Shabbat!

Hey Y'all!

A couple quick updates. First, I believe I just hit the halfway point in EIE. Thats scary and really depressing. Its amazing here. Second, I leave for Poland at 3:30 AM on Monday. I've heard its Monday night and just Monday and Tuesday morning. So I think it is 3:30 Tuesday morning. Like midnight starts Tuesday, I leave a couple hours after. And its Saturday right now so I will hopefully get this post done today and get a quick goodbye post before I leave. 

This week was midterms and everybody was freaking out about them. I had a math test, a couple of English assignments that will count as a midterm, a physics midterm, a Jewish History quiz, a Hebrew midterm, and I have my APUSH test that will count as a midterm on Monday. That sounded like a lot when I just typed it but it really wasn't. School at home is a lot more rigorous but school here is harder because we have no time. My physics and Hebrew midterm weren't that hard. I studied a little bit for both and we reviewed in class for them. My math test was fine. I made a couple dumb mistakes which was all I got points off for. Jewish history was fine. I looked over my notes for about 10 minutes and it was all good. Everything together, school this week wasn't bad because of exams. It was just bad because we had so much class. 5 days with only one half day tiyul. 

The half day tiyul was about ultra-orthodox Judaism. Another word for ultra-orthodox is charadei so I'm going to refer to it as charedei instead. A charadei rabbi named Yeshua Weinberger came and talked to us first. We asked him questions about his lifestyle, and how he views the world and Reform Judaism. It was really interesting. The only thing I have against the charadei world is that they don't serve in the Israeli army. I believe if you are a Jew in Israel or make aliyah then you must serve in the army. No exceptions. And if something like your religion, or you are a Pacifist makes you unable to do certain jobs than you can do something else. Rabbi Weinberger explained that he is fighting the Arabs because they have a birthrate of about 6 kids per woman. Israel as a whole has a 2.5 or something birthrate. The charadei community has a birthrate of about 10. This may seem like it doesn't matter to some but Israel struggles with being a Jewish and a Democratic state. It is undemocratic for a minority to govern a majority and if this birthrate continues it won't be long until the Arabs outnumber the Jews. So by having lots of kids, the charadei community does more service to the country than most soldiers, is their argument. This may be true or not true but part of Israel is the army and everyone join.  We then went to a neighborhood in Jerusalem and learned about the development of chasidism, a type of charadei Judaism. The speaker was really interesting and the trip to Jerusalem was pretty boring. 

Since thats about everything thats happened this past week I'll talk about the trip to Poland and Czech Republic. We're gonna be learning about the Holocaust and Judaism in Eastern Europe.  I'm not really excited because excited isn't the right word about going to Poland and learning about the Holocaust. I'm definitely thinking about it a lot and thinking about the concentration camps and walking in there and seeing everything. The Jews who read this blog know this but I'm not sure if the non-Jews know. Everyone knows that the Holocaust was catastrophic and one of the most horrible events in human history. But it also resulted in the complete destruction of a civilization. Jews have been in Europe for over a thousand year dating back to the Romans. Western European Jews assimilated more than the Eastern European Jews because of persecution and the enlightenment. So Judaism was existed in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years. And Judaism there was different than ancient Judaism in Israel. It was life on the shtetl and in the cities, and every Jew spoke Yiddish. The Jews in Eastern Europe didn't identify with Poland or Russia or whatever country they lived in because they were Jewish. This Yiddish culture was destroyed in the Holocaust. The Jews that survived the Holocaust came to the US or Israel and only a few stayed. There was nothing left after the Holocaust.  I can't really be excited to learn or see that, so I'm just going to have to keep on looking for a better word.

Logistical stuff about Poland. I have one roommate the whole time, Rob. He's from New Jersey and he's one of my best friends on the trip. My two friends who I roomed with first, Aaron and David roomed together in the second room and are rooming together in Poland. If they have the same room again after Poland, then they will have been together for the entire trip. On the bus we watch Holocaust movies and shtetl movies. Fiddler on the Roof, The Pianist, Schindler's List. We went to Yad v'shem the Holocaust museum in Israel yesterday and I saw the actual pieces of paper Schindler's List. They were pretty crazy. Yad v'shem is pretty intense. We also go to Prague. Prague is supposed to be really pretty. I found my jacket that I lost that I got for Poland. We stay in youth hostels when we go around. 

I gotta go. My computer is running out of battery and dies often. And the plug isn't working. So I'll see yall later.