They say that on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem opens the gates of Heaven, and begins to write our names in either the Book of Life, or the Book of Death. Ten days later, at Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur, the gates are closed. This year, in Jerusalem, the gates of heaven opened in a more literal sense, when, on the afternoon of the first day, storm clouds rolled in over the hills and the first rains of the season poured down over the city. I saw them coming earlier in the day, and so when they finally came near Beit Nativ, I climbed up to the porch on the third floor, the porch which faces the street and looks out on the Great Synagogue around the corner. I sat there and waited until the rain came.
It rained for less than five minutes. I was eventually joined by a friend, and when the rain came, after a short celebratory dance, the two of us ran down stairs to stand in the courtyard. By the time we burst through the glass doors, the rain had completely stopped. It came again on the second day, but that was while we were walking to a synagogue in southern Jerusalem, about a 45 minute walk from base.
I went to two different shuls for Rosh Hashanah services. The first, Kedem, will almost certainly be the shul at which I spend most of my Shabbatot. I'm staying in Jerusalem this Shabbat, because two weeks ago in Tiberias I somehow managed to spend between 200 and 350 shekels. I still do not know how I managed this. Shul I went to for the second day was called Moreshet Avraham, and I was disappointed. It was a very American style service, hard to follow, cantor centric and nearly devoid of meaning. I did run into a friend from this summer there, though, and his house was only a few buildings down. Once we were sufficiently bored, a few of us went over there to relax and eat cookies. About a half an hour later we realized we could get in trouble for leaving like that, and returned to the synagogue.
Upon reaching the end of services, even with the cookie break, everyone was starving. We all met up with the families who agreed to host us for lunch. A few of us from Ramah (my summer camp for the last eight years and employer this past summer) went to eat at the house of the staff trainer. His son is the director of Nativ, so we also went with him and one of the Nativ staffpeople, who basically acts like a combination camp-counselor and RA. In all there were fourteen of us who crowded around the table in their sized-for-two apartment. The meal was outstanding, though. Three different salads, two kugels, meat loaf, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and other things which I only remember as delicious. Stuffed, we met up with the rest of the group and made our way back to Beit Nativ.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Emek Refaim Street Festival
A few days ago a bunch of Nativers walked down to Emek Refaim, a major shopping/dining street in Jerusalem, for a street festival. The street had been completely blockaded off, and like everywhere in Israel, security guards in bright yellow reflective vests were inspecting the bags of everyone who entered. I saw this happening ahead of me, and went to prep my camera bag so that it could be inspected as easily and efficiently as possible, but was waved through after a cursory glance that suggested I was an idiot for thinking I had been flagged as a potential threat.
The street fair was organized for two purposes: first to showcase the talents of local artists, artisans, musicians, performers, chefs, cooks, etc., and second as a way to bring in the Jewish new year in style. Every inch of sidewalk was covered by stalls selling all manner of art and food. Tiny glass figurines, scented oils, garden ornaments, and intricate leatherwork made up only a small sampling of the variety of things available. Because there were no cars, mobs of people were milling about in the middle of the street, sampling noodles from one stand, shawarma from another, and Mexican food (of dubious authenticity) from still another, all while listening to the sounds emanating from whichever of the 10 or so stages set up along the street. My personal favorite was the stage blaring live trance music, but there was also a klezmer stage, a dance stage, a rock stage, and even a stage that had evidently been home to martial arts demonstrations earlier in the day but was at this point occupied only by a gymnastics demonstration by some young Israeli girls who's finest accomplishment seemed to be a glorified cartwheel.
I had actually arrived about an hour before most of the other Nativers, because I wanted to photograph the fair. I ended up only getting a couple really quality ones though. I stuck mostly to my 50mm lens, which is both great and awful for shooting in the dark. On one hand, it's f/1.8 aperture is a blessing when shooting in low light, but on the other hand it's lack of autofocus means a lot of pictures came out beautifully composed and perfectly exposed, but completely out of focus. Alas. Hopefully there will be more of these fairs soon.
The real highlight of the evening (besides the Burgers Bar I shamelessly mooched from my friends) was the multitude of street performers that were roaming the streets as, if not more, eagerly than the crowd of guests. In just my first time up and down the street I saw a man dressed as a robot in what appeared to be pieces of air ducting, a man dressed as a frog perched atop a bus stop, singing and shouting in Hebrew while acting out frogish behavior, a bohemian on a unicycle, drag queens, and a bizarre pair that seemed to be playing a darker, more sinister version of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. After a while though, and thanks to a little pushing and shoving, as well as by displaying my camera as obviously as I could, I got to the front of a crowd for the last 10 or so minutes of a fire dancer's performance.
It took me a bit of time to get the hang of it, and I had to precariously balance my camera bag on my knee to change lenses midway through, but I eventually produced the image above along with a few others. Later on I happened across a living statue of a mermaid who graciously held very still so I got off a series of great shots, all but one of which ended up being ruined by that damned manual focus. The moral of the story is, I suppose, that practice is always valuable, even when you don't think you have the hang of something, but I'm still a little disappointed. The shot that did come out came out very well though.
I ended up spending about four hours walking around Emek, because after about two hours of shooting, indeed after I had exited the security perimeter to head back to base, I ran into a big group of friends who asked, or rather demanded, that I go with them to Burger's Bar (which was within the secure area of the festival). I protested; I had no desire to spend any money since I've been in full on starving-artist mode since my rather expensive trip to Tiveria (which I've decided will not get its own post), but they held firm and I ended up finishing a few of their massive meals, which were delicious, as befits the best burger joint in town. Afterward we walked around a lot, running into friends who live in the area or are spending the year here, looking at the art, and dancing at the trance stage, where the same band from three hours previously was now playing their second set. I got a little bit dehydrated from all the dancing though, and so I did end up spending 5 NIS on a bottle of water, which isn't so bad considering I helped a few other people hydrate too. The night ended with a delightful walk back followed shortly by a crash into my bed from exhaustion.
The street fair was organized for two purposes: first to showcase the talents of local artists, artisans, musicians, performers, chefs, cooks, etc., and second as a way to bring in the Jewish new year in style. Every inch of sidewalk was covered by stalls selling all manner of art and food. Tiny glass figurines, scented oils, garden ornaments, and intricate leatherwork made up only a small sampling of the variety of things available. Because there were no cars, mobs of people were milling about in the middle of the street, sampling noodles from one stand, shawarma from another, and Mexican food (of dubious authenticity) from still another, all while listening to the sounds emanating from whichever of the 10 or so stages set up along the street. My personal favorite was the stage blaring live trance music, but there was also a klezmer stage, a dance stage, a rock stage, and even a stage that had evidently been home to martial arts demonstrations earlier in the day but was at this point occupied only by a gymnastics demonstration by some young Israeli girls who's finest accomplishment seemed to be a glorified cartwheel.
I had actually arrived about an hour before most of the other Nativers, because I wanted to photograph the fair. I ended up only getting a couple really quality ones though. I stuck mostly to my 50mm lens, which is both great and awful for shooting in the dark. On one hand, it's f/1.8 aperture is a blessing when shooting in low light, but on the other hand it's lack of autofocus means a lot of pictures came out beautifully composed and perfectly exposed, but completely out of focus. Alas. Hopefully there will be more of these fairs soon.
The real highlight of the evening (besides the Burgers Bar I shamelessly mooched from my friends) was the multitude of street performers that were roaming the streets as, if not more, eagerly than the crowd of guests. In just my first time up and down the street I saw a man dressed as a robot in what appeared to be pieces of air ducting, a man dressed as a frog perched atop a bus stop, singing and shouting in Hebrew while acting out frogish behavior, a bohemian on a unicycle, drag queens, and a bizarre pair that seemed to be playing a darker, more sinister version of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. After a while though, and thanks to a little pushing and shoving, as well as by displaying my camera as obviously as I could, I got to the front of a crowd for the last 10 or so minutes of a fire dancer's performance.
It took me a bit of time to get the hang of it, and I had to precariously balance my camera bag on my knee to change lenses midway through, but I eventually produced the image above along with a few others. Later on I happened across a living statue of a mermaid who graciously held very still so I got off a series of great shots, all but one of which ended up being ruined by that damned manual focus. The moral of the story is, I suppose, that practice is always valuable, even when you don't think you have the hang of something, but I'm still a little disappointed. The shot that did come out came out very well though.
I ended up spending about four hours walking around Emek, because after about two hours of shooting, indeed after I had exited the security perimeter to head back to base, I ran into a big group of friends who asked, or rather demanded, that I go with them to Burger's Bar (which was within the secure area of the festival). I protested; I had no desire to spend any money since I've been in full on starving-artist mode since my rather expensive trip to Tiveria (which I've decided will not get its own post), but they held firm and I ended up finishing a few of their massive meals, which were delicious, as befits the best burger joint in town. Afterward we walked around a lot, running into friends who live in the area or are spending the year here, looking at the art, and dancing at the trance stage, where the same band from three hours previously was now playing their second set. I got a little bit dehydrated from all the dancing though, and so I did end up spending 5 NIS on a bottle of water, which isn't so bad considering I helped a few other people hydrate too. The night ended with a delightful walk back followed shortly by a crash into my bed from exhaustion.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A Little About Nativ
Nativ, the program that I am on, is run by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. It's a gap year program, for students between high school and college. However, this is a bit of a misnomer. The first semester is really just a study abroad program; it is only the second semester that more closely resembles the traditional gap year style programs.
There are a variety of options for Nativers, three in the fall and two in the spring. Currently, everyone here is enrolled one of three places: Hebrew University, the Conservative Yeshiva, or a hebrew immersion class called and Ulpan. I'll writing frequently about life at HU, so I won't into detail on that, but the Yeshiva and Ulpan tracks deserve a little time now because I won't ever have much information beyond what I have now.
Students in the Yeshiva, conveniently located right next door to our building, offers Nativers and others a place to study Judaism full time. Classes are (mostly, as far as I can tell) a sort of guided study, in that people learn together in pairs rather than lecture style. (If anyone from Yeshiva is reading this and I'm wrong, please correct me!). I toyed with the idea of switching to the Yeshiva before I got to Hebrew University for a few reasons: a learning-for-the-sake-of-learning mentality, more individually driven classes, and of course the lack of homework or tests. In the end though, I think I made the right decision.
Ulpan students learn Hebrew all day every day. The Ulpan is certainly not for everyone, but I've met several people in Ulpan who seem totally committed to becoming fluent or near-fluent in Hebrew while here, and that seems like the best way to do it. It was not, however, one of my goals this year to learn Hebrew, and so I think I'll do just fine only taking the required single Hebrew class at HU. I know next to nothing about what goes on at Ulpan, and I've heard that's the way it's been on past Nativs as well. Where exactly is it? How does the learning take place? Who runs it? What is it even actually called? All these things and more will just have to remain mysteries, I guess.
Next semester there are two options, and for the most part we are separated first semester by who we will be with second semester. Here in my building lives everyone who will be moving to a Kibbutz in the spring, where we'll be working for most of every day in various agricultural capacities. Some of us will care for cows, others turkeys, plants or even children. Some of us will work in the kitchen, and there may be other options that I don't even know about. The good news is that the work is only from 8:30 to 3 every day, the bad news is that the kibbutz is in the middle of nowhere, so who knows what we'll be doing during our free time.
The other group, who live in a different building in the same small complex as us, will be doing community service in the small town of Yerucham. I actually know nothing beyond that.
Later tonight I'll tell you about the street festival on Emek Refaim last night, and share some of my pictures from it as well.
There are a variety of options for Nativers, three in the fall and two in the spring. Currently, everyone here is enrolled one of three places: Hebrew University, the Conservative Yeshiva, or a hebrew immersion class called and Ulpan. I'll writing frequently about life at HU, so I won't into detail on that, but the Yeshiva and Ulpan tracks deserve a little time now because I won't ever have much information beyond what I have now.
Students in the Yeshiva, conveniently located right next door to our building, offers Nativers and others a place to study Judaism full time. Classes are (mostly, as far as I can tell) a sort of guided study, in that people learn together in pairs rather than lecture style. (If anyone from Yeshiva is reading this and I'm wrong, please correct me!). I toyed with the idea of switching to the Yeshiva before I got to Hebrew University for a few reasons: a learning-for-the-sake-of-learning mentality, more individually driven classes, and of course the lack of homework or tests. In the end though, I think I made the right decision.
Ulpan students learn Hebrew all day every day. The Ulpan is certainly not for everyone, but I've met several people in Ulpan who seem totally committed to becoming fluent or near-fluent in Hebrew while here, and that seems like the best way to do it. It was not, however, one of my goals this year to learn Hebrew, and so I think I'll do just fine only taking the required single Hebrew class at HU. I know next to nothing about what goes on at Ulpan, and I've heard that's the way it's been on past Nativs as well. Where exactly is it? How does the learning take place? Who runs it? What is it even actually called? All these things and more will just have to remain mysteries, I guess.
Next semester there are two options, and for the most part we are separated first semester by who we will be with second semester. Here in my building lives everyone who will be moving to a Kibbutz in the spring, where we'll be working for most of every day in various agricultural capacities. Some of us will care for cows, others turkeys, plants or even children. Some of us will work in the kitchen, and there may be other options that I don't even know about. The good news is that the work is only from 8:30 to 3 every day, the bad news is that the kibbutz is in the middle of nowhere, so who knows what we'll be doing during our free time.
The other group, who live in a different building in the same small complex as us, will be doing community service in the small town of Yerucham. I actually know nothing beyond that.
Later tonight I'll tell you about the street festival on Emek Refaim last night, and share some of my pictures from it as well.
Monday, September 14, 2009
The First Fourteen Days
I'll start at the beginning, but I'll be brief. Two weeks ago I had one of the worst thirty hour periods in my life: an hour long car ride to Milwaukee, forty five minute at that airport, an hour and a half on the plane to Newark, more than an hour on a shuttle bus to JFK (on which I was the only native English speaker, including the driver), between eight and ten hours in JFK, fourteen hours on that plane, and then at least forty five minutes on a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with forty people most of whom I had never met before.
The next few days consisted of a whirlwind of orientations - to Nativ, to Hebrew University, and just to each other - interrupted only by a wonderful and relaxing Shabbat as can only be had in Ir HaKodesh. Since then we have started classes at Hebrew University for what is referred to as a mini-semester. Three weeks in length, it is a chance for those of us from Nativ at HU to improve our Hebrew or, for those with more advanced skill in the language, take a few extra classes on Jewish history. (All of us at HU take a Hebrew class the whole time we are here, but some of us have to take extra Hebrew so that we can all start that class together at roughly the same level.)
This is the back of the building where I'll be living for the whole first semester
My ulpan (Hebrew immersion) class starts at 9:00 AM and doesn't end until 1:15. Fortunately for us there are two breaks, one for half an hour, and one for fifteen minutes. This is more than enough time to walk to the nearest cafeteria to pick up a six-shekel espresso, a necessity when we go to sleep after midnight every night and wake up at 6:30 to shower in time for morning services at 7:15 or 7:00 when we read torah. I cannot wait for the fall semester to start in earnest so that I can get in a little bit more sleep.
Our classes have consumed most of our lives here on Nativ so far, although we are starting to integrate more into life in Jerusalem. The other night there was a Jazz festival in a park not far from where we live, although I ended up going out to Ben-Yehuda st. with some friends instead, seeing as it was a Thursday night which is the beginning of the weekend here, and I needed to go out and blow off a little more steam than I could have at the jazz festival. Not to mention the slight problem of having napped through the beginning, ergo having no one to go with.
This past weekend a large group of Nativers schlepped up to Tiberias for a relaxing kinneret-front shabbat. You'll find out all about that when I post again.
The next few days consisted of a whirlwind of orientations - to Nativ, to Hebrew University, and just to each other - interrupted only by a wonderful and relaxing Shabbat as can only be had in Ir HaKodesh. Since then we have started classes at Hebrew University for what is referred to as a mini-semester. Three weeks in length, it is a chance for those of us from Nativ at HU to improve our Hebrew or, for those with more advanced skill in the language, take a few extra classes on Jewish history. (All of us at HU take a Hebrew class the whole time we are here, but some of us have to take extra Hebrew so that we can all start that class together at roughly the same level.)
This is the back of the building where I'll be living for the whole first semesterMy ulpan (Hebrew immersion) class starts at 9:00 AM and doesn't end until 1:15. Fortunately for us there are two breaks, one for half an hour, and one for fifteen minutes. This is more than enough time to walk to the nearest cafeteria to pick up a six-shekel espresso, a necessity when we go to sleep after midnight every night and wake up at 6:30 to shower in time for morning services at 7:15 or 7:00 when we read torah. I cannot wait for the fall semester to start in earnest so that I can get in a little bit more sleep.
Our classes have consumed most of our lives here on Nativ so far, although we are starting to integrate more into life in Jerusalem. The other night there was a Jazz festival in a park not far from where we live, although I ended up going out to Ben-Yehuda st. with some friends instead, seeing as it was a Thursday night which is the beginning of the weekend here, and I needed to go out and blow off a little more steam than I could have at the jazz festival. Not to mention the slight problem of having napped through the beginning, ergo having no one to go with.
This past weekend a large group of Nativers schlepped up to Tiberias for a relaxing kinneret-front shabbat. You'll find out all about that when I post again.
Boker Tov!
Well, not quite boker tov. But good morning and hello to those of you I left behind in America, just about two weeks ago. Before I begin, I'd like to introduce myself a little bit, and explain what exactly is going on here. My name is Miles, I'm 18 years old, and for the last two weeks and for the next nine months, I'll be living in the land of Israel, currently in Jerusalem, and moving to a kibbutz in central Israel soon after 2010 rolls around. Before I left I promised a few people, mostly relatives, that I would keep in touch with them somehow, though I made no promises as to how. Now that I'm here, I realized that the extreme time difference between Israel and America presents a serious barrier to informal communication (translation: nobody from home is ever on Facebook). A few other participants on the program I'm on (called Nativ, more on that in a later post) started blogs about their experiences abroad, and so I figured I would join in too.
I must admit I also have a secondary motivation for starting this blog, and indeed for even being in Israel in the first place. I am an aspiring amateur photographer, and so living in a foreign (though not so foreign, in a sense) country is a fantastic opportunity for me to practice and improve my photography, and a blog is a perfect way to share some of my work. This will also be a place for me to share anything else creative I produce this year.
Anyway, I'm going to keep this first post quick, and write another one with more information about my first two weeks as an (temporary) expatriate later today.
I must admit I also have a secondary motivation for starting this blog, and indeed for even being in Israel in the first place. I am an aspiring amateur photographer, and so living in a foreign (though not so foreign, in a sense) country is a fantastic opportunity for me to practice and improve my photography, and a blog is a perfect way to share some of my work. This will also be a place for me to share anything else creative I produce this year.
Anyway, I'm going to keep this first post quick, and write another one with more information about my first two weeks as an (temporary) expatriate later today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
