by Stephanie Blitzer, Year Course Participant
On Sunday, day one of our 3-week journey in Rwanda had finally arrived. Our group of 11 left our apartments at 8p.m. and got to Ben Gurion airport ready and excited to board the first of two flights to take us to Rwanda. I had been waiting since March 2013 to go to Rwanda, however my dream of volunteering in Africa has been a four-year-old wish, finally coming true on Year Course.
Continue reading Snapshot from Year Course’s First Week in Rwanda
In five months, I went from unemployed college graduate to Jerusalem Post reporter. Clutching my newly minted college degree in my hands, I nervously mulled over my future. All I knew was that I wanted to travel and I wanted to write. As a passionate Zionist, the idea of living in Israel enticed me. Finally, I enrolled in the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) program to live and work in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Continue reading The Jerusalem Post and I
Neither sleet, nor snow, nor cancelled flights could keep nearly a hundred Young Judaeans from attending Lionfest at Camp Young Judaea Texas in Wimberley, TX this Presidents’ Weekend. Formerly known as National Midwinter Convention, Lionfest gathers Young Judaeans from all over the country to meet, share ideas, learn critical leadership skills and elect a new National Mazkirut.
On Thursday January 23, 2014, our Zionism class took a siyur (tour) walking from our neighborhood of Baka to the Old City. Along the way we stopped at a number of historic locations to learn about the local history.
Stop 1: Beit Ar El
Our first stop was actually inside Beit Ar El, the Year Course campus. We looked at a sewage system that predates the State of Israel – a time when Baka, which means “The Valley” in Arabic, was primarily Arab. In the 1930’s and before Beit Ar El was a part of the neighborhood and the buildings that we now use as dorms and classrooms were the homes and businesses of Arabs. Walking out of the campus it was explained that the streets of the neighborhood are named after the 12 tribes of Israel. I found it fascinating that the neighborhood I’m living in has a layout that is the foundation of the jewish people.
Stop 2: First Intifada Memorial
The next stop was a memorial of a 19 year old Jewish girl who was killed in our neighborhood, by a Palestinian in the First Intifada. When we were there, I felt insecurity knowing that this girl was shot less than 10 minutes from the place that I now call home. Rabbi Rob asked us whether we thought that this 19 year old soldier, who was in uniform, a legitimate target in the eyes of a Palestinian. My natural instinct was that she was absolutely not a legitimate target. However,after some thinking I began to understand the Palestinian perspective as well. Given the unstable circumstances at this time I can see how a Palestinian might have thought of this off duty as a target or threat simply because of her uniform. This isn’t to say that I think the attack was at all justified, but I will say that it was an useful exercise to empathize with an action that I found unfathomable at first, if only for the sake of seeking understanding.
Stop 3: Gan Ha’Paamon and Moshava HaGermanit (picture to be added)
I continued to think about this conundrum as we exited Baka on a path covering the old Ottoman train tracks that Theodore Herze
l rode on his trip to Israel in 1898. Soon we found ourselves at Gan Ha’Paamon (The Bell Park) on the edge of Moshava HaGermanit (The German Colony). The neighborhood, which is now one of the hubs of “Anglo,” or English speaking, life in Jerusalem, is named after a group of German Templars, Christian Zionists, led by Christoff Hoffman, a charismatic pastor, who settled the area in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This group was expelled by the British during World War II because of their suspected German allegiance.
Getting closer to the Old City, we talked about Christian Zionism and its origins. Hoffman’s group were among the first to settle outside of the Old City. The first neighborhoods went up in the 1860s. Beforehand there was a curfew meaning that if you weren’t inside the locked gates on time you would be left in the wilderness for the night. This is hard to believe considering that more than 550,00 of Jerusalem’s 600,000 residents live outside of the Ottoman walls.
Stop 4: Mishkanot Sha’ananim
The first of the neighborhoods in the New City was Mishkenot Shaananim, which roughly translates to “tranquil abodes.” The neighborhood was founded by Moses Montefiore, a Jewish philanthropist from London. The neighborhood was funded by Judah Touro, a Jew from New Orleans, and was meant to help the poor of Jerusal
em. Montefiore was revolutionary. The idea of expanding outside of the old borders of Jerusalem changed the character of the city in a profound way.
Next on our tour we walked around a very beautiful neighborhood called Yemin Moshe, which is named after Montefiore. The neighborhood was initially founded in 1891 as an artist colony using funds from Montefiore’s will. We learned that today most of the neighborhood is owned by wealthy Americans and Europeans live who use the property as vacation homes. The property is expensive and under-utilized which is ironic considering that the iconic Windmill in Yemin Moshe was built to provide poor Jews with cheap flour. I was jealous to know that people own these houses but rarely use them. It was so beautiful.
(picture to be added)
Stop 6: Mamila
The last stop on our tour was a Mamila pool that used to be an ancient Roman reservoir. The area is part of the Mamila neighborhood that was a mixed Jewish Arab neighborhood adjacent to the Old City that got a major facelift when the Mamila Mall, an upscale shopping center, was finished in 2007. Next to the pool was a Muslim cemetery, attesting to the neighborhood’s multi-cultural past. I’m sure to most people it looks like a gross area with ugly water in comparison with the fancy stores nearby, but I thought that it was pretty cool. After seeing the pool we ended our Siyur with delicious tea from a cafe in the neighborhood. Ultimately, in a city like Jerusalem with a long, shared, complex history even walking a couple of miles requires looking at old and complicated questions.
Young Judaeans around the world were shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend and fellow alumna, Anne Heyman. Anne was a Young Judaean through and through, who met her husband, Seth Merrin, on Year Course and raised three children, all of whom have been active in the movement attending both Camp Tel Yehudah and Year Course.
Anne’s life remains emblematic of the power and passion of Young Judaea. Her entire life was committed to tzedek (justice) and tikkun olam (repairing the world). She founded the Agahozo-Shalom youth village for children orphaned by the Rwandan genocide out of a burning passion for social activism and the Zionist imperative to be a light unto other nations. The village and its hundreds of flourishing children serve as a tribute to her dedication to helping the most vulnerable victims of genocide: she will never be forgotten. Young Judaea will continue to support Anne’s vision by sending groups of students to volunteer with farm-work, maintenance projects and teaching English at the youth village for years to come. Participants on Young Judaea’s Year Course program in Israel are scheduled to leave for Rwanda on the 17th February for a month-long volunteer experience at “Anne’s village”. We dedicate their service to her memory.
Those of us that had the great fortune of knowing Anne experienced her amazing passion, her keen sense of justice, her seemingly infinite energy to engage the world in the healing of broken communities, and a role model to all who she touched through her words of inspiration and acts of kindness. Thanks to Anne’s support, encouragement and constant call for improvement, Young Judaea will continue to burn brighter as we fulfill our mission to engage all in repairing the world.
To learn more about Anne’s legacy, visit:
In early January our class went on a siyur to Mt. Herzl, Israel’s official state cemetery. I have been to Mt. Herzl many times, both with my family and Young Judaea’s Machon, and had very defined expectations. What I remember from my past experiences is going to see the graves of pioneers, prime ministers and paratroopers. I remember discussing Herzl’s vision of a Jewish State to shelter us from European hatred, and feeling warm and fuzzy about the whole thing. I was quite surprised when Rabbi Rob, our teacher, began discussing Ahad Ha’am, the as-of-yet unfamiliar (to me) stalwart of Cultural Zionism. We talked about modern Israel’s cultural, political, and religious aspects, debating how the current state embodied Herzl’s vision, Ahad Ha’am’s vision, and things that neither had anticipated.
After our discussion, we headed to the Herzl museum, which I found more engaging, although it certainly generated some cognitive dissonance. Looking back on the other times I had been to this museum, I don’t think I ever really paid much attention. However, this time I looked at the exhibits critically and was surprised to find that I already knew much of what I heard and saw. I found myself thinking that the information had been oversimplified and had skipped over important nuances. What I found disappointing is that I couldn’t learn any more from the material. It was too watered down.
In our discussion afterwards, Rabbi Rob told us that the museum was targeted at Israeli high schoolers that don’t know much a
bout Israel’s history. I found it odd that my classmates and I, who grew up in the diaspora, knew more about the history of Israel than those living here. It saddened me that they needed such a simplified narrative that only scratches the surface to learn about their history, even if the narrative is important. I realized that I need to look to other venues to deepen my knowledge. I guess my Jewish education worked.
