The Awesomeness that is Israel

Hey everyone!

So I haven't talked about my actual Jewish history class in awhile. I figured that since we are at my favorite part of Israel's history, I would share my thoughts with you all.

Today we began learning about the 6 Day War. Before I get to what I really want to talk about, can we please pause for a moment and think about that. Israel, as a young, still under resourced State, won a war against multiple Arab countries in less than a week. Just so much "wow". That's just really damn amazing!! I can't express how cool and inspiring that is!

All of Israel's history is fascinating. Every little decision that was made affected the existence of Israel. From the Zionist conferences to the UN's voting on the Jewish State to the Independence War to the Declaration of the State of Israel to the 6 Day War. Every outcome was a result of a leader's decision, every outcome was a miracle.

One thing that I learned this past summer was not to simply focus on my Jewish history, but to relate it to me and my life now. This sounds sort of obvious, but once you focus on this, everything becomes so much more real and significant. 

Saying that, my parents met in Israel. It's where the met, fell in love, got embarrassed by the fellow Kibutzniks, scarred their hands picking fruit, and decided to move back to the States to get married and have children...like me. 

If Ben Gurion hadn't declared the State of Israel when he did, or if Yitzhak Rabin led the army into battle with alternate strategies, I wouldn't be here, in classroom 4, writing this blog. Naturally, life is full of "if's" and I could say many more less significant "if" statements that would change the course of my life. However, these miracles that made Israel a State are the truly important ones. 

And I'm not the only one. In my 8th grade graduating class alone, around six of us had parents who met in Israel. Israel has become so relevant to Jewish life around the world. 

I wish that Yitzhak Rabin, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and so many more great Israeli leaders could see that importance that they had on the growth of the global Jewish community. They were amazing. Their decisions were amazing. Israel is damn amazing.

So I'm going to try my hardest to enjoy my last month in this amazing country.

Have a great week!

Shoshana :)

The Beauty of Israeli Culture

Shabbat Shalom!

This week, for my blog, I've been asked to write about some aspect of Israeli culture. Our fabulous teacher, Aaron, has requested that we choose an Israeli song, show, movie, or author for us to write about.

I had a problem with this. While art and literature are clear signs of a thriving culture, when I think of Israeli culture I think of yelling, rudeness, community, falafel, and chutzpa (sort of like courageous stubbornness). I'm sure that I will touch on those aspects of Israeli culture, which I think truly depict Israeli life, in the future. For now, I'm going to explain the history of my favorite song.

This past summer, as many of you know, I partook in a program called Diller. Twenty of my friends from Pittsburgh became close to twenty teens from Israel. We had the opportunity to live with them and experience parts of their daily life. This often included playing music during free time. One of the songs that we sang every single time was "Ahava" (Love) by Daniel Solomon.

It's a song which talks about love coming suddenly and erupting. It has a nice melody and, to me, beautiful lyrics. When I ask Israelis now if they know the song the simply shrug and say yes. However, to my Pittsburgh friends and Israeli friends, that song is just amazing.

When it gets to the second chorus, we would all get really quiet then suddenly burst and shoot our hands out, screaming, "Ahava....PEATOM HI MIT'PARETZET" (love...suddenly, she came).

It was the one thing in the program that completely united us. We would argue on political and religious matters, we might not have liked every person in our cohort, but when we heard the smooth, Israeli melody of Ahava, we threw our arms around each other and truly became one cohort of Americans and Israelis together.

This is why, when I'm asked what my favorite song is, "Ahava" is always my answer.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Shoshana :)

Spring break or a 5 day hike from Sea to Sea?

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, we were off on an amazing adventure for two weeks.

During this break, I went up north (again) for Passover Seder. I had an absolutely amazing weekend with my host and her family. They welcomed me in with open arms. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my first Seder in Israel. After this, the group got back together and embarked on a 5 day hike from the Kineret to the Mediterranean Sea.

I learned so much in those 2 weeks. To start, the Seder was Sephardi, which as a very white Jew with family from Poland and surrounding countries, I had never experienced. This entailed lettuce instead of parsley, which was dipped into lemon water instead of salt water. There was a sweet sauce in place of either the bitter herbs or the charosset, which for my family is usually composed of apples, cinnamon, wine, and sometimes nuts. Needless to say that their Seder plate was very different than my family's.

Being at their Seder, in such a different environment I grew to appreciate the global unity of Judaism so much more. Even though the Seder plate was different and they served rice without thinking twice, we were sitting down for the same reason that my family was in America. The same reason as Jews in England, France, Canada, and anywhere else where Jews are situated. It was also just a really fun night.

Afterwards, the group reconvened to begin our 5 day long journey. For the trip, we were split into smaller groups of 12. Throughout the hike, we had fairly intelligent discussions. We all agreed that this trip, these 4 months, are not what we expected them to be. We didn't make best friends for a life time, but we did make tens of good friends. We didn't have any religious epiphanies or suddenly change our viewpoints, but we have delved into opinions more thoroughly.

One conclusion that I came to, is that this trip has already been life changing. Whether or not you've enjoyed it (which I have), there's no denying that you've learned about yourself here. I've had the privilege to explore my Jewish identity, my relationship to Israel, and discovered many personal things about myself.

I can't wait to share these discoveries with you all!
Have a great week!
Shoshana :)

Poland Reflections

Hi all!

If you didn’t know, we spent the previous week (March 23-27) in Poland. We studied the pre-Holocaust Jewish life in Eastern Europe, the extermination of the Jews and other minorities, and the current state of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. As you could assume, the trip stirred many emotions throughout the group. I had three main thoughts run through my head throughout the experience: 6,000,000, an almost guilt, and hope.

To understand the significance of 6 million, I had to look at it in smaller quantities. At Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust Museum and Memorial, I read an account of 70 Jews being killed in a sudden uproar in Germany. That’s all of the students on EIE Spring 2014…plus four of our counselors. Can you imagine, nowadays, if an entire group of American students studying abroad were massacred. It would be all over the news. I thought of each of the parents I met, and siblings, grieving over my new friends. It would truly be a tragedy. But that’s only 70 people!!

Another 50 children were shot one by one in the head with hand guns. That’s my entire CDS (middle school) class…twice. It’s all of the girls (or guys) in one unit at camp. It’s Pittsburgh Diller, Karmiel Diller, and Toronto Diller. It’s too many people!!! 50 is simply too many. 6 million is just unfathomable. During my experience, I focused on comprehending the severity of 6 million. I still don’t get it. But there is an exhibit at Majdanek that has cages of 430,000 shoes. So many shoes. If you put 1 person per shoe, you would have a good image of Jews in camps. Dirty, bent, unidentifiable, and locked up. It made me sick.

Leaving the Majdanek and Birkenau also made my stomach twist in pain. As we were leaving, I looked back past the barbed wire at the barracks. I looked back at the place where around 360,000 people died.  I didn’t exactly feel guilty, but I just kept muttering “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry”. Every time I turned back, I was looking at welcome home for death. A place where my people, Jews, were whipped, beaten, tortured, and eventually killed. I was looking at a hell. But I only had to be there for 3 hours, they were there for years. It was disgusting.

When walking through Majdanek and Birkenau, some of our group wrapped Israeli flags around themselves. It’s common for Jews to do when visiting concentration and extermination camps. We would also sing Hatikva, the Israeli National Anthem, at almost any significant memorial or site. Both of these annoyed me in the beginning. To me, they went along the ideology that God “gave” us the Holocaust in order to receive Israel. I hate that so much. 6,000,000 Jews shouldn’t have had to die in order to receive a Jewish State. I love Israel now that it’s here, but at the time it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth the death.

However, then I thought about the song Hatikva. It means hope. It speaks of hope for the Jewish people, how the hope is not lost yet, and the existence of the Jewish soul. That, I liked. We still have hope for the Jewish people, and we’re still here.  And the kids walking around the camps with the Israeli flag were flaunting that to the Nazi’s. We were saying “Ha! We’re still here!” I loved that. I loved letting the ghosts of the camps know that the Nazi’s failed, and that the Jewish people were still alive and thriving.

Once this hit me, I had the sudden urge for other people to know too. I began drawing the Star of David into the dirt at Auschwitz I. Every place with good, visible dirt I would draw the Jewish star to let everyone visiting the camps know that we are strong, and that, if they are Jewish, they aren’t alone. One other student stopped and stared at one of the stars. Watching her take it in was inspiring and gave me hope.

I don’t know if I’ll go back to Poland again, and I definitely didn’t love the country, but I did learn so much from it.

Hope everyone has a great Shabbat!

Shoshana

The Beauty of Being Created in God's Image

Hi Everyone!

Before I start, I just want to thank you all for actually reading my blog. I really appreciate that you take time out of your week to do so!

Anyway...this week I read an article about the fashion of Jewish women throughout the 18th-20th century. There is a new exhibit being featured in the Israel Museum (which I highly recommend visiting) that focuses on the dress code of Jewish women.

Looking at trends in "fashion history" through various religions, I find it very interesting that, especially in Judaism, a religion which praises God for making us in his image, we hide our bodies. Through veils and burkahs both Jewish and Muslim women cover their faces, bodies, and figure. We see this progress throughout history.

Zooming in on this topic of beauty, I learned that Muslim women actually cover their bodies because they are so beautiful. From what I understand, please feel free to correct me, other men aren't worthy of the beauty the women radiate. A radiance that God gave to them. I think that this is simply wonderful.

For thousands of years Jews have been modest. When the Greeks came strolling in with their "beauty is holy" Hellenism, we recognized that it went against Jewish morals. I disagree, respectfully, of course.

One of our daily blessings is thanking God for creating us in his image. Therefore, even if you don't love your body because of the way it compares to others, shouldn't you love it because God gave it you?

As Jews, we appreciate God's creations. I have always thought of his creations beautiful, thus, the human body is beautiful. I'm not saying we should walk around naked all the time...it would be very cold...but we also don't need to cover our literal God-given beauty.

Growing up, through literature or history, we often saw hiding as shame or cowardliness.To me, hiding your body coincides with ashamed of your body. Your body is not only beautiful in a 21st century sense, but in the sense that it was created in the image of God! Be proud of that! Own your beauty! And really appreciate what God gave you, never be ashamed.

Just something that's been on my mind recently.

Shabbat Shalom! Have a great weekend!
Shoshana :)

Keeping the Faith

Hi Everyone!

This past weekend, while staying with my incredible friends in Misgav, we decided not to sleep. Joking...sort of. Instead, one night, we watched a Keeping the Faith, featuring Ben Stiller.

I was so shocked that I had never even heard of it. Its truly a great romantic comedy. It had a good romance, predictable, though, of course. It also made me laugh out loud, something that very few movies and TV shows are actually capable of. But lastly, it really made me think.

A discussion that we had recently in Jewish history, and one that I had with my Rabbi back home, was interfaith marriage.

Surprise, that's what the movie focuses on...I'll try not to ruin it for you all, even though you can guess the ending 5 minutes in, but one of the main characters, Ben Stiller, is a Rabbi. He begins seeing a non-Jewish woman, secretly. She isn't particularly religious at all, but she is in no way a Jew.

Looking at interfaith marriage, I'm always stuck. I want to say that it's ok if one of the parties is non-Jew if they aren't otherwise religious, and as long as they raise their kids Jewish. But at the same time, I've always loved a good love story. Therefore, it's hard for me to restrict someone else's marriage if it really is true love. Quite a dilemma.

Watching this movie, though, the audience really sees a wonderful and happy love begin to bloom. If he was any other Jew, I would say, "go for it!" (I am a little bias though, she's one of my favorite actresses.) But he's a Rabbi. He's a role model to his congregation and an example. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be if my Rabbi was married to a non-Jew.

Personally, my congregation in Pittsburgh has a beautiful, home-y feel to it. Not only in the sense that I'm comfortable there, but in that everyone's family is yours. When I went to dinner with the Rabbi, we had a nice discussion with his wife and sons, over a lovey home-cooked, Jewish-styled meal that his wife prepared.

I honestly don't know if I would want to belong to a congregation where I couldn't enjoy that same luxury with my Rabbi's family.

It just really made me think...and I'm still thinking. I highly recommend Keeping the Faith for a great comedy, romance, and good intellectual debate. Like really, watch it. It's so good.

Have a great week everyone!
Shoshana :)

PS. Shout-out to Rabbi Gibson, Rabbi Symons, Sara and your families :)

Purim, Fur, and More

Hope everyone had a great and happy Purim!

Mine consisted of another amazing weekend in Misgav, seeing my Diller friends. The highlight of my weekend was definitely cancelling my lost credit card, then finding it 10 minutes later.

I was also a proud daughter this weekend, when learning that my father won the Temple Sinai adult Purim costume contest...as a minion. My 6'3'' bald-ish father painted himself yellow, bought goggles, and, of course, already owned the overalls. I still don't know if I'm embarrassed or proud.

Anyway, earlier this week I read an interesting article on the Jewish take on fur. Marjorie Ingall writes about her feelings about wearing her fur coat in public, and how she as a Jew feels about. it. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/164717/fur-coats

Ms. Ingall made many excuses in wearing her vintage fur coat, trying to convince herself that it's ok to wear coat that was made by hurting innocent animals. Wow, that sounds very stereotypical anti-fur.

But I can completely relate to Ms. Ingall. I didn't know that there was real fur in my Uggs for about a half year.Once I learned, I continued to wear them saying, "Oh, well I didn't know, and I'm already wearing them so..." and "well they were a gift so it's ok". I attempted to justify them. But I didn't have any excuses for buying the second pair. All I can think now is that I honestly forgot, which is true.

I'm not going to get into the ethics of fur coats or even the Jewish perspective on fur coats. I have been anti-fur since the That's So Raven episode where Chelsea protests furs. But it had nothing to do with my Jewish morals.

Something, though, that I've been trying to do for some time now is draw lines for myself. What I do and don't agree with. I must stop crossing those lines because what I want is cute, or easier, or what everyone else is doing. When drawing those lines, say for alcohol, or fur, or being Kosher, etc., I look at a number of things: what my parents taught me, how it feels to me, is it stereo-typically ethically right or wrong, would I be disappointed in myself afterwards, and would my parents be disappointed.

Often in Jewish programming, we're asked how our Jewish morals affect us. To me, they never really have unless it's a straight up Jewish question such as keeping Kosher. But I like to think that my parents raised me with fairly Jewish ethics. Thus, by taking in account what my parents taught me, I'm also basing my decisions on Jewish ethics. No pressure.

I'm still figuring out my lines, and working on never crossing them. But staying true to your own morals in harder than I would have ever thought.

That's all for now,
Have a good week!

Shoshana :)