Overview of January

January brought the Conflict and Hope Seminar. All of OTZMA was brought back together for a jam packed week of workshops and lectures of different views of the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict. I am not going to go into every detail of every lecture, but I do have to say good job to the OTZMA staff for putting this together. A lot of hard work went into planning this seminar, especially with all of security issues. They took us into the West Bank, we were hosted for Shabbat by families that lived in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, visited a small Arab village, and we listened to well-educated people that fell on both sides of the spectrum: to the extreme right and to the extreme left. Now, before this seminar, I was only a little informed of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from what I read in the news, and I didn’t know what to think or even grasp a concept of it. After this seminar, I am feel very well-informed, both sides have been explained to me to some extent (which hasn’t happened before since the US or anywhere else fails to distribute unbiased news) ….and not to say that each side isn’t biased themselves… but I can see how any kind of peace talk isn’t this simple agreement that can be made in a day. There are TONS of issues that are involved in order to create peace. The fact is, I may have become more informed on the whole conflict, but I STILL can’t grasp my hands around the concepts. Does that even make sense? If I was confused before, I am more confused now. Even overwhelmed by the information I received. I am unable to grab a hold of a single opinion of my own in this. There are so many unanswered questions that will go unanswered, for everyone. But I still ask why can’t there be just ONE Jewish State?  Maybe you understand how complicated this issue really is. Maybe you don’t.

View from Nokdim, a Jewish settlement

My lovely roomie for the week

Adorable little boy in an Arab village

Suseya

OTZMA at Neve Shalom

Other happenings in January:

Hike in Sde Boker, small Kibbutz town 20 minutes away. Maybe you have seen pictures from facebook. We met a friend, Oren, who took us right into his backyard- the desert. We hiked for about 5 hours or so and explored and talked. It was pretty amazing. Did a little make-shift rock climbing, and yes, I am out of shape.

We went to a Bath-Mitzvah! One of my students/gymnasts had a Bat-Mitzvah that we were invited to. This girl, no joke, is me when I was her age, 12. She does gymnastics, she likes to paint, and she plays flute (I played in 6^th grade). It wasn’t hard to become friends with her when we first met. She is like a little sister to me now, I am already sad thinking about when I have to leave…Anyway, she had a big dinner for Friday night Shabbat and then the service was Saturday morning. In more religious communities, women don’t read from the Torah in front of men, so all the women were in one room as Ester read from the Torah. It was nice seeing several classmates, and all the women of the community. I felt such a nice, connected sense of community there, supporting Ester.  She did so well, I was so proud! After all of the services came the Shabbat lunch, which was another big meal for all of her family and friends. I will admit, Moroccan food is quite delicious! I was grateful to be a part of Ester’s life at this time and to have this experience. There are not enough words to express how wonderful Yerucham can be; the close-knit community and the amazing people that live here really create a sense of togetherness and belonging.

One thing that never gets old here, the desert sunsets