not another seminar...

---

In Part One we had a seminar almost close to every other week. It came to a point where a lot of people just didnt want to take part in them. We had one on Slichot, Communites in the Negev, 1st Hebrew City (kotel, har habeit, and holy seplicar) as well as one on Israel politics and society. Some of them were one day, but a couple happen to be over night.

The one of Slichot was kinda of pointless to me, since my family is pretty observant and I know what Slichot was, and we were walking around starting at three AM and happen to miss most of the Slichot services it just made a lot of people tierd and cranky rather than worth the eduacation part. Also going into RH I did not want to get to my family and crash because I was jsut exahusted but that is what I had to do in order to become a person. I think it was a good idea, it just was not executed properly.

Communities in the Negev... Mah Zeh black hebrews? They are a community of people who come from Chicago IL and think that they heritage / bibical Judiasm connects them to Israel. They live in Dimona which is absolutely in the Perif and it was very interesting to learn about what they believe and what not. They are completly vegan and very modest and jsut have different morals than any sect in Judiasm... are they really Jewish that is the question or is a cult. We then went to sdea boker to see BGs grave and to learn about why he valued the Perif and wanted to culitvate the negev to more than what it is today.

The first Hebrew City took place right after YK. We walked around the Old City once again.. I have done that a million times however this time in the Old City I get to see the Muslim and Christian quarter. I have never done that before. Going up to Har Habeit was a very hard decision for me. Just because I felt uncomfortable walking around their holiest places as if it was a zoo. Even with our conflicts when it comes to the western wall Muslims are pretty respectful of not doing anything disrespectful there/ they cant since it is so heavily gaurded. We go up and it is only open from 12-1pm and thats it. All the women are pulling their children away from us as if we are going to currupt them. It came to about 1pm and the guards were kicking us out basically running after us. I hated that feeling I just wanted to get away from that experience. The next part of the tour was walking through the Arab shuk. All the bright colors were soo cool and it was amazing how every store was open even tho it was a rainy and gloomy day. The Arab shuk connects to Christian quarter. I have never been in the Holy Seplicar Church and was very interested to see how it feels to be there and contrast it compaired to what I just felt at Har Habeit. I am glad that I went to all the different places I did, since I will never be able to anything like this again.

Politics and society.. this was very interesting.. it was a two day seminar but broken up with a week apart from them. One day I went to the kannesset it was very cool. To see the room where all the MKs meet as well as the art work and to hear the history behind it. The building is not the orig one and everything is like a museam it was hard to believe that the Israeli gov't convenes here to make decisions for laws. I guess people could say that it is just like the tours of the Capital. The other part of this seminar was a day visiting an Israel prison. This was quite interesting to see the correction system since last fall at Dean I studied criminal justice and a part of what I was learning was about the American correction system and if it works or not. I just kept my mouth shut since I did not agree with much of how the Israelis deal with their criminals. They get vacation, and time to interact with their partner. and such. the longer you have been there and the better behavior you are on the better accomadations you get. It is just bafaling to me since these are criminals. I am still wraping my mind around this seminar and it might take me the entire year to do that... luckily in part two we only have three seminars... maybe I will be able to appreciate them better.

---