Israeli Culture!?

Thursday, July 28

**MORE INFO ON THE ETHIOPIAN TRIP**

As per usual, today was packed with multiple activities as we are trying to see as much of Tel Aviv as we can before Sunday night. The topic of the day was "Israeli Culture" - its existence, its definition, etc. We started off the morning at "Beit Ariella", the city's main library. Unlike most other libraries, Beit Ariella offers a wide range of cultural events for the community and houses multiple unique library collections on different subjects in addition to its regular circulation library.

We began our visit at Beit Ariella with an introduction from one of the librarians. An ex-New Yorker, she has been a librarian at Beit Ariella for the last thirteen years. She described how the library was founded in the late 1800s by a variety of immigrant intellectuals who made up Israel's literary elite. She also explained the different sections of the library before sending us on a fast-paced scavenger hunt around the entire building. It gave us a wonderful tour of the circulation library, the resource library, the children's library, the dance library, the art library, the Jewish law and tradition library, the periodical library, and the rare books library. We saw original copies of diaries in early Palestine as well as a copy of The Old Man and the Sea signed by Hemingway himself.

The group continued across the square to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The Israelis and Americans each had their own tour of three different exhibits. The following discussion used the art as a basis for locating and describing Israeli culture. After we each formed our own ideas about Israeli culture, we went out onto the streets to see what other people thought... Some of the answers were pretty funny!

We returned to the library for a delicious lunch of shwarma sandwiches and Israeli salads. The group then made its way to "Bikurei Haitim", a performing arts center. They offer classes of all sorts and frequently host performances. We settled ourselves into one of the smaller rooms and were led through a relaxing meditation by the day's staff.
hotos from our awesome talent show!
The mood then rotated 180 degrees as we began our TALENT SHOW! In the spirit of the day's theme, Israeli culture, each entry had to connect to Israel. The performances varied in ethnic style, ethnicty of the singer, etc. It was a wonderful hour of singing along, clapping hands, and laughing. The winners by far were our Middle Eastern, belly-dancing JCs!

A bus then took us to the Ethiopian Center in Yaffo (Jaffa). The center offers everything from dance classes to tutoring with lots in between. Our group was escorted by Getnet, himself a Diller fellow as well as a member of the Ethiopian community. We were treated to an interactive performance of a variety of Ethiopian dances including, but not limited to, Amharic and Tigrit dances. Some of the Diller Teens even tried on some traditional Ethiopian outfits to complete the picture! Then some teens gave us a preview of show they will be doing next week. A young woman then described the story of Ethiopian Jews beginning prior to their aliyah and continuing today. The audience was able to ask her questions about changes in Ethiopian tradition and etiquette here in Israel. The afternoon was concluded with a traditional Ethiopian snack of ingira (pancake), hummus (chickpeas), and a spicy salad.

That evening, we went to Na Laga'at (Please Touch). A restaurant and theater run by the deaf, mute, and blind, Na Laga'at is a fascinating place. After a quick dinner of pizza, we watched a show called "Lo Al Ha'lechem Levado" - "Not On Bread Alone". It was a mixture of the touching stories of about twenty blind, deaf, and/or mute men and women. It began with each member of the cast kneading and shaping their own loaf.


Then through sign language, some dialogue, music, and body language, they described to the audience that they live "not on bread alone." They have dreams and goals, they laugh and cry, they have friends and family, and they live and love. The show ended with the audience tasting the freshly baked bread and taking away the lesson that man lives - not on bread alone...

Racheli Schuraytz