Fires & Festivals

Happy Chanakuh!

One of my favorite parts about living in Jerusalem is being immersed in the Jewish culture and customs. It has been so much fun celebrating Chanakuh with Annie, my Jewish roommate. We light the candles every night (though I do not always stay up until they burn out), and last night we made latkes, potato pancakes. For those of you who have never had latkes, they are kind of like hash browns but with egg added and fried into little patties. Another Chanakuh delicacy is sufganiyot, jelly-filled donuts with powdered sugar on top.

The biggest news in Israel right now, of course, is the Haifa forest fires that have already claimed 41 lives since they started December 2. What makes the fires so bad is that there has been no rain - in the two months I have been living in Jerusalem, we have had one light sprinkling that lasted only a few minutes (although they are calling for rain in the morning!, even if it is only a 30% chance). In addition to the "deadly inferno," there have been several arsonist fires started in the region. You can see a map of the fires here. Two teenage boys have been arrested for starting the original fire through negligence, although the trial will surely be a political nightmare, since the boys are from a Druze village and the family is claiming the boys are being framed (implying that the arrest was racially/ethnically motivated), not to mention the fact that the four different articles I read all contained different information on exactly how they are said to have caused the fire. The Haifa fire is the worst fire in the nation's history, and help is pouring in from all over the world. Even Palestine, despite all the hostilities since the peace talks collapsed, has offered aid:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also offered to send help, which he conveyed in a rare telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two are believed not to have spoken since US-brokered peace negotiations collapsed in September.

This whole situation is such a tragedy. 12,000 acres of forest and 5 million trees have been destroyed. 17,000 people have been evacuated. 41 people have died. And all during what is supposed to be a fun holiday season. In fact, Haifa hosts an annual "Holiday of Holidays" event that celebrates Chanakuh, Christmas and Eid al Adja - the December holidays of the world's three major monotheistic faiths - and the day before it started, the area went up in flames. I was supposed to be in Haifa today with a group of the graduate students from RIS to celebrate the holiday season, but that trip, of course, was cancelled.

On a much happier note, my parents have finalized many of their plans for their visit in January. The plane tickets have been bought, and the hostels have been booked. (Of course, we are supposed to spend two days in Haifa, so the itinerary might have to be adjusted, but at the moment, I am more concerned about the people than about our vacation plans!)

Shalom, and for my Christian brothers and sisters celebrating the Second Sunday of Advent, may the Peace of Christ be with you!