Birthright...the Second Half

To those readers out there....assume that there are some of you although my comments sections seems to suggest otherwise...here's the second installment to the Birthright adventure. Hopefully this one will be a little more coherent seeing as I'm not on a computer that will log me off after a proscribed time.

Just a warning to some. I was asked to add more thoughts on my trip here and as so have added some lengthy diatribes on certain issues. Some may not agree with my views or opinions, and that is fine. Read what you will...take from it what you want...and leave what you choose. Also, this entry is quite long and there are no pictures to break up the text. So feel free to skim or stop when you've had enough.

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The second half of the Birthright trip I enjoyed more than the first half because we spent more time looking into the history of Israel and visiting sites of historic value. Many of this lead to thought provoking conversations.

Monday was a very emotional day for many, if not all, of the participants on our trip. The morning began with a visit to the Mount Herzl Cementary. This is were all of the soldiers, diplomats, ministers, presidents, and other members of the elite and patriotic are laid to rest. Chen, our trip guide showed us many of the different tombs and related the stories that made up the lives and deaths of certain individuals. There are many National heroes that no one outside the country has even heard of before. We went and visited a memorial to sailors that were lost at sea, Polish Jews that were killed fighting wars for Israel and during WWII and culminated the morning at the resting spot of Theodor Herzl.

Herzl was the father of the Zionist movement. He wrote a book in 1895 called The Jewish State in which he wrote his reasons for the need for a National state for Jews. A state were they could be safe from persecution and live peacefully and free from oppression. He was instrumental in creating the state of Israel itself, being the one to broker the land deal and determine where to purchase that land. The Israeli citizens pay homage to Herzl every year by ending their Independence day parade in front of his final resting spot.

The cemeteries in Israel, or at least this one and the other one that we visited the day before have a different feel to them than American cemeteries. At Mt. Herzl all of the soldiers receive an above ground counterpart to their grave that is a rectangle about 6 by 3 feet. The tops of each are equipped with hoses that allow plants or flowers to grow on each particular tomb itself. The respective family members for each decease member can added flowers, plants, pictures, candles, etc...whatever they want to adorn the site. Each is its own enclosed memorandum to a lost one.

There are two traditions that I liked that I saw in both cemeteries. The first is that there are always a few stones or bricks that stick out from all the sides of any tomb and the second is that to honor a departed person you put a rock or stone on their tomb instead of flowers. The reasoning behind the first is that is shows that that tomb is not definite. It is not complete or perfect and therefore the death is not a complete ending...not a finality. The second, the stones, are laid on the tomb instead of flowers, because stones do not die. They will remain forever and therefore the thoughts/homage that those stones represent will forever remain.

The morning was incredibly solemn and provided a lot of food for thought. To compound the feeling and make the tears flow more freely or the thoughts muse a little more, we visited Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in the afternoon. Yad Vashem was created as a project determined to uncovered the names and lives of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. So far they have reached the half way point. In approximately 60 years, the identities and lives of only half of the victims have been been unearthed. But that leaves another 3 million lost souls. The projects will continue until every names is accounted for, but with the number of Holocaust survivors and other living members of that time period passing away in mass, the resources are being depleted.

The Memorial is itself a museum that is dedicated to the Victims and displays the horrors that were forced upon them. This museum was very powerful, portraying an image of a once happy group of people that were first ostracized from their communities, then rounded up, enslaved, tortured, and eventually exterminated. The museum does a great job of visualizing these horrors, but I was disappointed that it only glancingly paid tribute to the other million or two people that were exterminated that weren't Jewish. Being Jewish myself, I understand the impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish race and that they, above all, were victimized, but that doesn't mean that the lives and deaths of the other victims: the Gypsies, Political prisoners, Homosexuals, etc...were any less meaningful.

Tuesday was the start of our and the Israeli soldiers' Mifgash experience. This is where active soldiers that are currently on tour take a short leave to spend time with us. We acquired 8 officers that were all between the ages of 19 and 22. Its weird to think that an entire army is being commanded primarily by those many would consider to be adolescents. In this country it is mandatory for all (with a few exceptions) citizens to go to the army after they graduate High School. Girls are required to serve two years and boys, three. This enhanced/forced growing up makes the Youth of Israel more mature than their American cohorts. Even though some of the soldiers that were on our trip were 5 or 6 years younger than some of the Birthright participants, you couldn't tell. They were in some ways more mature than we were. Is it a good thing to force your children to lose their innocence and naivete so early in life? At 18, 19, 20...in the US students are leaving home for the first time. They are going to college, drinking, partying, doing stupid shit. But here, here they are training, learning to fire weapons and to kill. It puts a different spin on life lessons, doesn't it?

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I felt that I line was in order to separate such a heavy section from some not so heavy content.

With soldiers in tow, we headed to Old Jerusalem. This city is amazing. It is divided into four different sections by people: the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter. We only visited the Jewish Quarter as we were short on time and that prejudice that I'd been seeing all week paid another visit as we strongly urged not to venture into the other sectors. Em and I are going to go back later in the week and explore more fully. There are some many alleyways and little shops, homes, schools crammed into nooks and below street level apartments. The group visited the Western Wall and we put our own prayers into the cracks of this monument to faith.

Old Jerusalem is interesting in that is it claimed as a Holy Place by the Jewish, the Christians, and the Muslims. All three find this city to be sacred and as such you end up with a hodge-podge of symbolism and activity. From the roof tops you can see Mosks, Churches and synagogues. Some inhabitants wear black clothing, some have head coverings, some dress as you and I would, some are accepting of others, some are not. It to live in this city must be both amazing and tenacious at the same time.

Wednesday was the day that I had been looking forward to for the whole week. This was "Dig for a Day." I had been eagerly anticipating what it would be like to participate in an archaeological endeavor in another country. As it turned out, the experience was lacking. We were 45 minutes late for the dig and everything that we did was rushed and not explained well. I think that if we had been able to spend and entire day at the site instead of just and hour and a half, it would have been more meaningful and the other participants might have gotten more out of the experience, but I am in the minority on this. Many students had their fill of dirt and dust.

When we first arrived we were lead on a merrily tour down the rabbit hole into the subterranean homes of the dwellers that lived in this area 2500 years ago. To build their homes above ground they carved the bricks from the earth, therefore creating caverns and tunnels systems under the city. These spaces they them occupied or utilized in addition to the homes built above ground.

The actual digging that we got to do consisted of 10 minutes of collecting soft clay-like dirt and 10 minutes of screening it. Many of the Birthrighters thought that the whole thing was staged because they were finding a lot of pottery and even a few almost complete vessels. Apparently the site have been graverobbed the night before and the archaeologists were trying to acquire as much materials as they could that day before they could be robbed again the next night. It seemed like there wasn't much structure to the dig. I'm so used to everything being orderly...you need to make precise measurements and go down level, check the strata, PD artifacts, separate different types of artifacts, etc. Here, the entire chamber is on single stratum, all artifacts are thrown together, no pictures in situ are taking, and whatever isn't deemed valuable is either given or thrown away. It's like the complete anti-thesis to American Archaeological method.

After the dig, we rounded ourselves back up and headed for the south and the desert. We visited the grave site of David Ben-Gurion who was essentially the father of agriculture in the southern wasteland part of Israel and the father of Kibbutzimism. He was the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister of Israel for many years.

From this monument, we headed to the Bedouin tent, which was to be our home for that evening. The Bedouins lead us on a short camel ride, which turned out to be long enough. Those things are not comfortable to sit on at all and many of us were walking a little bow-legged for the next day. Dima and I named our camel Meshuganah which basically means crazy. It kind of did what it wanted including standing up and sitting down when it felt like it. That and it kept trying to kiss the girl in front of us's butt. That was funny.

The Bedouins told us a very condensed version of their history and culture and provided us with sweetened tea and sludge black coffee (Em loved that) before presenting a traditional dinner. It was probably one of the best dinners that we had the whole time even though the food really wasn't that different than what we'd been having all week. I think it was the atmosphere, eating on pillows on the floor, surrounded by 100s of Birthrighters, that made it better.

This was the night that many people didn't sleep at all. We had to wake up at three in the morning to go to Masada to see the sun rise and therefore many of the participants decided it wasn't worth it to go to bed at all. The Bedouins helped them stay up be providing entertainment in the form of stories, juggling, magic and music. I watched a bit, but unlike my counterparts I gave into the pull of Morpheus.

Three AM wake up, four AM on the bus, 5 AM hike, 5:45 AM sunrise. We hiked to the top of Masada (going up the easy side) to watch the sun break free of the horizon and light up the morning. Masada is another Holy place in Israel. It is the site where 960 some Jews committed suicide rather than be enslaved by the Romans. Masada was a Roman fort that was captured by a few surviving members of a Jewish Knife gild. They lived there for 200 years and succeeded in keeping the Romans from re-acquring the ruins back and in making the Romans think that their were more people and more powerful people living there than there really were. In the end, Rome sent 15,000 soldiers to reclaim the land and when the Jews realized there were outnumbered they martyred themselves so that the Romans would not be victorious.

The hike down from this historic site involved a mile trek and 700 stairs. By the end non of us every wanted to see a stair again .

We spent the rest of the day at the beach. But not just any beach. This was the Dead Sea, the saltiest body of water in the world, and oily as hell to boot. It was so weird to float, because it was so viscous and felt like warm oil. But it combined with the mud bath that I had has made my skin nice and soft the last few days.

Friday was our last real day of programming. We spent the day viewing different sites in Tel Aviv (which means Old and New/Modern). Tel Aviv was the first completely Jewish city to be built. 60 Family purchased some desert sand dunes from the Arabs that were living there at the time, assigned lots, and the city was born. The city expanded rapidly after the Holocaust when millions flooded the area looking for refuge.

We visited Independence Hall and learned how the Israeli Declaration of Independence was created in less than 24 hours and how the ceremony to announce it was only 32 minutes long. This took place at 4:00 PM May 14th, 1948, right before the beginning of Shabbot. Israel is the only boarderless country in the world.

From the Independence Hall we moved over to Rabbi Yitzhak Rabin Square. This is the Square where Rabbi Rabin gave his final speech on Peace before he was assassinated in what many consider to have been a conspiracy to prevent the loss of Jewish land and the peace between Israel and its neighbors.

Friday night began our second Shabbot in Israel and Saturday was a day of rest and goodbyes. Three quarters of our groups said farewell and headed back to their lives in the States, and a few of us remained to begin further explorations.

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A little more diatribe and thoughts on the trip as a whole.

Never have I been to an area where people are so accepting of others and at the same time so racist and prejudice towards themselves and outsiders at the same time. The People of Israel welcome all Jews from around the world and consider every Jewish person to be a member of their country, but at the same time, the country is ripe with racism. And it's not just racism or prejudice towards other races or religions, it's towards their own people. Highly religious Jews don't understand or appreciate the secular Jews and think that everyone should have more faith and belief in the Torah. Secular Jews grudgingly tolerate the Orthodox. Ashkenazic Jews and Sephardic Jews differ on most of their opinions and have the belief that they are each better than the other. Certain Jews look down on other types of Jews...Is Russian better than Arab better than American better than European? How can a country accept every Jew as one of their own if it is constantly defining one type as better than another? And once that question has been settled, there is the question of how a group of people that were victimized because of their religion and systematically destroyed, not be able to tolerate all people, regardless of there creed? Most of the people that I meet here, were lovely and wonderful people, but the all believed that one needed to marry a Jewish person, that they needed to continue to study Judaism and to pass their heritage and knowledge on to their children. In some ways I feel that some of the more Orthodox forms of thinking will eventually lead to their own blantant belief that they are the Superior race and that all others should perish. I know that this is extremist thinking and that their are people that have strong feelings about their race and/or religion in many different cultures, but that are the thoughts I have. I mean look at what happened to Rabbi Rabin. His mission in later life was to establish peace in Israel so that the citizens would not have to constantly have to be looking over their shoulder and the 1/3 of the population that was more zealous assassinated him. All because he was willing to give up some land for peace and the Torah states that land is sacred and should never be relinquished. A group of people that are willing to prevent peace in order to save land are eventually doomed.

In talking to the soldiers and to other Jews that I met on the street everyone has this view that the people in the surrounding countries are sub-par to them and that that they only want to hurt Jews and Israelis and that they are willing to hurt themselves and their own people to do so. I wonder what the story will be when I talked to people from those countries about Israelis? Hearing only one side of the story make one feel for the people that tell you their woes, but how do those woes compare to the other side? Both sides paint an equally ugly picture of their counterparts and I find it hard to understand why people can't just except everyone for who they are and as they are. Why must people always try to make others change to fit their molds instead of accepting that there are more than one mold out there?

The Birthright experience was a wonderful experience that I believe that ever person, Jewish or non-Jewish should experience sometime in their lives. It's important to understand your culture, your roots, your heritage. In the 10 days that I was part of this group I and my fellows travelers saw quite a lot of the State of Israel and visited many of the historic sites, touristy site, meaningful sites, and sites of propaganda. All in all I got a taste of this country that many only know about from the CNN reports that portray it as a war-torn country were people fear daily for their lives. But that's not the complete picture. Yes Israel is a war torn country. Yes there have been 25,000 terrorist attacks since the year 2000. Yes there is a tenuous peace with two of Israel's neighbors and a wire thin tolerance with it's other neighbors, but that's not everything. People still live their lives. If you sit on a front porch stoop and people watch, you'll see children laughing as they run around in the park, women gossip on park benches, old men and collegates wait together at the bus stop, cafes are filled with glisterning conversation...life goes on. People don't live their lives in fear. They know that an attack could come at any time and they might not come home in the evening, but to be constantly afraid is to never live. I admire that and I think that others need to realize that as well and if they ever have other friends or family that tell them they are going to Israel, send them with Best Wishes and not warnings or dire prophesies.

Although many of the things that Chen said during our trip annoyed me and made me think that he was praying on everyone's emotions and trying to nudge us to think as he thinks, he did say one thing that I find true, that is that whatever we do now that the trip over and now that we will be returning to our lives elsewhere, we will for years to come, and maybe forever, be mulling over and contemplating the information that we have acquire during this trip.