A Buckeye in Israel

Passover!

2009-04-27T20:32:00.005+03:00

For those of you counting, this is the second of the three P's!

I'm going to use the terms "Passover" (or "Pesach) and "Passover break" loosely in this entry, mostly because my Passover break included a full week before the actual break ever began. My mom and our family friend Vicki decided to come see Israel for the first time and spend a few weeks with me, and since they arrived a week before my break from school, I spent a total of almost three weeks on some sort of vacation/break!

After a VERY grueling plane ride, Mom and Vicki arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv in the middle of the night... I was there to greet them because one of my professor's wives was on that very same flight, my professor found out I was waiting for my mom, and offered to take me to the airport and pick up the whole crew!! After sleeping a few hours of the morning away in the hotel room, the three of us got Mom and Vicki's very first Israeli falafel and then set off to explore the Old City! We trekked through the Armenian quarter and it's Aladdin-esque shuk, and then said a Shecheyanu (prayer for reaching a special moment in your life) for their first time at the Kotel (Western Wall). We also explored the Cardo, an ancient road that runs through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, but which is now mainly upscale Judaica shopping.

the ladies' first trip to the Old City!

Chagall windows

Day two was also spent in Jerusalem, exploring the shuk for the first time! After another lunch of falafel/shwarma, we took a cab to Hadassah Hospital to see the famous Marc Chagall stained glass windows. That evening, after mom and I had dinner with Joel and Ari, we had a little "meet my mom" party at the apartment!

Mom taste-tests a pistachio in the shuk

The ladies' first Shabbat in Israel was spent in Eilat. We lounged on the beach, took a few dips in the Red Sea, relaxed by the pool, did some unsuccessful bathing suit shopping, walked on the promenade, lit Shabbat candles in our hotel, and even had corn on a stick! The wonderful trip was topped off by an extremely ridiculous bus trip back to Jerusalem and an even more ridiculous evening in the hotel (so ridiculous I can't even go into it). Even so, we had a great relaxing weekend in the sun!

taking a dip in the Red Sea

The first half of the next week was back in Jerusalem, as I needed to go to a few days of school before my break started. On Sunday, the ladies explored Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, and the Israel Museum (home of the Dead Sea Scrolls) while I went to class. Mom spent Monday exploring various parts (some safer than others...) of the outside walls of the Old City, and then I showed Mom the glorious place that is my grocery store- SuperSol (or Super Slow, as we like to call it). We bought a few things for Seder, and then had dinner and dessert in the German Colony with Ari. On Tuesday, my first day off, Mom and Vicki went on an organized tour of Masada and the Dead Sea, so I slept in, did some paper research, and pulled myself back together after a busy week of playing tour guide!

Tuesday night and Wednesday were mostly spent preparing for the Seder, though we did take some time to hang out with Joel and his mom Ruth who had just arrived for a visit! The guys and I took the moms to our favorite dessert place, Babette's, for waffles, on Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning was spent with Mom, Vicki, Joel, and Ruth in the Old City. We got to see a bunch of Orthodox guys burning their chametz (bread items, NOT kosher for Passover) outside the Old City walls, went back to the Kotel, and did a little more shopping and falafel eating.

Wednesday night was our Seder. Awhile back, Joel, Jaclyn, and I realized that we would all have parents in town during Passover, so we decided to have a "family" seder! Our group included me, Mom, and Vicki, Jaclyn and her mom and dad, Joel and Ruth, and then Ari, Lisa, Jimmy, and Lisa's friend Micah. Each of us "kids" was responsible for several pieces of the service, and we put together our own haggadah to read through! It was a really fun, creative, engaging seder, and we all had a great time leading and learning from each other. With LOTS of help from our awesome parents, we also made an incredibly delicious seder meal!

my brand new seder plate!

The ladies and I set out for Tel Aviv early the next morning. We spent lots of time walking along the beautiful beach of the Mediterranean Sea, Mom and I explored Old Yafo, and we met my friend Mollie for lunch overlooking the water. Lunch was pretty interesting, as a dog ran into the restaurant from the street not once but TWO different times and ate my lamb kabobs off my plate- no fair! After an afternoon exploring Neve Tzedek (the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv) with Mollie, Mom, Vicki and I checked into our hotel and took a walk to Rabin Square (the place where PM Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally in 1995). We then took a VERY long walk along the beach to the Namal (pier) for dinner- even though the restaurant wasn't kosher, they offered us matzah with our salads... VERY cool to be in Israel for Passover!

the view of Tel Aviv from Old Yafo

lunching with Mollie in Tel Aviv

Friday morning was spent exploring and buying at the Nachalat Binyamin art fair in Tel Aviv, and then on a train to Ramle and a taxi to Kibbutz Gezer! We had delicious omelettes for lunch with my friends Rabbi Miri and her husband David, as well as some guests of theirs. David took us on a tour of Pinat Shorashim (the educational park where I intern), and then I led the music for Shabbat services at Miri's congregation (where I also intern) Birkat Shalom. We had a wonderful Shabat dinner at their house with their family and some guests, and went back to Jerusalem that night.

We spent the rest of our Shabbat the way I always do: having Shabbat lunch and playing cards with Joel and Ari. This time, the moms joined in, and Mom even beat us all at cards! That night, we packed all of Mom and Vicki's stuff and even two suitcases for me, because the next day we were headed on a two day tour of the North and then straight to the airport!

We took a GREAT two day tour of the North with our tour guide, Michal, who was COMPLETELY and TOTALLY out of her mind- seriously, a real nutcase. Good news was, she was a great guide, knew shortcuts, and interesting places, and information about everything! I couldn't possibly describe every place we went, so I'll just give a list:

Jordan Valley, see Jericho, Beit She’an, Kibbutz Gesher, Drive on military road to see Jordan River, Lunch at Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov, See border of Israel, Jordan, Syria at Hama Gader, Kibbutz Degania, Kinneret, Drive through Tiberias, Hula Valley: lookout from Golan to Syria, Jaba Al Sheik/ Valley of Tears, Druze villages,Gorge of Sa’ar (waterfall), Drive by Banias, Dinner and Overnight: Tel Hai Guest House, Metulla, “Good Fence”/ see Lebanon, HaShomer Cemetary at Tel Hai, Kiriat Shmona, Rosh Pina, Tzfat, Rosh Pina for lunch, Drive Akko-Tzfat highway, Haifa: Bahai’i Gardens, ice cream, Stella Maris Church, Zichron Yaakov... WHEW!!

the snow-capped Mt. Hermon

waterfall at Gorge of Sa'ar

Stella Maris church

Our "hotel" was certainly not the greatest, and neither was our tour guide, but we had a really good time and saw more of the North than I could ever have hoped to show them on my own. Unfortunately, the end of our North trip meant the end of Mom and Vicki's vacation in Israel. I was really sad to see them go, and I know I was SO lucky to have my mom spend time with me here, see my life in Israel, and meet my friends. And of course, I'm really happy that they got to visit Israel for the firs time. We got dropped off at the airport after the tour, and they checked in and headed home to the States, while I jumped onto a Sherut and went back to Jerusalem.

Of course, just because I was on my own didn't mean that I was going to take it easy! The next day I took a bus to Netanya, a city near Tel Aviv, to have a 7th night festival meal with my Israeli friend Moran and her whole family. I last saw her family five years ago, when they hosted me during my very first trip to Israel. It was surreal but really great to see them all again, and to get to join them for a meal. I even spoke mostly in Hebrew to the family (but mostly English to Moran- it's hard to catch up in Hebrew)!

On Thursday I jumped back on the bus and met Joel and Ruth in Ramle for lunch at my favorite Israeli restaurant, Samir's, where I go with Miri and David every time I volunteer at Kibbutz Gezer!

I spent most of the weekend resting, hanging out, and writing my liturgy paper, and before I knew it, it was back to school!

Next up... the "Israeli" holidays (Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom Ha'atzmaut) and the third P... PACKING!!

Way Down South

2009-04-15T15:28:00.001+03:00

Our class took our last big tiyul of the year at the end of March- we traveled to the Negev Desert, which comprises the southern 60% of the country. We spent four days climbing mountains, hiking, visiting Kibbutzim, swimming in the Red Sea, and relaxing in the sun! Check out the highlights and pictures from the trip AND stay tuned for an entry about Mom's visit and Passover... THIS year in Jerusalem!

Day 1 highlights:

-checking out the view from Sde Boker, the Kibbutz where former prime minister David Ben Gurion is buried
-visiting a solar energy plant and seeing the largest solar parabola dish in the world
-climbing up a mountain to see Mitzpe Ramon (the Ramon "crater")
-Mincha (afternoon) services on the top of a mountain
-music, dinner, campus v. campus sing-off, campfire, and sleeping in a "Beduin tent" (owned by Israelis...)

view at Mitzpe Ramon

Day 2 hightlights:
-wimpy but beautiful hike in Timna National Park
-pomelo (a cross between an orange and a grapefruit but bigger) picking at Kibbutz Yahel
-karaoke, card playing, and sleeping at Kibbutz Yahel (Reform movement Kibbutz)

hiking at Timna

picking pomelos at Kibbutz Yahel with Coby (my classmate's son)

what's wrong with this picture? hugs with Amy at Karaoke

Joel and RVT serenading each other at karaoke

Day 3 highlights:
-"Eco-seminar" at the eco-friendly and pioneering Kibbutz Lotan (the other Reform movement Kibbutz)
-snorkeling and swimming in the Red Sea in Eilat
-HUC student-led Shabbat services at Kibbutz Yahel + Shabbat dinner with the Kibbutz community
-more card-playing and hookah, sleeping at Kibbutz Yahel

domed "houses" made of mud, etc. at Kibbutz Lotan

the eco-friendly toilet with sawdust at Kibbutz Lotan

Day 4 highlights:
-Shabbat walk and services in the desert
-discussion with Kibbutz Yahel founders and members
-paying 2 shekels to use the bathroom on our way back to Jerusalem

site of Shabbat morning services

The 3 P's of 2nd Semester

2009-03-17T15:43:00.014+02:00

As commonly heard around the HUC community, the 3 P's of second semester are Purim, Pesach, Packing. Since we checked Purim off the list last week, we've just got Pesach (Passover) coming up in three weeks, and then we Pack to go home! WOW!

I arrived back in Israel on February 2nd after an amazing and life-altering winter break at home. The last month and a half back in Israel have been very busy and exciting. Here are a few updates...

School...
has been BUSY! While I only have two new classes this semester (and neither of them are too different from stuff we studied before), I feel so much busier than I did last semester! I am really enjoying my new Bible class, where we look at selected stories, translate them from the original Hebrew, and analyze them based on all sorts of factors and view them from different perspectives (Orthodox v. Reform v. Bible as literature). We've also had a constant slew of visitors here in Jerusalem. First, the head of the Rabbinical School from the Cincinnati campus came to speak with the Cincinnati-bound students. Then, the entire Central Conference of American Rabbis (organizational body of American Reform rabbis) had their annual convention here. We met with various committees, attended services, and had all kinds of delicious food compliments of the rabbis. I ran into a few rabbis from home, some young rabbis that I knew when they were HUC students in Cincy, and even a friend of my parents who is now a rabbi! After the CCAR convention was over, the Women's Rabbinic Network held their own conference for a few days. The WRN is a special professional and support network for women rabbis in the States. They invited the female rabbinic students in our class to have a reception with them to talk about their careers as women rabbis and talk about our experiences. We've also been on a day trip for school, and have a four day trip to the Negev desert in the South next week!

Engagement Parties...
were held in Jerusalem! My wonderful friends Jaclyn, Ari, and Joel planned not one but TWO engagement parties for me (and Sean, in spirit) the week I returned to Israel. The first was a complete surprise... our head of student affairs, Nancy, asked if she could chat with me, and then we walked into the Moadon (our student lounge) together. I noticed that half of the Mo was closed off, and wondered why Nancy and I were going into the partitioned area. As soon as we entered, I saw the three planners holding a giant "Mazel Tov" sign and ALL of my classmates standing there with blowers and balloons! They also ordered a beautiful, delicious cake for me (and everyone else to eat). That evening, we had a smaller celebration, attended by my close friends in the class. Everyone got all dressed up, made desserts and brought champagne to Ari's balloon filled apartment to celebrate. It was really wonderful to get to celebrate with my HUC family!

my surprise party sign (now hanging on my wall)

Purim...
was very cool and very unique in Israel! Purim is a rabbinically decreed holiday, celebrated in the Hebrew month of Adar (usually March); Purim is celebrated on the 14th of Adar in most places and on the 15th in walled cities (ie. Jerusalem). The story is that when Jews were under Persian control in exile, Haman, the royal advisor to King Ahasuerus, planned to kill all the Jews. We celebrate the fact that Queen Esther, a (secret) Jew herself, and her uncle Mordechai, foiled Haman's plot. I did a group costume with Ari and Joel that was awfully rabbinic and dorky, but very fun- we were "Al Shlosha D'varim" (On Three Things the World Stands)- Torah, Avodah (worship), G'milut Chasadim (acts of lovingkindness). We made t'shirts and each were one of the things (guess which I was)! We had a big Megillah (scroll, in this case Esther, the story of Purim) reading and fun service at school, and I was one of the Megilalh readers- I learned Megillat Esther trope (the cantillation) just for the occassion! After the service and reading, our class had a dinner and funny beit cafe ("coffee house"- open mic/talent show sort of thing)- Ari and I did a Debbie Friedman singalong and parody. A bunch of us also went out downtown to see the crazy, drunken, Purim madness of Jerusalem. The next day (we had two days off of school!), Joel made a great Purim Seudah (festive meal) for a bunch of our friends- it was delicious!

G'milut Chasadim, Avodah (hiding his weird straight hair under a hat), and Torah

Roadtripping...
to the northwestern coast in a little hatchback car with a broken CD player is fun! Joel, Ari, and I rented a car last weekend, and spent about 36 hours touring the northwest coast of Israel. Joel, being the only one who can actually rent a car, graciously agreed to drive. We set out early Friday morning, and first drove to Caesaria, a city with Roman, Herodian, Byzantine, and Arab periods. Along the beautiful Mediterranean sea beach, there are ruins from many of these time periods.

Caesaria

That afternoon we drove to the most northwestern point in Israel, Rosh Hanikra (Head of the Grottoes), which sits right next to the border with Lebanon. We traveled by cable car down to the grottoes to see the beautiful caves and water that flows through them. We also stood next to the border and took the requisite photo! I had been to both of these places on my first trip to Israel in 2004, but it was really wonderful to experience them both again.

Ari's excited to see the grottoes!

inside the grottoes

sunset over the Mediterranean Sea at Rosh Hanikra

the Israeli-Lebanese border at Rosh Hanikra

After spending about 45 minutes driving in circles to get to our little hostel in Haifa, we unpacked and set out to see Haifa at night. We ventured into Haifa's German Colony, where we ate dinner at a wonderful Middle Eastern/French fusion restaurant called Douzan that was absolutely delicious. We spent some time walking around the neighborhood and taking pictures of the Bahai'i Gardens (night shots are important!), and then had tea and hot cider and played cards (our usual) at Fatoush, another restaurant in the area.

Joel and me in front of the Bahai'i Gardens at night

Saturday morning brought our visit of the Bahai'i Gardens in Haifa. The Bahai'i Gardens are the site of the Shrine of the Bab, the burial place of the Bab, the predecessor of Baha'u'llah (the founder of the Bahai'i faith which is headquartered in Haifa). They are, simply put, ASTOUNDING. We only walked around part of the massive Gardens, near the Shrine, but you get the idea. On our way to view the Gardens from the top down, we made a quick, fun stop in the Haifa sculpture gardens.

the Bahai'i Gardens

hanging in the sculpture gardens

view of the Bahai'i Gardens from the top, looking over Haifa

Saturday afternoon was spent in Akko (Acre), just north of Haifa. Akko is a "mixed city," though Jews all live in the newer parts of the city, while the Arabs all live in the "Old City" (where all the interesting stuff is!). Akko is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world, dating back to the time of the Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE). The Old City is interesting and beautiful, with remanants of Crusader, Muslim, and Ottoman periods. Today, Akko is a mostly a small fishing harbor city. We ate lunch in a little hummus place, walked through the Shuk (market), visited the Al-Jazzar Mosque, walked the wall ramparts, went to the harbor, and checked out some cool things that we didn't really go into, like a fortress.

view of Akko and the Al-Jazzar Mosque

fish at the Shuk in Akko

the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Akko

On the way back to Jerusalem, we decided to relax and prolong our vacation with a stop in Zichron Yaakov, established in the late 1800s by the Baron de Rothschild. Zichron Yaakov, which we visited with school a while back, is a quaint little town, filled mostly with historical buildings, cute restaurants and coffee shops, and fun jewelry and craft stores. We stopped for some coffee, dessert, and cards, and then made our way back to Jerusalem. I had never been to Akko, nor had a spent much time in Haifa in the past, so I was really glad to have seen both last weekend. All in all, a great trip!!

So anyway, that's the update on the last month and a half of my life. My mom arrives in just two weeks, and Pesach will start during her visit, so we're well on our way to the 2nd of the 3 P's!

The Top Ten of Break!

2009-03-14T22:21:00.009+02:00

To my wonderful blog readers, thanks so much for your patience… it’s taken me a little while to come back down to earth from my amazing winter break at home and settle back into life here in Jerusalem. I suppose it’s only fair to describe my three weeks in the States, even though I saw so many of you along the way. In order to do this as briefly as possible, we’ll do the top 10, in no particular order, (with as many song lyric titles as possible)…

1. Reunited and it feels so good...

My reunions with my family and Sean were nothing short of wonderful.

Sean greeted me at the airport in Columbus, carried all of my luggage, got me lunch from my favorite Chinese restaurant, provided the means to a hot shower in a full size bathtub that did not require advanced heating and had a showerhead in the correct location, and of course, let me watch any TV show I wanted, and provided couch space for Michael and I to catch up in… all in the first four hours of my being home. More on his “greeting” later.

Besides Michael, I didn’t see the rest of my family until the next morning, when Sean and I drove down to Cincinnati for a welcome back brunch. My parents, Grandma and Sam, Auntie and Uncle Ed, Uncle Steve, and Adam were all there to welcome me home with WONDERFUL, home cooked, AMERICAN breakfast! It was an amazing feeling to walk into my house after being gone for seven months.

2. Marry Me!

After a few hours of getting acclimated to freezing cold Ohio, Sean had the nerve to take me back out into the cold! He asked if we could make a quick stop before our dinner at Martinis (my favorite place in Columbus)- he wanted to take a picture of the two of us in front of Ohio Stadium to frame as a gift for my mom’s upcoming birthday. In spite of the cold, I agreed, so we went over the stadium and posed for Sean’s camera (on a timer, of course). After a few resets of the timer, Sean told me we’d take one more, and without my knowledge, turned the camera to “video.” While my cheesy self kept posing for the next picture, Sean turned to me, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him! I of course said YES! After some fumbling with the ring and some ecstatic first moments, we went to Martinis to celebrate.

moments before our engagement at the Shoe

3. Celebrate good times, come on!

I was supposed to return to Jerusalem by January 25th in order to start classes, but I finagled an extra week at home to attend a wedding with Sean AND celebrate my mom’s 50th birthday!! My grandma, aunt, cousin Melissa, my mom’s best friend Vicki, and I threw my mom a big birthday brunch party at our house. Tons of her friends and our family turned out for French toast, birthday cake, and of course, a slideshow! I was SO happy to be home with Mom for her birthday. As a gift to herself, she booked her ticket to come visit me in Israel in April, along with Vicki!

4. And in a thousand years after a thousand tears, I will find my original crew…

Rachel and Rachel flew/drove home for a weekend just to say hi! We also, of course, went ring-setting shopping, search for lots of houses with Sean, my parents, and me, ate at my favorite places, and catch up! We missed Amy a lot, but we had a wonderful time together after being apart for close to a year.

celebrating the engagement with Rachel and Rachel!

5. I wish I could go back to college…

After a few days in Cincinnati, I headed back to Columbus for a long weekend. I got spend some time with Emily and Elle (even though they had been in Israel visiting just a few weeks before) at Brennan’s, one of our favorite coffee places, which is of course right around the corner from Hillel (don’t worry, I stopped in).

I also got to catch up with my college roommates, Amanda and Jessica, during a few coffee dates and my Mad Mex Marg Night (more on that soon). It’s been strange living without them after two years in the same apartment together!

A few nights before I left, I was back in Columbus and got to have dinner at my favorite Columbus Mexican restaurant with Naomi, Paul, and Sara, good friends from OSU. Sara and I had last seen each other during her Birthright trip in July, and I had to catch up with Naomi and Paul on their wedding plans!

6. Wastin’ away here in Margaritaville…

With the intention of catching up with as many friends as possible during my short visits to Columbus, I organized a little bar night at Mad Mex, a bar at OSU with famous “Big Ass” Margaritas. I was joined by over twenty friends that evening, some driving in from the suburbs, some walking from campus in sub-freezing temperatures, and some stopping by just for a few moments to say a quick hello before getting back to work and school. It was really great to catch up with some many friends.

7. They say it’s your birthday…

Sean’s 25th birthday fell during my break at home, which was a great opportunity for us to celebrate more together! I spent most of dinnertime of his birthday in the car on the phone with him, as I drove the last 6 miles to his house in a snowstorm! We ended up going just down the street to a burger place for dinner and relaxing in front of the fire since there was so much snow. We spent the next morning picking out the setting for my ring (he gave me a BEATIFUL ring but let me choose my setting!), and then set off for Cleveland. With a windchill of 20 below zero, we watched the Cavs stay undefeated at home from our cool VIP seats! Sean was wonderful enough to spend the rest of the weekend with me visiting friends and family in Cleveland before heading back to Columbus to spend MLK day together.

celebrating Sean's 25th at the Cavs game

8. If I had a million dollars I would buy you a house…

Well, we don’t exactly have a million dollars, but Sean figured we ought to buy our first house this summer! With that in mind, we started our house search during my time at home… and ended up finishing it! We found a wonderful house in Cincinnati while I was home, put in an offer for it, and closed on the house a few weeks after I returned to Jerusalem. Sean moves in next week!

our new house!

9. MeshugaNotes, we are a catch…

Yes, I got to catch up with my wonderful Shugs (my college acapella group). I was able to spend time with some of my best friends from the group, go to a rehearsal, and even catch one of their out-of-town performances when Sean and I were visiting Cleveland! MeshugaNotes was my favorite college activity, and the place I met most of my best friends, and it’s definitely been hard doing without it this year. I was SO happy to get to spend time with great friends and see how well they’re doing!

10. Food, glorious food…

It wouldn’t be a trip to the U.S. of A. without some good old American food. And by that, I mean any food that’s not overpriced, covered in hummus, or served by terrible wait staff. I think I enjoyed every bite of food I ate in the States, and was honestly surprised every time I had a good service experience! Here’s just a partial list of the wonderful restaurants I frequented during my trip… Rusty Bucket, Brennan’s, Starbucks, Ruby Tuesday, Martinis, Tai’s Asian Bistro, El Vaquero, Mad Mex, some benihana-type chop chop place, Corky and Lenny’s, Tumbleweed, LaRosa’s, Montgomery Inn, Old Bag of Nails, Applebee’s, Mimi’s Café, Qdoba, etc etc etc. YUM!

And that’s the Top Ten of break!! Check back soon for an entry on my first month and half back in Jerusalem.

See you back Stateside at the end of May!

The future Rabbi Meredith Faye Kahan Flowers :)

The Little Town of Sderot

2008-12-31T09:22:00.002+02:00

Below is an article written recently by one of my professors. Hopefully, this can help us better understand the current situation in Gaza.

THE LITTLE TOWN OF SDEROT

By Paul Liptz

December 29, 2008

Sderot is a small town close to the north east border of Gaza. It's like many of Israel's peripheral areas with an undeveloped town center, monotonous buildings, lower middle class inhabitants and by and large, citizens who don't really have the money to sell their apartments and move anywhere else. However, the difference between Sderot and most other areas in Israel is that this particular town has been the object of attacks from Gaza for the last eight years.

Sadly, Sderot had little influence with the decision makers. As long as they only suffered a little, it just wasn't worthwhile making too much of a fuss about it. For many Israelis, it was preferable for a small group of people to be under attack than to get involved in a major war. Anyway, there was a widely held belief that Hamas would agree to some form of a minimal cease fire and even though there is unlikely to ever be a peace treaty with them, many Israelis imagined that one could continue with this low level of conflict for an extended period of time, especially since it was "out there".

Some Sderot residents even seemed to be coming to terms with their vulnerable position. They realized that they had few powerful supporters and while the politicians periodically traveled to this outpost to have their photos taken with the locals, the really important issues of Israel were perceived as the events in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa and in the banks, stock exchange and high tec firms.

In the historical context there was clearly a precedent for an "expendable" group. During the long years between Israel's Independence in 1948 and the 1967 Six Day War the kibbutzim and moshavim (collective villages) in the most northern area of the country had constantly been under Syrian fire. It hadn't seemed worthwhile going to war to ensure the safety of a relatively small group of citizens. Thus, year after year, children in the upper Galilee spent hours and days and sometimes weeks in bomb shelters while the Syrians shot down from the Golan Heights onto the defenseless villagers. It was only in June 1967 that the position changed radically and Israel took control of the Heights. I well remember my weeks on Kibbutz Dafna in June and July 1967 speaking to a whole generation of innocent people who would still look up to the mountains and wonder when the next alert would be sounded and the rush to ensure that their children were safe, waiting quietly in the harsh concrete bunkers until the all clear signal was sounded.

In many senses, life in Sderot was more difficult. There were few bomb shelters, despite continuing government promises that they would be built. As nuclear families populate this southern town, they didn't have the same kind of caring community and infrastructure that was of such importance to their northern brethren.

In 2005, during the painful unilateral disengagement process whereby several thousand Israelis were forcibly removed from their homes in the Gaza Strip, most people were convinced that now, with Gaza back in the hands of the Palestinians, everything would be just fine. And I was one of those optimists. However, on the second night after the Israeli withdrawal as I saw the Palestinians destroying the greenhouses and hacking at the water pipes, I realized my dream was ludicrous. I had so hoped that this was the first stage of Palestinian independence and slowly but surely, they would build their infrastructures - hospitals, schools and roads and that life would really become better for them.

The skeptics were correct. The Egyptians also quickly recognized that a Hamas controlled Gaza was a threat and so closed the border between them. Israel was troubled by the realities on the ground. Iranian military equipment was flowing into the area and it were designed for one purpose and one purpose only-to be used against the innocent residents of Sderot and the other small towns and villages in the area. The Israeli government decided to control the entry into Gaza of military equipment but permitted food and humanitarian supplies to flow in. However, tunnels built from Egypt were effectively developed and soon the attacks on Israeli citizens increased. The government stated again and again that it was responsible for the well-being of its citizens and thus could not allow a significant area of the country to be under constant attack. Israel's politicians appealed for understanding and asked global leaders a simple question- "What would you do if there were continuous attacks on your sovereign territory?"

More recently Israeli society came to a harsh realization. The attacks were not merely on Sderot, but some one million citizens in cities like Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat and even Beer Sheva would find themselves threatened. The government had no alternative but to take stern action. It was clear that Israel would be widely condemned for defending itself. It is hoped that civilians in Gaza would not unduly suffer but one can never ensure that in military conflict, innocent people won't suffer.

Israel's goals are clear and simple. Allow our citizens to live in peace and the people of Gaza can live their lives undisturbed. Few Israelis ever want to occupy Gaza again. There are too many good things happening in Israel itself and still numerous challenges before us. Now the time has come to try and establish a new reality.

As far as I'm concerned, the people of Gaza can live their lives as they want. The type of government system is up to them. How they behave towards their women is no longer my concern. Their relationship with other Arab countries is an issue only between them and the Arab world.

I hope our goals are rapidly attained. I have no wish to cause suffering to the Palestinians but there has to be an understanding that we, Israelis, are not just going to sit on the sidelines and allow ourselves to be decimated. We've worked too hard to build what we have and no-one, but no-one, is going to destroy us.

Paul Liptz immigrated to Israel on June 4, 1967. He was on the faculty of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University for 35 years. He is on the staff of the Anita Saltz Center of the World Union of Progressive Judaism and lectures students at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.

Happy Holidays from the Holy Land!!

2008-12-28T00:17:00.008+02:00

Thank you, faithful blog readers, for still being faithful after a seven week hiatus from writing! Obviously, the last two months have been extremely busy here in Jerusalem... so busy I haven't had time to let you know what I'm up to! My last two months' activities can be divided into several categories: fun school activities, visitors, holiday celebrations, fun extracurricular activities, and the most important if not the most fun... SCHOOL!! I am 16 weeks into my fall (?) semester, including the few days here and there for vacation and celebration of the High Holy Days. My 2nd Temple History class has ended, and while I haven't added anything in it's place, I still have 9 classes and lots of activities, including football, choir, my internship at the Kibbutz, and school trips, on my schedule. More on some of the exciting things that have happened here...

#1: Fun School Activities!
As part of school's liturgy workshop program, we are required to lead services (I'll be leading in February), give a d'var Torah (sermon or literally "word of Torah"), and chant and translate Torah. I gave my d'var Torah on Monday, November 10th, and discussed the importance of helping other people do good deeds... in essence, the necessity of enabling other people to make a difference, not just doing so ourselves (if anyone is interested, I'm happy to send the full version to you). The next week, on November 17th, I chanted Torah for the first time in Israel (though I've done so many times at home)... I did so again last week, and am up one more time this coming week!

Unfortunately, due to the budget cuts that affected HUC (just like everyone else), we had to cut our fall tiyul to the North a bit short, but we did spend a long day in Haifa and Tzfat. Haifa is a northwestern port city where we visited the Leo Baeck School, a K-12 school, synagogue, and community center associated with the progressive movement in Israel. After our visit with program directors, the rabbi, young students, and high schoolers, we moved on to Tzfat, the city associated with Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. There, we met with local artists, shopped around, and visited Tzfat's many old, beautiful synagogues. Before we made our way back to Jerusalem, we stopped in Tiberias, a city near the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) for the first decent chinese food I've eaten in Israel (coincidentally, at the chinese restaurant where my cousin Joel first learned to like chinese food)!

elementary kids leading and participating in prayers at Leo Baeck

Another great perk of my time here at HUC in Jerusalem is that our teachers are very warm and friendly, and have graciously invited us into their homes to meet their families, eat their food, celebrate Shabbat, and to get to know each other better. I have been to the homes of the Head of Student Affairs, Nancy, and one of the instructors, Rabbi Shelly Donnell, for reflection group meetings, to the home of my Israel Seminar teacher, Paul Liptz, for a social evening, and to Dean Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur's home to celebrate Shabbat with his family!

My volunteer project at Kibbutz Gezer, working with Rabbi Miri Gold at Birkat Shalom (a progressive synagogue) and with David Leichman at Pinat Shorashim (an education center), has been going amazingly well. I am really enjoying the work that I'm doing there, and I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to become part of Miri and David's community and family- they are wonderful people to be around, give me great opportunities, go out of their way to help me and do nice things for me, and generally are there to come to when life in Jerusalem gets a little crazy. More on Kibbutz Gezer in a later post...

Finally, I am involved in Parallel Lives, the project that joins HUC students and Israeli soldiers in an effort to get to know each other, our cultures, and our lives. Jaclyn and LuAnne, our coordinators on the HUC side, planned an amazing Shabbaton for us all in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month. My roommates and I hosted two soldiers in our apartment, and we all spent the weekend together learning alot, making great friendships, and really getting to understand each other.

the Parallel Lives crew at the start of the Shabbaton (at school)

#2: VISITORS!!!
Over the past month, to the detriment of my school work but to the benefit of my overall happiness and well-being, I have had a slew of visitors!! First, Sean's mom Corinne, stepdad Jeff, and stepsister Shana came to Jerusalem as part of a performance trip for Jeff's choir. We celebrated Shabbat together at the Great Synagogue and at HUC, walked around the Old City, shopped ALOT, heard Jeff's concert, and ate wonderful meals together. A few weeks later, Rabbi Miri and David, the couple I work for at the Kibbutz, called to let me know that they were having dinner with a group from Kansas City that included my grandpa Sam's cousin, Rabbi Art Nemitoff... they invited me to dinner, and I got to visit with family! Last week, as the semester started to seem endless, Emily and Elle came to Israel on the OSU Hillel Birthright Trip and then extended their trip for four days to spend time with me! I got to meet their travel buddies, go with them to a truly obscure bar, and then play "sorority house" with them in my giant bedroom that all of a sudden seemed very tiny with all of us and all of our stuff! Together we celebrated Hanukkah, "celebrated" Christmas, toured the Old City, went shopping, ate alot, and reconnected... it was truly wonderful to have such close friends here with me. Finally, just tonight, I got to meet up with Brian, one of my best friends from high school, for dinner and shopping during his birthright trip! Next week, I believe I'll be meeting up with Andrea, another friend from both OSU and high school. Anyone else want to come visit? I have a comfy futon you can sleep on!!

#3: Celebrations!!

Not everyone would consider a football game a celebration, but when OSU beats Michigan 45 to 7 AND you get to watch that game via the internet with 10 friends in Jerusalem, you have to amend your definition a bit! My classmate Dan Geffen was kind enough to host the party, and I, along with other Big Ten alum classmates and some general football lovers, watched OSU pound on Michigan. Go Bucks!

Michigan Fans, OSU Fans, and a few football lovers together for the OSU Michigan Game!

Just a few days later was Thanksgiving in Jerusalem... the day I was looking forward to the least all year. Thanksgiving in my family is a huge deal- it's often my grandma's birthday, my entire family is in town, and I always spend several days cooking with my grandma and stuffing and sewing the turkey. This year, my family went on a trip (without me!!!) to celebrate my grandma's 75th, and needless to say, I was a little sad. Luckily, the Kef Committee (but really Leslie, the mastermind of meals and parties here in J'lem) put together a WONDERFUL school-wide Thanksgiving dinner. Four of us, including me, who had experience with turkeys, got elected to make the 15 lb "birds" (as my grandma calls them). After an hour of plucking pin feathers that made my index fingers bleed, I put my "bird" in a roasting bag with all my grandma's usual seasonings, put it in the oven, and hoped for the best... luckily, the turkey came out tasting just like it does at home- turns out I really did learn something!! The dinner at school was absolutely wonderful, with everyone coming through with wonderful dishes, a great talk about the Birkat Hamazon (the prayer after eating), donations to the HUC soup kitchen in NYC, and a great game led by Joel where we each wrote down what we were thankful for and then read another person's contribution. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, all things considered.

the Thansgiving Spread... don't worry, you can't even see the four turkeys!

here's my Turkey!!! I gave it a thumbs-up... hopefully Gram would have, also!

Now it may still be Chanukah here in Israel, and this may be a Jewish country, but yes, I still "celebrated" Christmas here! For starters, feeling nostalgic for Christmas music, Ari, Joel, and I found some internet radio stations and listened to it ALL of last Saturdy while we made a test batch of latkes! I also ventured into the Christian Quarter of the Old City, as well as Mt. Zion, with Joel, Emily, and Elle, to seek out a little Christmas spirit on Christmas Eve... we found some interesting stuff, including a parade of slightly-scary Santas!! Though I missed a bit of the music, I definitely didn't feel too bad about missing commericialized Christmas in the States!

a sign wishing everyone in the Christian Quarter a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in both English and Arabic!

And of course, we can't forget my very first Chanukah in Israel!! I made test latkes with Joel and Ari, shopped for a new menorah with Emily and Elle (compliments of my parents- thanks, Mom and Dad!), saw Hassidic rabbis light a GIANT menorah with the help of a cherry-picker truck in Zion Square at Ben Yehuda St, made latkes AGAIN with the guys, Joel's roommate, and Em and Elle, lit my new menorah several times with my roommates, my visitors, and Lisa's mom who is visiting, played Chanukah songs with Ari at our school party, participated in Mysterious Menorah (read: Secret Santa) with my classmates, and had a delicious Shabbat + Chanukah dinner at my apartment, courtesy of Lisa and her mom, with lots of friends. Everyone you look there is a reminder of Chanukah- it has been wonderful to celebrate with an entire country of people, and for the first time, to not feel on the outskirts of the holiday season but as part of the majority!

Joel and Ari doing the Latke test-run, complete with Christmas music!

Lisa and me lighting our new Chanukiot (menorahs) on the 5th night!

As a side note, I want to mention what's going on in Israel today... I won't go into the politics of it all, but if you'd like details, please read the news at www.haaretz.com. I can only hope that there will be peace here soon. Please know that I, along with the rest of my classmates, am fine and currently away from any immediate danger. School is monitoring the situation carefully, and we will be as safe as possible in the coming days. I will keep you updated should anything more happen here.

I'll be back in the State for three whole weeks (yay!) starting January 9th, but in the meantime...
Happy 7th Night of Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and (almost) Happy New Year 2009!!!

The Four Month Mark... Trying to Be American in Israel!

2008-11-07T15:36:00.001+02:00

These last three weeks since I returned from Istanbul have certainly been busy and exciting! We are finally into the swing of things at school, and believe me, the work has definitely picked up! Of all my classes, I'm really enjoying History of the Zionist Movement, Israel Seminar, and Cantillation (way of singing/chanting the Torah portions). My history class is taught by a terrific Brit turned Israeli teacher who is so excited about the material and so amazingly smart that you just can't help being excited by the subject. Israel Seminar is the class in which we spend one day a week examining the history and current issues that affect Israeli society. We have been on all kinds of trips, including excursions to the Galilee and Golan Heights, Tel Aviv, neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and most recently, Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found) and Masada. I love my cantillation class, perhaps because it's the most musical thing I get to do here... the class is taught by a cantor and the class is filled mostly with cantorial students, along with a few other musical rabbinic students. The most exciting part is being able to connect my past cantillation experience, newfound knowledge of biblical grammar, and of course, modern Hebrew, with all of the trope (musical markings in the Torah) that I'm learning.

caves at Qumran where many of the scrolls were found

the view from atop Mt. Masada

Outside of class, I have spent another few days at my community service internship at Kibbutz Gezer. Harrison, the other student I work with, and I went out to Gezer a few weeks ago to finally do BOTH parts of our program. In the morning, we worked with prisoners from a nearby jail- they came to visit us at the Kibbutz, where we had a discussion on the weekly Torah portion, picked 70 kilograms of olives, and just got to know each other. It was a very eye-opening and humbling experience for me, even though I have some background in prison work from my time in the social work program at OSU. After the prisoners left, Harrison, David (the head of the education center at Gezer), his wife Miri (the Rabbi at Gezer), two other visitors of theirs, and I went out to lunch at "our place" in nearby Ramla, called Samir's. We also took the olives to be made into olive oil at a shop where we sampled freshly made halva and tahina (both made from sesame seeds). Harrison and I relaxed and studied for a test at Miri and David's in the afternoon, and then lead music for Shabbat evening services at Birkat Shalom, Miri's congregation on the Kibbutz. The congregation really seemed to like our music, and I even got to have a nice chat with some congregants who are recent immigrants from Peru... EN ESPANOL!! It was WONDERFUL to get to lead services again, and I'm really looking forward to going back soon. We finished out the evening with an amazing dinner at Miri and David's with a guest of theirs and their daughter.

In an attempt to connect with the American lives we left behind, the Kef committee sponsored the HUC Halloween Bash of 2008- since Halloween was on Shabbat, we celebrated a day early! Jillian graciously volunteered her apartment and mirpeset (porch) for the party, and Ari and Joel, who were spearheading the event, spent an entire day shopping, decorating, and making food and drinks for the party. Leslie had a bunch of us over for a pre-party finger food dinner, which was delicious as always. We spent the rest of the evening at the party with "witches brew", candy, popcorn, and a costume contest. Jaclyn won the contest with her very convincing Sarah Palin, while I came in a close second as Facebook.

me as Facebook!

The weather all of a sudden turned from summer (85+ degrees everyday, very dry, and sunny) to winter (60 degrees for most of the day, somewhat cloudy, and damp and rainy) almost overnight. As a result, I've been trying to be a little more physically active, especially so I don't get the "winter blahs" by sitting inside too much. I have been taking a Tae Kwon Do class taught by a fellow student, which has been a lot of fun and good exercise, though it's frustrating not to remember much from those many years of Tae Kwon Do in middle school! I also joined the HUC flag football team, called the Wise Guys (after Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, who founded HUC)... we lost our first game last night, but to be fair, we were missing half of our team due to illness, had had one practice prior to the game, and played a team that's been together for years. We still had a great time, though, and despite pulling several leg muscles (really, seeing me walk right now is super interesting) while warming up, I managed to pull off a GREAT play in the second half- 7ish yard catch that turned into another 40 rushing yards!! I unfortunately may have to leave choir, which I have been enjoying, to play football, but I really am enjoying running around outside since I spend so much of every day sitting in class. I am getting my singing taken care of in cantillation and at Kibbutz Gezer, so I should be okay.

Last weekend, I hit the four month mark... since I'll be spending around three weeks at home in January and leaving in the last week of May, the end of December will be halfway! It's been a great adventure so far, but I'm definitely missing family, friends, Sean, and of course, my life in the States. Luckily, I've been getting lots of emails and phone calls, the occassional piece of mail (that's really the Israeli post office's fault), and even flowers!!

"Flowers from Flowers"... Sean sent roses for our anniversary :)

The big event of the last few weeks, however, had to be last night's election. I took a nap from midnight until 1:45am, and then woke up to watch election coverage with Joel and Ari in my living room! We watched yucky Fox News on mute on the TV (it's the only news channel we get) and CNN/MSNBC on the slingbox that's hooked up to Sean's cable in Columbus. We had a GREAT time watching the election, drinking coffee, coloring in maps, and of course, toasting Obama's win with champagne at 6am!! By the way, I received my absentee ballot at the LAST MINUTE yesterday, just in time to stick it in the mail to be counted! Luckily, my wonderful state of Ohio (and even my usually Republican Hamilton county) went for Obama anyway, so they didn't even need me! After the election, we all headed to school on almost no sleep to meet our friends, the majority of whom greeted us and each other with cheers and hugs! I am truly proud to be an Ohioan and an American today... it's about time that this country opted for something and someone new and fresh, and it's DEFINITELY time we elected someone different to the White House- I am proud to be part of a country that can elect a Black man to be president, especially a man that is running against an white, protestant, male war hero. It just goes to show that the American people wanted change, knew who the right man for the job was, and wasn't afraid to vote for him despite lingering racism in this country. I'm optimistic about the next few years in the States, and I'm excited to see what the future brings.

Joel updates our HUC classmates who are in the airport on their way to Berlin, while I stick my head through the divider between my room and the living room to show off Joel's electoral map!

Joel, Ari, and me toasting President-elect Obama at 6am!

Congratulations America!

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)!

2008-11-01T00:09:00.009+02:00

Time for my long-awaited post about our big trip to Turkey (unless, of course, you didn't know about my trip since I've waited two weeks to write about it)! The Israeli parts of my nice, long Sukkot break were spent: at services at Har-El where I took a shot of whiskey with the American cantor, at a VERY strange parade up and down the biggest street in the city that consisted of Israeli kids, bank workers, musicians, and veterans, as well as evangelical Christians form all over the world, and Simchat Torah (the holiday where we finish reading the last part of Deuteronomy and start the beginning of Genesis) where I got to play in the HUC "band" for the hakafot (7 circles danced with the Torah).

Israel Defense Force Band

The start of the Evangelical Christian Groups

A very awesome group

BRASIL!

Joel, Ari, and I headed off for Istanbul on Thursday night... after a delayed flight on a charter airline and a bus ride full of Israelis also vacationing in Turkey, we arrived at the (not so) amazing Hotel Klas. We went out exploring that first night to find a) dinner and b) the big sites we were interested in seeing the next day. Dinner was at the (fake) authentic Ottoman restaurant Safran where we ate gozelemes (crepes made with potatoes, spinach, etc), kabobs, rice, and all kinds of other "authentic" foods. After dinner, we found our way to the heart of Sultanahmet, the old city of Istanbul, where we took pictures of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the main old city attractions that happen to be BEAUTIFUL at night.

The Blue Mosque at night

Hagia Sophia at night

Friday, our first day, started with an interesting (read: yucky- hard boiled eggs, toast and butter, some weird hot dog looking things, and cheese) breakfast at Hotel Klas, followed by a visit to the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque was built in 1616 by Sultan Ahmed, is the national mosque of Turkey, and is known as the Blue Mosque because of the blue iznik tiles adorning the inside of the mosque. The Blue Mosque the very first tourist attraction I've ever visited in my socks! After the Blue Mosque, we hit our next big site- Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia (Aya Sophia in Turkish) is a church turned mosque turned museum that was built by Emperor Justinian in 537- it is still standing and looking amazingly beautiful after almost 1500 years! Hagia Sophia's most impressive feature (besides it's age) is the presence of famous, beautiful mosaics all over the church. Our next stop after Hagia Sophia was... (drumroll please)... STARBUCKS! We hadn't seen a Starbucks (or drip coffee- we mostly have instant here in Israel) in four months, so we figured we should visit! We then went to Topkapi Palace, which was the official residence of Ottoman sultans from 1465-1853. The Palace boasts 4 courtyards and an amazing number of rooms- we saw the kitchens, treasury (home to some amazingly huge diamonds and the Topkapi dagger), and most impressively, the Harem (residence of the Sultan and his mother, wives, concubines, and children). We even saw/heard a performance of a Mehter Band- the Ottoman military band! Before we left, we saw a temporary exhibit of Turkish synagogues at the palace- talk about surprises!

Blue Mosque

I'm at the Blue Mosque!

Inside of the Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Inside of Hagia Sophia

Mosaic inside Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia

Kicking back with a Starbucks drink

Topkapi Palace

the Mehter band

After our crazy day of siteseeing, we finally grabbed lunch at 4pm! After "lunch," we decided to quickly check out the Grand Bazaar, built in 1461- this covered market is the largest of its kind in the world, covering over 58 streets! The bazaar includes 6,000 stores...leather stores, jewelry stores, clothing stores, souvenir shops, dish stores, and more! After a quick break at the fabulous Hotel Klas, we took the street car through the old city and across the bridge straddling the Golden Horn (water between the old city and new city) to the new city of Istanbul, called Beyoğlu. We walked through Istiklal Caddessi, the main drag of the new city, and checked out all the hopping bars and clubs, cool restaurants, and designer shops. We ate dinner at a very Turkish restaurant- "Fast Wok"! We clearly needed another taste of America! After dinner, we checked out a famous bar called 360 that had gorgeous views of the entire city AND $14 drinks... oops!

My big apple tea and Ari's little apple tea

360 bar and the view!

We began Saturday with a trip to another part of Istanbul- the Asian side! Yes, the city not only has a new side and an old side, but it also has a side on another continent! We took the ferry to the Asian side for only a dollar, and then went about exploring the neighborhoods. Since the Asian side is mostly residential, we decided to take a risk by searching for a famous Jewish neighborhood and synagogue in an area called Kuzguncuk. Good news- we found the synagogue! Bad news- we were immediately stopped by the Turkish "polis" who checked Ari's passport, tried to decided if we were Jewish, and had us VERY scared. They didn't speak English, we didn't speak Turkish, and since we weren't sure what they were thinking about us, we decided to just get out of there! We took the ferry back to the European side of the city to check out the Spice Bazaar, where we bought apple tea and baklava, and tried a disgusting candy called "Turkish Delight"! After the Spice Bazaar, we had lunch in a bazaar restaurant, and then went shopping the Grand Bazaar. We did some serious bargaining to buy pashminas for me and the guys' moms/sisters, and I even had a 50 year old store owner chase after me and offer me free stuff if I would go on a date with him! I got out of it by pretending that Ari was my boyfriend and getting him to tell the guy that he wouldn't want me going out with someone else!

On the ferry with Joel

Joel and me eating baklava

After this long, tiring, and cold (who knew it was cold in Istanbul this time of year?) day, we went back to the hotel to rest before our night out. Due to the fact that we were tired, cold, dirty, and all had to pee, we clearly got stuck in the elevator. For at least ten (very long) minutes. When the elevator got to what we thought was our floor, it opened up to a cement wall- clearly not our floor! We closed the door and tried another floor- same thing! As we tried every floor, we started getting nervous... so, we hit the alarm button- and nothing happened. We start trying to decide how we're ever going to get out, if anyone knows we're stuck, how we're going to "hold it" for several hours, and think "well, it's good that we have pretzels to eat and cards to play with!" We tried one more time at the top floor- this time, we managed to get about a foot of room at the top of the open elevator that was actually on a floor- so Ari jams his arm in the door, rips it halfway open, and yells (in English, which nobody understood) that we are stuck. Some guys are on this floor (they know the elevator is broken), tell us something in Turkish, and pretty soon free us from our prison. After a few hours playing cards to recoup from this event, we headed out for our big night on the town.

We spent our last night in Istanbul in the quaint, beautiful village of Ortaköy... even though it took about an hour to get there in the crazy traffic, we really enjoyed this neighborhood. We ate dinner overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, next to the Mecidiye Mosque, found the Eitz HaHayim synagogue (which made up for our sad adventure on the Asian side), and had a decidedly Turkish evening drinking tea, eating dessert, playing cards, and smoking nargile (water pipe) at a restaurant with the same beautiful view.

Eitz HaHayim Synagogue

Our evening relaxation spot

Our last day, Sunday, started with a trip to the Galata Tower on the new side of the city. The Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in 1348, survived fires and earthquakes, and even served as a prison at some point! For us, it was a great way to overlook the whole city and take some great pictures. Afterwards, we found the Pera Palas Hotel, the hotel where all the Orient Express passengers stayed and where Agatha Christie supposedly wrote Murder on the Orient Express... unfortunately, we just saw the outside since it's closed for renovations.

Enjoying the view from the Galata Tower

Ari at the Pera Palas Hotel

After a stop for some Turkish coffee, we headed back to the old city side to see the Sirkeci Station, the terminus of the Orient Express and the current last stop for all trains coming through Europe. As we walked around eating all the different kinds of corn sold on the street (this was clearly my idea), we fond the Book Bazaar, another great outdoor market in the Grand Bazaar area. We then saw the Süleymaniye Mosque complex, built in 1557, which includes the mosque (most of which is unfortunately under renovation), Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent's tomb, the tomb of his favorite wife Roxelana, and the tomb of the famous architect Sinan. We visited the Hippodrome, which used to be a Byzantine stadium and racetrack, but is now a park marked with three monuments (dating back 500, 1000, and 1500 years respectively). We had lunch on the main street of Sultanahmet, did a little souvenir shopping, and then played cards FOREVER in the lobby of the hotel since our airport transfer bus was over an hour late!! We took one last picture of the ridiculous but well-located Hotel Klas, boarded our charter plan again at the Istanbul airport, arrived in Israel, and took a sherut back to our apartments.

Orient Express train at Sirkeci Station

Goodbye Hotel Klas!

For more (and definitely easier to read) details on our trip, check out Joel's blog at http://sandsandcliffs.blogspot.com/

For more pictures of the trip, check out my Picassa website at http://picasaweb.google.com/meredith.kahan

And update on life post-Sukkot break coming soon!

Meredith

Chag Sameach!

2008-10-14T15:20:00.006+02:00

Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday)! Last night started Sukkot, another of the fall holidays of the Jewish calendar. Over the last few weeks, I have celebrated Rosh HaShanah (the Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Festival of Booths). Sukkot will continue through next week (the holiday is a week long), ending in Shmini Atzeret (the 8th Day of Assembly, the 8th day after the 7 days of Sukkot) and Simchat Torah (the day celebrating the Torah and the reading of the last part of the Bible and then the first part). While these holidays are important in the US, especially Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, this season of holidays are of the utmost important and are the center of attention here in Israel. Think Christmas... but instead of pictures of Santa and "Merry Christmas" on the Coke bottles, here there are streamers and "Chag Sameach" written on my 1.75 (usually 1.5 L, but apparently there is a 1/4 L "bonus" for the holiday!) Liter bottle of Diet Coke! Now for a run-down of my holiday experience thus far...

Israel's version of Santa Claus Coke bottles!

Rosh HaShanah

I just have to mention, before I talk about Rosh HaShanah, that I held a 5am football watching party at my apartment for the OSU vs. Wisconsin game… needless to say, we had some rivalries going on, especially between Ari (Wisconsin alum) and me. As the picture shows, we handled this extremely maturely!

I spent Erev (evening) Rosh HaShanah services at HUC. Services were led by our rockstar Dean, Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur, Cantor Dr. Eliyahu Schleifer (a 70 year old cantor who is one of the foremost experts of European chazzanut (Jewish liturgical music), especially the music of the old Reform European communities), and the HUC student choir, composed of our all-female cantorial class and several of the rabbinic student men. Services at HUC were familiar as far as music goes, but there was very little congregational participation and there were very few people there, even as compared to my smaller congregation in Cincinnati. After services, the majority of the HUC class gathered for a catered Rosh HaShanah seder (festival meal and service where we blessed the seven species of Israel- pomogranates, dates, grapes, figs, wheat, barley, and olives) and dinner. After dinner, Harrison (another rabbinic student with whom I intern at the Kibbutz) led a song session for all of the students.

The first day of Rosh HaShanah was spent at HUC services again- they were a bit better than the first day, but still disappointing in the lack of participation and the small number of attendees. After services, I brought tuna salad to a lovely brunch held by Amy and Sarah. A Rosh HaShanah nap was followed by dinner at Adena's, to which I brought my first ever homemade fried rice.
As I don't usually attend 2nd day Rosh HaShanah services in the States, I wasn't sure that I wanted to go to HUC services again. Jaclyn, Joel, and I decided that we would "shul hop" for the 2nd day instead of going back to HUC for the whole morning. We visited (in this order) Masoret Yisrael (the congregation affiliated with the American Conservative movement), the Great Synagogue (the official Orthodox congregation of Jerusalem), the Italian Synagogue (a historical synagogue that was essentially disassembled in Italy and rebuilt here in Israel), and Har-El (the oldest Progressive congregation in Jerusalem, with whom HUC held services that day). Masoret Yisrael was a perfectly lovely and familiar if not boring experience- my classmates and I brought the average age of the congregation down about forty years, and most of the congregants were clearly native North Americans. The Great Synagogue was certainly busier than Masoret Yisrael- there were a few hundred people there at least, with men and women praying in their respective parts of the synagogue and children running all around with their snacks and toys. I truly enoyed the spirited singing of the Cantor and (all-male) choir, but because I a) was not too familiar with the tunes and b) was given a Siddur that was Hebrew/Russian, I had a hard time following along. I felt very much on the outside because I was sitting in the women's section (a HUGE balcony) but I enjoyed observing this unique experience. The Italian Synagogue was the most physically beautiful of the synagogues we visited. There was an intense feeling of prayerfulness in the shul, both in the women’s section (which had room for about 20 and was packed with at least 40 people plus their children) and the men’s section (which women freely stood on the edge of and peeked in to). I had a hard time participating here due to my lack of seat/space to pray and prayerbook, but it was very cool to see this close-knit of a community (in fact, my roommate Deana's aunt married an Italian guy and this is their congregation). Our last stop was at Har-El, though unfortunately we only caught the sermon (given in Hebrew!), shofar blowing, and closing prayers.

Rosh HaShanah was concluded with a GREAT dinner at Leslie's, which featured about 20 guests, my regular AND sweet potatoes, lots of other great food, and at least 15 bottles of wine... OY. We had a practical seminar day after Rosh HaShanah ended, and then had another two days off for Shabbat! I got to spend a great Friday in Tel Aviv with Leslie and Jaclyn that was full of all kinds of crazy adventures, including a Sherut car accident, cab drivers predicting Armageddon, and better food than can be found anywhere in Jerusalem. We then had three regular days of school before Yom Kippur started.

OSU v. Wisconsin pillow fight prior to the game

songleading at the HUC dinner

dinner at Leslie's... see my potatoes?

Yom Kippur
In preparation for the break fast meal that my roommates and I held on Thursday night, I spent my day on Wednesday running around the city to various Holy Bagel locations attempting to pick up our bagel order- clearly not as easy as it is in the States! Because Yom Kippur evening services start much earlier here than at home (daylight savings time starts on the weekend between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur here, meaning that the sun now goes down around 5pm!), Joel and I, along with classmates Benji and Leah and a friend of Leah's from home, went to classmate Daniel and his girlfriend Jessica's apartment for a pre-fast meal at 2:30pm! Dinner was GREAT, but it was weird to be eating this big festival meal in the middle of the day. Kol Nidre (Yom Kippur evening services, named for the important prayer found at the beginning of the service) services were the best of all of the HUC services, in my opinion. There were TONS of people there, every sang along, and services were held in a room that has a huge picture window overlooking the Old City (this was also the case for Rosh HaShanah). The cantorial students sang many of the major pieces (they also did this for Rosh HaShanah) during services, including Sh'ma Koleinu, Avinue Malkeinu, and Unetaneh Tokef- they were SO impressive! After services, a bunch of us walked together down to the German Colony neighborhood to see one of Jerusalem's most amazing sights of the year. Yom Kippur is the one day of the year in Israel where truly NOBODY drives (this is not necessarily the case on Shabbat, even in Jerusalem)... as a result, you can literally just walk around in the middle of huge streets- and everyone does! I walked down the middle of some of the largest, busiest streets in the city during Yom Kippur- totally crazy! That night, we went to see the Jerusalem phenomenon that everyone's been talking about- after services, people come out onto the streets of their neighborhoods to make in-person apologies to their friends, neighbors, and family (as required in Judaism in order to be forgiven for the offenses against other people). It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On Yom Kippur, I attended services ALL day, except for a quick hour break during which I took a nice nap. I had two favorite parts of the services that day. First was the addition of a Sephardic (Jews originating from Spain- including Morrocan, Yemenite, Spanish, Italian, etc. Jews today) Slichot (service asking for forgiveness) service- this was very new to me but very easy to participate in. The other moment was when the congregation sang Hatikvah ("The Hope" the national anthem of Israel) while overlooking the Old City at night- it was SO powerful and the first true moment of this year that I felt completely content being here in Israel. After services, about 60 people gathered at our apartment for a break fast!!! It was so great to get the entire class together, but it was very smushed and definitely crazy!

sampling some of the break fast food

Josh, Jason, me, Jimmy, Lisa, Joel, and Jaclyn enjoying the food

Sukkot
The three and a half days leading up to Sukkot after Yom Kippur were fairly eventful. On Friday, a bunch of my classmates gathered to decorate the Sukkah (festival booth) at school- it kind of looking likes it was decorated by 8-year-olds, but we're proud of it! Afterwards, I went on an excursion with some classmates to see the temporary shuk (market) set up for the selling of the Arba Minim (the four species- the three kinds of branches that make up the Lulav (myrtle, palm, and willow), and the Etrog, which sort of looks like a lemon- you hold these four together and shake them during Sukkot services and while in your Sukkah). This was a very unique experience, and I even got to buy three Etrogim with which I will eventually make jam or liqueur, whichever I decide sounds like more fun later on- for now, they're just smelling up my room! That evening, after a trip to the regular Shuk to buy food, Joel made a great Shabbat dinner at his apartment. Shabbat was spent, for the fourth weekend now, with Joel and Ari- our thing is to have a completely relaxing day… SO, we make breakfast for lunch (it’s been French toast, this week was cottage cheese pancakes- very good!) and then watch two movies, usually at least one of which I have never seen.

Joel and me in the Sukkah at HUC

Dean Marmur joined in on the fun

an Orthodox man inspecting palm branches for his Lulav

Saturday evening was Jason’s 25^th birthday dinner, followed by my first ever experience at Babette’s, this amazing waffle place (see the pictures to catch my drift). On Sunday, our class took a field trip for our Israel seminar class to Tel Aviv to learn about the founding of the country, the Palmach army that fought for Israel’s independence, and Tel Aviv’s unique identity. Sukkot started yesterday evening not with any Sukkot celebrations, but with a lovely dinner with friends. I spent the day getting work done, running errands, having a nice lunch and relaxing afternoon with Sarah, and making brownies. I brought my brownies (as did Joel and Leslie) to Jaclyn’s house to have dinner with her mom who is visiting from the States! This morning, I attended Sukkot services at Har-El- I got to shake the Lulav and Etrog, act as the golelet (the person who dresses the Torah after it’s read), and take a shot of brandy with the cantor in the Sukkah- it was quite a day! The city has been gearing up for Sukkot, and rumor has it that all kinds of awesome things (an Evangelical Christian parade for their celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, live music and concerts, dancing in the parks, and Sukkahs EVERYWHERE at every apartment building, hotel, restaurant, and synagogue) will be going on here- I’ll keep you posted. After Sukkot will be Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah- the evening of this day will be spent at Kibbutz Gezer, the kibbutz where I am the intern. They have invited our entire class to the Kibbutz for the holiday, so Harrison and I are taking 25 classmates there to visit. The next morning, I, along with many of my classmates, will be playing music at Har-El for the hakafot (dancing with the Torah).

waffle eating is clearly a skill that I do not possess

I’m sorry that this has been the longest post EVER… however, I am spending the rest of my Sukkot break (that’s right, I’m on break for 10 days, not that I’ve been to more than 6 days of school in the last month!) in ISTANBUL!! Joel, Ari, and I are traveling to Istanbul for four days at the end of this week. My next blog entry will be all about our trip.

Chag Sameach!

Meredith

Happy New Year 5769!

2008-10-02T17:48:00.013+03:00

Well, once again, it's been too long since I've written! Such is the life of a rabbinic student, I suppose. I'll try my best to give you the run down of the first month of school!

The week that Sean left was also the first week of "real" classes at HUC. I am taking Modern Hebrew (a continuation of my summer Hebrew ulpan), Biblical Grammar (I have an amazingly hilarious teacher named Hanna Saggie for both classes), Rabbinic Literature (Mishna, Talmud, etc etc), Liturgy (learning the what, why, author, meaning, etc of prayers), History of the Zionist Movement, 2nd Temple History, and Israel Seminar (which is a little bit of class combined with all kinds of cool field trips around the country, learning about the current society of Israel). I am also taking Reform Jews Reading Sources, an elective class with the Dean of the school, and Cantillation for Cantors (chanting Torah, Haftarah, Megillot, etc, with the cantors so that I don't have to take the class with the rabbis!). On Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, I have class from 8:30am until about 4:30pm, while Thursdays are a short day, with class until noon! Wednesdays are reserved specifically for Israel Seminar, so that we can go on field trips. We are also required to participate in Liturgy Workshop, which means that rabbinic and education students team up with cantorial students to plan and lead a service (nothing too new for me, but definitely a first time thing for many of the students)- in addition, rabbinic students are required to read and translate Torah and to deliver a D'var Torah (sermon).

Israel Seminar started with a three-day tiyul to the beautiful North- the Galilee and the Golan Heights. We stayed on the banks of the Kinneret- the Sea of Galilee, and travelled all over. We visited some of the first Moshavim- colonies started by immigrants to Israel in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We learned about Baron Rothschild, a weathly European Jew who financed a good portion of the building of the state of Israel. We also met with residents of the Golan Heights, a disputed area of Israel (the "Land for Peace" movement advocated giving this area to Syria- VERY controversial), and learned about the struggles of the people who live there. One day included a tour of the Tel Dan archeological dig site, directed by the head of the archeological school at HUC, David Ilan. We of course got to do some great, relaxing "North" activities, such as swimming in the natural pools and waterfall of Sachne, having an Israel song session on the banks of the Kinneret, and going to some great lookout points. The entire tiyul was great with one exception- I had an awful cold and ended up going to bed at 10:30 every night! Even so, it was good bonding opportunity for the class AND I got to buy Naot clogs (the Israeli Birkenstocks) at the Kibbutz where Naots are manufactured.

tomb of Baron Rothschild

Dr. David Ilan showwing us around Tel Dan

the view of the Kinneret from the Kinneret cemetary (burial place of LOTS of famous Israelis)

Lisa, Jimmy, Joel, and me having fun at one of the moshavot, Tel Hai

I am getting involved in several activities here at school. First of all, I'm on the Kef (fun, but really meaning social) Committee, which plans social events for the entire class to do together. We held our first event on the Saturday night following the first week of school- this was a Havdallah potluck in the park to celebrate making it through our first crazy week. I am also continuing on with the Parallel Lives program, which has some of the HUC students teamed up with Israeli soliders in one of the elite units- we recently met up with them for a tour of the Old City and a dinner at school. I am re-attempting Tae Kwon Do, since one of my classmates has agreed to teach a class- it's been about ten years since I've done it, so I'll keep you posted as to how this goes! Finally, the thing I'm MOST excited about- I've joined the community choir sponsored by HUC, called the Hallel Choir. The choir is composed of about 60 people, including ten-ish HUC students and lots of (mostly older- and I mean like 70 or 80 years old!) community members. It's been a great experience, especially meeting people from the community AND learning music completely in Hebrew (I don't mean that the lyrics are in Hebrew but rather that the conductor teaches entirely in Hebrew)! I am also singing in an octet for a special benefit dinner at HUC- very exciting!

First Kef Committee Program- Havdallah Sababa lead by Ari and me

One of the best parts of the last few weeks was my cousin Melissa's visit to Israel! She had been several times as a kid, but was last here in high school ten years ago! She came for a week with her friend Brian, who is Catholic, which meant that they got to see all kinds of interesting sites that she (and/or me) wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise. The first two days of their visit were in Jerusalem, so I met them right after they arrived and took them for lunch at Ben Yehuda Street... what we didn't know was that this would start a VERY interesting day! While we were eating our falafel on Ben Yehuda in a HUGE Friday afternoon crowd (and I was 10 feet away throwing away our garbage), someone walked away with my purse... OY! After a quick trip to the Shuk (we were almost there, we just had to keep going!), we had to return to my apartment so that I could spend the next few hours on the phone with the credit card companies! After the Great Purse Snatching of 2008 (this event's official name), Melissa, Brian, and I explored the Jewish Quarter and Christian Quarter of the Old City. I hosted Shabbat dinner at my apartment that night so that Melissa could meet my friends, and then slept a few hours before my exciting Saturday with the travelers! On Saturday, we went to the Israel Museum to see the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed. Afterward, we headed back to the Old City to explore the Church of the Holy Sepulcher- a truly unique and amazing experience for me. The Church is said to be the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. We made a return trip to the wall, and Melissa and Brian walked the ramparts of the Old City while I went to the Kef Committee Havdallah party! We went out to dinner together in the German Colony, and then I took them to a bar with hookah/nargila (water pipes with tobacco) for the Israeli bar experience! They continued on with their tour of Israel while I went on my three day tiyul, and then I met them for a final day together in Tel Aviv on Friday to explore the Nachalat Binyamin craft fair and Old Jaffa (the oldest city in Israel outside of the Old City in Jerusalem). It was wonderful to see Melissa and definitely cool to be in Israel with Brian as he saw it for the very first time.

Site of the Crucifixion, Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Brian touching the stone where Jesus was laid out and cleansed prior to burial, Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Melissa and me at the overlook by the Kotel

Out to dinner in the German Colony

Melissa, Brian, and me on the beach in Tel Aviv (Old Jaffa is in the background)

That's all for now... I wish everyone a Shanah Tovah U'Metukah (A Good and Sweet Year) for 5769!! I will write again this week telling you all about my crazy Rosh HaShanah in the Holy Land!!

Happy New Year 5769!
Love, Meredith

"Eilat" of fun in Eilat

2008-09-10T00:23:00.004+03:00

It has certainly been awhile since my last entry… and I really thought I was on a roll there for awhile! The few weeks since “chili night” have been pretty eventful. First was the last week of our summer session which included ulpan and bible history. We had our last few days of classes, took a final exam (which apparently I passed, since I’m still here!!), and had an end of the summer party with our teachers. Ulpan ended a day early so that the class could go on an all-day tiyul to the northern part of Israel on Wednesday, but I skipped the tiyul because…

Sean finished his Taglit-Birthright trip on Wednesday morning, and arrived at my apartment at 10am! Sean and I spent Wednesday hanging out, exploring my neighborhood, eating in some great Jerusalem restaurants, and of course, doing all of his laundry! On Thursday, after getting ourselves VERY lost in the Arab Quarter of the Old City (my fault!), Sean got the chance to meet all of my friends at one of the student’s (Jon) surprise birthday parties. Afterwards, we went with a few friends to the Jerusalem Beer Festival where we (obviously) tasted beer and (not so obviously) watched some crazy bike trick exhibition… clearly, the Beer Festival is an exciting event. We had a great Shabbat dinner at Leslie’s, and spent Saturday relaxing and watching the first Buckeye game on the computer (not only do I have Slingbox, I now also have access to all of the shows that Sean is recording and storing on a computer built especially for recording TV)!

Sean and me at Jon's birthday party

On Sunday morning, Sean and I got on a 7am bus bound for EILAT!! For those that don’t know, Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel, situated on the Red Sea (it’s real name is the Sea of Reeds, but it became the Red Sea due to a typo in an English printing of a Bible… also called Suf Yam in Hebrew). It is now mainly a vacation spot, but does have some industry located in the area. Of course, with a name like Eilat, the city invites a bunch of "alot" jokes! We stayed at a great hotel near the beach and the promenade, and had access to the VIP lounge, which we maybe visited too much to get the free snacks and diet coke! We did all kinds of great activities in Eilat, including LOTS of eating and trying out fun restaurants. Sunday was spent exploring the city, eating (of course), and resting after a VERY long bus ride. Monday was our scuba diving day in the Red Sea, which arguably has some of the best diving in the world (Sean thinks Bonnaire is better, but what does he know!). Unfortunately, my ears clogged up during our first dive, so I had to surface while the rest of the group continued the diving… this wouldn’t have been so bad, since I got to dive in the Red Sea last summer, except that a bunch of “Medusa” fish bit me all over my legs. Sean did a second dive that day so that he could experience the diving in Eilat, while I watched the awesome windsurfers that were doing cool tricks in the water off of the dive shop beach.

On Tuesday, Sean and I went to Petra, Jordan. I visited Petra last summer while I was in Eilat, but Sean and I thought he should see it, so off we went! The pictures of Petra below are from last summer’s trip, since Sean took the pictures of this trip and they’re with him in the States! Don’t worry; since the city dates back to the 1^st century BCE, it looks exactly the same! Petra is an ancient Nabotean city, located near Aaron’s burial place, carved almost entirely into sandstone mountains. Though Naboteans (Aramaic-speaking Semite traders) who lived in Petra dwelled in free-standing homes that are no longer in existence, EVERYTHING else from the ancient city, including carvings of gods and idols, the Treasury building (originally built as a tomb for someone important, but rumored to have stored treasure- thus it’s name), burial tombs, the aqua-duct and water pipe systems, and a large amphitheatre similar to the coliseum in Rome. We entered through the eastern side of the city, walking through a dark, narrow passageway called the Siq (shaft), which leads first to the Treasury, and then on to the more open part of the city, which includes the amphitheatre and more tombs and monuments. We ended our tour with a big buffet meal, and then took the long, steep, 4 kilometer walk up to the entrance of the city. The tour was wonderful, and definitely worth a second trip. Enjoy the pictures!

the view of the Petra mountains from a hillside in Jordan

the Siq

a monument for one of the many Nabotean gods

remnants of the ancient water system

the view of the Treasury as seen from the Siq

the beautiful Treasury

the amphitheater

We spent the last two days of our trip enjoying the beach and pool in Eilat, checking out more fun restaurants and bars, and just relaxing on the balcony of the hotel. We hosted a big Shabbat dinner at our apartment last Friday, which was spent recapping all of our great trips during break (the guys and Amy went hiking in the Golan and Galilee, Lisa and Leslie went to Crete, and Deana and Jason traveled to Rhodes). Saturday was spend getting ready for the start of the actual school year, and of course, watching the Buckeye game! While the game was pretty ridiculous, we actually go to watch it on TV… yes, I have ESPN here in Israel!!

I’ll write another entry soon to tell you all about my first week of school, since I think this is enough to read. Sean left Israel last night, Monday the 8^th, after 10 days touring with his friend on Birthright, and another 13 days with me in Jerusalem and Eilat. It was hard to see him go, but I’m looking forward to going home in January, when I can see him again, and finally see my family and friends!

I’ll be back soon with the back to school edition of the blog! Happy Fall (it’s still unbearably hot here, but that’s another story)!!!

It's Skyline Time!!

2008-08-20T20:13:00.006+03:00

It was Skyline time at our apartment last night!! Mom and Auntie sent me a bunch of Skyline chili spice packets, and once Jim and Ari found out about it (and by that I mean, once I told them about and said I was ready and willing to cook it for everyone), we set a date for Skyline night! Joel and Lisa (from LA and Miami, respectively) decided to join us, but were certainly skeptical about the (obvious to the rest of us) deliciousness of Skyline chili...

...but boy did we prove them wrong! We made believers out of our California-bound classmates who ate a three-way and a five-way! I bought kosher ground beef at SuperSol (our grocery store) for a whopping 45 dollars for about 3 lbs!!! Ari came over to help me stir the four quarts of chili, chop onions, cook beans, and boil spaghetti noodles. And then... it was time for Ari, Jim, and me to enjoy our Skyline and time for Lisa and Joel to start their first Skyline experience, which of course, they loved! Please enjoy the pictures of our Skyline adventure...

The girl from Cincy ready to introduce Skyline to the city of Jerusalem

Skyline before it looks even remotely appetizing

Chopping onions for a possible 4-way

Jim, Ari, and Joel studying the Skyline packet and preparing for dinner

Lisa feeling a little skeptical about the Skyline

Just like home...ish...

Post-Skyline, we met up with Leslie, Jaclyn and Adam, and Mirah and Josh to go to the Jerusalem International Arts and Crafts Fair (it's called something-ish like that) located in the Artists Colony in the Gay Hinom Valley (this is the phonetic spelling, it has nothing to do with "gay"... this actually means "Hell"). The fair was HUGE, very exciting, and attended by tons of Israelis. There were lots and lots of artists' booths selling everything from Judaica to knit items to hand-blown (?? is there such a phrase?) glass to beanbag chairs to photographs, etc etc etc. There was also tons of food, a live circus-like performance, a small stage with a cover band, and a main-stage with a big-time singer (in our case, it was Gali Atari, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979 with the VERY popular Israeli folk song "Halleluya"). None of us really bought anything, but we had a great time!

Today was the first meeting of Zehut L'Chaim/Parallel Lives, a program that about 15 of the students at HUC are doing this year. Parallel Lives is a program that brings together young Israeli soldiers from Special Operations Units of the Israel Defense Force and young Jews from the Diaspora (outside of Israel) in order to foster dialogue and long-lasting relationships between the two groups. The program aims to enhance Jewish identity for the participants on both sides, increase solidarity with Israel, and create awareness for the Jewish soldiers regarding Judaism in the Diaspora. We traveled with about nine soldiers to Ein Kerem, a beautiful location outside of Jerusalem where there is a lot of history, beautiful gardens and mountainous areas, and a natural spring. We toured together, relaxed by the spring, ate dinner, and discussed their lives in the army, their families, and their plans for after they leave the army, as well as where we're from, what we studied in college, our lives in the US, why we want to be Rabbis, Cantors, Jewish educators, etc, and what it's like to be Jews in the US. We had a great first meeting, and plan to see the soldiers again in September.

Another important note... I saw Sean on Monday!!! I traveled for an hour and half to get to the airport, saw him for about ten minutes, and then spent almost three hours trying to get back to Jerusalem... but it was totally worth it :) He has spent the last few days traveling in the Golan Heights, a mountainous region in the north of Israel, and will be arriving in Jerusalem TOMORROW NIGHT!!

Tomorrow is the start of a fun weekend with Sean, Ari and Leah's birthdays, and a hopefully relaxing Shabbat.

Mitachat La'Shamayim

2008-08-17T18:49:00.012+03:00

This Shabbat was exactly what Shabbat should be... RELAXING! On Friday, my hero Uncle Eddie came to my apartment with a suitcase from Mom AND my guitar! I almost didn't want to go eat lunch because I was too busy looking through all the great new clothes, ziploc baggies (you'd be surprised how important things like ziploc baggies are here), and Skyline chili seasoning! And then, of course, I had to play my guitar for a few minutes :) After exploring the greatness that was the suitcase, I met Uncle Eddie for a tour of my apartment, a walk through the German Colony, and lunch on Emek Refaim, the main street in the German Colony. We went to Kabbalat Shabbat services at Moreshet Yisrael, the synagogue located at the Conservative Movement's Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center, situated literally across the street from my apartment! We had a very taim (tasty) Shabbat dinner at the Sheraton, complete with several kinds of frum (religious) Jews wearing a large assortment of black hats and coats in various fabrics and lengths. We of course did some excellent people watching and analysis of the hats and coats as we enjoyed our dinner! I also enjoyed a second dessert with some friends after my first metukah (literally sweet, but used to mean dessert on our menu) with Uncle Eddie. We went with a bunch of my classmates to HUC for Shabbat Shacharit (morning services), during which the fabulous Dean Rabbi Michael Marmur gave an awesome D'var Torah (sermon) on Tu B'Av, Israel's more-or-less Valentine's Day equivalent (Tu B'Av actually means the 15th of the month of Av, and serves to lift our spirits after Tisha B'Av- see my last entry for more info). After services, Uncle Eddie and I took a tour of HUC's complex, the new Mamilla Mall, and walked around the outside of the Old City. I then "cooked" (boiled some pasta and made tuna sandwiches) Shabbat lunch for us before we went our separate ways for the obligatory Shabbat nap...

After my first Shabbat nap (yes first, more on this in a minute), I met a bunch of my classmates for a Shabbat cookout in the Liberty Bell Park! A bunch of the guys brought little grills down to the park and grilled burgers, chicken hot dogs, peppers, zucchini, onions, and corn on the cob (yay!)! We had a GREAT time relaxing in the park, playing Frisbee, eating, and just enjoying sunset in Jerusalem. After the cookout, Lisa and I picked up some ice cream, watched a little Sex and the City, and both took nap #2 in preparation for...

DAVID BROZA LIVE AT MASADA SUNRISE CONCERT!!!

David Broza is perhaps Israeli's most famous and important singer-songwriter, with several multi-platinum albums and some of the most well-known Hebrew pop standards. His most famous tunes include Yihye Tov (It will be good- and yes, covered by the MeshugaNotes) and Mitachat La'Shamayim (Under the Skies). Eleven of us met at 1am at HUC to meet the mini-bus we rented to take us to the concert. Fifteen minutes later, no mini-bus... so we had a Sydney's Israeli boyfriend call the driver for us. He insisted that he would be there in hamesh dakot (five minutes)... but fifteen minutes later, still no driver. When we called again, we found out that he had been pulled over, but again, insisted that he would be there soon. Sydney then remarked that it would be funny if he ended up in jail and couldn't take us to the concert... which was pretty ironic, since the next time her boyfriend called the driver, we found out he was in fact going to jail for driving with an expired license, and therefore couldn't take us to the concert. The bus company sent us a new mini-bus and driver, but by the time they woke this guy up at 2am, it was almost 2:45 before he picked us up (we're now leaving about an hour and half later than we wanted to go). We set off for Masada after the driver received directions in Hebrew from Sydney's boyfriend as well as us AND our Hebrew speaking intern. However, he still managed to take us the wrong way to Masada... which meant that once we got to the wrong side of the mountain, we then had to drive an HOUR around the mountain to get to the concert site. To top all of this off, the driver was CRAZY and drove like a maniac, causing everyone (ie: Lisa) to get really bus-sick. By the time we got to the concert, we had missed the first hour, BUT... the concert was absolutely completely and totally AMAZING!!! I have never seen a live guitar player as talented as David Broza, and he was accompanied by an up-and-coming band called Mayumana that featured beat boxers, innovative drummers, a violinist, singers, and more. The concert ended with my two favorite David Broza songs, Mitachat La'Shamayim and Yihye Tov (I'll post some translations below). Our ride back was just as crazy and bumpy, but a few of us (including me) went to school today, despite our lack of sleep.

In other extremely exciting news... SEAN IS COMING TO ISRAEL TOMORROW!!!

Yihye Tov... It will be good!!
Meredith

The beginning (or the beginning for us!) of the concert, around 4:45am!

The sunrise, the concert, and Mt. Masada

David Broza (center w/guitar) with the group Mayumana

Joel and me enjoying the sunrise

Sydney, Jim, Lisa, and Ari dancing to Mitachat La'Shamayim

Yihye Tov

As I look out through the window
And my thoughts are turning back
To the spring that left in sorrow
Who knows when it's coming back
The jester played the wise king
And the prophet turned to clown
I've forgotten where I'm going
Thank G-d I'm still around

It will be good (alternate translation: things will get better), It will be good
Sometimes I feel broken
But tonight, oh tonight, with you I remain

I look out my window... maybe a new day will come!

Mitachat La'Shamayim

We came here, under the sky
Two, like a pair of eyes.
We have time, under the sky.
Meanwhile, we are still here.

You and I, the bed is wide for love.
Night and day, the smile apologizes for his laziness.
We two are one. One is full and round-- full and big.

Come! We will give. I will allow you to give to me to give to you.
And despite the distance, despite the pain, despite the sorrow,
I love, love, love you. Yes!

A BIG Update!

2008-08-14T20:20:00.002+03:00

I know, I know... I've been a little absent from the blogosphere for the last week and a half... my apologies! It's hard to believe that a person who only goes to school four days a week until 1pm and then has a tiyul (trip) on Thursdays could be SO busy that she can't write in her blog... but apparently it's possible! For whatever reason, I seem to be busy at every moment of every day- not that it's a bad thing. But still, I'm in need of a little rest... good thing August break will be here in just two weeks from today!

So now I suppose I'll update you (or at least those of you who don't read my friend's blogs for information on my life) on what I've been doing for these last two weeks!

Following the Shabbat during which I wrote the incredibly exciting entry on the WUPJ and the IMPJ (remember what those stand for??), we had a fun third week of ulpan. On that Tuesday, I gave my first ever presentation in Hebrew! Everyone in ulpan at HUC has to give a presentation to their class on anything they want, so I decided to present on one of the things I'm most famous for here (and no, not OSU)... the tv show FRIENDS! Needless to say, the presentation was fun for me, and seemed to be fun for my classmates. Tuesday night was our incredibly successful Beit Cafe (which I wrote about in the previous entry). The next day, our ulpan teacher, Orna, took us on a tiyul around the Jerusalem neighborhoods. We hang out alot in the area around Ben Yehuda street, but I never knew that so much history surrounded that area! We learned about some of the first neighborhoods outside the Old City, visited Beit Ticho (the Ticho House, former home to the famous Dr. Ticho and his even more famous artist wife Anna Ticho), saw a beautiful art exhibit (and met the artist!) of paintings of EVERY psalm, had a snack in a great hummus restaurant, and went to the shuk. We also chose student committees at schoo last week- I along with a bunch of my friends am on the Kef (fun) committee... what a surprise! Last Thursday was spent on a Bible History tiyul to Gat and Ashkelon, two cities that have a lot of Philistine history attributed to them... Gat is thought to be the site of the battle of David and Goliath! The best part of the tiyul, however, had to have been the hour we got to spend relaxing on the beach in Ashkelon- my first trip to the beach since I arrived!

On Friday, after an excellent french toast brunch cooked by master chefs Meredith and Lisa, as well as some pre-Shabbat cleaning, homework-ing, and relaxing, I headed off with 20 of my classmates to a community called Tzur Hadassah. Tzur Hadassah is a neighborhood southwest of Jerusalem that is home to a few thousand families. Within the community is a relatively new progressive congregation, headed by a young rabbi who graduated from HUC's Israeli Rabbinic Program. After a tour of the community and fun, musical services with the congregation, we all headed to various families' homes for Shabbat dinner. Ari, Sarah, and I went to the home of a family with three young kids, aged 7, 11, and 13. The family (not to mention the dinner) was absolutely WONDERFUL. As it was the Shabbat preceding Tisha B'Av (more on that in a minute), the father put together a short study packet on the history and observation of Tisha B'Av- he included both us and his young kids in reading stories, answering questions, and talking about the significance of the day. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with them, during which Joel and I answered the kids' great questions about ourselves, what we're doing in Israel, and what it's like to live in the States. Meanwhile, their 7-year-old daughter "taught" Sarah how to count in Hebrew- CUTE. After dinner, the mother (who is a music teacher) took out her guitar and invited Sarah and me to play and sing some songs with the family. We left with an invitation to come back for another Shabbat, which I'm SURE we'll do soon.

Saturday evening, following Shabbat services at Har-El, started in 1958 as the first progressive synagogue in Israel and an adventure involving tuna melts, mac and cheese, Israeli ovens/stoves, and gas balloons, we headed back to HUC for a Tisha B'Av observance. Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is a fast day in Judaism, often called the saddest day in the Jewish year. According to the Mishnah (Oral Torah), five major events befell the Jewish people on the 9th of Av: G-d's decree that the generation of Moses would not enter the land of Israel, the destruction of the First Temple, the destruction of the Second Temple, the failure of Bar Kochba's Revolt, and the razing of Jerusalem. Additionally, it is said that many other sad events have occured on this date, including: the Jews' explusion from England in 1290, the explusion of Jews from Spanin in 1492, the start of World War I, and the beginning of deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. We observed Tisha B'Av with a service that included a tradtional reading of Megillah Eicha (The Book of Lamentations, which is always read on Tisha B'Av), as well as several discussions on the meaning of the day, and creative expressions of parts of Eicha. We finished our evening observation of Tisha B'Av at the Kotel (Western Wall- one of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount where the Temple stood before its destruction), which is a very interesting experience due to the sheer number of people praying and reading Eicha in this location. On Sunday, the actual day of Tisha B'Av (remember that Jewish holidays start at sundown the evening before the day of the holiday), we had different classes, presentations, and a service to commemorate the day.

The school week was relatively normal, though we did get to watch a really cool Israeli movie on Wednesday called "Meduzot" (Jellyfish). What was exciting about this week was the fact that Marla (a friend from OSU) came to visit and was my first visitor at the new apartment! She stayed from Monday until Thursday hanging out with me, visiting HUC, meeting my friends, shopping at the mall and Ben Yehuda, going out to dinners and a jazz festival/jewelry fair, and even sitting through a boring meeting at school. It was GREAT to have a friend from home here to visit- especially one who brings Buckeyes!

Today was a special Thursday at school, because instead of going on our regular Thursday tiyul, we instead had "Masoret (tradition) Day." The day included a series of workshops that taught practicial skills including Aliyah to the Torah (going up to say the blessings before the reading of the Torah), Hagbah and Gelilah (lifting and dressing the Torah), wearing Tefillin (boxes with leather straps that are wound around the arm and worn on the head to remind the wearer of the commandments) and Tallit (prayer shawl), and prayer choreography (when to sit, stand, bow, sway, kiss, bend, etc). The whole day was interesting for me, as I really like to practical side of synagogue and prayer life. It was also great because it was the first day that I truly felt like I was in Rabbinic school, and not just here to learn Hebrew and go to services. After our classes, we had our introduction to the Reform Liturgy Workshop, which basically serves to teach us about, and then have us lead, services for the HUC community. The final part of the day was our Academic Preview session... let's just say this will be a busy year of classes for me! We'll be taking classes such as: Biblical Grammar, Modern Hebrew, Bible, Rabbinic Literature, Liturgy, Cantillation, etc etc etc!! Regular classes start on Sunday, September 7th, following our August break...
...speaking of which, Sean will be here in FOUR!!!!! days for his birthright trip, which will be followed by 12 days vacationing and hanging out in Jerusalem with me! Yay! Also in the way of visitors, Uncle Eddie arrived in Israel on Tuesday, and will be here tomorrow to spend Shabbat with me in Jerusalem... and rumor has it, he has a suitcase of wonderful stuff AND a guitar to give me!!

Sorry again for the late post, but hopefully this brings you up to speed. Stay tuned for apartment pictures this week... I PROMISE!!! Happy Thursday!

Beit Cafe Rishon

2008-08-05T23:08:00.002+03:00

We had our very first HUC student Beit Cafe (talent show/potluck/etc) this evening!! Everyone brought food (my friend Ari and I made ratatouille... I'm learning some new stuff here!), we had an awesome open bar, and everyone got to relax together on the beautiful lawn at HUC. The Beit Cafe consisted of ten student acts, including guitar playing/singing, a West Side Story spoof, poem readings, etc etc... it was GREAT. We also auctioned off all kind of stuff that people have left here over previous years, as well as some student offerings (guitar lessons, home cooked meals, etc)... we raised over 2,000 shekels for the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism!! Another exciting part of the evening was that Ari and I were the emcees for the night. To open the show, we wrote a little song... the song should be sung to the tune of "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid. Please enjoy.

Israel is always greener

In someone’s travel brochure

Wed dreamt about going up here

Now maybe we’re not so sure

Just look at the city around you

So many sites to explore

Such wonderful things surround you

But there’s more you’re looking for

At HUC, At HUC

Rabbis its better; hakol beseder

Take it from me

Outside these walls is a baal lagan

At HUC its all mitzuyon

Escape your landlord, you’ll never be bored

At HUC

At school all the students are happy

Cause Nancy’s our surrogate mom

We also have really great interns

Each one of them is the bomb!

They work hard to make this state home

With programs that they create

And if you ever have a problem

They’ll solve it and it’ll be great

At HUC, At HUC

Cantors its better; hakol beseder

Take it from me

Outside these walls is a baal lagan

At HUC its all mitzuyon

Put down music theory, everything’s cheery

At HUC

At HUC, At HUC

It’s the the shuk here, there’s nothing to fear

Except Haredim

You can stand in line and don’t have to push

Just take it easy rest on your tush

No worries no trouble… but beware of the bubble

At HUC

The sun is so fun

The travel is cheap

Drink some great wine

Hit the North in a jeep

Israelis are hot

Except when they’re not

We’ve all got internet now… YEAH

The shuk’s off the hook

The bars aren’t too far

The food’s pretty good

You don’t need a car

Your Hebrew’s improved

You’re feeling the groove

And oi that old city’s OLD

But at HUC, At HUC

Educators its better; hakol beseder

Take it from me

Outside these walls is a baal lagan

At HUC its all mitzuyon

Pay your bills later, go lead a seder

At HUC

Ignore that tractor, it’s not a factor

At HUC (too soon??)

We’re here for a year, there is much to fear

But we will not worry, we’re not in a hurry

Ya, we in love here, Sabras we’ll become here

At HUC!

Of Vital Importance- Progressive Judaism in Israel

2008-07-26T18:39:00.004+03:00

Again, my apologies for NEVER posting... I'm going to try an every other day approach to see if it's easier to write short blogs often as opposed to long blogs once a week. We'll see :)

I posted the last entry as an attempt to explain some of what HUC students and Jerusalemites in general are feeling in regards to the pigua this week. If you want to talk with me about it, please feel free to email. Otherwise, know that I am fine, and like all my classmates, am working on my feelings about Jerusalem, Israel, the conflict here, etc, with friends, HUC professors and staff.

This week was the first week of my two summer classes- Modern Hebrew Ulpan and Bible History. Ulpan is intensive modern Hebrew study- we will take Hebrew all year long, but during the summer, we study Hebrew Sunday through Wednesday for four hours each day. We are divided into four levels, Hebrew letters aleph, bet, gimel, and dalet- I am in aleph, but pretty okay with it, seeing as though I only started learning modern Hebrew last summer. The classes are small, with 10-11 students in each class, and are taught by Israeli teachers who speak almost entirely in Hebrew. On Wednesday evenings, we have two-hour long Bible History lectures, followed by Thursday tiyyulim (trips) around the country to see what we learned the night before. This past Thursday had a two-part Jerusalem tiyyul, but we will be heading out further, all around the country, in the next few weeks. Of special note today is that my friend Sara has been in Israel on Taglit-Birthright Israel this week, and has spent the last few nights in Jerusalem, giving us a chance to see each other. I am definitely enjoying my first "visitor."

On Wednesday, we had an afternoon visit in HUC's sister complex, Beit Shmuel, with the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ). We learned all about progressive Judaism in both Israel and around the world. In Israel, Reform/Progressive Judaism (as well as Conservative Judaism, called the Masorti movement in Israel) is not recognized as a form of Judaism- Orthodox Judaism is the only kind that exists here. The interesting part of this is that most Israelis are secular Jews... the secular Jews' joke goes: "The shul I don't go to is Orthodox". In other words, though most of the country is secular, the only kind of Judaism anyone knows exists is Orthodox Judaism. Progressive movements are certainly not new, but are still very small in Israel- there are currently only 24 Reform/Progressive congregations in all of Israel (there are another 10ish organizations that are affiliated with Progressive Judaism in Israel, including the IMPJ, the WUPJ, and Hebrew Union College- my school). In the United States, Reform Judaism is the largest stream, with over 1.5 million adherents in over 900 congregations. Just to put this into perspective, there are 5.3 million Jews in Israel and 5.2 million Jews in the United States.

Now, just a side note before I come back to the complexities of Progressive Judaism. I spent Friday with another rabbinic student, Harrison, at Kibbutz Gezer, outside of Jerusalem. We were checking out a community service internship opportunity at the Kibbutz, which will eventually involve doing some "social work" and music programming with convicts from a nearby prison, as well as leading Shabbat services and song session at congregation Birkat Shalom, the Progressive synagogue located at the Kibbutz. It was a fantastic day, filled with more food than I think I've eaten in the entire three weeks I've been here, a warm welcome from the Rabbi of Birkat Shalom and her husband, the director of a education center (called Pinat Shorashim) located on the Kibbutz, and a visit from a group from Leo Baeck temple in Los Angeles (whose Rabbi was the rabbinic intern at my temple when I was younger- it was great to catch up with him and his family!). Harrison and I helped to lead Shabbat services, hung out with the Rabbi and her husband (named Miri and David) and their family, and got to know people at the Kibbutz. Needless to say, we'll be accepting this internship and spending one Friday a month at the Kibbutz!

Coming back around to my point... Rabbi Miri Gold of Birkat Shalom at Kibbutz Gezer is the plaintiff in a groundbreaking lawsuit, aimed to gain rights for non-Orthodox Rabbis, as well as their congregations and communities. In Israel, each community/region elects a community Rabbi who is then given a teken (salary) by the Israeli government for serving their community- the teken comes from a religious tax that is paid by ALL Jewish Israelis. The problem here is that only Orthodox Rabbis may "run" for and be elected to the post of community Rabbi. This poses a problem for Rabbis like Miri Gold and communities like Kibbutz Gezer- the community at Gezer is clearly served by Rabbi Miri (and in fact has not seen their community Rabbi in three years) and is not interested in an Orthodox rabbi. Unfortunately, Rabbi Miri is not eligible to be the official community Rabbi (though she does all of the work in the community) nor is she eligible for the teken earned by Orthodox Rabbis. While some of you may know that Reform and Conservative Rabbis in the United States are paid rather nicely (congregational Rabbis right out of school make approximately 80k per year), Progressive Rabbis in Israel make very little money- not really enough to support a family. Add in the fact that Progressive Rabbis are not even recognized by the Orthodox movement (which is again the only movement recognized by the State of Israel, since the Orthodox movement controls the religious areas of government), and we have ourselves a problem here in Israel.

I don't say all of these things about the Progressive movement in Israel to make anyone upset with Israel- in fact, I hope you aren't. Many Israelis are very slowly warming up to the idea of non-Orthodox Judaism and non-Orthodox Rabbis... a few are even warming up to the idea of female Rabbis! There is a lot of work to be done within Israel to work for equal rights for the Progressive movement, its adherents, and its clergy- this work is already being tackled by congregations and clergy, the IMPJ, the WUPJ, and HUC. However, look again at the numbers associated with Progressive Judaism in the United States and in Israel. Now look at another number- 6.7 million shekels. This is the usual yearly budget for the IMPJ. But here are two other numbers- 30% or 2 million shekels. This is the amount lost in IMPJ funding this year, mostly due to the declining dollar. The grand majority of funding for the IMPJ actually comes from American Reform Jewry. You would think, with the amount of money given by American Reform Jews each year, that we care deeply about Progressive Judaism in the State of Israel. Unfortunately, this support only extends to the financial end. Less than half of the incoming Year in Israel HUC class (remember, we will all eventually be Rabbis, Cantors, and Jewish educators) even knew what the IMPJ and WUPJ were when asked this week! Progressive Judaism cannot be pushed to thrive in the United States while it is neglected in Israel, the home of the Jewish people. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the head of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational and organizational arm of Reform Judaism in the US, said:

"For Reform Jews, the stakes are especially high. If we fail to establish a significant presence on Israeli soil and do not become a powerful force in the next generation, we will have consigned ourselves to the margins of Jewish history. While Reform success in Israel gives me confidence that this will not happen, it is for this reason that our support of Reform Judaism in Israel is so vitally important. "

I urge those of you who are Progressive Jews in the United States to think about the complex nature of Progressive Judaism in Israel, and consider how you might support (and I don't mean financially) it at home. Even though it may not affect you personally, it will affect the Reform movement in the United States, choices (or lackthereof) for Israelis and Jews all over the world with regard to how they are able to practice Judaism, and if not anything else, me. As a future female Reform Rabbi, I will be in a tough position outside of the United States if changes don't continue to be made in Israel and around the world. Progressive Judaism is growing worldwide and will have a fighting chance if those of us in the strongest position- Reform Jews in the US- are willing to help.

With that said, I want to say again that I am having a wonderful time here in Israel, and am already learning so much. I am enjoying hearing from many of you via email and phone calls, and I ask that you continue to keep in touch. I miss you all. Look for pictures of my apartment and HUC's beautiful campus coming soon!!

The Spirit of King David Street Cannot Be Bulldozed

2008-07-26T17:53:00.002+03:00

While I do promise to also post on my own today, I wanted to share this Jerusalem Post Blog entry, written by HUC Jerusalem's Dean, Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur. He writes on the subject of the terrorist attack we had this past week. I thought I might let him share the story with you this time...

-Meredith

P.S. He's British... so when you read this, it's helpful to think of a British accent... it makes some of the things he says seem funny as opposed to just plain weird :)

Thursday Jul 24, 2008

Reform Reflections: Life and death on King David street

Posted by Rabbi Michael Marmur

For much of my adult life I have studied, taught and worked on King David Street in Jerusalem. It is certainly no ordinary work address. World leaders stay there - in recent months we have played host to Bush, Blair, then Bush again, Blair, Rice, Blair Carter, Sarkozy, Blair (I'm beginning to think that man has nothing better to do), Brown, Mc Cain, Obama - and that doesn't do justice to the tens of less famous officials - Fishing Ministers from Ruritania and Tax Inspectors from Uzbekhistan.

Then there are the Life Cycle Events. Families compete with each other to hold the most opulent and often gaudy events: barmy Bar Mitzvahs, wild weddings, and far from circumspect circumcisions. And let's not forget the welcome crush of tourists, staying in comfort and often returning home with some expensive artifacts purchased at one of our street's many upscale emporia. More hotels are on the way, along with a plethora of swanky apartment buildings aimed at visionaries and speculators.

It is perhaps a surprise that one of the street's most famous and significant landmarks is the YMCA, an oasis of dialogue and culture and encounter and health. If you've never been, you owe it to yourself to drink in the architectural attractions, climb to the top of the tower, and stop off for a Pilates class at the same time. Jews and Arabs (both Muslim and Christian) feel at home at the YMCA.

Over the last years King David Street has also played host to the Annual Gay Pride parade. Visitors to similar events might mistake the throng of men dressed in police uniform walking by the YMCA as some kind of hommage to the Village People, but in our city's parade they are actually policemen, on hand in order to protect the crowd from the taunts of those who combine theological certainty with personal insecurity.

A variety of Jewish institutions grace the street: on avenues nearby some of the most important foundations and philanthropic agencies are to be found. AIPAC is across the street. The Gesher Institute is opposite my own institution, the Hebrew Union College, and our campus plays host to Merkaz Shimshon and Bet Shmuel - the world headquarters of the Reform Movement. In recent years an Ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva has opened up in close proximity. With the international center of Conservative Judaism a couple of blocks away, we are arguably situated in the most denominationally diverse address in the Jewish world. It is truly the High Street of the Jewish People.

The street is no stranger to acts of violence. The most spectacular and deadly event took place back in 1946, with the notorious attack on the street's most famous eponymous hotel. 45 years later, a planned suicide bombing succeeded in killing the man with the explosive jacket, but no innocent victims. And now, earlier this week, King David Street saw the second example in as many weeks of Tractor Terror. A man driving a construction vehicle started ramming and squashing vehicles, although he was killed before he managed to kill anyone else.

Five of my students were in close proximity to the attack this week. Four of the College's Israeli students were enjoying a break at a local café, and were afforded a grandstand view of the grim and swift proceedings. More directly still, one woman recently arrived from the US on our Year in Israel Program found herself directly behind the tractor. As soon as the gunshots began to ring out she took cover behind a tree. Once the emergency was over, she dusted herself off and went to her apartment. When I saw her soon after she was shaken but not stirred, and we spent some time talking about her road to the Rabbinate. For her and hundreds of others, the first Road to the Rabbinate is King David Street.

When I passed the scene of the attack a couple of hours later, an assortment of characters had shown up - a Government Minister in search of a photo opportunity, and some Kahanist crazies in search of a hatred opportunity. Chabad were also there for some reason, with a large banner promising Messianic days. Somehow the bizarre nature of the scene seemed natural in a road in which the incongruous is inevitable.

Those who try to bring death to this place of life will not succeed, even if (Heaven forbid) a future attack yields casualties. Somehow the untidy yet intense drama being played out in the street - Jews and Arabs, locals and tourists, Liberals and Traditionalists, wealthy and modest - must not be curtailed. It may have its tractors and its detractors, but the spirit of King David Street cannot be bulldozed.

Israeli News Update

2008-07-16T22:17:00.006+03:00

While today was a normal day for most, it was a truly sad day for Israel. Though there have been atrocities over the last few years, including rockets being shot into S'derot, the shooting in the Old City seminary last year, and last week's bulldozer pigua (attack), Israel has been in a relative state of peace and stability since the end of the Second Lebanon War with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. The war began when Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers in border towns, leading to the deaths of three soldiers and the capture of two others- Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. This week, after waiting two years, Israel and Lebanon brokered a prisoner exchange- Lebanon would return Ehud and Eldad in exchange for, among others, Israel's most notorious prisoner, Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 killed an Israeli man in front of his four year old daughter, and then killed the girl by crushing her skull. Though the majority of Israelis believed that there was no way that Eldad and Ehud could still be alive, some still hoped. Today, after two years and four days, that hope was crushed, when Israel exchanged Kuntar and four Hezbollah militants in exchange for the bodies of Ehud and Eldad.

Prime Minister Olmert echoed the words of many HUC professors who spoke about the event today, saying that "the sheer power of Israel's moral obligation to its soldiers prompted the exchange, even such at a heavy price" (Ha'aretz News, full story here). Olmert stated that "a foreigner wouldn't understand what every Israeli knows well - the mutual responsibility and the obligation to ensure the welfare of each and every one of our soldiers, is the glue that holds our society together and enables us to survive while surrounded by enemies and terror organizations."

I hope that my sharing this news doesn't upset anyone, or make anyone feel that I am unsafe or in an unstable country or situation. The fact of the matter is that Israel is an incredibly safe country. The danger that many of you remember from four years ago during the second intifada has almost completely diminished. I want to assure everyone that I not only feel safe all the time, but that Hebrew Union College has set up all kinds of systems to keep everybody safe and to make sure that we are taken care of at all times.

I also want to stress something really amazing about Israeli society. I know that I have been making fun of Israel and Israelis (and believe me, I'll continue to do so), but this is something that I really admire about Israelis. The people of Israel have a unique ability to simply LIVE their lives. They are certainly affected by events like terrorist attacks and the situation today, but unlike Americans and so many other people, they refuse to be afraid or to stop their everyday lives in fear of what may happen in the future. Even though Israel was faced with a terrible loss today and will never forget it, Israelis will wake up tomorrow, go to work and school, meet friends and family, smile, and keep on living. Just something to think about!

I hope that you'll accept this serious post for today- I promise to let you in on the last few days SOON! Hopefully, our router will finally arrive tomorrow and I will have my own internet, Vonage, etc, and will be better equipped to stay in touch with everyone. Goodnight!

HOT, Netvision, and Me... a Hate/Hate Relationship

2008-07-11T14:32:00.001+03:00

First of all, I have to apologize for not posting for the last week. Unfortunately, we've been having to some internet issues,... after spending about three hours a day for the last five days fighting the cable and internet people and the router and modem in general, I haven't been so excited to turn on the computer and find internet. We finally found out that our American router simply isn't compatible with our Israeli internet provider, so we have to order a router from Netvision, our internet people, and it will hopefully work after that! I'll keep you posted!! In the meantime, since I don't have my vonage phone set up yet, feel free to email!

The last week has been really busy and fun here in Jerusalem. After going to services last Saturday, most of the students headed over to a park behind the King David Hotel for a Shabbat picnic. On Saturday evening, we attended a study session and a dessert and havdallah alumni event at HUC, where I saw Rabbi Walter, my rabbi from home. After the event, a BIG group of us went to a hookah bar and dance club near Ben Yehuda St... just so you know, rabbis and cantors can party, too! Many of the nights this week have been spent potlucking (I've made this a verb, like it?) and hanging out at various students' apartments- I've gotten to know a lot of the students, and it seems like a great class so far. My roommates and I spent a lot of Monday cleaning our kitchen, since apparently the people who lived here before us never washed a single dish... oy.

Tuesday was my roommate Lisa's birthday! We went to lunch at Burgers Bar (yes, there's an "s" on the end) for lamb burgers, and then Leslie, Deana, and I broke away for a little birthday shopping. That evening, 35!!! of our classmates came out to dinner at a great place called "Colony" in the German Colony/Emek Refaim area. After a little tour of Emek Refaim from one of the interns, we all went to a cool outdoor bar to continue our celebration. At the very end of the night, the few of us that remained stopped at an Irish bar near our apartments, and guess who was sitting next to us?? Dan Nichols!!! (Jewish rock artist, VERY popular with NFTY kids and Reform movement people in general) And guess who got the only name drop at the table?? Yours truly! It was (hopefully) a nice birthday for Lisa!

Wednesday was my day of relaxation... I walked back to Emek Refaim to have lunch with Rabbi Walter, which was really great! Afterwards, I went to a coffee shop called (ready, Cbus people?) Cup O Joe, and did some reading and paperwork for HUC. These are really the only two notable things about Wednesday, because like I said, I did nothing and relaxed :) Thursday brought registration at HUC, shopping at the Shuk (we forgot our shuk cart- never again!!), and a HUGE event at HUC. A bunch of the students went to HUC for the evening to volunteer for NFTY's 50th anniversary of Israel programs banquet/event/thing! There were over 650 NFTY kids there for dinner, a slideshow, and a short Dan Nichols performance! (They got a full concert later that night on Masada, which we unfortunately couldn't find a way to get to). I got to see Elyse, since she's staffing a trip, and we had a great time celebrating with all the NFTY kids. After the event, a bunch of us had ice cream on Ben Yehuda, and then about 15 people hung out at our apartment, had more dessert, played guitar/sang, and waited for the cable guy (the cable company is called HOT, if you can believe that) with us!

We spent this morning at part of a day of study at HUC for students as well as Jewish professionals and HUC alumni. I went to two classes/seminars... the first was a text study and discussion called "the Transformation of Jewish Ritual: Tradition, Renewal, and Invention"- it was a great class, and I thought the instructor did a great job of focusing on real problems and situations faced in the field. The second class, "From Bima to Bonfire: Musical Trends in Jewish Prayer," was right up my alley. We listened to four different musical selections, and talked about their place in services/Jewish life or lackthereof, if the music was actual prayerful, if it was participatory, and what kinds of feelings were invoked by each. Ultimately, we decided if each piece was better associated with Bima (the raised portion at the front of the sanctuary where the Rabbi/Cantor stands) or a Bonfire (taking about the general concept of song sessions, participatory singing, campfires, etc). We skipped the afternoon classes to finish shopping for Shabbat (stores close by 3pm on Fridays and don't open again until Sunday), rest, and get ready for our evening study session/reception, Kabbalat Shabbat services, and dinner at HUC.

I'll post back ASAP... I will hopefully have internet this week!

Life at 11 Ramban

2008-07-05T00:30:00.002+03:00

Hello from Jerusalem!! I arrived with my roommates, Lisa and Deana, at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv at 1:30pm Israel time. Lisa and I got our bags, but of course, as Deana had to run to the plane in NYC, her bags didn't arrive. The process of getting her bags sent to her at school was complicated due to the attack we had in Jerusalem on Tuesday. I have attached the news article here, but please don't be alarmed- this is VERY rare here, and this doesn't seem to be an organized terrorist attack, but rather an angry reaction from an unstable person.

Our apartment is on Ramban St, which is a GREAT location. We are at ten to fifteen minute walk from ANYWHERE we'd want to go, including the Ben Yehuda area, the Shuk (open-air market), Emek R'faim (the German Colony, an area with lots of great stores and restaurants, and the Reform temple we'll probably go to a lot), and even the Old City! We are about 100 yards from the grocery store, which is called the Super Sol, and about 7 minutes from HUC!! Our apartment is very big by Jerusalem standards, and my bedroom is about twice as big as my bedroom at home! I have a "full" size bed, which is very comfy thanks to the linens that Auntie and Uncle Eddie ordered and had waiting for me at school! I have a little futon in my room, a nightstand/storage thingy, and armoire, and some more shelves and drawers. We have central air conditioning and heating in our apartment, which again, is a Jerusalem rarity. We also have a washer and dryer, BUT, the washer is at LEAST 20 years old (no exaggeration here, I've NEVER seen a washer this old in all of my life). We're figuring out how to use it slowly but surely, and I'm already on my third load of laundry! Our bathroom is interesting, as a) the toilet and shower/sink are in different "rooms", b) it is VERY small but still houses the washer and dryer, c) it is sea foam green!!, and d) the shower head is actually in the middle of the long edge of the shower (hopefully I explained that correctly- it's in the spot where you'd never expect it to be!!). Our kitchen is also interesting, as a) we don't know how to work either the stove or oven, b) our fridge is leaking a little bit, c) it's banana yellow and brown, and d) we are so overwhelmed that we haven't even begun to sort out the dishes and cookware (although it is there!!) Overall, we LOVE the apartment, and are very happy with it. We're meeting our 80-year-old German landlord, Felix, on Sunday, but the only other residents of this building, besides a law firm (if you can believe that), are Felix's brother and his wife (in the apartment downstairs) and Felix's niece and nephew (upstairs)- they have all stopped by to say hi and offer their help!

On our first night in Jerusalem, we left our bags at the apartment and went to Ben Yehuda street for dinner. While sitting at a table outside the restaurant, I ran into Seth Gildenblatt and Josh Adland, friends from home/NFTY- it's a small world after all! That evening, we went to the grocery store for the essentials (read: toilet paper), and went to bed. The next day (Thursday), we headed over to HUC's BEAUTIFUL campus (more on this later) to register with the office. We took a campus tour, met the interns (3rd and 4th year students who live in Jerusalem for the summer to help us adjust and meet people), and met head of student affairs and the dean. We also met a lot of our classmates, which was great. We picked up our cell phones (hurray!!), had lunch a cafe aptly named "Cafe Cafe", went shopping for more household items, joined a few students for a potluck dinner at a student's apartment, and went to the HUC-organized bar night at a bar called "Tuvia's" (this is apparently the "huc bar" and the owner even came to say hi and welcome us there). Today, Friday/Shabbat, we took a group trip organized by HUC to the shuk (open-air market, last time I'll write that in here!) to buy food for Shabbat, etc. I've been plenty of times, but it was fun to go back and buy food and stuff at the shuk- we even got a shuk cart (imagine a pushcart covered with plaid cloth that you would use if you were an old lady- except EVERYONE here uses shuk carts). We also stopped at the grocery store, as they close around 3pm on Fridays and don't open again until Sunday, after Shabbat has ended, and I put away ALL of my clothes and stuff in the drawers in my room-I'm finally unpacked! Tonight, we had a big Shabbat dinner at a student's house, which was attended by at least 20 students, plus some of their spouses/partners/boyfriends/girlfriends/siblings (these are all called SO's by HUC, which means Significant Other- more on this later!). Our potluck dinner was wonderful, and we sang for a few hours after dinner, which I of course love. It was SO weird and interesting to celebrate Shabbat with an entire group of people who all want to be Jewish professionals. It was a great first Shabbat. Tomorrow we're heading to Shabbat morning services at HUC.

We should have internet by the time all of you in the states wake up on Tuesday. I will do my best to have my Vonage phone up and running ASAP, and I will let you know when that is. In the meantime, enjoy the blog, and keep the emails coming. Thanks to everyone for all of your support! Happy 4th of July!!

Leaving for Israel on Tuesday!!

2008-06-29T04:08:00.004+03:00

Below is a copy of the email I sent with all of my information for the next year. Look forward to some (more) exciting entries once I arrive in Israel!

Dear Family and Friends,

Shalom!!

On Tuesday, July 1, 2008, I’ll be leaving to start my first year of rabbinical studies at Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem, Israel. Following my year in Jerusalem, I will be studying for four more years (graduation and ordination as a Rabbi will be June 2013) at the HUC-JIR campus in Cincinnati, just down the street from the University of Cincinnati. I am very excited to start my five year journey to becoming a Rabbi, and I hope to be able to share a lot of this experience with all of you.

**As with all email updates, I wanted to include an “unsubscribe” option. I will refrain from sending a lot of emails, hopefully one every other month, HOWEVER- if you would like to removed from the email list, I would be more than happy (and not offended AT ALL) to take you off. Please just let me know! **

I will be living in Jerusalem from July 2, 2008 until May 24(ish), 2009. I will be living in a Jerusalem neighborhood called Rehavia, which is a 8-minute walk to school at HUC. I am living with two girls, Lisa and Deana, who are also rabbinic students, and am VERY excited to see my new apartment. I’ll be sure to send pictures ASAP. If you’d like to send any mail, your best bet is to send it to HUC. The address is: 13 King David St., Jerusalem 94101, Israel.

I would love to hear from all of you throughout the year, so please, feel free to email, call, chat online, send mail, etc. An important new contact tool is my Vonage phone- I will have a “landline” phone in my apartment that has a Cincinnati, OH phone number. I have unlimited calling to anywhere in the U.S., and this number works just like any other U.S. number, so you can call me for the price of any call you might make to a Cincinnati number!! If you are visiting Israel anytime throughout the next eleven months, please let me know so that we can meet up! All of my contact information is listed at the bottom of this email. **Please keep in mind that it may take a few weeks to get my internet set up in my apartment, so I while I will be able to answer emails and any calls to my Israeli cell phone, please wait until I give you an internet update before you try calling my Vonage phone!

Perhaps the most important thing for all of you to know about is my BLOG! I will do my best to update this blog as often as possible, and hope to include pictures with each entry. The blog address is: http://www.buckeyeinisrael.blogspot.com Please check the blog often!!

I am looking forward to a great year in Israel, but I’ll certainly miss everyone at home, at Ohio State, and throughout the country. Please stay in touch, and remember, I’m only a phone call or an email away!

Love,
Meredith

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email: meredith.kahan@gmail.com or kahan.7@osu.edu
*see email for the rest of my contact info, I didn't want to leave it out on the blog!!