Sar El: A Factory, a Winery and a New Travel Buddy!

Note: More pictures up! Check’m out! Also, I fixed the Day-to-Day link in my previous post. And lastly, I’m sorry for the text-only blogs lately but most of the free wi-fi connections I find won’t allow me to upload large files (like a blog post with pictures), even though they WILL allow me to upload pictures to my albums. Strange.

Day-to-Day: 17-23 June 2011

After a week of working with Sar El at the medical supply factory, it was time for a relaxing weekend. On Thursday, we were all bussed back to the Tel Aviv Central Bus station. I, along with seven other women and a small group of men from my volunteer group, made our way to Beit Oded, a soldier’s hostel in Yaffo. When there’s room, Sar El volunteers can stay there for free in dorm-style rooms, with bedding, three meals, shared showers and towels provided. It’s a five minute walk from the beach and there are cafes and stores all around. Old Yaffo is a ten minute walk away, while central Tel Aviv is about twenty minutes, depending on where you want to go.

In short… a great deal!

Thursday afternoon we checked in to the hostel, and then Diane, a fellow Floridian volunteer, and I went to a nearby café for a snack and free wi-fi. Our snack turned out to be a round, nut-and-chocolate covered mouse, which was quite tasty. We gabbed and sipped coffee and tea, checked our e-mails and in general just chilled out. Later on, we met up to retrieve my phone from Beny’s apartment, where I’d couchsurfed the weekend before. On the way, we stopped to have dinner and ended up having a fantastic meal. For me, shrimp with a delicious salad and white wine; for Diane, a grilled fish over grilled eggplant, which was even more delicious, and Macabi beer. And a dessert whose name neither of us can recall but whose taste was terrific: something a bit lighter than flan, but the same general consistency.

After a brief visit with Beny, during which I retrieved my phone and unknowingly left my Sar El ID card, we ran down to the beach to meet up with Beth (Canada), Vitali (Ukraine/Canada) and Frank (Germany), who were enjoying drinks at La La Land, a bar and restaurant on the beach. Literally… we took off our shoes and dug our toes into the sand. The girls had froo-froo arak drinks, the men had beer. At 11:30pm, we all trooped up to Beny’s, retrieved my ID, and then caught cabs back to the hostel, whose curfew is midnight.

On Friday I did next to nothing, which suited me perfectly! A late, long breakfast at a nearby café, catching up on e-mails and all sorts of online stuff; a few hours at the beach, sunning and swimming and snoozing; a nap at the hostel; and lovely pistachio and fruit salads for dinner; all capped with Shabbat services, which were unfortunately very boring and uninspiring. Then a quick dinner out with some of the ladies, a jaunt around Old Yaffo at night, and then to bed.

Saturday was much a repeat of Friday, except that I went out to walk on my own for a bit. I did meet up with Beny, who walked me through several interesting neighborhoods and provided me with fun, light conversation and company. In the evening, Diane returned from a family visit to Lod, and along with Beth we walked through Old Yaffo again and then smoked some hookah, cherry flavored. On Sunday, our entire 33-member group met back up at the Tel Aviv Central Bus station and were bussed back to base! We worked for the afternoon, trying to get back the coordination and mojo we’d developed last week.

Today, however, was not a work day. Today we got a full-day trip organized by our madrichot, or Sar El leaders, and we were accompanied by two additional madrichot and two armed guards. We were bussed an hour north to Zikron Yakov, which literally means “In Memory of Jacob.” The Jacob in memory was Rothschild’s father. Rothschild was a baron who funded one of the first settlements of Jews in Palestine, way back when, on the condition that he have things named after him. The town is sweet and very pretty, with the first “pioneer’s bank” and a very comfortable and arty main street. We walked around the small town for a bit, learning about Sarah Abrahmson, a female Jewish martyr, and Rothschild himself.

Then it was off to Tishbi Winery, where we had an amazing tasting. The staff paired wine and chocolate, six of each, and I ended up buying a gift for a friend who enjoys port. Needless to say, we all got a bit tipsy and had some good laughs. Beth, forty years old and claiming that she’s “an inexpensive drunk… but never cheap,” did cartwheels inside the tasting room. Some of the male seniors went around kissing all the ladies. Our armed escort watched with amusement, staying away from the wine but chowing down on the chocolate, M-16s hanging at their sides.

Finally, we stopped by a Crusader fort in Hertzeliya, which was pretty interesting. Of course it was just the remains, but learning about the history was fascinating: Apollonia, an important port settlement of Phoenicians, was taken over by the Turks, who were beaten by the Crusaders, who were in turn beaten by the Turks, who were then overthrown by the Marmalukes, who eventually disappeared. Then this once important port, where purple dye was harvested from sea creatures, fell into ruin and was only re-discovered in 1994! Today there are just outlines of ruins, excavated and displayed carefully on a cliff overlooking what used to be the port.

We arrived back at base an hour before dinner and had a lazy evening. Tomorrow we start back up with the factory work, and Wednesday we’re to have a long workday again. But Thursday we leave for Tel Aviv in the morning, and so really it’s just a two-and-a-half-day work week this week!

I continue to enjoy my group of people, although I’m getting especially friendly with Diane, who is in a similar situation to mine: unemployed, unsure where to devote her energies, strong desire to travel. We’re plotting post-Sar El adventures together, possibly including a visit to Petra, Jordan. Also, we would like to travel together in the future… perhaps to South Africa, where we now know two people (women volunteers) who are more than willing to host us and show us around!

It’s been a good weekend and beginning of the week, that’s for sure!

--Z

Full Moon Night with the IDF

Note: New pictures posted in “Israel: Snapshots in Time (Weeks 2 & 3)” and a new album, “Israel: Three Weeks with Sar El.” I only have internet access from Thursday evening to Saturday evening until the end of June, in case you’re e-mailing me!

Daily Diary: 10-16 June 2011

It’s Tuesday evening and I’m sitting in the little courtyard between dorm rooms on an IDF base near Tel Aviv. Around me either sitting in the courtyard, getting ready for bed, relaxing in their rooms or talking on the pay phone are thirty-odd other volunteers from around the world. The demographic is fairly scattered, although concentrated in the above-50 range for ages. There are about ten of us under 50 and I am the youngest, I believe. People are from all over: Canada, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, France and the US covers most of the world. There are four ex-military, including me: a US Marine who served for four years a few decades ago, plus two Canadian military men. There might be a Navy guy too. About a third or more are repeat volunteers with Sar El, some having participated over five times!

You’re probably thinking: uh, IDF?! Did you switch teams? What’s going on?!

Well, Sar El is a program that was started originally as a volunteer organization with no affiliation with the IDF. With a 60% cut in the country’s budget, though, it was eventually transferred into the purview of the IDF and now there are Israeli soldiers whose primary duty it is to organize, lead and care for Sar El volunteers. As a volunteer, I could have been sent to any base in Israel to do any number of jobs to help out the IDF with basic work. Where I have been “stationed” (which Sar El leadership asks us not to disclose rather than general locale) is near Tel Aviv and is the medical center of the IDF insofar as supplies are concerned. I’ve worked two and a half days now in a small factory, packing and unpacking medical kits, sorting medical supplies and helping maintain Israel’s stocks of warehoused medical supplies. It’s a fascinating system and getting to see Israel from inside a base is really a neat experience. This base is one where soldiers don’t live full time; instead, they are people who have families to support or other reasons for needing to go home at night.

There are so many ways this experience has already surprised me! First, I’m exhausted every night, which makes me realize how much I’ve missed being a part of an organized mission of some sort. Second, Israeli military methods are 180 degrees from what I experienced in the US, and that’s just what I’m seeing as a volunteer. For example, focus on uniform, marching and ceremonies (such as flag-raising in the mornings) is very low. There are formations and marching movements, but they are fairly loosely done. The Israeli flag flies overnight and touches the ground when it’s lowered, without a blink of an eye. I have seen no marching whatsoever. Uniform wear is not nearly so strict beyond a few basic rules (tuck shirts in, etc). There don’t seem to be regulations regarding hair, whereas in the US you can’t dye your hair unnatural colors and both women and men have specific rules on how their hair must be worn while in uniform. But although at first look all of this supposed laxity disappointed me, I’m starting to realize that it’

Another surprise for me was when the commander of the medical factories, where we work, came to give us a “big picture” talk. She told us that her pride was using people that had many problems, ranging from difficult home lives to disabilities of all kinds, to accomplish a mission. In Israel, she said, everyone serves in the military, and that provides manpower as well as a way to instill a bit of national pride and sense of contribution in every citizen. There’s a socialization perk as well: there are soldiers with mental disabilities here, in uniform, contributing alongside everyone else. The commander explained how this ensures that the fear or discomfort people may feel about the mentally disabled can be curbed.

Finally, the sense of what we’re doing – packing medical supplies in both wartime and peacetime kits – is driven home every time we hear about a conflict on the borders, at each mention of future problems or war. One of our madrichot – the people assigned to lead the Sar El volunteers – left us after the first two days, because her boyfriend, a medic assigned to the paratrooper unit, experienced the death of a comrade in his arms, despite his efforts. It was his commander, killed in a training exercise. The medic is twenty, his commander was twenty-two.

I’ll be volunteering with Sar El for three weeks, until the end of June. I’ll have Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning off each week. I have the option of staying in Bet Oded, a free soldier’s hostel in Jaffa, or doing whatever else I want. This weekend I plan to check out Bet Oded and a part of Tel Aviv I haven’t seen before. During the week I stay on base in a small dormitory room with four other women. We are not allowed to leave base until the weekends. A bus will take us, for free, from base to the center of Tel Aviv. We eat meals during the week at the chow hall, which has catered food that ranges from decent to very good. Meals are kosher: dairy meals for breakfast and dinner, meat for lunch. We have shared bathrooms and showers, AC in the rooms, a small “club” room with a tv, coffee and books, and a laundry room. We are each issued one old uniform to wear for work, given a Sar El hat to keep, and a laminated ID to get up to 10% off at various hotels and restaurants.

This volunteer experience costs $90 USD. It’s way more than worth every penny. And I feel pretty good about what I’m doing, too. Some folks I was chatting with before starting this experience argued that I was supporting the conflicts and bad political maneuvering of military troops, by volunteering here. After pondering this for a full day, I realized that for me, this experience is about helping soldiers. Every citizen serves, for the most part, in the IDF. Particularly with this base and the work I’m doing here, I feel like I’m supporting soldiers, who are in turn being an integral part of their country.

--Z

A Jew is a Jew, But What is a Jew?

Note: Sorry for the long break in posting. I THOUGHT I’d published the last post on May 31, but it turns out I hadn’t. So I published it today. Sorry about that! Anyway, make sure you read that one and this one too! Also, I’ve created a new picture album to the right titled, “Israel: Snapshots in Time (Week 2 & 3).” Take a look!

Day-by-Day Link: 1-9 June 2011

Obama and Netanyahu have made speeches in the last few weeks regarding Israel and peace in the Middle East. In trying to make sense of the things they said, or were trying to say, or didn’t say, I’ve chatted with some Israelis about things. And for me, a fundamental concept I’ve got to understand before attempting to even formulate my own thoughts and position on any issues regarding Israel is this: What is a Jew?

It’s not a new question for me. Heck, it’s not a new question for Jews! Most of the Israelis I’ve met define themselves as secular or non-religious or even as disliking religion completely. And I know that when people ask me what religion I am, I reply that I’m Jewish, albeit not a terribly religious Jew.

But religion is only one definition of “Jew.” Because even atheist Jews still consider themselves Jews, which always confused me a bit. I’m beginning to understand, though: aside from religion, being a Jew is something akin to a nationality/ethnicity/race, although it’s also none of these things specifically. Of course there is lineage to consider, but in my opinion most people can’t trace their lineage back so far as the original tribes. Religiously, if your mother is Jewish, then you’re Jewish. Still, though, religion isn’t at the crux of being a Jew. I don’t think, anyway. It’s completely confusing, because of course you can change your nationality and you can change your religion. But you can’t change your race or ethnicity: you are what you are. So what is being a Jew if you subtract religion?

The problem is that religion is inherently part of it, even if it’s not the definition of being a Jew. Anyway, this is a concept I’m struggling to come to a conclusion about, because I feel like if I can, then I’ll be able to tackle the current political/ideological problems of Israel with more understanding.

Meanwhile, I’m meeting lots of different people and seeing more and more of Israel. While in Nahariya I made several day trips on my own to Rosh Hanikra (north-western point of Israel with awesome ocean/rock grottos), Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee. I also attended a couchsurfing get-together, a beach bonfire & campout, which got me face-to-face with several Israeli’s who I’ve since met a few times, either randomly or at other get-togethers. In a small world, Israel is a small country: two Couchsurfers that I met on different occasions turned out to be connected in some way to the folks I am staying with in Nahariya.

In Jerusalem, I’ve been exploring with Jutta, a Finnish doctor volunteering at a hospital in Tel Aviv for a month. We roamed the Mount of Olives and its churches and cemeteries; explored the Dome on the Rock with it’s beautiful mosaic work and ancient crusader arches; and walked around the city proper to attend a couchsurfing picnic for Shavuot.

I’ve also finally done something a bit Jewish, in the religious sense of the word: I attended a Shavuot dinner and afterwards went to a discussion group on a part of the Torah. It’s become a tradition to stay awake all night reading and studying Torah. Well, I only stayed up until 1am, but it was an interesting lecture and discussion on the ten commandments.

This weekend I’m headed to Tel Aviv in order to explore that area: beaches, pride parade, couchsurfers and friends of couchsurfers. It should be a great time!

And meanwhile, I’ll quiz everyone I meet and continue to wrestle with a core part of my identity. Like most things, it’ll probably take a long time and never quite be answerd, but I really hope to delve further into the odd question: what is a Jew?!

--Z