Kabbalah and Kibbutzim and Kayaks, Oh My!

If there's one thing I can say about this program, it's that the days are FULL! Each day feels more like 2-3 days, with all the different things we're doing. We're having a blast but, as people warned me, we're also tired most of the time. That's ok though, we're definitely getting the full experience!

Yesterday, we loaded up the bus and drove to Tzfat, one of the four holy cities in Israel. On the way, we stopped on the side of the road at a question-mark shaped bus stop (or, as Al and I say: bus stop? These are everywhere!) to pick up eight young Israelis who are joining our trip. Because we're an older group, most of our Israeli friends are out of the army and in school, though we also have a couple of soldiers. It's been interesting to hear their different attitudes toward the IDF. Some of them say, "Thank goodness I'm done with military service" after their mandatory three years. Others have chosen to extend their service because they like being soldiers. Others extended their service because they like having a steady paycheck. Most of our people were in Intelligence in the army - we have a lot of engineers and technical people. I haven't spent much time with most of them yet, but I had lunch yesterday with a woman named Michal, who is in university and is one of the bubbliest, sassiest, most fun people I've ever met. She's hilarious!

After picking up the Israelis (who will be with us for five days), we drove to Tzfat, which is up in the mountains. I love how towns are built into the sides of mountains here, it's beautiful! In Tzfat, we walked through the streets, went into an awesome candle factory, and saw a beautiful old synagogue. Tzfat is a very spiritual city connected to the mystical side of Judaism. It's also an artist colony, the streets are full of tiny art galleries and jewelry stores.

We went to the art studio of a guy named Avraham who grew up in Detroit and moved to Israel maybe 15 years ago. He makes art based on Kabbalah, so he showed us some of his pieces and talked about how they express Kabbalistic ideas. It was really interesting! He does a lot of pieces based on the patterns of shofar blowing - there was one recent one he had made that was based on a spectrograph recording of the shofar sounds, it was so cool! He was also a hilarious stoner type who loved to talk to us about how we're all connected and it's"so crazyyyyyyy." He was funny, but I also found what he said about meditation and the spiritual side of Judaism really interesting!

After we left Avraham, we had some free time to wander around Tzfat and explore. We had lunch (I ate falafel with Michal), and looked through some of the shops. It was REALLY hot today, and a lot of the walking was on steep hills, so we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the bus.

But the day was just starting! We drove to a kibbutz with a shoe factory where one of our tour guides had spent a lot of time as a child. Most of the people in our group went in the factory to buy shoes, but I didn't need shoes, so I wandered around the kibbutz on my own. It was a really nice, solitary wander through an incredibly quiet and peaceful space. After all the craziness of Tzfat, it felt good to unwind. I met some Israelis on my walk, and they were all very friendly. One of the weirdest things about Israel is how many children there are here - SO MANY! They're everywhere, usually many to a family! Al and I saw a woman getting on the elevator in our hotel with two sets of twins AND another child in between! So many children...

We got back on the bus and were all exhausted, but we drove to the Jordan River and went kayaking! It was more like rafting than actual kayaking, but it was such a blast! We got in water fights with each other, people were jumping in and out of boats and swimming in the (very shallow) river, and there was a small waterfall that was really fun to go over! It certainly woke me up! We all got soaking wet - it was very playful and fun! As one of the women in my kayak pointed out, it was also a little surreal to be floating down the Jordan River, which we've heard about and sung songs about our whole lives. Very cool.

Once we were all thoroughly soaked (which felt amazing after the hot day), we headed back to the hotel. The staff offered us the option of going into town for a night out, but it would have been an hour of walking uphill for only an hour of time spent in town, so about half the group opted to stay back at the hotel. We bought a few bottles of wine from the dining room and drank them together on one of the hotel balconies, while getting to know each other and the Israelis. Our group is definitely divided into about three different social scenes, but we're getting to know each other better and definitely don't seem like strangers anymore. The guys in our group are pretty universally awful, but some of the women are great! It's nice that we're mostly from New York because hopefully these friendships will continue after we get back.

Okay, time for me to go finish packing! We are leaving the hotel today and driving down to Jerusalem for Shabbat. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I don't have a way to transfer them from my camera. I'm taking lots though, and will share when I get back! Hope you all are doing well! I can't believe it's already Friday!

Wandering Around the Land

My Wednesday started off with a Bible quote. Not the way I usually start the day, but the point of traveling is to embrace the unusual, right? Merav, our tour guide, read a quote where Abraham is told to "wander around the land" and get to know it, because it will be given to him and his descendants. This, of course, got me thinking about how, according to the Bible, Christians are descendants of Abraham because they branched off from Judaism, and Muslims are also  descendants of Abraham through Ishmael. So clearly Jews don't have exclusive claim to this land. But I did like that quote applied to our trip, and it stuck with me.

We started our day by driving to the northernmost part of Israel and doing a Hatzbani hike on a trail that runs north to south through the whole state. Because it was 100 degrees outside (our Hebrew word of the day was "cham," which means "hot"), they had us do a hike through the shade and in water. "In water" meant that we were sloshing through at least knee-high water, walking on often slippery rocks that weren't always the most secure place to step. This was not what I had expected from the hike, but it turned into a fun challenge that we all helped each other through. Nothing helps a group bond like literally leaning on each other for support!

After the hike, we piled on the bus and went to lunch in Katzrin. During this bus ride, we did a "speed dating" activity where we switched seats and spent a few minutes getting to know someone on the trip. Actually a pretty decent activity! I had some nice conversations with some of the people on the trip, and some surreal exchanges with the Cream of the Crop. Most of that group are from Long Island and have literally never left Long Island in their lives. I feel a little sad for them, they just seem so young and naive. And really dumb. Like shockingly so. Weird...

After lunch, we went to tour the Golan Heights Winery! We had an adorable little old Orthodox tour guide named Shalom, who explained to us how the topography and climate of the Golan Heights makes it an ideal spot for winemaking. He showed us the process they use for harvesting, aging, and bottling the wine - so interesting, my inner wine snob was jumping for joy! Then we had a tasting of some of their wines - delicious! - and explored the shop for a bit. They had an exhibit of all sorts of wooden stuff (serving platters, lounge chairs, skateboards, etc.) made out of the French oak barrels they use to age the wine. Really cool! Shalom also gave us nice corkscrews as a gift.

Once everyone had their fill of the winery, we drove up to Mt. Bental, an old army post on a mountaintop that overlooks Israel on one side and Syria on the other. Here, we were treated to a delightfully one-sided view of Israeli politics in which Israel was presented as the do-no-wrong hero and the entire Arab world (but especially Syria) as a dehumanized, faceless enemy. Ugh. Thankfully, half the group was intelligent enough to recognize the bias, and the other half was too stupid to understand what was being discussed (the Cream of the Crop!), so I don't think any lasting harm was done. Hopefully this will be the last of the political indoctrination attempts, but I'm not holding my breath.

By this time, we were all exhausted from walking in the sun all day, so we napped on the bus ride back to the hotel. When we got back, we had time to shower (which felt SO good, we were dirty and gross) and eat dinner. Wednesday night featured more group bonding activities, then going over plans for Thursday. Today, a group of young Israeli soldiers and students will be joining our group for the next few days. We'll be going to Tzfat this morning to learn about Jewish mysticism, which is really interesting to me and Al! Then this afternoon, we'll be kayaking down the Jordan River - whee! After that, who knows?

You all are darlings for reading super long updates, and I just want to close with an observation. I find the relationship between Taglit and the state of Israel absolutely fascinating. The program is partially funded by the State, so Israeli citizens' taxes pay for us to be here. All the Israelis we've seen have been friendly to us and will smile and say hi, but they also won't approach us or start a conversation. It's like there's an understanding in Israel that Taglit groups are a protected entity, so nobody wants to come near us at all. It's a very strange feeling that we're protected and maybe even welcomed/appreciated, but also overtly avoided, which makes it hard to learn about Israeli culture other than from our tour guides. I'm interested to see how our interactions will be with the Israelis joining our trip today!

Boker Tov!

Good morning! I'm writing this as I watch the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee, the lowest altitude lake in the world (600 feet below sea level)! Here I am in Israel, and it's already been quite an adventure.

On Monday afternoon, Al and I grabbed our (impressively lightly packed!) bags and took the train to JFK. We met up with our group in the terminal and went through checkin, but not without incident. You see, my friends, Al Binder is a SUSPECTED TERRORIST! We think it was a combination of her being from Boston and having a brand new passport (renewed for this trip). Either way, she was profiled and asked a lot of questions about her background and why she was going to Israel. Security in general was understandably very tight for all of us. Thankfully, they decided that Al was not a terrorist and let us go through security.

Once in the terminal, we wandered for a few hours before meeting up with the group at the gate. This is where we first noticed some of the...eccentricities of our group, who Al and I have lovingly nicknamed "The Cream of the Crop." There is a big group of people on our trip who are well meaning, but actually dumb as bricks. To the point where it's both painful and entertaning to listen to them try to process life. On the bus in Israel, Al and I were sitting right in front of these people, and we couldn't look at each other because we would just start cracking up. But more on that later.

The flight was long, but pretty uneventful. The food was surprisingly decent (look Mom, I'm eating!), and most of us were able to get a good amount of sleep. When the flight finally landed around 1:30PM (we were delayed almost two hours taking off), we went through Customs and got our bags without incident. We met up with the group to go out into the world, but two of our darling groupmates were missing because they had decided that now would be the perfect time to go to the bathroom and straighten their hair without telling anyone. The Cream of the Crop!

Once we found these two, we went outside into the delicious dry heat, met our Israeli staff, and got on the bus that will be our home for the next ten days. We were supposed to drive to Cesaria and check out the Roman aqueduct, but ran into awful traffic. So we ended up stopping at a strip mall and havng sandwiches. Unfortunately, they'd forgotten to get sandwich options for the veggies and ciliacs, so Binyamin (one of our tour guides) gave us money to get falafel at the mall, which was DELICIOUS!

We loaded back on the bus (the hair-straightening girls were late again), and drove 1.5 hours north to the hotel in Tiberias. We ate dinner, got our Israeli cell phones and changed money, then had some "group bonding" activities. At this point, it was about 10pm, so we were all exhausted and not really in the mood for bonding. However, Al and I did meet some nice, smart, and friendly women on our trip over dinner. There will be plenty of time for bonding once we've slept a bit.

We headed up to our hotel room - Al and I were lucky enough to snag a double with a balcony overlooking the sea (picture below!). We were exhausted, so crashed pretty early. Today, we're going hiking in the Golan Heights, then to a wine tasting! More on that later...

For now, we are safely in Israel, our group is not bad (and at least good for a laugh!), the country is beautiful, and we are excited for all the adventures to come!

Why the Skepticism?

As you can tell by the title of this blog, I have very mixed feelings about going on a Taglit trip to Israel. For many years, I was adamant that I didn't want to participate in the "Birthright" program (yes, the word "Birthright" will always be in quotation marks in this blog). It seemed to me like the whole purpose of these trips was to a) indoctrinate young American Jews into a very conservative one-sided view of Israeli politics and b) throw a bunch of young American Jews together in the hope that they will get married and have babies. Yes, this sounds dramatic, but from what I've heard, it's not too far off. Over the last few years, I've watched friends go on the trip and come back completely different people, not necessarily in a good way. There's something strange going on when otherwise intelligent people seem to lose their ability to critically analyze a situation from multiple sides. The word "brainwashing" comes to mind. I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible.

When I told friends I had decided to go on this trip, several people were shocked because I had been so vocal about not wanting to go. So what changed? Well, the bottom line is I'm 26 years old and, like many people my age, I'm really poor right now. I love traveling, but haven't been able to travel outside the U.S. since I was 18. I'll admit, the prospect of a free trip is what finally won me over.

So why am I still a skeptic? What could possibly be wrong with a free trip? Well, as a friend pointed out, nothing is really free. There are always hidden costs, and the main cost of this trip is that we will see the Israel that the Taglit organization wants us to see. I'm sure there will be lots of propaganda about the Arab "enemy," and I'm sure the Israeli army and government will be painted as perfect Jewish heroes who can do no wrong. I'm sure that "Israeli" will be defined as "Jewish," and that there won't be much discussion (if any at all) of the lived experience of non-Jewish Israelis. I'm sure that I will be offended many times by what I hear and experience on the trip.

HOWEVER...

I'm going to Israel! I'm going to see amazing sights, experience a different culture, go hiking and kayaking and camel riding, float in the Dead Sea, stay in a hotel right on the Mediterranean Sea...it's going to be awesome! I'm going to be lucky enough to share this experience with a wonderful friend from college and make fun new memories together. We're going to take fabulous pictures and have all the adventures and then come home and have incredible stories to tell. And at this point in my life, unlike when I was 18 and had just graduated high school, I feel confident enough in myself to know that I can take the Taglit message with a huge grain of salt. I definitely plan to make the most of this trip. Like every experience in life, I will take from it what is useful to me, and I will leave behind what is not. And I'll also take lots of pictures and post here a lot so you all can share my adventures too! Four days till departure!

Judaism and Me

When I was young, my family used to go to synagogue a few times a year. I really liked the tradition and singing the familiar tunes and feeling like I was a part of something bigger than myself. I also had a strong friendship circle there. I went to Hebrew school for basically my entire childhood and, while teachers varied from great to horrible, my classmates and I became very close. We went to each other's B'nai Mitzvot, planned youth group activities together, and had so much fun attending regional dances and conventions. I have wonderful memories of dressing up in costume for the Purim carnival, going to Junior Congregation every week and hoping I would get to have a part in the service, and taking the annual "walk around the synagogue" during the High Holidays. Several of my Hebrew school classmates have kept in touch and are still my close friends. So for me, Judaism always felt like a strong community that I loved belonging to, even aside from the religious part of it.

Around my Bat Mitzvah and shortly after, I became much more invested in the religious side of Judaism. I was very active in my youth group, regularly attended Shabbat services, and even read from the Torah at services. I thought that I might go to seminary and become a cantor, because I loved singing and I loved Judaism, so why not combine the two?

Then I went to liberal arts college. It's such a cliche to go to college and lose touch with your religion, but for me, it made a lot of sense. My college professors taught me to challenge the ideologies that I had previously accepted without question. I learned to think critically and challenge hegemony. Faith began to seem flimsy in the face of logic. Organized religion started to look creepy instead of comforting, and the existence of a higher power seemed less and less likely. I certainly tried to hold onto my religion in college. I went to the hillel welcome picnic and to services a couple of times, but I didn't feel the same sense of community that I had come to love in my synagogue. Some other Jewish students who felt the same way invited me to try services with them at a synagogue pretty far from campus, but at that time, I was already drifting away from religion.

Judaism is really wonderful if you're part of the in-crowd, but I have found that it thrives (like many religions/social groups/etc.) on exclusion. There are the "members of the tribe" and the "gentiles," and a clear differentiation between the two. At my confirmation at age 16, the rabbi gathered my whole class together and told us that if we did nothing else right in our lives, we should be sure to marry someone Jewish. I remember learning in Hebrew school an incredibly biased and one-sided story of the creation of the State of Israel. Our curriculum basically ignored and denied the common humanity that we share with Arab nations, painting these people as a faceless "enemy." Of course, I completely understand that there is a long history of violence, oppression, and marginalization in Judaism. But my liberal arts education taught me that there are at least two sides to every conflict, and that labeling people as "the other" may help to build a sense of community among a group, but it will never lead to a healthy relationship between communities.

My sophomore year of college, I discovered feminism. I mean, I knew it existed before then, but I had never really studied it or been passionate about it. Over the last seven years, I have embraced feminism, and I've found that it fills a lot of the same needs for me that Judaism used to. I feel a strong sense of community with other feminists, a sense of belonging to a larger cause that is inclusive of others and supportive of all communities in the struggle against oppression. I definitely still feel culturally connected to the Jewish community, but it feels a little weird to me now to be in a group of predominantly Jewish people and be welcomed as "one of the tribe" (sometimes in those exact words). While I do identify as Jewish, it's a complex part of my identity that I struggle with a lot. I used to know what Judaism meant to me, but now I'm not quite sure. I don't know what to expect from my upcoming trip to Israel, but I'm sure that it will change my relationship with Judaism in some way. Whether it will clarify things for me or make everything more confusing remains to be seen.