Shabbat in Modi'in, Gan Dinner, and Israel Advocacy

The weekend after all the holidays came quickly, since we only had one day of volunteering in between. Kesha, Misha and I made our way back to Jerusalem where we had a lovely Shabbos dinner at Raya’s with Raya, her brother, her boyfriend, her mother, and her stepdad. Additionally, on Raya’s weekend in Yerucham she ended up adopting the MOST adorable little puppy that we found on the street, so it was great to be able to play with Mushy (yes that is his name) some more. Dinner was, as usual, excellent and filled with great company. After dinner we hopped in the car with Misha’s aunt and step-uncle, and they took us back to Modi’in, where we were to spend the remainder of Shabbat. Modi’in is a really cute town, and very America-like, which is probably why I, and Misha’s aunt, who is originally from the States, felt so comfortable there. Misha’s aunt’s apartment was really beautiful and very comfortable to stay in. The next day we woke up fairly late, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then left for lunch.

We had arranged to eat lunch at Yossi’s house (he’s our director), since he also lives in Modi’in and is well known for being great about letting Nativers have meals or even spend entire Shabbats at his house. It was about a half hour’s walk from Misha’s aunt’s house, and when we got there we were met by three other Nativers, two of whom were staying at his house for Shabbat and one of whom was in Modi’in with family, like us. Lunch was a LOT of fun – Yossi has three adorable little boys and his wife Jen (who was also a Nativer once) is so sweet. We ate a ton of great food (Yossi is a great cook and the Nativers who were staying there had made cookies and a cake with the kids the day before) and talked all about this year’s Nativ and even about what next year’s Nativ is looking like. It was a great meal and I was really glad that we had a chance to visit Yossi at his home and spend some time with him and his family before the end of the year.

We then headed back to Misha’s aunt’s for some relaxed reading and nap time. Before we knew it, the afternoon was over and Shabbat had ended. We made a quick trip to the local ice cream shop and then caught a bus home, where we prepared ourselves to go back to work – at least for a day or two.

The following day, Sunday, was Kesha’s birthday, so after a celebratory dinner with all the Yerucham girls we headed over to Be’er Sheva, since Yerucham is distinctly lacking in any place to celebrate a birthday. There we met up with some of the Be’er Sheva Nativers and all went out to a bar, where the live performer ended up singing happy birthday to Kesha from onstage, which was really silly.

That week was the last week of volunteering, so Monday night all the gan teachers of the thirteen gans in Yerucham had a dinner to thank all of us for volunteering. Unfortunately, Buruyah couldn’t make it that night because she had a family obligation, but she told me how sorry she was that she couldn’t make it and Etie came and sat next to me the whole time. It started with a presentation in which every gannenet called up her gan’s volunteer and gave a little speech about them. We were all presented with Yerucham keychains and pins, and it was really really nice – you could tell that they were very appreciative of all of our help and that every kid loved their gan and every gan loved their Nativer. That was followed by a hodgepodge of deliciousness – the potluck dinner that had been prepared by all the gannenets. After that we went into the auditorium to watch a movie that we all thought would be a five-minute powerpoint about the gans in Yerucham, but which ended up being a full-length feature film about one of those inexperienced teachers that comes in to teach the hopeless hooligans and ends up changing all of their lives and his own, which was only slightly ridiculous because even though we got the point none of us really did anything like that in Yerucham. Despite the very lengthy movie, it was a great evening and it made us all feel really good about the work we’ve done here – even though for most of us it never felt like we did that much in the first place. Because even though I know that my gannenets were extremely thankful I was there to help out I always felt like the gan gave more to me than I could ever give back in return.

The following day, Tuesday, began our two day Israel Advocacy Seminar. The first day was spent together with the Be’er Sheva group in Dimona, while the second day took place by ourselves in Yerucham. Nativ hired a group called “The David Project” to come in and lecture and do activities with us for two days. The David Project specializes in helping kids learn how to combat anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian attitudes and activities on college campuses throughout the states. We had several lectures on how Israel is portrayed in the media, a debate, and even a mock case study where we were broken into groups and given a scenario in which we had to plan a pro-Israel program. Although at times we felt that the clear bias bordered on propaganda, it was still extremely useful and gave us a lot of good information that we all will be able to use on our campuses next year. Additionally, we watched a documentary about the disengagement which was really good and really interesting. The disengagement was in the summer of 2005 and stemmed from the Prime Minister’s decision to withdraw from Gaza, a place where the Arab to Jewish population ratio made it clear that Jews would never be in the majority there. In doing so, thousands of Jews were forcefully pulled from their homes and forced to relocate. Israeli soldiers were instructed to remove by force all those who were not willing to leave their homes, and this process of Jews fighting Jews caused a lot of controversy all over the country, and the prime minister’s decision still sparks debate to this day. The documentary, called “Unsettled,” did an excellent job portraying both sides of the issue and helped me to understand the disengagement much better than I had before.