Educational Experiences in Israel
As director of NFTY in Israel and a resident of Jerusalem, I was asked recently to write a blog post about Israel. With that in mind, I am going back to a topic I know well – or at least one I care about deeply: the complicated relationship between North American and Israeli Jews. Having made aliyah (moving to Israel to live) 15 years ago, I have one foot firmly planted in the North American Jewish community and one foot firmly planted in the Israeli Jewish community. In my daily life, I can’t speak English without throwing in Hebrew words. Yet my Hebrew is filled with... Read More
On a recent Wednesday, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) first-year students gathered together for Israel Seminar. One day every week we focus on a different aspect of life here, viewing the country through historical, political, and sociological lenses. That week, we focused on Haredim, traditionally observant Jews often referred to as ultra-Orthodox in the U.S. Although many people view this group as a monolith, there is a huge variety within and among the Haredi community. Some neighborhoods are plastered with signs decrying the influence of computers and... Read More
Thursday afternoon has become my favorite time to run errands. The stores are jam-packed on Friday mornings as people bustle around the city preparing for Shabbat, and I prefer to beat the rush. Although I still get bumped with the occasional shopping cart, I feel far less claustrophobic and can usually find someone willing to explain the difference between two spice mixes that look identical to my untrained eye. This past Thursday, I pulled my safta (grandmother) cart through the aisles of Osher Ad, the Israeli equivalent of Costco. I couldn’t resist the massive bottles of... Read More
Mechina, a post-high-school, gap-year program offered by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, seeks to nurture the next generation of young Israelis to reflect both Jewish and democratic values in all their endeavors. Seventy-five young men and women participate annually in leadership training, enrichment, and tikkun olam (repair of the world) volunteer experiences in which they work with underprivileged populations – migrant workers, refugees, Arab-Israelis, the elderly, people with disabilities, and others – to bring about social change in local communities. Among the... Read More
I was “born and raised Jewish” in that 1940s and 1950s way – culturally tied to the religion, but not particularly interested in the religiosity itself. In that realm, Israel was a place we supported because it was the home of victims of the Holocaust and heroes who founded the nation. It was a far-away, exotic, and strange land that, as a Jewish homeland, demanded some monetary donations and the planting of some trees, even though few in my community in Rockaway, Queens, had any real religious ties to the local synagogue or to the nation itself. Sure, I became bar mitzvah at 13 and... Read More
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