Tel Aviv and Yaffo

Every Thursday our kvutzah (group) takes a day trip somewhere which coordinates with the classes we've had that week.

This week the theme of our shiyurim (lessons) was Jews in the modern world, which took a look at how Jews developed the identities that they have today, especially in the United States. One day our discussion centered around the Haskala (Jewish enlightenment), which was extremely interesting as we learned that during the Haskala in Germany, people introduced ideas of reforming the syngagogue to include more German (the native language instead of Hebrew), music, and a sermon in German. This movement, known as the reform movement, spread rapidly through Germany and caught on in other places, especially the United States. I always knew a little bit about the reform domination of Judaism, but I never realized how radical it was for its time, and enjoyed learning about it immensely.

In light of those shiyurim (lessons) we went, on Thursday, to the diaspora musuem. The musuem chronicles the exile of Jews from Israel starting with the destruction of the second temple. It gives a critical look at the development of the diaspora and the common threads that still hold all Jews together. One exhibit of the musuem contained miniature models of synagogues around the world. My friends and I tried guessing where all of them were (though to be fair a few of them in Italy I recognized). One of the last synagogues looked way too familiar - until I realized that it was the Beth Sholom synagogue in Elkins Park (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright). Another highlight of the musuem was a computer database which provides complete family trees with just a little bit of information. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about our family (though  Mom has created an extensive family tree so I mostly know our family past) but many of my friends discovered new things about their families (Howie tracked his family back to 1907 in Latvia).

After a few hours in the musuem we were dropped off in Yaffo to have lunch and wander around. For me, it was the first time having anything other than shnitzel for a meal in a few days, so of course it was an exciting meal (even if it was just some shawarma and fries). Being in Yaffo made me understand how much my thought process has started to change. The whole day we saw tourists walking around with little souvenirs, a reminder of their trip to Israel. But for us, being on kupa (basically...socialist money pot) means that we're constantly broke, and more than that, constantly being conscious of what we buy and why. It has made me appreciate every purchase so much more as well as challenge why I need things, or even if they are a necessary part of life. I still look in stores longingly (I'm not completely free of materialism), but I think I'm learning to be more thrifty (which should be useful for New York).

Our day in Tel Aviv and Yaffo was fun, but also another chance to get out of our bubble of the kibbutz to see how another part of Israeli society lives.

More to come soon!