The Really, Really Holy Land

There I sat, reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and enjoying a Shabbat afternoon at my friend’s cousins’ place in the West Bank. I was enjoying the book when I heard a loud, foreign sound. I looked up and my friend confirmed for me what I suspected I was hearing. That was when the irony hit me—the Muslim call to prayer from a nearby Arab village was interrupting the atheist book I was reading at the home of a family of Orthodox Jewish settlers.

Moments like that are quite common in the over-promised Land of Israel. The State of Israel is considered holy by three major religions. And if you count the interesting Baha’i faith, which has two holy sites in Haifa and Akko, then it’s four. I had the privilege of having the Baha’i faith—which believes in a sort of amalgamation of Islam, Christianity and Judaism—explained to me by a security guard at the beautiful Baha’i Gardens in Haifa. But that’s a whole different story!

For Jews, Israel is the land that God told Abraham to travel to, the land that Moses brought us to and the land that kings like David ruled over. For Christians, it’s the birthplace and site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. And for Muslims, Israel is the land that Muhammed went to before ascending to heaven.

The religious nature of modern Israel is impossible to miss. While most American Jews have almost no contact with Orthodox members of their faith, Israeli Jews have constant interaction with every shade of Orthodox Judaism, as well as orthodoxy in other faiths. On the bus, I’ll see a religious Jewish woman saying psalms quietly to herself. A religious Jewish man will walk up and ask me to complete a minyan. A small Orthodox child will ride by on his bike, wearing funny clothing and sporting a funny haircut, as careless as any other child his age.

But of course moments like this are not exclusively Jewish. Earlier in my year, on a long bus ride down to Eilat, we took a short pit stop so the passengers could use the bathroom and buy snacks. The religious Muslim bus driver used his two free minutes to take out his prayer rug and bow toward Mecca. I walked through the Christian quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem one time and bumped into a group of evangelical Korean Christians reenacting Jesus’ last day on Earth, complete with a last supper, carrying the cross and tears aplenty.

Religion has a certain hold over people across the world, but it’s not apparent anywhere like it is in Israel. That’s why some friends and I decided to do an “Interfaith Adventure Day” a couple of weeks ago. We realized we had done quite a bit of traveling this year but had only visited Jewish sites. This seemed sort of parochial, and so we decided to return to the Old City of Jerusalem and visit the holy Christian and Muslim sites. We found an English tour and were able to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected), and the Temple Mount (where the Jewish holy temple once stood and the current home of holy Muslim structures, like the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque).

The experience was edifying, to say the least. We saw just how special Israel is to Muslims and Christians, which is hard to appreciate sometimes as a Zionist Jew. And as an atheist Jew, the emotions that come with visiting sites like that are even more complicated and difficult to explain. Thanks, Israel, for giving me nine great months!

Going Greek

When you think of Greek history, mythology, the Acropolis and gladiators come to mind. While all of those things were certainly covered on my recent trip to the gorgeous country, our focus was on a completely different aspect—the history of Greek Jews. The Jews of Greece have a long, rich history that unfortunately ended for many Greek Jewish communities with World War II. The Holocaust is generally thought of as an Ashkenazic Jewish tragedy, wiping out the communities of Poland and Russia. However, percentage-wise, Greece has the second-highest population of those who perished in the Holocaust after Poland.

But there’s still a strong Jewish community in Greece, which we were fortunate enough to visit during our weeklong trip. We had the opportunity to visit a synagogue in Veria, a small town that was once filled with Jews but now only has two Jewish families. The synagogue is one of the most beautiful synagogues I’ve ever seen! It’s bright and colorful, with artwork displaying beautiful images of the Bet Hamikdash and Israel.

We traveled much of Greece’s geography, embarking on the eight-hour journey from Athens to Thessaloniki. Athens and Thessaloniki are both ancient historical cities filled with beautiful architecture and breathtaking views. Athens—filled with much of Greece’s cultural history, such as the Acropolis—is where our trip began. We then spent the majority of our time in Thessaloniki focusing on the Jewish community in this port city, which was once overflowing with Jews. In fact, the port in Thessaloniki used to close on Shabbat because Jewish people were essentially in charge of it. The modern Jewish community there welcomed our group with open arms, hosting us for dinner every night at the Jewish community center and telling us personal stories of their community.

This trip, unfortunately, brought my journeys to a close. Throughout this year, I have been fortunate enough to visit four unique countries—Spain, Holland, Turkey and Greece. Each of these places has incredibly idiosyncratic and fascinating cultures with Sephardic Jewish communities and amazing history. I’m so happy I had the luxury of being part of Olami and traveling the world as part of my Year Course experience.

Relaxing on the Rink

Writing my last article from Israel is a slightly daunting task. I’ve been searching for the perfect story: something completely unique yet still indicative and encompassing of my entire Year Course experience. I’ve been trying to think of how I want to sum everything up. But in truth, how do you sum up a nine-month experience that has something new to throw at you almost every single day? I guess you don’t!

So instead I’ll do what I’ve now done eight times before. I’ll tell you about something I did recently. I’ll explain how it was fun. I’ll hope that you enjoy it. And I’ll move on. Because to some extent, I think summarizing my nine months here defeats the purpose of my gap year. If I could describe what made Year Course great in 400 words, wouldn’t that mean that somewhere along the way I had failed to make this year as dynamic and interesting as was my goal? The answer to that question is, I believe, yes. So without further ado, I present the Sports Track’s final activity at the Canada Center in Metula.

On the weekend of May 1-2, all of Sports Track took off, leaving the doldrums of normal weekend activity for a very fun two-day trip to the Canada Center in Metula. The Canada Center is one of Israel’s biggest gym facilities, with an indoor and outdoor pool, ice rink, roller rink, bowling alley, weight room, gym, ping-pong tables and more.

When we arrived, our first order of business was a basketball training session with Ori Shelef, the director of HaPoel Tel Aviv basketball. This is probably the 18th basketball-training session Sports Track has done this year, which basically means that our first two hours in Metula felt a lot like the last eight months. But we did learn a new 3-on-2 drill, and it was still enjoyable.

However, it was after basketball that the real treat of the weekend arrived: skate rentals and access to the ice rink. I’m not particularly fond of ice skating. I mean, I can do it, but it’s not my favorite. Still, something about skating one of Israel’s only ice rinks was exciting, as was playing crack-the-whip and sending a fellow Sports Tracker crashing into another patron on the rink. Not that I approve of taking down innocent bystanders, but it was priceless!

After we were done ice skating (which was quickly, because the skates they had for rent were plastic boots with rusty blades on the bottom, aka the worst skates I’ve ever seen in my life!), we changed into our bathing suits and headed to the swimming pool. Well, we changed into our suits and headed to the hot tub, at least. There was very little pool time involved.

Finally it was time to head over to our hotel, which was luxurious by Year Course standards and featured big white bathtubs. I suppose you have to live in my apartment for three months to appreciate why that was amazing! The weekend ended up being more relaxing than sporty, but I think that was what we all needed. It was really nice to be back with everyone on Sports Track, get some fresh Metula air and enjoy one of the must-see sports attractions Israel has to offer.

Alex Baskin hails from Highland Park, N.J. He graduated from the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School. He enjoys chillin’ with his homies and throwing around a Frisbee. His friends say he argues too much, but he completely disagrees. Alex will be attending Tufts University next year.

Gaby Grossman is a native of Los Angeles, Calif. She recently graduated from the Shalhevet High School and will be attending Boston University next year as a double major in political science and print journalism. Her hobbies include watching and critiquing movies, going to the beach and relaxing, coming up with original catch phrases and incessantly quoting The Office and Arrested Development.

Sarah Pfander is from Urbana, Ill., in the suburbs of Chicago. She loves all things Jane Austen, is an avid soccer player and intends to play for Oberlin College, which she’ll be attending next year. She’s also a waterskiing and snow-skiing enthusiast and hopes to someday compete in an Ironman triathlon.