Israel Reflections 2015 — Day 6: The Netanya Ethiopian Center

Another portion of our cultural immersion was an invitation to the Netanya Foundation Ethiopian Center. An extremely rich cultural experience, the people at the Netanya Center shared traditional tea and bread-breaking with our group (shown below), as well as a tour of the facilities and resources available to the community. The Netanya Center was an experience that the students found incredibly impactful as they also reflected on community differences here in Milwaukee.

Student Katie Shaw shares her experience and her personal reflections:

“As part of our visit in Israel, we visited the Netanya Foundation Ethiopian Heritage Center, a community center located in Netanya that supports the local population of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom are first or second generation immigrants to Israel. Our guide throughout the Center was Avi, an Ethiopian Jew who traveled to Sudan to later migrate to Israel in 1984. Heidi, who works at the Ethiopian Heritage Center, helped translate from Hebrew to English for Avi.

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Israel Reflections 2015–Day 6: Givat Haviva

On our sixth day in Israel, the students visited Givat Haviva, an educational learning campus with a focus on peace in the Middle East. After a short presentation, our guide Lydia Aisenberg took us directly to the Green Line (the 1947 UN Partition Line) that divides the town of Barta’a (or Barta) between Israel and the West Bank. Rather than speak of the conflict that surrounds the town as a negative force, Lydia explained the history of the Green Line, the cultural richness of the town of Barta’a, and what the division means for the future of the conflict.

Student Ellen French shares her thoughts:

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Israel Reflections 2015–Day 5: Dinner in a Druze Village

Druze-villageThroughout the trip, the students had opportunities to immerse themselves in the culture of Israel. As part of this ethnic immersion, we enjoyed a dinner in a Druze village.  The Druze religion presented both some familiar elements as well as several that were unique to us. Student Samuel Magnuson recollects the dinner, shares background on the Druze, and gives his thoughts on their culture:

On Wednesday, March 11, after a full day in which we visited the Yardenit Baptism site, Haifa University, and the Bahá’í Gardens, we went to a Druze Village near Haifa for dinner. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me because we got to eat an incredible meal prepared by one of the women in the Druze village. I will explain more about what we learned about the Druze in a minute, but I must first discuss the food. When we arrived, we entered a dining hall where we sat at tables of about eight per table. The meal was family-style, meaning that the hosts kept bringing bowls of deliciousness for us to pass around. Of note, we ate stuffed peppers with arguably the sweetest rice I’ve ever experienced. We also had stuffed grape leaves, a really tasty chickpea dish, meatballs, Mediterranean salad, and a main dish of turkey with rice. While all of it was incredible, I must say that the stuffed peppers and chickpeas stood out to me, partially because neither of these dishes are ones I have been incredibly fond of in the States. However, the way the dishes were prepared that night (possibly because of the sauce) led me to eat seconds, thirds, and maybe fourths of each of these items. I also drank several glasses of what I thought was sweet tea . . . only to find out after that this was actually date juice. Fortunately, my stomach was prepared for such an altercation at this junction of the trip.

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