I just finished walking around the Old City of Jerusalem on Yom Kippur.
Jerusalem is so quiet today, the streets are nearly empty. I saw only three cars driving the road, there were far more people riding by bike. And even then, it was mostly the children. While the country is shut down for the day, the kids have free reign to play in the streets – running through the intersections without a care in the world. Continue reading
For ראש השנה (Rosh Hashanah) voyaged north to בית שאן (Beit She’an). It’s located a bit north of the West Bank and just west of the Jordan river. I should be able to say that in hebrew, but I need to practice.
Beit She’an is the Partnership 2000 sister city of my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. During the second part of the program I’ll be placed there with fellow OTZMA members, Rebecca Bigman and Lindsay Strauss. I’m very excited to live there not only because the community seems fantastic, but because they really want us there. Apparently they’ve been pushing hard to have OTZMA volunteers there for a while now. Continue reading
On Sunday, 29 August we arrived in the small beachside city of Ashkelon. We dragged our bags into our rooms in the fifth, sixth or seventh floors third tower of Beit Canada absorption center. I live in apartment 3602 which has a wonderful view of the city. I have to admit, I’m jealous of those who have a view of the ocean instead.
Just to fill you in, an absorption center is a place (a gated set of apartments, really) where new immigrant families can live while they adapt to being Israeli. They learn hebrew through Ulpan, and focus on acquiring skills so they can be productive members of the workforce. Just like the עולים חדשים [olim chadashim] – new immigrants, our OTZMA group is also taking ulpan. So far we’ve had only two days. I’m still learning my א-ב [aleph-bet]. Continue reading
Our arrival in Israel was fun, exciting and personally interesting, but not really all that noteworthy for others. The first few days were mainly an extended get-to-know-you kind of thing. Which is awesome, don’t get me wrong. I just doubt you want to hear too much about how great the group is, that we got to spend a few hours in Jerusalem at night or that I was quickly reminded that Israel contains an insanely massive population of cats. Seriously, they’re everywhere. Continue reading
