A Bit of Time in Israel

Since finishing the Birthright program, I've spent the past two weeks traveling around Israel with one of my best friends. Josh and I were in the same Hebrew school class from third grade through Confirmation, and have spent the last few months aligning schedules to make this trip finally happen.

First, the rest of Birthright. The weather got a bit better and we got to do actual things in Israel. We rode camels really early in the morning. We climbed Masada mountain on the Roman-constructed ramp, since flash-flooding had closed the steep snake path used by early Jewish zealots in their final stronghold against Roman invasion. We floated in the Dead Sea despite the cold, but due to weather, couldn't go to the Northern part of the sea where the mud is located. We visited the Old City of Jerusalem, and only lost one of our 40 group members in the Arab Quarter. We got snowed in at our hotel outside of Jerusalem, which apparently is rare for Israel. I like complaining, but I really did have a great time. And I'm so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity for the trip.

When Josh and I met up here two weeks ago, we had nothing planned other than a very vague outline of our itinerary. I'd spent two days with wonderfully kind family friends, and Josh and I found each other on the train to visit my Israeli family, whom I'd never before met. My family welcomed us right into their home with a good Jewish meal, and it was a great, relaxed start to our travel together. That afternoon we sat down and planned most of our trip. Let me just say that throughout our entire trip, every time something went according to plan or worked out smoothly, we were simply astonished at our success. Our planning was very last-minute and based mostly on whim. However, somehow it all worked so very, very well.

Besides my second-guessing every single public vehicle we boarded, public transportation was easy, though we often inadvertently got off a couple stops too early. And even though neither of us speak almost any Hebrew, we managed nicely in a country where most people happen to speak English. It was the first time in my memory that I was in a place where I didn't speak the language, which was humbling. However, our Hebrew schooling ability to read the language finally came in very handy as we navigated the country and attempted to get off buses at the right stops. 

In Jerusalem we explored the Old City. We walked around the city wall, next to the city wall, inside the city wall, and on top of the city wall. We visited the Western Wall and took a tour of the Western wall tunnels. Lots of walls. We went through the Jewish Market, and accidentally ended up in the Muslim Quarter. I was unfazed by ending up in the Muslim Quarter and had already taken off my Jewish necklace, just in case something like this were to happen. Josh was a bit more fazed, but completely held it together nicely. And I very much enjoyed the Arab Market.

After several days in Jerusalem, we went north to the Golan Heights, the truly lush, agricultural part of Israel. We planned to be there over Shabbat, when the most of the country would shut down, so that we could hike and have a chill weekend. The thing about the Golan Heights is that the area was captured from Syria during the Six-Day War, and Israeli settlement of the territory began in 1981. Thus, the area has some tension. 

The morning we left for the Golan, we found out that the United States Embassy had just issued a no-travel recommendation for the Golan Heights due to the security situation. Given that the town we were staying in was far from the demilitarized border zones, we headed up anyway. First we drove through the West Bank, with barbed wire fencing or walls along the entire route. The contrast between areas of the country was astounding. As we then moved through the Golan Heights I made a remark about the beauty of the area, only to realize that we were driving alongside marked mine fields.

Our hike went through the gorge and onto a military base.

We had a great time in the Golan. We were in a small town with easy access to nice hiking. But the mine fields alongside the hiking trails, the constant barbed wire presence, and the many United Nations vehicles in town made everything a bit more real. Especially when the hostel owner explained, "Now, if you hear bombs or gunshots, don't worry, it's just army practice," as she drove us past an army base to a trailhead. It was very real. After leaving the Golan, we learned that the tension there has since increased and has led to renewed fighting. It's all sort of complicated.

On a completely different note, Josh and I really like eating - that's just one thing upon which we completely agree. Throughout the entire course of our trip, we had incredible food, from fancy Middle Eastern food to Thai food to street shawarma to handmade pizza. It was absolutely fantastic, and I so hope that it'll hold me through the next months, whatever cuisine I encounter on my adventures. One of my favorite things about eating in Israel is that the food is so centered on fruits and vegetables, whether fresh or dried or pickled. There are fruit juice stands everywhere, an array of salads served at most meals, and market stalls piled high with freshly dried fruit. Hand-in-hand with that is a culture of exercise. Our theory is that that has to do with the fact that every Jewish Israeli must enlist in the army, and thus goes to bootcamp usually around age eighteen. Everyone in Tel Aviv is always jogging, especially along the coast. I went for a run the other night along the beach and it was wonderful.

Our time in Tel Aviv was filled with walking and eating and more markets. I sort of went swimming in the Mediterranean, but it was kind of cold. Yesterday we ventured out of the downtown section of Tel Aviv to find the Kenyan Embassy. After some confusion with Google Maps, we found the embassy and I got my visa. I leave for Kenya in the morning.

Israel has met every expectation that I had for this country, in so many respects. But at the same time, each expectation has been deconstructed and redefined in a new light. The country is beautiful and wonderful, but also incredibly divided and painful. The disparities between people are extreme, whether along religious, racial, ideological, or economic lines. And there are so many Jews everywhere. So many tzitzit, so many peyas, so many kippot. I'm not sure whether I feel more or less Jewish in this country. I definitely feel very aware, though, that my American Judaism is extremely different from an Israeli definition of Judaism. And I'm okay with that.