Settling In...

It’s hard to believe I have been in Jerusalem for 5 days now. In some ways, it feels as if I have been here forever, and in others, like I just arrived this morning. I am beginning to settle in and to get my bearings.

I discovered that Hebrew University is a much more diverse place than I originally anticipated. While it was founded out of Zionism, it is both multi-cultural and religiously diverse. There are Jews from all across the spectrum, of course, but there are also plenty of Christians and Muslims, along with other religions (and persons of no particular religious affiliation or belief), not only in Rothberg (where I am) but in the “regular” university itself. There are many Arab and Palestinian students attending class alongside the Israelis, and until 2002, Hebrew U was not really affected or part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was, instead, a place where they could and did coexist peacefully. (In 2002 an Arab worker placed a bomb in a café beside Rothberg, which killed 5 Rothberg students and 4 Israelis and injured many more. Since then, the wall around campus and the student village has been erected, along with added security measures, including metal detectors. It is also why the kfar (student village) is located so far from the campus.) But despite the 2002 bombing, Hebrew U still seems to be a place where Israeli and Palestinian/Arab students can coexist.

More about myself and my life here in Jerusalem:

I now have 3 roommates: Annie, a Reform Jew from Chicago/Stanford/NYC; Beneditta, a Catholic from Venice; and Susan, an atheist from Warsaw. The fifth bedroom remains unoccupied and appears to not to have a student assigned to it. Annie arrived on Tuesday, so I know her better than the other two, who came on Thursday, but so far we are getting along. I really like Annie. She has been very good about including me in things, since she knows people here already. She likes to introduce me as “the Christian version of her” because she used to want to be a rabbi and is interested in Christianity (specifically in the relationship between Christianity and Judaism in late antiquity).

I am enjoying a wonderful first Shabbat in Israel. Yesterday Annie and I caught a bus to the German Colony, where her friend Jon lives in the third floor apartment of a very nice home. We spent time at his apartment, on his merpeset (porch) eating fruit and then prepared the Shabbat dinner before heading to the synagogue. The service was all in Hebrew, so I didn’t always know what was going on, but it was still enjoyable. After the service, we returned to the merpeset for Shabbat dinner, where we were joined by two of Jon’s friends, Jacob and Isaac, who are undergraduate students at Rothberg. It was my first Shabbat dinner, and the food was lovely and the company entertaining. I hope Shabbat on the merpeset becomes a regular occurrence.

This morning I had coffee with a wonderful girl named Katie, who is from Canada and is beginning her second year here as a MA student. She spent three hours answering my questions (bless her soul!) and showing me different places around the kfar, including places to eat and shop. When I returned, I enjoyed a picnic with my roommates, which had to be relocated indoors because it started to rain. The rest of the afternoon has been rather relaxing. I have done a bit of reading and talked to my mom for a bit. The next important (crucial, even) task is to locate a means of following the Buckeyes game.

Classes begin tomorrow!

P.S. I will try to make a regular habit out of posting during Shabbat.