Blogs from Middle East - page 1228

Despite the piguim (attacks) last night and this morning (one at a border checkpoint and one near French Hill), things seemed pretty normal today. There was some impact on our program, as the Arab journalist we were to meet with in the morning was delayed in arriving because he had to go through the checkpoint that had been attacked. We were able to reschedule him for the afternoon. Our first speaker was Dr. Guy Bachor of the Interdisciplinary College in Hertziliya. He gave us an overview of American/Western involvement in the Middle East situation, with an understanding of how Arab and Middle Eastern culture has responded to this involvement. After lunch at the JCC office, we had to relocate to the HUC campus down the street because we couldn't get the video to work (a not ... read more

Our plan had been to visit Beit Hatfutsot (the Diaspora Museum) this morning, but we had to reorganize when we arrived only to discover that it is now closed on Thursdays as a cost saving measure. Instead we had a discussion about collective identity and how this relates to our next unit, the competing voices in contemporary Israel. We then had lunch in the university cafeteria. In the afternoon, we met with Dr. Nimrod Aloni, an education professor and son of former MK and education minister Shulamit Aloni. Dr. Aloni is a committed secular humanist, and offered his perspective on contemporary Israel. We then went to Kikar Rabin for a discussion of the effects of Rabin's assassination on Israel. David, Shira, and Shirel each offered their memories and perspectives on the events, which was fascinating to ... read more

After an unsuccessful attempt to go to services this morning (although I did have a rather pleasant walk), I returned to Ramat Rachel for a nap and then lunch with the group. We had a text study after lunch, where we looked at the different views in Torah with regard to how Jews are obligated to treat strangers among us. We had the rest of the afternoon free until we got together for havdalah before heading out for the evening.... read more

This morning we visited Har HaZikaron, the hills including Yad Vashem, the cemetery at Mt. Herzl where Israel's national leaders are buried, and the military cemetery. While we only visited the latter two sites, we did discuss the overall layout of the hill, in terms of how the places came to be sited and so forth. All of this was in the context of understanding Israeli collective memory. In the afternoon, we went to the archaeological dig at Beit Guvrin. We had a tour of the site and had a chance to participate a little bit in the current dig. At this site the people who built houses dug out the soft rock to use for the homes, leaving cellar caves which are now being excavated. We did find some interesting pieces of pottery, and had ... read more

We left Ein Gev this morning to head back to Jerusalem. We first stopped at the Kinneret cemetery on the south shore of the lake. Most of the people buried here were kibbutzniks from the second aliyah, who helped to build up the Galilee region. Notables buried there include the poet Rachel and the socialist Moshe Hess. We then went to the Israeli city of Nazareth-Illit, which is immediately adjacent to the Arab city of Nazareth. We met with the city's director of absorption and the deputy mayor (a Russian oleh who has been in Israel for 8 years) to discuss how the city handles the large numbers of olim who have settled here. Many of them are from the former Soviet Union, so the discussion included aspects of how this population is integrating into Israeli ... read more