Reflection on the Past Week or So

I've received more than a few messages in the last week asking if I'm safe, how things are here, what is actually going on, and if I want to come home yet.
The short answer: I was/am completely safe, things are good, on-going rocket fire (which has now thankfully stopped), and no, I don't want to come home yet.
The long answer:
Since last weekend in Acco, we reconvened with our group in Zichron Ya'acov, where the ED of Yahel lives. We then took a bus to Kibbutz Hanaton, a kibbutz associated with the Conservative Judaism movement. The north is green and beautiful, and it didn't seem that we were in Israel anymore. We originally were supposed to have a seminar in the north next week on community, and luckily, we were able to just move it up one week. While we kept watch on the news, we used the time away from Gedera in the best way possible.
Our topic during the seminar was community, and we visited the Druze community along with exploring the kibbutz where we were staying and two more kibbutzim. The Druze follow a monotheistic religion, and they do not have claim to any land, per se. Our guide served in the Israeli army for more than a decade and was committed wholeheartedly to protecting Israel. There are Druze communities in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan that would serve in those armies, too. Our guide for the day told us about the community and the work his organization does in the city of Mughar, which is similar to work that Friends by Nature does with the Ethiopian Israeli community, in an effort to combat at-risk behavior among youth and to instill a sense of pride in Druze youth. Our guide's family ran an olive farm, and we had the opportunity to not only eat a delicious meal at an olive farm, but we also got to harvest some olives ourselves! To do this, you use a stick to hit the branches while the olives fall to the ground onto a tarp. It was hard work!
On Wednesday (my birthday), we traveled with a tour guide throughout the north to look at the history of kibbutzim in Israel and see an urban kibbutz. We started the day at a cemetery where pioneers of the kibbutz movement were buried, many of whom died under tragic or sad circumstances. It overlooked the Kinneret, which was beautiful. We visited the first kibbutz in Israel and an urban kibbutz. The urban kibbutz differed from the traditional idea of a kibbutz that we know, and the individuals were passionate about social justice in Nazareth Illit. They were looking to move into one building, but currently live in rented apartments throughout the community. Smaller groups of about 10 people share money and work together to create a smaller intentional community. There is a total of about 80 people in the kibbutz. I found this discussion incredibly intriguing, and I liked the idea of an intentional community.
After harvesting beets for food donations and taking a bike ride through the country, we spent a peaceful and restful Shabbat also on Kibbutz Hanaton. Even so, I'm glad to be back in Gedera. The week away gave me a lot to think about - not only because of the rockets, the bus bombing, and my birthday, but also I was able to read books from the library and enjoy seeing a different part of the country. While learning about intentional communities, I was also prompted to think about our own intentional community. We have problems, but we also have strength, and I think our commitment to success this year in Gedera (regardless of how we define success) helps us work through our problems, even when it's rough. Being a part of an intentional community isn't easy. If it was easy, social change would probably come about much quicker.

Olive Farm

Kinneret

 

Sunset on our bike ride

Sunset on our bike ride

Things change so quickly

We first heard sirens on Saturday, November 10. They weren't directly in Gedera, but just south, where a rocket landed in I believe Gan Yavne or near the highway near us. We huddled into the safe room, even though we hesitated at first because we weren't sure what it was. Even though we had had the test the week before and talked about it, you still aren't sure if what you hear is the siren. Since then, there were more rockets fired at southern Israel, and we followed the news to see what was going on. We were shaken, but thought things were okay since we were on the periphery of the zone deemed to be targets for the rockets.

On Wednesday, we traveled to Jerusalem for the Sigd celebration. My blog about that will be up on the Yahel blog early next week (I will link to it). After getting back to Gedera, we heard about Operation Pillar of Defense. Southern cities of Sderot, Beer Sheva, and Ashkelon, along with cities closer to us like Gan Yavne, Kiryat Malachi, and Ashdod, have been hearing sirens and suffering from rockets. Numbers of rockets falling in Israel are cited at 120 just last week and over 800 since the beginning of the year.

Wednesday night, we didn't really think about what was going on south of us, but sometime after 11pm on Wednesday we heard another siren. We went back into the safe room. It stopped after less than 30 seconds but our program coordinator said to stay for at least 10 minutes after the sirens stopped. We were better prepared this time, but still unnerved. My adrenaline was rushing that night and I stayed up longer than I wanted to, though I was tired. That night, we could hear a lot of Air Force airplanes going over head. Gedera is next to an Air Force base. At 6am, I woke up to the sound of an airplane and checked the news, then finally went back to sleep around 7. We were woken to the sound of louder sirens at around 8:15 and went into the safe room. Those were the Gedera sirens, but nothing fell near us. We were scheduled to have learning sessions at the house (a lively discussion on Zionism went as planned but our second was cancelled). We heard more sirens again later that morning and booms that were probably the sound of the Iron Dome shooting down rockets, but they were definitely farther away. We were tense, mainly because every sound outside was perceived to be a siren, even when they weren't.

MASA and our program staff made the decision to have us leave the area as a precaution, since we didn't know what was going to happen and we were in the so-called grey zone. MASA programs south of us had been evacuated already. I'm now staying in Akko and we are waiting to hear what happens next.

Here are my thoughts on the situation:
1. The media in the US is so skewed. It keeps talking about Israeli aggression, but only down at the bottom of the article, if even, do they mention rockets coming from Gaza.
2. Things are more complicated than they seem. Yes there are issues from and on both sides, but please don't see one side as being completely correct or completely wrong. I have tons of questions and some skepticism around news reports, but I also know what has happened here in the last few weeks.
3. Now that rocket fire from Gaza has been reaching closer to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I think this will be a bigger thing than we had anticipated. Even so, I want my friends reading this from outside of Israel to know that rockets coming to Israel are not targeted in certain places. It isn't like they are pointing rockets at military bases, etc. The IDF is at least trying to take out ammunition stockpiles. The sad thing is that the rockets are appearing to be launched from areas with high population density.
4. I'm hoping that things calm down soon. I'm concerned for our friends in Gedera and I don't want to leave Israel yet.

Feel free to email me or message me with any questions about what is going on here. If you are interested in reading the news, check international news sources, such as ynet news, Times of Israel, and others. Always check multiple sources to see what the facts are and read critically.

עורית Hebrew, Zionism, and Identity

Hebrew is one of the two official languages in Israel. It is the language of the Jews, the holy language, and the ONLY "dead" language in the world to be resurrected as a spoken language. It is also inherently Zionist. When the first immigrants started coming to Israel, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was one of the proponents of Hebrew instruction in school, and apparently it was to help make a distinction between Israel and the Diaspora.

I learned basic Hebrew in Hebrew School growing up, mainly the letters and enough to be able to read prayers during services, though the transliteration was the most helpful. For a long time, I could say I read Hebrew, but I didn't know what I was reading (still don't most of the time). Over the years, prayer books having English and transliteration became more important and I frequently only knew prayers well enough to follow along with the transliteration, singing the tune by memory and getting help with the words from transliteration.

As I've grown older and started to explore Judaism more, Hebrew has become more important for me to know and to understand. Modern Hebrew is different from Classical Hebrew, but I feel that it will be helpful regardless. Since coming to Israel, I started thinking about the political implications of speaking Hebrew, and I've started to learn more about Zionism. Zionism defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel." The definition on Wikipedia states, "Zionism is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture that supports a Jewish nation state in territory defined as the Land of Israel. Zionism supports Jews upholding their Jewish identity and opposes the assimilation of Jews into other societies and has advocated the return of Jews to Israel as a means for Jews to be liberated from anti-Semitic discrimination, exclusion, and persecution that has occurred in other societies." I'm slowly learning about Zionism and its controversies. I spoke recently with a friend about opposition to Zionism on the basis of how problematic nationalism is, but I also have spoken with people about the importance of maintaining Jewish identity and culture(s). For me personally, I know my Jewish identity is very important to who I am as a person, and I want Judaism to be a source of strength and community for myself and my future family. However, I don't think that it is a problem for Jews to live in the Diaspora, and in fact, I think it is beneficial for the both us Jews and the world. Israel has its place in the world, but so do Jews living in the United States, Argentina, Australia, and South Africa.

Throughout my time here in Israel, I think I will be learning more and more about Zionism and figuring out my own beliefs on the topic. It is controversial and it is not perfect. My knowledge of written and spoken Hebrew may be political, but it also contributes to my Jewish identity. Essentially, a question I hope to continue to explore is, what are the political implications of being Jewish and maintaining an outwardly Jewish identity in this world, both in Israel and in the Diaspora (another political term)?