Jewish Pluralism

Can it exist? That is the question. Last night HUC rabbinic students met with rabbinical students from the two Conservative movement seminaries, The Jewish Theological Seminary and University of Judaism, as well as from the Modern Orthodox seminary, Yeshiva University.

My group went on a site visit to the Old City, where we took a tour and learned about disabled accessibility in Jerusalem. It’s really interesting – this organization has made so many minute changes in the Old City, from paving cobblestones for wheelchair and cane access, to switching some of the water drainage grates from vertically-oriented to horizontally/width-oriented, so wheelchair wheels don’t get caught in them. The tour was amazing, and I learned so much about the difficulties of the mentally and physically challenged in this country.

After that came the dinner, and my table was wonderful – it was held at Yeshiva University, and I sat with a bunch of male Orthodox students. We got into great talks about the Orthodox world and coming to Israel, whether Reform Judaism isn’t a “pick-and-choose” religion, and other things. All in all, I had a good night. The only negative thing I picked up on was that the YU rabbi (dressed in a black hat) refused to say the word “rabbi” in his speech in reference to the non-YU students - he kept referring to “future Jewish spiritual leaders.”

The experience for other HUC students, however, was not nearly so uplifting. One of the other site visits was to an organization that – I’m not quite sure I have this right – take in immigrant Jews to the army, and make them “Jewish” by converting them patrilineally. (In “traditional” Judaism, you’re only a Jew if your mother was Jewish). Suffice it to say that the Conservative and Reform rabbinic students thought very differently on the issue from the Orthodox, and were told by them and the organization that they weren’t “really” Jewish anyway. I don't know all the details, but the HUC students I spoke to were very upset.

After the return to Yeshiva University and before dinner (and before my bus arrived), was time for evening prayers. YU has a sanctuary with a mechitza, a screen dividing the men and women. The Reform and Conservative students wanted to hold an egalitarian service where men and women could pray together, but were told that they couldn’t have such a service in the building. So they went outside and pray in the rain! How ridiculous. The only redeeming factor was that the wife of one of the YU students went inside and brought them back prayerbooks. But really, could they be any more insulting?

It makes me question the validity and wisdom of Jewish pluralism as a whole. Yes, we all want to be friends. Duh. But can we be? Tales abound of Reform and Orthodox rabbis who are good friends but just don’t talk religion or politics. My response to that is, how much of a friendship is it if they’re not talking about what’s most central to their lives? Richard the Lionheart and Saladin deeply respected each other too, but they weren’t exactly peaceful - respect isn't everything. Judaism really needs to take a look at the relationships between its denominations, otherwise the movements will only continue to split further apart.

Tiyul to south

I’m back! The tiyul was fabulous. I came back exhausted and dirty, but it was worth it. We left at 8am on Wednesday to go to the deep south. My grandmother lives in Arad, which is usually the farthest people go down into the desert. Our whole tiyul was much farther – we were in the southern half of the map of Israel, in between Beersheva and Eilat. It was quite unlike the other two trips the school has taken us on, because we didn’t have any text study or Israeli history – it was all geology, natural science and spirituality through nature, plus Reform Judaism through kibbutzim.

First was Ein Avdat, which is a hiking area outside Mitzpe Ramon, a huge crater in the earth. How it got to be a crater is kind of complicated; you can read it here if you like. The hike lasted about an hour or so, and we saw a waterfall that’s the source of much of the water for wildlife in these parts. Would you believe that when it rains, the water stays in the mountain for over 50 years before it comes out in the waterfall? Crazy. Afterwards we went pretty high up and saw a cave leftover from Byzantine ascetic monks – they lived their whole lives in the desert meditating. (I couldn’t do it.)


This was taken right after we climbed up - the sign says "Abyss Ahead."

After afternoon services and another bus ride, we got to Kibbutz Yahel, one of the two Reform kibbutzim in the Arava, the lower section of the desert and the valley that forms part of the border with Jordan (Arava link). We picked pomelos, these huge citrus fruits, off the trees – apparently the kibbutzniks call them “pomelos for peace,” because the Jordanians come over the border to collect them, and the local settlements on both sides of the border have a great relationship, in part due to shared fruit.


Picking pomelos.

The next day was the major hike. We had been given two options: the easy hike or the challenging hike. Well, the name was a misnomer: I went on the easy hike, and it was HARD! Thank goodness I didn’t go on the “challenging” hike, I probably wouldn’t have been qualified. We literally hiked up a mountain and then down, through a sandstone canyon and then over more hills. The area is bleak, desolate, and beautiful in its rawness. This is where the Israelites wandered for 40 years – at one point, looking up at the mountain above me that I had yet to climb, I understood why a golden calf seemed like such a good option.


The dots halfway up are people. This was the small mountain before we got to the main one.



Me on the mountain.



Red sandstone in the canyon.

We got back from the hike six hours after we left, and headed straight to our Bedouin tent. The dinner there was particularly delicious (but then again, I’d been hiking for six hours, so I’m sure bread and water would have been scrumptious). It felt like my high school Jewish youth program, as 70 of us were in this huge tent-like structure, sleeping in sleeping bags, giggling at all hours of the night and waking up incredibly early to see if we could catch the sunrise. (And no, I haven’t changed that much, people – I was up at 6:15, but the sun was already high. I’ve only ever seen sunrises from pulling all-nighters).

Friday morning we went to Kibbutz Lotan. It’s the other Reform kibbutz in the area, and is well-known for its ecology. It’s a Green Party member’s dream. This place was so original, I’ve never seen anything like it. The majority of their buildings are made from mud brick and trash. Literally, old tires, tin cans, bottles, etc, all put together with hay stacks and mud to make a building. They have compost toilets that use no water, a bird park and vegetable garden with no pesticides, watsu and water massage, etc. The kibbutz has about 150 people on it and four cars for all. It’s socialism and ecology to the extreme, and though I think I’m a bit too capitalist to live there, it was fascinating to explore.


Me at the entrance to Kibbutz Lotan. My camera batteries died right as we got there, so I'll have to collect pictures of the inside of the kibbutz later. Know that the wall is made of garbage and mud brick.

I also learned one interesting Biblical piece: the Jews became slaves in Egypt because Pharaoh refused to give them straw to use in making brick, and so they went into debt and became slaves. I never really knew what that meant until I actually *made* mud brick at Lotan. First we mixed together dirt and water and shaped it into mud patties – they broke apart. Then we did it again adding straw – and the things stuck together! We put the mud/straw mixture into metal frames so they took on a square shape. After we packed it in well, we took off the frame, and there we had a mud brick! The whole process took under two minutes. Imagine, said the man from Lotan, if instead of the Red Cross sending out metal and insulation to make buildings in 3rd world countries, they send out people to ask the local elders their recipe for mud brick. I don’t know how well that will work in reality, but the whole experience definitely gave me something to chew on. If you want more info on Kibbutz Lotan go here.

After Lotan we headed straight down to Eilat and snorkeled the coral reserve. The water was freezing, but the fish were pretty. (To tell the truth, I was a bit disappointed, they had built it up so much. I have to remember though that the last time I went snorkeling was at the Great Barrier Reef, so I can’t really compare). Anyway, once we got all cleaned up back at the kibbutz, we had dinner and services. The best part of the day was oneg Shabbat with Rabbis Elyse Frishman and Danny Freelander. They’re kind of the who’s who of rabbis – she’s the editor of the new prayerbook that’s coming out, and he’s the vice-president of the Union of Reform Judaism. Their talk was amazing, completely inspiring – they gave a sort of biography of their lives, and discussed the challenges and experiences that have shaped them as rabbis. I want to be them one day!

Since Jonathan didn’t come with me on the tiyul, I roomed with Melanie, and it was great. She performed in a cantorial concert in the evening, and then the next morning, she read Torah and two other cantors led services. Lev, the man who had read Torah for the first time last month, gave the d’var Torah. It was really, really good. This week’s Torah portion is all about the details for how to build the ark, this cubit by that cubit from this wood and that measurement, etc. Lev shared with us that his father was a carpenter and a “joiner,” specializing in the joining of different pieces of wood. Joiners like trees like maple or oak, because the slabs of wood can be bigger, and there’s less joining. Yet the ark has to made out of acacia wood, which is a relatively small tree. Lev then jumped to the bus rides on the tiyul; he had sat across from me, and our section of the bus had spent the time debating the nature of prayer, what is kashrut and should Reform Jewish camps keep kosher, what are the differences of values between Reform and Conservative, what makes a service a service, etc. He said that just as the ark is made from multiple joined pieces of wood, Judaism is a tapestry of different opinions. Only after all the pieces have been joined together can you create a whole community, just as only after the ark is made of multiple pieces of acacia wood can you create the solid gold covering on top. I loved the parallel.

Following the service we spoke with a panel of kibbutz members and their teenaged children about being a kibbutz in 2007. Obviously the original socialist model wasn’t working. How do they separate the kibbutz community from the agricultural business, how do they distribute money (since most of them have jobs outside the kibbutz), what is the difference between members, who own the kibbutz, and residents, who rent, and how is Reform Judaism integrated into daily life? It was quite interesting, and not at ALL the Hebrew school model of what I thought kibbutzim would be. Once the panel ended, I went to nap, and then after another short Havdallah service to end Shabbat, we headed home. The bus ride was so choppy I was glad to be on solid, unmoving land, and so I got home at 10pm and headed right to bed!

Click here for the rest of the pictures.

Picture post

This afternoon in my Islam class I was shamed by Mara and Jessica for not updating enough. So I dedicate this blog to them.

First – the time with Becca was amazing. She’s going to write a guest blog all about her experiences and impressions, so I won’t tell you much more besides the fact that the two weeks were a blur. We saw literally almost all of Israel (with the exception of the far south). We ate TONS of food. And we watched enough Star Trek to write our own Nitpicker’s Guide. Visiting my grandmother was wonderful, as always, and we discovered something completely, utterly random – my grandmother and I always play Rummikub, and apparently it’s Becca’s family’s game, too! Suffice it to say we brought it back to Jerusalem with us and played a good few games before she left.

And now what you’ve all been waiting for – pictures!



Becca at the Western Wall.




Buying olives in the shuk.




Creating a tallit (prayer shawl) in Tzfat.




Me hiking in the Golan Heights.




Becca floating in the Dead Sea.




The final Rummikub board!


Click me for many more pictures.


Going back to school has been hard since she left. Conjugating verbs just aren’t nearly as interesting when you’ve spent the whole weekend spelunking in ancient caves and floating in the Dead Sea. Tomorrow will be a drastic change from that, however – HUC is taking us on another tiyul, this time to the south. We’ll stay at a kibbutz and spend most of the days hiking, according to the schedule. Jonathan is staying home (hiking in 80 degree heat isn’t his thing), so I’ll be rooming with Melanie from tomorrow night til Saturday. Thank goodness HUC heard our pleas – we only get back at 11pm Saturday, so they moved our first class to 10am on Sunday!

I'll end with a fun picture of cute boys.... Jonathan and Joe got their haircuts a week apart. The blue shirts were a coincidence, but when we saw them today Nicole and I both cracked up.

Adar is here!

Adar, for those of you uninformed about the Hebrew calendar (which would have included me until this year), is the month of celebration. Today's service included Purim melodies, and when I went up the stairs I saw the kindergarten class ahead of me (from the preschool attached to HUC). They were adorable, all decked out in costumes with funny hats and painted faces! For the story of Purim, go here. It's actually one of my favorite holidays - I was born on it in 1981!

Also about this morning - I had to fight my way to school by avoiding the multiple news vans and camera crews. The sidewalk was PACKED. Condaleeza Rice is here again, and fortunately or unfortunately, HUC is right next door to the King David Citadel Hotel where she stays. There's nothing like stumbling over camera wire and seeing nine or ten illegally parked vans to perk you up in the morning. :)

And now off to class...

Temple Israel March bulletin article

Over the past month I have had two friends from the United States come to visit. It has been wonderful to chat and catch up, but even more than that, it has been an unexpected blessing to see Israel through their eyes. My friends have pointed out things that I, as one who is now intimately familiar with the country, have been prone to overlook.

For example, take economics. My father lives in a 7th –floor penthouse apartment. Comparing to Israeli standards, the place is huge and he is quite well-off. But I forget; according to American standards, the apartment is small and he is merely middle-class. The economic situation in this country seems, at least to me, to be a bit more lopsided than it is in the States. The country is still growing, barely 60 years old, and white-collar office jobs are scarce as compared to home. The majority of people work blue-collar jobs, as taxi drivers, construction workers, truckers, etc. Offices do exist, of course, in the downtown areas of all cities, but the gap between rich and poor is higher, and the middle class as a whole is a smaller entity than in California. Many of the ultra-religious fall into the poor category (if they don’t work and have many children), and the upper classes tend to be comprised of jobs like media and “hi-tech.”

Religion – it’s everywhere. Now don’t laugh – I honestly had forgotten it. My friends were amazed that on their way back to my apartment, they passed an Orthodox man davening afternoon prayers in his shop, laying tefillin and swaying. They then stepped aside to let the Greek Orthodox priest dressed all in black to pass them on the street, and as they entered my building, they could hear the Islamic muezzin call Muslims to worship from a tower in the nearby Old City. Instead of being separated by class, neighborhoods are divided by religion. It’s not a fenced segregation like the West Bank versus Israel, but more of an unofficial grouping of the religious Jewish area, the secular neighborhood, the European Christian section, and the Muslim neighborhood. It’s true that with enough time one becomes inured to almost anything. I have lived almost eight months at the center of a religious maelstrom, and now I don’t even notice it.

Food – my LA college roommate was honestly confused when she went into the grocery store. Where are the soup cans? There are only packets made for a serving of six. Where are the soda cans? There are only 1-liter bottles. Where are the microwave meals? There are none. Israel is based on a culture of home-cooked meals. Fast food restaurants are few and far between, and much more expensive than their American counterparts. What is sold in stores is conducive to preparing and serving food at home, not quick put-them-together-in-five-minutes type microwave meals. Lunch is the main entree here, like in Europe, and people linger over a repast of bread, pasta, rice, or meat. Dinner is usually a short, quick affair involving a vegetable salad and pita, instead of the usual American grand banquet. I have become acclimated to not being able to buy a single can of coke for the way, or make myself a single serving of soup. The system is healthier, for the majority of a day’s food in ingested in the daylight hours when one is active, and eating at home also brings families closer together. Plus, for a single person or even a couple, it provides a lot of leftovers!

Shopping - The attitude of customer service is different as well; customers will be served, but only at the convenience of the shopkeeper. Getting ice cream one afternoon last week, the man behind the counter told us to “hold on a minute” and turned away, continuing to talk on the phone to his girlfriend before finally coming over to help us. Later on at a nice restaurant, we waited over 20 minutes for the waitress to bring the check, not because she didn’t see us, but because she was talking with another waiter.

Chutzpah - Calling the internet company to fix my IP address got me nowhere until I brought my problem to HUC. The head of student services called the company for me, and got results only after threatening to cancel my account and using language such as “Do you not understand me?!” and “This is either incompetence or criminal; which is it?!”

Crowds - Traveling to Tel Aviv last week proved a problem. Usually I hop a sheirut, or 10-person cab. That day, however, we had to quickly change our plans, as the one sheirut that arrived at the station was literally bombarded by 24 people hoping to board. I thought I was going to be run over, and the driver said absolutely nothing, just waited patiently as people jostled and yelled at each other.

I’m very grateful that I’ve gotten this opportunity to look at my adopted country in new ways. Life here is so different, yet at the same time so similar to California, that it constantly amazes me. Of all the things my two friends have said about this country, perhaps the most poignant is this: “Obviously I’m halfway across the world, but it doesn’t feel like it. I was expecting something more… foreign.” And it’s true, Israel may not be entirely foreign – but it does provide enough caveats and sideways twists to make life just a little bit more exciting than at home.

Sorry all..

Just a warning that this blog will be quiescent for a little while longer. It's so hard to write when there are so many things to do, new foods to eat, and places to go! We've spent the last couple days in Jerusalem, which has mainly involved me catching up on homework and Becca going souvenir shopping. Tonight we go to the school's production of The Vagina Monologues, and tomorrow morning we head to Savta's as our base to explore the south. I have a huge backlog of pictures piling up that I haven't even looked at, and as soon as things slow down, I'll post with more regularity. (Although to be honest, HUC is taking us on another tiyul from next Wed-Sat, so it may be a couple weeks before things get back to normal).

Our trip to the north

Wow did we go EVERYWHERE! We went to Holon on Thursday night, sang Happy Birthday to my brother (he turned 21), and then got up early Friday morning. I don’t have that much time to write, but here is the rundown:

Friday
Caesarea, site of Roman town
Haifa for Bahai gardens and falafel lunch
Odelia’s military base in the north to visit her. She has a big gun.
Adi-am kibbutz and winery (they have wine made out of passionfruit, even white, milk, and dark chocolate! We bought blueberry.)
Town of Migdal and around Kinneret/Sea of Galilee

Saturday
Drove through Tiberias
Went to kibbutz where my father was in high school
First hydroelectric plant in Israel, Jordanian border with Peace Island and memorial (where a Jordanian soldier shot 6 Israeli schoolgirls and the Jordanian king came to Israel in person to visit their families and apologize)
Baptismal site on Jordan River
Ate at Burger Ranch, Israeli McDonald’s
Drove all along Golan Heights for the view, from the very bottom almost to Kiryat Shemona at the top
Hiked at El-Al waterfall. Muddy shoes!
Stopped at Tel Beit…(can’t remember the name) where could see Jesus walking on water and the two fishermen who became Jesus’ disciples were from)
Stopped at bombed-out mosque from 1967 war
Dinner at Lebanese restaurant in Tiberias, walked around

Sunday
St. Peter’s Catholic church at Sea of Galilee where Jesus walked on water
Drove to Tsfat via Rosh Pina and a ton of other little cities
Caro, Abuhov, and Haari Synagogues, wandered through artists’ colony, modern Tzfat, places where my dad grew up, pizza lunch

My dad was a fabulous tour guide and took us to all the places tourists DON’T go, the tzimmer (bed and breakfast) we stayed in Migdal (10 minutes from Tiberias) was wonderful, and the trip back was long. The cats are like teenagers and had trashed the place. And tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday I go to school. Ugh. But at least it will give me time to put up all the pictures!

Touring

Becca is here, and we have gone everywhere there is to go in Jerusalem (practically). Yesterday she came to classes with me and we walked around New Jerusalem, the day before that was the Kotel and every off-the-beaten-path place in the Old City, and today is Mea Shearim and 2 Old City museums, the Burnt House Museum and the Herodian Quarter Museum (remains of aristocratic priestly houses from the Second Temple period). Tomorrow she and Jonathan go to Yad v'Shem in the morning (Holocaust Memorial Museum) while I'm in school, and then we head down to Tel Aviv! Then my dad is going to drive us all around the north for three days. So no updates for a while, but have a marvelous week and weekend, everyone!

Shabbat dinner

Gingi (aka David), one of the rabbis at HUC, came over with scrumptious chicken cooked in apricots and cranberries. Hayley, who professes she can't cook, created delicious rice with cinnamon, raisins and almonds. Jonathan, who was worried that he couldn't make something edible with the few veggies we had in the house, whipped up a carrot-potato dish with brown sugar and thyme. I, the lucky girl I am, got away with only making a cold veggie salad and buying dessert.

We talked, we ate, we read a short story by a feminist Israeli author, and they left at 1am. Jonathan and I were so hyped up that we (unwisely) stayed up afterwards and watched a movie. Now it's Saturday evening, and I only have to get through one more day of school before Becca comes in and we go traveling!

Adieu.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS COMES OUT JULY 21ST!!

July 13 - the fifth movie comes out.
July 21 - the seventh book arrives on my doorstep.
July 30 - Jonathan's birthday.

The end of July is so, so beautiful this year.

Tu Bishvat Fair!

Jonathan and I went to the shuk with Jeffrey, and lo and behold, there was a fair for Tu Bishvat! It’s a minor holiday that in the States is known as “the birthday of the trees.” Here in Israel it grew in popularity because of the early Zionists, and is now probably one of the few national “secular” holidays. Look here for more info on the holiday: Wikipedia Tu Bishvat entry

Here is a link to our pictures of the fair. Here are some teaser pics to convince you to go there..



This guy wasn't standing behind a table, the platform with olives was attached to his outfit. Jonathan asked him, in English, if we could have an olive. "You couple?" he asked. Yes, Jonathan nodded. The olive guy handed me an olive and said, "You eat olive, you have boy in one year." I ate the olive, so we'll have to wait and see! :)



For once in his life Jonathan was short enough to serve as a chair!



There was definitely a variety of dancers too...


After the shuk we went back to school to hear a great speech by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union of Reform Judaism and the one who’s pretty much the head honcho of the entire Reform movement. I realized why he was president about two sentences into his speech – the man is brilliantly smart, articulate, witty, and is a dynamic speaker who has a real vision for the future. He’s been president since 1996 – why haven’t I heard him speak before?!

Anyway, after the talk we had a Tu B’shvat seder with the fruits of the season, and then dinner. Then we came home, I went to the landlady’s to pay rent, and now here I am, eating treats with Jonathan and Joe and making plans for our possible joint trip to Scotland in May!

Oh, and here's a bonus picture of Simcha getting comfy on Jonathan's legs as he had kneeled down to pick something up:

Making Aliyah (Permanently moving to Israel)

Yesterday’s program was “immigrant day,” and it was incredible. At 8:30am we met in classrooms to talk about the Law of Return, in which anyone Jewish will be granted citizenship and rights. Is this law still needed? Is it useful today, 50 years after the country was founded? What do we think about immigration in Israel and how has it changed?

Afterwards, we all gathered in the Auditorium to hear from an Ethiopian Jewish immigrant. His story is amazing – he and his community of 500 lived in a small village in Ethiopia. Each family had 8 to 11 children, worked in the fields, and were dirt-poor. They thought of themselves as having been Jewish since some Jews migrated to Africa after the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. The Torah was orally transmitted since everyone was illiterate, and they observed Shabbat and other commandments. They pictured Jerusalem as the end-all-be-all of life; they didn’t know that there were separate cities in Israel, just “Jerusalem,” paved with cobblestones and looking like how it is described in the Bible.

Our speaker left Ethiopia when he was 10 years old with his family, walking across the desert for two months until they reached Sudan. The story he told of the journey was horrible – people dropping like flies, endless sand and no water in sight, a guide who stole all their money and left them stranded. When they got to Sudan, with the intention of walking further into Israel, they were kept in a refugee camp for years. Finally, in the 80s when Israel got a hold of the story, Israel sent planes to the Sudanese desert in “Operation Moses,” and took the immigrants on trucks to a plane which brought them to the Holy Land. As the speaker said, “There were toilets in the rooms! Food for everyone! Big buildings and trains that took you to different places! It was truly Jerusalem as we’d pictured it!”

But then the problems began. Israel did its best to integrate them, but it didn’t work; the children went to boarding schools and became increasingly Israeli, but then came home not being able to speak to their parents in Amharic. The family structure fell apart when their strict patriarchy was no longer respected. Jewish practice in Ethiopia was completely different than practice in Israel, and the immigrants felt that they had moved to a land not their own. Cultural differences were huge, and Ethiopians couldn’t, and in many cases don’t, understand Israeli customs and vice versa. Problems still abound, and much of the population remains unassimilated, even though new immigrants come every day and go through absorption centers.

After his speech ended, I went with a group to Moadon Ha-Oleh (“Immigration Center”), which is coincidentally where Jonathan had gone for ulpan. We visited an ulpan class and spoke with them about why they made aliyah, if they experienced culture shock, etc. We spoke Hebrew with them because the class was at Level 6 - unfortunately, the higher up you get in ulpan levels, the less diverse it gets. Jonathan had been in Level 1, and in his class was someone from Denmark, Chinese immigrants who had been sent to learn Hebrew by their companies, and others. This class was almost entirely Orthodox Jews who had made aliyah for religious theological reasons. They were much more interested in why women could be rabbis, and what we were going to do in the rabbinate, than they were in explaining their own situations. To them it was simple: they were Jews who felt outside the mainstream in their home country, so they moved here in order to be religious. It was rather unenlightening, to tell the truth; the class was mostly from the United States (lots from NY) and France (which are the countries known for their religious immigration today) and the conversations weren’t very surprising. The best was when I asked one Frenchwoman why she came to Jerusalem, and not Tel Aviv or Ashdod: “Tel Aviv is like Paris!” she exclaimed. When I laughed she quickly added, “Of course, we are all am Yisrael, one people Israel, so it really doesn’t matter.”

After the ulpan class we had lunch and went back for one last talk, this time by a Russian immigrant. So you know, Israel has absorbed over 1 million immigrants into its then-5 million population in the last 10 years; it’s a huge number and has completely changed the dynamics of the country. The issues faced by the Russian immigrants and by the Ethiopians are like night and day! The Russians came from a Westernized life, they were chemists, doctors, musicians, and so it wasn’t nearly such a huge change (in fact, so many Russian immigrants are musically talented, there’s a joke that if an immigrant from the former Soviet Union came off the plane without a musical instrument case in hand, they were obviously a pianist). Once the immigrants arrived en masse, they founded orchestras, theatres, Russian-language newspapers, and even their own political party. Most of them aren’t religious but totally secular, and many aren’t even halachically Jewish (Jewish according to Orthodox law); they came to escape persecution and to have a better life. They became quickly integrated into mainstream Israeli life. As the speaker said, the Russians are the only immigrant population that has refused to have a “desert generation” – e.g. instead of waiting for the generation of the children of the immigrants to feel like Israelis, ALL Russians want to be immediately Israeli (unlike in Exodus, when the Israelite slaves died off in the desert and only their children entered the Promised Land).

I could keep going, but you get the main gist. The day was very well put together and was quite insightful, and gave us a good look into both the marginalized, and the not so marginalized, aspects of being an oleh (immigrant) in Israeli society.