Tikkun Olam Group Immortalized in Google Street View!

This week, Israel became the newest country added to Google Street View.  Several cities had been photographed over the last several months -- including Jerusalem, where the Tikkun Olam group from last fall happened across the Google team as they were photographing the Old City.  Now that Street View in Israel has finally gone online, we can see that indeed, our blurry-faced Tikkun Olamers have become as much a part of the history of Jerusalem as King David or King Herod (ok, we might be going a bit overboard, but it's still kind of cool).

Check it out!

Participant Perspectives -- What I'm Doing Here

A blog post from current Social Action Track participant Tyler Fishbone, who comes to South Tel Aviv from St. Louis, MO.

I came here with Taglit-Birthright, which is a free 10-day program for Jewish youth to come to Israel and tour around the country.

I've now been living in Tel Aviv for 6 months, doing a program call Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, which means "repair the world" in Hebrew. I am living in a house with 7 other people: 4 Americans (2 New York, 1 Missouri (me), 1 Alabama), 1 Hungarian, 1 Israeli, 1 Brit, and 1 Danish guy whom I happily room with.

The program that I am doing consists of a combination of volunteering and learning about Judaism, Israel and its people. I spend 3 days a week volunteering at 5 different places, ranging from a daycare for babies of immigrant workers to a tandem bicycling program with disabled kids. I haven't officially started every program, but the ones I've done so far have been really challenging and fun.

The other two days are study days. There we spend the morning in classes learning to speak Hebrew, the official language of Israel. My Hebrew now is actually pretty good considering I've been here for such a short time. The toughest part of Hebrew is that the alphabet is completely new, so I don't have an easy way to conceptualize the words and commit them to memory. Spanish, my second language, at least uses the same set of letters so I can relate to it… no luck with Hebrew. It has been fun though.  I remember vividly after our first lesson walking outside and realizing that what had been registering as pretty decorations were actually words!!

After our Hebrew lessons we have two 1.5 hour classes each about Israeli culture, politics, and people. These are TREMENDOUSLY interesting. I realize now that I do not have much idea about Middle Eastern or Jewish culture or history. After each lesson I've honestly felt like I'd just gone through a "Matrix-like" download of information. On the whole the education that we are getting, and the organization that our program is inside, is pretty left. I had the feeling and it has been confirmed by the Israelis who are in the program with us, almost all of whom have recently finished their military service. They tend to get a little defensive when hearing criticisms of Israel, which is something I can definitely relate to as an American living abroad. In the end it seems that they are focusing on the humanitarian side of everything which I'd like to believe is where politics ends, so I'm cool with it.

Finally, as part of the program we do trips each month around Israel. Last week we went to different Bedouin villages in the south in the Negev Desert. Though Bedouins have been a nomadic people for thousands of years (literally camels in tents) they are now having to cope with a modernizing country. Their seemingly antiquated ways combined with being Arab in a Jewish state has made their lives extremely difficult. I think these trips will be a big time highlight.

Other than all the programming, Tel Aviv is a big city where everything is pretty close together… and it's located on a beach. Now that I have a bike it has opened up to me and I have been enjoying living here so much.

 Registration for 5 and 10 month programs beginning this September is open now.  Visit www.tikkunolamisrael.org for more information and to get started on your application.

Sharansky's Visit to Tikkun Olam!

Today, Tikkun Olam hosted Natan Sharansky for a visit in the Coexistence Track.  For those who don't know, Sharansky is the Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, a former member of Knesset, and probably most famously, was imprisoned in a Soviet work camp for 9 years for his activism in the "Refusenik" movement -- trying to enable Soviet Jews to escape and make Aliyah.  Today he visited the Coexistence group in their apartment to hear about the amazing work they're doing, and to visit one of their volunteering places.  Read more about Sharansky here.

Here's a picture of him with Ronald Reagan:

And, more excitingly, here's a picture of him with Tikkun Olamers:

Women's Empowerment in Jaffa

Sam, an alum of the last semester of Tikkun Olam's Coexistence Track, wrote up this excellent blog post about Safa Younes.  Safa runs "Aros El Bahar", a women's empowerment organization in Jaffa where some Tikkun Olam participants volunteer.  

Among the interesting tidbits:

Is coexistence a reality in Jaffa?

• Sometimes no, I don’t always feel it. Sometimes people live here, but they are not really here. The rich people, in the new places. You can’t see them in the community because they work somewhere else. They come to live in the houses but aren’t a part of the community. But there are also Jewish people, some of them living here for years, who are involved in the activities in Jaffa, in groups, so we do see them. And they are trying to be  a part. And this is beautiful.

Read the whole profile and interview here.

And we're accepting applications now for the 5 and 10 month Tikkun Olam programs beginning this September.  Live in Jaffa, get involved and help make coexistence a reality (you can even work with Safa) -- click here to learn more, and click here to get started on your application.

Tikkun Olam: The Movie

At last week's Biennial Convention of the Union for Reform Judaism, we screened our new promotional video for Tikkun Olam! In it, current participants Rachel Smith (Coexistence Track) and Nikki Michaelson (Social Action Track) talk about what it's like living and volunteering in Israel's most exciting city. Check it out:

Tikkun Olam at the Knesset!

Check out current Coexistence Track participant Elliot Glassenberg speaking to a Knesset committee on the fight against Homophobia! Elliot's part begins at the 45 minute mark.

Life In Jaffa

Rachel Smith, a current participant in the Coexistence Track, wrote about life in the diverse, and tense, atmosphere of Jaffa.

Jaffa is a twisted maze of streets and alleys, winding through and across each other, taking you to new parts you may have walked past dozens of times and never knew existed. And not because you didn’t look. Party because they developed that way; partly because they’re designed that way. It is a neighborhood where everything shifts rapidly, from public housing for the poorest of Arabs on one block to immaculately manicured gated communities for the wealthiest of Jews just down the street. It is an area with a complex history of numerous entwined communities living more in parallel than in coexistence.

Not surprisingly, obvious tensions exist within Jaffa, evidenced by the recent appearance of a small community of right-wing Jewish settlers, the racist activities of the political group Tag Machir (price tag), or the issue of Palestinian collaborators. These are Palestinians from the territories or Israel’s Arab neighbors that help supply the Israeli army with information. To protect them from retaliation, the Israeli government moves them inside Israel’s borders to Arab communities (like Jaffa) where the presumably-sympathetic Arab population unequivocally shuns them. These tensions are always there, though efforts are made to gather community support through counter-initiatives. Following the first Tag Machir incidents in September, my roommates and I joined a protest on our street to show our support for the citizens of Jaffa, chanting “Arabs and Jews against racists” and holding signs declaring that, “Arabs and Jews refuse to be enemies.” This past Saturday was “Tolerance Day” hosted by the Arab-Jewish Community Center (AJCC). A bunch of us came out to watch our friend march in a parade down Yefet Street that ended in music, food, and games at the AJCC. There is still much to be done but it’s a start.

Stretching along the water, Jaffa literally runs the spectrum from wealthy artists and gated communities in the north to the pardesim in the south, where even the police won’t enter. It is an incredible mix of rich and poor; young and old; Muslim, Christian and Jewish; Arab and non-Arab. The incredible diversity of architecture reflects its historical roots and the different groups that have helped build Jaffa. The juxtaposition of extreme wealth and abject poverty is heartbreaking and the rare areas of mixed meetings heartwarming.

My friends and family living in Tel Aviv always ask about life here with a tilt in their voice expressing confusion about why I would choose to live here. I am still trying to understand myself though I know I would never trade living here for the tree-lined streets and glitzy shopping malls of downtown Tel Aviv. I love living here. I love the cars with vibrating subwoofers blasting Mizrahi beats that roll down our street every night. I love the gathering of people on our street celebrating Eid al-Adha and the Santa decorations with fake snow in the store windows. I love that I can go to the corner store and speak a mix of Hebrew and Arabic without them addressing me in English. I love the old men driving horse-led carts stopped at the street lights and the constant smell of nargila wafting through the streets. Jaffa is a difficult, though beautiful place and for now, it is my home.