Last week was a busy one. Tuesday we went to Jerusalem and met with the director of an inter-religious dialogue center. The organization brings people together from different groups in society and facilitates a dialogue during a year or more. The idea is to get people who would probably never meet or talk to each other, in the same room acknowledging each other’s opinions and points of view. He told us about a dialogue group that was made up of rabbis, imams, and ministers. For many of them, this group was the first time they had met a religious leader of a different religion. The dialogue gave them an opportunity to learn about each other, their communities, and views on religion and politics. At the end of the dialogues, the participants do not necessarily agree with one another, but they are sometimes more open to seeing both sides and acknowledging their neighbors in a less hostile way. Israel is a very fragmented society. As people become frustrated with the peace process at the political level, many are trying to bring it about at the grass roots level.
Thursday I made cheesecake for our Israeli Thanksgiving. It was the first time I made it on my own without my mom’s help…and it was amazing! Like any good Americans, we had a huge Thanksgiving feast. We decided to have it on Friday instead of Thursday since we all volunteer on Thursdays. So we spent all of Friday cleaning and cooking and getting ready. I don’t think our apartment has ever been this clean. Everyone came over Friday afternoon and we feasted like good Americans on Thanksgiving. We started eating at 4 PM and by 7 PM we were all ready for bed. J For my first Thanksgiving away from home it was pretty great. We have created a wonderful family for ourselves here in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. It was great to have everyone together, and we are actually really great cooks!
Saturday I went to the beach. It is still warm enough here to sit on the beach. I don’t know how warm the water is but lounging on the sand with a good book is a great way to spend an afternoon in Tel Aviv. By the way….tomorrow is December and I’m still going to the beach.
This Monday we had our study day and we talked about Jewish memory. One of the passages we read said that “history is knowing what happened in the past. Memory is asking how does what happened in the past impact on who I am today.” The passage also said that Gentiles have history but Jews have memory. Our history is not just a story we learn in school; it’s something we relive and remember. The Exodus story that we tell on Passover is a memory that we relive in some way every year when we hold a Passover seder.
Tomorrow is the first day of Hanukkah. Can’t wait to see how the Israelis do it! We’re having a little shin-dig here for the first night. We’re making latkes!
