Tikkun Olam en Francais!

Check out this post from Masa France's blog by recent Tikkun Olam grad Sophie Laloum, who joined the Coexistence Track from her community in Paris:

http://blog.massafrance.com/rencontre-avec-sophie-laloum/

Tikkun Olam 2011-12 Coming to a Close

Another hugely successful year of Tikkun Olam will be coming to a close next week.  We had our last overnight trip of the year to the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights, including a chocolate-making workshop (that got a bit messy), rafting on the Jordan River and a hike in the beautiful Jilabun stream.  We also had our last cultural evening of the year -- a tour of the Beer-D microbrewery in Jaffa with beer tasting.

Updates and pictures of all the end-of-the-year festivities are available on our Facebook page.

And there's still time to register for September - apply online now!

Tikkun Olam and the Secular Yeshiva

A post from the blog of current Coexistence Track participant Rachel Smith, about studying at the Secular Yeshiva -- the south Tel Aviv home base of one of Tikkun Olam's organizing partners, BINA.

As part of my year on Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, I am learning in BINA’s secular yeshiva. A secular yeshiva. What does that even mean?

Answering that needs a bit of history first. The whole idea of BINA and the question of Jewish pluralism in Israel more broadly goes back to the Status Quo, which in Israel refers to the specific political agreement between the religious population and secular political parties to preserve the Jewish character of the state while allowing the secular to proceed as they wished. When Ben-Gurion made the agreement with the ultra-Orthodox back in 1947, it meant that Shabbat would be the Israeli day of rest, all state kitchens would be kosher, the Orthodox rabbinate would preside over all life-cycle events, and full educational autonomy for the religious. Today, it means that over 40,000 yeshiva students are exempt from army service. It means any wedding or Bris in Israel not presided over by an Orthodox rabbi is unrecognized. It means that there are tens of thousands of children going through ultra-Orthodox schools without knowledge of any non-religious subjects and therefore unable to join the workforce and contribute to the economy. Instead, they will drain the economy through government subsidies to continue studying in religious schools.

BINA is aimed at the secular Israeli population who sees Judaism as this Orthodox rabbi who doesn’t pay taxes or serve in the army. In Israel, either you’re secular, or you’re religious and by religious, they mean (ultra-)Orthodox. This leads to lots of semantic confusion. We say secular and we mean devoid of religion; they say secular and they mean non-Orthodox. But BINA is trying to change the images of both the religious and the secular, who are oppositely marked as somehow less, empty, heretical and hedonistic. BINA faces secular Israel and asks, “What is Judaism for you exactly? What does being a Jew mean to you?” It seeks a pluralistic Judaism, many answers to the same questions.

BINA was established following the assassination of Yitchak Rabin, which exposed the huge societal gaps between the religious and secular in Israel. But it was also a Jewish murder. As a result, it was a time when many secular Israelis questioned the Jewish narrative and value system. According to Eran Baruch, the Executive Director and Head of the Secular Yeshiva, the goal of BINA was to “create an institute for Jewish study and action where the conclusion won’t be to murder Rabin.”

For Baruch, Judaism means three things: loyalty to tradition, dynamic change, and a driving purpose/mission. This is reflected in the curriculum of the Secular Yeshiva, which combines study with social action through text study with local empowerment projects. The physical location of the yeshiva in Neve Sha’anan next to the Central Bus Station, one of the most plagued neighborhoods in the country, is deliberate. It is a reminder of the widow, the orphan, the blind, the homeless, the African refugee, a reminder of our commitment to action. They house programs like mine, like the high school/college gap year program, the Israeli pre-army preparatory program (Mechina), the army program that consists of study within army service (Gar’in), and the post-army program. Baruch sees successful graduates of these programs as “studying, being active in their community, keeping shabbat and holidays, and caring. I want them to care.”

Refugee seder

It wasn’t until recently that I realized how new and different BINA is. As a product of the conservative movement and American Judaism more generally, I always took Jewish pluralism for granted. I didn’t understand how unique American Judaism was until I came here and saw the polar opposites of Jewish identity in Israel. It’s sad in a way. That either you embrace religion fully and build your life around it or you denounce and ridicule those who do. BINA gives hope for those who have fallen in the chasm.

But BINA is the first of its kind and the increase in the number and diversity of its programs reflects a growing need in Israel. This past winter, a second secular yeshiva opened in Jerusalem. “Imagine ten secular yeshivas all over Israel in a decade,” Baruch tells us. “There will be a change. Maybe I’m too optimistic but sometimes you reach a tipping point and the situation in Israel is reaching a tipping point with the secular and Orthodox. It won’t be too long or too far.”

Sundays at Daycare -- New Tikkun Olam participant testimonial!

Current Social Action Track participant Tyler Fishbone wrote about his volunteering at an unrecognized day care center in south Tel Aviv, where he works with children of migrant workers and refugees.  Tyler's story is currently up on MASA's blog:

http://www.masaisrael.org/blog/201205/sundays-daycare

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: