May 2009 Returnees Seminar

A Blog by Randi Brenowitz,
Director of Community Outreach at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California, and a member of the FMAMS International Alumni Association.

In the Eye of the Storm (Thursday, May 21, 2009)

Today was a quintessential Melton day that included psalms, poems of 12 century Spanish poet, Yehuda haLevi, modern poetry of Yehuda Amichai, Arab poetry and the poetry of Soweto. All of this in support of Act IV - In the Eye of the Storm...Is Jerusalem "as a city joined together?" Studying about Jerusalem is so complicated. For me, on an emotional level, there is no place else on the planet that touches my heart the way Jerusalem does. On the other hand, the move of the city more and more toward Haredi way of life is quite upsetting...and all of the Palestinian issues just make it impossible to get a handle on it. This city of 15 languages with 7 alphabets defies understanding. There is a bit of clarity about it all when I am thousands of miles away, but when I am here immersed in it, it makes less sense than ever.

After the Israeli's took the city in '67, Moshe Dayan recommended that they tear down the walls of the old city. He believed that they could never truly integrate the city with the walls still up and the quarters assigned. Of course he was voted down, but one wonders if that might have helped.

We did some study in Liberty Bell Park (fortunately the weather has broken and there is a nice, cool breeze) and then a field trip through Southern Jerusalem. On Hevron Road, we passed the checkpoint to Rachel's tomb. I've always wanted to go there, but have been told that you can't get through. What I found out today is that Israeli citizens can't go through, but foreign nationals can. I'd like to try and go next time I'm here, but am not sure it will be easy to arrange.

Just by chance when we were sitting and studying, a friend of our educator's came by and ending up speaking with us. It turns out that he is the Director of Programming for AIPAC in Israel. While I don't always agree with AIPAC's position on things, it was quite amazing to be able to spend some time with this guy in a small group setting.

On a very positive note, we read today that the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that the government must provide funding for Reform and Conservative conversion classes and processes. Of course, we know this won't be the end of the story, but each of us was happy to learn of this small step.

We ended our day in the Old City - first with a study session on the roofs of the city (it is so crowded, that the roof tops are used as alternative pedestrian routes) and then on our own.

We had dinner and the evening on our own. After a quick work out and shower, I just went to the hotel coffee shop. Several others from the group ended up there too and we had great fun people watching. Haredi couples will frequently meet at the big hotels on their arranged dates since it is a public place, but a nice atmosphere. We saw about 6 couples - and one in particular we agreed were liking each other quite a bit. It was fun to be part of that energy.

Up to my room in time for the 4th quarter of game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals - another exciting ending with Orlando pulling ahead with only 14 seconds left in the game. And so I fell asleep to Marv Alpert and Doug Collins making their final comments.

Shaping Contemporary Jewish Self-Expression (Tuesday, May 19)

First stop was a 6th century synagogue mosaic floor at Beit Alpha. The floor was interesting by itself, but the story of the find was even more intriguing. It was found in 1928 by a group of young socialists who subscribed to "a bizarre fusion of utopian Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and the then fashionable German Jugendkultur, with its romantic worship of nature, cult of eroticism, and disdain for bourgeois values. In December, 1928, some of them were digging an irrigation channel and suddenly struck the brilliantly colored mosaic. A first reaction was to keep the discovery secret and possible cover it up again. Their main concern, after all, had been the digging of an irrigation channel. The unexpected discovery complicated this task and threatened to hold it up, perhaps indefinitely. But there was more to it: an anti-religious attitude....

As long as we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Mt. Gilboa - the site of the clash between David and Saul. We read from First and Second Samuel in chevruta and each chevruta had to act out our part...

It was quite hot - 40 degrees Celsius - and we were all melting, but we agreed to make the stop at Nahalal cemetery. Nahalal was the first moshav - a collective, but maintaining private ownership - started in 1921 by Moshe Dayan's parents when they felt constrained by the kibbutz way of decision making. Moshe Dayan is buried there as well as the remnants of the remains of Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut who died on the Columbia. We read from some of Moshe Dayan's writings and also excerpts from Meier Shalev's "Blue Mountain." I recently read the book and did not like it - wish I had done this study session first. I might have understood the sarcasm and satire a bit better.

We had dinner in a winery in Binyamin - a charming place with some very good wine. Somehow I managed not to fall asleep and to finish my plentiful dinner.

Land of Many Voices (Sunday, 17 May 2009)

Tsafona Vakedma (North and East) begins today with the focus being "A Land of Many Voices." I will miss some of it, but more about that later,

Our first stop was the Ayalon Institute in Rehovot where we continued our study of the battle to build the nation. From 1945-48 during the British Mandate period, the Haganah created a clandestine factory for the manufacture of 9 mm bullets. The factory was underground and above it was a working kibbutz complete with bakery and laundry. The laundry was a great front as it hid the noise of the machinery below and the combination of laundry and bakery allowed for large chimneys which helped with ventilation. The laundry was of such high quality that the British officers in the area went there to have their uniforms laundered. As you can imagine, this created a problem, so Esther, the woman running the laundry suggested that they gather their stuff in groups and make regular pick ups and deliveries so she would know how best to schedule the works - and how best to schedule the factory work. A few fun tidbits:
* The brass for the shells was supposedly for the manufacture of lipstick tubes
* Jewish electrical workers connected the meters to the train station that was owned by the British - so in effect, the British funded the effort.
* The guy who cut the shells to the exact size was called the "mohel." These people were not without a sense of humor.
* They had a tanning room - first as a source of Vitamin D for those who never were in the sun, but also because kibbutzniks were well tanned and these folks would have stood out
* This place was such a secret that the Irgun didn't know about it either and at one point they below up the British train station in Rehovot which brought on a huge investigation and house to house searches. The factory was almost compromised.
And it goes on and on with such individual stories of courage, humor, desperation, and drive.

After our tour, we had quite a lively discussion as to what makes a freedom fighter and what makes a terrorist. We had no answers, of course, as this is a question the whole world continues to struggle with.

The group continues - traveling north...

Of Cosmic Beginnings & Visionaries (Thursday, 14 May 2009)

This incredibly wonderful day began with a wake up call at 4 AM - which is early even for me. By 4:30 we were on our way to the Ramon Crater - which is really a cirque, but more about that later. The Ramon Crater is one of the world's most important geological sites and one of the largest craters in the world. The crater gets its name from the days when a Roman path crossed through here. We went there before dawn so we could be there as the sun came up. We spread out so each of us had our own space. It was amazing to be there and to get my first glimpse of the crater with the sun. We sat there for over an hour - each with our own thoughts or prayers. We got together to study from First Kings - the part where Elijah spends 40 days and nights in this exact desert. Given how cold I was, it was hard to imagine spending 40 nights here - especially with no fleece or gortex.

Then back to hotel for a wonderful Israeli breakfast and then free time until 1. I just read and relaxed outside and was entertained by 4 Ibex who decided to join me. They were quite close to me, but once they decided that I didn't look as tasty as the grass, they just ignored me. This gave me time to watch them closely which I did for almost an hour.

After lunch, we reassembled and went to Sde Boker passing Nabotean cisterns that were built 2000 years ago and are still in use by the Bedouins today. Sde Boker was Ben Gurion's final home. He had a dream of populating the Negev and wanted to be part of that too. The Negev is 60% of Israel's pre-67 border, but only 10% of the population lives there. During Ben Gurion's time, even great Israeli ingenuity couldn't create sustainability for large concentrations of population. Now, the technology probably can do it, but people aren't eager to move to such an out of the way place and there is an environmental movement that wants to ensure the pristine nature of this wonderful natural resource.

We then went to Yeroham which was the first development town in the Negev. It then became sparsely populated and now is on the upswing again. We had a tour from a charming young man who is an Israeli from Morocco who works for the amuta of the Canadian Federation. This is a mixed community of Modern Orthodox, secular, Moroccan, Russian, young Israeli's, etc. Although it is a town of only 5,000, they are close enough to Be'er Sheva to use those services until they can have their own. And then they took us to the treat of the day...a home cooked Moroccan meal. The older women of the town have started a project to create these fabulous meals for visitors as a way to earn a bit of money and to encourage visitors since there is no restaurant in the town. Our hostess was a woman who had come from Morocco in the 60's. She had 7 children and then was widowed. Her story from Morocco and from Israel was inspiring and she fed us as if we were her own children and grandchildren getting insulted if we didn't take another helping.
What a great way to end the day.

Oh yeah...a crater is made from meteorites, a cirque from erosion. One can't help but wonder what erosion will do to this site in the next 100 years or so.

Tel(s) of Spring (Tuesday 2 May, 2009)

Started the day on the rooftop of our hotel to see the panorama of Tel Aviv and to discuss the place of Tel Aviv in Zionist thought. Of course the skyscrapers that were built in the 1990's don't help and just add to the smog so you can feel like you're in any other major metropolitan city 0 for better or worse. We read the poetry of Karen Alkalay-Gut and Meir Wieselteier -two modern Israeli poets. We then spent some time reading government census reports from pre-state times to now seeing the influx of immigrants from such a widewee variety of countries and how that impacted the formation of a government and the education system. Most recently, the huge influx of Russian immigrants has created new problems as they came as a large group together and stick together rather than assimilate.

We learned that there is evidence the Zionist emissaries actually went to Arab countries to create unrest so that Jews in these countries would be "asked" to leave and would come to Israel. This was, of course, in addition to what was happening without any need for outside agitation.

Herzl's book Altneuland became Old-New Land when translated into English. When they went to translate it into Hebrew they decided to call it Tel (man-made hill created by layers of different civilizations) Aviv (spring/future). Late, the city was named Tel Aviv after the book and the Zionist dream. I LOVE history :-)

We then took a field trip to Southern Tel Aviv with a sociologist and social worker. I was actually disappointed with their presentations. I have come to expect only the highest level from Melton, so when some teacher is not fabulous, I am disappointed. He took us around a neighborhood that is made up of immigrants mostly from Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan and also foreign workers. It is obviously a poor community, but our guide didn't' have much of interest to say about it..

Back to the class where we took a ride into the Negev and stopped at Tel Sheva. At trance to the Tel we read from Thomas Mann and from Genesis 21 and 26. IN both Genesis passages, they tell of the naming of Be'er Sheva - once by Abraham and once by Isaac. This is right after Isaac tells Avimelech that Rivka is his sister and not his wife - just like Avraham did with Sara. It seems that some stories just must be told twice. We walked down and down and down into a cistern that was more than 20m deep and was built in the 6 or 7 century BCE. It was mind-boggling.

By now we were all tired and dusty, so we went to our hotel which is a charming place in Mitzpe Ramon that used to be an absorption center for new immigrants. Someone turned it into a hotel several years ago. It is spartan but quite lovely and the food is wonderful and plentiful.

Altneuland Revisited (Monday, 11 May 2009)

I got back to the hotel just in time for the Melton program to begin. I don't know anyone in the seminar except for our fabulous educator, Haim, but everyone seems quite nice. We have 4 Australians on the trip and although most are couples there are 4 women who are traveling alone. I think it will work out just fine. We started with the usual intro stuff, but then moved quickly into the seminar. The theme of the seminar is "Altneuland Revisited" with "Altneuland" being the book that Herzl wrote about his dream for a Jewish state in Palestine. In honor of Herzl, the class has been set up like a play with today being the Prologue. The theme for the day was (dis)embarking - those who came were disembarking while we are studying that as we embark on this program. So where else to start??? The port of Jaffa of course! Jaffa has been a port since biblical times. When Jonah (yes, the guy with the whale), tries to escape to Tarshish, he goes through the port of Jaffa and until 1939, it was the primary port in Palestine. We read two stories by SY Agnon and 2 poems by Yehuda Amichai as we sat on steps by the port and then took a walking tour of the city. Jaffa has always been a mixed city with Moslem Arabs, Christian Arabs, and Jews living together. As with most old cities, it has gone from being the "in" place to being seedy and back again a million times in its existence. Right now it seems to be in and lots of remodeling is going on and apartments overlooking the sea are selling for huge amounts of money.

Tonight begins Lag b'Omer and there are bonfires everywhere you look. They are in honor of the yartzeit of Shimon bar Yochai is purported to be the author of the Zohar. His light going up to God, etc.

I have my Melton back pack and my "tushion" so I am ready for the adventures of the next 10 days. Tomorrow we go to the Negev and are staying at a small guest house, so I will probably not be on the computer again until we get to Jerusalem.

Randi is the Director of Community Outreach at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California, and a member of the FMAMS International Alumni Association.

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