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The Ramallah day was a lot to digest and then Aaron and I were meeting with Aziz from Mejdi about the Gonzaga trip Friday morning so we worked into the night on Thursday planning the ideal trip, which we have, of course, adjusted now several times. But it was amazing to work with Aaron, to see his life in Muslim quarter of the old city, and to talk about life and politics and the many Spokane connections that we share. We took a physical spread sheet and excel and sat in T'mol Shilshom until almost 11 pm and then the next morning after the meeting with Aziz at the American Colony Hotel—we reviewed the itinerary in Mahaneh Yehuda (I insisted we go to the open market because I really wanted to get there to buy my favorites before Shabbat). So by the time I left Aaron late Friday afternoon, we had a working plan for the Gonzaga trip. I have a bunch of things to add and probably will continue to add until I leave Thursday night but soon we will submit it to Mejdi and see what they can do with it. Then Gonzaga and I will have to make the hard budget decisions. By the time Shabbat was over I had met three more amazing people who can contribute to the Judaism portion of the study abroad experience and I wondered how we would fit it into the already full itinerary. Nava Tehila Friday night, not surprisingly, moved me to tears. It was quite strange having prayer leaders I only knew through YouTube. We were not allowed to record during the service but I am attaching my rendering of a great niggun (wordless tune) they did. Look out Moscow, Idaho Jewish Community of the Palouse it's coming to you soon. Shabbat day connected me with new friends and old and I did a lot of walking in the heat. By the end of Shabbat I really remembered Jerusalem—it's paths and connectors and streets and alleys. Whatever I had thought I might do Saturday night, I couldn't move.
The day of rest turned into even more amazing plans for Gonzaga. Pardes has a social justice program as well as a conflict resolution program and my old friend, Marcie Lenk teaches academic Christian groups through Machon Hartmann Institute, uses texts and discusses power in the state from a Zionist and Orthodox perspective but also academic. I can't wait to hear my colleague, Shannon Dunn have this discussion with her. It's like too exciting for my brain. And my new friend, Naomi Marmon-Grumet, who runs the Eden Project, has drastically changed the experiences Orthodox women have with regard to purity laws and mikveh. She also agreed to speak to my students on gender and Judaism. And she is married to an old teacher from my days at Frisch. Hello, Rabbi Grumet! So that was Shabbat. Sunday I left my bags and took the bus which I now have down pretty well to the Israel museum. I needed 2 days and I had three hours. I took so many pictures for the purpose of course planning that my phone refused to take any more. Ancient archeology to modern art, gigantic life-size synagogue models from all over the world that you can walk inside, modern art depicting Palestinian reactions to 1948 and 1967, the Dead Sea Scrolls (I means the actual Dead Sea Scrolls), videos of Israelis' celebrating Independence Day. And don't even get me started on the Hebrew Bible. I could give a semester long course just from one wing. I could barely pull myself out of there but I had to get to Tiberias before nightfall.
Israel Museum
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Taking the train from the airport into Tel Aviv. Going to meet Rabbi Efrat Rotem for dinner. Hope I get a little time to recover from trip before that. Otherwise trip was smooth. Had the same flight as Neili from Spokane —she is going to visit relatives in Israel. On the flight I studied Torah with a chabadnik --sharing our different interpretations of impurity and gender on Lev 12. Fascinating as he was telling me that The chabad interpretation is peshat (the plainest meaning of the verse) using rashi's science from the 12th century. Yet it is interesting to read "a woman who conceives" as "a woman will surely spawn a male" and conversely that a man will surely spawn a female. What goes into the tube comes out last.... Are we even reading the same Torah?? How can we talk about commonality when we can't agree on the simplest understanding of the biblical text? But we can laugh and talk about davening and cell plans and kosher food. Satlow's Polythetic model. The other guy next to him is American, went to yeshiva on Staten Island and is 5-6 years younger than me. He just moved to Efrat from Baltimore. I am wondering why he moved to Efrat. I asked him if he knew Meir Schweiger from Pardes. He did not. He said Trump is crazy but Obama was bad for Israel. The other guy said Thomas Friedman hates Israel (I was reading from Thomas Friedman's book From Beirut to Jerusalem). I'm wondering why we are spending our energy populating Efrat. It seems crazy to me for a new immigrant to Israel to intentionally move into the West Bank. Some say Efrat is different because it is so close to Jerusalem and it has been around for so long. It's not going to be decided today. And realistically Efrat is never going to the Palestinians.
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Dr. Goldstein Leads Gonzaga-In-Israel Study Program2017 will see the start of a 4 week Israel Study Abroad Program, for more information contact Dr. Elizabeth Goldstein in the Religious Studies Department Archives
February 2019
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