So there have been four national holidays that have happened since I last updated this blog.
The first holiday was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. I can’t say that I am that involved in Jewish at home besides the major ones, so I don’t have much to compare the Kibbutz celebration to the my American Jewish experience celebration these holidays. To start off Yom Hashoah, they had a large ceremony led mainly by the 17 and 18 year olds of the Kibbutz. Between songs, they had filmed interviews with Holocaust survivors from the Kibbutz and they had a couple children who survived the Holocaust speak in person. Hannah, a 20 something year old who works in the chedar ochel with me and is going part time to music school, sung for everyone. I usually hear her sing in clean-up during work, but on stage, with no background noise to drown her out, her voice was amazing.
I think we had the next day off of work, but I honestly can’t remember. There was a big ceremony on the back lawn that everyone also went to the next night to end the holiday.
The next Holiday we had was Yom HaZichron, Memorial day in Israel. The day is meant to remember everyone who lost their lives in service of the Israel army and to remember all the people who were killed in the many terrorists attacks Israel has had. At first I was very confused about this holiday. I thought that it would be similar to America’s Memorial day, where there are parades, we get school and work off, nothing too emotional. I know there are some communities that take the US Memorial Day very seriously, but since I don’t know a single person who is even in the military, it is not that meaningful of a day to me and I think it is the same for many other Americans. Here in Israel, I experienced a completely different type of Memorial Day. We had a giant ceremony on the lawn again, in which everyone wore white. In addition to the super patriot themes, there were songs, and stories. There were many stories. The stories were about brothers, sons, and friends who had all fallen in combat. Since the stories were told with such emotion through pain and sometimes even tears, I didn’t understand that much, but luckily I had a friend from “Dalet” ( the highest Hebrew class) to translate for me.
After the ceremony, we went to the coffee shop. There they had pictures and little books filled with more pictures and short biographies written by parents and friends. Altogether, there were about 30 people in the Kibbutz that had died in the service of the military. While that is a lot of people, for a Kibbutz that has existed since 1949, and has a population now of about 1,500, that number doesn’t seem that bad. It is actually really low considering that the culture on the Kibbutz is to go to combat units and Special Forces units.
The day before Yom HaZicharon we had our own Ulpan ceremony organized by my teacher and the “Gimel” teacher. It was similar to the ceremony the Kibbutz had except there were parts of it that were in English. Carrie, a girl from South Africa, shared a horrendous story. About two years ago in 2011, her then longtime boyfriend of 3 years parents and aunt and uncle were driving down to Eilat, and were stop by a group of terrorists pretending to be a security checkpoint in the road. They were shot point blank in the head along with seven other people in the cars behind them. The story really hit me hard, especially because I could understand it in its entirety. I think that because Israel is so small, everyone in Israel has either lost someone to terrorism or war, or at least knows someone who has lost someone.
Immediately following Yom HaZicharon, we celebrated Yom HaAzmaoot, Israel Independence Day. As somber as Yom HaZicharon was, Yom HaAzmaoot was a complete 180 and turned into a giant party with one of the most energetic ambiances I have ever experienced. After a quick outdoor ceremony that included classic Israeli folk dances and Israeli break dancing, we all climbed on the roof of the chedar ochel to watch the fireworks that they set off down the hill over the fishponds. It was beautiful, especially with the backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea as a backdrop to the many colorful and loud fireworks. After the fireworks is when things got really crazy. The Kibbutz was handing out free beer and Caiperinha, a Brazilian drink with Cachaca, sugar, and lemon (according to Wikipedia it is supposed to be made with lime). The Kibbutznicks were out of control, I remember seeing this guy with a hook for a hand dancing around like crazy on the pub dance floor. It was quite ridiculous how drunk some of the Kibbuznicks, and some Ulpanists (not me), and some Bambachim got. The next day was filled with Barbeques on the beach. The last most recent holiday that we had was “Workers Day” on May 1st. At first I had no clue what people were talking about when they said it was workers day, I thought it was like America’s labor day (without the sales of course) celebrated early. When I asked my Chilean friend Eytan what the holiday was he said it was celebrated all around the world. It was then that I realized it was May Day. Or I think it was, I still am not completely sure. The Kibbutz no longer celebrates the holiday because it feels it has lost its true meaning. Instead, all the money that Plasson made on that day went to charity. I knew that Israel was partly a socialist country, but I never really thought about it that much.
That is it for the holidays so far…
Oh I also, got a new roommate, Daniel Chippin from Canada. Alex switched rooms with Daniel because he is really good friends with Daniel's former roommates. the switch is going well especially since Daniel and I were already friends.
