Year Course: What are we doing here?

"Back in the day..."

It used to be that Year Course was a year of physical labor on a kibbutz or moshav or volunteering in a development town helping to build the land of Israel. Back in the day full garinim of participants made Aliyah together. Arguably the greatest example of this undying dedication was that of a garin in 1969 that established Kibbutz Ketura as the Young Judaea kibbutz. In the years and decades that followed, Young Judaea always had a strong presence down there in this small patch of land in the Arava with participants coming to volunteer for months at a time, Year Coursers returning at the end of their year to help out and stay for longer and Judaeans making Aliyah right to Ketura. The recent Year Course decision to not send volunteers down to Ketura is a sad reflection of the direction the program has taken.

In an article in Haaretz about the change in leadership of Year Course one statement particularly resonated with me: "...diluting the course's roots to attract more participants." Though this business decision of marketing to teenagers who were not part of the movement has obviously proved successful as reflected in the stats from recent years, it has also made the program shift steadily away from the movement. As I always describe it: Young Judaea (YJ) the movement is absent from Year Course (YC) the organization. So much of what makes YJ unique is lacking in the YC program.

KEHILA (community)
There is virtually no sense of kehila. From the little things like madrichim never doing ice breakers during orientation to significant things like no longer having organized tiyulim for bonding and on a more profound level, the lack of a common purpose for being here. Too many participants view this year as time away from parents and responsibility with the added bonus of lots of alcohol and few restrictions. It makes little difference to them that we're in Israel. Though there are certainly Judaeans who choose to make this Beer Course, I feel that for the most part those of us who made our way through the camps and conventions and were instilled with the values of Zionism and tikkun olam from an early age take away much more from this year than the others. While this shared background in the movement unites us it also created a divide (significantly more noticeable in the beginning) between old and new Judaeans. For example, when holding a pot luck Friday night dinner for the whole section, it is primarily the old Judaeans who are present.

ZIONISM
We're in Israel- that's Zionist enough. That's the impression I get from many participants as well as the staff. For example, our most recent siyur to Sderot people were complaining it was too much Zionism. I was also complaining. But my grievance was that there was no discussion before or no sikkum after the siyur, no background info provided for those not so well versed in Israel's history. The madrichim didn't even tell us what we were doing other than "meet the bus at 8:30. Pack lunch. We're going to Sderot." We sit down to listen to a woman resettled from Gaza and the girl next to me leans over and whispers, "What's Gush Katif?"
My appreciation and love for this land and its history stems from all that I learned in and because of Young Judaea. My sense of Zionism is not being enriched or furthered by the program YC has become.

I hear the stories of what Young Judaea Year Course used to be and all it accomplished and it makes me want to fight for what was. With the movement getting weaker and the only elements still going strong are those like YC that are run as essentially separate entitities, it forces me to question Young Judaea's purpose in this age.

When first established in 1909 its goal was the establishment of the State of Israel. The original focus of Year Course was very heavily placed on making Aliyah. Throughout the 20the century our goal was helping to ensure the existence of the Jewish state be it through a strong Zionist presence in America or making Aliyah. When YJ began and for many years after it was unique in what it did. It was the largest and most successful Zionist youth movement. Now with a plethora of Jewish youth groups all of which are on the whole very similar and our original goal of securing a Medinat Yisrael fulfilled I wonder what is the Young Judaea of the future. I think it is extraordinarily important for Judaeans to know our history (besides for that the stories are just down right fascinating), partly to understand the significance of the movement we're a part of but even more so to learn from the past in order to create an even stronger future.

Sderot and Gush Katif

Sderot. A town even smaller than Arad thrown into the spotlight of the international media with visitors from Obama to the Kenyan security delegation all the way down to Year Coursers flocking to gawk at a town that has fallen victim to thousands of rockets raining down from Gaza. I don't know what's more depressing: that psychologists have named the children growing up there "דור קסם" (Qassam generation) because of the psychological effect it has on them or that it took the Israeli government so long to respond to these attacks. I don't know whether it was restraint or neglect but regardless, imagine how the American government would react if Mexico shot rockets at El Paso, Texas. Forget thousands of rockets, the government would have started WWIII after the 1st explosive hit (This is another especially sore point for me...how can American be so hypocritical by lecturing Israel on restraint and nonretaliation in the aftermath of every suicide attack and yet 9/11 happens and we start two wars. But I digress.) This lead me to the final infuriating issue: How can any government still condemn Israel's war with Gaza in 2008 knowing of our UNILATERAL withdrawal from Gaza three years before that. (By the way, "unilateral" means we made this concession without demanding anything in return. Of course many hoped that this show of goodwill would be reciprocated by the Palestinians with the halt of violence and a clamp down of terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.) Turns out, the extremist Palestinians saw the withdrawal in 2005 as a sign that terrorism clearly works and thus must be continued. And so the rocket firing into Sderot and surrounding areas continued.

During our tour through Sderot one point that really stuck out in my mind was our guide's observation that violence and death and destruction make sexy stories and good fodder for the press. The squalor and destruction in Gaza make for good photos and headlines- the stories of miracles in Sderot do not. A synagogue hit by a rocket only minutes after the building had been filled with hundreds celebrating the addition of a new Torah does not warrant a story because there was a miracle that day and no one got hurt. A boy sleeping in bed when a rocket hit his home and only surviving because he had been sleeping face down with blanket and was thus protected from the brunt of the shrapnel was not story worthy because he survived with only minor injuries. The stories that are the stuff of miracles and that make you wonder if there is really a God go unnoticed yet when the guide indicates the roof destroyed by a Qassam a bus load of heads turn and cameras start flashing. The way they view the world around them is just so different. They are so accustomed to the "צבע אדום" * that no matter where they are they know where the closest bomb shelter is located. One particularly poignant story was one from our guide's personal experience. He was once in a pizza store when the alarm went off. He and the other customers crowded into the center of the shop, away from the windows and doors. The baby in the stroller next to him took out her pacifier, pointed up to the sky and went "boom, boom".

Our last stop on our siyur was to the largest resettled area of those removed from Gush Katif. A little background: Gush Katif was composed of the Jewish/Israeli populated neighborhoods in Gaza. These areas were evacuated in the summer of 2005. The Gaza withdrawal was and still is enormously controversial. Some believed it to be a necessary step towards peace and others felt it was simply too dangerous for this relatively small group of Israelis to live in such a hostile area. Those opposed to the withdrawal called it immoral and cruel to remove fellow Jews and Israelis from land the government had encouraged settling for decades. Regardless of how one feels then and now the fact remains that the government has done and extremely poor job of helping these people resettle. They were not and still are not being given proper support in relocating and rebuilding. Here are families that were forced to leave their homes and livelihoods and completely start from scratch. Communities that used to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of Israel now have one of the highest. The compensation money they received for their homes did not match market value, and that was before the current economic crisis hit. Thousands of poeple who for a short time were at the center of the country's attention have quickly become forgotten. Israelis who were saying "אחים לא מפקירים" ("Brothers don't desert") are now forgetting their אחים.

* "צבע אדום": when this alarm sounds you have 15 seconds to get to the nearest bomb shelter. Imagine living your life where the world around you is measured by where the next shelter is, always alert for the distinctive click that indicates the megaphone system going on and that moment of panic every time you hear there was a direct hit on a home or other occupied building.

לעלות או לא לעלות: זה השאלה

Several weeks ago I attended an optional "Aliyah Seminar" open to all Year Course participants. The schedule handed out read as follows:
10 am- Arrival and Introduction
10:30 am- Aliyah: the nuts and bolts
11 am- IDF info session
12 am- lunch break
1 pm- Nefesh B'Nefesh presentation
2 pm- studies info session
3 pm- Q&A panel with olim

To be honest, I don't know what I really want to say on this issue. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of all the info they shoved at us about government benefits, living options, studying options, etc. I don't want to lecture on the ideological obligation I feel I have to make Aliyah nor do I want to extoll the uniqueness of the situation where a government is quite literally throwing money and benefits at new immigrants. I don't want to speculate as to where I will be in my life in 5 years or 10 years. I don't want to worry my mother too much by making some bold statement announcing my intentions of absolutely making Aliyah. I don't want to leave behind my life back in America (there's no way I could go without Buddah Boddai and Dunkin Donuts- 9 months is pushing it) nor do I want to turn my back on Israel which is such a huge part of my identity.

Here's the bottom line:
I am an 18 year old Zionist American Jew with my whole life ahead of me. I have no idea where I will be or what I want to do. But regardless of the where and when the one thing that is for sure is that Israel will always play a huge part in my life.

(In case you don't understand Hebrew, the title of this post is my attempt at word play on the Shakespearean quote "To be or not to be: that is the question". In Hebrew this phrase would translate as "להיות או לא להיות: זה השאלה". The word Aliyah comes from the verb La'alot, to go up.)

Eilat: A Vacation

Lying on the Eilat beach yesterday under palm trees and a clear blue sky, wearing a skirt and tank top in perfect 75 degree weather I couldn't help but think about my friends (and sisters) back at home who at that very moment were sitting in classrooms and studying. I couldn't help but feeling guilty, grateful, disconcerted and a bit silly all at the same time. All weekend we were staying in THE resort city of Israel, doing all the touristy things one would do when on vacation, and even refering to the weekend in such a manner. And yet I continued reverting back to the question of what exactly we were vacationing from. There was no stressful job we were escaping from, or mountains of schoolwork being purposely shoved aside. Don't get the wrong idea- it was a great weekend but it just got me thinking about this year and what kind of effect it's having on my life.

This week the siyur was down to Kibbutz Ketura and Eilat. Upon arriving at Ketura we did several silly group exercises intended to demonstrate the importance of community and teamwork on a kibbutz. Before heading to lunch in their Chadar Ochel we took a tour of the kibbutz, by which I mean we sat on the bus and every few feet it would stop and the tour guide would tell us some fun fact about the building we were looking at. I love Kibbutz Ketura. I love that it was originally started by Young Judaeans and one of, if not the first, successful kibbutz to be started up in the Negev, and I love the idea behind the kibbutz system but this was the most disappointing tour of something I know to be interesting.

After lunch they took us to the Kasui sand dunes a short ways away where they let us play in the world's biggest sand box. These sand dunes (which I had also been to on Machon) are incredibly fun and were even better than last time because the sand was completely untouched and slightly matted down from the huge rainfall from last week.

The final stop of the official siyur was Eilat where we either had free time or for those of us staying were allowed to go for the weekend. We stayed at the Arava Hostel. They charged us 60 shekels a night, no meals provided but very adequate kitchen facilities at our disposal. Two rooms (including mine) included a private bathroom and refrigerator. The others shared communal toilets and showers. Once we got there a few of us went out to the closest supermarket to buy milk, bread and a couple other perishables we hadn't brought down with us. We then proceded to cook enough pasta to feed a small army, combined that with some home made tomato sauce and roasted eggplant slices.

The next morning we went on a hike that I have already done two times in the past (8th grade Schechter trip and Machon) but one I will never get bored of. It is a beautiful hike up Har Tsfachot, one of the highest mountains in the Southern Negev region that affords a spectacular view from the peak, providing the rare opportunity of seeing four countries from one spot (Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudia Arabia). This was the best experience I've had doing this particular hike. As an extremely tiny 8th grader, this hike was just down right difficult. On Machon, they were just pushing us too hard, too fast to really appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of our surroundings. This time, it was simply a group of friends hiking into the wilderness on our own initiative and our own time. It was this simplicity that made it so beautiful. Sitting at the top of the mountain the time flew by as we drifted between periods of idle conversation and silent personal reflection. It was ironically one of the most peaceful moments of the year sitting there overlooking three countries that have given Israel anything but peace for the last six decades.

After the hike, a quick shower and change of clothes, Tal, Melanie, Ilana and I took the 10 minute walk over to the Tayelet (boardwalk) in search of a place to eat. We finally settled on an "Asian style" restaurant. After a leisurely meal outside the restaurant we walked 20 meters to the beach where for once our clearly American tourist aura came in handy allowing us to relax in the beach chairs of some hotel without getting a second glance. We were finally asked politely to leave as the sun was setting and everyone was leaving. In continuing vacation mode, we strolled along the boardwalk for another couple hours, each of us in search of a different item (sounds like one of those logic puzzles I always like to do: Laura, who was not the last one to buy something, was not the one to pick out a pair of fuzzy slippers, etc.) I did however get a lovely pair of dangling earrings from Magnolia and another pair of tiedye pants.

The entire group was planning on going out to dinner together in honor of one boy's birthday, so we passed the remainder of the time lounging around a table at Aroma (the Israeli Starbucks). That night we stayed out late eventually finding ourselves at a bar with both a dance floor and live band. Our small but exuberant group quickly scared off the other patrons giving us plenty of room to jump around dancing late into the night.

Next morning it was goodbye Eilat and hello Arad. Though it felt great to be home (because that's what my apartment is, at least for another month or so), it was an incredibly fun weekend being on vacation from however you will describe this year.

Garin Tzedek: Arad Update

The program that Year Course has become is really what you make of it. There are those who are perfectly content sitting in front of their computers all day never seeing the light of day. Then there are still others who will go to their volunteering and attend classes but beyond that don't bother to take the next step and explore their surroundings. Then there is a huge percentage whose days focus around drinking: the planning, the drinking and then the next day hangover.

I wasn't satisfied with any of these options. If I was going to take a gap year and go spend 9 months in Israel I wanted it to count. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Garin Tzedek brings Young Judaea to Year Course. It embodies the Young Judaean belief in peer leadership, tikkun olam, Jewish identity and community.

And so I couldn't be happier when I say that Garin Tzedek is off to a running start here in Arad. Unlike during our time in Bat Yam, Garin Tzedek was limited to volunteering a couple nights a week at the school in Tel Aviv. Here in Arad, there is a huge Sudanese community (conservatively estimated at 800). Most moved to Arad in the last 2 years. There are a lot of young children, single parents and young men. There are also a lot of conflicts and tension with the local Russian community and Arad municipality. They have houses but that's about it. Landlords will refuse to renew contracts, forcing families to constantly relocate, never being able to call somewhere home. Their status in Israel is questionable at best. The majority who can actually find work do so at the Dead Sea hotels in the jobs that no one else wants. The children who go to school are too far behind for their grade level and are not offered additional help. They are bullied and discriminated against in school. Many of the children do not have any form of health care.

My volunteering placement by the staff is labeled as "Darfur". The Year Course staff have been great in accommodating us and have allowed approximately 4 of us to make Garin Tzedek our full time volunteering. That is to say that we create our own schedules, where and how we want to work, and what it is we focus on. The first couple weeks before winter break were a lot about planning and meeting and organizing and feeling out the dynamics of our group and the community's needs. We're now well into the month of January and here's what we've got to show for it:

• Volunteers working 3 times a week at several of the Ganim (nurseries), assisting the women who work there and playing with the children
• English classes every Sunday and Tuesday night. The first hour for children, the second for adults. We bring in enough Year Course volunteers each session to very often have one-on-one sessions.
• Sports Night: every Monday night Year Coursers and Sudanese get run around and play together. We've only had one night so far but we had between 15-20 Sudanese kids there and around 7 Year Coursers. Everyone had a lot of fun.
• Garin Tzedek runs a fun peulah for the entire Year Course section every Tuesday night. Activities so far have included: messy Olympics, fear pong and the dating game.
• Several Year Coursers have been going around to Sudanese families, getting the opportunity to sit down and talk with them about what it is they need.
• We are cleaning up and making a room in the Industrial Zone that the community rents usable for classes, meetings, social gatherings etc.
• Other projects we are trying to get off the ground are an "Everything" drive (because the community needs everything from clothing to school supplies to blankets) and a Mural project where Year Coursers and Sudanese work together to paint murals over graffiti walls in Arad.
• The long term project we hope to start is trying to get health insurance for the children who are not currently covered.
• We are also in the beginning stages of planning the Garin Tzedek tiyul for this trimester. (Each section will host a shabbaton over the course of the year, first trimester Section 3 had the honors. If anyone has any ideas for places to stay let me know.)

Here we are with the opportunity to really make a difference on the ground. Raising money and writing educational peulot back at home when I worked on the National Mazkirut promoting this cause was very different than physically seeing our efforts come to life. When I said earlier that Year Course is what you make of it... this is what I'm making of it.

What makes you a Jew?

The simple answer is if your mother is Jewish then so are you. But there's a reason they say if you put three Jews in a room there will be five different opinions

But a Haredi Jew will give you a very different answer from a Reform Jew, an American Jew will have a different answer from an Israeli Jew and a convert will have a different answer from a Jew for Jesus.

This semester I reluctantly decided to take a Tanach (Bible) class. The premise of the class is to give us a small taste of what the Tanach has to offer by going through it in order, learning one book each class. Since it's obviously impossible to even do a cursory summary of an entire book of the Bible in one class we focus in on one or two specific stories from which our teacher would like us to take a lesson or message from.

In order to appreciate this class you have to picture the scenario: here's a religious looking guy with the tzitzit and the beard and you're getting all geared up for a lot of "emmming" and Messiah preaching and then this guy opens his mouth and out comes rapid fire English.... in a Scottish accent!! To top it all off he has perfected that twirl of the wrist the rabbis doing when making a point where they make an "L" out of their thumbs and pointers and then rotate their wrists as if to say "But on the other hand..."

The point I was just trying to make was that my teacher was a pleasant surprise. He's upbeat and knows English very well. Though he is still somewhat resistant to accepting other people's points of view, I'm certainly not discouraged from disagreeing with him and stating my own opinion (he will just simply say "Well that's interesting but...")

One day in class we were discussing two different stories: one was the death of Aaron's sons Nadav and Avihu and the other when Moses hit the rock. The first incident takes place right after the completion of the building of the Tabernacle and the induction of Aaron as high priest. His sons give an offering that was not instructed by God. They were promptly consumed by fire. In the second story, the Israelites ran out of water so God instructs Moses to ask the rock for water. Moses raps on the rock and-poof- water appears. Because he did not give God proper credit for this miracle Moses was not permitted to enter the land of Canaan.

My teacher made some point that connected the two stories but all I kept coming back to was God's reaction in both instances. In the case of Aaron's sons, they died for being caught up in the heat of the moment, wanting to show their devotion to God, wanting to be like their father- take your pick. No matter what their motive was, it seemed somewhat extreme for their punishment to be instant death. In response to similar concerns over the second story my teacher gave an interesting explanation that Moses was never intended to go into Canaan. This was merely another example of how he was stuck in the mentality of the older generation that left Egypt (and just as a refresher, the Israelites had to spend 40 years in the desert until that whole generation of slaves died off). And yet, God's anger in this instance stems from Moses forgetting to give credit where credit was due. I'm sorry, but if God is almighty and powerful then is he that arrogant that he gets angered if someone forgets to thank him profusely before doing something? In both these excerpts, God came off arrogant, self centered and short tempered.

This just leads me to wonder how someone who has studied all these stories can still have unwavering loyalty to the God of the Bible. How can you still love a God who warns of death to anyone who does not observe the Shabbat and keeps his laws? How can you still believe in God after the destruction of the Temple, exiles, persecutions, pogroms and the Holocaust? Furthermore, if Israel is supposed to be the land of the Jewish people then why has it taken us over 2000 years of exile to finally regain it only to have to maintain an unrelenting fight for its existence?

I personally have a hard time believing in the God of the Bible. Every lesson I struggle to reconcile between what my mind is telling me and what my heart is trying to say. Can you be Jewish and not believe in God? Can you follow Halacha (religious practices) without believing in its purpose? Is their a point? Is believing in God just a leap of faith?

I believe Jews around the world today can be placed in two very broad general categories: Religious Jew and Cultural Jew. The latter is a new form of Judaism that sprung up as a result of the modern Zionist movement. With the creation of the State of Israel came the idea that by living in Israel you are fulfilling your duty as a Jew. There are also those who love Israel, Hebrew, the music, the food, the history- they just have no connection to the religious aspects. Is one type of Jew better than the other? Is one more important than the other? Can they exist together in the modern world?

And now the million dollar question: What was it that has allowed Judaism to be the oldest and longest lasting religion in the world? Is it the religion, language, history, culture or all?