5/23/13
I’m writing now from the
Philadelphia airport. In many ways it’s fitting that yesterday, our last day in
Israel, was so jam packed that there wasn’t time to write. As the hours slipped
away we tried to get the most out of each of the day’s activities.
Our day started with a visit to
Neve Shalom- Wahat Al Salam. Neve Shalom
is a village that was founded with the explicit purpose of fostering
coexistence between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. From an American point of
view this may seem like no big deal, but in Israel it truly an anomaly. 20% of
Israel’s population is Arab. Yet most Israel trips taken by Jewish schools from
the US have little or no interaction with Arab Israelis. As it turns out Jewish
and Arab citizens of Israel also have little meaningful interaction. Arab
children attend Arabic speaking schools while Jewish children attend Hebrew
speaking schools. Military service is compulsory for Jews and optional for
Arabs. The unintended result of this segregation is that both cultures rely
primarily on stereotypes and national narratives rather than personal relationships
when thinking about the complex identity issues that face Israel. The villagers
of Neve Shalom believe that Jews and Arabs must learn to coexist on a basis of
mutual respect and acceptance. The believe that they are living life as it
should be rather than as it is. Rather than trying to answer these questions
for the kids, our goal in visiting Neve Shalom is to raise these questions. We don’t want them to be blindsided when
they get to high school or college and encounter a wide array of opinions (many
of them misinformed). Instead, we want them to be able to speak from
experience.
As
is the case with The Davis Academy, the central institution of Neve Shalom is a
school. Their pre K- 6th grade school is 1 of 5 bi-lingual schools
in Israel. Arab and Jewish children attend the school in equal number and have
equal amounts of instruction in both languages. If you think Davis has a lot of
days off for holidays imagine what it must be like at the Neve Shalom school!
Last
year we were only able to view the playing school children from afar. This
year, thanks to the persistent efforts of Morah Sigal and Mr. O’Dell we were
able to do an activity with their 6th grade students. We sat in a
circle on a shady field and a few of their students did some gymnastics. We
countered by having Ross W. do his inimitable robot dance. When Ross started
breakdancing a kid from Neve hopped into the middle and started break dancing
as well. It turned into a good old fashioned dance off! Then we broke into
groups and learned how to write “salam” in Arabic as well as our names. We took
a bunch of pictures and exchanged info. We also presented the school with a
copy of “Be a Blessing” which they plan to use to help teach English. The
student singers and artists were particularly proud of this gift. It’s clear
that our visit meant a great deal to the Neve Shalom community as they posted a
lovely blog (with photos) only a few hours after we departed.
After Neve Shalom we headed to
Neot Kedumim to fulfill the mitzvah of planting a tree in Israel. As the
noonday sun beat down on us each of us took a shovel and a sapling and laid
down our roots in Israel. We were reminded of the Talmudic story of Honi. A passerby saw Honi planting a tree. The passerby
asked, “Don’t you know that you won’t be around to enjoy the fruit and shade
from this tree?” Honi replied, “When I came into the world I found that it was
full of beautiful trees. It’s my duty to ensure that others find it that way as
well.” We learned a very interesting fact: Israel is the only country that has
more trees at the beginning of the 21st century than it did at the
beginning of the 20th century. That’s Israel.
Our last stop before dinner was
the Armored Corps Museum know as Latrun. There the kids had a chance to see a
variety of tanks from different eras in Israeli history. Israel manufacturers
one tank known as the Merkava. There are several unique features to the Merkava
tank. Most notably, the engine of the Merkava tank is in the front of the tank
(as opposed to most tanks that have the engine in back). While most countries
are concerned with protecting the engine, due to its great cost, Israel uses the engine to protect the soldiers. That’s
Israel.
While at Latrun we visited the
Hall of Tears, the memorial wall, and also took a moment to learn more about
Morah Lahav’s cousin who lost his life while serving bravely during the Yom
Kippur War. They were preparing for a huge ceremony at Latrun so we got to see
many different types of soldiers milling about. One of our tour guides from
Latrun couldn’t resist giving the kids a bunch of advice about high school. It
turns out that he made Aliyah from New Jersey. That’s Israel.
Dinner at Abu Gosh is nothing
short of a world- class feast. Abu Gosh is an Arab village outside of Jerusalem.
It’s been our final destination for years. Upon arrival the students found
beautiful tables covered with all different types of vegetarian dishes—purple,
red, yellow, orange, green… More colors than any rainbow I’ve ever seen. Each
dish is a world unto itself—kind of like each person. We warned the kids to
make sure to leave room for the meat courses and most seemed to be ready when
the skewers of chicken and lamb came sizzling out of the kitchen. After the
meal we spent a few more minutes sharing funny stories from our trip. Then we
joined together in the most spirited version of “Birkat Hamazon” that these
kids have ever done. I was personally very inspired to see the authentic joy in
their singing. We talked about the idea of offering a blessing for the fact of
being “full.” We talked about being physically full but also spiritually and
emotionally. We visited the bathrooms to become a little less physically full and headed to ben
Gurion. As we left the Arab village we caught the peak of a beautiful
Mediterranean sunset. That’s Israel.
The airport ended up being a bit
of a saga. Though we arrived plenty early we had little time for buying
chocolate. When you see the amount of chocolate that was purchased marvel at
the fact that it was acquired in about 20 minutes.
As with the flight to Israel,
nervous fellow passengers quickly warmed to our kids. I’m sure no Facebook info
was exchanged but there was plenty of chit chat before the snoring started.
So here we are in Philly. Customs
was easy. America, in many respects, is easy. You can always count on there being
toilet paper for example! The kids are excited to get back to Atlanta so they
can fill you in on all the details of the trip themselves.
In addition to serving as a
chaperone on this trip I’ve been honored to serve as the official blogger. As I
reflect on my blogging tendencies I can’t help but feel like I’ve crammed a
year’s worth of sermons into a two-week period. My only hope is that this blog
has helped family and friends understand what our Israel trip is truly like.
Embedded in any single experience are layers upon layers of meaning— like an
onion. I’ve tried to identify some of the shared meanings that we’ve all
experienced as well as indicate ways that kids might have related to the same
experience but through slightly different, or very different lenses. While some
kids and chaperones have been mentioned by name in specific circumstances,
others have been referenced but remained anonymous. I hope you’ve asked
yourself—“Could it have been my child who said or did that? Or, “I wonder how
my child related to that part of the trip?” It shouldn’t take too much to get
them talking once we return, but know that some of the deepest takeaways might
not be the first experiences they point to. Like a good book—give them some
time to tell their stories and develop their characters.
As for me, I didn’t know it at
the time, but when I chose to become a rabbi it was to do precisely what I’ve
been privileged to do the last two weeks: facilitate, witness, record, reflect,
protect, and celebrate.
It’s been an unforgettable trip
and we’ve all made a very wise investment in our children, in our future, and
in our world.
