5/17/12
This message is coming to you from the beautiful Kibbutz
K’ramim just outside of Be’ersheva. We’re having an early night since we are
waking up at 3am to climb Masada. Additionally today was a wonderful and
intense day due to the content and the heat. Boy, was it hot!
Neve Shalom/Wahat Al Salaam is a village of approximately 60
families that was founded in the 1970s. What makes the village unique is that
it is one of the only places in Israel where Jews and Arabs live alongside one
another by choice, and not only by necessity. At the core of Neve Shalom/Wahat
Al Salaam is a school where Jewish and Arab (Muslim and Christian) children
learn side by side. Apparently the kids love school because they get time off
for the holidays of all three religions! More profoundly students learn both
Hebrew and Arabic.
While it might seem like the vision of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al
Salaam is to dissolve all boundaries and create a type of “global community”
that isn’t the case. Rather, it is to own one’s own story/narrative/history,
while at the same time acknowledging that other people have their own
story/narrative/history. What this meant for our tour guide, a Jewish young
woman named Noam, is that her Jewish/Israeli identity can only be complete and
fully actualized by understanding the complexities of her society on a personal
level, and by learning to acknowledge the life experiences and cultural
traditions of others. Noam shared one story: a time when she spoke Arabic to
some Palestinian-Israelis. When she told the Palestinian girls that she was
Jewish they absolutely did not believe her because they had never heard a
Jewish person speak “their” language so well. Neve Shalom/Wahat Al Salaam is an
inspiring and challenging place that got everyone thinking about our own
identity, the things that are important to us, and the things we don’t want to
look at, as well as how our personal journey is impacted by things larger than
ourselves (history, politics, etc..).
They also served us a delicious lunch!
From Neve Shalom/Wahat Al Salaam we visited the Israeli
Armored Corps memorial/ museum at Latrun. It was definitely a juxtaposition. By
the time we got to Latrun it was
stiflingly hot. Latrun doesn’t offer much shade and we all came to appreciate
the intense conditions of those brave Israelis who courageously fulfill the
duty of operating tanks during times of combat. Latrun has a wall of names, not
unlike the Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C. There are some other unique
features to the museum that make a strong impression but what really made an impact was the personal connection-- hearing the story and seeing the picture of Morah Bruria Lahav's first cousin, Moshe Karasanti of blessed memory, who was killed defending the State of Israel on the first day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. As with learning about Morah Orna's father's journey at the Atlit Detention Center, hearing the story of Morah Lahav's brave cousin and their family's tragedy, brought a sense of reality and connection to our students.
After the intensity of these two visits the kids were very
excited for a long bus ride and an ice cream stop. Neither of these
disappointed!
This brings us to Kibbutz Kramim. It’s a well-appointed
place with a very serene feeling. Some of the kids are staying in little houses
complete with hot tubs and lofts! Spirits are high for our ascent to Masada.
There will be another brief post before Shabbat! Thank you
for keeping up with our adventures here in Israel!!
