1/23/2017 3 Comments The Dichotomy Here ISraelAfter two weeks of getting settled back into Beit Shmuel and Jerusalem after coming back to America for a couple weeks, we are now starting to look ahead towards India in 2 weeks. It was great to be home for a little while and see friends and family at home, but it is also wonderful being back in Jerusalem on the Kivu grind. The past few weeks have been filled with little sleep but a lot of great experiences.
Firstly, as we get more acclimated to Jerusalem – it's only our 11th week actually being in Israel because of our late start and international trips – we signed up for a basketball league that plays on weekends. 10 of the guys joined the team and we've played two games so far. It's great to be playing a competitive sport again and compete to win games, one thing that I do miss about last year. We play against different gap year programs who often play way more basketball than we do. Hopefully this week we will get our first win! Anyways, this past week alone I went to a sports bar called Mike's Place that is supposed to stay open for American sports with friends from Boston to watch the Patriots playoff games. Last week's game started at 315 A.M. on Saturday Night/Sunday morning. After playing our basketball game at 11 Saturday night, and a quick nap before the game, my friend and I went to the bar that was basically empty – only 8 people were there! A few minutes into the game, the owner came over to us and told us he wouldn't be able to stay open, it wasn't worth it for them. One of the other Patriots fans at he bar asked the owner how much he needed to make to stay open and quickly said he would cover the costs as long as everyone else ordered a lot of food and drinks. Basically, this guy paid for everything we ordered and kept the bar open so we could watch our team do what it does best – win – until 7 in the morning! We had some of the best, fall-off-the-bone wings in Jerusalem, nachos, some of the best apple pie I've ever had, and more all because of this guy who wanted to watch the Pats with fellow Bostonians. There was a tangible feeling and connection between everyone from Boston in this bar just because we grew up in the same area, despite never knowing each other, something that I didn't expect to feel in the heart of Jerusalem. Walking out of the sports bar to the blinding sunlight, we couldn't believe it was already morning and restaurants were starting to open up their places for breakfast. I got 1.5 hours of sleep that night before Kivunim went to the National Library to see the historical documents and history of Israel. This past Sunday night I was back at Mike's Place, this time just at 140 A.M. with a decidedly bigger crowd for their next playoff game. Again, being with Boston fans just made me prouder to be from Boston and made me realize how great Bostonians are. It was about more than just this playoff game – we all talked about going to see Patriots Day, the movie about the Boston Marathon Bombing – it was about Boston. I will actually have just landed in India for the Superbowl, but my friend is a big Falcons fan so we will find some way to watch that in what is going to be a crazy country. Besides watching football this week, I also went to the Women of the Wall early Thursday morning to see them try to exercise their right recently granted by the Israeli Supreme Court. I went with 3 others from Kivunim, but when we got there, the women were stopped outside the security gate holding their service there. There were somewhere between 20-30 protesters there, a much smaller number than the last time I went to see them. They were stopped outside the gate because the Kotel security insisted that they unzip their coats to show they weren't carrying any concealed Torah scrolls to read at the Kotel, something they argued was not allowed. The women insisted that this was never their security policy, that they were only doing this because the Women of the Wall were here; if they came tomorrow as individiuals they wouldn't have to unzip their coats. As a result, they just stood outside the security and actually tried to block others from getting into the Kotel because, they argued, if they weren't allowed in then why should anyone be allowed in. I felt this was a little bit unfair to those trying to get through this entrance because they weren't involved in the dispute and just wanted to pray at a holy place. I felt it angered people who otherwise would have been neutral or even for the cause. That being said, there are other entrances up a flight of stairs and a little bit of a walk away, but people could have gone in another way if needed. After realizing we weren't going to get into the Kotel, two of my friends and I realized the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount area was open to the public for only a short time that day, and we were already there. We made the quick decision to go up to a sacred place that causes so much controversy for the people of Israel. Despite the incredible pressure this sanctified location faces, being up there was incredibly serene. It was a vast courtyard-esque area with almost no one there that could have been mistaken for a quiet park had there not been a giant mosque in the middle of all the serenity and emptiness. Before we went up, the Israeli security guards asked us if we had anything Jewish on us and asked us to leave our kippahs with them, which was kind of weird. We walked around for a little while, saw the monumental mosque that is seen in every picture of the Jerusalem old city, but couldn't enter. We definitely didn't see the day going from Women of the Wall to the Dome of the Rock, but it was a really cool dichotomy of controversy. We saw the strife both within the Jewish community and a major place of controversy between the Jews and the Muslims. This past weekend the crazy dichotomy that we saw at the Kotel only increased. On Thursday night, I went to a Hardwell (an international dj) EDM concert where 10,000 Israelis crammed into a space that was definitely over capacity in Tel Aviv. Apparently not many top tier artists perform in Israel, so when even a mid-tier artist comes, everyone flocks to go see them because they don't know when an artist of that caliber will return to Israel. I stayed with my friend's family friend who is in the Israeli army and was home for the weekend. It was a really nice apartment just a walk away from the beach and had everything we needed. We easily got around on public transportation and it was very luxurious. After feeling like we were spending way too many weekends just going to Tel Aviv, we were feeling adventurous and found this small, poor Arab village near Caesarea, which is one of the wealthiest cities in Israel. This Arab village had a small hostel that a bunch of us stayed at for Friday night. The hostel was actually started by an Arab and a Jew who wanted to bring tourism to the only Arab village left on the coast of the Mediterranean. The hostel does a lot for the community and tries to help their guests get to know the village by offering a few unique opportunities. From hiking to fishing with the local fisherman to eating dinner in a local Arabs home, there were so many different experiences to be had. When we got there, we quickly decided we wanted to explore the city just to see how different it was from what we've seen, and boy was it different! There was a mosque right near our hostel that was unlocked. We went in after taking off our shoes and meditated there, finding guided meditations and self-leading our own ones. After the meditation, we found – in a very roundabout way – our way to the beach, which was one of the windiest places I've ever experienced. The waves towered over the water and crashed harder than I had ever seen. It was so windy that if you jumped straight up in the air, you would land in a different place. It was a beautiful view of the water that was undisturbed by any development, as this village had not commercialized any of their beaches. On the way to the beach, through the village, we saw run down buildings, a truck that read in Hebrew "Chickens of the village" that was carrying chickens that appeared to be for delivery. We also saw chickens and hens roaming the village, as well as swans and ducks closer to the Sea. Amidst the bottles, cans, plastic, wrappers, and other trash, and amidst the dead grass and small houses, emerged a greener than green soccer stadium that was the gem of the village. Sports often have a way of unifying people, and I wondered if someone could have donated the field to the village to try to raise the children up and give them something fun to do. Every person we saw on the walk to the beach, whether it was a small child to a old man or woman, greeted us and welcomed us to their village; they were clearly happy to have us. It was one of the warmer (in terms of welcoming) places I've been to in a while. We took advantage of the opportunity to have dinner at a local Arabs house to get to know the locals and were greeted by an incredibly hospitable family. Unfortunately, they had already eaten before we got there, so we sat down to eat while they were in the room next to us. However, every need of ours and more was met happily by them, despite them not knowing us at all and coming from such a different background. The 13 year-old daughter set the whole meal up after her mother did the cooking, bringing all the dishes and clearing everything. She was one of the most mature 13 year-olds I have ever met, perhaps more mature than a lot of us. The family had at least 7 kids plus the father's mother living in their home and loved just hanging out in their living room with each other. Despite their unfortunate financial circumstances, or perhaps because of it, their relationships were strong and their family was tight. They clearly loved each other a lot and cared deeply about anyone who stepped into their home. The next day, we walked over to Caesarea along the Israel national trail and saw the scene change dramatically. We went from run down houses and paved roads that had okay side walks to magnificent houses with beautifully paved sidewalks and wide roads. It made me realize just how much we take for granted even more than usual. Also, how much there is to chance for being rich or poor. Here were these two cities literally right next to each other, same resources, same access to the water, the only difference being one was Jewish and one was Arab. The Jewish one was rich for its various reasons and the Arab one was poor for its various reasons. It left me wondering how come they weren't the same? was it really just because of their different faiths? That seemed too simple. To cap off the weekend, today we went to the West Bank, to the Gush, and met with settlers and Palestinians. We met with this guy named Myron, who actually was my dad's neighbor back in Minnesota, who has helped create this program called roots which brings in families of Arabs and Jews to talk to one another, especially those who have suffered losses at the hands of the other. We also met with a Palestinian and a Jew who also work with Roots. The Palestinian's brother was ruthlessly murdered for talking back to a soldier at a checkpoint and was also in jail for 10 years, as was his mother. Despite all the harm he felt at the hands of the Israelis, he wanted to make peace instead of avenge his brother's life through violence. He said that both sides are victims and if both sides wanted to constantly return violence with violence peace will never be attained. His Jewish partner said the same thing, asserting that both sides think and know they are right, and both sides actually do have rights to the land. He thinks they can live in harmony as long as they agree that the other side has valid concerns. It was refreshing to see how much of a difference people can make on the ground, even if it is not talked about in the news or in politics. These people who could have continued the killing and the violence and the hatred took an active stance to say, "Hold on, let's actually do something and take steps towards meeting the other and making peace." Finally, with all the turmoil going on in America, with the Muslim ban, there was a protest held in Jerusalem just blocks from Beit Shmuel. After a quick run, we joined the crowd and joined the world in fighting Trump's Executive Order. After seeing Muslims today who are so often portrayed as terrorists making very hard decisions to choose peace and friendship instead of violence and hatred, it felt only right to do my part in protesting the disgraceful stance Trump has taken against Muslims entering the country. We are all people, and all people deserve human rights.
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AuthorDan Rosenzweig-Ziff Archives
June 2017
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