For post-fast.
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| From Feldman Family Blog |
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| From Feldman Family Blog |
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Pre-9 B'av tzedek tour in Jerusalem
In preparation for Tisha B'av, Rachel Furst and I joined a tour yesterday afternoon of Jerusalem social justice projects. The free tour was organized by social justice umbrella organization Kehillat Tzedek of various justice projects serving disadvantaged populations in contemporary Jerusalem. (The organization is a facilitator for shuls to start their own justice projects in Israel, and the group on the bus was a mix of dati, Shira Chadasha, Conservative, alternative, etc. We served as the delegates of our shul, Ramban.) In any event, the tour was inspiring and fascinating.
We made three stops at incredible places we'd never have otherwise seen:
The building is basically falling apart. The principal, however, was extraordinary. She started by apologizing for the condition of her school: "Right now, our school if very ugly. That's because our girls aren't here." Eloquent (in Hebrew, English, and, presumably, Arabic), super smart, about 6'5", very outgoing, and completely honest about her challenges, political leanings, religious situation, and her sole ambition to educate the girls in her neighborhood. Very cool to hear honest questions and answers between Israelis and Arabs.
2. Second stop was a network of schools for high-school and post-secondary Sephardi charedi women who are trained to have careers in high tech. The network is run by Yaffa Deri, Aryeh Deri's wife, who gave us a very impressive presentation. Apparently a number of the schools' grads now work for Intel; others are professional artists. The goal is to engender (ha!) a revolution to the next generation of charedim by creating homes with an income brought in by the wife. The currently have 850 students. Here too the people we met with (thank goodness for the candor of Hebrew) answered tough questions about why this model is not replicated more widely in the charedi sector. Mrs. Deri and her principal also answered questions about the growing disparity between charedi men and women in terms of education.
3. Third stop was a center for at-risk youth run by the Jerusalem municipality. The very dedicated staff do counseling sessions at 1, 2 am in the tough neighborhoods where the most at-risk kids live. They had a bunch of kids who plainly admitted they were involved drug-ridden homes and now have jobs and futures. The place is two feet from the Russian compound and town. They work with 8,000 Jerusalem kids.
All told, a little bit of hope that there are some good people at work in rebuilding Jerusalem. Some inspiration leading into Tisha B'av. And Nir Barakat has the light rail moving along quickly. You can actually walk along re-paved Jaffa Street.
Have an easy fast and see you all very soon!
We made three stops at incredible places we'd never have otherwise seen:
- Our first stop was in East Jerusalem (we giggled that the Israelis, who are all clearly good, charitable people, scrupulously kept avoiding saying Arab) at a girls junior high in Abu Tor. The place is beyond decrepit, and the staff beyond amazing. The building is about the size of our Teaneck home and accommodates 450 girls. They receive 300 shekels per year per student from the government and the largest room (pictured here, notice cramped quarters and obvious graffiti and writing scrawled all over walls) is used for classes of 45. We were 40 adults and could barely fit.
 |
| From Feldman Family Blog |
 |
| From Feldman Family Blog |
The building is basically falling apart. The principal, however, was extraordinary. She started by apologizing for the condition of her school: "Right now, our school if very ugly. That's because our girls aren't here." Eloquent (in Hebrew, English, and, presumably, Arabic), super smart, about 6'5", very outgoing, and completely honest about her challenges, political leanings, religious situation, and her sole ambition to educate the girls in her neighborhood. Very cool to hear honest questions and answers between Israelis and Arabs.
2. Second stop was a network of schools for high-school and post-secondary Sephardi charedi women who are trained to have careers in high tech. The network is run by Yaffa Deri, Aryeh Deri's wife, who gave us a very impressive presentation. Apparently a number of the schools' grads now work for Intel; others are professional artists. The goal is to engender (ha!) a revolution to the next generation of charedim by creating homes with an income brought in by the wife. The currently have 850 students. Here too the people we met with (thank goodness for the candor of Hebrew) answered tough questions about why this model is not replicated more widely in the charedi sector. Mrs. Deri and her principal also answered questions about the growing disparity between charedi men and women in terms of education.
3. Third stop was a center for at-risk youth run by the Jerusalem municipality. The very dedicated staff do counseling sessions at 1, 2 am in the tough neighborhoods where the most at-risk kids live. They had a bunch of kids who plainly admitted they were involved drug-ridden homes and now have jobs and futures. The place is two feet from the Russian compound and town. They work with 8,000 Jerusalem kids.
All told, a little bit of hope that there are some good people at work in rebuilding Jerusalem. Some inspiration leading into Tisha B'av. And Nir Barakat has the light rail moving along quickly. You can actually walk along re-paved Jaffa Street.
Have an easy fast and see you all very soon!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Berihun is Maccabiah 10K champ!
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| From Team Berihun |
Also, Nicki Pines is here in Israel for a Yad Vashem seminar. She lamented that Danielle Schwartz isn't competing in tennis, the only sport in Jerusalem. Danielle easily could have done it and told Nicki she regrets not having come. If she makes it to the 19th Maccabiah in 2013, all the cousins promised to attend.
The Maccabiah, it should be noted, are decidedly not the Olympics. A few examples prove this:
- During the 10K last night, kids walking across the track as Berihun and the other racers approached. The race officials got up and started yelling at the kids to scoot.
- Halfway through the 10K race, the stadium sprinklers went off in the infield, dousing the race officials, the timer clocks, and getting everyone frantic before the sprinklers were shut off a minute or two later. Oops, forgot there was a track meet on the calendar!
- So funny and humiliating it's painful: The Maccabiah's big coup was getting Jason Lezak, America's #2 champion swimmer to compete. Lezak, Jewish swimmer extraordinaire, lives in Michael Phelps's shadow and gave up on an important summer competition to join the Maccabiah. For that he was given the distinct honor of lighting the Maccabiah torch at the opening ceremony. As he gets up to light the torch, the stadium announcer calls out in Hebrew, "And here to light the torch is Michael Ph... Jason Lezak." You could not make this up. It's the worst possible thing she could have said. Check out the faux pas on youtube.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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