And So it Goes

I'm sitting up in my apartment, wondering why our internet hasn't been turned off yet, and in a little shock. This day finally came. For a while, I wasn't sure that it would. There were days when I was fairly certain it wouldn't. But here it is. I'm going to sleep, eventually, and waking up long before the crack of dawn. I'm shlepping some heavy suitcases down the stairs (ok, the elevator), and heading to the airport!

It has been an amazing year. I now know 55 of my future colleagues, most of whom I had never met when I arrived, and some of whom are now among my closest friends. I know Israel, and especially Jerusalem, better than I thought I could. There are times when I'm insulted when people speak to me in English. (There are also times when I'm frustrated when they don't.) I feel even more certain that I'm in the right place (well, school) than I did when I arrived. I'm looking forward to a summer with my family, boyfriend, and friends, but I'm also looking toward seeing my HUC friends in Cincinnati in August.

Cassi and I went to Cup o' Joe for a last dinner tonight, and it was really weird walking out of there, as usual, knowing it would be a while before I'll return. It's been a week of lasts. I went to the Old City yesterday, and it was hard to believe I wouldn't be able to just stop by the remains of the Temple whenever I felt like it after tonight. I went to the shuk today, and it was weird not buying any produce, and really sad to know that it won't be a routine shopping trip anymore. Only the shuk could have gotten me to try so many new fruits and veggies this year! (Please don't ask what they were. My mother would be embarrassed by things I hadn't eaten until this year.) I went to HUC to drop off some final things, and again was struck by how amazing this campus is, especially in the spring.

This city is beautiful. It's not perfect, and it's not home, but it has been a most interesting, educational, enlightening, and mostly comfortable home for the last year, and although I am incredibly excited to return home tomorrow (!), I am also certain that a little piece of me is staying right here in Jerusalem.

Love from Jerusalem, for the last time, at least for now...
Jessica:)

Shopping, Cleaning, Packing.

I’m done! As we’ve been joking here, I’ve earned my R! (Yes, my R. As in, R-A-B-B-I. It’s a five-year program.) Exam week was it’s usual self: lots of papers to finish, exams to study for, stress to deal with. And I’d like to think I did a good job! In a move that had Debbie trying to excommunicate me from the family, I got all my papers done the week before exams, so that I could study (or not study, as desired). I didn’t have to worry about writing papers, and when my last exam was over Tuesday morning, instead of having to sit down and deal with several papers, I was freeeeeeeee!

Since Tuesday, I’ve been productive of another sort. I’m giving a D’var Torah at a local Reform congregation tonight, which means I agreed to speak in front of native Israelis…in Hebrew. I’m still pondering my agreement to this arrangement, but I’ve been working on it for a while now. Tuesday I met with the rabbi of the congregation, who liked what I had to say and made my Hebrew grammatically correct and understandable. Hooray! And then she told me that I should get it as much almost-memorized as possible. (I’m not sure it’s possible. But I’m not stumbling over words so much any more!) I know I haven’t done it yet, but I’m already proud of myself for doing it. I realized how much more Hebrew I know than I think I know, and how much better I read than I thought. I type in Hebrew without vowels, because that’s how it is here. And my D’var Torah is written that way as well. I wrote them in on the words I stumble over, which averages out to maybe one word per line, and it’s mostly only the first letter or two with a vowel, not the whole word. I think that’s pretty good! I’m proud of me…although I still to practice a dozen more times today.

I’ve also been doing lots of shopping. I decided that the things I’ve been admiring all year should finally be purchased, so I’ve been purchasing, but not going overboard. I’ve bought a beautiful challah cover and necklace, and there are still one or two more things I want to get, so more shopping is in my future. Later today I’m heading to a little crafts fair in Jerusalem that somehow I never make it to. Mainly because it’s on Fridays, when I tend to be fairly crazed.

I’ve also been starting to pack. I’m shipping one big box through HUC, where we paid a flat rate rather than by weight. The weight limit: what the box will hold. My box is almost full now, and not too heavy, I think. I even think my dad would be proud of the packing job. I folded things funny just to fill in cracks and spaces! I suppose maybe I shouldn’t brag about that too much. Dad, let’s just say, you’d be impressed! You taught me well.

Up next: more shopping, cleaning, packing. Add in a few visits to my favorite places in Jerusalem, and that’s basically the plan for the next few days. I can’t believe that this is my last Shabbat here. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely can’t wait to come home! But the goodbyes have started, and every time I do something, I realize it might be my last time doing it here. (Last trip to the supermarket? Not that sad. Last shuk trip? That will make me very sad. Last Shabbat? Not excited about that. Last load of laundry? Can’t wait!)

I can’t believe I’ll be home so incredibly soon. Shabbat shalom, and I’ll see you soon!

Ten Days

I should confess that since the day in January when I booked my plane ticket home in May, I have had a countdown on my Google homepage. It started at more than 100 days. It seemed like forever. Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy here and this has been a fantastic, educational, eye-opening, growth-filled year. When I first posted it, the countdown was really counting down to when I would be home for the first time in eleven months, when I would see everyone at home again. The countdown was likened to a high fever, a hot day, a beautiful spring day, a cold winter day. Now it’s at ten days. A week and a half. (“Less!” says Michael.) It is still counting down until I see everyone again, but now it’s also counting down my time in Israel in a way it wasn’t before. Lauren and I tried to schedule a fun shopping trip together. There isn’t time. Between my exam schedule and her work and travel schedule, there is no afternoon we can spend together before I leave. I had to go to my favorite Friday night service for the last time last week, because with the other Shabbat activities that were scheduled, there was not time for me to go again after that. It is strange to think that I really did, eventually, adjust to living here, and now I’m doing things for the last time. I cannot wait to come home. But I also know that I will be leaving here with the knowledge that through all its problems and issues, I love Jerusalem and Israel, and I will be back. When I return, it will not be as a tourist looking at things for the first time, but the way I return to Princeton. I will notice everything that has changed, visit all of my favorite places, and try to cram my whole experience of this year into a visit of a few days. I look forward to that challenge. Or, I will, once I’m at home and have given big hugs to everyone I haven’t seen in months, and I realize how much I really do miss life in Israel.

At HUC, we have two dominant topics of conversation right now. One is leaving. We discuss packing progress (none), shopping trips, apartment issues (such as potentially having to cancel internet a few days before leaving), what we’re going to miss, what we’re looking forward to at home. The other is exams. What we’ve finished (all my written work: three papers and an assignment in Hebrew, and my oral Bible exam), what we still have (oral liturgy exam, Hebrew exam, Biblical Grammar exam), when we finish (Tuesday morning!), our studying progress (well, I’m blogging). We had an end of the year ceremony on Thursday, where each teacher and administrator was individually thanked by one student. The presentations were remarkably well done. Most were under a minute, but evoked the relationship we have with our professors and staff here. Most of the presentations shared some memories of time spent together, and all of them were heartfelt thanks to the people who have taught us so much about our religion, our history, our country, ourselves.

Last night we had an HUC community Shabbat, with our own services and dinner. Services were outside on the lawn, and we were literally facing the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. Every week, anywhere in the world, we pray facing in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, we face toward the Old City and the Temple Mount. But from inside, anywhere in the city, the old city is not usually visible. But last night, we were literally facing Jerusalem. We watched the sun set over the walls. We sang “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” (Jerusalem of Gold) and watched the walls turn gold with the setting sun. That view cannot be beat anywhere in the world. After services, we had dinner, also outside. I love that it’s finally (more or less) warm enough and dry enough to plan outdoor events with confidence. We watched a slide show that was put together by a couple of my classmates, showing pictures and video footage of the whole year. Some of the pictures went all the way back to last summer, and we laughed at events that had been forgotten (like Ethan’s attempt at a Kilo Burger) and hairstyles that have changed. We were one community, but in the back of our minds was that we were one community that, by Shabbat next week, is no longer going to be together.

I cannot wait to get back home and have so many reunions with people I have not seen for so long. I am looking forward to all those hugs! But before that, there are the hugs goodbye. There are so many people here who I will have to say goodbye to. Some I will see over the summer or in Cincinnati next fall, but others I will not. Some are staying in Israel, and while I am confident I will see them again, I have no idea when. Some are going to the other HUC campuses, and while we promise to visit and keep in touch, they’re going to be big hugs, because only time will tell when I will next see them again. HUC has been my family this year. We’ve gotten each other through so much. And I’m going to try to have the best last ten days here that I can. Or a productive three-and-a-half until my last exam, and then a great last week.

Shabbat shalom!

High Holidays in April

I'm going the slightly lazy route this week. The following is what I just submitted to my synagogue newsletter about the recent holidays...

An email went out last week to the entire HUC first year class with a subject line that read “the High Holidays of Israel.” In the email was information about three upcoming holidays, Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day), and Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day). At the time I thought the subject line was almost inappropriate. It’s a Jewish country! How could anything other than the fall holidays be considered the most important and holy part of the year? And then I noticed that all of a sudden, the Israeli flags on the streets and buildings had multiplied. Hotels had at least a dozen flags across the roof. Cars had flags hanging out the windows. Apartments had flags across the porches. In many of these places, there was a giant (not actually burning) memorial flame as well. And then I realized:

In Israel, these three holidays are the most significant days of the year.

At 10 in the morning on Yom HaShoah, the entire country stops for two minutes. A siren sounds nationwide, and everything stops. Traffic comes to a halt, and drivers turn off their engines, step outside their cars, and stand at attention. Construction workers turn off their incessant jackhammers a minute before, and during the siren, they stand at attention on the tops of unfinished buildings. Tourists marveled at the fact that for two minutes, an entire country mourns, reflects, and thinks. As soon as the siren stops, life resumes. Cars start honking, construction resumes its banging, and the day goes on, but in a different mood. Israel has a lot of survivors and a lot of children of survivors, and some feel that Israel owes its nationhood to the enormous tragedy. Remembering the Holocaust takes center stage for those two minutes, but the feeling continues all day long. Radio stations either play no music or they play sad, slow music. Restaurants and other entertainment venues are closed. There are too many remembrance ceremonies to count. The whole country remembers.

One week later is Yom HaZikaron. The only quality it shares with the American Memorial Day is its name. The day starts, of course, the evening before with a ceremony at the Kotel, the Western Wall. The ceremony starts not with an important speaker trying to quiet the crowd, but with another siren. Two more minutes of silence and memory; from 8:00 until 8:02, the country thinks of the lives lost, the children whose lives were cut short fighting for the right of this state to exist. Once again, businesses are closed and the country remembers, so it certainly is not a big sale day in the stores. This holiday is commemorated with ceremonies at high schools all over the country. At first we were surprised that it was the high schools that hold these ceremonies. And then we realized: citizens enter the army at age 18, within months after high school graduation. Before the army, this was their last community. We attended one of these ceremonies, and visited the memorial hall that was set up to remember this high school’s approximately 138 students who had fought for Israel, from the war for independence to the second Lebanon war this past summer. I have never seen so many high school students so silent.

Yom HaZikaron ends at sundown, and immediately transitions into Yom HaAtzmaut. The entire atmosphere changes. We have respectfully remembered and mourned for those who made this country possible, and then the celebration can commence. And Israelis definitely know how to celebrate their independence. I was at one Jerusalem celebration, an enormous free concert in the middle of downtown. There were teenagers, families with young children, older adults, and everything in between. There were kids with shaving cream walking around spraying. There were enormous inflatable hammers that squeaked when you hit people over the head. There was everyone, dancing, singing, celebrating, watching fireworks. That was just the evening. Everyone has the day off for Yom HaAtzmaut. Some friends of mine organized a barbecue in a big local park. I arrived and had to call to find out where they were; there were so many people barbecuing, picnicking, throwing Frisbees, and just enjoying the holiday that it was hard to find the particular group I was looking for. Yom HaAtzmaut really felt like more of a holiday than the 4^th of July, even though in theory they celebrate similar events. Because of the setup of the calendar, the whole country thinks about the sacrifices that were made for the country, and then seems to appreciate the country that much more.

Happy 59^th Birthday, Israel!

Never Forget

Has it been another week already?! I am definitely having an internal conflict right now, where I want time to fly until I get home, but I want to drag my feet a little and enjoy the last almost-month here before life intrudes again when I get back home. I like it here, and I miss home a lot. If only I could take my favorite parts (and people!) from both places and combine them…and leave out the stuff (and people?) I don’t get excited about…

Yom Hashoah, Holocaust remembrance day, was on Monday. In Israel, it is taken very seriously. For the 24 hours from Sunday evening until Monday evening, life is different. Radio stations play only sad music, if any at all. Many restaurants and entertainment venues are closed. Television stations mainly cover various Yom HaShoah related events. For a day, the whole country mourns the senseless loss of life. The most amazing part of the day came at 10:00 Monday morning. At school, we were scheduled to have a ceremony starting at 10:05. A couple of minutes before 10, most of us went out the front gate of the school and onto King David Street, a busy street through Jerusalem. At 10:00 precisely, the siren started. A horn-sounding alarm sounded around the country, from 10:00 – 10:02. Everything stops for 2 whole minutes. It seems like an insignificant amount of time, but it does not feel that way. People stop their cars in the middle of the road, and nobody honks at them. Most people that we saw actually stepped out of their cars and stood still for the two minutes, even the taxi drivers. Especially the taxi drivers. One came to a screeching halt in front of HUC when he realized the siren was starting. For once, all construction ceased. I could see construction workers on the top of an unfinished building, just standing there for two minutes. The only people moving, sadly, were the tourists with their cameras. I was not excited about their walking around, taking pictures of the indescribable scene, but I stood there and took in the moment. Two whole minutes of silence, to commemorate 11 million people slaughtered, 6,000,000 Jews. Two whole minutes of what felt like the whole world standing still, standing at attention.

The siren stopped, and I don’t think I could have counted to three before I heard a car honk. Apparently someone took in the moment for a moment too long. Life restarted. Traffic began creeping again. Construction noises overcame the city. But the mood had changed noticeably. We went back inside the gates and sat down in the courtyard for a ceremony with the entire HUC community: American students, Israeli students, faculty, staff, people I had never seen before. The readings were appropriate, there was a surprisingly long reading of names of people related to those in the HUC community, and there were some somber songs. But I do not think that the ceremony would have had the same impact if it had not started with two whole minutes of national silence.

Later that afternoon, we noticed that the day had turned beautiful and sunny, as are an increasing number of days here this spring. My Hebrew class plotted, and when our teacher walked into the room, we asked whether we could have class outside in the sun. Never one to turn down an opportunity to be outside in the fresh air (read: be able to smoke during class), we relocated to my favorite courtyard on campus. Unlike what happens too often with outside-in-the-sun classes, we really worked well, we just also got to enjoy the beautiful day. We read, analyzed, and discussed. I was also impressed by another move by this teacher right after we got outside. She started passing out the poem we were going to read, and we hesitantly mentioned that we had read it in our regular Hebrew class with a different teacher. She shrugged her shoulders, put it away, and pulled out a different poem. Amazingly, we had read that one as well. She hesitated for only a second, and told us to sit tight and she would be right back. She ran up to her office and came back to the courtyard 2 minutes later with another reading: an entire packet on Hatikvah, the national anthem. Of course, we all know this one, but there was a lot more to it than just the song we all know. We compared the original and modern versions of the poem, and various other aspects of the author’s life. I was really impressed at how well she was able to change the plan at the last minute, both relocating the class literally to make us more comfortable and changing the entire lesson plan to adjust to what we had already covered.

Grandma is here! She arrived with her synagogue trip in the middle of last week, and came to Jerusalem on Tuesday, but not before running into two of my classmates at Shabbat dinner in Haifa. (Monica will take this as further proof that I know 10 percent of Jerusalem, and maybe even Israel. I will continue to disagree, except perhaps in a 5 minute walking radius.) I went to do homework in the lobby of the hotel where Grandma’s group was due to arrive, so that I would be there with a hug when they walked in. Since Tuesday, we have gotten to spend some time together and share some of my favorite restaurants. As I’ve said a few times before, it’s always so nice to have someone from home come visit! I feel so much less far away with visitors.

Our Israel seminar this week was Presenting Israel. The idea was that we have been studying here and living here for almost a year, and when we arrive back in the US, we will have to find ways to share what we have learned. We visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and saw their Situation Room. There were 5 televisions on the wall, all tuned into different channels. Two of them were showing sports. In the conference room part of the Situation Room (Suite), I had a Dad-moment looking at the clocks. They had a wall with digital clocks and a city name below each one: Los Angeles, Washington, GMT (no cities there?!), Jerusalem, New Delhi, Tokyo, etc. I’m sure I’m missing a few (although I’m also sure there was nothing between LA and DC). I looked up at the 8 or 10 clocks and noticed that in addition to showing lots of time zones, the minutes were not all the same. I stared at them for a whole minute, and found that the ones furthest apart were about 57 seconds apart, and the others were spread out in between. I thought it was funny that in this very serious room in the Ministry, the clocks are apparently set manually. I’m sure it’s a pleasure to adjust for daylight savings, since each country seems to move time on a different day! We also had a speaker from the Shalem Institute talk about conflicts within Israel and how to deal with them. He basically acknowledged that there is an essentially unsolvable paradox in Israeli society.

In between, we were in our classes talking practically about how to teach Israel in the US. One of the most interesting parts of the discussion centered around what to teach. Do we act as ambassadors, discussing only the good parts of Israel and skipping over the problems? Do we talk about how the problems are being solved? Should we compare the problems to things going on at home? We all had different answers. I think that many of Israel’s problems are issues of any modern society: an income gap, minority issues, religion and state. The difference is that because this is Israel, the Jewish state, they also become Jewish issues. If Israel cannot figure out how to make sure that Holocaust survivors are not living in poverty, is that similar to America not taking care of its veterans, or is it a problem of greater Judaism? In giving a speech to a congregation, should we talk about the conflict between Secular and Reform and Orthodox, or pretend that a Jewish state is as ideal as it may sound? It was an interesting discussion, which has clearly generated more questions than answers.

Last night was fun. We had an HUC student-faculty soccer game. The students appeared to have the advantage at first, in both ability and numbers. Then one of the maintenance guys seemed to have called some of his friends, and 5 or 6 young Israelis in soccer jerseys showed up and joined the faculty team. There was no recovery, but there was a lot of fun. It was great to just stand on the sideline and watch and cheer. It was great to see the staff out of their regular roles. The Dean was the faculty goalie. It was fun to hang out with people who I don't often see outside of school. It was a good break. Towards the end, a few students decided to go distract the (reminder: Dean) goalie. They went to stand directly behind his goal and started singing at the top of their lungs. First up: "Echad, mi yodea? Echad, ani yodea...!" It is a very long Passover song, which apparently a lot of people learned all the words to after doing several years' worth of seders in the Former Soviet Union this year! Partway through the song, the students came down the field and scored our first goal. Success!! The cheering was loud, as if we had tied up the score in an important game, rather than making a small dent in the score at a fun activity. It didn't matter. A few minutes later (and after the faculty team scored again), the singers went back behind the goal. They started with "this is the song that never ends..." and moved onto "99 bottles of beer on the wall..." They hadn't made it very far into the song before the student team scored again. I was impressed! After the game a few of us went out for hot chocolate to warm back up. It's spring here, but only during the day! Nights are still pretty chilly.

I looked at my to-do list recently. I think that at this point at least half of it, if I include both the Homework side and the Other Things side, involves things that are oriented toward home. Making appointments for the summer, dealing with my summer job, and settling in Cincinnati (after the summer) have become real priorities, up there with writing three papers and doing my biblical grammar homework. I guess this really is the beginning of the end of the year.

Shabbat shalom!

Marking Time

Almost two months ago now, we got an email from the HUC administration talking about the upcoming spring and informing us of “the three P's: Purim, Pesach, Packing.” At the time, it seemed silly to simplify the rest of the year to that extent. But then Purim came and went, and we all looked longingly and expectantly toward our Passover break, even though it was almost a month away. And here I am, back from an unbelievable Passover trip, and realizing that my time in Israel is almost done. I won’t say I’m packing yet. Even I don’t start that early, although a lot of my classmates have sent bags home with family members who visited during Pesach. In my opinion, the administration did forget one other P: Papers. Everyone seems to want to get a jump start on final papers this semester, and rumor is that there are a few students who have already finished them. (I’m considering the fact that I have at least vague topic ideas for each of them to be a huge step in the right direction.) But there’s no avoiding the fact that most of us already have one foot on the plane home. Our email balance has shifted from upcoming Israel events to job opportunities near our campuses and information about our new cities. Food purchases are being scaled back in realization of how little time we have left. Shabbat service choices are being made on the basis of how few Friday nights remain before we head home. I noticed at the shuk this morning that the produce season is turning another corner. The citrus, the highlight of my winter, is looking a little pathetic. But I saw a lot of vendors with mini watermelons and honey dew, a few early (expensive!) peaches, and my favorite bakery is selling iced coffee for the first time in months. Summer is just around the corner!

None of this is to say that we’re not fully in Israel for another few weeks. One administrator told some of us that she hopes everyone is really here after Pesach, not just physically (although that would be a nice change) but also mentally. She knows we’re looking forward to returning to the US, but she also wanted to point out that we need to really enjoy the rest of our time here. And as much as I’m now immersed in forms for moving to Cincinnati, interviewing staff for my unit at JCC camp, and counting down the days until I see my family and friends and Target, I’m also trying to take in all the parts of Israel that I’m really going to miss. I realized that due to various events, tonight will be either my last or next-to-last time at my favorite Shabbat evening service in Jerusalem. As I over-filled my shuk cart this morning, I realized that it may have been my last big shopping trip. Clearly I’ll still be buying plenty of food in the next few weeks, but I shouldn’t need to refill on certain things again before I leave. I love my Friday morning shuk trips, even though I’m often barely awake enough to enjoy them, and there is nothing even close in the US.

We came within one page of finishing our big Hebrew verb book yesterday. It seemed really daunting at the beginning of the year. We had a one-day school week, which many of us thought was a little silly, and many people didn’t even bother to show up, but in some ways it gave me a much-needed shove back into reality. Some of the teachers apparently took it easy on their classes yesterday. My teachers didn’t seem to notice that we’ve been off for two weeks. It occurs to me that I do really enjoy most of my classes this year. Some of my teachers are absolutely amazing, and I have been so lucky to have the opportunity to learn from them this year. I’m going to try to soak up as much as I can in the next few weeks, even while I get life in order back home.

Kate and I went to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, partly because I really wanted to get back to their twice-a-week arts fair, and partly because I had to go meet the JCC assistant director, in Israel for Pesach, to sign my summer contract and get a pile of counselor application forms. Michael and I went to the fair in December, but it was rainy and cold, and there were very few tables out. It was packed this week! It was beautiful, warm and sunny outside, and we sometimes had trouble even seeing what they were selling through all the people. But it was great fun, and I got myself a cute necklace, in celebration of spring. Or just because I liked it and Kate convinced me. Oshrat and I met outside a coffee shop. I haven’t sat outside with a cold drink and been comfortable and happy with the weather in way too long. I’ll be doing more of that in the next few weeks. Later in the afternoon, Kate and I found ourselves not too far away from Max Brenner’s chocolate restaurant. We decided it was fate, so we went and got their chocolate fondue. Still delicious! The biggest problem I’ve had with their fondue is that there’s always so much chocolate left over after dipping everything, even the way I dip. (If you can see the color or texture of the original item through the chocolate, you’re not dipping enough.) We decided to ask the waiter whether we could have more fruit. He said it would be 5 shekels. Excited, we paid the $1.25 for a new, big bowl of fruit, and the privilege of eating even more chocolate. Happy and full, we took one of the bumpiest van rides back to Jerusalem I have ever been on.

Wednesday was a lazy work day for me. I did some work, posted lots of pictures, and got some things done. I also realized, around 9:00 at night, that I was still in my pajamas. Oops. I guess everyone needs a day like that sometimes!

Now that my Fridays are longer before Shabbat starts, I’m going to attempt to get something done. (Read: I’m going to the gym.) Shabbat shalom!

Pictures!

I narrowed down the pictures from the trip as best I could. They are here. Enjoy!

Back in the USSR...

As promised, a description of my trip follows. It was such an amazing and busy week that it's hard to condense it into a post. Want more details? Just ask. Pictures coming soon.

A quick intro to the important people on my trip:

Josh and Hayley: my HUC travel partners, and awesome trip buddies. We left Israel in the middle of the night, so none of us started on much sleep. All week we put up with each other, calmed each other down, and cheered each other up. Hayley and I roomed together, and she was amazing at putting up with my passionate hatred of the snooze button.

Ilona: our absolutely amazing translator. Ilona is 19, involved in the Progressive Jewish community in Minsk, and studying to be an English teacher. She has an awesome Russian-British accent. She took care of us all week, not laughing too hard as we tried to learn the Russian alphabet and being more patient than I thought possible when reading an entire menu aloud, only to have all but three dishes eliminated because of presence of bread products, pork products, and other offensive foods. She made this trip what it was. We all made a new friend.

For Dad, Belarus by the numbers: (Mom, see below.)

3: Cities visited. I went to Polotsk, a small city of about 80,00 people, then Vitebsk, a good-sized city and apparently the cultural capital of Belarus, and Minsk, the actual capital.

6: Seders I attended during Passover this year. Josh, Hayley, and I led five of them, with Ilona translating.

3: Seders I attended for Netzer kids, ages 14-20. We went to one in each city. We led the first and third, and the middle one was the dinner-theater-seder.

0: Items on the seder plate at the first (Polotsk) Netzer seder. We got creative. What represents karpas? A potato chip, of course. What represents a bone? A pirouette cookie, Passover acceptableness notwithstanding. This seder turned out to be amazing.

4: Haggadot present at two of our seders. They were mine, Josh’s, Hayley’s, and Ilona’s. Not surprisingly, one of these seders also was the one with the empty seder plate.

17: Adorable children encountered. Most were when visiting a kindergarten in Vitebsk, one was a great grandchild at our first seder in Polotsk, and one was a daughter at our second Polotsk seder.

3: Languages spoken at our lunch table in Vitebsk. Ilona’s friend Stas was guiding us around the city. His English was rusty, but his Hebrew was very good. Stas and Ilona spoke in Russian, Stas and me/Josh/Hayley spoke in Hebrew, Ilona and me/Josh/Hayley spoke in English. There was much confusion, but a lot of fun.

25ish: Choruses of Dayenu sung. We sang at five of the six seders, plus in the kindergarten, approximately 4 times in each singing of the song. We didn’t sing during the dinner-theater-seder, although one 16-year-old with an amazing voice did perform several songs, one of them even Passover related.

4: Museums visited. Two were on the history of Polotsk. I didn’t think a big town/small city could have that much history, but apparently, it does. One was the history of Vitebsk. Much bigger city, much less interesting history, but that could be because it was a tiny museum, all in Russian, and after a long morning of playing with kindergartners and visiting a cemetery. The fourth was the Marc Chagall house museum. I think the most exciting part here was that Josh’s grandma grew up on the same street. The museum was interesting and I liked looking at the old photos and drawings, but Josh was disappointed that the rest of the houses on the street no longer existed.

60: Drops of wine spilled out representing the ten plagues. At the dinner-theater-seder, they were followed by the youth group performing an interpretive dance of the plagues to the tune of “Echad Mi Yodea.” Creative? Yes. Impressive? Definitely. Expected? Nope.

1: Differences between American Jewish teenagers and Belarusian Jewish teenagers. That would be the language. In all other ways, we discovered that they’re pretty much the same. That’s always nice to see!

About 30: Sips or cups of wine (actually, usually grape juice). Four per seder, plus the last night in Minsk, when there were lots of toasts to various parts of the trip by the different community leaders.

10.5: Russian words I now know. Yes, no, please, floor (as in, which floor is my room on?), blanket (as in, my room is freezing, can I have an extra blanket?), potato (as in, I think I might turn into a potato after eating so many of them this week), egg (see description of potato), ice cream (actually, I forgot this word. But it seems important, so I’ll get Ilona to reteach me. It has a spider-letter in it.), goodbye, byebye, restaurant (hint: it looks like PECTOPAH), and that’s all I can remember right now.

3-4: Times we were asked how women can be rabbis. The old people were especially pushy on this issue. We were also asked all kinds of questions about the situation in Israel, Reform Judaism, our family histories, and more.

700: Pictures currently on my computer from this trip. Josh and Hayley are both camera-happy, so I generally kept my camera in my bag while they snapped away. Over 300 are Hayley’s, over 300 are Josh’s, and 60 are mine. I’m working on cutting that down to a more reasonable number to post.

For my mom, a super-concise description of the trip, with as few numbers as possible.

Sunday

Ridiculously early morning flight, requiring leaving home in the middle of the night, without sleeping. Sleep on flight. Long layover in Vienna. Arrive in Minsk, have dinner, go to sleep. Scary, militaristic airport.

Monday

Met our translator Ilona. Realized about 5 minutes later that she is awesome. Really early morning bus ride to Polotsk. Bus is 10-passenger van. Bathroom stop: holes in the ground with walls, but modern plumbing the rest of the trip. Arrived in Polotsk, had lunch, led seder for seniors plus one adorable 5-year-old, Diana. We had her “help” with the seder, holding up items as we talked about them, acting out plagues, and generally being adorable. After seder, we went out for dinner, met a few of the Netzer kids who would be at one of tomorrow’s seders, and crashed.

Tuesday

Tour around Polotsk. We saw a couple of small museums, some big churches, and generally a beautiful small city. The river through the city used to be bigger, and this city is where Josh’s relatives got on a boat to head to America many years ago. Another senior seder, but this time with the more secular community. There was another cute kid, but she was 12 and therefore slightly less cute. It was hard to get this group involved. Short matzah-and-chocolate-spread break after seder, then to another one, with the Netzer kids. I was the oldest person in the room. The room wasn’t quite ready for seder; there was a box of matzah, candy, cookies, and soda, an empty seder plate, and no haggadot. We decided this one ended up as possibly our best seder, and definitely the best for thinking on our feet.

Wednesday

Early morning bus to Vitebsk, where Hayley and Josh both have family from. We led another seder for seniors, which also had no haggadot for the 40 or so people there, although everything else was set up beautifully. During the meal several Orthodox students around our age came in, and apparently had been watching our seder. They were on a similar program, and wanted to talk to us and say hello. It was an interesting moment where we couldn’t decide whether to feel the sharing of community or very checked up on. We also visited the Chagall House museum, on the street where Josh’s grandma used to live, although only that one house has been preserved; the rest of the ghetto was destroyed.

Thursday

We visited the kindergarten of the Progressive Jewish community, about 15 adorable kids from ages 3-7. We sang songs, danced, and made paper towel tye-dye afikomen covers with crayons and food coloring. From one extreme to the other: after kindergarten, we visited the Jewish cemetery. There was no record of anyone from Josh’s or Hayley’s families, probably because the cemetery was in awful condition. Many of the older gravestones couldn’t be read, and those that could were in Yiddish. The newer ones were in Russian. Hayley found one headstone/monument that turns out to probably be a family member. We said kaddish together. That night was the dinner-theater-seder. The Netzer kids put on a dramatic seder where we were mostly spectators, with a couple of parts that they had given us to explain things. There were about 75 people there. The kids did an interpretive dance of the ten plagues. There was a teenage singer who was fantastic. There was a dance party afterwards. The idea was to get the parents involved as well as the kids, but its unclear how well that worked. It was definitely entertaining though!

Friday

Pre-dawn train to Minsk, in a sleeper cabin, where we slept the whole way. Snow in Vitebsk before we left, sunny in Minsk. We met up with the other Belarus groups, and we were all on such emotional highs from the week. In the afternoon, we toured around Minsk with Ilona and saw lots of gorgeous buildings and an amazing park. In the evening, instead of Shabbat services we had yet another seder, with the Minsk Netzer group which is also Ilona’s community. They were incredibly well-prepared for us, and I thought it was the best seder meal of the trip. We played seder-bingo and had an afikomen hunt reminiscent of those at Herb’s house. There were at least three of them by the end, and I think more that were never found. Later that night we went on a night tour to the monument for all the fallen soldiers of WWII.

Saturday

We started at the holocaust memorial, a small area of a mass grave which now also has a small memorial. We were there with the rabbi and some members of the community. Then we went to services, which were familiar at times, and different at times. The afternoon was free, and we did lots of just walking around and seeing the sites. In the evening we had a cantorial concert with area cantors and HUC student Melanie performing beautifully! We then had a closing dinner, in a religious school classroom, where different community members thanked us for everything we had done, and we all went around and told assorted stories and meaningful experiences. Later that night me, Josh, Hayley, Ilona, and a friend of Ilona’s had an ice cream party in one of our hotel rooms.

Sunday

We relaxed all morning, and then ten minutes before heading to the airport, Ilona surprised us by showing up to say goodbye! It was so nice that she made the effort to come back for one more hug, because we really had such a great time with her, and it would not have been the same trip without her. Then we spent way too long at the Minsk airport, flew to Vienna and met back up with groups from Ukraine and St. Petersburg, and flew back to Tel Aviv, arriving in the middle of the night. We were all somewhat relieved to be back in Israel, and shocked to realize how little time we have left here.

Throughout the trip, there were zillions of conversations with Ilona and some of her friends about differences between life in Belarus and in America (and Israel). We talked about schooling, relationships, communism, government, television, and so much more. Between these conversations and all the questions from the community members, we covered a lot of pretty deep ground!

Whew! That’s as short a summary as I can do. I’m working on narrowing down the pictures too, and hopefully tonight they’ll be up as well!

Grandma: safe travels and I’ll see you in a few days!! Everyone else...I'll be home in less than 5 weeks! Wow.