February 2009 Archives

            I find elections exciting. That probably makes me a dork, but whatever.

I was really excited when I had the chance to vote for the first time last spring, in the Democratic primaries. Then, I was able to vote in some local elections and primaries. (I promise that was more exciting than it sounds.) Finally, I voted in the presidential election last fall. Even though, I had to do it through the mail from Israel and did not go into that exciting booth, I still found choosing the next leader of the free world pretty exciting.

Just recently, Israel had national elections. Young people my age were able vote across the country. I, of course, was unable because I am not a citizen of Israel. I had thought about how I would feel about being unable to vote in the place where I was living and I knew it would not just be unexciting, but downright frustrating. Turned out, excitement still ensued.

            We had spent a fair amount of time learning about Israeli politics from our teachers and madrichim (counselors). We learned that Israel has a multi-party system. We learned that these parties have to build coalitions to form a government. We learned how Knesset (Israeli Parliament) functions.

Above all, we learned that Israel's political system is complicated. It makes democracy in the United States look like an exercise in simplicity. If you think a game of basketball is exciting when it is five players against five others (like the two-party system in U.S. elections), then imagine a game of basketball with ten players all on their own team. That's an Israeli election. Is it hectic? Yes. Is it exciting? Definitely.

On Election Day, I went with a madrich (counselor) of mine to a polling place to watch him vote. When I asked Dan whom would be getting his vote, he shrugged his shoulders. He had not decided yet, he explained.

When we arrived, there were representatives of different parties outside the building trying to convince voters how to cast their ballot. Yes, in Israel they are allowed to do this right outside of a polling place. In the U.S. we have laws against this but Israelis are too confrontational to consider this out of the ordinary. (Just an interesting side note to articulate how all-encompassing Israel's national elections are: The parties running for office buy up every, and I mean every, billboard in Jerusalem. Picture those giant billboards in Times Square that usually advertise movies and soda brands with huge images of Obama and McCain and you have the idea.) They allowed Dan the madrich to go into the polling area with 25 Year Coursers following him. Again, I could never see this permitted in America. Finally, Dan filled out his ballot (on paper in Israel) and started to walk to the officials, only to turn back and change his mind. With so many choices, who could blame him?

Now it has all ended and the details are being worked out to see who will control the Knesset. One thing is for certain though: An election with so many options where you could change your mind at the last second like that is an exciting thing indeed.

This past weekend I had one of those typical teenage experiences. You know the ones where you pick up spontaneously and embark upon some epic trip without a true idea of what you're doing or how you're going to do it.

In this instance, the destination that my friend and I had in mind was Mt. Hermon with the objective of going skiing. On Wednesday, after deciding (rather unreasonably) that there was surely enough snow on the mountain, we got a hotel recommendation, booked a room for two nights, packed up our things, and headed off the next morning for Neve Ativ.

It was a long day of travelling on Thursday, but we somehow managed to make it to Neve Ativ. We found the hotel, checked into our room, dropped off our stuff, and headed to the ski shop to rent our equipment.

The ski shop was a funny place, with absolutely none of the paperwork you have to fill out at an American rental store. We just gave them our money, and they handed us a pair of boots, skis, and poles.

The next morning we woke up pretty early in an attempt to get to the slopes right when they opened at 8. As often happens with these things, we got out the door a little late. Still, we made it to the slopes in time to experience the joy of the first (and very icy) run of the day, and were confident that we were going to have a good day of skiing ahead of us.

The conditions on the mountain definitely weren't ideal. The amount of snow was minimal and icy in the morning. That is, until the sun warmed it up and it just became really wet and started to melt, exposing rocks and some large patches of dirt. But, it was awesome to be out there. Mt. Hermon is a very cute ski mountain and we had a good time fantasizing about how much fun it would be to hit the slopes on a day when there was a couple more feet of snow and even (because you can be picky in your imagination) six inches of fresh powder.

At the end of the day we were exhausted but content, and definitely ready for an après-ski hot tub session. We ended our day with a late dinner and a movie on our hotel room TV.

The next day was a bit more relaxing. Convinced that the way the mountain looked at the end of the day Friday would make it un-skiable on Saturday, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and go for a hike. We really only "hiked" for 20 minutes before we found the perfect grassy knoll to take a nap on. The day was beautiful, and we had an amazing view down into the Golan.

Eventually we had to make it back into Neve Ativ to catch our bus to Qiryat Shemona and begin the long journey back to Jerusalem. Like all great things, our wonderful weekend vacation came to an end. It was amazingly fun, and to say that I just took off for a ski vacation in the Hermon really makes my year here that much more rewarding.

Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people, that much we know. However, what that means is that this beautiful country of ours is home to Jews of every shape and size, from all over the world. Even though I am from a predominantly Jewish community, I have met Jews who live lifestyles so different from my own this year, and basically the only thing we have in common is our love for our homeland and our religion. A perfect example of this was our Shalem Shabbat Beyachad in Tzfat.

            Tzfat is known for its spiritual atmosphere and the birth of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. Upon our arrival in Tzfat, we were greeted with singing and guitar playing. We were told what a holy city Tzfat is,and were given an opportunity to walk around. The boys all went to a mikvah, a spiritual bath, to cleanse themselves before the holy hours of Shabbat. Then, we started Shabbat with a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat service, and then the real adventure began. We were set up into pairs, and went to different homes for Shabbat dinner. We walked together as a group, dropping pairs off as we went. My friend Brooke and I were the last pair to be dropped off. When we arrived at our house, even before entering, I knew it was going to be like nothing I ever experienced. From outside their home, we could hear the sounds of many rambunctious young children, and saw their front door was covered with a picture of the Lubovitch Rebbe. When we came inside and introduced ourselves, we realized the parents spoke very little English, and none of their eight children spoke any English whatsoever, so it was up to our Hebrew skills and us for the evening. We learned that they were from a traditional Yemenite family, and enjoyed delicious Yemenite cuisine for dinner as opposed to our usual Mazal Ball soup and  plain Chicken. It was so awesome getting to be apart of a culture so diffeent from my own for Shabbat. Year Course is all about not being tourists in Israel, but really seeing what it is like to live here, and meeting all sorts of people that call this beautiful country home.

  

            I have had so many other experiences where I have gotten to interact with Israelis from all different cultures and backgrounds in the last six months, and as I go on to my Israel Experience portion of the year, I hope to do this even more. I will be participating in Dakar, the Naval experience program which takes place at an Israeli Naval boarding High School, so I will certainly get to meet kids from all over Israel and brush up my Hebrew while learning to sail and participating in other cool Naval activities.