דער בונד

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That's "The Bund" to you.

As part of our Zionist history class, we all had to participate in an inforomal educational experience called "The Duma Exercise" this evening. Essentially, all 32 Rabbinical and Education students (Cantors don't take Zionist history... because it's not important for their line of work?) were divided into 8 groups representing different (mostly) historically accurate Jewish political and interest groups in early 1900's Russia. Plotsk, to be exact.

Such groups represented were the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party/RSDWP (aka Communists); the Autonomists; the Terretorialists; a groups advocating immigration to America; Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews; Socialist Zionists; and the Bund, a Jewish socialist, anti-Zionist, group. I was, as you may have guessed, in The Bund. I was a Bundist. Part of the Bund. The Bund.

The Bund has ironically been described as "Zionists with seasickness," a group thank acknoledged Jewish national unity, but constantly wavered on whether those national and cultural traits meant statehood or integration into the Russian social and economic struggle. It was a hard group to wrap my head around.

The exercise was called "The Duma" because the groups were meant to assemble in 1906 in Plotsk and elect representatives from the Jewish community to the Duma, the new Russian parliament. Each group had to prepare a statement - a platform - and read the platform, take questions from the other groups, and then sing an anthem. We also had to dress up. It was a ridiculous evening program, but ultimately fun. It was a good, experiential way at getting into the heads of the different groups that existed in Eastern Europe when the Zionist movement was gaining prominence; early Zionists were only one voice in a cacophony of different responses to modernity.

To help my group argue our case, I baked a Bund(t) cake. It was delicious.

Here are some pictures of my group:


The Bundists sit in the forum, holding up signs


Comrades Joel and Nikki argue our case

Los Angeles, we'll be yours... soon

There are 3 HUC campuses stateside: New York, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles. I am going from Jerusalem, back to LA next year, for two more years of school. The group going with me (9 Rabbinical students and 1 other Ed student) is a great group. I hosted us all for Shabbat brunch today for a time when we could hang out and bond as a group. And it was a lovely, lovely, afternoon. We all got along great as a group; it's a very eclectic, random mix of people, but I'm very excited about us all being together for the next two years. They're going to make returning to Los Angeles a much easier, smoother, funner process, and I'm very much looking forward to that.

Doing Thanksgiving

Yesterday, as you all might know, was Thanksgiving. And celebrating it in America is one thing; doing it in Israel, a whole other ballgame.

For one thing, there were no external cues that it was Thanksgiving week. Which is bizarre. No music, no decorations everywhere, no one wishing anyone a "Happy Thanksgiving." We didn't have any school off (which IO actually think should change, because 95% of the class is American, and it is a big deal for us). Most of our faculty is Israeli, British, or Canadians, and the American born ones are now "Israeli" so there was really nothing done at school. And the weather was all off, warm (even for LA standards) for Thanksgiving week. it just made it really disorienting to have Thanksgiving, and it really wasn't until the afternoon of that I was really excited.

It was decided by a non-voting discussion, by the Kef Committee, to host (organize?) an all-class Thanksgiving Dinner, for classmates, SOs, friends, etc. The organization fell the Leslie, who, admittedly, did a fantastic job getting everyone on their shit. Everyone was assigned a different dish - sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, dessert, stuffing, etc - for about 8-10 people, and about 3-4 people on every type of dish. Four people volunteered to make Turkeys - Amy, David, Gavin, and Meredith, and they are my heroes of the evening - which came out delicious, especially considering they were cooked in Israeli ovens (no Weber turkeys this year!).

I signed myself up for sweet potatoes - roasted in the oven with a little olive oil, thyme, and orange juice - and cranberry sauce. Now, I have a serious problem with canned cranberry sauce. I mean, really. Who eats that? But Israel doesn't grow cranberries, so making cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries was out. So... I used dried cranberries and stewed them for a long time in a secret concoction of things (among them fresh orange juice/zest, fresh lemon juice/zest, cranberry juice, cinnamon, pears). It turned out delicious. Almost as good as my mom's. But not quite.

So, heading into the evening, I was concerned that it would either be a fantastically fun evening, or a total bust - not because the food would suck (although there was the worry that there wouldn't be enough or the turkeys would all fail), but because it just wasn't Thanksgivingly enough. So Leslie and I conspired to put together a program that I do with my family. Before eating, people anonymously write on a leaf-shaped piece of paper something they're thankful for. After dinner, we go around the table, and each person picks a paper and reads what's on it and then we try to guess who wrote it. It's lot's of fun and also sweet, without being too sappy. It ended up being a great moment in the evening and made the night feel much more like Thanksgiving, and less like an all-class dinner with Thanksgiving themed food.

It really was a great night. I had a great time, and it was really nice celebrating this holiday that's really important to me with my makeshift Israel/HUC family. Thursday was, however, the first time in the last 4+ months that I really wished I was home, instead of here. T-Day is a really important holiday to my mom and her side of the family; we do a big, big thing, and everyone gets together. It really rivals Passover for "familial importance." And so not being home - this was my first Thanksgiving not home - was tough. I've done Rosh Hashanah not at home, I've done Pesach, I've done Hanukkah. But never Thanksgiving before. David, as well, wasn't home - he's in Kyoto for the year - and this year was my mom's turn to host. I would imagine in some ways hosting made it easier for us both not to be there; but it probably made it harder as well. I guess we're really growing up.

After dinner, there was football being played from a computer, and a poker tournament to raise money for Ride4Reform. I played poker and was at school til the wee hours winning, and then ultimately losing to Jon. Grrr. But it was fun. I miss playing poker. When I got home, I skyped with my family and got to talk to a lot of peeps - Mom, Stephen, Elana, Bobbie, Adam, and a wave to Joe - which made me feel better. It wasn't eating with the family, but it was close.

Learning to feel the distance

Yesterday, my class went on a day-long tiyul to Haifa, Tsfat, and Tiberias. We were all over the Galilee. The day was a truncated version of a typical 3-day tiyul to the north, which included a visit to Ceasaria and Tzippori; both of which we’ll be doing as part of our Rabbinic literature class in the spring, and so in the interest of making budget cuts – spurred by HUC’s 3-5 million budget shortfall this year (thank you sinking stock market), the trip was condensed into a very, very long day.

But all in all it was a good day. A very interesting and exciting day. We started the morning off in Haifa, at the Leo Baeck School, a complex named for Leo Baeck, a charismatic German Reform Rabbi who lived and worked in the first part of the 20th century. The school is a bizarre place, but a really wonderful place. It’s a "public" Junior High and High School, an Israeli Reform community center, an educational initiative center affiliated with the Israeli Reform movement, and a fairly new "Private" Reform Day School. I still don't really understand how the whole, mammoth, beautiful complex and institutions therein fit in with both the Israeli secular school system as well as the Israeli Reform movement, but it was really a special place.

A lot of money and energy went into building this institution and it seems like it’s on the cutting edge of both Israeli public schooling (which is infamously, notoriously sucky) and the role of “private” Reform-affiliated schooling (which is very akin to private Jewish day schools in the US). We took a tour, sat in on Thursday services with the elementary school (they were totally adorable), had a panel session with four high school students, talked with the Rabbi who started the elementary school, and then had a tasty falafel lunch.

Off to Tsfat!

Our next stop in the mid afternoon was in Tsfat, one of the 4 holy cities in Israel (the other three are Hebron, Jerusalem, and Tiberias). We divided into two groups, and each group met with a different local American-born artisit who moved to Tsfat in order to 1) practice Kabbalah, and 2) make art about it. Our guy, Avram, was really cruts (=crazy nuts). He grew up in Detroit and after reading two of Aryeh Kaplan’s books on Jewish mysticism in college, found his mind blown, and started to understand the “true bliss” of Judaism, and moved to Tsfat where he and his wife make Kabbalistic art. He was very kabbalisitc-hippieish, chill but totally operating on a different level than we were. He spouted a lot of aphorisms about using Kabbalah as wway to relate to life, like "learning to feel the distance," and "becoming brings of complete goodness" and "making all of our energy into output instead of input." His art was kinda cool, kinda bizarre. I didn’t buy anything, although a fair amount of my classmates did.

The day before the tiyul, Wednesday, we had an intro to Kabbalah session with an Israeli Rabbinic student, Or, who just completed a MA on the Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah. The session with Or, combined with the session with Avram, was enough discussion on Kabbalah from practicing mystics. However, we did ANOTHER study session with our “trip scholar” who took our group to three central synagogues in Tsfat, each associated with a different 16th century halakhic or kabbalistic scholar. It was interesting, but way too long, and by the end my energy and attention was shot.

When we finally got our “free time,” I raced off to Tsfat Cheesemakers, who, as I remembered from my visit to Tsfat with David Cushman and Jon Grinspan back in the early spring of 2005, makes great cheese and Halva. And my memory was correct. As we returned to the bus, and everyone compared with purchases, I had a funny realization. Some people viswit Tsfat and buy kabbalistic art. Other visit Tsfat and buy Tallitot or Jewish jewelry. I visit Tsfat and buy gourmet, locally made food.

Off to Tiberias!

Our visit to Tiberias, one of the jankiest cities in Israel (ironic because it’s the birthplace of the Jerusalem Talmud and one of the holy cities in Israel), consisted of dinner: a delicious, scrumptious Chinese food feast at Pagoda, a kosher Chinese restaurant on the bank of Lake Kinnert. Jason, Sarah K, RVT, and I shared a smattering of “classic” Chinese dishes: eggrolls, crispy duck, beef with cashews, and sweet and sour chicken. It was amazing. In reality, not the best Chinese food I’ve ever had, certainly not, but after 4+ months of no Chinese food at all (it’s funny; it’s easier to find decent and tasty sushi in Jerusalem than tasty and decent Chinese food), it was really, really wonderful. A little taste of home.

Reactions

There are a lot of reactions I've been having in the past 36 hours, most of them elated and ecstatic (except where California is concerned. I'm just... disappointed. More than anything else. I'm just disappointed), some confused - Ted Stevens? Really? Him? - but really it's a sense of relief. I mean, finally. After so many years, my entire adult life - except for 2006, which was a huge victory, but tempered by two more years of W - has been filled with political disappointment after political disappointment. You have to go back to 1996 for some good news.

I feel so relieved that this victory, one I've been gunning for for months (in truth, I can't really admit to hopping onto the Obama bandwagon until the night of the Iowa caucus, mainly due to his speech; until his victory speech Tuesday, one of the best political speeches I've ever heard). I'm relieved that this is something momentous, and incredible significant, not just because of the racial element, not just because of the annihilation of decades of conservative rule over Washington, but because I feel like this is the moment when my generation - those who came of age with Iraq - have come into our own. We have said, "No! We don't want our world to be like this!" and then we've fucking done something about it.

I, myself, haven't actually done much - it's hard to campaign from 10,000 miles away. But I donated and phone banked in the primaries, and endlessly sported my fabulous Obama shirt this last week. But I still feel ownership over this moment, over this transition, over the next 4 (8!) years. I feel real ownership, for the first time in 8 years, over my country, over my Americanship. And I'm really excited about that and what great change the future holds.

Live Blogging the Election

7:35 A.M. That was a pretty good speech. Pretty, pretty good. Fantastic, really. It was a perfect ending to a long and tumultuous campaign, and singled the start of a great, fantastic next 4 (8) years. Who's excited?

6:45 A.M. So while I'm waiting for Obama to speak at "midnight eastern time," which is 7 AM here, I'm thinking about McCain's speech. It was really good. Humorous, sweet, straight-talking, personal, and sensical. If he had run his campaign in the same vein as his concession speech, it might have been a lot closer of an election.

And if he hadn't choosen Sarah Palin as his running mate.

6:14 A.M. He fucking did it. He fucking did it. Fuck yeah. America, fuck yeah. I'm ecstatic. I'm jubilant. It's fucking amazing.

Ari, Meredith and I woke up Meredith's roomies, who groggily went back to sleep. I talked to David and Alea in San Francisco, and some other classmates in J'lem. We had a champagne toast. We danced a bit, took some pictures. It's amazing. I'm amazed. I'm in total awe.

5:40 A.M. Will Joe Lieberman stay in the Democratic caucus? Will the caucus kick him out? Will he voluntarily leave? Who knows! But John King is having a ball flipping that yellow-bordered tile.

We're awaiting the closing of polls in the west, including my beloved California. Waiting. Waiting.

5:01 A.M. Fucking Iowa! Came through in January, came through again in November. I love Iowa.

4:50 A.M. So John King and his map of counties has moved to his his map states, and has basically laid out an incredibly difficult and uphill path for McCain to win the nomination. It includes a win in New Mexico, and perhaps Iowa, neither of which McCain will win. So, it's pretty amazing.

Meredith is from Ohio (Cincinnati) and has been beaming since Ohio was called. Her absentee ballot arrived today, but Ohio laws will accept it as long as it's signed and postmarked by Election Day. That's a pretty big relief.

4:35 A.M. Obama won Ohio. All three cable networks called it. That might be the ballgame.

4:08 A.M. So there's a lot going on. I'm brewing coffee in my new French Press to keep us up (Ari is out like a light). I'm facebook chatting with my brother who is in the middle of a Japanese class in Kyoto - but he's allowed to use a computer. go figure. Obama is racking up New England and the north-midwest states (Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) by large margins. Lots of Senate races being called left and right, and it's all pretty much as expected, all good news (escept Saxby Chambliss' seat in Georgia) for the Dems.

Now McCain just won Georgia. That was not a surprise, but in my head it would have been nice if Bob Barr had spoiled the race for McCain there. Oh well. Hopefully many more goodies to come.

3:35 A.M. I just unpacked my bag of goodies, including a bag of freshly roasted and ground coffee, and the smell totally woke Ari from his nap and perked Meredith up.

Fox just called Pennsylvania for Obama. CNN hasn't said anything. I'm beginning to think that CNN is very conservative in making calls.

3:13 A.M. New Hampshire has been called for Obama by Fox. Fantastic.

And yet CNN hasn't said anything. This makes me nervous...

3:10 A.M. Fox News just called the North Carolina Senate race for Kay Hagen, ousting Elizabeth Dole. This is fantastic. Elizabeth Dole had no business being in the Senate to begin with, and now she's gone. And the Dems pick up one more seat.

What's weird, is MSNBC website called Pennsylvania for Obama; no one else has. I wonder what they know that nobody else knows (or isn't saying yet).

3:07 A.M. The was just a deluge of states with 8PM EST closings of polls. Everything pretty predictable. What wasn't predictable, was I started coloring in my Senate map, instead of my Presidential map. It was slightly embarrassing.

2:36 A.M. Well, It's officially election night: I jst caught my first John King and his county-by-county map of Indiana. While it's really nerdy and funky, it's kinda cool to watch. Especially when I can name the counties in Indiana Obama needs to do well in in order to win.

And now there's James Carville. The rajun Cajun. What a guy. He's really bald.

2:18 A.M. I'm sitting in Meredith's living room, and Ari, who is still half-asleep, just asked, "Who wants chocolate? Joel, you do." For the first time in my life, I refused chocolate. Either I'm too nervous or my stomach is too tight from the lack of sleep. We'll see.

Kentucky has been called; Vermont has been called. No surprises there. Indiana and Virgina are too close to call, except for the Virginia Senate race, which has gone to Mark Warner. No surprise either, but a great victory for Virginia. And all of the different Warner families in Virginia.

Game On!

There's been a lot going on this week. I could blog about the trip to Qumran and Masada I took yesterday, or put up more Istanbul pictures (you can see Meredith's retelling of the trip on her blog at http://buckeyeinisrael.blogspot.com/ ), or write a little bit about being really into the swing of the academic calendar, or my weekly movie-Saturdays, or the Emek Refaim Street Fair, or the crazy rain we've been having, or a host of other things.

But I'm not. Today is November 4, 2008, and it's election day in The States, and for all of you reading in the US, you're right in the thick of it. It's been very strange to be abroad, and in a country that overwhelmingly supports McCain, and not be in California to help campaign for Obama (in NV) or against Prop 8. The voting absentee was really fun - this was a vote I was proud and excited to cast. All day today I've been on edge, wearing my Obama t-shirt, conferring with classmates (we're overwhelmingly supporting the Democratic ticket, and a lot of classmates vote in Ohio, Florida, Indiana, Virginia, and Missouri, so voting has been really important). I've been furiously reading articles, watching news, checking polls - I've really become a news addict these past few weeks - and I can't believe it's over. Today is election day. Today is the day. Today is game day.

Now, I'm off to see the HUC flag football team, the HUC Wise Guys, kick the Pardes flag football team's butt in, well, flag football. Then I'm going to try and get a few hours of shut-eye before waking up and watching live returns starting at 2AM when Virginia and Indiana's polls close. I think I'm going to live blog the election, not really for anyone to read, but really just because I can.

So, let's hope for hope, change, progress, an Obama-Biden administration, and 60 Democrats in the Senate!

Game on!