Sunday, May 4th Jerusalem-Kiryat Shmoneh

Sunday, May 4, 2014

After college, I joined a group of 50 people (including Sarah and Natan Fenner, Adam Weisberg, and Sharon Epel) on a year course in Israel, Otzma I.  We were sponsored by SF Federation and the Jewish Agency in Israel, living and working in five different locales throughout Israel.  While we called it “the Jewish Peace Corps,” the Israelis didn’t like the idea that it was a developing country in need of help.

I spent the last months of the year in Kiryat Shmoneh, a town in the far north of the Galil, near the borders of Lebanon and Syria. We lived in really lousy old apartments, with Jewish Agency-issued pots, pans, and kitchenware, teaching English in a local elementary school. Even as K. Shmoneh acted as a revolving door; the government sent new immigrants there since it was really inexpensive.  The immigrants left at the earliest possible moment for the center of the country.

K. Shmoneh is widely recognized as the armpit of Israel.  (and that’s the nicest characterization I will write in a blog). 

That said, I love the place. It sits in the Hula Valley, with the Golan Heights on one side and the Lebanese border mountain range on the other. It is lush and green with tributaries to the Jordan river (and the Jordan river itself). In the summer, it’s a prime destination for Israelis, who stay at one of the many kibbutz hotels, or camp by the waterside. They have several kayak concessions as well as a cable car that goes up the mountain (and a roller coaster go-kart deal for a fun ride down).

Today’s destination: Kiryat Shmoneh.

But first, a Federation moment. 

Reading over the schedule for the Israel IGI group, I saw that they are meeting Sunday morning at 8:30 am with Gershon Baskin. As it turns out, Gershon was the one who created a back channel between Hamas and the Israeli government during negotiations to get Gilad Shalit released.  He was the intermediary that carried messages back and forth, eventually realizing the goal of Shalit’s freedom. He recently published a book of the experience.

That’s too hard to pass up so I delayed my departure to K. Shmoneh so I could rejoin (re-crash) the Federation group. Gershon actually didn’t discuss Shalit at all, instead giving his assessment of the chances for peace, the various proposals out there, and his ideas on what needs to happen. He took questions from the group and then signed copies of his book.  I had him sign one to Shayna.

A bonus was Barak Lazoon. Barak lived in SF for four years building relationships between the Bay Area and Israel. We hit it off really well when he lived in the Bay Area and it was great to get a moment to see him and say hello.  One of his four sons became a bar mitzvah on Shabbat. Mazal tov.

Back to the hotel to check out and make my way to the car rental place. I’ll just say it takes a long time to rent a car in Israel. It took 45 minutes (with no lines) to go through all the processing, to get the car outfitted, test the gps (a necessity for me!), learn about the keypad by the steering wheel that needs a special code or the key won’t work, get it filled with gas, and begin the (harrowing) journey through the streets of Jerusalem to the highway.

Fortunately, I was joined by Lee Derrin, dad of Jacob who is on the trip with Shayna. Since Jacob is a type 1 diabetic, he and Brenda are shadowing the trip in case Jacob needs support. Lee and I enjoyed hours of chatting as we drove up Route 6 and then made our way to the upper galil, and finally to Kibbutz Gonen, where the Derrins were staying. I made my way to K’far Blum..but first..

A sentimental trip back to K. Shmoneh. It basically has one main street through the center of town with a strip of various falafel stands. I parked the car and revisited my favorite place for a quick bite. 

Even as the place was really rather old, gross, and “local,” I loved it..reliving life “back in the day.” 

I should say that even as that part of town remained untouched in the last 30 years, the rest of K. Shmoneh has grown precipitously. It is now home to many from the former Soviet Union. They’ve built three different malls, a new movie theater, and more restaurants than I can count. (It had only one sit-down restaurant when I lived here in 1987).

Tonight is erev yom ha’zikaron, the evening of memorial day. Shayna is staying with an Israeli family from Brandeis-Marin’s sister school. Her adoptive mom invited me to join their kibbutz for their ceremony. It was, of course, quite moving, especially as a member of their family died in the Yom Kippur war. A eulogy was delivered to the kibbutz by the kids’ grandmother, who was the sister of the soldier killed.

They offered songs in between the eulogies.  Here's one:

Back to Kfar Blum to sleep.