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Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Repetence. In the States, we would have woken up, got dressed, hoped in the car, and drove to services. We would have had to deal with the hustle bustle of a normal day in Cleveland. Just a day where 80,000+ people were purposefully fasting and going to services instead of work.

Jerusalem is different. Today, the city is quiet. It’s not 80,000 people that are fasting and going to services…it’s the entire city. Walking back from services last night was like living in a ‘Twillight Zone’ episode. People were all dressed up walking down the middle of the streets going to and from services. Visiting with friends and seeking forgiviness or just hanging out with friends and shooting the breeze. Today is the one day of the year, that there aren’t any cabs on the road, or cars driving around. For the first time since I got to Jerusalem, it’s quiet.

As many of you know, Yom Kippur is a day of repetence. For the last month, Jews around the world have been reflecting over their past year and looking at the mistakes or sins, and trying to make amends. Instead of just thinking about the bad things you’ve done, you’re supposed to seek amends for it. Ask the person for forgiveness. It is also traditional, that if someone asks you for forgiveness, that you give it. That all mistakes happened last year, and that you have a fresh year ahead of you. Today is the last day. The day where you hope you’ve done enough, and that you can start the new year with a clean slate.

Walking around the city makes you feel reflective. The distractions and annoyances of daily life are just gone. No Israeli drivers speeding down the street honking left and right at any little annoyance. Or steroes blaring music. No sounds of speeding cars or down shifting trucks. No sounds of construction. Just the sounds of humans talking as they walk down the street.

Today, the site rests and reflects. The mood of the city makes it hard for me to just pick up my laptop, play a computer game or do something meaningless. I sit here thinking about my year about the crappy things that I’ve done, and the amazing things I’ve done. About the things that I would change in myself, and the things that I’m proud of.

Each year, you are supposed to look at yourself and look at the sins you’ve committed. As I sit here, I am not spending a lot of time about the times that I lost my temper and yelled at the stupid help desk people at Capital One, AT&T, or TIme-Warner Cable. I’m thinking about the times that I’ve hurt the people that are closest to me. The times I’ve lost patience with Jess or my Mom. Or not called my grandmothers as often as I should have. Sadly, the list can go on and on…but I guess that is part of being human. Ironically, I’ve also reflected on the fact that it is easier to seek forgiveness on a blog that my whole family and friends will see, then to actually call up the person and forgive them.

If you are celebrating Yom Kippur today, then I hope you have a short and easy fast. I hope you have a good day of reflection and remember that the ones you have hurt the most are probably the ones you love the most. If Yom Kippur is not part of your religion, I hope you can also look at someone you love and just say that you’re sorry for the last time you yelled at them, or did something that you regretted.

May you be written in the book of life for one more year,

Chad

A quick post, mainly to upload some images.

The other night, they had a tour of the areas around the Old City and into the Old City. It was really interesting learning some of the biblical history of the area as opposed to just walking around and enjoying the scenery.

On Friday, the interns arranged a trip to Tel Aviv. We spent the first part of the day walking around the market, and the rest of the day at the beach. Unfortunately, we spent the time playing and didn’t really take any pictures. We finished off our day attending Shabbat services on the pier overlooking the Meditterean Sea. It was definitely very beautiful and different then any other service that I’ve been to. It was also entirely in Hebrew. The rendition of ‘What a Wonderful World’ completely in hebrew was a highlight for me.

We went to three holy sites in two days:  the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  Each one had its own sense of grandeur and beauty, but they also had many tourists (like me) looking at everything and taking pictures.  And annoying people who thought that it might be amusing to take pictures of a stuffed baby penguin at said holy sites.  (um.. also me)

In any case, I found it troubling that tourists were allowed to come in, make noise and discuss mundane concerns while there were services taking place both at the church and the Western Wall.  (Interesting, tourists are asked to leave during prayer hours at the Temple Mount.)  This might work as a solution to the other sites, but it might become complicated for multiple groups who wish to use the wall/Church at the same time.

While it is difficult to understand why tourists were allowed to interrupt or observe services, it was interesting to see.  Each holy site had a unique beauty that not only resided within the building materials themselves but also the love that many of the worshipers brought to their prayer experiences.  There were people in tears at the Western Wall as well as those who had a holy aura about there faces.  There was some intense praying going down (or up depending upon your orientation.)

Now for something completely different…

I had my first week of ulpan classes.  We are studying modern hebrew from 8:30 – 1:00 each day.  (Tuesdays we have tefillah in the morning, and we have had some extra sessions here and there about biblical Israel.)  The administration created 4 Hebrew levels (alef, bet, gimel and dalet)  All of our classes will be based on these levels.  I was placed in level gimel.  So far there is a ton of new vocabulary… but I have not really learned any new grammar.  :(  (although we have touched on some simple grammar… good review)

Level gimel has two teachers who switch off each day so homework is assigned and collected by the same teacher.  Thus we get our assignments a day ahead of time. I am finding it difficult to learn to speak and understand spoken Hebrew though, because it is not enough immersion.   I am thinking about ordering TV so that I can watch children’s shows in Hebrew.  We will see how that goes.  I have also heard that people learn Hebrew well when watching soap operas in Hebrew.  As the dean mentioned then I’ll know how to say catchy phrases such as, “I am your long lost sister from Argentina,”  or “I am carrying your baby.”

Other than that, all is well.  Chad is getting ready to go to  Croatia with his brother Scott, and we are planning to go to see Batman tomorrow night.  We miss everyone, and hope that you are well!!

We hope to hear from y’all soon!

Chad here to add some thoughts in regards to the Holy Sites. I’ve always found different religions fascinating, so getting to see the different sites was a great experience. First, one of the things that amazes me about religion is the importance that is put on ritual objects. Upon entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, people were praying in front of a large stone that had oil on it. Looking up from the stone, there was a huge mosaic that was depicted Jesus’ anointment before his burial. People were putting objects onto the stone to bless them. Objects included items brought from home and also cheap postcards bought down the street. So that’s fascinating to believe that Jesus’ dead body was on this stone before his burial, until you find out that the stone is only about 200 years old and just commemorates his annointment. Hmmm….. The list goes on of Christian sites and objects throughout Jerusalem. The reason that they are holy is that one or more of the churches decided that they were holy. Very fascinating.

Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock was also a great experience. We get there by pure chance as we were actually trying to meet up with some friends and got into the wrong line. We thought we were in the security line for the Western Wall. Instead, we were in the security line for Temple Mount. We called our friends, and they came to meet us. So a slight historical account of Temple Mount. The top of Temple Mount is where they believe Abraham tried to sacrifice Isaac. It is also where they believe Mohammed ascended to Heaven. It was also the location of the first and second Temples 2500 years ago. So needless to say, it has history. It’s also controversial.

So it was quite cool to be up there. The top is a huge place. Someone said it was 37 acres…or something like 15 football fields. During the Muslim holy days, they can fit over a million people on the top. A sight that I’d love to see, but will never be able to. The Dome of the Rock is closed to tourists, so I can’t tell you what it looks like. I respect the reasons they close it, but am still disappointed that I couldn’t go in.

So that is it for now. I will leave you with some pictures from Temple Mount and the walk that we took around the Ramparts of the Old City.

Before I begin, we’re a bit behind on our blogging and there are two whole adventures into the Old City that we need to write about and link the pictures to. Those should be coming soon.

So Jessica began classes yesterday, which means I’ve been even more on my own then before. So as I l am still waking up at 7am, it leaves quite a bit of the day to be bored. So, today I mustered up the energy to go for a walk. And boy what a walk it was. I walked around the outer walls of the Old City and ended up stopping at some cool sites.

The best time to go for a walk is 7am. It just gets bloody hot outside. Due to my laziness, I didn’t get out till 9:30…and man was it hot. Thankfully, you could avoid the heat by stopping in shady spots. Unfortunately, the sun is pretty much straight over your head, so shady spots are few and far between.

I think if I were a better writer, I’d remember all of the thoughts and feelings that went through my head as I walked. The thing I love about Jerusalem is the contrast and diversity. The architecture isn’t so diverse, since it’s all made of limestone and everything just looks like another tan building. The diversity comes from the different religions,  the proximity of everything, rich vs poor, etc. On one side of the street is a city wall that has stood 2500+ years, on the other side is a gas station. That kinda of diversity.

The coolest spots I stopped is the Garden of Gethsemane. I’m sure there are other people that could tell you more about the actual events, but this is where Jesus went to pray before he was arrested the following morning. Olive trees sit in the Garden that are over 2000 years old. So back to the contrast, the church next to the garden is 80 years old, the trees in the garden would have been standing here while Jesus prayed. That is pretty hard to wrap your mind around. The same exact trees.

Inside the Church of All Nations, is supposed the rock that Jesus prayed on. How they know these things? I don’t know. Is it the real rock? It doesn’t matter, since everyone believes it’s the real rock and now prays at it. Got to watch a service while I visiting, so that was cool, although I don’t know what language they were praying in. Another contrasting thought is that when you walk out of one of the holies places in Christianity, you face the Old City and can see the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Muslim tradition. Weird.

Next to Gethsemane is the Tomb of the Virgin, where Mary is supposedly buried. Very elaborate and smokey tomb as the devote are lighting incense and candles. This again is one of the holiest sites in Christianity as people were leaving notes/prayers on the tomb.

The diversity of cultures that come to these spots are fantastic. One minute your talking with a british fellow, only to be stampeded over by a group of Spanish speakers, then you here the Muslim call to prayer, followed by a service in a language that I didn’t recognize. It’s amazing being in a city that is so controversial in actuality, but so holy for all of the major Western religions.

So most of the rest of the trip was just walking and looking at the wall, watching the cars go buy, looking at the street signs, the garbage on the sides of the hills, graffiti, etc.

Next week, I will be leaving Jessica for 12 days and meeting up with my brother in Croatia. That will be cool, except that I have no clue what we are doing and haven’t purchased a guide book yet so it’s hard to do research.

L’hitraot…until we meet again

So I thought I’d take this opportunity to discuss our apartment. Before we left, there were a lot of questions concerning how we’re going to live, what the apartments were like, etc. After living here for the last 10 days, I have a better idea. In fact, instead of telling you about it in text, we posted our first video on YouTube!

So that’s it. Any questions?

Some of the more cool features of our place are the drying rack, our laundry line, and our 2 different hot water heaters.

Our drying rack is cool just because it’s part of the cabinets and I’ve never seen it before. The laundry line is great because our clothes dry in less time then using our dryer, and it’s much better for the environment.

The two heaters are pretty cool as one is a passive solar water heater and the other is a tankless water heater . The passive system uses the suns heat to naturally heat up the water without any electricity, while the tankless water heater only uses energy to heat the water you’re using. This differs from the American water heaters as our system is constantly keeping gallons of water hot all day long, regardless if you are home or not. Basically a huge waste of energy.

I’m basically loving the more environmental parts of the apartment. Not much else is different from an American apartment. The plugs are different shape and a different voltage and the TV is PAL instead of NTSC (which is why our Mario Kart displays in Black and White…grrr….). Instead of a mops we have floor squigees.

That’s all for now. Later on, we’ll post about live outside of the apartment. Wahoo!

I only have vague memories of Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) from my first trip to Israel in the early 1990′s.  The monuments were quite impactful.  They focused on remembering using symbolic architecture as an artistic tool.  

These strategies contrast with the Washington DC museum greatly.  In Washington DC there is a greater focus on the atrocities themselves… the goal is seemingly to hit participants over the head with the horrors that permeated the Holocaust (some examples include: a piles of shoes, hair or glasses.)   

With this in mind I entered Yad Vashem not knowing what to expect as it had been renovated sense my last visit.  

From the outside, the museum looked like a gigantic triangular cylinder stabbed into a mountain.  The tip of the triangle was made of glass. 

When we entered, we quickly became silent… as if all of our conversation seemed insignificant.  The first movie clips were about the rich and cultured life of the Jews in Germany and the surrounding areas.  After viewing this introduction, we wove our way through various exhibits filled with factual information, recordings of personal testimonies alongside photos and objects.  The museum was set up chronologically, and told the story from the point of view of the Jewish people’s struggles. The end of the museum opened up to a view of Jerusalem and pathways to the more subtle memorials.  

We spent at least 4 and 1/2 hours pouring over the information, listening to peoples’ stories and visiting the more symbolic “memorial sites.”  By the end we all felt hungry, tired and sore… but also guilty for letting these trivial pains trouble us in the face of what we were visiting.  

A few exhibits were particularly memorable:throughout the entrance and exit courtyards there were trees planted for each of the righteous gentiles, the memorial for the children consisted of candles in a dark room with several mirrors (in the background, childrens’ names and ages were read out loud) and the story of a survivor meeting a soldier seeing what was really taking place for the first time as he stared in horror at the site of his starving body.  

I also found that the nations’ failure to destroy the concentration camps after learning about what was taking place was completely unacceptable and troubling.  Yes there is a war and resources need to be devoted to ending it as soon as possible, but there were many occasions in which war targets were close to concentration camps, there was no excuse not to bomb them.  

In 1942 one world leader wrote, “I don’t know what a Jew is, we only know what human being are.”

I still cling to a certain amount of optimism and hope for the future, but I know that it is going to take a lot of work.  

I think that this was the only piece missing, the next steps… how do we prevent future horrors?  how can we bring people together to move beyond their hatred and fear of each other?  How can we truly reach people?  

Any ideas?  What kind of exhibit would you build to address these concerns?  What would it look like?  What would you hope for it to achieve?  

I’ll be interested to read your thoughts and comments.

l’hit, 

Jessica

Hey all,

In the last few days, we have gone to 2 major tourist spots. They are completely different, but at the same time related.

The first one was the Old City of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera battery, so there won’t be pictures till I head back there. I love the old city. The narrow streets, the people selling goods, all the crap that you can haggle for, etc. The streets are so narrow that there are very few cars in the old city. At the same time, it’s incredibly touristy. If you’re Jewish, you go to the Western Wall…Christain you go to the Church of the Holy Sepulechre, and Muslim…Temple Mount. So there really is a major holy spot for the big 3 religions.

So of course, we had to stop at the Western Wall. For those that don’t know, the Western Wall is over 2000 years old and ‘was merely a retaining wall supporting the outer portion of the Temple Mount, upon which stood the Second Temple.’ Most of what I say is only my (Chad’s opinion) and Jessica will probably have a very different viewpoint. The reason why it’s a holy place now is that it’s the closest spot that Jews can get to where the Second Temple once stood….2000+ years ago. Other than that…it’s just an old wall. Maybe it’s just my own issues, but I just don’t see how this one wall can be more holy then walking through a forest, sitting on a mountain top, enjoying a view in the desert, etc.

If you never been to the wall, it’s an experience. First, they separate the men and the women. 3/4 of the available wall space (and the section that would have been the closest to the Second Temple) is for the men, and 1/4 is for the women. Now I have an incredibly hard time with this. Just can’t see why one gender can be ‘more important’ or even holier then another gender. That’s probably why I’m reform and have no issues being married to a future Rabbi. I could go on a long rant about this, but I won’t. As a male, the moment you walk close to the wall, you will get accosted by very religious Jews who want to put religious items on your body and say a prayer. It’s a commandment in the Torah, but ends up being just another tourist photo. In fact, that was the hardest part for me. If you go to church, would you walk around taking tourist photos, or would you try and be respectful and discreet?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Old City for it’s history. It’s hard to believe that there are areas of this city where people walked over 2000 years ago. It’s hard to even fathom that number. Just sit back and close your eyes and picture the wagons, and people hawking their goods, etc. It’s pretty amazing.

So the next day, we went to Yad Veshem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. If you’re thinking about going, you must mentally prepare yourself to be emotionally beaten, stomped, put through a food processor and then spit back out. Once you think the pain is done….they do it a few more times. It is an emotionally exhausting day. The Memorial itself is the best one I’ve been to. The main building walks you through the rise of the Nazi Party through the liberation and rehabilitation of the Jewish people. It’s very modern, and has video interviews of survivors throughout the museum. In fact, if we sat down to watch them all, we’d probably still be there. The pictures and stories are hard to hear, but what they do is humanize this event that is just too hard to describe. I can’t even begin to describe the horrors that these people, my cultural ancestors, went through and somehow survived. At a certain point, the stories made it so human, that I was picturing the horror and what would it be like if all of us had to live through this atrocity. Let me tell you, it’s not a fun line of thought. Would we try to be hero’s, just go along with it, hide, rob for food, etc?

What it proves to me is that no human being deserves to live in fear because of who they are, their religious choice, their culture, gender, etc. It sucks even more that 6 million people had to die to teach the world a lesson about discrimination, and while we have come a long way…we still have truly learned the lesson. Genocides still occur, discrimination based on race, culture, and gender still exist. Someday….someday…

The 2 rooms that were hardest for me were the Hall of Records and the Children’s Memorial. The Hall of Records is a circular room full of binders telling the story of a Jew that was murdered in the Holocaust. I couldn’t stay in the room. 6 million is a big number. Now think of all of the experiences that you’ve had, all of the people that you’ve met, all of the joys and sorrows you’ve experienced. All of those just simply wiped away in a furnace or by a bullet. This Hall was designed to tell those stories…or what little of those stories still exist. There is a room in the back that survivor’s or the family’s of people that were murdered in the Holocaust can go and can archive their pictures and type up their stories of the victim’s so that they will never be forgotten.

The Children’s Memorial is even worse. It’s worse becaus of it’s simplicity. 1.5 million children died in the Holocaust. The room is a dark room with a single candle reflect millions of times throughout the room. A single voice slowly naming the murdered children’s names. The candles message is simple, not only were the children murdered, but those children would have grown up and had more children. Simple, yet painful.

So I wish this journal entry were more exciting and less depressing. I’ll have to upload some pictures of the market at some point, because that is always more of a fun experience.

Hope all is well and that you remember the line…’Never Again!’.

We have internet!!!!  Whoohoo!!!  It is amazing how much I take that connection for granted.  Email has become my regular mail.  Only junk mail, the occasional news letter, wedding invitations and thank you cards come in the mail these days.  In Israel, I will probably only receive bills via snail mail.  It’s all part of my desire for instant gratification.  Especially with a new time difference, I find that this is the best way to keep in touch.  

On a completely unrelated note, yesterday we visited our first tourist site.  As we have been busy acclimating to life here, we have mainly spent time locating grocery stores, places to purchase school supplies and registering for class.  It felt nice to take a break from the logistics.  We chose to see the kotel and walk around the old city.

 The first time I visited the wall, I was in high school (summer of 1991?)   I remember it having a great impact on me this first trip.  I felt an instant connection with my past present and future Jewish self.  I remember touching it and feeling connected.  I knew that it was only a wall, but there was something magical about the experience.  

The second visit I came with Jewish Family Educators (2003).  I remember being accosted and asked for money by the crowd.  I remember taking pictures of the wall and I remember looking up at it again… as if waiting for the special connection that I had felt the first time.  It didn’t come.  I simply felt like I was visiting a monument, and I was ready to move on to the next site.

I went to the wall this time not expecting anything.  Chad and I went with a couple of people that we have met here through HUC.  We all wore our long skirts (except for Chad…) and ventured slowly toward the wall.  This time I had a task, delivering a few 2nd grade notes to the wall.  I found it difficult to locate the perfect slots for the notes, there were already so many pieces of paper sticking out of every nook and cranny.  There were also several notes on the ground that must have fallen out.  I wondered who cleaned up the notes and what they did with them.  Did those who clean up the area read the carefully written prayers and wishes?  Or did they simply discard them them in a trash receptacle?  Did the people who wrote the notes feel that they had to stay in the wall for a certain length of time??  How did this custom emerge?  

I wonder how I will view the wall as I begin to study the context of the time and customs that have surrounded it over time.  I am also curious to hear other peoples’ experiences at the kotel.  Have you written notes to be placed in the wall?  How did it feel to visit it?  What questions did you leave with?  When you were there was it separated?  Have wall visit experiences evolved?  If so in what way?  

Hope that everyone is well!

As we left the plane, I finally felt that this was real…. we really are leaving to live in Israel for a year.  

My first feelings, while clouded by exhaustion and jet lag, were filled with a bit of apprehension and an odd juxtaposition of coming and leaving home at the same time.  

How is Israel like home?

There is something innately familiar about Israel.  Perhaps it is the countless hours that I have spent as a Jewish educator looking to connect students to Israel the land, people and culture. Maybe it is the natural connection with the images that we constantly poor over when studying Israel.  or perhaps it is some ineffable feeling that links me to our past… or maybe not.  - Whatever it is, it is very present… I am here not as a tourist this time, but a temporary resident.  

How is Israel not like home?

Israel is missing all of you!   Other than that it is the little things… the sub par orange juice, the lack of skim milk, the language barriers (hopefully this will get better as I learn more Hebrew), the hustle of the city (honking horns, and aggressive pedestrians).  The other differences are more tied to American comforts… which I can say I miss less most of the time.  This stems from the fact that Americans tend to be a little more “privileged” than most people in the world.  

I will stop here for now, only adding that  I am curious to find out more about many things…

Israeli clothing styles (what are they)? why do Israelis have better rugalech than americans? Why coke is so expensive? How do Israelis celebrate Shabbat in Jerusalem compared to other Israeli cities?  Where are the interesting places to explore off the beaten track?  What Israeli Television is like?  Why Israelis will throw their cigarettes onto the ground without putting them out first?  How does HUC and the reform movement interact with Jerusalem and Israeli culture in Jerusalem?  Where can I find AC?  and what really started the whole fries or “chips” with felafel?

Tune in next time to find out my somewhat biased opinions about these and more topics!

Shabbat Shalom,

Jessica