perhaps, an even more compelling reason that I decided not to continue taking pictures. In the first place, any picture that I could have taken has already been taken -- and taken by gifted photographers who could do a far better job of it than I could (even with my new camera!) and these photos are easily accessible. I don't need pictures in order to remember what I saw today. The images are etched into my brain. The only reason for taking pictures, I realized, would be to show them to others and I don't want to, in any way, contribute to the belief that one can really appreciate Auschwitz by looking at pictures of it. I believe now more than ever that in order to comprehend this place you must come here. One of my friends from URJ who knew about my trip said, "I think there are two pilgrimages that every Jew should make -- one to Auschwitz and one to Jerusalem." At great risk of sounding like I am preaching (forgive me if you are offended) I have to agree.
So one of the things that impressed me is the sheer size of this place. This is particularly true of Birkenau. Most of the barracks were destroyed by the Nazis just before the camp was liberated, but their remains are there and they stretch, literally, almost as far as the eye can see. Our guide told us that the plan was to erect 500 barracks to contain a projected100,000 inmates. They "only" had time to construct 350!! In addition to burning the barracks, the Nazis also blew up the remaining gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau. [There is one remaining at Auschwitz I and walking into that chamber is like no other experience I have ever had!] It seems that the Nazis were trying to destroy any evidence of their crimes. This struck me as odd when you think of all the pictures and film that they took, ostensibly to document it! I guess when they did that they thought they would emerge victorious. Interestingly, one of the crematoria had actually been blown up by the sonderkommando (the prisoners, usually Jewish, who were assigned to remove the bodies from the gas chambers, strip them of any valuable "materials" -- gold teeth, hair, etc. -- and cremate them) about a year before liberation. It seems they made bombs using gunpowder that the women who worked in an armaments factory smuggled back to the camp under their fingernails!! Also, it seems that the pace of the killings beginning in 1944 was stepped up so much that they could not "accomodate" them quickly enough in the crematoria. So, they would make huge piles of bodies and incinerate them in the open.
Another piece of information that I found VERY interesting has to do with what people knew and when. When you approach Auschwitz you see many many homes right near the camp. I found myself saying what I have heard so many others say, "Come on! There is no way that the people living in these houses didn't know what was going on there!" Well, did you know that the Nazis established a 40 km perimeter around Auschwitz? They "moved" most of the people (some to concentration camps) and demolished almost all of the homes. The homes that you see there now are almost all post-war construction. [Why anyone would want to live near Auschwitz is an entirely different question!] The only homes that were preserved were those that were given to camp officials and their families to live in and the homes of some "critical" (from the Nazis' perspective) workers who lived in the area (e.g., coal miners).
There is so much more that I could write and, perhaps, I will as time goes on. Let me close with this. I now know how I will answer anyone who tries to engage me in a discussion about Israel's right to exist or to defend herself. I will ask, "Have you visited Auschwitz?" If the answer is, "No," which I suspect it will be since I can't imagine that anyone who has been here could question this right, I will reply, "Well, please do so and THEN we can talk!"
I am happy to say that tomorrow I leave for Israel. Will spend much of the day in Kazimierz before going to the airport. Right now, I think I had better turn in. I actually had not one, but TWO glasses of a terrific pinot blanc with dinner! Those of you who know how little I drink (Rabbi Katz teases me often about this) will appreciate the significance of that!
Interestingly, in stark contrast to the evil that this place embodies, it seemed to elicit incredibly kind and thoughtful behavior from the visitors (at least those in my group). Example: When we got to Birkenau (the death camp part of Auschwitz) we began by climbing up to the top of the administrative building (maybe four flights of stairs). I was pretty whipped by then (in part, I'm sure, because I really hadn't eaten -- I know, I know, those of you who know how important it is for me to eat regularly will probably be saying, "What was she thinking?" But from the time I got up this morning I just couldn't seem to stomach even the idea of food. I finally had a big glass of milk before we left and a tangerine on the way, but that was pretty much it and it was now 4 in the afternoon). Anyhow, I quickly realized that I had almost the entire group behind me on the stairs and I was clearly slowing them down. We got to one of the landings and I said to the folks behind me, "Go ahead." They said, "No, no. It's fine. Take all the time you need." And this older German guy, with whom I had chatted briefly, said, "Can I give you a hand?" It kind of reminded me of how nice people were to each other right after 9-11. It was, I think, the result of all of us suffering from a kind of mass trauma all at the same time. Well, that is what happens on a visit to Auschwitz. Would that we could all treat each other with such tenderness all the time.
I truly believe that no amount of reading about or watching movies about this place can prepare you for the enormity (and I mean the physical size) of it or for the incredible depths of depravity to which people sunk here. Perhaps what is most disturbing is that these horrors were perpetrated not by one person (Hitler) or even by a select group (SS). No, most of the perpetrators were "regular" folks. As Hannah Arendt wrote in her book about the Eichmann trial (which is, IMHO, deservedly controversial for its seeming "compassion" for Eichmann among other things) what is so very striking is the "banality of evil." Auschwitz is just huge! We walked only a small part of it and we would come out of one block (that's how they refer to the buildings or barracks) and the guide would be directing us to another. I found myself thinking, repeatedly, "You've got to be kidding. There's more?!!" I am not going to bore you by recounting facts that you have probably heard many times before. I will, instead, share some of my reactions as well as a few new (at least to me) learnings that I had.
First, the decision about whether to take pictures or not. I actually took two or three at the very beginning, but I quickly stopped. It was making it feel like a sight-seeing trip and I was worrying about who walked into the picture, etc. For me, this was a pilgrimage. But there was, perhaps, an even more compelling reason that I decided not to continue taking pictures. In the first place, any picture that I could have taken has already been taken -- and taken by gifted photographers who could do a far better job of it than I could (even with my new camera!) and these photos are easily accessible. I don't need pictures in order to remember what I saw today. The images are etched into my brain. The only reason for taking pictures, I realized, would be to show them to others and I don't want to, in any way, contribute to the belief that one can really appreciate Auschwitz by looking at pictures of it. I believe now more than ever that in order to comprehend this place you must come here. One of my friends from URJ who knew about my trip said, "I think there are two pilgrimages that every Jew should make -- one to Auschwitz and one to Jerusalem." At great risk of sounding like I am preaching (forgive me if you are offended) I have to agree.
So one of the things that impressed me is the sheer size of this place. This is particularly true of Birkenau. Most of the barracks were destroyed by the Nazis just before the camp was liberated, but their remains are there and they stretch, literally, almost as far as the eye can see. Our guide told us that the plan was to erect 500 barracks to contain a projected100,000 inmates. They "only" had time to construct 350!! In addition to burning the barracks, the Nazis also blew up the remaining gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau. [There is one remaining at Auschwitz I and walking into that chamber is like no other experience I have ever had!] It seems that the Nazis were trying to destroy any evidence of their crimes. This struck me as odd when you think of all the pictures and film that they took, ostensibly to document it! I guess when they did that they thought they would emerge victorious. Interestingly, one of the crematoria had actually been blown up by the sonderkommando (the prisoners, usually Jewish, who were assigned to remove the bodies from the gas chambers, strip them of any valuable "materials" -- gold teeth, hair, etc. -- and cremate them) about a year before liberation. It seems they made bombs using gunpowder that the women who worked in an armaments factory smuggled back to the camp under their fingernails!! Also, it seems that the pace of the killings beginning in 1944 was stepped up so much that they could not "accomodate" them quickly enough in the crematoria. So, they would make huge piles of bodies and incinerate them in the open.
Another piece of information that I found VERY interesting has to do with what people knew and when. When you approach Auschwitz you see many many homes right near the camp. I found myself saying what I have heard so many others say, "Come on! There is no way that the people living in these houses didn't know what was going on there!" Well, did you know that the Nazis established a 40 km perimeter around Auschwitz? They "moved" most of the people (some to concentration camps) and demolished almost all of the homes. The homes that you see there now are almost all post-war construction. [Why anyone would want to live near Auschwitz is an entirely different question!] The only homes that were preserved were those that were given to camp officials and their families to live in and the homes of some "critical" (from the Nazis' perspective) workers who lived in the area (e.g., coal miners).
There is so much more that I could write and, perhaps, I will as time goes on. Let me close with this. I now know how I will answer anyone who tries to engage me in a discussion about Israel's right to exist or to defend herself. I will ask, "Have you visited Auschwitz?" If the answer is, "No," which I suspect it will be since I can't imagine that anyone who has been here could question this right, I will reply, "Well, please do so and THEN we can talk!"
I am happy to say that tomorrow I leave for Israel. Will spend much of the day in Kazimierz before going to the airport. Right now, I think I had better turn in. I actually had not one, but TWO glasses of a terrific pinot blanc with dinner! Those of you who know how little I drink (Rabbi Katz teases me often about this) will appreciate the significance of that!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Day 2 - Cracow
Well as hot and sunny as yesterday was, that's how cold and rainy today is (just like Rochester -- the weather changes on a dime!). It was kind of a mixed bag in terms of touring. I had scheduled a tour of Kazmierz (the historic Jewish section of Cracow -- historic because virtually no Jews live there anymore -- although I did see a couple of Chabadniks! The Indian couple on our tour wanted to know if they had "moved". No, said our guide, they were exterminated -- her word). Well, Kazmierz is a district outside of downtown Cracow and virtually all tour companies drive you there and THEN you walk around. I managed to find (inadvertently) the only one that thinks that walking the whole way is the way to do it! It is quite a hike-- not made any easier by the fact that I packed my purse (thinking that we would be riding) like an overnight bag (Kindle -- just in case I had to wait somewhere, the instruction book for my new camera, THREE bottles of cold water -- you get the idea!). Well, it didn't take very long before I was dying! Luckily there was this nice Jewish guy, Larry, from NJ who was on the tour (we had chatted for a while before it began) and he offered to carry it for me! So Miss "I can do it myself" said, "Really?!! Thank you SO much!" Thank God for Larry or I would have been finished a lot sooner than I was. As it was I made it all around Kazmierz but when the guide announced that we were going to walk over the bridge to go to the Schindler factory (at least another mile) I knew I was finished.
I was getting a little frustrated with our guide in any case. She knew just enough about Judaism to get herself into trouble! For example: We visited the Temple Synagogue (yup -- that's really its name) and she told us that the Hebrew inscription above the arc (which she correctly referred to as the "aron ha-kodesh") told the date that the synagogue was built and who the founder was. Not so much. I couldn't read all of the Hebrew but the name of God (yud-heh-vav-heh) was prominent (I suppose you could think of God as the "founder" of the synagogue but that is definitely not what she meant!) and the word "tamid" = eternal. I don't know exactly what the whole thing said but it sure wasn't what she said it was!
Actually, it was kind of a mixed blessing, because by "defecting" from the tour, I had time to poke around on my own. I went to the Galicia Museum. This is a really unique place. It houses photographs (with explanatory text) taken in the last few years, but which seek to convey the magnitude of the Holocaust. The photographer (and founder of the museum) went around and photographed dozens and dozens of synagogues and cemeteries -- as well as some makeshift markers to victims of the Shoah -- from towns all over Galicia (southern Poland -- at times it has actually been in Austrian and Hungarian hands -- the borders around here have changed oodles of times). It was just amazing to see that so many of these had survived the war -- although, of course, the people didn't. In the cities it was more common to destroy the synagogues. In these little villages, they "just" took the Jews out to some forest or other and shot them (often all on one day). I will spare you the details of the descriptions of these "aktions" --they are really the stuff of nightmares. Interestingly, there have been markers constructed to memorialize these folks -- many by the local non-Jews. For example, there was one picture of a farm field with a stand of trees, about 3-4 acres big, right in the center. Turns out this had been a Jewish cemetery. All of the gravestones had been broken and carted away, but the locals decided to keep the site "evergreen" to memorialize it. There was also a picture of a list of villages (and the number of Jews in each) that were wiped out in the Shoah. There were literally hundreds of them just in Galicia! You know, six million is a big number -- sometimes too big to really relate to. But when you see a list with town after town (this one with 374 Jews, the next with 163, etc.) which represent communities that have literally been wiped off the face of the earth -- somehow it puts a more "personal" spin on the magnitude of the destruction wrought by the Nazis. I must say I am very sorry that I wasn't more persistent in finding out the name of the village from which my grandmother's family came (it was right near here) because it is actually possible to hire a guide and go visit these places.
I finished up my "tour" of Kazmierz with lunch at "BagelMama"!! You can see that I am not all that "adventurous" with food! Real bagels -- just like at Brueggers. They sell these things they call "bagels" all over on the streets (it's strictly a Cracow thing) but they are really more like giant soft pretzels. Then I grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel. I will do some more exploring on Weds.
Tonight I went to "Klezmer House" for dinner and -- you guessed it -- Klezmer music. I remember Rabbi Katz commenting on the fact that the musicians who play Klezmer music here are not even Jewish (really -- there just aren't very many native Jews left in Cracow). These definitely were not (the female singer had a cross around her neck). But they were excellent nonetheless. Her Yiddish sounded like the "real thing" and she did a lightening fast rendition of chirry-bee, chirry-bum that could knock your socks off! She also did -- for all you folk music fans -- "Dona, Dona" -- think Joan Baez. Funny, I knew it in Englsh and some of it in Hebrew but I had never heard it in the "original" -- Yiddish. Again, the food was good. Matzah ball soup -- which tasted a lot like my grandmother's, and this chicken dish that they called "Purim chicken". It was breaded and had walnuts and cinnamon in it and was topped with a cranberry compote. Yummy! I remember my grandfather always teasing my "Galitziana" grandmother for putting sugar in "everything." Well, the "sweet" spices (e.g., cinnamon) are certainly very popular here.
So tomorrow is Auschwitz. Eerily it also happens to be Tisha B'Av. Didn't realize that when I made the plans. The "destruction" theme is kind of prominent, huh? I keep going back and forth on the issue of whether to take pictures there. Somehow it feels a little irreverent and I think that it is something people should see for themselves. But, it is a trip I will probably make only once in my lifetime. Well, if I do decide in the affirmative (and right now I am leaning that way) I will try to figure out how to post some of them. It would probably help if I read that instruction book that I (and Larry!) schlepped around all day today. When I got the camera I asked Marc (who, BTW, has a BS in photojournalism from RIT) to sit down with me and go through its operation. He was willing to do so but said, "If you want my honest opinion, I'd put it on "Auto" and shoot!" So far, as near as I can tell, that was good advice! These cameras are so "smart" these days they just about take the picture for you!!
I was getting a little frustrated with our guide in any case. She knew just enough about Judaism to get herself into trouble! For example: We visited the Temple Synagogue (yup -- that's really its name) and she told us that the Hebrew inscription above the arc (which she correctly referred to as the "aron ha-kodesh") told the date that the synagogue was built and who the founder was. Not so much. I couldn't read all of the Hebrew but the name of God (yud-heh-vav-heh) was prominent (I suppose you could think of God as the "founder" of the synagogue but that is definitely not what she meant!) and the word "tamid" = eternal. I don't know exactly what the whole thing said but it sure wasn't what she said it was!
Actually, it was kind of a mixed blessing, because by "defecting" from the tour, I had time to poke around on my own. I went to the Galicia Museum. This is a really unique place. It houses photographs (with explanatory text) taken in the last few years, but which seek to convey the magnitude of the Holocaust. The photographer (and founder of the museum) went around and photographed dozens and dozens of synagogues and cemeteries -- as well as some makeshift markers to victims of the Shoah -- from towns all over Galicia (southern Poland -- at times it has actually been in Austrian and Hungarian hands -- the borders around here have changed oodles of times). It was just amazing to see that so many of these had survived the war -- although, of course, the people didn't. In the cities it was more common to destroy the synagogues. In these little villages, they "just" took the Jews out to some forest or other and shot them (often all on one day). I will spare you the details of the descriptions of these "aktions" --they are really the stuff of nightmares. Interestingly, there have been markers constructed to memorialize these folks -- many by the local non-Jews. For example, there was one picture of a farm field with a stand of trees, about 3-4 acres big, right in the center. Turns out this had been a Jewish cemetery. All of the gravestones had been broken and carted away, but the locals decided to keep the site "evergreen" to memorialize it. There was also a picture of a list of villages (and the number of Jews in each) that were wiped out in the Shoah. There were literally hundreds of them just in Galicia! You know, six million is a big number -- sometimes too big to really relate to. But when you see a list with town after town (this one with 374 Jews, the next with 163, etc.) which represent communities that have literally been wiped off the face of the earth -- somehow it puts a more "personal" spin on the magnitude of the destruction wrought by the Nazis. I must say I am very sorry that I wasn't more persistent in finding out the name of the village from which my grandmother's family came (it was right near here) because it is actually possible to hire a guide and go visit these places.
I finished up my "tour" of Kazmierz with lunch at "BagelMama"!! You can see that I am not all that "adventurous" with food! Real bagels -- just like at Brueggers. They sell these things they call "bagels" all over on the streets (it's strictly a Cracow thing) but they are really more like giant soft pretzels. Then I grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel. I will do some more exploring on Weds.
Tonight I went to "Klezmer House" for dinner and -- you guessed it -- Klezmer music. I remember Rabbi Katz commenting on the fact that the musicians who play Klezmer music here are not even Jewish (really -- there just aren't very many native Jews left in Cracow). These definitely were not (the female singer had a cross around her neck). But they were excellent nonetheless. Her Yiddish sounded like the "real thing" and she did a lightening fast rendition of chirry-bee, chirry-bum that could knock your socks off! She also did -- for all you folk music fans -- "Dona, Dona" -- think Joan Baez. Funny, I knew it in Englsh and some of it in Hebrew but I had never heard it in the "original" -- Yiddish. Again, the food was good. Matzah ball soup -- which tasted a lot like my grandmother's, and this chicken dish that they called "Purim chicken". It was breaded and had walnuts and cinnamon in it and was topped with a cranberry compote. Yummy! I remember my grandfather always teasing my "Galitziana" grandmother for putting sugar in "everything." Well, the "sweet" spices (e.g., cinnamon) are certainly very popular here.
So tomorrow is Auschwitz. Eerily it also happens to be Tisha B'Av. Didn't realize that when I made the plans. The "destruction" theme is kind of prominent, huh? I keep going back and forth on the issue of whether to take pictures there. Somehow it feels a little irreverent and I think that it is something people should see for themselves. But, it is a trip I will probably make only once in my lifetime. Well, if I do decide in the affirmative (and right now I am leaning that way) I will try to figure out how to post some of them. It would probably help if I read that instruction book that I (and Larry!) schlepped around all day today. When I got the camera I asked Marc (who, BTW, has a BS in photojournalism from RIT) to sit down with me and go through its operation. He was willing to do so but said, "If you want my honest opinion, I'd put it on "Auto" and shoot!" So far, as near as I can tell, that was good advice! These cameras are so "smart" these days they just about take the picture for you!!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)