Lending a Hand

So it's Winter Break and I wanted to do something productive.  Yesterday, I went to Carmei Ha'ir, check out their website, a soup kitchen near the Machane Yehudah Shuk here in Jerusalem.  My friend Ruth volunteers there every week so I thought I'd tag along.  It was very cool to help out.  This soup kitchen is unique in that it has more of a restaurant feel than a soup kitchen.  We serve the patrons and ask them which meal they want rather than having them come through a serving line.  I started off helping to set the tables with silverware and a bowl of soup at each seat.  Then as people came in I asked them which main dish they wanted- meat or kuba.  Kuba is an iraqi food usually something like a breaded beef pattie but this version was vegetarian.  Every person got vegetables and spaghetti as well.  Some people had special requests such as no pasta or no vegetables.  As people left, I helped clear the tables, took the used plates and utensils to the person doing  the dishes, and prepped the tables for new people.  When the crowd died down, I helped clean up everything.  I had a great time, was able to practice my Hebrew, and received many Todah Rabahs (Thank Yous).  Hopefully I'll have some time to go back a few times before I leave Israel.

Speaking of volunteering, back in November, our group took part in a project of Leket Yisrael, Israel's national food bank organization.  They take leftover food from bar mitzvahs, weddings, bakeries, etc. as well as extra produce from farms all over Israel and distribute them to soup kitchens and other social service organizations that provide food to people in need.  Leket לקט is a word found in the bible to describe the tradition of leaving extras for the poor when gleaning your fields: "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings." (Deuteronomy 24:19)

Leket Yisrael, one of their huge trucks to transport food

Our group was taken to a farm in Rehovot and assigned the task of picking oranges.  Basically, farmers aren't always able to pick all of their fruits and vegetables in time before they go bad, so this farmer has Leket assist and then they have access to the extra produce.  I paired up with my friend Ruth and we tried to pick as many oranges as we could find.  We filled up cartons and dumped them into a huge vat.  I had a lot of fun doing this.  Don't be fooled, these are indeed oranges.  Apparently due to the water shortage in Israel, the orange do not actually turn orange.  However, I can attest that they were indeed delicious oranges.  (We were allowed to taste some.)  Our group picked a total of 500 kilos of oranges (about 1100 pounds) which were then put in food packages for about 250 families I believe!  All of that in less than an hour of picking!

getting all up in the tree to pick those oranges

one of the many cartons we filled

For more information about the places I mentioned above or to make a donation, feel free to check out their websites:
Carmei Ha'ir Soup Kitchen
Leket Yisrael

Happy Chanukah! !חנוכה שמח

Chanukah in Israel has been one of the things I've been looking forward to the most.  Every December, I have found myself surrounded by a lot of Christmas decorations, hearing Christmas songs on the radio and in every store, and being wished a Merry Christmas.  No offense to all of my friends who celebrate Christmas and/or enjoy the Christmas atmosphere... but it has truly been nice to be surrounded by Chanukah instead.  Here is a glimpse of how I celebrated the holiday in Jerusalem.

On the first night of Chanukah, a bunch of us gathered in our apartment lobby and lit Chanukiyot (hebrew for Menorahs) together.

Those little tin menorahs were donated to us by a man in Tzfat.  He sent us back to Jerusalem with 25 of them, including boxes of candles!

It is tradition to eat food made with oil to remember the miracle of the Chanukah (there was only enough oil to last 1 day but it lasted 8 days).  Doughnuts are a popular Chanukah treat.  Here in Israel they are called Sufganiyot and they are EVERYWHERE!  One evening, Olivia, Shai, and I ventured to Ne'eman bakery for my very first Sufganiya!

Jelly-filled and Chocolate filled

My first bite of a sufganiya! (it was quite a disappointment as there wasn't any jelly inside)

Everywhere I looked, there were chanukiyot.  Menorahs like one were pretty much placed on every street corner!

Lit up menorahs were hung from every lamppost in the city center!

On the 6th night, Danit, Carolyn, Denise, Dina, & I went for some sufganiyot at Rolladin in Mamilla mall.  They only had 2 flavors left- pistachio and sweet popcorn.  Denise and I shared a sweet popcorn one but I wasn't such a fan of it- a little too buttery tasting for me.  We then went to the Jaffa Gate in the Old City and were met by this beautiful blue Chanukiyah.

Carolyn, Dina, & I walked around town while Denise and Danit went to the kotel.  In Kikar Safra, we came upon this enormous Chanukiah.

Trying to make it look like I'm holding the base of the Chanukiya

On the 7th night, our group took our usual Tuesday siyur (trip/tour) but we waited until the evening.  We were guided through the neighborhood of Nachlaot where we saw many many homes with their Chanukiyot outside.  It is Jewish tradition to put your menorahs in the windows for everyone to see.  Here in Israel (and probably in other Jewish neighborhoods all over the world), people put their Chanukiyot in boxes so they can be placed outside.  Notice that this Chanukiya does not use candles, instead oil is used to replicate what our ancestors used to light the Menorah.

So many menorahs!  

For the last night, I decided to fry up some cheese latkes.  Potato latkes (pancakes) are more commonly eaten on Chanukah, but this is a recipe that my mom has made for years.  No matter how many times I try, they still do not look or taste as good as my mommy's latkes.  My friends here all said they were delicious though so I guess my effort was a success.

I cannot take credit for this awesome picture of my delicious latke.  Twas the work of PJ Edelman,

Once again we all gathered to light the Chanukiyot together.  It's always a little sad when the 8th night comes around because we now have to wait a whole year (well a Jewish year) until we see the beautiful lights of the Chanukiya once again.  I hope you all had a wonderful light-filled Chanukah!

  

Don't be fooled by the lack of pictures documenting my sufganiyot consumption.  During these 8 days, I ate many more than I'd like to admit...

11/8/10: Women of the Wall נשות הכותל

Early last month, I got up at the crack of dawn to celebrate Rosh Chodesh with Women of the Wall/ נשות הכותל (Nashot HaKotel).  Rosh Chodesh, the first day of each Hebrew month, coincides with the New Moon.  We are commanded to recognize it as we would other festivals.  Women of the Wall is an organization of women who "strive to achieve the right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem, Israel."  The Western Wall is a holy site for Jewish people but collective prayer on the women's side is frowned upon.  As their website explains, "On December 4th 2001, bill number 1924 was voted on and became law in the Knesset.  The bill is an amendment to the Holy sites Law of 1967 and reads, 'No ceremony shall be held in the Wall’s women’s section.  That includes reading from a Torah, blowing the ram’s horn, wearing prayer shawls or phylacteries.  Violators shall be imprisoned for seven years.'  Some women have been arrested in the past, but this has not stopped the group from continuing their monthly ritual of praying at the wall.


Ruth and I met up with her friend Steven and his roommate and the four of us walked about 45 minutes to the Old City.  Once at the wall, we parted from the guys to go to our respective sides.  Though the service was conducted on the women's side, there were many men there to support the group and they came up to the mechitza (barrier between the sides) to participate in our service.  I put on my tallit (prayer shawl) that I brought with me to Israel but had not yet used here as most of the synagogues I'd been going to were on the Orthodox end of the spectrum of Judaism where women do not wear tallit.   Overall the service was uneventful (as in no one got arrested).  There were plenty of security guards and many photographers.  The only disruption came from a man who was standing on a chair, yelling.  I could not understand what he was saying but I had a feeling it involved unpleasantries and was directed towards us.  I later found out I was correct.  

the group of women standing in front of me

After the Shacharit service we paraded, while singing, to another section of the Western Wall where Torah reading is allowed.  This section does not have separate sections for men and women and it is where many congregations go for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.  

Getting the Torah ready for the reading

Hagbah- lifting the Torah

Something else interesting from their website:
"In Hebrew, the word for women is nashim. Since – im is generally a masculine plural ending and -ot is generally the feminine plural ending, nashim is an exception to the linguistic rule. We chose to use nashot, similar to the way some American feminist have chosen to use womyn (for woman) and wimmin (for women). It is a pro-female assertion that seeks to remove the linguistic dependency of the word woman or women on the word man or men, since unfortunately these female words have largely and historically been characterized as a “derivative” of the male, a statement which has social implications."


I'm looking forward to joining the Women of the Wall again this month!

11/2/10: Zichron Ya'akov

At the beginning of November, our group visited Zichron Ya'akov, one of the first settlements of Jewish Pioneers in Israel.  We went to Ramat Hanadiv gardens, saw the grave of Baron Edward James de Rothschild, founder of the settlement, visited a museum about the 1st Aliyah (group of people moving to Israel), and had lunch in a cute shopping center area.  

Danit & Me at Ramat Hanadiv

Almost died when I saw this... but I think it's actually pretty common as bus drivers need their beauty sleep too

Chinese Food menu... amusing to see pork written in Hebrew (literal translation is white meat)

After lunch, we visited Tishbi Winery where we toured and tasted delicious wines.  I pretended to remember things I learned in the Wines course I took Senior year at Cornell.  

Sharing my wine expertise... 

We ended our trip with a hike along the shore of the Dor Habonim beach and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Soooo pretty

Awesome bed of seashells instead of sand

Every Sunset in Israel is AMAZING

  

10/28/10: Race for the Cure

On October 28th, I participated in the first ever Jerusalem Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure with my program as part of the Young Judaea Hadassah group.  This event was close to my heart as I thought of my Aunt Sandy who lost her battle with breast cancer 9 years ago.  We were among the 5,000 people who walked through the streets of Jerusalem with our cool new T-shirts to help raise awareness of the cause.

Me, Danit, Marlowe, & Ethan

"Find a cure before I grow boobs!"

Senator Joe Lieberman was there!