Happenings back at Home!

17/4/10

So it's been about two weeks since I got back to Israel and I've been absolutely horrible about updating my blog, especially since so much has been going on! When I get my Kuma Journal back, I will post a very long update about my trip to Poland also, but for now, let's start back on April 8th...

The day after I returned, all 300 Year Coursers and our Madrichim went on a tiyul and overnight in a Bedouin Camp. My friends and I chose the hard tiyul, thinking it was going to be a "Year Course Stroll", and were pleasantly surprised when we were hauling ourselves up ladders and wading through algae infested waters. It was oddly satisfying to feel sore the next day. After the afternoon hike, all of us met up at the Bedouin Camp and rode camels! My friend Judith and I went twice and named our camel Wilbur. Judith wasn't crazy about him, but I think he was the greatest camel a girl could ask for. Word to the wise, camel riding is one of the most uncomfortable experiences in the world, but it's totally worth it when your camel starts molesting the legs of the riders in front of you. Muahaha! After camel riding, we sat down to an amazing meal of home-made pita bread, humus, kabobs, and rice. It was bliss! That was followed by massive amounts of tea and a long night of sleep in a cozy Bedouin tent. Considering I was delirious for most of this and still remember most of it, I'd say it was a pretty great trip.

The following week, we started back on our normal schedule. In Bat Yam, we have volunteering and classes everyday (except tuesday, which is still siyur day). Thus, having slept for essentially the entire weekend to get over my jetlag, I was fully prepared to make up games with my elementary school students and giggle my way through class as I succeeded in paying attention and creating flawless doodles all while listening attentively to the hideous songs my roommates managed to stick in my head. Yes, it's that time of year, even in Israel. You know, the time when school work flies so far out the window that the idea of doing homework is almost laughable. Yah, it exists 10,000 miles away. You can't outrun it. Darn it! Meanwhile, my lack of interest in school is slowly giving way to more creativity at work! Having still received no lesson plans from my students' teachers, I've taken to inventing a new english game everyday. So far, I have introduced, categorical competitions, madlibs, english tic tac toe, and random ice breakers. It proved incredibly useful to remember that as long as you include a competition aspect in any game, children are likely to immerse themselves in it. It works with 18-year-olds too, but we don't like to admit that. ;)

On a more serious note, April 11th was also Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). Essentially disregarded in the states, Yom Hashoah is a national holiday in Israel. The country stops, sirens wail, millions recite the Yortzeit (the Jewish memorial prayer), and candles are found in every window. For those of us who went on Kuma, the night held an even more poignant meaning. Yom Hashoah has always been important to me, but after being through a week of intensive immersion in the subject, I found myself deeply affected by the reactions of my fellow year coursers to the idea of remembrance. I ended up writing my Tekkes (ceremony) speech on just that. I think it's better to just post the speech here rather than explain everything:

Recently, several people have mentioned to me the idea of being “over-holocaust-educated”, or numbed, in a way, against repetitive horror. Before going on Kuma, I also entertained the idea of becoming callused because I went looking for closure regarding my own questions about the Shoa. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve come to realize that the idea of closure on the Holocaust is foolish, and indeed, I now have more questions and more conflicts than ever before.

I can’t say that I am immune to numbness. I didn’t cry nearly as much as I thought I would in Poland and I can walk through Yad Vashem without being constantly engaged – even at times complaining of boredom. This idea, however, is extremely unsettling. It’s human to distance oneself from tragedy so as not to be overwhelmed, but distance to the point of apathy threatens to undermine the main goal of Holocaust education – to be knowledgeable ambassadors of a tragedy the world is slowly denying.

On this Yom Hashoah, I’m reminded that it doesn’t matter how many times the story is told, because there will always be someone who needs to hear it. Everytime I feel bored in a Holocaust museum, there will always be someone in the next room in tears from their first time. Tonight, as we light these remembrance candles, I’m seeing them in a new light. It doesn’t matter how many candles we light, or how many history lessons we take. The important thing is to try to find something new, something just as important as the number 6,000,000 with every revisit, and sometimes to accept that the memory of the Shoa can’t be over taught because it can never be fully understood. Maybe thinking we fully understand is the first step to realizing we’re not thinking hard enough.


These ideas stuck with me for all of Yom Hashoah, especially as we sang Hatikva. More than ever before, the Israeli National Anthem brought me to tears because for the first time, I thought of all the people who sang the hopeful tune on their way to the gas chambers, never to see the idea of Jewish state fully realized. I looked around, and many of the people who'd gone to Poland were crying or on the brink of doing so. I don't know that I'll ever be able to make it through another Yom Hashoah without being re-immersed in that surreal week.

On Tuesday, the 13th, a group of us headed north towards Lebanon for a hike through Nachal Ziv. The beautiful, green, rocky, intense trail is part of the Yam al Yam (Sea to Sea) trail that I did in 2008. It winds along a valley and underneath old ruins of the cliff castles of the Crusaders. It was absolutely breathtaking! We climbed over rocks, across streams, through mud, and through pricklies! We also learned stories of how the oak leaf came to be a heart and why the oak tree and the "ela" tree (not sure what it is in English) always grow together. The first is ridiculous and depressing, so I'm skipping it, but the second was beautiful. An old couple gave shelter to a beggar one night and the next morning, he revealed he was an angel and offered them anything. They wished only to spend the rest of eternity together, so he turned one into the "Alon" tree and one into the "Ela" tree. If you look, one never grows without the other.

That afternoon, we stopped in the port, crusader city of Akko. I've been before, but I've never gone into the inner city - the shuk, etc - and it was spectacular. The Kanafe was TO DIE FOR! True, it meant walking past many a sketchy Arab stand, but it was worth it...SO worth it. Afterwards, we walked down to the port, sat on the rocks, and looked out at the perfectly blue water. Times like those are what make me fall more and more in love with this incredible country. The beauty here is simply indescribable and I've never seen anything like it in the states. The sand is soft, the water blue, the greenery everywhere. One can almost understand why so many have killed for a piece of this paradise.

Wednesday and Thursday went by slowly...class may be threatening to kill me soon...

The weekend was fabulous though! Friday morning, Lizzy and I went to Yafo (Jaffa) and shopped around the antique shuk. I bought beautiful presents for you back home, and a couple for myself as well...but that couldn't be helped... ;) We ate lunch at Abu Hassin, which has the best Humus in Israel. I've never eaten so much pita in my life! Afterwards, we ran to Shenkin Street in Tel Aviv where Lizzy got a dread lock and I got a hair wrap. I was too chicken to get the dread. It was so nice to have a day of nothing but fun after a slow, intense week! That night, a bunch of us gathered for a spontaneous barbeque on the beach, and I learned that there is no such thing as "too sandy to eat". Thus, if your hot dog rolls off the grill, you eat your sandy hot dog!

On Saturday, Lizzy and I went over to visit Maya (the Tzofa who lives with us) and her parents. They've become like a second family to us, and it's wonderful to have a house to go to where you feel welcome, you laugh constantly, and the food is always coming. It's also fascinating to talk to Israelis about their perceptions of America. They think we're insane for wanting to make Aliyah, and we think they're insane for insisting that America is nothing but movie stars and glamour. Ah, world images...

That's all for now, but I'll have much more to say soon after Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzma'ut!
Love,
Rachel