Yom Reeshon

Rachel: Am I really a student again? Reality is here. After weeks (and weeks) of moving, packing, unpacking, repacking, schlepping, settling, acclimating, orienting and a few free meals, school has finally begun. Well, sort of… today was our first day of ulpan (an intensive six-week summer Hebrew program) for HUC students to prepare us for our formal studies which commence in the fall. I’ve definitely been dreading this day; the anticipation has been overwhelming. I’m in kitah gimmel – the middle class – not the most basic and certainly not ready to translate Hebrew novels (maybe next semester). Since I’ve never been in a formal Hebrew class, I spent the first 90 minutes sitting in the classroom dreaming of ways to move down a level or two. But, after a 30 minute hafsakah and a café hafuch gadol, I felt much better. Yes, it’s VERY challenging for me – I understand what the teacher’s saying but it’s fast and I can only do one thing at a time. Reading, writing and speaking at once is a challenge but it’s only day one. Another strange development is that our class has two teachers -- one teacher for Sunday and Tuesday and a different teacher on Monday and Wednesday. I’m not feeling good about this but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I’m definitely learning that a positive attitude is the best way to approach ulpan. So as we say goodbye to Shabbat and greet the new week, the speeches are over, the board of governors has left the city and now we’re like new olim – struggling to integrate into this place, to learn the language, the culture and fall in love with our history – to make it “home” for a few months and somehow translate the experience to future congregants. But for today, I will struggle through my homework, join Amy for the remaining hours of a babysitting gig and hopefully get some sleep before I do it all over again tomorrow – yom shishi, a new day.

And She's Down For the Count

Rachel was stretching on the couch yesterday morning and "threw her back out" very badly. Her lower back in the middle and on the left side has been killing her ever since. Really bad timing since orientation officially started earlier this evening and she has two very long days ahead of her. Lucky for her I have had back problems since I was a teenager, so I have been able to take care of her as much as possible. She is really frustrated and annoyed that something that has never happened to her before as happened at the absolute, well, almost absolute, worst time. She has been out twice today to go to school. While we were at the college this evening I found a stool in one of the cantorial practice rooms for her to use the next two days so she only has to move a little bit to sit and stand rather than constantly pulling herself up out of a chair. The walk to and from school isn't too bad, and we have just been taking it slow. Hopefully she will begin to see a big difference in the next few days, and if not I will force the woman who avoids going to the doctor at all costs to go see someone and get some professional help. I feel for her as I know how absolutely terrible it is to have severe back pain, and as someone who has pulled my back out several times from putting on my pants, I understand that it is extra frustrating for something so small to cause so much pain. She will be okay and will get through the week. She sure has taken care of me on so many occasions, so it is my pleasure to take care of her. In sickness and in health -- right?! So the first night of orientation was fine. SOs (significant others -- what they call all family and spouses of students -- I hate it!) are encouraged to participate as much as possible in orientation, so that is what I will do. It was a lot of mixers and activities to help us all get to know each other better. It felt a little too much like camp or grade school or freshman year of college, but then again it is a school and it is a bunch of new students who will spend lots of time together this next year. And as it is in camp, grade school and freshman year of college, I liked most people okay, I really disliked a few people and I really liked a few people. This will all get turned upside down and inside out during the year, and people will be in all sorts of different categories. I'm keeping a good perspective as best I can and am trying to have low expectations. Hey, it worked for our apartment so why not for future friends. Actually, I was just in the bathroom taking a dose of Rescue Remedy and I said to Rachel that the bottle is still half full. Now how's that for a good perspective?!

P!nk Video -- Dear Mr. President

I have loved the song Dear Mr. President for a very long time now, and I just saw a video of P!nk performing it at Wembley Stadium on Israeli MTV. So if you know it, watch it anyway and pass it along to others, and if you don't know it, well, do the same. Her album version features the Indigo Girls and is equally awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugH5MUNNL0c

Rachel Already Makes the Jerusalem Post, and It Had Only Been One Week

The following article was published in the Jerusalem Post a few weeks ago and finally became available online. The day after the Jerusalem Pride parade (see previous blog post) we had our first Shabbat in Jerusalem and spent an evening with a very nice group of people. We met Adina and spoke with her about the parade and our reactions to everything. Well, she quoted Rachel in the article that she wrote that weekend for the JPost. And she has said that she would like to do a story on the two of us as she finds us to be very interesting people. So I'll let you know if that ever happens. Enjoy the article.

Setting the record straight on gays

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ADINA COHEN, THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 28, 2007

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They snuck through barricades, they were strip-searched by the police and they were nearly arrested more than once. No, this is not a description of terrorists in an airport.

When Hebrew University students Isaac and Shlomo wanted to demonstrate their solidarity with the Jerusalem parade in 2006, police prevented them from entering parade grounds. Their crime? Wearing kippot.

"Because we're religious, the police assumed we were there to attack," Isaac explains. "We were there to support democracy, to show that as religious Jews we support gay rights, and instead we were treated like criminals."

When the two students, both 25 at the time, first attempted to enter the parade grounds, they were taken aside into a tent and strip-searched by the police. "We agreed because they told us that after we were searched, we could go inside," says Isaac.
Their participation in the parade was not a matter of personal grievance, but of idealism, explains Isaac, saying that he was determined to demonstrate his support of a marginalized community.

When police prevented the two from joining the parade, Isaac says he felt "hurt. I felt betrayed by the system, that they made assumptions about us [religious people] ... that they didn't allow us to support the same people that they were trying to protect."

"This year, I wore a hat to cover my kippa, and they let me in," he adds.

It's no secret that the gay pride parade is made all the more controversial by its setting in Jerusalem, one of the religious centers of the world, as many perceive the parade as an affront to religious intolerance of homosexuality
When asked about the incident, Micky Rosenfeld, spokesman for the Jerusalem Police, told In Jerusalem, "There have been no reports [of strip-searches]... Any physical searches would have been carried out by a private company, not by the police."

Last year's gay pride parade saw heated protests by haredim, which likely affirmed the need for strict security at this year's parade,
On a rooftop on King George Avenue, overlooking one of the major checkpoints during the parade, a group of yeshiva boys danced and sang religious songs at the top of their lungs.

"It's supposed to be a tikkun [correction]," explains Isaac, who is yeshiva-educated. "They [religious protesters] mean for their actions to somehow counteract the parade."

Even as some of their co-religionists danced on rooftops in protest against the parade, Isaac and others joined the parade in support of it.

Hebrew University student Josh Frankel, who was recently granted a rabbinical scholarship by the Wexner Foundation, says his support of the parade as a religious Jew has to do with acknowledging the existence of homosexuality in all sectors of society.

"It's easy for people to dismiss homosexuality as Tel Avivian, as secular and as licentiousness. But it's not, it's reality, and it's everywhere - in the religious world, and in Jerusalem."

The parade is necessary, he explains, because it breaks the conspiracy of silence by which so many religious homosexuals live. "Homosexuality is invisible," he says, noting that many homosexuals, particularly in the religious community, hide their sexual orientation out of shame or fear of public condemnation, and choose, instead, to lead a double life.

"The parade forces a conversation - even if the reactions are negative," Frankel adds. "It's important that people recognize that homosexuality isn't something that exists 'over there' - it's here [too]."

For Debbie Houben, a recent immigrant from Boston, her support of the parade doesn't clash with her religious ideals. "For me it's not contradictory," she says. "I don't see being religious as having to do with going or not going [to the parade]... I separate people and religion.

"We should support Jews regardless [of sexual orientation]. I believe in loving all Jews," she adds.

"If people ask why these gay people need to parade around, I say 'why do I need to parade around with my lulav and etrog?'"

Similarly, Sarah, a Columbia University student visiting Jerusalem at the time of the parade, saw no conflict between her religious beliefs and attending the parade. It was only after visiting her religious brother in the city that Sarah encountered a clash of belief systems.

"He saw my sticker from the parade and was horrified," she says. "Until then it didn't occur to me that it might offend him."

Most of the interviewed attendees agreed that the parade was "tame."

Rachel Joseph Marrah, a married gay woman from Washington, DC, who is studying to be a rabbi at Hebrew Union College, observed that the parade was small and quiet in comparison to the parades in the US capital.

That smallness, however, seemed to her to be a sign of struggle. "It seemed brave to me," she says.

Houben, on the other hand, expressed disappointment in the subdued nature of the parade. "I know that it's Jerusalem but gay pride of any sort is much more flamboyant or loud or naked," she says with a laugh. "There were more straight people than gay people."

Flamboyant or not, Frankel believes that the parade serves an important purpose. "I don't expect every rabbi to say that homosexuality is OK - they should just be made to see that it's a reality," he says. "If nothing else, they should understand the pain and suffering that gay people in the religious community are experiencing, the struggles that they face."

But for many, that understanding might be a long time in coming.

When asked why he chose to remain anonymous for this article, Isaac says: "Last year when the parade came up in my parents' home, my father was very upset by it. While I support the cause I don't have to... fight the battle in my household.

I don't feel it's worth the family tension."
Still, he adds, "I don't think there should be tension; the first tenet of being religious is how we treat other people."

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This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1182951037085&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[ Back to the Article ]

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Copyright 1995-2007 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/

I Really Meant It When I Said I Would Post Everyday...

...except that I've been sick since Sunday and kind of out of commission. Plus, Sam and Dori are still here so I am busy with them. I plan to get a few subject specific posts out in the next few days and really play catch up starting Sunday. I'm also working on new photo albums but am dealing with a few kinks there as well. And oh yeah -- I have numerous short video clips of the David Broza Sunrise Masada concert which I will figure out how to get to all of you. Thanks for your patience!

I Have My Days and Nights Mixed Up...

...except that in Israel, people are out late into the night, and we have gotten used to that schedule already, so I'm perfectly average. Folks eat dinner late and walk around a lot or get drinks or coffee. And Thursday nights, like tonight, are the equivalent to Saturday nights in cities stateside, so people are definitely out late. I have always had the tendency to be a night owl, and that tendency is thriving here. Either I'll try and change my pattern or just go with it, be productive with it and be happy that for this year, at least, I can for the most part be up late and sleep a little late if that is what my body wants. My in-laws, Rachel's parents Sam and Dori, arrived from Berlin this evening. They are staying for 10 days. We haven't planned much except for Shabbat. They are very low key and flexible, so I know we will do fun things and eat good food, but we'll just figure it out as we go. A trip to Ikea is definitely going to happen! I went out today alone for the first time and did well. I have a really, really, really bad sense of direction, and it is frustrating both Rachel and I immensely. I walked to Ben Yehuda because I needed to go to a bookstore to buy a book for Rachel's classmate whose daughter turned 1 today. I was very drawn to the cover of a particular book and asked a woman what it means in English. She showed me the inside of the front cover where the title was written in English. I of course have forgotten what it said, but working with the title and great illustrations I was able to see that it is an adorable story about a baby mole who tries to capture the moon. When I paid for the book, I told the woman that I would come back in a few months and be able to read some of the titles myself. She just looked at me and obviously could have cared less, but I realized as soon as I said it that I had created a good challenge for myself. I need to start ulpan before the end of the summer, and I need to apply for grant money and start taking classes at the Conservative yeshiva. I want to go to Hebrew University and inquire about taking a social work class, and I really want someone from Crossroads to respond to my emails because I really want to volunteer there regularly. Who says no to or ignores someone offering to work for free?!?!? My new thing, thanks to Rachel, is to tell people when they ask what I will be doing this year that I plan to surf a lot. The question has already gotten quite old and annoying. We plan to go to services tomorrow evening and then have Shabbat dinner at our apartment, just the 4 of us. It will be so nice to have access to a car for 10 days. We plan to run lots of errands that involve buying big things that we can't typically carry. Sam and Dori brought me my favorite Haribo gummies from Berlin. Now people who visit us will really know if I like them or not based on whether or not I share gummies with them. We are really looking forward to the sunrise concert at Masada this weekend. We're none sure how we will stay awake, but we are all excited nonetheless. The fact that it is now past 2am is definitely ridiculous, but I hadn't posted anything today and I promised myself I would try to do it at least daily. This was random, but that is how my brain often works, so this is what I give you this early morning.

Our 1st Shabbat in Jerusalem

We arrived in Jerusalem late in the day on Tuesday June 19th. After settling in that evening and the following day and evening, we realized that Shabbat was upon us. Luckily, the Wexner Fellowship, that Rachel is a part of has fostered in its fellows the need to take care of one another. One of Rachel's colleagues who has been living in Jerusalem for 8 years but is leaving at the end of the summer to begin seminary invited us to his house for Shabbat dinner. We planned to go to Kol Haneshama (the progressive synagogue) with another student, but we were under the impression that services begin 20 minutes after candle lighting, so we were planning on 7:30. Greg called at 5:45 and said that he checked the website and it starts at 6:15. None of us had showered so we scrambled to get ready and arrived at services towards the end of the t'fillah. It is a very nice shull, and there were a lot of people there. Apparently once a month Open House, the GLBT group in Jerusalem, holds services after the main service. We did not go because we had plans but we would like to see what it's like next month. A friend of ours from DC happened to be there so we got to spend a little time with him. We were under the impression that Friday night services are long at this shull and started later so we told our friend we would be at his apartment at 9:30. Well, we were finished by 7:30 but could not call because our friend is Orthodox and observant, so we hung out with our DC friend until we left to walk to dinner. There were 8 other people crammed in a small room, and the table was an old door. We said blessings and shared a very nice meal together. The company was great! Everyone there except for us consider themselves "Flexadox" meaning they are socially progressive Modern Orthodox folks. We had great conversations and Rachel and I felt very comfortable there. We didn't leave until after 1am and a group of us walked together. It is amazing how quiet and peaceful Jerusalem is on Shabbat. There is usually a lot of traffic, honking and construction noise, but on Shabbat that is mostly gone. Peace and quiet on Shabbat is definitely something we can get used to. We exchanged numbers with some people, and we actually just got a phone call today from a couple who want to hang out with us tonight, so hopefully that will happen. I feel like our first Shabbat in Jerusalem felt so normal and comforting that it was as if we have been here for a very long time. We look forward to this experience growing and changing as the weeks progress.