Open Water

It’s my biggest irrational fear.  That, and snakes.  Snakes in water is also up there.

So, what better way to face the fear than a 12 day Mediterranean cruise?  Did I mention that I get ridiculously sea sick?  There better not be any snakes.

I know we keep saying it, but this Olmsted scholarship has been such a blessing to our family in so many ways.  The time we have had with one another is covetous, especially in the military community.  Part of the scholarship requires us to travel within our “region”, so that we may better understand the context of the culture in which we currently live.  Well, our “region” isn’t so friendly.   We can only access one of our four neighboring countries by car, and even that proves a bit difficult from time to time.  Heck, there are places within our own country to which we can’t even travel!

So, over the past two years as a family of four we have done our best to fly to countries within our region, but as you can imagine: airline tickets times four out of a country that isn’t particularly thrifty adds up in a hurry.

A cruise sounds exhorbitant.  A cruise sounds lazy. A cruise sounds delicious, minus the whole open water thing.  It also happens to be the most economical way we can explore the world of the Mediterranean.  And, on top of that we get to sleep in the same place every night, albeit claustrophobic, and not cart suitcases and kid gear from place to place.  This is worth its weight in gold.  This is our final farewell to the Olmsted experience.  Our last hurrah.  Our tax refund put to good use.

Open water here we come.  Can somebody pass the Dramamine?

Holocaust Memorial - Dachau

Today is Holocaust remembrance day in Israel. The day when the sirens sound at 10 AM, traffic stops, and people across the entire country stop to remember the millions lost in the holocaust. 

 Yesterday, Lydia came home from school telling us all about a bad king many years ago who tried to kill all the Israelis.  She was a little let down and confused to find out that this wasn't new news to us.  We explained that we knew about it and that it was called the holocaust in English.  She said that her teacher explained to the class that she really didn't want to tell them about this terrible thing, but that she had to do it. That's appropriate for a 7-year old, I think. It is difficult to share such a dark subject, but even 1st graders deserve an explanation when ceremonies are being performed and sirens are blaring.  

Lydia's classmates were allowed to share personal stories.  Lydia learned that her best friend in class has a great grandmother who lost a leg jumping from a train car headed to a concentration camp.  Lydia has been fixated on this for the last 24 hours, but it has proved to be a good teaching platform.  We met this woman when we all visited her on her kibbutz last spring.  Lydia remembered that she was in a wheel chair and that she was missing a leg, but she didn't know what had happened until yesterday.

On our journey here in Israel, we have heard several personal accounts of how families have been affected by the holocaust.  Survival stories.  Stories of mourning and loss.  Stories of hidden children.  They are always tragic and moving, and through tears of human compassion deeper bonds are forged.  

The following pictures are from our last trip to Europe this past December when we spent an afternoon at Dachau Concentration camp, near Munich, Germany. The wet snow was a cold reminder of the suffering that occurred there. We could not seem to get warm, despite our layers, and we couldn't imagine what it would have been like in these conditions with no warm clothing, shoes, no hope of ever having enough to eat, and the clinging weight of separation from loved ones, loss and death. 

Since being selected for the Olmsted Program and sent to Israel, we have been intentional about exposing ourselves to this tragedy of the Holocaust. We visited the American Holocaust Museum in DC, Yad ve Shem in Jerusalem, as well as visiting Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, Terezin internment camp outside Prague, and finally to Dachau in Germany. These are moving and emotionally exhausting visits. But they are important. 

Shalom

The Gatekeepers (Movie Review)

I recently watched the movie "The Gatekeepers" with some friends in Tel Aviv. It was both fascinating and laborious. This is an Oscar-nominated documentary that interviews the former heads of the Shin Bet (the Israeli version of the FBI). These men were responsible for security against terrorism in Israel, and they operated extensively in the West Bank and Gaza. They are surprisingly frank with their descriptions of interrogations, responses to terror attacks, targeted assassinations, and specific incidents such as the murder of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in 1995 (this part was for me the most somber account of the film).

This movie was controversial here. Many Israelis saw it as a leftist piece of propaganda, and they refused to view it. Others saw it as an honest account of how the Shin Bet has dealt with Palestinians for decades. Either way, these interviews were with the organizational leaders themselves, who in my opinion have earned the right to be heard. I think it speaks volumes about the openness of the dialogue here in Israel that this film was even made. It's hard to imagine seeing every former head of the FBI or CIA on camera answering questions about US interrogation techniques, or the morality of the operations they were responsible for executing.

Anyone interested in the Israel/Palestine issue should definitely see this movie. It was inspired by another outstanding documentary called The Fog of War, which interviewed former SecDef Robert McNamara about US involvement in Vietnam. I heartily recommend each of these films.

Shalom Ya'll,
Stew