Today in Jewish history class we discussed the issue of the Deir Yassin Massacre. During the War of Independence, members of the Etzel, a separate, more hardcore military entity than the Hagana defense force, attacked the Arab village of Deir Yassin, killing over one hundred residents, including women and children. The area was somewhat significant in terms of military strategy, but what was really important about Deir Yassin is that it had huge effects, one of them being that it contributed to the fleeing of seven hundred thousand Arab refugees. We didn't really examine what effect this had on the outcome of the war, but based on the idea that this tragic event positively influenced the Zionist war effort, we discussed whether we were in support of this happening or not. My opinion is that if we are fighting for a Jewish state, we shouldn't do anything that would be considered against Jewish morals, especially the massacre of innocent people. Therefore, no matter how much it helped the Jews in the war effort, it is unacceptable, and I am embarrassed that Jewish fighters could do such a thing. However, when presented with the question of whether I would go back in time and stop it, I found it more difficult to answer. I can't imagine myself going back and changing history, no matter whether I agree with what happened or not. Ultimately, we won the war and have an independent Jewish state, and if there was a chance of this not being the case in order to save one hundred lives, Arab or not, I don't think I would change anything. This presents me with a dilemma, as I think that it should not have happened, however I don't think I would stop it if I could. There seem to be a lot of issues surrounding this region at which a simple, correct answer cannot be found, and perhaps this is part of why there is so much tension and conflict here.

Recently, Gertz handed out a book of short stories by Etgar Keret, an Israeli short story writer, to be passed around the class. Keret's stories are very, very bizarre, and are mostly about life in modern day Israel. I liked the stories so much, that I, along with many other students in the class, bought one of his books when we were in Tel Aviv yesterday. The second story in the book is titled Lieland, and it's all about the consequences of the lies you tell. In the story, a lifelong liar, Robbie, has a dream about his dead mother, in which his first lie comes back to spite him. Then, in real life, he travels to a land filled with the embodiment of all the lies he told. After seeing the horrible things he created with his lies, Robbie learns to stop telling such harmful lies, and eventually to stop lying altogether.
Etgar Keret's genius lies in his ability to pack so much into so little words. His stories are about three to four pages each, but so much meaning can be found in each one. At first, everything that happens seems so random and absurd, but when you think about it, it all has a deeper meaning. Through his stories, Keret paints a very clear image of Israeli society. The issues are complicated, but people try to deal with them through simple everyday interactions. So far, Keret is the only Israeli writer that I have read, and I hope to find that others are as entertaining as he is.

Last night, we arrived back at Tzuba after being gone for about two weeks. We stayed at a hostel in Jerusalem for a few days, hiked Yam L'Yam, a trip from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterannean, and went to host families for the first two days of Passover. My friend Aaron brought me with him to Kibbutz Urim near Be'er Sheba, where he has relatives. While there, I got to see what an Israeli Passover seder was like. and really, apart from the fact that it was entirely in Hebrew, it didn't seem all that different from an American seder. We went through the Hagaddah, which I found out is pronounced with an accent over the ah, not the g the way we say it, we ate almost all of the same food, and the children searched for the hidden afikomen. About the food being the same, the Haroset was completely different. Instead of being made of chopped up apples like I'm used to, it was balls made of date spread. I'm really not sure which version I like better. One big difference is that at one point, the endless Hebrew babbling, to my ears, was interrupted by one of Aaron's middle aged relatives leaping out from behind a curtain shirtless, donning a Pharaoh hat and wielding a fake sword. Members of the family then acted out the story of the exodus from Egypt, and at one point, Aaron and I even got to be part of it, playing the roles of two Jews walking out of Mitzrayim. Anyways, the point of all of this is that through all of this, it still reminded me of home. Almost all of the important topics we cover were mentioned, all the foods that make Passover Passover were served, and I walked out feeling like my stomach was about to burst. Passover is a tradition that has been taking place for thousands of years, through multiple continents, and has seen so much change through the world. But somehow, Jews across the world still practice the same rituals to remember what our people have been through. This made me think about the perseverance of the Jewish people, and also the importance of rituals. In Jewish History, we have been talking about the founding of the Reform movement. In the beginning, Reform Rabbis stated in the Pittsburgh Platform that rituals should be abandoned, as Judaism has changed, and it's time for Judaism to be more like other religions. But not only do rituals make us remember the past, but they bring us together as a people, another thing the first Reform rabbis said we were not. Jews everywhere have the ritual of the passover seder, and because of this, I was able to feel at home at a seder thousands of miles from my home.

I found this article about the peace talks on The Times of Israel's webpage. http://www.timesofisrael.com/pa-un-envoy-boycott-israeli-settlements/
Recently, the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been coming to a close without any solution. The talks are scheduled to end on April 29, but it seems that they could fail before that date. When discussing the talks, the Palestinian representative for the United Nations, Riyad Mansour encouraged the world to boycott goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This sounds very similar to something I wrote about a few weeks ago, called the BDS movement. The BDS, or boycott, divestment, and sanctions, movement, operates on the principle of applying pressure to Israel in order to create an independent Palestinian state. The article goes on to explain other ways the Palestinians are trying to go above Israel, and become a state without its cooperation. I don't think a peaceful solution can be arrived at without the cooperation of both sides. In 2012, the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem was recognized as a non-member observer state by the UN, meaning it is not recognized as fully independent, but shows the UN's intent to one day arrive at a two-state solution. However, the United States and Israel were among nine nations that did not accept Palestine as a state. Because Israel did not recognize this, it did not have any effect on relieving the tension between the two entities. There is still conflict, and the West Bank is still not independent. If they continue to search for means of achieving statehood other than through cooperation with Israel, I don't think any meaningful compromise can be arrived at. Israel will continue to deny its statehood, while the Palestinians will continue to boycott Israeli goods, among many other types of efforts to achieve independence. This is why I think the peace talks should continue, so that both sides can together arrive at the best possible conclusion to solve the issue.

As you know, last week we took a five day trip to Poland to visit sites relating to the Holocaust. We saw lots of terrible things that had to do with death, like the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek, and also more lively things, like synagogues in the Jewish quarter in Krakow. There were a lot of programs building up to our trip, and during one of them David Solomon told us he thinks it is a journey that every Jew should make in their lifetime. So, going into the trip, I knew it was going to be very meaningful and have a significant effect on me, but I didn't realize exactly how much it would change the way I view the Holocaust. The things I learned there made me realize the importance resistance in all forms, as well as how evil the Nazis were.
One of the things that always baffled me about the Holocaust is that it seemed to me like the Jews always just went with it. I never understood why even at the last moment of life, when there was no hope left, people would still cooperate with the Nazis, making their hideous task easier. I always thought any last act of defiance, despite the certainty of death in the process, would be better than going "like sheep to the slaughter." It made me angry that nobody ever stood up to the Nazis. While in Poland, I learned that there were a lot more acts of resistance than I thought. The most notable is perhaps the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which a group of young Jews wielding handguns were able to hold off the Nazi army for four whole weeks. I was so happy to find out there actually were people who weren't willing to let the Nazis take them without trying to do anything about it. They showed that we are not a weak people, that we will fight back. In addition to this, we talked about less violent forms of resistance. I was introduced to the idea that just living a Jewish life is an act of resistance. The Nazis did everything they could to de-humanize the Jews, so having an orchestra and a school inside of the ghetto was resisting, by showing that they refused to become anything less than human.
I have always known the Nazis were truly evil. Their disregard for human life cannot be explained by anything else. But while in Poland, it really set in how wicked they were. I had never learned much about the Holocaust before, so I always wondered how it could have happened. It never made sense to me how an entire nation of people was willing to support someone whose plan involved murdering an entire race of people they live right alongside. We learned about Nazi propaganda, and how they de-humanized the Jews. Hitler was able to convince the German people that Jews were not real people. To them, they were animals, mere scum. They were brainwashed into thinking the Jews were parasites, hell-bent on destroying their society. Because of this, the Jews were treated like they were less than animals. They didn't deserve to live. Before going to Poland, I had never learned much about the ghettos Jews were forced to live in. We watched a movie called The Pianist about life in the Warsaw Ghetto. I was completely horrified at the things that soldiers did to other humans, and the conditions they were forced to live in. They were expected to survive on a diet of fewer than two hundred calories per day. It would not be out of the ordinary for me to eat a two hundred calorie candy bar, and still be ready to eat a full meal. Sometimes the guards would feed their dogs meat, and give the Jewish prisoners the bones to gnaw on. While the guards were told the Jews weren't human, they had to know the truth. They interacted with them every day. They saw their human emotions, desires, and feelings. And yet they still continued to shoot them as they walked past, for sport. I cannot fathom how any person could do such things to another. I am convinced that while the Nazis may have succeeded as making people view Jews as less than human, the Nazis themselves were even beneath that.
Poland was an incredible trip that I recommend every Jew to make. I have a much better understanding of the things that happened in the Shoah, and it's all real now, rather than being something I just learn about. Poland taught me that resistance is so vitally important, and that the Nazis were even worse than I could have imagined, among so many other things.