Nov 2010
Aviva goes on tiyul! (field trips)
Thu November 18, 2010 Filed in: Israel 2010-2011
AVIVA’S BLOG
Aviva points out parts of the security fence to her boss and some
of her students.
In the past three weeks Scott and I have been going about our normal routines and hence, have felt that blog-worthy events were few. Yet as I sit down to write this blog post I get the feeling that it will be a long one and hopefully one worth the read.
These weeks have been filled with my first few papers, homework assignments and group projects. School is demanding and rewarding. I am learning a lot and meeting interesting people. Hopefully I'll get some good grades as well. I have been better about not procrastinating with my assignments for school than I have been about not procrastinating on this blog post!
I know you've all been anticipating a Savta Rachel story so here are a few to share: We met Rachel's daughter who was in town for a special reunion. In June she turned 60 and she came back to her childhood home to celebrate her special birthday with three other women who were also born that same week in June at Beit Kadima. One of these women, Ruti, lives upstairs from us in the same apartment she has lived in her whole life. Have we mentioned that we love where we live?
A new picture that we recently found. This is the building in which
we currently live taken some time in the mid-late 1940’s.
Savta story two: The other day she knocked on our door to tell us that she had brought a quilt up from her storage unit downstairs (apparently it is autumn here but nobody told the weather as it has been in the 80s with no rain for several weeks. Still, Israelis think it is getting cold. Go figure. Also, see this article). That was a side story. The real reason she knocked on the door was to tell Steech, I mean, Scotch, I mean Scott (yes, she calls him all those names) that he has to go out and water the garden. She also wanted to know if one of us would go down the block to Bein Aza L'Berlin (a local falafel joint) and pick up her dinner. She had ordered and payed for it earlier in the day but it was too far for her to go back and pick it up. I volunteered to take the walk. I had absolutely no trouble getting food from a restaurant without having a receipt or order number. All I had to say was that I was picking up an order for Savta Avramitzky and I could have all the kubbe soup I want!
Scott helps Savta Rachely water her flowers, a job he has taken to doing twice weekly!
Now for the good stuff: On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week I went on amazing tiyulim (trips) with students in the seminaries where the DP teaches its curriculum, Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Tuesday and Thursday were the same trip with the theme of Jewish Identity (so I will write about them as one) and Wednesday had the theme of Security. During the Identity trip our first stop was at Emek Zurim. This is a site where the rubble and debris for the illegal digging on the Temple Mount was dumped over ten years ago. Six years after archaeologists started going through the rubble they are only about halfway done. At this site the students heard from archaeologists (my peeps) about the history of Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount, Har Habayit, and then they had a chance to help sort through buckets of the debris to see what artifacts could be salvaged. Even though I was not dressed appropriately for getting dirty, I really had a good time with the students and the sifting. Groups found mosaic tiles, glass of all sorts, dozens of types of pottery, and the best find of all, a bronze coin from the Hasmonean period and a glass weight that looked like a contact lens for measuring gold from the first Temple period.
We then went to the Hoshen building on the Mount of Olives which overlooks the Temple Mount from the eastern side; a perspective from which I have never seen the Temple Mount. This part of eastern Jerusalem is entirely Arab. There was almost no Hebrew visible or audible on signs or in the streets. We went to this particular building for a discussion on rights to the land and what we would be willing to give up for peace. It was especially interesting for me to listen to what these 18 year old religious girls had to say about the land of Israel and contrast it with the things that they will likely be facing next fall on college campuses. How much of Jerusalem 'belongs' to Israel? What would we, should we, could we be willing to give for a real peace with our neighbors? These are the types opf questions we discussed while overlooking the Temple Mount from the East. Had we been sitting at that spot 1900 years ago we would have been able to hear the Levites singing and see the Kohanim going about their business.
The next stop was Save a Child's Heart in Holon. I was unable to join this part of the trip on Tuesday because I had to get to class but I did it on Thursday and it was the highlight of the trip. We first met Devorah (an olah from NY and sister of a good friend of ours) at the Wolfson medical Center near Tel Aviv to learn about SACH and see a short video about their work. SACH brings children from developing countries to Israel for completely free heart surgeries and treatments. They also train doctors from these countries so that they can return to their homes and treat children who are not able to come to Israel and Israeli doctors go to the partner countries to train doctors and nurses on their home turf. All of this work is public diplomacy - it is a way for people from all over the world who would never otherwise know anything about Israel or ever have the opportunity to meet an Israeli (or even a Jew, for that matter) to have a positive experience and association with Israel. We then visited the pediatric ward of the hospital and got to meet one of the doctors who volunteers his time pro-bono, just like all the other staff of the hospital that is involved with SACH.
By far the best part of the day was visiting the house where the children live with their mothers (or sometimes alone if they are older than 5). The children generally stay in the house for up to three months which includes pre-surgery tests and recovery. All of this is paid for by private donations and grants from various governments including one specifically to work with children from the Palestinian Authority. The children we met this week were from Ethiopia, Panama, Ghana and Angola and they were all amazing.
On Wednesday we had a very different kind of trip. Because this trip was focused on security issues our first stop was to an overlook in Gilo, the southernmost neighborhood in Jerusalem.
View Gilo/Beit Jala in a larger map
I had not been to this spot since 2002 when I was a freshman in college. Then, it was at the height of the second intifada and the security barrier was just going up. This southern tip of Gilo was one of the first places to get the concrete barrier because Palestinians living in the valley in the town of Beit Jalah would shoot at the apartment buildings on the hill in Gilo. Today, the barriers are gone. They started coming down this summer because, thankfully, the situation has been quiet in the area. What really left an impression was how deserted things seemed in Beit Jalah. I remember it feeling so tense 8 years ago and by contrast, extremely calm today. Let's hope it can stay this way.
Leaving Gilo, we boarded the buses and headed to Sderot. Anyone who has been following the news from this region has likely heard of Sderot as the town were many of the 8000+ Hamas kassam rockets that have been fired in the last 5 years have landed. The most immediate and striking thing about Sderot is that it is a very drab town - and I got the feeling that it was like that long before there were rockets falling on it and it was in the news all the time. The whole feeling of the town was a little sad. All the bus stops are fortified bomb shelters. We visited a playground that has large concrete caterpillars and a princess castle bomb shelters.
Sderot playground/bomb shelter.
We went to an overlook 1 kilometer from the Gaza border and saw just how close the rockets and mortars are.
View Sderot Hilltop in a larger map
I am glad I got to see some of these things with my own eyes rather than just reading or hearing about them. I really felt a sense of how inter-connected all these places are when I stood on a hilltop and looked at Gaza City a little over a kilometer from where I was.
In happier news, rosh chodesh kislev came and sufganiot arrived in town! We learned that we can get Sam Adam’s beer on tap and the new Mike's Place bar. We are looking forward to the Hartman Shabbaton at kibbutz Chanaton next weekend and we are planning a Chanukkah trip Egypt with some friends.
One last note. We recently had the opportunity to go see our first movie in Israel. This was quite an experience. When we arrived, a friend showed us the charging stations that had recently been built in the parking lot as part of Israel’s soon to be network for electric cars! (See link and picture below) After entering we promptly walked toward the snack counter. As it turns out, the candy selection was quite limited. We skipped the mentos and tictacs and went for some good old fashioned popcorn. Acceptable behavior in Israeli movie theaters is a bit different from we are used to. As the locals are primarily reading the Hebrew subtitles, they feel free to chat away, answer their ringing cellphones etc. We were a bit surprised when the movie suddenly stopped in the middle. We thought it may have been some sort of malfunction, but as it turns out it was just a cigarette/bathroom/maybe the snack bar finally got the soda machine working break.
A blurry picture of Aviva pointing out the new infrastructure
built by A Better Place for electric cars in Israel!
Aviva points out parts of the security fence to her boss and some
of her students.
In the past three weeks Scott and I have been going about our normal routines and hence, have felt that blog-worthy events were few. Yet as I sit down to write this blog post I get the feeling that it will be a long one and hopefully one worth the read.
These weeks have been filled with my first few papers, homework assignments and group projects. School is demanding and rewarding. I am learning a lot and meeting interesting people. Hopefully I'll get some good grades as well. I have been better about not procrastinating with my assignments for school than I have been about not procrastinating on this blog post!
I know you've all been anticipating a Savta Rachel story so here are a few to share: We met Rachel's daughter who was in town for a special reunion. In June she turned 60 and she came back to her childhood home to celebrate her special birthday with three other women who were also born that same week in June at Beit Kadima. One of these women, Ruti, lives upstairs from us in the same apartment she has lived in her whole life. Have we mentioned that we love where we live?
A new picture that we recently found. This is the building in which
we currently live taken some time in the mid-late 1940’s.
Savta story two: The other day she knocked on our door to tell us that she had brought a quilt up from her storage unit downstairs (apparently it is autumn here but nobody told the weather as it has been in the 80s with no rain for several weeks. Still, Israelis think it is getting cold. Go figure. Also, see this article). That was a side story. The real reason she knocked on the door was to tell Steech, I mean, Scotch, I mean Scott (yes, she calls him all those names) that he has to go out and water the garden. She also wanted to know if one of us would go down the block to Bein Aza L'Berlin (a local falafel joint) and pick up her dinner. She had ordered and payed for it earlier in the day but it was too far for her to go back and pick it up. I volunteered to take the walk. I had absolutely no trouble getting food from a restaurant without having a receipt or order number. All I had to say was that I was picking up an order for Savta Avramitzky and I could have all the kubbe soup I want!
Scott helps Savta Rachely water her flowers, a job he has taken to doing twice weekly!
Now for the good stuff: On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week I went on amazing tiyulim (trips) with students in the seminaries where the DP teaches its curriculum, Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Tuesday and Thursday were the same trip with the theme of Jewish Identity (so I will write about them as one) and Wednesday had the theme of Security. During the Identity trip our first stop was at Emek Zurim. This is a site where the rubble and debris for the illegal digging on the Temple Mount was dumped over ten years ago. Six years after archaeologists started going through the rubble they are only about halfway done. At this site the students heard from archaeologists (my peeps) about the history of Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount, Har Habayit, and then they had a chance to help sort through buckets of the debris to see what artifacts could be salvaged. Even though I was not dressed appropriately for getting dirty, I really had a good time with the students and the sifting. Groups found mosaic tiles, glass of all sorts, dozens of types of pottery, and the best find of all, a bronze coin from the Hasmonean period and a glass weight that looked like a contact lens for measuring gold from the first Temple period.
We then went to the Hoshen building on the Mount of Olives which overlooks the Temple Mount from the eastern side; a perspective from which I have never seen the Temple Mount. This part of eastern Jerusalem is entirely Arab. There was almost no Hebrew visible or audible on signs or in the streets. We went to this particular building for a discussion on rights to the land and what we would be willing to give up for peace. It was especially interesting for me to listen to what these 18 year old religious girls had to say about the land of Israel and contrast it with the things that they will likely be facing next fall on college campuses. How much of Jerusalem 'belongs' to Israel? What would we, should we, could we be willing to give for a real peace with our neighbors? These are the types opf questions we discussed while overlooking the Temple Mount from the East. Had we been sitting at that spot 1900 years ago we would have been able to hear the Levites singing and see the Kohanim going about their business.
The next stop was Save a Child's Heart in Holon. I was unable to join this part of the trip on Tuesday because I had to get to class but I did it on Thursday and it was the highlight of the trip. We first met Devorah (an olah from NY and sister of a good friend of ours) at the Wolfson medical Center near Tel Aviv to learn about SACH and see a short video about their work. SACH brings children from developing countries to Israel for completely free heart surgeries and treatments. They also train doctors from these countries so that they can return to their homes and treat children who are not able to come to Israel and Israeli doctors go to the partner countries to train doctors and nurses on their home turf. All of this work is public diplomacy - it is a way for people from all over the world who would never otherwise know anything about Israel or ever have the opportunity to meet an Israeli (or even a Jew, for that matter) to have a positive experience and association with Israel. We then visited the pediatric ward of the hospital and got to meet one of the doctors who volunteers his time pro-bono, just like all the other staff of the hospital that is involved with SACH.
By far the best part of the day was visiting the house where the children live with their mothers (or sometimes alone if they are older than 5). The children generally stay in the house for up to three months which includes pre-surgery tests and recovery. All of this is paid for by private donations and grants from various governments including one specifically to work with children from the Palestinian Authority. The children we met this week were from Ethiopia, Panama, Ghana and Angola and they were all amazing.
On Wednesday we had a very different kind of trip. Because this trip was focused on security issues our first stop was to an overlook in Gilo, the southernmost neighborhood in Jerusalem.
View Gilo/Beit Jala in a larger map
I had not been to this spot since 2002 when I was a freshman in college. Then, it was at the height of the second intifada and the security barrier was just going up. This southern tip of Gilo was one of the first places to get the concrete barrier because Palestinians living in the valley in the town of Beit Jalah would shoot at the apartment buildings on the hill in Gilo. Today, the barriers are gone. They started coming down this summer because, thankfully, the situation has been quiet in the area. What really left an impression was how deserted things seemed in Beit Jalah. I remember it feeling so tense 8 years ago and by contrast, extremely calm today. Let's hope it can stay this way.
Leaving Gilo, we boarded the buses and headed to Sderot. Anyone who has been following the news from this region has likely heard of Sderot as the town were many of the 8000+ Hamas kassam rockets that have been fired in the last 5 years have landed. The most immediate and striking thing about Sderot is that it is a very drab town - and I got the feeling that it was like that long before there were rockets falling on it and it was in the news all the time. The whole feeling of the town was a little sad. All the bus stops are fortified bomb shelters. We visited a playground that has large concrete caterpillars and a princess castle bomb shelters.
Sderot playground/bomb shelter.
We went to an overlook 1 kilometer from the Gaza border and saw just how close the rockets and mortars are.
View Sderot Hilltop in a larger map
I am glad I got to see some of these things with my own eyes rather than just reading or hearing about them. I really felt a sense of how inter-connected all these places are when I stood on a hilltop and looked at Gaza City a little over a kilometer from where I was.
In happier news, rosh chodesh kislev came and sufganiot arrived in town! We learned that we can get Sam Adam’s beer on tap and the new Mike's Place bar. We are looking forward to the Hartman Shabbaton at kibbutz Chanaton next weekend and we are planning a Chanukkah trip Egypt with some friends.
One last note. We recently had the opportunity to go see our first movie in Israel. This was quite an experience. When we arrived, a friend showed us the charging stations that had recently been built in the parking lot as part of Israel’s soon to be network for electric cars! (See link and picture below) After entering we promptly walked toward the snack counter. As it turns out, the candy selection was quite limited. We skipped the mentos and tictacs and went for some good old fashioned popcorn. Acceptable behavior in Israeli movie theaters is a bit different from we are used to. As the locals are primarily reading the Hebrew subtitles, they feel free to chat away, answer their ringing cellphones etc. We were a bit surprised when the movie suddenly stopped in the middle. We thought it may have been some sort of malfunction, but as it turns out it was just a cigarette/bathroom/maybe the snack bar finally got the soda machine working break.
A blurry picture of Aviva pointing out the new infrastructure
built by A Better Place for electric cars in Israel!
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