07.31.08

Still here…

Posted in Shabbat, The Wandering Jew, Hebrew, Food, School, Europe at 9:52 pm by marisaelana

Busy summer!

Love my ulpan. The Conservative Yeshiva is a joy, my teachers are uniformly fantastic, my Hebrew is improving. My English is getting worse, but hey, I’m trying to use complete sentences!

I’ll be spending this shabbat in Netanya, and I’m really looking forward to hanging out with my friend Hillel and swimming and davenning and reading torah and just having time to schmooze. And I just got my tallis back from the dry cleaners, hooray!

Next shabbat, August 9th, I’m reading the whole parasha, and I’ve already learned aliyot 1-4, 7, and the maftir, leaving just 5 and 6. However, 5 is full of new vocabulary and unexpected vowels, and it’s progressing a bit slower than the others! I’m glad I was ahead of schedule with the first 4 aliyot, because I should still be able to finish learning the whole thing by Sunday, a full week before I have to read it. I will be reading the first aliyah several times - in Netanya this Saturday afternoon, and Monday and Thursday morning at my shul, and possibly also at the yeshiva. I may actually read the same text 6 times in one week! Gevalt.

And hallelu, on the 12th I fly to Germany to join my sweetheart after an 18-day absence. I can’t believe how much I miss her presence, and it’s only been one week since she left! I am not going to be a happy camper come the end of October, when she goes on tour with the orchestra for a month… but maybe I’ll still find a way to join her for part of the time. I hope!

Oh, and our weekly box of organic vegetables is just sublime. Hooray for the community-supported agriculture movement! I even talked about it in ulpan, translating that into Hebrew as something like “kehillah hakla’ut organi.” I’ve even been taking lovely photos of some of the deliveries, as well as some of the dishes I’m cooking: French onion soup (blended within an inch of it’s life -  am not a fan of the texture of onions, but I do like the flavor!), beet-carrot-kohlrabi salad, babaghanoush, fresh pesto, french fries, stir-fried swiss chard… it’s such fun getting new things each week and experimenting! I’ve also been making a steady supply of mint tea with the fresh mint they deliver, and it’s just delicious.

So I have one more week of summer yeshiva classes, a shabbat in Netanya and a shabbat in Jerusalem, then 2 weeks in Germany, and then a few days between our return to Jerusalem and the beginning of fall classes. In addition to the yeshiva, I’m also hoping to take a Hebrew class at the Schechter Seminary with my wonderful teacher from the spring, and I’ll be joining my Bukharian music teacher at her Bukharian class on Wednesday nights, learning more about the music and language and culture. I’m also starting to learn German, and I’m hoping to find the funds to take one of the excellent classes at the Goethe Institut. So much I want to know!!!

More later; I need to go munch on something before bed. More organic veggies!

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07.02.08

Just a quick post to say that I’m fine…

Posted in The Wandering Jew at 1:49 pm by marisaelana

There was an attack in downtown J’lem about an hour ago, if you haven’t heard here’s the info:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/02/israel.bulldozer/index.html

More this evening when I have time & know more.

Love & Peace,

Marisa

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06.24.08

She’s alive! She’s alive!!!

Posted in Israel, Shabbat, Books, Singing for my supper, Hebrew, Food, School, Palestine at 3:54 pm by marisaelana

So I survived (barely) my first year of cantorial school, and now I have about 1200 emails to sift through. Aack! But quickly, here’s an overview of what’s been going on to catch everyone up. (not in chronological order, because I don’t even know what today is.)

- For the first time in my life, I have been turning down requests to read torah, because at the end of the semester I simply didn’t have enough time. This is really annoying - I got into this line of work because of how much I love singing and torah and services!!

- I applied for a cantorial position for the High Holidays in Jerusalem, and have been offered at least a part-time gig, doing Sukkot services and parts of RH & YK. Hopefully I’ll manage to get a bit more, since I need to feed myself next year!

- In case I didn’t mention this before, or make it clear: I am staying in Israel for a second year, I’m taking a leave of absence from JTS, and I’ll be studying full-time at the Conservative Yeshiva. My hope is that by next December I’ll be applying to rabbinical school, but if I decide I’m not ready, or if I decide to stick with the cantorial program, then I’ll return to New York after next year.

- I found my bashert in Jerusalem, and we continue to be blissful, even when the rest of the world is driving us both insane. Wherever I go after next year, she’ll be trying to come with me. Honestly, I’m hoping that there will wind up being some way that I could stay in Jerusalem for rabbinical school, so that we could have a few more years to plan the next move.

- We joined a community-supported farm, and tomorrow will be getting our first delivery of fresh veggies and herbs! We have little pots of mint and rosemary and oregano outside, but there’s no room for any more of a garden. This is the next best thing; for a set fee, a wonderful organic farm delivers fresh veggies every week directly to our house, and any time I feel like I’m going through gardening withdrawal, I can go volunteer to help on the farm and get a discount for doing so. Sweet!

- The Tel Aviv Pride March was about 2 weeks ago, and I just put up photos on Flickr! I wore my rainbow kippah, and had at least half a dozen conversations about it, ranging from people thanking me to people laughing to people telling me it’s forbidden by Jewish law (which it isn’t). Always an adventure.

- The Jerusalem Pride March is this Thursday the 26th of June, and I’ve been as involved as I can. I translated a page full of slogans from Hebrew to English for signs, and on the day of the March I’ll be an usher, wearing an orange vest and helping keep the crowds safe and under control. I just wish the damned vests weren’t orange, of all colors! Orange is the color worn and displayed by people in favor of the illegal settlements in the West Bank, and I usually have no problem avoiding it like the plague, but alas, not this time.

- I’m still a vegetarian, despite frequent temptation. 8 months and counting! I think this is the longest I’ve ever kept it going.

- My final papers and presentations for school mostly went very well, despite the insane schedule we had for the last 2 weeks. Everything happened all at once, and even though I’d been working on getting things done as early as possible, it didn’t help prevent last-minute madness. Even though I did as well as I think I could under the circumstances, I still feel a bit annoyed that the schedule forced me to accept that I wasn’t going to be as prepared as I wanted to be for everything.

- I’m about 2/3 of the way through reading a fantastic, wonderful book: Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation. It’s a fantastic history of religious/liturgical developments in the years from 800-300 B.C.E., and it’s both fascinating and beautifully written. The life stories of people who lived during this time are amazing, including Jeremiah, Confucious, Buddha, and Socrates. I keep reading bits out loud to my sweetie, and underlining like crazy, which is unusual for me. Highly, highly recommended!!!

- I’m going back to Bethlehem again next week with Encounter, again as facilitator and medic. I love these trips, I love this organization, and I’m so pleased and honored that they keep asking me back.

- I’ve also been asked to lead Shabbat evening services this week for the incoming yeshiva summer crowd. It’s the second time in a month, and I’m so glad that I’m getting the chance to lead prayer for people who love singing so much. I’ve enjoyed learning the weekday services this year, but Shabbat just gets people singing like nothing else, and I’ve missed being part of that.

- I am SO excited that I get to read books again. I am so excited that I get to work on my languages again. I am so excited that I finally get a chance to take the classes I didn’t have time for this year. This summer at the yeshiva I’ll be doing 3 hours of ulpan each morning and Mishna classes in the afternoons. Next year, Talmud and pastoral counseling and halakha and more Hebrew. SO excited!!!

- My sweetie and I translated a cataologue for an exhibit at the Israel Museum! It’s an exhibit of German Jewish women photographers in the Weimar Republic, and the exhibition begins in the fall. In addition, we may be getting another translating job: a book in Hebrew that needs to be translated into English. My spoken Hebrew may still be limited & slow, but my translations are great, and I’m looking forward to this project!

Enough for now. If I think of more, I’ll add it as I go along. But I will be updating more regularly again, hooray!

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05.06.08

May is trying to kill me.

Posted in Israel, Shabbat, Books, Holidays, The Wandering Jew, School at 11:39 am by marisaelana

I mean the month of May, of course, not the lovely woman in Brooklyn who let me cat-sit her furballs last summer in exchange for a place to stay. Last weekend was the yeshiva shabbaton, and the whole pack of us took a bus up to Beit Shean Friday morning, stayed at the youth hostel overnight, and returned late Saturday night after shabbat was over. I led Friday night services and read torah Saturday morning from a Sephardic torah, which is different from a standard Ashkenazic torah because it lives in a big round box, and the scrolls are vertical when you read from them. It’s weird, but fun! Then yesterday was the cantorial students’ concert/presentation of the music we’ve learned during our joint project with HUC, each pair of students studying a different ethnic community. Elana and I presented music and stories and history from the Bukharian community with help from Menucha, our sweet, wonderful teacher, and it was fantastic. Today I have a music lesson that I’m not quite ready for, later this week is our last (I think) Liturgical Hebrew test, next week I’m participating (a lot) in two services that I’m still not entirely prepared for, and I have three papers due before the end of the month.

Outside of school, tomorrow is Yom haZikaron, rememberance day for all the soldiers who died in 1948 and 1967, and then the next day is Yom haAtsma’ut, Independence day, and one friend is having a barbecue and another will actually be singing downtown as part of the festivities. This coming weekend we’re hosting shabbat lunch for friends, and next week begins the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, and that should be fantastic… Nadine Gordimer will be here, and Anita Diamant, Etgar Keret and Eshkol Nevo, Amos Oz and Hussein Serag, David Grossman and Jonathan Safran Foer, Nathan Englander and Meir Shalev. SO EXCITED!!! I’m buying tickets today, and I hope there are still seats available for the events I want to attend! In addition, I’m going to be spending the next two months working with my sweetie on a translation for the Israel Museum; they have an exhibition opening in the fall on German Jewish women photographers in the early 20th century, and we’re translating the catalog from German into English. Of course my German is practically nonexistent, aside from understanding the bits that are the same in Yiddish, but we’re working together on phrasing and word choice, and since I have lots of experience as an editor of academic texts, that’s my focus. The pay is nice, but even better I think, will be seeing our names in Hebrew & English in the published catalog!

But over all, May is so packed that I’m trying to figure out when I’ll have time to eat, sleep, breathe. One of the rabbis asked me to read torah next week, and for the first time I actually said no, sorry, maybe next time. I have never before turned down a request to read torah, and I find it kind of weird that the first time I did it was as a cantorial student. But I assured him that I’d be available again in June, and throughout the summer. And next year I have my own schedule, with my own priorities, and no constant stream of homework! That’s going to be purely delicious. I can study all day, and then use my free time for piano, theory, nusach, whatever I feel like studying.

But for now, I’m running to school to belatedly prepare for class. More will follow, and one day maybe I’ll even have time to put up more photos. *grin* Meantime, read this article: The All-White Elephant in the Room. Frank Rich is fantastic. Enjoy!

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05.01.08

Yom ha Shoah

Posted in Politics, Israel, Europe at 10:55 am by marisaelana

It’s 10:15am in Jerusalem, and a little while ago, sirens sounded all over the city for a moment of silence to commemorate Yom ha Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. I stood by the window, watching the birds wheeling through the sky in agitation, having risen from the trees at the first sound of the sirens. It was a jarring sound, and for two minutes it stopped all activity in Jerusalem.

The siren is purposefully jarring, and I thought about what it was like for the people who heard similar sirens 65 years ago, and for whom the siren was immediately followed by Nazi soldiers bursting into their homes. I tried to wrap my mind around the impossible and consider what I would have done under those circumstances, how I would have acted, whether I would have recognized the warning signs and escaped early, or whether I would have been overly complacent about the danger until it was too late.

One of the reasons why I’m thinking about this so concretely this year is that I have been hearing conflicting opinions from two people I know here about the state of the world today. One, who is a serious student of the Holocaust and early-20th-century European politics, has been repeatedly comparing the situation for Jews in Europe today with their situation in the 1930’s. He claims that most of Europe today is more dangerous than it was at the beginning of the rise of the Nazi party, and I’ve started to perceive him as being an almost gleeful alarmist; as if he is waiting for something really terrible to happen so that he can say “I told you so.” At the same time, he isn’t a huge fan of current American affairs (who is?), but sees America as one of only two countries where Jews can be (relatively) safe. (and yes, he means that the other is Israel.)

I also know someone who is an American studying in Germany, who has lived there for several years and is going through the process of becoming a German citizen, after which he will give up his American citizenship. He is living in Israel this year, and has an entirely different perspective. He thinks that America is going to wind up being the more dangerous place to be a Jew in the next decade or so, due to the ongoing political & religious slide to the right, and sees Europe, and particularly Germany, as being the smarter choice. He acknowledges (as we all do) that there have been some terrible anti-semitic attacks, particularly in France, but he also points out that anti-semitism is taken very seriously in Europe, and that the perpetrators of such attacks are dealt with severely.

So which is it? Both of these people have excellent educations, brilliant minds, and solid evidence. Are they both right? Or neither? On one hand, I want to believe it every year on Yom ha Shoah when world leaders and Holocaust survivors get together and say “Never Again,” but at the same time there are still populations throughout the world who are being attacked and exterminated by more powerful neighbors. Can we say “never again” and still support having the Olympics in China, which continues to supply the weapons being used in the Sudan against Darfur, and continues to portray the Dalai Lama and his followers as violent warmongers? Can we say “never again” when the U.S. is not only sending fresh troops to Iraq, but is now sending convicted criminals as part of their forces? Can we say “never again” when Israel’s government lets illegal settlers in the West Bank get away with shooting their Palestinian neighbors, while jailing thousands of Palestinian teenagers “on the suspicion of throwing rocks?” When a member of Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) can say publicly that he thinks that all German boys should be killed at birth, and no one contradicts him? When Holocaust survivors living in Israel are mostly living in poverty? (By the way, Israeli Holocaust survivors who get pensions directly from Germany actually get more than those who get pensions from Israel, and the German government increases the sum annually to account for inflation, while the Israeli government only increases the amount every decade or so, and only in response to protests.) What do we mean when we say “never again?” Is it so specific that we only mean “never again will we allow a regime to carry out mass exterminations of Jews,” or does it have a broader meaning?

After having heard the stories of many Holocaust survivors, the one thing I can think of as their common experience is the terror of the siren and the knock at the door. When I think “never again,” I think only of that terror and uncertainty, the knowledge that at any minute one might be torn from one’s home and family, and that we are all powerless in the face of those who are stronger than we are.

And truly, never again should anyone have to know what those terrors are like.

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