judih's observations from kibbutzTimes are swiftly changing. This will be a record of my observations2008-09-20T05:32:03ZUser 420http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/OrgSpace NewsLogUpdatingNews:
1. I've got a blog about how things are around here, east of the Gaza strip, the area called 'Otef Azza' or the part of Israel cheek-to-cheek with Gaza.
2. There's a new independent media newspaper called Shakoof: Journalism for Democracy.
3. Hope you're all well. That blog is called:"Let My People Know - Let's Talk About it", and it's a community blog, giving voice to the projects around here and experiences that accompany a search for peace, for tolerance, for dealing with daily life.
Judih September 20, 2008]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000084.htm2008-09-20T05:32:03Z2008-09-20T05:32:03ZComic ReliefThe linking thread between all humans: comedy. This is a breath of fresh air in these days of stale smokey landscapes.
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.A Palestinian-Israeli comedy tour? You must be joking!
By Daphna Berman
A group of Palestinian, American and Israeli comedians has teamed up for a local comedy tour in English billed as an attempt to "solve the Middle East conflict in only six shows."
The group debuted in Jerusalem on Wednesday night to a packed crowd and has performances scheduled for the coming week in Tel Aviv and again in the capital.
"Humor is a great way to remind people that we are all human," said Ray Hanania, a Palestinian-American comedian who helped initiate the tour and is performing for Israeli audiences for the first time.
The comedy lineup also includes African-American Jewish Aaron Freeman and Israeli Shachar Chason (who acts as the emcee), as well as American-Israeli comedians Charley Warady and Yisrael Campbell.
Hanania, who complains that people confuse him with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, says this may be the first time Israelis and Palestinians have ever done a comedy tour together - "not including the peace negotiations."
The performance, which had the audience laughing nonstop for nearly two hours, explored politics and the conflict, along with the requisite Katsav jokes. But it also dealt with issues such as conversion to Judaism (Freeman: "I became a Jew to confuse Louis Farrakhan"), aliyah* (Warady: "When I first drove up to a checkpoint, I threw some change and kept driving"), being Arab in the U.S. (Hanania: "I don't think of you as an audience, but as potential hostages"), and integrating into Israeli society (Campbell: "The Hebrew word for hell is ulpan**").
"The tough part isn't getting Israeli and Palestinians to perform together, but convincing four headliners to cut down to 20 minutes each," Warady said. "That's when the real negotiations begin."
The five will perform tomorrow night at Tzavta Theater #3 in Tel Aviv and Wednesday at Kol Haneshema Synagogue, Jerusalem. More shows may be added to the lineup. For information and tickets, contact charleywarady@gmail.com
* aliyah = immigrating to Israel ** ulpan = specially devised language labs teaching Hebrew to new immigrants.
Note: If you have any comments or questions, please feel free.]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000083.htm2007-01-26T01:24:31Z2007-01-26T01:28:29ZHappy Rosh Hashana, Happy New YearA new year! Fall is the time to upturn the soil and prepare the ground for seeding.
May your season be rich
May you feel fertility rise through your roots
May the sun warm your inner soul
happy New Year to one and all. A new year! Fall is the time to upturn the soil and prepare the ground for seeding.
May your season be rich May you feel fertility rise through your roots May the sun warm your inner soul
happy New Year to one and all. ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000081.htm2006-09-22T09:47:03Z2006-09-22T09:47:03Zlistenspeaking in mimepeeling away the cellophane my eyes barely feel tactile sensory moments wishing you were here as i grind the beans stirring up a magnificent smell crying into the coffee hour
when i was where you are i was so much stronger now i'm here, alone and missing you
it's not the paisley greeting cards the false cheer the doings of a life that roll off the tongue but the reality of being away far from my own hopes too gone to turn back days pushed into this century and though my mind stays firm my hands don't wanna play anymore
serious business feels like grey hair on an 8 yr old's head a wrinkle in a puppy dog
innocence sketched foolishness inside a puppet i speak in mime
judih, september/06 ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000080.htm2006-09-13T19:12:33Z2006-09-13T19:14:13ZAs the 2006-7 School Year is about to begin in IsraelThough I've been back home for the past 2 1/2 weeks, I'm still de-jet lagging, and reacclimatizing to life in the role of teacher. We've had teacher seminars on Mediation, and daily planning and preparation sessions. I've been working on the latest topic for the English Learning Center: Making a D...A bad year ahead for education
By Yossi Sarid
The 2006-2007 school year, beginning Sunday, will be a bad year. The security establishment is now demanding more than NIS 20 billion for its rehabilitation, a sum equivalent to the entire education budget. One should note that this is a voracious addition, because frenzied times devour and engulf, leaving nothing behind. For the sake of strengthening security, perhaps we should relinquish one school year? All the students will get passing grades, satisfying the god Molech, to whom idol-worshipers used to sacrifice children by fire.
The dry bones of the education system will supply neither the material nor the spiritual. There is no more inferior or damaging education than that which has been cast into abandoned territory, between those with high standards and those who live up to them. And who are those with high standards, the seekers of our age, if not the educators, both in the classroom and outside of it? They are led by the leaders of the era, toward whom all eyes are raised - raised and downcast.
As a teacher, on occasion, I wonder what the teachers of Israel will discuss with their pupils this year in civics class and during the "homeroom teacher's hour," when there is a focus on current events and social issues. One of the concepts raised by many is that of "personal responsibility" - or, alternatively, "personal example." It is important to bequeath to our students the recognition that they are responsible for all their actions and failures, and do not have the right to exempt themselves from their responsibility by off-loading it on others. How exactly will this issue be dealt with, when, in the real world of life and death, there's no one up there who recognizes his responsibility? How will we demand from our students the diametric opposite of what the great and the good - the great and the bad, actually - demand from themselves? When the spirit infuses the educator and he or she speaks on a lofty level, there will be a cheeky student - a boy named Lior or a girl called Noah - who will ask: "Teacher, why then doesn't the prime minister agree with these nice things you are telling us here?"
Another key topic that frequently comes up in school is "good government" or "integrity in government," and there appears to be no dispute over this issue. Maybe a student named Liran, considered a strange boy, will get up and ask: "Teacher, why then are so many government ministers and Knesset members under suspicion and being investigated and tried?" Or perhaps it will be Moran who asks about the prime minister, who has in his new home a rare collection of certificates of good behavior issued by the police or by the courts. And the poor teacher will search hard for a response.
"Respecting the law" - that's another important subject in the classroom. It's no secret that hundreds of schools in Israel are themselves criminals due to a lack of choice - since instead of charging parents an average of NIS 1,000, they charge twice as much as they are allowed, and sometimes even 10 times as much. When the state disappears, Mom and Dad are forced to stand in its stead. Girls and boys are not stupid, and they understand what is happening full well: There is no connection between the rules and the actions; the gap is wide and will not be bridged with nice words.
A sensational story landed on an inside page this week: The Haaretz education reporter published a first interview with the new chairwoman of the Education Ministry's Pedagogic Secretariat, Prof. Anat Zohar. She has already announced an innovation she plans to make: teaching students how to think, and reducing the amount of material they are required to learn. The conclusions of the Dovrat Commission's report on educational reforms have paled into insignificance. The originality and daring of the chief pedagogue have erased all that has been proposed until now.
Finally, after 100 years of Zionism and 60 years of sovereignty, our girls and boys will begin to think, and that is certainly a revolution. Zohar's plan can even be described as a subversive one: If our students think more deeply, the questions of Lior and Noah and Liran and Moran will only become more pointed, razor-sharp - and where are our leaders going?
The Education Ministry needs to think again before calamity sets in, before the education establishment is compelled to require the study of additional subjects like "equality before the law," "social solidarity," "equal opportunity," "modest behavior," "truth," and similar concepts, which are too heavenly to be earthly.
The teachers of Israel are analogous to the soldiers who participated in the war in Lebanon, and they are its heroes. Not the ministers and not the generals, but the simple soldiers and commanders in the field are the ones who save the situation. The teachers, unwilling heroes, cope on their own, against all odds - and against most of the leaders.
Link to article:[link] ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000079.htm2006-09-02T11:33:54Z2006-09-02T11:33:54Zjuly 22nd -early morning sinking heart...........
early morning brings latest news
sinking heart
escalation of conflicts
engagement in battle
........... dreams fade loathe to leave they know they are my cover
early morning brings latest news sinking heart escalation of conflicts engagement in battle
saturday morning coffee joy, fresh peach refreshment bird banter heavy shoulders under weight of war
no one wants to die no one wants to escape rubble of a crumbling house no one wants to be a refugee
early morning tour walk this way, watch your head this is who we are meditate well and come up for air
Five years ago, diagnosed with cancer, Janine entered through a magic door she called self-healing. "This is a journey that begins every day from the beginning. Everyday, I discover new inner strengths and the ability within us all, to overcome illness and heal ourselves. The secret is so very simple that it is both amazing and miraculous at the same time. And that's why it is so very valuable that I am living.
"I'm not afraid of death. I am discovering new emotions, new thoughts everyday. I manage to surprise myself and I am continually engaged with the number of items on my list of how important it is to live. This list is growing everyday."
And these words, spoken to Hayuta last summer, 2005, at the kibbutz swimming pool, had to be recorded, for clearly her time was running out, and she had so much humanity to share.
Yesterday evening, July 18, 2006, at approximately 19:30, it was time to awaken Janine from a nap. The family was already gathered on the front lawn for the 'Henna' celebratory feast two days before her son's wedding. The tables were ready, wine was already poured into glasses, and it was time to begin. They came to arouse Janine from her nap to join them all, but Janine had passed on.
My thoughts: The spark of life that had kept Janine growing these past five years had ended. That was the moment, showered in the joy of family, she could let go.
Rest in peace, dear Janine. May your words and your inspirational journey of self-discovery continue to inspire us all. ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000077.htm2006-07-19T05:39:30Z2006-07-19T05:46:14ZSister, sisterA call to sisters (and brothers of heart) to unite, join hands, sing out to positive connections of hope.
Enough hatred in the world to sink a planet. Let's try another tune.Sister, sister
i.
singing to a sister in a voice only she can hear my tone is she-tone in a scale of pain, joy and love i sing of blood and heart and pain and yearning
oh sister, hug me, sister turn down the sounds of war i need sister volume loving refrains i need you, sister mine
ii.
My pendulous metronome knows no bounds back to the stoned age forward to the interplanetary skies
hippie haven ginsberg chant to ultrasonic aum
travelling the spaceways time out 5 dimensional stretch aerobic galactic cardio-vascular superb
sister - formed in inanna's image buried under venus veils we row our boat fearlessly no Styx can break these bones as we fly
iii.
the chords of bombs and anger fade in aftermath comes relief does it take rage to make a blossom bloom? must energy bend and tear before it relights and renews?
sister, after the tug of wars come the gentle down to earths the smell of wheat and berries rolling in a lawn of freshly mowed sunshine
we search the globe for our patch of peace after we rest, we'll work for there's much to be done and many to be served
I didn't photograph the road down, but I can assure you my ears popped (as in air travel) as my entire being was mesmorized by the other worldly landscape of the descent to the Dead Sea. It's all sandy rocky cuttings through geological time. What history is fossilized in those rocks and how many feet have trod on those layers.
Finally, seeing the Sea, there's initial shock at how shrunken it's become. Jordan is just across the way and it looks like you could walk across revealed sand bars to visit that other shore.
And of course the Hotels, perhaps not many compared to other tourist sites in the world, do their highrise best to hide the wondrous atmosphere of this place.
And there's the fact that the southern portion of the Sea is divided into pools - used commercially for potassium production as well as for the many varieties of skin care products.
Quickly passing the hotels, the road moves past Masada, the scene of the Hebrew holdout against the Romans. They eventually chose to commit mass suicide rather than be taken as slaves (or worse).
Then we pass the Ein Gedi spa (the "lowest place on earth") at 900 feet below sea level. At this level, there are no harmful ultra-violet rays, and many sufferers of psoriasis come here for healing treatments. These treatments work, by the way, but need to be repeated.
The heat these days is unbearable. I thought Nir Oz was hot at 40 degrees Celsius (over 100 F), but our place is a winter wonderland compared to Kibbutz Ein Gedi. 11:00 p.m or 7 a.m., neither offered respite from the heat.
Still, it's an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful kibbutz, filled with lush oversize plantlife. Huge acacia, cactii of all types and heartstopping views of the Sodom hills on one side and the Dead Sea on the other.
Masada
Kibbutz Ein Gedi
And a camel taking it easy, at the side of the road back home towards Be'er Sheva
An hour and a half from Kibbutz Nir Oz, the trip to the Dead Sea always leaves me in awe. Not even stopping to dip into the sea, or pausing to climb the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, it's still a wild trip. And speaking of wild, there are tigers in the Nature Reserve. One arrived at the kibbutz and devoured a house cat.
Something to think about while wandering the desert. ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000075.htm2006-07-08T18:09:59Z2006-07-08T18:19:25ZHere and Now - Ram DassAn Interview with Ram Dass, as found on Mavericks of the Mind, and saved to be savoured. It's hitting a spot within me this morning, so perhaps it'll resonate with you.
Here's the link to the entire interview, but my intention is simply to quote a small portion.
Mavericks of the Mind, Ram DassExcerpt from an interview conducted jointly by David Jay Brown and Rebecca McClen Novick, in or just before 1994. It's relevant because Ram Dass is speaking of human experience.
Rebecca: You've said that everyone should try and work from the edges of their experience. What did you mean by that?
Ram Dass: As chaos increases - and there's a lot of inertia in the system that seems to suggest that is the direction we're going in - it behooves us to prepare ourselves to ride the changes. If, in the face of uncertainty, people are busy holding onto something, the fear increases, then the contraction increases, and prejudice increases. The question is, what are you adding to the system to shift the balance? What you're adding is yourself, and what yourself has to be is somebody who can handle uncertainty and chaos without contracting. I've gotten over the feeling of being somebody special. You've come with a camera and tape-recorders, but that's your trip, it's not mine. I really experience the web of inter-connectedness of all beings. It's like C.S Lewis' line, you don't see the center because it's all center.
Rebecca: There are so many people who spend all their time dreaming about being somebody special.
Ram Dass: And the horror is to see people who thought that that would be something and then got it. Then you see them trying to hold onto it, even though they know it's empty. I've been in a hall with thousands of people applauding and bringing flowers and loving me, and then gone to the hotel alone, feeling the absolute wretchedness of it all.
David: Could you sum up the basic message of your life?
Ram Dass: (long pause) I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.
I've been perfecting that circle for thirty years. It's karma yoga. It's the Bodhisattva vow. My life is about applied dharma. On a socio-political level - I'm a survivor. Once that faith and that connection and that emptiness is strong enough, then I experience looking around for the fields I can play in.
I work with AIDS, with business, with government, with teenagers, with people dying of cancer, with blindness. It doesn't matter, because your agenda is always the same. Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.
__ check out the link for more & for other interviews with other 'mavericks'__ ]]>http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v420/__show_article/_a000420-000074.htm2006-07-04T08:11:54Z2006-07-04T08:14:32Z
A Palestinian-Israeli comedy tour? You must be joking! 
A new year! Fall is the time to upturn the soil and prepare the ground for seeding. 
peeling away the cellophane 
A bad year ahead for education
dreams fade 
Janine was a Chemist, by profession, and worked for a year and a half at 'Devik', an adhesive factory in Sde-Boker. Prior to that, she had been working for many years as the Laboratory Manager at Nir-Lat, the paint and adhesive plant located on Nir-Oz.
Sister, sister
The road cuts through steep sand coloured walls. Signs remind you to beware of falling rock. It happens sometimes that rocks fall and that's that. There's nowhere to go but down.
Excerpt from an interview conducted jointly by David Jay Brown and Rebecca McClen Novick, in or just before 1994. It's relevant because Ram Dass is speaking of human experience.