Days Gone By

Hello!

I am now in the last month of my Israel program. Hard to believe I’ve been here for four months already! So I’ll use this blog post to tell you a little about what I’ve been up to recently.

For my internship I’ve been helping out with a couple theater groups in Jerusalem. One is putting on a production of The King and I. I would go in the mornings to help paint set pieces and props. The show opened two weeks ago and finished performances last Thursday. I helped out backstage, moving set pieces and organizing the props. Everyone speaks English, which is helpful for me, and it’s really cool to meet people who live in Israel while involving myself in theater.

I also spent a few days going to classes at Shearim, an Orthodox women’s seminary. I realized that while I’m in Israel I want to spend some time learning more about Judaism. It was interesting to learn about Jewish law and theology from an Orthodox perspective, even though I don’t think I agree with much of it.

On Monday and Wednesday evenings we have group dinner and a class with a local rabbi or some other teacher. One day we had a discussion about the conflict with a religious settler and a Palestinian man. Most weekends we are free for Shabbat, but once a month we have a group Shabbaton in another city, and one Sunday a month we have a day trip in places like Haifa and Be’er Sheva.

Now we are in the last month, and so there’s less structure. Now that The King and I is finished I’m done with my internship. Early tomorrow morning we’re be going to Tsfat for two weeks, and once we get back it’ll be around a week until I head back home. So in the free days that I have I’m trying to visit as many museums in Jerusalem as I can. Last week I visited the Tower of David museum in the Old City as well as the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.

Enjoy these photos and happy New Year!