Middle East 08

This isn’t a terribly exciting update, so below is an outline of the
 contents (in case you want to skip the super boring parts)

 1. Complaining
 2. Israeli Memorial Day and my day in Jerusalem
 3. Plagarized Jewish stuff
 4. Bragging
 5. Hebrew School Stuff
 6. Empty Promises

 1.  I mentioned in my last email that I was feeling pretty sick since my return from Turkey. The sea-legs didn’t go away until yesterday,  which was weird because I was only on the boat for a couple of days. And, my cold, or bronchitis, or whatever was wrong with me, was awful
 this week.  Lots of oranges purchased at the shuk… But, alas, today I’m feeling like myself again and even treated myself to a morning at the beach.
2.  This past Wednesday, my program had a program to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Rememberence Day. We toured the gardens of Yad Vashem, then went to Mount Herzel, the cemetary of fallen soldiers.  After a little free time, we went to a play about some court jestersduring the Holocaust. It was awful. As they say in Hebrew, “nap-time”.
3.  In the early 1950s, education about the Holocaust (Shoah, meaning catastrophe, in Hebrew) emphasized the suffering inflicted on millions of European Jews by the Nazis. Surveys conducted in the late 1950s indicated that young Israelis did not sympathize with the victims of the Holocaust, since they believed that European Jews were “led like sheep for slaughter.” The Israeli educational curriculum began to shift the emphasis to documenting how Jews resisted their Nazi tormentors through “passive resistance” – retaining their human dignity in the most unbearable conditions – and by “active resistance,” fighting the Nazis in the ghettos and joining underground partisans who fought the Third Reich in its occupied countries.

 (Not plagarized Jew Stuff)

 The next day, the actual day of rememberance, at 10AM i went up to the roof to watch the siren that sounds.  Since the early 1960s, the sound of a siren on Yom Hashoah stops traffic and pedestrians throughout the State of Israel for two minutes of silence.  Every single person walking on the street freezes, cars pull over suddenly and the drivers and passengers all get out, and people in office buildings all go stand at their windows.  It’s absolutely incredible.  Quite different from our Memorial Day in the U.S.  All radio programs during this day are connected in one way or another with the Jewish destiny in World War II, including personal interviews with survivors. Restaurants, movie theaters, all stores, and even the kiosks are all closed.

4. Thursday, I was woken up my volunteer coordinator who received a copy of a new publication that I’m in called Zarim. The editor, whom I met a few weeks ago, put my article first, and included all of the pictures I submitted, and included an editor’s note about me and my experience here in Israel.  It was exciting news, not only to be in a brand new publication (I’m going to the launch party tonight), but also to have the first article. I also found out that I got into another magazine that I’ve been submitting articles to for a few weeks; they finally published me!  And, I had two articles in the main magazine that I’ve been writing for. A big week in the Jamie Swartz Foreign Literary World.  Wednesday I also had a meeting at the Filipino Embassy about the business class I’m teaching; and am currently looking for outside speakers to come and discuss starting one’s own business, being one’s own boss, and basically anything so that the students don’t have to listen to me the entire time.

5.  Thursday night, I started ulpan (Hebrew School) again.  Because its not a part of my program, it extra and out of the way, but I’m really excited about it.  My class is basically all adults from all over the world, and I’m the youngest by a couple years, which is nice. And, a lot of them read my publications! There are a handful of people from Singapore, Turkey, Germany, and Switzerland. And a woman from Australia who thought I looked familiar. Odd. So, school was great; I’m excited to learn some more.  It’s also about 2 miles away, which is a nice walk while it’s still relatively nice out. That’s about it… I’m going to the big magazine launch party, and tomorrow it’s back to my Nepali Women Voice Group.

 6. Due to the overwhelming response from my last email; I have been taking my camera more places, and do intend to send an album of more pictures around Tel Aviv.. As opposed to just the nightlife (Which I’ve been abstaining from due to said sickness for tose lazy’s that skipped portion #1 of this email). So, expect some real touristy pictures coming your way in the near future.

 Okay, over and out, have to get ready for the big magazine launch.  know those Thai’s are all bringing pens for me, the featured author’s
 autograph. I’ve been practicing for days.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 7:49 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.