My Summer of Study

This summer I was privileged to spend a month in Israel (along with Cantor Lipsett-Allison from Bet Shalom) studying Hebrew at Ulpan Akiva in Netanya. I sincerely thank the Board for their openness to my leaving for a month, making this wonderful opportunity possible and Cantor Newman for holding down the fort in my absence.

Ulpan Akiva is located in Netanya on the Mediterranean Sea. The campus is just five minutes from the beach where we often studied in the afternoons. Lest you think I was living a life of luxury, the accommodations and the food were, as one of my fellow students said generously, “adequate.” And when our taxi driver from the airport got to the Ulpan he said, “I can’t leave you here. You’ll come stay at my house.” Get the picture?

But in spite of the food and the rooming conditions, the Ulpan (and specifically the teachers) was amazing. There were over 200 students taking classes this summer. We were an eclectic bunch from around the world all with a variety of interesting reasons for spending a summer studying Hebrew. My class was full of olim hadashim (new immigrants) from France, America, South Africa, and Russia, who live in Netanya and study at the Ulpan for free.

Formal classes were five hours each day and included music, dance, computer and listening labs. In addition we had lectures, field trips, evening programs and more. Hearing Hebrew began to sound natural. And in Netanya, many people do not speak English, which forced me to use my Hebrew in taxis, stores and on the streets. Of course Israelis speak very fast and often I would have no idea what they said back to me. But I managed. It was fun.

With the Ulpan, we went on a field trip to the Carmiel Dance Festival. We were there the last evening of the festival and before the performance we wandered through the streets eating yummy foods and watching hundreds of people Israeli dancing on tennis courts and in parking lots. I am amazed at the amount of people who dance – all ages, both sexes, all the time. The festival itself had thousands of people sitting on the lawn and between songs we were treated to performances by famous Israeli singers. I was particularly moved by the group of dancers in wheelchairs whom had all been wounded in the Army. After they finished the entire crowd gave them a standing ovation. And at the end of the evening, the entire crowd stood again and sang “Hatikvah” with so much gusto and pride, followed immediately by the best fireworks display I’ve ever seen. It was impossible not to be swept up in the emotion.

Classes were from Sunday through Thursday, giving me a bit of time to travel. I spent one weekend in Jerusalem, one in Tel Aviv, and one at my home base in Netanya. In Jerusalem, since I was there just last year, it was like coming home. And how fun to be in the old city on my way to the Cardo and run into my daughter, Rachel, along with Jesse Goldfarb and Rachel Davis (on the Young Judea Israel Trip). I also stopped at the Fuchsberg Center to see Josh Lieberthal and Adam Heifitz who were on USY Pilgrimage, ate way too much chocolate rugluch from Marzipan bakery in Mahaneh Yehuda, enjoyed watching more Israel dancing in the Gan on my way back to my hotel in Baka and had Shabbat dinner with friends from my trip last year. In Tel Aviv I went to a wonderful production of “Joseph and His Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat” at the Opera House. While it was great for practicing my Hebrew, I did find it hard to focus on the Hebrew when I knew every song in English.

My religious experience in Israel was mixed. I am fascinated by different synagogues and took full advantage of the opportunity to attend services at a variety of shuls. In Netanya I went to a reform congregation that had a woman rabbi, attended an Ashkenazi Shabbat morning minyan and spent Tisha B’av at a Sephardi shul. In Jerusalem, Friday night I went to Shira Hadasha, the very well-known modern orthodox minyan in Emek Refayim, and to the Great Synagogue for Shabbat morning. In Tel Aviv I davened on the Port with Beit Tefilla Israeli. In all these places I was acutely aware of what was my place.

At the reform congregation in Netanya, Shira Hadasha in Jerusalem and Beit Tefilla Israeli in Tel Aviv, I was allowed to sing. In all the others, I wasn’t. I sat either behind a m’hitza or upstairs and watched. I wasn’t even compelled to pray as “lifting my voice in song” is what often opens me to prayer. It felt odd, isolating and sad. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the music in the Great Synagogue. While it was more like a concert than prayer, the cantor’s voice was beautiful and the male choir that sits right up at the Ark filled the room with glorious music. It was a passive experience but very spiritual.

The best davening experience I had was with Beit T’fillah Israeli (the “Secular” Minyan) on the Port in Tel Aviv. They spend the summer davening on the port in Tel Aviv looking out over the Mediterranean. They meet on the port for the wonderful view and to expose passersby to a “secular” davening experience. The music is beautiful – a cello, piano, flute – and Israeli songs are inserted into the traditional service, punctuating prayer in a secular way. When these songs are sung, everyone is singing. We were staring at the water as we sang,  “Eli, Eli, She lo y’gameir l’olam…” – (Oh Lord my God, we pray that these things never end….the sand and the sea…the rush of the water…the crash of the heavens…the prayer of the heart), and we finished ma’ariv just as the sun was setting. Very powerful. My trip this summer was intended to improve my Hebrew speaking. Living in Israel the way I did, however, was something I’d never done before and gave me lessons I did not anticipate. I know that as I continue to process the summer, things I learned, felt and experienced will trickle out. I look forward to sharing these trickles with you…in Hebrew (limited) or in English. B’Shalom.