Passover Volunteering, Cleaning & Shabbat in Jerusalem

Monday, March 22, 2010

Today was very low key. We did no have to volunteer we just had to clean our house for Passover but it will definitely be dirty again before the holiday begins in over a week. It was nice to have a day off from volunteering and working just to catch up on sleep, emails and life.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Today we worked with a young volunteer group in Ashdod and in small groups went to different houses around the city to painting the insides. We were helping people who have gone through particularly bad posttraumatic stress from the army. I worked with Sherri, Allison and Ally from my program. None of us are particularly good painters at all but the people seemed to be so please with our work, it was incredible. We painted their kitchen, bathroom, hallway and 2 bedrooms. They said we did a better job than a professional that they had thought about hiring. Yikes, I cannot imagine how bad this professional was. As long as they were happy I felt good about helping them. It was a bit sad to see how they lived, the building is definitely not taken care of, I tried to scrub as much mold off the walls before we painted but it was hard to get completely clean. After dinner we had a barbeque on the beach with the Israeli volunteer group. It was a delicious dinner with chicken hot dogs, salads, olives, pickles, and whatever else you could possibly want. It got cold so a bunch of us headed back to the house and hung out for the night. It was a very nice day, you can really see how people in the program are starting to mesh with each other. 

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Today we planned, organized and cooked for our group Passover seder. I was in the cooking group and spend the majority of the day prepping with my roommate Sarah. Many people came and helped out at different points and it was nice to work together with so many other people. We made delicious charroset (apple, nut mixture), 2 rice dishes, chicken, salads and chocolate covered matzoh. Everything came out wonderful. My roommates Chaya and Steve put together the actual seder and it turned out really nice. Chaya is a writer and wrote a poem about the whole story of The Jews and their troubles in Egypt. It was truly incredible and beautiful. She did an amazing job capturing the story of Passover.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Today we took a day trip to the Carmel mountains, up North near Haifa. Our first stop on the trip was a park dedicated to the Rothschild family where several member are buried. Baron Rothschild single handedly funded numerous small villages in Palestine (Pre 1948) which had been struggling. It is these villages that are now thriving and make up a large segment of Israel. After is work in Israel a lot of his project were left to the JNF which have done a great job restoring the forest and land of Israel.

When he died he asked that he be buried on this large plot of land that he said could never be developed. They made it into a park where people can come to enjoy themselves rather than a cemetery. Do a little research on Rothschild, he was a pretty interesting and influential figure.

Afterwards we headed further North for a quick hike in the Carmel Mountains. It was where my friend Polina had taken me a few weeks earlier so I really recognized the area. After we stopped in the local Druze town for lunch. They told us a good bakery to go to and of course who could pass it up, they sold the most AMAZING baklavah I have ever had. Worth the drive just for the desert. Its amazing how good their pastries are. Before heading home we stopped by the Bahai gardens overlook, the sky was a bit clearer than the last time I went so I took a few pictures and we were off back down south.

Friday, March 26, 2010

This morning was basically the beginning of our Passover break. Anna and I woke up early to take a bus to Jerusalem. We got there and headed to our hostel near Jaffa gate of the Old City. Once we settled in we accidentally took a bus to German colony, but we found a lot of cute boutiques there and stumbled upon a shuk that only happens on Fridays. We bought this delicious date jam that I cannot wait to try. We took a bus towards Machane Yehudah, the famous shuk in Jerusalem that is open 6 days a week, Friday being the craziest of them all. It was a lot of fun explore the little alleys of fruits, vegetables, art, junk, and desserts. There were people offering tastes of halavah, it was amazing. We decided to look for a place to eat lunch and found this little restaurant with Persian food. We barely waited for a table and there was a line the entire time we were eating. We ordered chummus with meat on top and these traditional soup called kube which was like a dumpling coating with meat inside in a tomato broth with vegetables. Very tasty. If you have not noticed yet, the food in the country is diverse, tasty, delicious and usually pretty cheap.

After the shuk we walked down towards hostel\old city. Walked around the different quarters, mostly in the Muslim and Christian sections. Honestly, I felt like I was in a whole other world, incredible culture shock. On organized trips they do not take you into the area so its incredible to explore them on your own. Sometimes we would turn a corner and I couldn’t believe how comforted I was to see an Israeli police officer. It is not that it feels unsafe it just feels so foreign compared to the rest of Israel which makes you feel so relaxed and at home. We stumbled upon the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It amazing how all of these holy sights are intertwined in the smallest area you could imagine. The diversity of tourist coming in incredible, Christian, Muslims, Jewish, those who are just curious to see what all the hype is about. Also, each quarter kind of has a different day off where things are closed or calmer because each religion has their own day of rest.

Next we went to kotel (Western Wall). It was nice being there not being rushed by anyone else. The security guards were setting up for Shabbat by organizing tables and places for books and torahs. I just took in the scenery and environment. It hard to be a tourist enjoying the amazment of the area and being a Jew looking forward to spending time at this holy sight. I decided to take some unique pictures while I was there before Shabbat started when you cannot use your cameras at the Wall. We went back, changed for Shabbat and walked back to the Wall to see what happened at sunset. Unfortunately it had been raining most of the day so a lot of the tables had been cleared and things were pretty quite there.

Afterwards we had been set up for Friday Night dinner with a host family. There is this older gentleman, Jeff Siedel, who has set up this network where people who come and visit Jerusalem on Shabbat will be hooked up with a family to eat with. We got placed with a young modern orthodox couple from Montréal who was visiting family in Jerusalem for 6 weeks. The husband’s family made aliyah from Montreal when he was a kid and most of them still live in Israel. They told us how Jeff started his Shabbat dinner organizing; he lived in the US and was a non religious Jews. He became ill with cancer and he said if he survived he would dedicate his life to God and strengthening the Jewish people. Thankfully he did survive and he chose to make aliyah and part of his life work is now helping others celebrate Shabbat in Jerusalem.  

The family was lovely to spend Shabbat with. The food was delicious and it was interesting to get their perspectives on everything relating to Israel, America and Judaism. We left at about 11 o’clock and headed out with our friend Polina and her friend Tal to grab a glass of wine at a bar in Jerusalem. Then off to bed after a long day.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

This morning we slept in and walked about to have Shabbat lunch with my cousins friend’s family, the Wexlers. They made aliyah about 10 years ago and Philip the father works for Hebrew University. It was very nice to meet them and their 2 kids. It was very interesting to see how they adapted to the change in the middle of their lives. I cannot imagine growing up in America until I was about 10 and then having the life change and culture shock to moving to Israel. The kids seem very well adjusted. The family in general still felt American. We had a lovely lunch together, especially an amazing cabbage, beet salad with pomegranate seeds. We talked most of the afternoon.

They drove us to a beautiful overlook then back to our hostel. We rested for a bit and got ready for dinner. A friend recommended a good restaurant called Adom; it was delicious. The food was so fresh and tasty. Afterwards we went to a comedy club that happens to be owned by Rabbi Kalimink’s (a Rabbi in Rochester) son who now lives in Israel. Two days a week he does English comedy night. It was very funny.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

This morning we woke up and waited in Line to see the Temple Mount. We walked up this ramp past the kotel and then there you are, this place that everyone sees but never visit. Everyone knows Jerusalem is the capitol of all of these religions but when you see it in a matter of seconds its just unreal. It was amazing to see how big the area was, beautiful and detailed, interesting seeing Israeli police in all of these holy sights. It makes me feel safe but it seems nice but I am not sure if the other people feel that way. Non-Muslims cannot not go inside but amazing to see what is behind the wall after all these years of coming to Israel.

Afterwards we went back down to pray at the kotel. We also walked up to Ben Yehudah Street to do some shopping. We found a lovely book store, went back to the shuk to by some teas, spice mixes, and tasted the delicious halavah again. We also found this kosher for Passover bakery with chocolate covered macaroons and amazing Kosher for Passover cakes. Restaurants have changed over their menus to Passover food already, we even found kosher for Passover pizza places. We headed home that afternoon, nice to be back in Ashdod.

I went for a run this evening and I noticed a few barbecues in the area. It traditional for people to burn their last chametz (bread products) and if they want their last meal with bread in it they eat outside because their houses are already clean. Very interesting to see.