I'm not a Potterhead. I'm serious. I don't collect anything except for the books. I don't even own any of the DVDs. I love JK Rowling's writing- she is truly a gifted artist. Yes, I have read the "sequel" which I liked okay.
Yet, as I'm sitting through my "Literature of the Holocaust" course, I am getting freaked out each week. The novels, as my professor warned, would get more difficult as we progress. Well, last week, we read Israeli novelist David Grossman's See Under: Love. It's a beautiful story that should be read at least twice. It's a difficult book because of the writing structure (not just because it's translated from Hebrew). It's full of magic realism. In class, we began covering the usual themes of Holocaust literature. The more we discussed the themes of good vs. evil and language, the more I thought about Harry Potter.
For example, there is a long chapter where Wasserman, the house Jew, and Nigel, the SS officer, discuss Wasserman's story-telling. Wasserman manages to convince Nigel that humanity exists in this world and what Nigel was doing out there to the laborers was just pure evil and thoughtless, and heartless. Nigel commits suicide because he couldn't believe what he was doing and accept the fact that humanity exists. Wasserman wins by telling the story of love between him and his wife, and his actual story characters. Love saves Wasserman's life, just as many other Jews', their faith in humanity.
And of course, the Nazis lose.
Seeing the power struggle between Wasserman and Nigel completely reminds me of the scene between Voldemort and Harry in the Goblet of Fire where their wands clash. Harry triumphs because he saw the love in the characters whom Voldemort killed in this scene. Voldemort killed innocent people who believed in humanity and Harry decides to fight to preserve that. Also, people speculated for a long time why Harry survived. They believed that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One. But Dumbledore points out that Voldemort was defeated because of Harry's mother's love saved Harry and defeated Voldemort when he attempted the death curse on them. Harry goes on in the rest of series with this belief that his mother saved his life and uses humanity and love as a weapon to fight off Voldemort. Before Goblet of Fire, Harry survived their duels through wit and talent.
There's the issue of racism in Harry Potter as well.
Voldemort represents Hitler. They believe in racial purity. They have specific categories. Any drop of non-pure blood is considered inferior. Both of them have a drop of non-pure blood but they don't make an issue of it at all (or rather, just makes them believe the importance of having pure blood in order to keep the rest of the world from becoming deformed and crazy like them). The terms are extremely offensive and marginalize the targets- mixed blood and inferior blood people (In Harry Potter, that means Mudbloods and Muggles, in Nazism, Jews all around). In Harry Potter, the issue really is whether you have the blood and inherited ability to perform magic. There are mudbloods like Herimone who are exceptionally talented. There are squibs, like Argus Filch the groundkeeper at Hogwarts, who are wizards but cannot perform magic to save their lives. For Nazis, you had to be Aryan without mental or physically disablities. For them, if you were not pure and perfect, you would be detested.
Recruitment for evil deeds
In Harry Potter, we have watched Darco Malfoy struggle in school. He's a decent student but feels like a failure compared to Harry Potter and Herimone Granger. As he moves up, especially after The Order of the Phoenix, he becomes intrigued by the idea of joining Voldemort's world of Death Eaters. He also is under pressured, by self and his father, to be part of it because then he would be something, somebody. Through this line of thinking, Draco begins to fantaizes about killing Harry Potter himself. Voldemort gives him the opportunity to do so but Draco fails because he still had some sense of humanity within himself.
This parallels with the recruitment for Hitler Youth and the SS. The SS officers joined because they were just "ordinary" German citizens who didn't see a future for themselves. They wanted an opportunity to be part of something big that would change history.
Death Eaters and SS officers will tell you, if on trial, that they were just "following orders".
Yes, both groups have internal motives. They believed in purity. They hate the fact that "impure" people are highly successful in the society. Death Eaters cannnot stand Harry Potter because he "loves" mudbloods and is the sensation of the wizardry world. This is analogous to German Jews, especially the highly acclaimed scientists like Oppeheimer and Einstein.
Language of silence.
If it's one thing that I truly learned from this course and connected with this series is the use of language. In Harry Potter, there is a specific set of vocabulary that pertains to Voldemort's world. Nazis butchered German language, taking certain words and associating them with their own actions. Consequently, the population can't bring themselves to say certain words or make specific references. For example, I saw this connection in See Under: Love when Momik (the protagonist) hears specifi vocabulary of "Over There" and "Nazi beast". "Nazi beast" represents anything (in my understanding) relevant to the Nazis, most likely the whole systematic killing machine developed in death camps. They never mention Hitler, Auschwitz or Europe, or anything. This is the same for when wizards avoid naming Voldemort by his name, but only "The One Who Must Not Be Named". They never mention the three "unforgivable curses". They want to forget the horrible times when Voldemort was in full power. People rejoice when they see or hear about Harry Potter and don't ever want to talk about the past with him. (That is the beauty of the series, forcing the readers and Harry Potter to keep going in order to understand his past.)
Resistance.
I liked "Dumbledore's Army" to the Jewish resistance fighters. I see a connection between the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in The Half-Blooded Prince (one of the most amazing scenes in any of Harry Potter films). This was a somewhat failed attempt by Dumbledore's Army to kill as many Death Eaters as possible. It was heroic in a sense that they took a chance. When Harry, Herimone, and Ron drops out of school to "fight" Voldemort by finding all the Horcuxes and encounters danger in every corner, I am reminded of the Jewish partisan fighters in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. To be such a fighter, one had to be willing to face the worst.
Rowling acknowledged that she made "death" the major theme of her books. We always knew that Voldemort wanted revenge on Harry Potter but it only becomes serious when Voldemort returns to full power after Goblet of Fire. When he realizes that he didn't kill Harry just by taking his blood, he decides that in order to truly banish Harry from the world was to create a "final solution" - to kill him once for all, not to take him by alive and do something. It wasn't enough. The Nazis, once they figured out mass killings through Einsatzgruppen and gassing, death became a prevelant theme of the Holocaust literature. Elie Wiesel's Night smells of death. Once the Nazis and Voldemort figured out the "Final Solution", the rest of the story is centered around death.
These just some... rambling thoughts that went through my head during class... truly, I haven't read the books in a good while... I'm sure I can do a deep analytical paper on this. But I don't think my English professor would go for it at all. If she actually says fine, this would be the best final paper that I can ever write in my whole academic career in a sense that I would absolutely enjoy this topic.
Again, I will emphasize that I'm no Potterhead but simply that I recognize JK Rowling's incredible literary imagination that encompasses all themes of the Holocaust throughout her series.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Forgiveness
Quite a few of my friends posted ".... Please forgive me for any wrongdoings I have done..." on their status on Facebook and GoogleTalk. I'm not the one who forgives easily unless the person's touched my heart. I know that holding grudges isn't good but the feeling usually goes away and I don't think much about them unless they are brought up. There are very few people that I have a hard time forgiving because I like a lot of people who have entered in my world.
So today, I decided that the most important person whom I should ask for forgiveness is my landlady. She is still a nut. But things have normalized in the past week and I didn't see her as much as I did before. I wanted to show her that I did care (mainly to keep my deposit) and I respected her house. So while she was doing some yard work this morning, I stopped and said to her, "I just want to ask for your forgiveness for any harm I've done to you. That is all." She accepted it.
(I also reminded her a little that it's a Jewish holiday since it seemed like she already accepted my forgiveness).
Now where to go from here? I will tell my roommates tomorrow night that she is welcomed to come when Claire cooks in two weeks.
Thanks, friends, for a little social pressure. Thanks, technology, whatever would we do without you?
So today, I decided that the most important person whom I should ask for forgiveness is my landlady. She is still a nut. But things have normalized in the past week and I didn't see her as much as I did before. I wanted to show her that I did care (mainly to keep my deposit) and I respected her house. So while she was doing some yard work this morning, I stopped and said to her, "I just want to ask for your forgiveness for any harm I've done to you. That is all." She accepted it.
(I also reminded her a little that it's a Jewish holiday since it seemed like she already accepted my forgiveness).
Now where to go from here? I will tell my roommates tomorrow night that she is welcomed to come when Claire cooks in two weeks.
Thanks, friends, for a little social pressure. Thanks, technology, whatever would we do without you?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Voter's Remorse
Yes, yes, Sarah Palin was just way, way too scary for me, as a woman. I just... couldn't vote for that team so as long she refused to provide rape kits for victims. I suppose that her views of abortion and sexual health were my biggest pet peeves because her views were just anti-feminist. Women need to be protected from personal invasion.
But does Israel need to be protected from Iran? Yes. I couldn't trust Sarah Palin enough- I doubt that she even knew much about Israel and the origin of the Israeli-Arab conflict before joining McCain. Obama, however, had some sense.
These days... well... since probably May, I've been feeling this "buyer's remorse" for voting for Obama. Since Cairo speech, really. It's nice that he's succeeded in convincing Muslims to stop being "anti-American". He's got excellent speechwriters but damn, those speechwriters quietly pissed off plenty of Jews and Israelis. The Israelis and I are not happy that he has yet to visit Israel since the previous summer. Who am I kidding? I once thought he was a faithful Christian. And faithful Christians were supposed to support Israel. I think that Cairo speech hurt my affinity for Obama and changed my views of the Arabs. (I must admit that I was also stunned by a fellow Jewish Colgate aluma's decision to join the Arab side after witnessing Operation Cast Lead from Cairo). What Obama lacked to understand was that within the Israeli-Arab debate, you just could not stand on the fence. The conflict itself was too ingrained in history, very much like Russia and its national states, or China and Taiwan. With that Cairo speech, Obama officially declared his position as pro-Palestinian by sympathizing with the Palestinians' plight. Obama claimed that to be a good friend, you must be able to criticize constructively. But I disagree with this method. He basically told Israel to stop settlement building, which was the heart of Zionism. He striked me as anti-Zionist.
And that began to annoy a lot of American Jews, A whole lot of them. We're beginning to think about voting Republican next time. If Obama doesn't do something to placate American Jews before 2010 elections, we're going to see Republican controlled Senate, depending how many seats are up for election.
Norman Podhoretz's article in Wall Street Journal was pretty similar to those that I read for my American Jews and Social Justice seminar last spring. But his conclusion differed from other writers as it reflected today's events. He said, "
But does Israel need to be protected from Iran? Yes. I couldn't trust Sarah Palin enough- I doubt that she even knew much about Israel and the origin of the Israeli-Arab conflict before joining McCain. Obama, however, had some sense.
These days... well... since probably May, I've been feeling this "buyer's remorse" for voting for Obama. Since Cairo speech, really. It's nice that he's succeeded in convincing Muslims to stop being "anti-American". He's got excellent speechwriters but damn, those speechwriters quietly pissed off plenty of Jews and Israelis. The Israelis and I are not happy that he has yet to visit Israel since the previous summer. Who am I kidding? I once thought he was a faithful Christian. And faithful Christians were supposed to support Israel. I think that Cairo speech hurt my affinity for Obama and changed my views of the Arabs. (I must admit that I was also stunned by a fellow Jewish Colgate aluma's decision to join the Arab side after witnessing Operation Cast Lead from Cairo). What Obama lacked to understand was that within the Israeli-Arab debate, you just could not stand on the fence. The conflict itself was too ingrained in history, very much like Russia and its national states, or China and Taiwan. With that Cairo speech, Obama officially declared his position as pro-Palestinian by sympathizing with the Palestinians' plight. Obama claimed that to be a good friend, you must be able to criticize constructively. But I disagree with this method. He basically told Israel to stop settlement building, which was the heart of Zionism. He striked me as anti-Zionist.
And that began to annoy a lot of American Jews, A whole lot of them. We're beginning to think about voting Republican next time. If Obama doesn't do something to placate American Jews before 2010 elections, we're going to see Republican controlled Senate, depending how many seats are up for election.
Norman Podhoretz's article in Wall Street Journal was pretty similar to those that I read for my American Jews and Social Justice seminar last spring. But his conclusion differed from other writers as it reflected today's events. He said, "
What I am saying is that if anything bears eloquent testimony to the infinitely precious virtues of the traditional American system, it is the Jewish experience in this country. Surely, then, we Jews ought to be joining with its defenders against those who are blind or indifferent or antagonistic to the philosophical principles, the moral values, and the socioeconomic institutions on whose health and vitality the traditional American system depends.
In 2008, we were faced with a candidate who ran to an unprecedented degree on the premise that the American system was seriously flawed and in desperate need of radical change—not to mention a record powerfully indicating that he would pursue policies dangerous to the security of Israel. Because of all this, I hoped that my fellow Jews would finally break free of the liberalism to which they have remained in thrall long past the point where it has served either their interests or their ideals.
That possibility having been resoundingly dashed, I now grasp for some encouragement from the signs that buyer's remorse is beginning to set in among Jews, as it also seems to be doing among independents. Which is why I am hoping against hope that the exposure of Mr. Obama as a false messiah will at last open the eyes of my fellow Jews to the correlative falsity of the political creed he so perfectly personifies and to which they have for so long been so misguidedly loyal."
Thing is, many of my social values align with the Democrat Party. I strongly believe that the needy, children, and low-income families must be helped by state and federal governments. I am a large supporter of women's rights. I believe that Americans should get assistance for their education. Okay, call me socialist. I also support gay rights- whatever makes the gays happy. But I am still against abortion unless it's for stem cell research because A) teenagers are stupid and women should pay for it by carrying the baby for 9 months, B) The waiting list for adoptions are endless, and C) psychological damage from the procedure. Not because it's in the Bible.
I inherited my values from being in super-liberal academia (Smith and Michigan, anyone?), not so much from my family as researchers suggested as major contributers to children's political values. My family and I rarely discussed politics for a long time. My parents are independents although my mother tends to vote Democrat. I read a lot of humanist and socialist works when I took European history and they influenced how I wanted to envision my life. French Revolution was a great idea, seriously. I loved Rousseau's ideas of how to teach children to be worldly. And I stand by Jefferson's words that we all have the right to have "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness." If I was a colonist, I could never be a Loyalist/Tory.
Israel had never entered in my picture until this past election. When I voted in 2004, it was more of being anti-war and I was very afraid of Bush's desire to exploit civil liberties such as his National Protection Agency. In 2008 election, as I've discussed before, I was on the fence for a long time because McCain was actually pretty moderate and didn't strike me as someone who would abuse his power.
I hadn't actually thought much about my values being connected to Judaism until I took this social justice seminar. It seemed to me just a concidence. I also figured that Israel could take care of itself as long the Israelis like our Secretary of State and the State Department. And as Israel have already demonstrated, if it didn't want to listen to our President, it didn't have to unless military aid is really at stake. Like, it won't strike Iran without the aid of US military.
So what am I regretting now? Probably having this consciousness that the fact that I have a strong Jewish identity, that I align with the Democrat Party, and that I vote based on social justice issues. So that makes me appear to be aligning with the Democrat party out of American Jewish tradition. Yet, when I see Republican controlled Senate in Michigan and California, I am infuriated with their "solutions" to close the budget deficit. This is what would happen if we have total Republican control in Washington. How can Republicans cut social and educational programs at the expense of low-income and children? That's our next generation. It's true- you can take out loans for college but you can't take out loans for retirement. But why should we shortchange potential leaders?
Who am I supposed to vote for in the next election? Should we get a third party in? Should I stop factoring in Israel? After all, it IS the Congress who controls the President's ability to act- including declaring a war. That's the beauty of our check and balance system. Maybe I should focus more on keeping the Congress Democratic to ensure social justice in America while having a Republican president who can keep Israel happy. Bush did have a heck of time trying to pass anything that he really wanted once the Democrats took over in 2006. Yet, the Democrats had trouble getting themselves together (although I'd attribute to this that it's the first time in 12 years that the Democrats were in charge).
Sometimes I have a hard time believing that I am living in the United States, the land that many foreigners dream of living in. They're coming from socialist countries, not capitalist like America. I have a lot of respect for American history and traditions, which is part of why I agree with the consensus that America can never go democratic socialist like Britian and France. It's just not meant to be according to the Constitution. Health care is... another story.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Report on Summer 2009
Throughout my last day in San Francisco, I looked back to my last 3 1/2 months of summer. I still remembered my advisor's e-mail in June when I reported to her on how things were going. She was happy that I was having a very productive summer. At first I thought, "Well, I don't know... I feel like I still have plenty of downtime..." At first, it felt like being on vacation in San Francisco. Now, I realized that this summer had been productive in sense of giving my time to do my work. I tried to do something for at least 3 hours or more each day except for Fridays and Saturdays (I have been stuck on Israeli work week schedule since returning two years ago!). It might be working on my computer, getting things organized and e-mailing people about transcripts, appointments, and information. It might be taking Van Ness bus down to the library to browse a month's worth of San Francisco Chronicle. It might be on the phone, making appointments. Or preparing and thinking about my day's interview appointment. In any way, I felt that I was making steps forward to creating a thick binder full of notes to go through in September. Even in Israel, I showed up for classes everyday on time. I made sure that my second trip to San Francisco was very productive in terms of getting all the rest of the materials before I resign myself to mircofilm only access at Michigan. It wasn't always a chunk of 3 hours but just spread over the day (you know, those "start exercising by breaking up 30 minutes into 3 10 minutes workouts). I had to be very flexible in order to work around various people's schedules. So in all, I loved my workdays as I'm in "schedule-doesn't-matter-so-as-long-things-get-done" school.
I sigh with disbelief on how I made this summer so productive in comparison to the last two or three years. I was a serious bum in the last two summers in Israel and Rochester. I couldn't take an internship or a job as my sessions in Israel fell during the month of July. It certainly had been a while since I *worked* on regular hours.
I got the experience of living in a city that had once been my vacation destination as a working woman. Did I like this change? (Washington hadn't been a vacation destination as my family and I rarely ever went in the city when we visited my uncle in the suburbs.)
In many ways, yes and no. I learned to navigate San Francisco on my own, explored new neighborhoods and eateries, and experienced what it's like to live in one of the world's most expensive cities (Tel Aviv is expensive on an Israeli salary, especially with the rent). In other ways, living there diminished the excitement of going to certain places upon arrival because, well, they're there. So what?
Yet, I enjoyed learning about San Francisco Jewish heritage and what made San Francisco Jews tick. I also needed the feeling of being isolated from the East Coast, away from Yiddish influenced culture into inherently American, Californian inspired culture. Each city has its reasons to be proud of. For San Franciscans, they indeed look down upon nearly every major Pacific port city and proclaimed San Francisco to be ideal. The weather, long history since Gold Rush, low-key liberal atmosphere, and high rate of assimilation defined San Francisco. Oh yes, they love the fog. (For them, it's hellva better than rain!) I've heard critics lambasting San Franciscans and Californians for most part for living in the past and believing that their Golden Age had yet to pass (By Golden Age, I do mean the decades following Gold Rush that brought wealth to the area from industries, port shipping, and exploitation of natural resources). They said, "San Franciscans, wake up! You're in middle of a budget crisis!!!" Although there's nothing I could do about Muni and BART's woes, I could understand where San Franciscans came from with their native pride due to its early years of building a new American city.
As I progress with my project, I learn more about my paper in sense of topics it will cover. It empasses such a wide variety of topics within that without a strong framework, it will get muddled. There are number of things I will need to emphasize what this is all about.
*Jewish refugees in the United States, not only Shanghai Jews but also need to mention the Russian Jews as it was the source of anger for Shanghai Jews when they reflect on assistance from Jewish organizations. The contrast between European refugees and Soviet refugees demonstrated the change in American Jews' education and awareness of the Diaspora.
*San Francisco Jews clearly separating themselves from the rest of American Jewish population, including Los Angeles (especially Los Angeles) by identifying themselves to be free of Yiddish/European yolk, assimilated into American culture (as far as having Christmas trees), and I believe, saw Judaism as peoplehood, not religious nor cultural.
*Distance to the Pacific theater frightened all San Francisco Jews yet they shuddered a bit as they sponsored distant relatives from Germany from 1938 to 1940. "We knew something bad was happening that we had to sponsor them but we didn't know."
*Like many other Jews in America, I believe, San Francisco Jews were no exception in participating in war efforts. Their location heightened their desire to fight the Japanese and give their best efforts to help the United States win. Nazi Germany was still an enemy but war hysterics dictated their attitudes. "The Japanese attacked us! We were so afraid that they'd bomb this city..." Gradually, however, the Jews admitted that as the war dragged on, it became important to fight both fronts, not only the Pacific.
*After the war, individual San Francisco Jews turned their attention away from the aftermath of European war to focus on all the returning servicemen, return of normalcy, and building of homes in the Presidio, Richmond, Sunset, and Sea Cliff neighborhoods. Presidio had been the home of military activities. Families wanted to move out into bigger dwellings, thus this was the beginning of surburbia within the city. Also, the Jewish population became even more spread out, creating multiple bubbles that left them unaware of other neighborhood Jewish communities like Shanghai Jews in the Sunset district.
*As predicted, Shanghai Jews, when they could, maintained its refugee community as it had in Shanghai within the "ghetto". Baghdadi and Russian Jews were probably left out of the resettled community.
*Jewish migration pattern changed due to suburbia and rules of resettlement for the newcomers. Prior migration patterns should be taken note as well as many of San Francisco Jews hailed from German Jewish background. Only one family who I interviewed came after the 1906 earthquake from the East but they were still German.
This project still raises questions in which I will write all over my new whiteboard. While this project revealed interesting perspectives, I must think further how does this fit within scholarship in American history, American Jewish history, and Holocaust history.
I enjoyed every interview that I conducted with San Francisco natives and Shanghai Jews. I loved listening to Shanghai Jews' accents (mostly German, still heavy after all these years!) and admired their resilence. San Francisco natives shared their idealism and journey to their Jewish identities. I was shocked that many had grown up with Christmas trees but had to laugh afterwards because how they saw Christmas trees was how I saw them when I was growing up as well! (I did not, unfortunately, had a Christmas tree.) Sometimes it was challenging to convince San Francisco natives that their stories were important to my project because often after reading my consent form, they exclaimed, "But I didn't know anything! I knew nothing! I can't help you..." Shanghai Jews weren't easy as well as some of them were exhausted from many interviews over the years or experienced different forms of losses that made them unwilling to share at the moment. I had to use my charm to persuade them into believing that they could trust me that their stories mattered in the face of history. I knew that many Shanghai Jews would come out a-okay but I wanted to know just how difficult it was to get sympathy and assistance from American Jews as that was the point of my project.
I owe so many thanks to people who assisted me in the archives, friends of my grandparents in giving me contacts, and of course, my grandparents for providing me a bed and a kitchen.
One thing that did hit me hard was having one Shanghai Jew cancelling on me and later finding out that he was "very old and frail". I realized what Holocaust centers really meant when they say that we're "racing against time" in obtaining testimonies. I did manage to obtain testimonies from many of Shanghai Jews because they did want to talk a bit about their experiences even though I gave them the option to skip over to 1947-1948. It makes me wonder what will my job as a historian in a Holocaust museum/center will look like 20 years from now when the survivors were only small children. The world just lost the last WWI veteran and a Titanic survivor. Next will be somebody in the Russian Revolution. Soon enough, it will be the Holocaust. All we will have left are testimonies and recordings. I am extremely fortunate enough to have opportunities to interact with Nazi refugees in person so that I will never forget their voices and facial expressions as they articulated their stories in front of me.
I sigh with disbelief on how I made this summer so productive in comparison to the last two or three years. I was a serious bum in the last two summers in Israel and Rochester. I couldn't take an internship or a job as my sessions in Israel fell during the month of July. It certainly had been a while since I *worked* on regular hours.
I got the experience of living in a city that had once been my vacation destination as a working woman. Did I like this change? (Washington hadn't been a vacation destination as my family and I rarely ever went in the city when we visited my uncle in the suburbs.)
In many ways, yes and no. I learned to navigate San Francisco on my own, explored new neighborhoods and eateries, and experienced what it's like to live in one of the world's most expensive cities (Tel Aviv is expensive on an Israeli salary, especially with the rent). In other ways, living there diminished the excitement of going to certain places upon arrival because, well, they're there. So what?
Yet, I enjoyed learning about San Francisco Jewish heritage and what made San Francisco Jews tick. I also needed the feeling of being isolated from the East Coast, away from Yiddish influenced culture into inherently American, Californian inspired culture. Each city has its reasons to be proud of. For San Franciscans, they indeed look down upon nearly every major Pacific port city and proclaimed San Francisco to be ideal. The weather, long history since Gold Rush, low-key liberal atmosphere, and high rate of assimilation defined San Francisco. Oh yes, they love the fog. (For them, it's hellva better than rain!) I've heard critics lambasting San Franciscans and Californians for most part for living in the past and believing that their Golden Age had yet to pass (By Golden Age, I do mean the decades following Gold Rush that brought wealth to the area from industries, port shipping, and exploitation of natural resources). They said, "San Franciscans, wake up! You're in middle of a budget crisis!!!" Although there's nothing I could do about Muni and BART's woes, I could understand where San Franciscans came from with their native pride due to its early years of building a new American city.
As I progress with my project, I learn more about my paper in sense of topics it will cover. It empasses such a wide variety of topics within that without a strong framework, it will get muddled. There are number of things I will need to emphasize what this is all about.
*Jewish refugees in the United States, not only Shanghai Jews but also need to mention the Russian Jews as it was the source of anger for Shanghai Jews when they reflect on assistance from Jewish organizations. The contrast between European refugees and Soviet refugees demonstrated the change in American Jews' education and awareness of the Diaspora.
*San Francisco Jews clearly separating themselves from the rest of American Jewish population, including Los Angeles (especially Los Angeles) by identifying themselves to be free of Yiddish/European yolk, assimilated into American culture (as far as having Christmas trees), and I believe, saw Judaism as peoplehood, not religious nor cultural.
*Distance to the Pacific theater frightened all San Francisco Jews yet they shuddered a bit as they sponsored distant relatives from Germany from 1938 to 1940. "We knew something bad was happening that we had to sponsor them but we didn't know."
*Like many other Jews in America, I believe, San Francisco Jews were no exception in participating in war efforts. Their location heightened their desire to fight the Japanese and give their best efforts to help the United States win. Nazi Germany was still an enemy but war hysterics dictated their attitudes. "The Japanese attacked us! We were so afraid that they'd bomb this city..." Gradually, however, the Jews admitted that as the war dragged on, it became important to fight both fronts, not only the Pacific.
*After the war, individual San Francisco Jews turned their attention away from the aftermath of European war to focus on all the returning servicemen, return of normalcy, and building of homes in the Presidio, Richmond, Sunset, and Sea Cliff neighborhoods. Presidio had been the home of military activities. Families wanted to move out into bigger dwellings, thus this was the beginning of surburbia within the city. Also, the Jewish population became even more spread out, creating multiple bubbles that left them unaware of other neighborhood Jewish communities like Shanghai Jews in the Sunset district.
*As predicted, Shanghai Jews, when they could, maintained its refugee community as it had in Shanghai within the "ghetto". Baghdadi and Russian Jews were probably left out of the resettled community.
*Jewish migration pattern changed due to suburbia and rules of resettlement for the newcomers. Prior migration patterns should be taken note as well as many of San Francisco Jews hailed from German Jewish background. Only one family who I interviewed came after the 1906 earthquake from the East but they were still German.
This project still raises questions in which I will write all over my new whiteboard. While this project revealed interesting perspectives, I must think further how does this fit within scholarship in American history, American Jewish history, and Holocaust history.
I enjoyed every interview that I conducted with San Francisco natives and Shanghai Jews. I loved listening to Shanghai Jews' accents (mostly German, still heavy after all these years!) and admired their resilence. San Francisco natives shared their idealism and journey to their Jewish identities. I was shocked that many had grown up with Christmas trees but had to laugh afterwards because how they saw Christmas trees was how I saw them when I was growing up as well! (I did not, unfortunately, had a Christmas tree.) Sometimes it was challenging to convince San Francisco natives that their stories were important to my project because often after reading my consent form, they exclaimed, "But I didn't know anything! I knew nothing! I can't help you..." Shanghai Jews weren't easy as well as some of them were exhausted from many interviews over the years or experienced different forms of losses that made them unwilling to share at the moment. I had to use my charm to persuade them into believing that they could trust me that their stories mattered in the face of history. I knew that many Shanghai Jews would come out a-okay but I wanted to know just how difficult it was to get sympathy and assistance from American Jews as that was the point of my project.
I owe so many thanks to people who assisted me in the archives, friends of my grandparents in giving me contacts, and of course, my grandparents for providing me a bed and a kitchen.
One thing that did hit me hard was having one Shanghai Jew cancelling on me and later finding out that he was "very old and frail". I realized what Holocaust centers really meant when they say that we're "racing against time" in obtaining testimonies. I did manage to obtain testimonies from many of Shanghai Jews because they did want to talk a bit about their experiences even though I gave them the option to skip over to 1947-1948. It makes me wonder what will my job as a historian in a Holocaust museum/center will look like 20 years from now when the survivors were only small children. The world just lost the last WWI veteran and a Titanic survivor. Next will be somebody in the Russian Revolution. Soon enough, it will be the Holocaust. All we will have left are testimonies and recordings. I am extremely fortunate enough to have opportunities to interact with Nazi refugees in person so that I will never forget their voices and facial expressions as they articulated their stories in front of me.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Found!
My camera turned up!
That's all I have to say for today. It just seemed so random. I mean I had moved on...okay, not really when I saw my new camera in the mail. I'd rather have this old camera which is definitely better than this new one.
*smiles*
Yeah, strange things happen in Israel.
That's all I have to say for today. It just seemed so random. I mean I had moved on...okay, not really when I saw my new camera in the mail. I'd rather have this old camera which is definitely better than this new one.
*smiles*
Yeah, strange things happen in Israel.
Monday, August 3, 2009
WSJ: "Why Israel Is So Nervous"
Right on the money. I knew it all before I read this. A good summary analysis of what I encountered when I was in Israel.
![[Israel]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AM177_Israel_D_20090731195554.jpg)
Associated Press ![[Israel]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AM178_Israel_D_20090731200752.jpg)
Popperfoto/Getty Images ![[Israel]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AM179_Israel_D_20090731195726.jpg)
AFP/Getty Images
By ELLIOTT ABRAMS
The tension in U.S.-Israel relations was manifest this past week as an extraordinary troupe of Obama administration officials visited Jerusalem. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, National Security Advisor James Jones, special Middle East envoy George Mitchell and new White House adviser Dennis Ross all showed up in Israel’s capital in an effort to…well, to do something. It was not quite clear what.
Since President Obama came to office on Jan. 20 and then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 31, the main motif in relations between the two governments has been friction. While nearly 80% of American Jews voted for Mr. Obama, that friction has been visible enough to propel him to meet with American Jewish leaders recently to reassure them about his policies. But last month, despite those reassurances, both the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Anti-Defamation League issued statements critical of the president’s handling of Israel. Given the warm relations during the Bush years and candidate Obama’s repeated statements of commitment to the very best relations with Israel, why have we fallen into this rut?
Lorenzo Petrantoni
U.S.-Israel relations are often depicted as an extended honeymoon, but that’s a false image. Harry Truman, who was a Bible-believing Christian Zionist, defied the secretary of state he so admired, George C. Marshall, and won a place in Israel’s history by recognizing the new state 11 minutes after it declared its independence in 1948. Relations weren’t particularly warm under Eisenhower—who, after all, demanded that Israel, along with Britain and France, leave Suez in 1956. The real alliance began in 1967, after Israel’s smashing victory in the Six Day War, and it was American arms and Nixon’s warnings to the Soviet Union to stay out that allowed Israel to survive and prevail in the 1973 war. Israelis are no fans of President Carter and, as his more recent writings have revealed, his own view of Israel is very hostile. During the George H.W. Bush and Clinton years, there were moments of close cooperation, but also of great friction—as when Bush suspended loan guarantees to Israel, or when the Clinton administration butted heads with Mr. Netanyahu time after time during peace negotiations. Even during the George W. Bush years, when Israel’s struggle against the terrorist “intifada” and the U.S. “global war on terror” led to unprecedented closeness and cooperation, there was occasional friction over American pressure for what Israelis viewed as endless concessions to the Palestinians to enable the signing of a peace agreement before the president’s term ended. This “special relationship” has been marked by intense and frequent contact and often by extremely close (and often secret) collaboration, but not by the absence of discord.
A Relationship Marked by Friction and Warmth
U.S.-Israel relations are often depicted as an extended honeymoon, but that’s a false image.
May 14, 1948
Israel declares independence, President Harry Truman recognizes Israel 11 minutes later, Arab states attack and War of Independence begins.
1964
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded by Yasser Arafat with the goal of destroying the state of Israel.
Associated Press 1967
1967
“Six-Day War”: Israel captures Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem.
Popperfoto/Getty Images 1973
1973
“Yom Kippur War”: a surprise attack on Israel by Arab states on the Jewish holy day. Soviets back Arabs, Nixon orders U.S. arms airlift to Israel.
1993
Oslo Accords are signed; Israel and PLO agree to mutual recognition. Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat receive the Nobel Peace Prize following year.
2000
President Bill Clinton’s efforts to broker Israel-PLO and Israel-Syria peace deals fail. Intifada begins; suicide bombings hit civilian targets in Israel.
2001
President George W. Bush announces that U.S. will support the creation of a Palestinian state.
AFP/Getty Images 2005
2005
Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdraws all Israeli settlements from Gaza.
December 2008-January 2009
Israeli forces enter Gaza to fight Hamas, end rocketing across border.
Yet no other administration, even among those experiencing considerable dissonance with Israel, started off with as many difficulties as Obama’s. There are two explanations for this problem, and the simpler one is personal politics. Mr. Netanyahu no doubt remembers very well the last Democratic administration’s glee at his downfall in 1999, something Dennis Ross admits clearly in his book “The Missing Peace.” The prime minister must wonder if the current bilateral friction is an effort to persuade Israelis that he is not the right man for the job, or at least to persuade them that his policies must be rejected. When Israeli liberals plead for Obama to “talk to Israel,” they are hoping that Obama will help them revive the Israeli Left, recently vanquished in national elections. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr. Obama and his team wish former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had won the top job and view Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud Party with some suspicion. The result, of course, is to make personal relations among policy makers more difficult, and to make trust and confidence between the two governments harder as well.
But the Obama administration has managed to win the mistrust of most Israelis, not just conservative politicians. Despite his great popularity in many parts of the world, in Israel Obama is now seen as no ally. A June poll found that just 6% of Israelis called him “pro-Israel,” when 88% had seen President George W. Bush that way. So the troubles between the U.S. and Israel are not fundamentally found in the personal relations among policy makers.
The deeper problem—and the more complex explanation of bilateral tensions—is that the Obama administration, while claiming to separate itself from the “ideologues” of the Bush administration in favor of a more balanced and realistic Middle East policy, is in fact following a highly ideological policy path. Its ability to cope with, indeed even to see clearly, the realities of life in Israel and the West Bank and the challenge of Iran to the region is compromised by the prism through which it analyzes events.
The administration view begins with a critique of Bush foreign policy—as much too reliant on military pressure and isolated in the world. The antidote is a policy of outreach and engagement, especially with places like Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran. Engagement with the Muslim world is a special goal, which leads not only to the president’s speech in Cairo on June 4 but also to a distancing from Israel so as to appear more “even-handed” to Arab states. Seen from Jerusalem, all this looks like a flashing red light: trouble ahead.
Iran is the major security issue facing Israel, which sees itself confronting an extremist regime seeking nuclear weapons and stating openly that Israel should be wiped off the map. Israel believes the military option has to be on the table and credible if diplomacy and sanctions are to have any chance, and many Israelis believe a military strike on Iran may in the end be unavoidable. The Obama administration, on the other hand, talks of outstretched hands; on July 15, even after Iran’s election, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “we understand the importance of offering to engage Iran….direct talks provide the best vehicle….We remain ready to engage with Iran.”
To the Israelis this seems unrealistic, even naïve, while to U.S. officials an Israeli attack on Iran is a nightmare that would upset Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world. The remarkable events in Iran have slowed down U.S. engagement, but not the Iranian nuclear program. If the current dissent in Iran leads to regime change, or if new United Nations sanctions force Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program, this source of U.S.-Israel tension will disappear. But it is more likely that Iran will forge ahead toward building a weapon, and U.S.-Israel tension will grow as Israel watches the clock tick and sees its options narrowed to two: live with an Iranian bomb, or strike Iran soon to delay its program long enough for real political change to come to that country.
Israel believes the only thing worse than bombing Iran is Iran’s having the Bomb, but the evidence suggests this is not the Obama view.
If Iran is the most dangerous source of U.S.-Israel tension, the one most often discussed is settlements: The Obama administration has sought a total “freeze” on “Israeli settlement growth.” The Israelis years ago agreed there would be no new settlements and no physical expansion of settlements, just building “up and in” inside already existing communities. Additional construction in settlements does not harm Palestinians, who in fact get most of the construction jobs. The West Bank economy is growing fast and the Israelis are removing security roadblocks so Palestinians can get around the West Bank better.
PPO/Getty Images
Special Envoy George Mitchell meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
A recent International Monetary Fund report stated that “macroeconomic conditions in the West Bank have improved” largely because “Israeli restrictions on internal trade and the passage of people have been relaxed significantly.” What’s more, says the IMF, “continuation of the relaxation of restrictions could result in real GDP growth of 7% for 2009 as a whole.” That’s a gross domestic product growth rate Americans would leap at, so what’s this dispute about?
It is, once again, about the subordination of reality to pre-existing theories. In this case, the theory is that every problem in the Middle East is related to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The administration takes the view that “merely” improving life for Palestinians and doing the hard work needed to prepare them for eventual independence isn’t enough. Nor is it daunted by the minor detail that half of the eventual Palestine is controlled by the terrorist group Hamas.
Instead, in keeping with its “yes we can” approach and its boundless ambitions, it has decided to go not only for a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, but also for comprehensive peace in the region. Mr. Mitchell explained that this “includes Israel and Palestine, Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon and normal relations with all countries in the region. That is President Obama’s personal objective vision and that is what he is asking to achieve. In order to achieve that we have asked all involved to take steps.” The administration (pocketing the economic progress Israel is fostering in the West Bank) decided that Israel’s “step” would be to impose a complete settlement freeze, which would be proffered to the Arabs to elicit “steps” from them.
AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, walks with U.S. ambassador to Israel James Cunningham, center, and Israeli Defense Ministry Director-General Pinchas Buchris
But Israelis notice that already the Saudis have refused to take any “steps” toward Israel, and other Arab states are apparently offering weak tea: a quiet meeting here, overflight rights there, but nothing approaching normal relations. They also notice that Mr. Mitchell was in Syria last week, smiling warmly at its repressive ruler Bashar Assad and explaining that the administration would start waiving the sanctions on Syria to allow export of “products related to information technology and telecommunication equipment and parts and components related to the safety of civil aviation” and will “process all eligible applications for export licenses as quickly as possible.” While sanctions on certain Syrian individuals were renewed last week, the message to the regime is that better days lie ahead. Of this approach the Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid told the Wall Street Journal, “The regime feels very confident politically now. Damascus feels like it’s getting a lot without giving up anything.” Indeed, no “steps” from Syria appear to be on the horizon, except Mr. Assad’s willingness to come to the negotiating table where he will demand the Golan Heights back but refuse to make the break with Iran and Hezbollah that must be the basis for any serious peace negotiation.
None of this appears to have diminished the administration’s zeal, for bilateral relations with everyone take a back seat once the goal of comprehensive peace is put on the table. The only important thing about a nation’s policies becomes whether it appears to play ball with the big peace effort. The Syrian dictatorship is viciously repressive, houses terrorist groups and happily assists jihadis through Damascus International Airport on their way to Iraq to fight U.S. and Coalition forces, but any concerns we might have are counterbalanced by the desire to get Mr. Assad to buy in to new negotiations with Israel. (Is the new “information technology” we’ll be offering Mr. Assad likely to help dissidents there, or to help him suppress them?)
Future stability in Egypt is uncertain because President Hosni Mubarak is nearing 80, reportedly not in good health, and continues to crush all moderate opposition forces, but this is all ignored as we enlist Mr. Mubarak’s cooperation in the comprehensive peace scheme. As we saw in the latter part of the Clinton and Bush administrations, once you commit to a major effort at an international peace conference or a comprehensive Middle East peace, those goals overwhelm all others.
Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem.
Israelis have learned the hard way that reality cannot be ignored and that ideology offers no protection from danger. Four wars and a constant battle against terrorism sobered them up, and made them far less susceptible than most audiences to the Obama speeches that charmed Americans, Europeans, and many Muslim nations. A policy based in realism would help the Palestinians prepare for an eventual state while we turn our energies toward the real challenge confronting the entire region: what is to be done about Iran as it faces its first internal crisis since the regime came to power in 1979.
Mrs. Clinton recently decried “rigid ideologies and old formulas,” but the tension with Israel shows the administration is—up to now—following the old script that attributes every problem in the region to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while all who live there can see that developments in Iran are in fact the linchpin of the region’s future. The Obama administration’s “old formulas” have produced the current tensions with Israel. They will diminish only if the administration adopts a more realistic view of what progress is possible, and what dangers lurk, in the Middle East.
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the deputy national security adviser overseeing Near East and North African affairs under President George W. Bush from 2005 to January 2009.
Friday, July 24, 2009
"That was some strange trip!"
So said my dad when I came home. "You were this low, then this high, then this low..."
I nodded. As much I really hated to leave Israel, I just had enough for this year. Everyone who knew about my trip this year (or at least almost everything) could understand the situation of how I was feeling and why I wanted to get back to the States. I also really wanted to get my hands on my credit and debit cards! (Which are now activated and safe in my wallet.)
The last day was extremely hectic. I got up early again (annoying my roommate once again) to do my laundry so I wouldn't have to deal with doing laundry and I needed to roll all of my clothes in order to fit everything in my duffel bag. Then I went to class and learned a few new things. Somehow I felt that I had made peace with Naomi or something. She handed me my essays back and said, "Well, I didn't think you were doing anything in the last few weeks but you're actually doing good work!" I looked over the essays, there were some corrections but not as many as when I was finishing up Yiddish at Michigan. I noticed that I had improved my word order in my sentences and using proper cases (accusative versus dative). But my verb patterns were still off. I was happy! I was able to do decently in Yiddish while having a blast in Israel! I said that I would try to get the essays re-written this afternoon before I head to the airport (which I never did because time flew by too fast while I was trying to prepare to leave). I also told her that I was glad that my Yiddish reading and writing improved because I was getting daily doses of Yiddish for the last few weeks. Now I feel a bit better about moving on in Yiddish, taking my hand at the rest of texts that I have that I can practice for the month of August with Zev. Naomi was a good teacher, she's just mellow and easy-going.
During break, I went to the bookstore to pick up my copy of Night by Elie Wiesel in עברית!
After class, I met up with my old high school classmate, Mike, for lunch at Aroma. It was fun talking with him about Israel and what we're doing nowadays. It was just kind of weird to see somebody from Rochester here in Israel. Maybe that's just me to see any American in Israel on a visit. It's like, okay, our topics are going to have to be based on how many times and how long you've been in Israel.... This was his first visit back (I think) since our birthright trip in 2005. Certainly a lot has changed since!
Then I went to the office to check out. I needed to meet Shiri at 2:30 and by then I was getting to be late. The staff member said that he could meet me in my room at 3:30 but not later than 4. Dammit! So I called Shiri and tried to explain the situation. But it all ended up with me just walking over to the dorms while letting her just park at the mall and wait for me there. Once I got the dorm thing all checked out, I went over to the mall to meet Shiri.
We grabbed some late afternoon snacks- her some soup and bread and I with my last cup of iced coffee and a scoop of gelato. It was funny when she gave me a strange look when I made my order in Hebrew because she had expected me to speak English. She couldn't figure out what I was saying when I said gileda to the waitress (who was awful by the way).
After we said our good-byes, I picked up a few things around the mall for my family. I would've liked to bring back one of the cakes but my suitcase was getting tight.
I went back to my room to finish packing. Man, it was so hot and humid that I was literally sweating the whole time. I couldn't be bothered to shower at all because I would just sweat again.
The whole afternoon just flew that every time I looked at my watch to determine my next move, it was already getting closer to my departure time- 7 pm! I wanted to catch the 7:40 train to the airport so I'd get there at 8:05 to start standing in the line.
But problems with the guard ended up costing me some time. He didn't want to hold onto a bag of things that I had for the Ravids to give back and Shlomi called back at the same time. So I got the two of them connected and Shlomi won the argument. I took the digital camera out and left everything else with them.
Then I got my bags out of the dorms. Oh my god, the pink duffel bag was way, way, way too heavy! It was not close to 50 pounds but certainly heavier than 30. I had a little help getting it down the stairs to the curb. There, I waited for the bus. But I was getting anxious and began looking for cabs too. I eventually flagged down one.
The driver looked at me and my bags and said, "25 shekels." I looked at hime, pleadingly, "Give me a break, please, I'm trying to get to the airport!" He shrugged and said, "well you're putting these in my car! I can't do less. But I can take you to the airport." How much? "130 shekels." I shook my head. It was comical at that point because the two of us were just standing there, having a stand-off. Then I said, "Fine, I'll wait for someone else then." He began walking towards his door and looked back, "Okay, if that's what you really want..." Then I muttered, "oh fine, just get me to the train station for 25 shekels." He put the bags in the car. Off we go.
In the short 4 minute drive to the train station, he learned that I was an American and that this was not my first time in Israel, that I was studying at Tel Aviv University, that I have family friends.... it was all enough for him to beg one more time if I could just please look in my wallet for anything more than 70 shekels that I had said when we first started driving. I meant to pull out the 50 and 20 shekel bills but ended up pulling out the 100 and he saw that. Then he said, "Okay, you have a 100! I'll take you for 120, beseder?" I rolled my eyes, he was actually pretty good company and I'd pay for that (as opposed to a silent driver who'd prefer to listen to music and the radio chatter). So I said, fine, take me to the airport. I was also very nervous at the thought of trying to carry my very heavy pink duffel through the station.
We had a very good chat on the way. I just had to hope that I could make it out otherwise I'd be left with 50 shekels for the rest of my stay without borrowing money. He was originally from Spain and made aliyah with his whole family 25 years ago. His family knew that they were always Jewish. He gave me some opinions about Americans and Obama. He actually liked Obama to some degree. Unlike Hadar, he agreed that Sarah Palin was a terrible choice for Israel. (I was really amazed that the Israelis knew who she was!). Israelis really loved talking about American politics as if they could participate in the US' electoral system.
When I got to the airport, I bummed around for 20 minutes before going to the first round of security. My security guard was pretty good with me, waited for the PA to be over before talking with me again. He smiled when he saw that I had been in and out of Israel 5 times (4 times from the US, 1 time from Prague). I was basically harmless. So he let me through. I went over to the counter and found at least 5 or 6 groups waiting ahead of me. When I got to the counter, they said "Stand by number 12, go behind the wall to the ticketing counter." Uh oh. I had checked the number of seats before and there were 8.... When I got to the ticketing counter, there was a family, one woman, and one guy. The one guy was chatting with the ticketing counter person. Then the woman and the family decided to leave the line for... I don't know. So I moved up. I said, "This is for Continental stand-by right?" He said yes. While the one guy was on the phone, he dealt with me. He told me, "Okay you're on stand by but I don't think your chances are very good..." I said, "Where am I on the list?" He replied, "You're number two." Then I looked at him and said, "Two? Who's number one?" He pointed to the guy who was on the phone before. He and I stared at each other almost awkwardly and said, "Oh, hi there." We almost cracked up.
I spent the waiting time eating my dinner (leftover falafels and pita and salad from Hadar), talking to Mor on the phone, and re-writing my Yiddish essays, just for the heck of it. In fact, I stayed at the table for so long that one of the security guards came over to see what I was doing and asked for my passport!
When I got back up, I began chatting with the Number One to find out his situation. He had to fly back to Mexico City for an unexpected meeting the following day. Ok, that's legit. Then again, anyone could say that. We got talking about Maccabiah games as that's what he was doing in Israel- playing soccer for Mexico. I asked about swine flu and he said, it's all true, everyone really stayed home and all the streets were empty. He blamed the US media for overblowing the whole swine flu situation. In all, it was fun chatting with him. Boy, I was having a good day meeting random people! Then the airline staff called as over. We stood there, waiting with our passports. A whole family of 5 checked in and went with security to the gate. Oh no.... not good. Then a guy claimed a medical excuse and paid up. Then there were 6 of us left on stand-by. One of the staff helping out with the seats looked at us and her supervisor, "A'hat (pointed to the Mexican guy), shaim (me), v'sholosh (the guy waiting at the far end of the counter)." I realized that there must be three seats left and they were looking for them on the map. Finally they called the Mexican guy up and after tense three minutes, they called me up. Wow. Then I went to my bag to find my credit card.... my wallet wasn't in my backpack! I looked at them and freaked out, "I can't find my wallet! It's downstairs!" The supervisor said firmly, "No, you need to get on the plane now!" I groaned a little because I had enough of losing things.... but I kept it in perspective realizing it's only 50 shekels in there, plus my parents' credit card.
On the plane, I discovered that I would be sitting next to two children, probably about 6 and 8 years old. I gritted my teeth, I didn't exactly want to be sitting next to Israeli children (who typical did not behave very well). Surprisely, they seemed to be very quiet. My seat was also a window seat so I coaxed them to take it and neither looked at me and shook their heads, nooooo way. I couldn't believe it! These children didn't want to sit next to the window??
Actually, turned out that these children were Americans as I saw them again at the passport control in Newark. So that's why they were so quiet and well-mannered....
When I waited around Newark, I felt a sense of disappointment. I mean, one minute I'm in Tel Aviv, and the next I'm in the United States.
Did I make the right decision to leave Israel? Israel never makes life easy for me.
I nodded. As much I really hated to leave Israel, I just had enough for this year. Everyone who knew about my trip this year (or at least almost everything) could understand the situation of how I was feeling and why I wanted to get back to the States. I also really wanted to get my hands on my credit and debit cards! (Which are now activated and safe in my wallet.)
The last day was extremely hectic. I got up early again (annoying my roommate once again) to do my laundry so I wouldn't have to deal with doing laundry and I needed to roll all of my clothes in order to fit everything in my duffel bag. Then I went to class and learned a few new things. Somehow I felt that I had made peace with Naomi or something. She handed me my essays back and said, "Well, I didn't think you were doing anything in the last few weeks but you're actually doing good work!" I looked over the essays, there were some corrections but not as many as when I was finishing up Yiddish at Michigan. I noticed that I had improved my word order in my sentences and using proper cases (accusative versus dative). But my verb patterns were still off. I was happy! I was able to do decently in Yiddish while having a blast in Israel! I said that I would try to get the essays re-written this afternoon before I head to the airport (which I never did because time flew by too fast while I was trying to prepare to leave). I also told her that I was glad that my Yiddish reading and writing improved because I was getting daily doses of Yiddish for the last few weeks. Now I feel a bit better about moving on in Yiddish, taking my hand at the rest of texts that I have that I can practice for the month of August with Zev. Naomi was a good teacher, she's just mellow and easy-going.
During break, I went to the bookstore to pick up my copy of Night by Elie Wiesel in עברית!
After class, I met up with my old high school classmate, Mike, for lunch at Aroma. It was fun talking with him about Israel and what we're doing nowadays. It was just kind of weird to see somebody from Rochester here in Israel. Maybe that's just me to see any American in Israel on a visit. It's like, okay, our topics are going to have to be based on how many times and how long you've been in Israel.... This was his first visit back (I think) since our birthright trip in 2005. Certainly a lot has changed since!
Then I went to the office to check out. I needed to meet Shiri at 2:30 and by then I was getting to be late. The staff member said that he could meet me in my room at 3:30 but not later than 4. Dammit! So I called Shiri and tried to explain the situation. But it all ended up with me just walking over to the dorms while letting her just park at the mall and wait for me there. Once I got the dorm thing all checked out, I went over to the mall to meet Shiri.
We grabbed some late afternoon snacks- her some soup and bread and I with my last cup of iced coffee and a scoop of gelato. It was funny when she gave me a strange look when I made my order in Hebrew because she had expected me to speak English. She couldn't figure out what I was saying when I said gileda to the waitress (who was awful by the way).
After we said our good-byes, I picked up a few things around the mall for my family. I would've liked to bring back one of the cakes but my suitcase was getting tight.
I went back to my room to finish packing. Man, it was so hot and humid that I was literally sweating the whole time. I couldn't be bothered to shower at all because I would just sweat again.
The whole afternoon just flew that every time I looked at my watch to determine my next move, it was already getting closer to my departure time- 7 pm! I wanted to catch the 7:40 train to the airport so I'd get there at 8:05 to start standing in the line.
But problems with the guard ended up costing me some time. He didn't want to hold onto a bag of things that I had for the Ravids to give back and Shlomi called back at the same time. So I got the two of them connected and Shlomi won the argument. I took the digital camera out and left everything else with them.
Then I got my bags out of the dorms. Oh my god, the pink duffel bag was way, way, way too heavy! It was not close to 50 pounds but certainly heavier than 30. I had a little help getting it down the stairs to the curb. There, I waited for the bus. But I was getting anxious and began looking for cabs too. I eventually flagged down one.
The driver looked at me and my bags and said, "25 shekels." I looked at hime, pleadingly, "Give me a break, please, I'm trying to get to the airport!" He shrugged and said, "well you're putting these in my car! I can't do less. But I can take you to the airport." How much? "130 shekels." I shook my head. It was comical at that point because the two of us were just standing there, having a stand-off. Then I said, "Fine, I'll wait for someone else then." He began walking towards his door and looked back, "Okay, if that's what you really want..." Then I muttered, "oh fine, just get me to the train station for 25 shekels." He put the bags in the car. Off we go.
In the short 4 minute drive to the train station, he learned that I was an American and that this was not my first time in Israel, that I was studying at Tel Aviv University, that I have family friends.... it was all enough for him to beg one more time if I could just please look in my wallet for anything more than 70 shekels that I had said when we first started driving. I meant to pull out the 50 and 20 shekel bills but ended up pulling out the 100 and he saw that. Then he said, "Okay, you have a 100! I'll take you for 120, beseder?" I rolled my eyes, he was actually pretty good company and I'd pay for that (as opposed to a silent driver who'd prefer to listen to music and the radio chatter). So I said, fine, take me to the airport. I was also very nervous at the thought of trying to carry my very heavy pink duffel through the station.
We had a very good chat on the way. I just had to hope that I could make it out otherwise I'd be left with 50 shekels for the rest of my stay without borrowing money. He was originally from Spain and made aliyah with his whole family 25 years ago. His family knew that they were always Jewish. He gave me some opinions about Americans and Obama. He actually liked Obama to some degree. Unlike Hadar, he agreed that Sarah Palin was a terrible choice for Israel. (I was really amazed that the Israelis knew who she was!). Israelis really loved talking about American politics as if they could participate in the US' electoral system.
When I got to the airport, I bummed around for 20 minutes before going to the first round of security. My security guard was pretty good with me, waited for the PA to be over before talking with me again. He smiled when he saw that I had been in and out of Israel 5 times (4 times from the US, 1 time from Prague). I was basically harmless. So he let me through. I went over to the counter and found at least 5 or 6 groups waiting ahead of me. When I got to the counter, they said "Stand by number 12, go behind the wall to the ticketing counter." Uh oh. I had checked the number of seats before and there were 8.... When I got to the ticketing counter, there was a family, one woman, and one guy. The one guy was chatting with the ticketing counter person. Then the woman and the family decided to leave the line for... I don't know. So I moved up. I said, "This is for Continental stand-by right?" He said yes. While the one guy was on the phone, he dealt with me. He told me, "Okay you're on stand by but I don't think your chances are very good..." I said, "Where am I on the list?" He replied, "You're number two." Then I looked at him and said, "Two? Who's number one?" He pointed to the guy who was on the phone before. He and I stared at each other almost awkwardly and said, "Oh, hi there." We almost cracked up.
I spent the waiting time eating my dinner (leftover falafels and pita and salad from Hadar), talking to Mor on the phone, and re-writing my Yiddish essays, just for the heck of it. In fact, I stayed at the table for so long that one of the security guards came over to see what I was doing and asked for my passport!
When I got back up, I began chatting with the Number One to find out his situation. He had to fly back to Mexico City for an unexpected meeting the following day. Ok, that's legit. Then again, anyone could say that. We got talking about Maccabiah games as that's what he was doing in Israel- playing soccer for Mexico. I asked about swine flu and he said, it's all true, everyone really stayed home and all the streets were empty. He blamed the US media for overblowing the whole swine flu situation. In all, it was fun chatting with him. Boy, I was having a good day meeting random people! Then the airline staff called as over. We stood there, waiting with our passports. A whole family of 5 checked in and went with security to the gate. Oh no.... not good. Then a guy claimed a medical excuse and paid up. Then there were 6 of us left on stand-by. One of the staff helping out with the seats looked at us and her supervisor, "A'hat (pointed to the Mexican guy), shaim (me), v'sholosh (the guy waiting at the far end of the counter)." I realized that there must be three seats left and they were looking for them on the map. Finally they called the Mexican guy up and after tense three minutes, they called me up. Wow. Then I went to my bag to find my credit card.... my wallet wasn't in my backpack! I looked at them and freaked out, "I can't find my wallet! It's downstairs!" The supervisor said firmly, "No, you need to get on the plane now!" I groaned a little because I had enough of losing things.... but I kept it in perspective realizing it's only 50 shekels in there, plus my parents' credit card.
On the plane, I discovered that I would be sitting next to two children, probably about 6 and 8 years old. I gritted my teeth, I didn't exactly want to be sitting next to Israeli children (who typical did not behave very well). Surprisely, they seemed to be very quiet. My seat was also a window seat so I coaxed them to take it and neither looked at me and shook their heads, nooooo way. I couldn't believe it! These children didn't want to sit next to the window??
Actually, turned out that these children were Americans as I saw them again at the passport control in Newark. So that's why they were so quiet and well-mannered....
When I waited around Newark, I felt a sense of disappointment. I mean, one minute I'm in Tel Aviv, and the next I'm in the United States.
Did I make the right decision to leave Israel? Israel never makes life easy for me.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
No Pictures
I was going to take some more pictures of my visit at the Nalaga'at Center. But it's just one of those things that you just have to be there to truly appreciate what's being done in this place and how these people are so thrilled to have a community and a place to demonstrate that they can do things too.
As it was time for us to part, quite a few of the deafblind came up to me to thank me, and wish me good luck, and say good-bye. One of them, Genia, took my hands into hers and touch signed while speaking in Hebrew to say her own good bye. It was so sweet and yet, it felt a little funny to have her fingers moving around in my palms. It's something to get used to. It was absolutely a Kodak moment however to see us smiling and communicating. I only had wished that Mom and Dad were there.
As it was time for us to part, quite a few of the deafblind came up to me to thank me, and wish me good luck, and say good-bye. One of them, Genia, took my hands into hers and touch signed while speaking in Hebrew to say her own good bye. It was so sweet and yet, it felt a little funny to have her fingers moving around in my palms. It's something to get used to. It was absolutely a Kodak moment however to see us smiling and communicating. I only had wished that Mom and Dad were there.
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Cook of the Best Falafels in Israel Wants to Move to America?
I could barely get up for class today at 8:45 AM. I couldn't wait for the coffee break to get some tea in hopes of getting some buzz. Fail! After class, I got an e-mail saying that I had to go to the Overseas Students office to fill out some customs forms in order to get my new cochlear implant. That was annoying to think about because I was really tired and I wanted to nap! So I spent some time filling out some forms and I was originally told that it would take some time for the forms to be processed. Uh oh. The marchariah called the customs to see how to expediate the process in case I fly out on Thursday. If I could get the form in today, they would bring the package tomorrow! Good! Then I was told to bring a copy of passport. Ugh.
So I went back to the room and had a small lunch. I intended to nap for 20 minutes in order to get back to the office by 3 PM to hand in my passport. I ended up napping for an hour! I threw on my running clothes quickly, packed my little gym bag, and ran over to the office. When I'm in a situation like this, I'm always happy that I can run effortlessly! And it's quite useful! So I got the copy in and everything was all set.
Then I went to the gym to run 4 miles on the treadmill. After some quick stretches, I went back to my room to shower and dress for my train ride to Haifa.
Mor told me to meet her on the train (or "first wagon north" in her SMS... which I corrected her later as in "first car"). I got to the train station just barely in nick of time so I basically rushed through buying my ticket that later I doubt that I got right change back. And I missed 2 calls from Mor, trying to reach me and tell me that she had to get on the next train due to some problems at her station at Azrelli Center. And I had already gotten on the train. So we just ended up meeting in Haifa. I was actually slightly grateful that we missed each other because people didn't really talk on the train. So we would just have been keeping each other company.
We drove to her house and met Or outside. She had just finished her driving lessons! How excited she was to be driving! Then we went inside and I greeted Hader. I could smell the falafels cooking. Mmmm... I requested that she make some falafels because I've never been able to find good falafels as hers since I tried them two years ago at a family BBQ. We set up the coffee table in the living room so we all could eat together. I really enjoyed it.
One of the first things Hadar said, "I want to move to America. I told my children to go to America. Study in America." I was surprised. Last year she expressed no interest and complained that America was too big. I said, why all of sudden? She complained about the security situation and really fears Israel. But her husband wants to stay. I told her that I didn't like Chicago, where her uncle lives, because it's all steakhouses and pizza...but whatever. Mor and Or laughed and told me that they told their mother that within one week, she'd be back on the plane to Tel Aviv. True.... I mean, later, I mentioned that I heard from other Israelis that they felt that Israel was much safer than the U.S., and I was inclined to agree.
She was certainly all mad about me voting for Obama because "he's a Muslim! I don't like Muslims!" I pointed out that once I learned about Sarah Palin's views, I just couldn't do it. Not for women's rights. She shut up.
We tried to call Zev a few times without success so I just left a voicemail. We spent time watching the Israeli version of American Idol (Hebrew translates into "A Star Born") while eating some cake and fruit (and Or put together some ice cream...).
There was some miscommunication over whether I was staying for the night because before I had said that I could spend the night. I had meant if it was Thursday night, not when I have class the next day. So they were a bit disappointed that I was staying for a few hours... but I didn't want to get up at 6:30 AM to catch the 7:!5 AM train with Mor!
They also bought me two tops. Hadar bought a nice printed top that looked pretty good on me actually. Mor and Or shopped in Tel Aviv and got me a black dress. They admitted that they liked their mother's choice. I felt so bad, they're always giving me gifts and I never have anything for them from the States! Next time, I must get something from the U.S. for them.... hmmm....
I'm frankly surprised to hear every Israeli, as much they love and enjoy me, tell me to go home and see my parents when the heard how my summer was playing out. Yes, I was and am having a crazy but fun summer of traveling but it's important to see my parents for my parents' sake as being parents. But that's also very Israeli- family is number one, family come before friends.
So I went back to the room and had a small lunch. I intended to nap for 20 minutes in order to get back to the office by 3 PM to hand in my passport. I ended up napping for an hour! I threw on my running clothes quickly, packed my little gym bag, and ran over to the office. When I'm in a situation like this, I'm always happy that I can run effortlessly! And it's quite useful! So I got the copy in and everything was all set.
Then I went to the gym to run 4 miles on the treadmill. After some quick stretches, I went back to my room to shower and dress for my train ride to Haifa.
Mor told me to meet her on the train (or "first wagon north" in her SMS... which I corrected her later as in "first car"). I got to the train station just barely in nick of time so I basically rushed through buying my ticket that later I doubt that I got right change back. And I missed 2 calls from Mor, trying to reach me and tell me that she had to get on the next train due to some problems at her station at Azrelli Center. And I had already gotten on the train. So we just ended up meeting in Haifa. I was actually slightly grateful that we missed each other because people didn't really talk on the train. So we would just have been keeping each other company.
We drove to her house and met Or outside. She had just finished her driving lessons! How excited she was to be driving! Then we went inside and I greeted Hader. I could smell the falafels cooking. Mmmm... I requested that she make some falafels because I've never been able to find good falafels as hers since I tried them two years ago at a family BBQ. We set up the coffee table in the living room so we all could eat together. I really enjoyed it.
One of the first things Hadar said, "I want to move to America. I told my children to go to America. Study in America." I was surprised. Last year she expressed no interest and complained that America was too big. I said, why all of sudden? She complained about the security situation and really fears Israel. But her husband wants to stay. I told her that I didn't like Chicago, where her uncle lives, because it's all steakhouses and pizza...but whatever. Mor and Or laughed and told me that they told their mother that within one week, she'd be back on the plane to Tel Aviv. True.... I mean, later, I mentioned that I heard from other Israelis that they felt that Israel was much safer than the U.S., and I was inclined to agree.
She was certainly all mad about me voting for Obama because "he's a Muslim! I don't like Muslims!" I pointed out that once I learned about Sarah Palin's views, I just couldn't do it. Not for women's rights. She shut up.
We tried to call Zev a few times without success so I just left a voicemail. We spent time watching the Israeli version of American Idol (Hebrew translates into "A Star Born") while eating some cake and fruit (and Or put together some ice cream...).
There was some miscommunication over whether I was staying for the night because before I had said that I could spend the night. I had meant if it was Thursday night, not when I have class the next day. So they were a bit disappointed that I was staying for a few hours... but I didn't want to get up at 6:30 AM to catch the 7:!5 AM train with Mor!
They also bought me two tops. Hadar bought a nice printed top that looked pretty good on me actually. Mor and Or shopped in Tel Aviv and got me a black dress. They admitted that they liked their mother's choice. I felt so bad, they're always giving me gifts and I never have anything for them from the States! Next time, I must get something from the U.S. for them.... hmmm....
I'm frankly surprised to hear every Israeli, as much they love and enjoy me, tell me to go home and see my parents when the heard how my summer was playing out. Yes, I was and am having a crazy but fun summer of traveling but it's important to see my parents for my parents' sake as being parents. But that's also very Israeli- family is number one, family come before friends.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A Day with an "Old Lady" and old friends
I got up early this morning to catch a ride with Shlomi to school to drop off my stuff. I got on the bus to Jerusalem about 9:30 so I arrived there around 10:15.
First, I walked to the shuk to get some pastries from Marizpan that I had been looking for. However, I decided to stop in a spice stall to find this Moroccan spice for Grandma. The first two didn't know a thing. The third, the largest one, had it. So I began my shopping spree for spices for me, Grandma, and Mom. I got them all, about 8 or 9 of them, for less than 1/2 kilogram per bag at about 50 shekels. Pretty darn cheap. Then I went over to Marizpan and ate some of the pastries on the way to Phyllis and Moshe's place. Uh oh, Marizpan had gotten rid of the spinach burekas because what I thought was spinach, ended up being olives. YUCK! But the pizza ones were just fine!
I managed not to get lost on the way to their apartment. Moshe greeted me and we talked for a bit while we waited for Phyllis to come up. We mostly talked about Zev's living situation and health, as well as my thesis project in San Francisco. Then Phyllis came home. We got ready to go back out to spend the afternoon together.
First, we stopped in a bookstore at a theater near them, thinking that we'd have time for lunch before her dentist appointment. We didn't so we browsed around a bit. She offered to buy me a book so I tried to find one, even though I really didn't need another book at the moment. But we found an appropriate book- The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Then we went to her dentist appointment and I read some magazines.
Finally, we took a cab (or two...) to the new Mamilla mall next to David Citadel hotel. Toby had told me how beautiful it was so I was curious. I was very impressed. It almost felt like walking in the mall near Stanford University in the open air, surrounded by white stone. In other words, this would what the Old City would look like if it's scrubbed down to the last layer of dirt and grime). The place was combined with residences as well so it was "upscale" as Jerusalemites described the mall. It was certainly filled with foreign stores like Nautica, North Face, Tommy Hilfinger, and coming soon, Israel's first GAP! It's not that upscale but in Israeli terms, it's certainly was. I know that the Israelis will be happy to see the Gap since they're always asking their American families and friends to bring back quality clothes.
While we walked, I could really smell the spices! I apologized to Phyllis, "I'm so sorry but can you smell the spices that I bought?" She said "Yes, what did you buy???" I explained why I got so many spices... The bags' ties weren't pulled tight enough so I had to stop at some point to get them tighter to trap the scent.
Phyllis and I sat down in a cafe to have lunch. I got some eggs- very happy to be eating them after not having had them since I left the U.S.! We had a very nice conversation about a lot of things and I appreciated her perspective as a long-time Jerusalemite and occupational therapist. She urged that I order dessert even though it was getting late and I wanted to be hungry for dinner. I gave in and ordered a white chocolate filled chooclate mousse cake, which was delicious. Afterwards, I mentioned that I needed to get some olive oil for Mom. So she took me to this Liv-O, a specialty store in olives and olive oil. The oil also came in a tin can, which was convinent for flying but I worried that the taste might be different. So I stuck with glass bottle and got it bubble-wrapped.
After I left much appreicated Phyllis who thanked for taking the time to spend a whole afternoon with "an old lady". I said it was not a problem at all and I appreciated spending time with her as well. I went over to the Old City to find that olive wood store to buy that horse. On my way down to Via Dolorosa, I ran into Meredith and her friend, Ted, from her program who was studying Arabic in Alexandria, Egypt. It's always so funny running into people around Israel! We tried to find the olive wood store and walked up and down the annoying steps at least 3 times until we figured out that this pair of closed doors belonged to that shop and it was closed. Maybe it wasn't meant to be!
Then we began walking towards the shuk and detoured through Ben Yehuda. There, we ran into Rebecca even though we didn't need to meet her for another 45 minutes! We all headed up to the shuk to do some shopping. I stopped in Marizpan to get 25 rugalechs as a gift for the Nalaga'at group as I was extremely thankful for them, and a few little treats for me later on. Meredith did her own shopping for a few things. Then we began walking down Jaffa, which was extremely difficult because the sidewalk was destroyed so there were lots of bumps and rocks along the way. I had a hard time looking at Rebecca and talking to her about her national service. She was volunteering in a home for Holocaust survivors and just basically being there for them. She told me how National Service worked and it sounded like a very nice option. As we walked along Jaffa to a vegetarian restaurant, I realized that the road was pretty much closed. Soon enough, I think, buses and cars won't be able to travel along this section as the light rail will take over (Phyllis thought it was all a waste of money and time).
At dinner, we all talked about the Middle East and Ted's life experiences (he's 31). It was unbelievable to hear what he had done in his 20s- gone to Colby for undergrad, went to Indiana U for MA/PhD in German but dropped out after 2 years, converted to Mormonism, went to Italy for missionary work, then he taught ESL in China, and then came back to the US to start the Middle East Studies program at U of Utah (that's how Meredith and Ted knew each other). And while living in SLC, he taught some languages, mainly German and Italian, in high school. It was enough to make me dizzy. With his degree, he hopes to work in the government even though he really enjoyed teaching and having meaningful dialogues with students. We also attempted to book a ticket for him to go back to Eilat in order for him to get back to Cairo to pick up his bags for his Wednesday flight back to the U.S. He had been traveling around Jordan and Israel in the last week... lucky him for being a guy!!! He reported that the Arab countries are loving Obama and have signs and such devoting to him like "We (heart) Obama!!!" It was shocking. Even more so, they now love Americans and treat them with more respect. I guess, finally, after 8 years, it's safe to be in the Middle East an American without getting harassed. (Ironically, I had read an article about Bush's After Life in Newsweek while waiting for Phyllis at her appointment... it was strange that we survived him.)
Then it was getting late for me as I still needed to get back to Tel Aviv. So I left the group and took the bus to the CBS. Normally, I'd walk but I was so tired that I couldn't think about navigating Agrippas and onto Jaffa. I caught the 9:30 bus and made it back to the University dorms around 11....
I'm so ready to sleep for a whole week after Friday.
First, I walked to the shuk to get some pastries from Marizpan that I had been looking for. However, I decided to stop in a spice stall to find this Moroccan spice for Grandma. The first two didn't know a thing. The third, the largest one, had it. So I began my shopping spree for spices for me, Grandma, and Mom. I got them all, about 8 or 9 of them, for less than 1/2 kilogram per bag at about 50 shekels. Pretty darn cheap. Then I went over to Marizpan and ate some of the pastries on the way to Phyllis and Moshe's place. Uh oh, Marizpan had gotten rid of the spinach burekas because what I thought was spinach, ended up being olives. YUCK! But the pizza ones were just fine!
I managed not to get lost on the way to their apartment. Moshe greeted me and we talked for a bit while we waited for Phyllis to come up. We mostly talked about Zev's living situation and health, as well as my thesis project in San Francisco. Then Phyllis came home. We got ready to go back out to spend the afternoon together.
First, we stopped in a bookstore at a theater near them, thinking that we'd have time for lunch before her dentist appointment. We didn't so we browsed around a bit. She offered to buy me a book so I tried to find one, even though I really didn't need another book at the moment. But we found an appropriate book- The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Then we went to her dentist appointment and I read some magazines.
Finally, we took a cab (or two...) to the new Mamilla mall next to David Citadel hotel. Toby had told me how beautiful it was so I was curious. I was very impressed. It almost felt like walking in the mall near Stanford University in the open air, surrounded by white stone. In other words, this would what the Old City would look like if it's scrubbed down to the last layer of dirt and grime). The place was combined with residences as well so it was "upscale" as Jerusalemites described the mall. It was certainly filled with foreign stores like Nautica, North Face, Tommy Hilfinger, and coming soon, Israel's first GAP! It's not that upscale but in Israeli terms, it's certainly was. I know that the Israelis will be happy to see the Gap since they're always asking their American families and friends to bring back quality clothes.
While we walked, I could really smell the spices! I apologized to Phyllis, "I'm so sorry but can you smell the spices that I bought?" She said "Yes, what did you buy???" I explained why I got so many spices... The bags' ties weren't pulled tight enough so I had to stop at some point to get them tighter to trap the scent.
Phyllis and I sat down in a cafe to have lunch. I got some eggs- very happy to be eating them after not having had them since I left the U.S.! We had a very nice conversation about a lot of things and I appreciated her perspective as a long-time Jerusalemite and occupational therapist. She urged that I order dessert even though it was getting late and I wanted to be hungry for dinner. I gave in and ordered a white chocolate filled chooclate mousse cake, which was delicious. Afterwards, I mentioned that I needed to get some olive oil for Mom. So she took me to this Liv-O, a specialty store in olives and olive oil. The oil also came in a tin can, which was convinent for flying but I worried that the taste might be different. So I stuck with glass bottle and got it bubble-wrapped.
After I left much appreicated Phyllis who thanked for taking the time to spend a whole afternoon with "an old lady". I said it was not a problem at all and I appreciated spending time with her as well. I went over to the Old City to find that olive wood store to buy that horse. On my way down to Via Dolorosa, I ran into Meredith and her friend, Ted, from her program who was studying Arabic in Alexandria, Egypt. It's always so funny running into people around Israel! We tried to find the olive wood store and walked up and down the annoying steps at least 3 times until we figured out that this pair of closed doors belonged to that shop and it was closed. Maybe it wasn't meant to be!
Then we began walking towards the shuk and detoured through Ben Yehuda. There, we ran into Rebecca even though we didn't need to meet her for another 45 minutes! We all headed up to the shuk to do some shopping. I stopped in Marizpan to get 25 rugalechs as a gift for the Nalaga'at group as I was extremely thankful for them, and a few little treats for me later on. Meredith did her own shopping for a few things. Then we began walking down Jaffa, which was extremely difficult because the sidewalk was destroyed so there were lots of bumps and rocks along the way. I had a hard time looking at Rebecca and talking to her about her national service. She was volunteering in a home for Holocaust survivors and just basically being there for them. She told me how National Service worked and it sounded like a very nice option. As we walked along Jaffa to a vegetarian restaurant, I realized that the road was pretty much closed. Soon enough, I think, buses and cars won't be able to travel along this section as the light rail will take over (Phyllis thought it was all a waste of money and time).
At dinner, we all talked about the Middle East and Ted's life experiences (he's 31). It was unbelievable to hear what he had done in his 20s- gone to Colby for undergrad, went to Indiana U for MA/PhD in German but dropped out after 2 years, converted to Mormonism, went to Italy for missionary work, then he taught ESL in China, and then came back to the US to start the Middle East Studies program at U of Utah (that's how Meredith and Ted knew each other). And while living in SLC, he taught some languages, mainly German and Italian, in high school. It was enough to make me dizzy. With his degree, he hopes to work in the government even though he really enjoyed teaching and having meaningful dialogues with students. We also attempted to book a ticket for him to go back to Eilat in order for him to get back to Cairo to pick up his bags for his Wednesday flight back to the U.S. He had been traveling around Jordan and Israel in the last week... lucky him for being a guy!!! He reported that the Arab countries are loving Obama and have signs and such devoting to him like "We (heart) Obama!!!" It was shocking. Even more so, they now love Americans and treat them with more respect. I guess, finally, after 8 years, it's safe to be in the Middle East an American without getting harassed. (Ironically, I had read an article about Bush's After Life in Newsweek while waiting for Phyllis at her appointment... it was strange that we survived him.)
Then it was getting late for me as I still needed to get back to Tel Aviv. So I left the group and took the bus to the CBS. Normally, I'd walk but I was so tired that I couldn't think about navigating Agrippas and onto Jaffa. I caught the 9:30 bus and made it back to the University dorms around 11....
I'm so ready to sleep for a whole week after Friday.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Is this Rochester? No, this is Israel!
Wednesday was just another day... until I decided that I wanted to go for some grilled meat in Hakivah Quarter at Busi's. There's only one bus from Ramat Aviv to there so I got the feeling that it would indeed take a while for me to get home. The restaurant itself was just okay, nothing spectacular as the ones in Jerusalem (granted, this was my first in Tel Aviv). I just got lamb shilshik rolled in lafta bread with hummus, Israeli salad, parsley, and chips (how fancy the Israelis are to call fries "chips" like the Brits). When I waited for my bus (#7) to come, I saw so many 16 buses that I wondered if it would be more convienent if I took one of them to the CBS and get on #27 to Ramat Aviv. So I got a shreut around 9:50. I got off at the CBS and went inside to find it. Unfortunately, the last #27 was at 9 PM and the next one would be at 7 AM the next day. I sighed. Then I went out and caught #5 to Allenby where I walked quite a while to the bus stop on HaMelech George to catch the #25 or #24 back. What I thought said #24, I got on. I fiddled with my Blackberry a little. Then I decided that maybe the bus ride felt a little too logn so I looked around. Everything looked unfamiliar so I went to the bus driver and inquired if we were still in Ramat Aviv. The passenger next to me said that we had passed it a bit ago. I almost broke into tears because I absolutely hate getting lost at night because of my nightblindness. The bus driver was nice enough to write a short note on my pass to give me a transfer. I got off and went searching for the bus stop. I found one for the bus that I was on to go back. I called the Dan hotline to check out the time table. Every 30 minutes. So I decided to find out where the hell I was. Then I saw #24 zoom by in one direction perpeticular to the road I was on. So I went over to that road and looked for the bus stop. Then I found one with an Israeli guy waiting. He looked to be around 17 or 18 and spoke decent English. He was heading back to Tel Aviv so it was the right stop. As soon we talked a little, I felt much less alone. Just the presence of another decent human being made me feel a lot better because then he's there to help when I need it. Turns out he's 23 and is an university student. When #24 came by around 11:15, we got on together and sat together to TAU. Then I got off.... one stop too soon. So I actually didn't get home until almost midnight. That was probably my most scary night in Israel for as long I can remember! Yet, I knew it could be far, far worse... like what if this was in the United States where crime rates were much higher?
Then Thursday night, I got a special treat. My angel, Karen, got me and this man from Jerusalem connected. His name was Mordy. So we agreed to meet at Azrelli Center as I didn't feel like making the trip all the way out to Jerusalem, given the journey I had the previous night. So we met up on the bridge over Begin. I followed him inside and to Yohavta restaurant (fantastic, I love that place!). I noticed immediately what he could see with his current vision field. I almost felt like asking him if he needed help guiding through the mall but I stayed behind and watched out for him. I just wanted to see how comparable his vision was to mine. So we went in the restaurant and he stopped to chat with a waiter... in Israeli sign language. Cool, I thought, there's a deaf waiter here! I realized that it was perhaps the reason why he wanted to meet here instead of some cafe in Tel Aviv. We chatted for a while before making our orders. Then another waiter came by and talked to him in ISL. Two! Then we caught one waiter to take our orders but he was beng an idiot so the first waiter came back to help us out.
Throughout the next two hours, I was so surprised to see a lot of deaf waiters. Mordy counted about five or six of them. I told him that the hiring manager must have some ties to the Deaf community as it often happens in Rochester. We talked a little about our families, background, education, and so forth. He mostly used ASL and used his lips to talk. It was really challenging for me so I think I got probably at least half of what he said. I used some ASL that I could remember and talked at the same time. We talked about our connections to the Deaf culture and community. Like me, he didn't have many Deaf friends growing up due to our living environment. Now he's in Israel and has been able to connect with the Deaf community here. He said that eight of his friends had Usher's. I was excited when I heard that. We talked bit about the reasoning behind why Israel has quite a number of deafblind Jews- one of the genes traced back to an Ashkenazi Jewish community in Germany. He was from German Jewish family, and I... my family suspected that somebody on my grandfather's side had to be German because of the last name. I felt that he was opening more doors to the community in Israel and I was just amazed. It became harder for me to think about returning to the States where I'm shunned from the Deaf community for my CI. I told him that I wanted to embrace my deafness so much but with the politics in the Deaf community in the US, how could I? Like the people at Nalaga'at, he respected my oralness and CI. He understood that CI was no by means a miracle nor a solution to deafness. He had Telex when he was young but never liked it so like my friend, Jeff, he just never wore hearing aids. Also, since he was 10 years older than me, it was understandable that he probably would've have heard much about CI in the early 1990s.
On the same note about treatment from the Deaf community, I asked how was it being treated in Israel as compared to the United States. He pulled out his disability card that he shows if he needs accomodations, including riding buses for free. He felt that sometimes Israelis ignore him and make fun of him because he couldn't hear. I said, "Well, isn't it like that in the States?" I've seen it when I'm with my Deaf friends, maybe to slightly less extent. I told him that all these times I've been in Israel, I've been treated nothing but respect. He was surprised that it's one of the reasons why I love Israel and another reason was all the haggling and arguing involved in the culture. I knew that my CI gave me an advantage in being able to communicate with the Israelis, but still, there's always lip reading.
Like other deaf I've met, he hated speech therapy and said "NINE years! Nine years I was in speech!" I looked at him and said with a smile, "Try seventeen years!" He was shocked. I told him that my parents were very intent on having me to become oral and wanted to find solutions to everything. We talked about our blindness. I asked him how he got around and what did he do at night. He didn't really have any answers. I told him that it's possible to "see" at night because of memory image reconstruction from walking around a lot during the day. I didn't think he believed me, but just have to try it to believe it. I admitted to him that if I was suddenly put in a new place in the dark without having a chance to see it during the day, then I have a lot of trouble and have to ask for help. Then he asked about hiking trips on Taglit and we could just relate on that! We loved seeing the nature but hiking had become to difficult for us to handle. Then we laughed about glasses on table, running into glass doors/walls, cars, etc. He didn't really learn to drive and was happy to learn that I still could drive (with limits of course). He encouraged me to keep driving just for as long as I could. I was inclined to agree since driving was such a big part of American culture and symbolized freedom. Also, it's always good to keep a driver's license for emergencies.
Then I had to call it quits since I had to get back to do some laundry. He was sad and asked to keep in touch. I walked away from him feeling very happy about myself that I had a chance to practice some signing without reproachment for my oralness and CI. And I was finding my own group in Israel, at last.
Friday, I had class. Then I went to the beach for a couple hours. I missed the last bus to Herzliya so I had to fight with other people for shreuts in Ramat Aviv. But too many shreuts were full and there were about five or six of us waiting and then Linda called to see where I was. She decided that she'd just come over and get me. I brought her some flowers and Jerusalem Post (My guess is that she doesn't read Hebrew well enough to be able to read a whole paper from cover to cover). Anat and her boyfriend came over for dinner so it was all good time.
Today, I slept quite a bit, read the paper, ate meals, and talked with my family on Skype. While the Ravids went out to demonstrate in Tel Aviv for the protection of illegal foreign workers (mostly Sudanese) who were going to be deported, I went out for a 12 mile run. I had to do six laps around the mall, about a mile away.... fun. It wasn't so bad at first but once the sun started going down and it was getting cooler, I was very hot so it wasn't all that helpful that the air was becoming cooler! Seeing a few other runners kept me going. Oh the things I have to do sometimes to keep up with my marathon training, especially those long runs.
Then Thursday night, I got a special treat. My angel, Karen, got me and this man from Jerusalem connected. His name was Mordy. So we agreed to meet at Azrelli Center as I didn't feel like making the trip all the way out to Jerusalem, given the journey I had the previous night. So we met up on the bridge over Begin. I followed him inside and to Yohavta restaurant (fantastic, I love that place!). I noticed immediately what he could see with his current vision field. I almost felt like asking him if he needed help guiding through the mall but I stayed behind and watched out for him. I just wanted to see how comparable his vision was to mine. So we went in the restaurant and he stopped to chat with a waiter... in Israeli sign language. Cool, I thought, there's a deaf waiter here! I realized that it was perhaps the reason why he wanted to meet here instead of some cafe in Tel Aviv. We chatted for a while before making our orders. Then another waiter came by and talked to him in ISL. Two! Then we caught one waiter to take our orders but he was beng an idiot so the first waiter came back to help us out.
Throughout the next two hours, I was so surprised to see a lot of deaf waiters. Mordy counted about five or six of them. I told him that the hiring manager must have some ties to the Deaf community as it often happens in Rochester. We talked a little about our families, background, education, and so forth. He mostly used ASL and used his lips to talk. It was really challenging for me so I think I got probably at least half of what he said. I used some ASL that I could remember and talked at the same time. We talked about our connections to the Deaf culture and community. Like me, he didn't have many Deaf friends growing up due to our living environment. Now he's in Israel and has been able to connect with the Deaf community here. He said that eight of his friends had Usher's. I was excited when I heard that. We talked bit about the reasoning behind why Israel has quite a number of deafblind Jews- one of the genes traced back to an Ashkenazi Jewish community in Germany. He was from German Jewish family, and I... my family suspected that somebody on my grandfather's side had to be German because of the last name. I felt that he was opening more doors to the community in Israel and I was just amazed. It became harder for me to think about returning to the States where I'm shunned from the Deaf community for my CI. I told him that I wanted to embrace my deafness so much but with the politics in the Deaf community in the US, how could I? Like the people at Nalaga'at, he respected my oralness and CI. He understood that CI was no by means a miracle nor a solution to deafness. He had Telex when he was young but never liked it so like my friend, Jeff, he just never wore hearing aids. Also, since he was 10 years older than me, it was understandable that he probably would've have heard much about CI in the early 1990s.
On the same note about treatment from the Deaf community, I asked how was it being treated in Israel as compared to the United States. He pulled out his disability card that he shows if he needs accomodations, including riding buses for free. He felt that sometimes Israelis ignore him and make fun of him because he couldn't hear. I said, "Well, isn't it like that in the States?" I've seen it when I'm with my Deaf friends, maybe to slightly less extent. I told him that all these times I've been in Israel, I've been treated nothing but respect. He was surprised that it's one of the reasons why I love Israel and another reason was all the haggling and arguing involved in the culture. I knew that my CI gave me an advantage in being able to communicate with the Israelis, but still, there's always lip reading.
Like other deaf I've met, he hated speech therapy and said "NINE years! Nine years I was in speech!" I looked at him and said with a smile, "Try seventeen years!" He was shocked. I told him that my parents were very intent on having me to become oral and wanted to find solutions to everything. We talked about our blindness. I asked him how he got around and what did he do at night. He didn't really have any answers. I told him that it's possible to "see" at night because of memory image reconstruction from walking around a lot during the day. I didn't think he believed me, but just have to try it to believe it. I admitted to him that if I was suddenly put in a new place in the dark without having a chance to see it during the day, then I have a lot of trouble and have to ask for help. Then he asked about hiking trips on Taglit and we could just relate on that! We loved seeing the nature but hiking had become to difficult for us to handle. Then we laughed about glasses on table, running into glass doors/walls, cars, etc. He didn't really learn to drive and was happy to learn that I still could drive (with limits of course). He encouraged me to keep driving just for as long as I could. I was inclined to agree since driving was such a big part of American culture and symbolized freedom. Also, it's always good to keep a driver's license for emergencies.
Then I had to call it quits since I had to get back to do some laundry. He was sad and asked to keep in touch. I walked away from him feeling very happy about myself that I had a chance to practice some signing without reproachment for my oralness and CI. And I was finding my own group in Israel, at last.
Friday, I had class. Then I went to the beach for a couple hours. I missed the last bus to Herzliya so I had to fight with other people for shreuts in Ramat Aviv. But too many shreuts were full and there were about five or six of us waiting and then Linda called to see where I was. She decided that she'd just come over and get me. I brought her some flowers and Jerusalem Post (My guess is that she doesn't read Hebrew well enough to be able to read a whole paper from cover to cover). Anat and her boyfriend came over for dinner so it was all good time.
Today, I slept quite a bit, read the paper, ate meals, and talked with my family on Skype. While the Ravids went out to demonstrate in Tel Aviv for the protection of illegal foreign workers (mostly Sudanese) who were going to be deported, I went out for a 12 mile run. I had to do six laps around the mall, about a mile away.... fun. It wasn't so bad at first but once the sun started going down and it was getting cooler, I was very hot so it wasn't all that helpful that the air was becoming cooler! Seeing a few other runners kept me going. Oh the things I have to do sometimes to keep up with my marathon training, especially those long runs.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Not By Bread Alone
I am absolutely entranced. I'm just so speechless. Although this trip has been miserable in some respect, this has been the most amazing one as well. I mean, all of my trips to Israel have been absolutely wonderful because I'm always finding new experiences that change my perspective of Israel... all making Israel an even more beautiful place to be than ever. I have to quietly thank my department for sending me to Israel this summer even though I'm spending much more time learning from the Israeli society than in my classroom (Don't worry, I'm still learning new things from Naomi!).
So tonight, I stuck to my vow to visit the Nalaga'at Center to meet the actors. I texted messaged with Omer, the restaurant manager, to set up this opportunity and he told me to come by around 6. So I spent a few hours at the beach which was kind of iffy because it was so windy that the waves and the tide were unsually high. Then I took the bus down to Jaffa.
When I entered in the cente
r, Omer found me and he took me to the back and said that the group was very excited to meet me. First, he introduced me to my interpreter, Feige. She became my oral interpreter although she signed ASL at the same time (which was actually helpful as I remember some of the familiar signs). So I came to a room where all the actors and intepreters sat in a circle. First, the leader covered some notes for the meeting before introducing me. She asked Omer to explain how he met me. Then I came around the room and shook with every actor's hand. Before I knew it, they started drilling me with questions. I was sure that because they're Russians, they joked that they felt like the KGB, investigating me so much. I told them it's not a problem at all. They asked some common questions that Israelis ask about Americans, then they asked me about my vision and hearing. One of them didn't know what a cochlear implant was so I went over to her and put her hand on my processor. They asked about my parents, my schooling, and of course, my travels. They were marveled that I was here alone- actually, that was their first question, "Are you here in Israel alone or with your parents?" They said that they had been to the United States twice for performances but had never heard of Rochester. I said, "Really? It's the deaf capital of America!" One asked if I walked with a cane, I said, "no" and they all went, "Mmmmm!" Another asked how much could I really see and I said, "Let's put it this way, I can't see steps or chairs." Then I was followed up with, "Well, if you can't see steps, then how do you know they're there?" I responded, "I just trip the first time!" The comment enticed some laughter and a few said that they thought they could see just as much as I could. I also mentioned that it's very scary going to a new place so I walk around a lot during the day so my feet "learn their way around." Then I go out and let my feet take me where I need to go. I feel with my feet.
Then it was my turn to ask. I asked them how old they were when they found out about Ushers or when they went both deaf and blind. Many of them had been told about Usher's probably only 5 to 15 years ago. They all told me what their limits were in terms of vision and hearing. One of them, with Usher's, fit in my profile. I asked them, once they found out, how they lived with it. Most of them said "We just live with it. You just accept it." They all expressed how happy they were and they weren't really complaining about anything.
Then they had to get ready for the show and invited me to come back afterwards. So I joined them for pre-show dinner. It was just astounding to be sitting with them, just knowing the feeling of silence because we all understood each other. We had vision problems and we couldn't look at each other and eat at the same time. One
of the interpreters, Shani, came over and talked with me. She told me what some of the actors had been saying among themselves, they couldn't believe how "courageous" and "brave" I was to be traveling alone. Yes, it's true and that's why I want to see the world now before I have to become dependent. Then she told me that I should learn Braille and ASL when I can. Some of the actors eventually learned to read Braille. I asked about ASL and touch sign. I told her that I didn't want to learn ASL because I thought touch sign was a different language and I wasn't sure how it would all work if I learned ASL anyway. Shani explained that it's all the same- "you just need to be more specific". Hm, if it's certain that my efforts to lear
n ASL won't be wasted as my vision declined, then so be it that I should learn it when I can.... whenever I get a break from my research languages!
Fegie came back and showed me around the theater. She showed me the metal bumps on the floor so the blind could "see" where they're going. Oh fantastic. The theater was small, probably could hold about 300 people. There was a screen where Hebrew, English, and Arabic subtitles could be on display throughout the play. After everyone would be seated, they'll bring a chair in for me.
The cafe's served by deaf waiters and waitresses. On each table, there was a whiteboard, a marker, and an eraser so communication could be done. The menu had some simple signs as well. While I had a brownie and mint tea in the cafe, Omer came over with his cappaccino. We began talking. Omer's heari
ng by the way and just happen to land this job because they just had a position open. He had to take some Israeli sign language classes and practiced with the deaf. We talked about differences in quality of life for the deaf in America and in Israel. I said that the Israeli deaf people were so lucky that they read subtitles a lot on tv because so many shows were in foreign languages. On a different note, what about job opportunities? We also discussed the ease of technology like SMS. We talked about movies too.
Finally, it was time to see the play. I have to say that I was completely entranced by the first minute they began introducing themselves. I don't want to give away too much but they spoke for me. They talked about touch and the importance of hands. Touch from another human being made them feel less lonely. They talked about their dreams and acted them out. All this time, the bread was baking in the oven and it smelled so good. They moved so nicely across the stage (with some help of the interpreters with their positions and props). Just watching them made me feel that if I could live here for a while, I could act and tell everyone about me. A few of the actors were particular excellent in their skills that I couldn't help but admiring them for their passion of being on the stage.
I completely agreed with them on a lot of things regarding being in a "dark and silent" world. Touch's very important to me. I much prefer to living things than inanimate objects to find my way around. It's part of the reasons why I love being around horses and dogs, they made me feel less lonely, even if they couldn't talk. When they talked about their dreams, I questioned myself, "What's my dream?" I was living my dream of being in Israel but what's really my dream as a deafblind? I blanked out on that thought. I just shook my head a few times in amazement that, here, there was a small group like me right here in Israel who was already giving me so much support. Another excellent reason to make aliyah or find an opportunity to be in Israel for a year or so.
After the encore, they invited everyone to come on the stage and enjoy their bread and dip. The bread tasted fantastic as it smelled. I spoke with one actor with same level of Usher's as me. He told me that he had an experimental surgery a few years ago to help him broaden his vision field. It helped a little but not by much. He said his vision remained mostly stable but certainly on the decline since he was a child. Seeing a man in his late fifties, sixties, born with Usher's, with stable vision, gave me hope. But everyone's different.
Afterwards, Omer showed me the "Blackout" restaurant. I had to laugh when we walked in. It was seriously pitch black and it didn't matter!
Lastly, I came back in the room. They had a few comments among themselves about the play. Then I gave them praise and made some comments about a few profound moments like the importance of trust and touch. We didn't have time to talk because it was already getting so late. But they were just thrilled and invited me to come back whenever they were open. They said that their hearts were open for me and I had become part of their family. They couldn't stop smiling and almost everyone came to give their thanks and said good night. I talked with one of the interpreters who was serving in the army for national service. I told her, that this has to be better than doing the computers (intelligence work)!
They sent a cab for me and took care of the fare. I left... still entranced.
So tonight, I stuck to my vow to visit the Nalaga'at Center to meet the actors. I texted messaged with Omer, the restaurant manager, to set up this opportunity and he told me to come by around 6. So I spent a few hours at the beach which was kind of iffy because it was so windy that the waves and the tide were unsually high. Then I took the bus down to Jaffa.
When I entered in the cente
r, Omer found me and he took me to the back and said that the group was very excited to meet me. First, he introduced me to my interpreter, Feige. She became my oral interpreter although she signed ASL at the same time (which was actually helpful as I remember some of the familiar signs). So I came to a room where all the actors and intepreters sat in a circle. First, the leader covered some notes for the meeting before introducing me. She asked Omer to explain how he met me. Then I came around the room and shook with every actor's hand. Before I knew it, they started drilling me with questions. I was sure that because they're Russians, they joked that they felt like the KGB, investigating me so much. I told them it's not a problem at all. They asked some common questions that Israelis ask about Americans, then they asked me about my vision and hearing. One of them didn't know what a cochlear implant was so I went over to her and put her hand on my processor. They asked about my parents, my schooling, and of course, my travels. They were marveled that I was here alone- actually, that was their first question, "Are you here in Israel alone or with your parents?" They said that they had been to the United States twice for performances but had never heard of Rochester. I said, "Really? It's the deaf capital of America!" One asked if I walked with a cane, I said, "no" and they all went, "Mmmmm!" Another asked how much could I really see and I said, "Let's put it this way, I can't see steps or chairs." Then I was followed up with, "Well, if you can't see steps, then how do you know they're there?" I responded, "I just trip the first time!" The comment enticed some laughter and a few said that they thought they could see just as much as I could. I also mentioned that it's very scary going to a new place so I walk around a lot during the day so my feet "learn their way around." Then I go out and let my feet take me where I need to go. I feel with my feet.Then it was my turn to ask. I asked them how old they were when they found out about Ushers or when they went both deaf and blind. Many of them had been told about Usher's probably only 5 to 15 years ago. They all told me what their limits were in terms of vision and hearing. One of them, with Usher's, fit in my profile. I asked them, once they found out, how they lived with it. Most of them said "We just live with it. You just accept it." They all expressed how happy they were and they weren't really complaining about anything.
Then they had to get ready for the show and invited me to come back afterwards. So I joined them for pre-show dinner. It was just astounding to be sitting with them, just knowing the feeling of silence because we all understood each other. We had vision problems and we couldn't look at each other and eat at the same time. One
of the interpreters, Shani, came over and talked with me. She told me what some of the actors had been saying among themselves, they couldn't believe how "courageous" and "brave" I was to be traveling alone. Yes, it's true and that's why I want to see the world now before I have to become dependent. Then she told me that I should learn Braille and ASL when I can. Some of the actors eventually learned to read Braille. I asked about ASL and touch sign. I told her that I didn't want to learn ASL because I thought touch sign was a different language and I wasn't sure how it would all work if I learned ASL anyway. Shani explained that it's all the same- "you just need to be more specific". Hm, if it's certain that my efforts to lear
n ASL won't be wasted as my vision declined, then so be it that I should learn it when I can.... whenever I get a break from my research languages!Fegie came back and showed me around the theater. She showed me the metal bumps on the floor so the blind could "see" where they're going. Oh fantastic. The theater was small, probably could hold about 300 people. There was a screen where Hebrew, English, and Arabic subtitles could be on display throughout the play. After everyone would be seated, they'll bring a chair in for me.
The cafe's served by deaf waiters and waitresses. On each table, there was a whiteboard, a marker, and an eraser so communication could be done. The menu had some simple signs as well. While I had a brownie and mint tea in the cafe, Omer came over with his cappaccino. We began talking. Omer's heari
ng by the way and just happen to land this job because they just had a position open. He had to take some Israeli sign language classes and practiced with the deaf. We talked about differences in quality of life for the deaf in America and in Israel. I said that the Israeli deaf people were so lucky that they read subtitles a lot on tv because so many shows were in foreign languages. On a different note, what about job opportunities? We also discussed the ease of technology like SMS. We talked about movies too.Finally, it was time to see the play. I have to say that I was completely entranced by the first minute they began introducing themselves. I don't want to give away too much but they spoke for me. They talked about touch and the importance of hands. Touch from another human being made them feel less lonely. They talked about their dreams and acted them out. All this time, the bread was baking in the oven and it smelled so good. They moved so nicely across the stage (with some help of the interpreters with their positions and props). Just watching them made me feel that if I could live here for a while, I could act and tell everyone about me. A few of the actors were particular excellent in their skills that I couldn't help but admiring them for their passion of being on the stage.
I completely agreed with them on a lot of things regarding being in a "dark and silent" world. Touch's very important to me. I much prefer to living things than inanimate objects to find my way around. It's part of the reasons why I love being around horses and dogs, they made me feel less lonely, even if they couldn't talk. When they talked about their dreams, I questioned myself, "What's my dream?" I was living my dream of being in Israel but what's really my dream as a deafblind? I blanked out on that thought. I just shook my head a few times in amazement that, here, there was a small group like me right here in Israel who was already giving me so much support. Another excellent reason to make aliyah or find an opportunity to be in Israel for a year or so.
After the encore, they invited everyone to come on the stage and enjoy their bread and dip. The bread tasted fantastic as it smelled. I spoke with one actor with same level of Usher's as me. He told me that he had an experimental surgery a few years ago to help him broaden his vision field. It helped a little but not by much. He said his vision remained mostly stable but certainly on the decline since he was a child. Seeing a man in his late fifties, sixties, born with Usher's, with stable vision, gave me hope. But everyone's different.
Afterwards, Omer showed me the "Blackout" restaurant. I had to laugh when we walked in. It was seriously pitch black and it didn't matter!
Lastly, I came back in the room. They had a few comments among themselves about the play. Then I gave them praise and made some comments about a few profound moments like the importance of trust and touch. We didn't have time to talk because it was already getting so late. But they were just thrilled and invited me to come back whenever they were open. They said that their hearts were open for me and I had become part of their family. They couldn't stop smiling and almost everyone came to give their thanks and said good night. I talked with one of the interpreters who was serving in the army for national service. I told her, that this has to be better than doing the computers (intelligence work)!
They sent a cab for me and took care of the fare. I left... still entranced.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Miracles
Yesterday, I went down to Jaffa to find this bakery to grab something for lunch. First, I stopped in a liquor store to ask about this bakery but I saw that they had free maps of Jaffa. Perfect, an ancient city like Jaffa was bound to have an annoying layout of streets. Using the map, I found the bakery- Abulafia. I knew there was something awfully familiar about the stand when I approached it- I realized that they had another store just across from the beach. D'oh, the trip was unnecessary. But I got a cheese filled pastry (sort of like calzone) and some baklava. The guy who helped me obviously had a crush on me as he couldn't keep his "oh my god, you're so beautiful" eyes off me.
I took a walk along the promenade from Jaffa to my beach and it was quite nice. A little windy but it was wonderful to see the waves crashing against the rocks. Then I spent the rest of the day on the beach. While I studied the Jaffa map, I found a landmark, Nalaga'at Center. I immediately got excited because it's a center for the deaf-blind and it's open to the Deaf and blind people as well. It consisted of two different cafes- one deaf cafe and one "BlackOut" restaurant for the blind. It also ran theater performances, acted by blind and deaf actors and actresses. I made a vow to visit it ASAP.
So today, after class and a (n uninterrupted) hill running session, I went down to Jaffa to check out the Nalaga'at Center. I walked around a little and could see that Jaffa was just basically a run down city where people just lived with whatever they could get. Yet, there were quite bit of construction and I could see hints of the usual beautiful Israeli architecture. It'll look great in like...5 years. I walked along the port to find the center.
I found it. I peeped inside even though it was closed (they open on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays) out of curiosity. I saw two people signing. I looked at the material on the walls about the Center and I found someone sitting at the desk. I blanked out on my ASL and the woman offered me a piece of paper. I wrote, "I am forgetting my ASL. I am very happy that there is a place for me. I have Usher's." The woman looked at me and asked, "What's Usher's?" I quickly gave her the sign that Karen showed me last week for Usher's Syndrome. She got it. Then a guy came over and saw my CI and we began conversing (orally). I told him that I was from the States and I was happy that there's a place where I can take my parents on their next trip to Israel so they can experience a bit of my world on the blind side. I mentioned that I had Ushers. His next question was, "How much can you see?" Then we got into talking about the theater. He said that there were 11 actors, all deaf and blind and just over 50 years old. I asked if any of them had Usher's. His response? Eight of them are living with it. I was shocked. I asked how much could they see. He admitted that not very much at all. We agreed that next time I come, I could meet the actors firsthand and speak with them. He gave me his card and instructed that I send him SMS to tell him that I'd be coming.
It's a date for tomorrow night... I can't wait for Thursday night!
For dinner, I stopped at Haj Khailal's for some shwarma (READ THIS MOM) and I must say, it was a little dry (probably halal meat) but quite tasty. They put in hummus, fries, Israeli salad, and turkey in the pita and I topped it off with some cabbage. Then I went back to Abulafia's for some baklava. A different guy helped me out... and probably had a crush as he threw in an extra piece of baklava. Thank goodness that baklava in this country is practically bite sized, not a big piece as in the United States!
I was filled with endless thoughts on my bus ride home as I watched the sunset. I thought about what I was seeing at the moment and what it would mean to connect with another deaf-blind. Even if I wouldn't become legally blind for at least another 10 years or so. But to know that I could be practically blind by the time I'm 50, it's a little scary but yet, a bit urgent as I'd like to see as much of the world as I can. I don't want to wait for my retirement- what am I going to do and see if I won't see much then? I'll probably just get a horse and ride at a therapeutic center. I also thought about how could I explain to my advisor about my time in Israel when she asks about my trip (or any other professor for that matter). I mean, every time I go to Israel, the whole country is my classroom, whereas the program just serves as a filler. I mean, look at me, I'm going out and trying to meet with the deaf community, and I'm always learning from my Israeli friends about Israel.
Earlier today, while checking my e-mail at the gym (yeah, that's how spoiled people are), I saw an e-mail from the Overseas Students office saying that someone had contacted them about my wallet. I was stunned and immediately called the person who found my wallet. It took some time figuring out how the wallet could get to me. After quite bit of talking, we agreed on meeting in front of the dorms at 9 PM.
He was really late and was getting ready for his date with his girlfriend whom he was meeting up at the same time he'd meet with me. His girlfriend found me just as I was going to call him to find out where he was. Anyway, he finally showed up and handed over the wallet.
All of my money was in there. It's just too bad that my cards are cancelled!!!
So, it was a miracle that my wallet was returned to me just as I lost it in terms of money, cards, etc. It was also a miracle that I was able to find this Nalaga'at Center where, for the first time in this country, I met people who knew exactly how to communicate with me. It was also a bit surprising that my CI was receiving more attention here in Tel Aviv whereas in Jerusalem and Haifa, it was ignored. I mean, I was getting stopped several times a week now by curious people who wanted to know how I liked it and how well it worked for me...
Now, let's see about my camera....
I took a walk along the promenade from Jaffa to my beach and it was quite nice. A little windy but it was wonderful to see the waves crashing against the rocks. Then I spent the rest of the day on the beach. While I studied the Jaffa map, I found a landmark, Nalaga'at Center. I immediately got excited because it's a center for the deaf-blind and it's open to the Deaf and blind people as well. It consisted of two different cafes- one deaf cafe and one "BlackOut" restaurant for the blind. It also ran theater performances, acted by blind and deaf actors and actresses. I made a vow to visit it ASAP.
So today, after class and a (n uninterrupted) hill running session, I went down to Jaffa to check out the Nalaga'at Center. I walked around a little and could see that Jaffa was just basically a run down city where people just lived with whatever they could get. Yet, there were quite bit of construction and I could see hints of the usual beautiful Israeli architecture. It'll look great in like...5 years. I walked along the port to find the center.
I found it. I peeped inside even though it was closed (they open on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays) out of curiosity. I saw two people signing. I looked at the material on the walls about the Center and I found someone sitting at the desk. I blanked out on my ASL and the woman offered me a piece of paper. I wrote, "I am forgetting my ASL. I am very happy that there is a place for me. I have Usher's." The woman looked at me and asked, "What's Usher's?" I quickly gave her the sign that Karen showed me last week for Usher's Syndrome. She got it. Then a guy came over and saw my CI and we began conversing (orally). I told him that I was from the States and I was happy that there's a place where I can take my parents on their next trip to Israel so they can experience a bit of my world on the blind side. I mentioned that I had Ushers. His next question was, "How much can you see?" Then we got into talking about the theater. He said that there were 11 actors, all deaf and blind and just over 50 years old. I asked if any of them had Usher's. His response? Eight of them are living with it. I was shocked. I asked how much could they see. He admitted that not very much at all. We agreed that next time I come, I could meet the actors firsthand and speak with them. He gave me his card and instructed that I send him SMS to tell him that I'd be coming.
It's a date for tomorrow night... I can't wait for Thursday night!
For dinner, I stopped at Haj Khailal's for some shwarma (READ THIS MOM) and I must say, it was a little dry (probably halal meat) but quite tasty. They put in hummus, fries, Israeli salad, and turkey in the pita and I topped it off with some cabbage. Then I went back to Abulafia's for some baklava. A different guy helped me out... and probably had a crush as he threw in an extra piece of baklava. Thank goodness that baklava in this country is practically bite sized, not a big piece as in the United States!
I was filled with endless thoughts on my bus ride home as I watched the sunset. I thought about what I was seeing at the moment and what it would mean to connect with another deaf-blind. Even if I wouldn't become legally blind for at least another 10 years or so. But to know that I could be practically blind by the time I'm 50, it's a little scary but yet, a bit urgent as I'd like to see as much of the world as I can. I don't want to wait for my retirement- what am I going to do and see if I won't see much then? I'll probably just get a horse and ride at a therapeutic center. I also thought about how could I explain to my advisor about my time in Israel when she asks about my trip (or any other professor for that matter). I mean, every time I go to Israel, the whole country is my classroom, whereas the program just serves as a filler. I mean, look at me, I'm going out and trying to meet with the deaf community, and I'm always learning from my Israeli friends about Israel.
Earlier today, while checking my e-mail at the gym (yeah, that's how spoiled people are), I saw an e-mail from the Overseas Students office saying that someone had contacted them about my wallet. I was stunned and immediately called the person who found my wallet. It took some time figuring out how the wallet could get to me. After quite bit of talking, we agreed on meeting in front of the dorms at 9 PM.
He was really late and was getting ready for his date with his girlfriend whom he was meeting up at the same time he'd meet with me. His girlfriend found me just as I was going to call him to find out where he was. Anyway, he finally showed up and handed over the wallet.
All of my money was in there. It's just too bad that my cards are cancelled!!!
So, it was a miracle that my wallet was returned to me just as I lost it in terms of money, cards, etc. It was also a miracle that I was able to find this Nalaga'at Center where, for the first time in this country, I met people who knew exactly how to communicate with me. It was also a bit surprising that my CI was receiving more attention here in Tel Aviv whereas in Jerusalem and Haifa, it was ignored. I mean, I was getting stopped several times a week now by curious people who wanted to know how I liked it and how well it worked for me...
Now, let's see about my camera....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)