Oh Canada!

Early one Friday morning, two friends and I boarded a bus and headed for Nahariyya, a city in the north of Israel. Upon arriving in Nahariyya we quickly boarded another bus to a wonderful place called Ahzivland. In the early 1950s, a man named Eli Avivi realized that he had no desire to live under an Israeli government, so he declared independence from the State of Israel and has operated his own "micro-nation" ever since. With his own laws, passport stamp, beach, museum, and guest house, Ahzivland proved to be one of the most bizarre and uncomfortable places I have ever been. The eccentric president and founder invited us to help him move a random boulder, and I feel privileged to have been able to help out the "infrastructure development" of this great nation. 

We then headed to the northern port city of Akko. One of the most ancient cities in Israel, Akko is steeped in many thousands of years of history. We wandered the old city, indulged in the most delicious hummus I have ever had, explored ancient tunnels built by the Templar knights during the crusades, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the sea. After getting very lost due to the maze-like layout of the city, we eventually escaped and boarded a bus for the northernmost spot in Israel. 

Metula is a quiet town with approximately 150 families. At first glance, it would appear that there is no good reason to visit this distantly removed point on the map of Israel. Why then, did we make the 2 hour shlep? When we arrived at what we thought was a youth hostel, we were shown the guest room in the home of some very nice people. That night we walked the town and took a stroll along Israel's border with Lebanon. The next morning, we woke up and headed for an extremely fun day. As a gift to the state of Israel from the Canadian government, Merkaz Canada was opened several years ago (apparently Canada likes northern regions). Complete with an olympic size ice-skating rink, a bowling ally, a giant indoor swimming pool, a firing range, a spa, and a billiards room, 5 of my Canadian friends, my Minnesotan roommate, and I had hours of fun at a very cheap price. It was a great vacation from my grueling ambulance schedule. 

Late that afternoon we headed home to Haifa and caught an 8:00 showing of Slumdog Millionaire, which I highly recommend you see. 

Coming soon: A long list of other experiences which I have failed to blog about over the past month. 

Always,

Zach

Backtrack Part IV: Assorted Catch-up

I have recently realized that maintaining this blog is more of a burden than I initially expected. I simply don't have time in the day to sit down and reflect on my experiences because my life is a perpetual whirlwind of bloggable material. Therefore, I present to you the final entry in my "Backtrack" series. Regrettably, I am only going to mention as many of the highlights of the past month as I can remember, and if you have a question about something specific, make a comment on the entry and I'll do what I can to elaborate in future posts. 

Here we go...

1. I have explored the many neighborhoods and attractions in the phenomenal city of Haifa. This includes the beaches, the parks, the museums (including a phenomenal science museum), the malls, the shuks (markets), the cinemas, the restaurants, the gardens, and the soccer stadium.

2. I spent a weekend in Holon, a city in the outskirts of Tel Aviv. This weekend included visiting with old friends, enjoying the beach in Bat Yam (another small city), and spending time in Tel Aviv.

3. I have spent time in Modi'in learning about the Maccabi's and the story of Hannukah from the place where it all occurred so many years ago. A great miracle happened here!

4. I had a wonderful week of vacation with my family. We explored Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. We met with long-lost cousins who we previously did not know existed, we saw museums, drum circles, friends, and of course it was wonderful to see my family after so many months!

5. Every day from 6:50 am until 3:00 pm I have a shift with the ambulance. I have seen some truly exciting things, and had many not-so-exciting days. I have many interesting stories, and thankfully I have not had to deal with anything too traumatic. I love being able to criss-cross the city on a daily basis going to calls and dropping people off at hospitals. 

6. Israel went to war! Having tolerated 3000 rockets from Gaza into Israel over the past 8 years, during a supposed "time of peace", Israel finally decided that it had had enough. It was very interesting to cross-reference the reporting of the western media from the reality of the conflict. The anti-Israel bias that permeated the news was alarming, and unbalanced. My life was hardly impacted by the actual war. I became slightly concerned when several rockets were fired from Lebanon into the north, but that seemed to be an isolated incident, not an invitation to open a second front to the war. I am very grateful that the violence and bloodshed has ended, and I look forward to seeing the direction that the peace process moves from here on in.

7. For one week I volunteered with a program called Sar-El in order to help with the war effort. 120 people from my program were scattered throughout the country on various army bases helping out with menial chores so that soldiers could deal with more important tasks. I bagged lunches, bagged bags, packaged batteries, and counted view-finders. It was a surprisingly fun week, and I was glad to help in whatever way I could. 

8. I watched the Obama inauguration from a hotel room on the beach in Haifa that a friend's father was kind enough to rent. Despite my physical dislocation from America, I still feel very connected to the excitement and energy surrounding Obama's initiation as president!

9. I spent a weekend at the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. It was a wonderful Shabbat with my program, and it was fun to see everyone after such a long absence.

10. I spent a weekend helping out the Tsofim youth movement of Israel. The "Tsofim" or Israeli Scouts, invited me a few friends to assist them in their screening process for 16-year-olds who would spend the summer at Jewish American summer camps. Through role-playing games I helped test their English, and their ability to deal with difficult situations that might arise as a camp counselor. It was very interesting to see this aspect of Israeli culture in depth. 

I think that's it. Though I hoped I would have been able to address my travels with significantly more depth, I promise I will attempt to do so moving forward!

Always,

Zach

Backtrack Part III: Mada Training

We arrived at the guest house in Jerusalem and unloaded our bags into the first available room. The long list of vocabulary words in Hebrew that we were expected to memorize sat untouched in my backpack. We were told to go across the street to buy school supplies, and in my mind I scoffed at the idea of engaging academically after such a extensive respite. I purchased my pens and notebook with a light heart, entirely unaware of the challenge that I was about to hit head on. 

Later that night I found myself, head bent over a desk copying notes in a darkened room from a projector. That was my reality for the following ten days. From 8:00 am until 10:00 pm with only breaks for meals I learned the intricacies of saving lives with Magen David Adom, the emergency medical service of Israel. From Elevated Inter-Cranial Pressure, to Pulmonary Edema and everything in between, by the end of my course I was extremely well versed in basic life-threatening ailments, and the appropriate emergency treatments. 

My teachers had been working with MDA for many years and had many stories about their experiences with the organization. My class and I became very close over the course of the week and a half, and we I have many fond memories from the time I spent there. 

After passing the midterm and the final exam, I was given my uniform (a white button down shirt with the MDA logo, and a beautiful fleece to keep warm during the mild winter in Israel), and sent back to Haifa to start saving lives. 

Backtrack Part II: Home to Haifa

Upon arriving home to Israel, we were brought to the Youth Hostel for one last night. The next morning, we realized the chaos caused by 550 kids being shuffled to new homes across the country. Eventually I successfully loaded my bag onto the proper bus and embarked for Haifa. We stopped at many other placements along the route dropping kids off, and the last stop would be my home for the next three months. 

My neighborhood is called Kiryat Eliezer. It's a largely Russian immigrant area, so I'll need to brush up on my Russian. We live down the road from the soccer stadium, and you can see the Bahai Gardens (a $250 million shrine to the Bahai religion) from my street. There's a central square with a market and many shops and grocery stores. I also live 2 blocks from Ben Gurion Street, a major center of town. The best feature of my neighborhood is the remarkably close proximity to the beach. 

As the third largest city in Israel, there are dozens of museums and areas to explore in Haifa. There is also an emphasis on peaceful coexistence between all the different ethnic groups of the region. 

My first several days were marked by unpacking, exploring the city, touring the Bahai gardens, and celebrating Thanksgiving. My group invited many friends from their placements all over the country to join us for a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. We experienced the pleasures of cooking, cleaning, and preparing for the over 20 people who would be joining us. It ended up being very fun, and a delicious memory looking back on my year. 

Over the weekend my friends and I visited the famed "Science Museum" of Haifa. It is a 600 exhibit giant museum which occupied my interest for many hours, and I fully expect to return at some point.

The following day I got on a bus early in the morning, and headed to Jerusalem for my ambulance training course. 

Backtrack Part I: Eastern Europe

After my bags were adequately stored, I spent the night saying goodbye to people who I would not see for a while, then at 1:00am I boarded a bus to Ben Gurion Airport. 

Exhausted, I remember sitting down in my chair on the airplane, and waking up many hours later in Prague. From Prague we took a puddle-jumper to Krakow, where we began our journey.

Despite the gloom and grayness of Schindler's list, I found Poland to be remarkably beautiful. I found it hard to believe that such a short time ago this place was the sight of immense horror. On our first day of the trip we toured around the Jewish quarter of Krakow, visiting synagogues and other cultural centers while learning about the strength of the Polish Jewish community. Many of the shops and restaurants have a Jewish theme or seem to be directed to a Jewish clientele, but we were informed that the Jewish community in Krakow is very small today and these shops are operated solely for Jewish tourists such as ourselves. 

The next day we woke up very early and embarked for Auschwitz-Birkenau. I had heard a lot about seeing this place from a tourist's perspective, so I purposely dimmed my expectations of the day. Many come to Auschwitz-Birkenau expecting to see the holocaust, instead what you see is a nicely put together museum. I had chills through most of the tour, brought on by more than the frigid weather. We read passages from first-hand accounts of life at Birkenau and we saw pictures of the horrific affair and tried to connect to the unimaginable trauma of life in this place during World War II. Being able to sing the Israeli National Anthem - Hatikva (the Hope) in this ghastly place, and know that I would be going home to Israel in just a few short days was a truly unbelievable feeling. I know that my day in Auschwitz-Birkenau impacted me in a way that I cannot even describe, but I strongly recommend that you take some time in your life to visit this infamous place.

We spent that evening in the central square of Krakow, which was absolutely beautiful, and then we boarded a night train to Bratislava. 

Having known almost nothing about the city of Bratislava, let alone the country of Slovakia, before I was informed that I would be going there, I was greatly surprised by how magnificent this city was. On Thursday we toured the old city of Bratislava and wandered the streets looking at the beautiful buildings and breathtaking views. That night we went to the Jewish Community Center where we met with Jewish students who were born in Bratislava and are currently studying there. We learned a lot about the sad state of the Slovakian Jewish community, and the trouble of growing up Jewish in Bratislava. That night we were treated to a boat tour of the city down the Danube river. 

The next day we visited the grave of the Chasam Sofer who was a Slovakian Rabbi in the late 17 and early 1800s. He was a teacher to thousands and a strong opponent to Reform Judaism which was starting to grow at this time. Interestingly, he also held the belief that a modern Jewish state was not a good idea. We also visited the town of Dunajska Streda where we saw a Synagogue that is barely in use today, and we learned about the small Jewish community in this place. My Israeli trip leader also took us to the grave of the grandmother of his grandmother. The depth of Jewish tradition in these small European towns was immense, and it is incredible how little exists today as a result of the holocaust. 

We spent Friday night with the tiny Jewish community, and we had a relaxing Saturday which included a walk through the city. We went out on Saturday night in Bratislava as a final goodbye to this place in which we had never dreamt that we would ever have had such a meaningful experience. 

Sunday morning we woke up early and boarded a bus to Prague. On the way we stopped at a cave tour which concluded with a boat passage through the depths of the earth. It was a beautiful snowy day (which, coming from Israel, is actually a big deal) and regrettably my camera with all my photos from the trip, was lost forever (no worries, the internet is a wonderful tool). 

When we arrived in Prague we went on a tour of the old city. I can say without a doubt that Prague was the most beautiful city that I have ever been in. You look in one direction and think it's a beautiful, and then you turn 180º and the view is just as beautiful. The castles, bridges, cathedrals, and statues are just breathtaking. The next day we saw the Jewish quarter, with several of the most amazing synagogues I have ever been in, and a Jewish cemetery with graves from the 1600s. We learned a lot about the Jewish community of Prague, and the lingering anti-Semitism which exists today. 

From there we boarded a plane, and headed straight back to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). The trip was truly unforgettable, and really helped me understand better the sometimes wonderful, sometimes horrible, historical context of European Jews and their relation to the modern state of Israel. 

I hope this retroactive update was sufficient, I'll continue this series until I'm caught up, but that might not occur until after the winter break which concludes at the beginning of January. 

Happy Channukah!

Love,

Zach

So Little So Late

I'm terribly sorry that this isn't the update you've been expecting. I can tell you in short that Eastern Europe was amazing, the move-in to Haifa and my first several days were wonderful, and my ambulance training course was sensational. 

All three of those stories and more are forthcoming once I find the time to adequately process the experiences I've had.

Tomorrow I head to Kibbutz Deganya (the first kibbutz in Israel), for a Shabbat with all the people from my group. I expect to update you about that upon my arrival home to Haifa in 2 days time. 

Apologetically,

Zach

Going, going, gone!

Hello!

This past Tuesday I took the day off from classes to meet my mother in Tel Aviv. We spent a wonderful sunny day walking the beach, visiting a relative (discovering new relatives!), and catching up on the past three months. It was great to see her, and I'm excited to see her again when my entire family comes to visit in December. 

The following day I attended classes in the morning, and then headed out to a special field trip. I was selected by my program to represent Young Judaea at the World Zionist Congress. This meeting of hundreds of people from across the world was a phenomenal experience. I heard speakers about the evolution of Zionism in modern times, the future of Zionism in Israel, and the importance of youth to Zionism. Because of the international nature of the conference, I had to wear a translation machine to understand what was going on. I very much enjoyed the day, and I was honored to be selected.

Thursday was relatively uneventful, except for the fact that we were told where we would be spending the next three months of our lives. I was delighted to find out that I will be living in Haifa with several friends, volunteering for the Magen David Adom (the Israeli Red Cross). I will be taking a 10 day intensive training course to learn how to save lives, and then I will be volunteering on an ambulance in the third largest city in Israel. You might recall from one of my previous posts, but Haifa a beautiful city with a lot going on, and I am very excited to be spending the next three months there.

I spent Thursday night visiting with friends who are on a different program in Israel. As always, it was nice to see them. 

On Friday I went to "Ir David" the City of David which is an archeological site in Jerusalem next to the old city. This is where King David lived 2,000 years ago, and there are all sorts of interesting tunnels and ruins to see on the guided tour. 

Friday night through Saturday was a closed Shabbat in our hostel because it was our last weekend together. We had a wonderful time relaxing at home, and there were several scheduled activities during the day. 

On Sunday a friend and I went to Har Herzl (Mount Herzl) in an attempt to visit the museum which celebrates the life of Theodor Herzl. Unfortunately, we were informed upon arrival that the museum is only open to those with reservations. Thankfully, Har Herzl (the national cemetery) is one of my favorite places in the country. We spent the morning visiting tombs of famous Israeli's from history, and preparing for my Zionism final which was the next day.

Today I took my Zionism final and wrote a final paper for another class. I then packed my bags, cleaned my room, and went out to eat with a few friends. Now I'm back at the hostel, finishing the packing process, and getting ready to leave. As soon as I post this blog, I will be shutting down my computer, packing it in my suitcase, putting my suitcase in storage, and then boarding a bus for the airport. 

I will be spending the next 7 days touring Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. I'm very excited for the trip, and I will be sure to update you on everything as soon as I return. 

It might be a while before I post again because I will not have access to the internet for a very long time. 

That's all for now!

-Zach