Varanasi, India Day 1

The beginning of the end began on a hot day- or what we formerly believed to be hot- in Jerusalem at noon on Sunday, April 28^th. The journey from Beit Shmuel to the Jordanian border by bus, from Israel to Jordan by another bus, from the Israeli border in Jordan to the airport in Amman via another bus, from Amman to Delhi by plane, and from Delhi to Varanasi by another plane took a total of approximately 18 hours. We were all pooped, but as we have done all year we ran on adrenaline throughout our first day in India.

We began our final trip in what is considered the “oldest continuously living city in the world.” (I added the word ‘continuously’ just to be as clear as possible) Our guide told us that Varanasi dates back 3,000 years, and according to Hindu tradition it goes as far back as 8,000 years. We spent our first afternoon in India learning about Buddhism and visiting a couple of sites associated with the Buddha. Now for those of you who don’t know the story of the Buddha here it is, told by me as briefly as possible. (And please don’t hold me accountable for the accuracy of it, it took hearing it two times in an Indian accent to get the gist of it.)

The Buddha was born while his mother was standing upright, and right after he left the womb he walked seven steps.

His parents knew he was special so they spoke to some sort of prophet and he told them that their baby would either be a great emperor (or something like that) or he would be a great, influential monk. His parents coddled him and gave him everything any young man would ever want. He decided to leave the comfort of his palace one day and was horrified by what he saw- an old man, a sick man, a dead person, and a monk. Troubled by what he saw he searched for answers to life (or something like that). He sat under a tree and meditated for 40 days (I think) without eating or drinking, until he reached enlightenment.

I highly suggest you look up the story yourself if you’re interested because as you can tell, I don’t know it very well.

To be totally honest I’m still not really sure what we saw because I wasn’t used to the Indian accent yet and couldn’t understand our guide, but as far as I know we visited the spot where the Buddha reached enlightenment. We also saw a temple, with a mural of his life story on the walls, where he preached his ideas to five disciples who spread them.

After that we went to a museum established in 1910 that displayed Varanasi’s ancient history and civilizations. The centerpiece of the museum (where we unfortunately weren’t allowed to take pictures) was a sandstone statue with multiple images still used today in India- the statue is even on every Rupee (Indian currency). 

Before going to dinner we went to a Sari factory where we saw how they were made and we also had the chance to buy any one of their beautiful Sari's, scarves, or other textiles. 

We ended our day with a real authentic Indian experience by joining thousands of Hindus (and numerous tourists) on the Ganges River for a nightly religious ceremony.

However, the most interesting part of the boat ride was witnessing the cremation along the Ganges, which is the common practice in India. And as side note all you see are large bonfires. The only reason we knew what they were doing was because our guide told us not to take pictures while we floated by.

The eerie scene was definitely a thought provoking way to end the day, but it didn’t stop me from falling asleep the second my head hit the pillow. We traveled throughout the night before and tomorrow we have to wake up at 4:30 to go out on the Ganges again for sunrise. We have another packed day that is expected to be one of the longest yet, especially because we’re taking our first of three over night trains in India.

Berlin, Germany Days 1 & 2

After another chaotic night before our trip and maybe two hours of sleep, we woke up at 4:30 am for another long day of traveling, which consisted of two flights and bus rides. The total hours of travel accumulated to approximately 17 hours, but who can be sure? Regardless, we were all pooped out of our minds. The 7 hours of sleep we had in our first night in Berlin felt absolutely useless, but the incredible breakfast (which we get to have until Wednesday!) helped wake us up.

Our first day out in Berlin was a cold one. We spent the morning on a walking tour, which included seeing the sight of the first synagogue in Berlin and a 350-year-old Jewish cemetery. The cemetery was desecrated in 1945 as the land was used as a battleground and the tombstones were used to reinforce the German soldier’s trenches. Though miraculously the only headstone still standing is Moses Mendelsohn’s, a prominent figure in reformed Judaism.

The most significant part of the walk was seeing our first stumbling stones. Stumbling stones are small gold plates near places that Jews lived all over Berlin. They have the person’s name, date they were deported and the place to which they were deported.

FUN FACT: You can find stumbling stones all over Germany except for Munich because the Jewish Community there didn’t want people walking over the names.

After our tour we went to the Wannsee Villa, where Hitler met with other Nazi officials to discuss “the Final Solution.”

Then we went to Track 17, a train station near Berlin that has been converted into a memorial.

Throughout the Holocaust-filled day I was constantly thinking of the March of the Living. I couldn’t help but think that my experience in Poland is unparalleled, so it was difficult to connect to these places like I did almost a year ago. However the Wannsee Villa was different. It was a different place with a different atmosphere. We were able to see the other side of the Holocaust, which was the Nazi regime.

Usually Fridays are shorter, which means they can be slightly more relaxing, but this Friday was an exception. We walked out from the hotel into the snowy bitter cold at 7:15 in the morning to meet with a Rabbi Joseph Spinner, the head of one of the Jewish schools in Berlin. To be totally honest, I was fighting like hell to stay awake, and I won that war, but unfortunately I didn’t process much of the conversation.

We then went to the Holocaust Memorial in the heart of Berlin. I accidentally deleted my notes from today, but I do recall some of them. First of all, this memorial is one of a kind. I saw pictures of it before and I searched for the artist’s intent and thought process while doing it, but I couldn’t find anything. When I asked the tour guide she gave me the most reliable answer I could find, even if it still left me with questions. She told me it was meant to be left open for interpretation.

To me, while I walked through the field of cement slabs, I felt very alone. You didn’t know when people were coming out of the corners and even though you’re right next to a busy street, the noise sounds very distant. I think the artist did a great job of evoking some of the feelings associated with the Holocaust. And for those of you who are considering visiting Berlin, the Holocaust memorial is a must see.

Before Shabbat we took a quick visit to the German Historical Museum, which was a surprising disappointment. I was excited to learn about German history beyond the Holocaust, but we just got a tour of the section from the Weimar Republic (after WWI) to the end of WWII. We hurried back to the hotel to prepare for a relatively busy Shabbat in Germany.

Rabat & Fes, Morocco- Days 9 & 10

Tuesday may have been the least eventful day thus far, but being on Kivunim every day is still long and tiring. We began the day by visiting King Mohammed V mausoleum for about 20 minutes in Rabat,

and then got right back on the bus for another long drive to Fes- Morocco's second largest city.

Though before getting to Fes we made a little pit stop in Meknes, a city with only 55 Jews. The highlight of the day may have been when we visited a synagogue where an older Jewish man who was clapping and singing “Shalom Aleichem” greeted us.

The most powerful part of the visit, and maybe one of the most powerful parts of the trip, was when we davened mincha in this shul that is no longer in use. The joy we saw on this seemingly lonely Jew’s face was very inspiring and heartwarming.

We arrived in Fes in time for dinner and spent the night hanging out, excited for our trip through the incredible souk of Fes the next day.

Our last day in Morocco was a great one. We got to see everything Morocco is known for from their leather products to their ceramic creations.

We visited Morocco’s biggest tannery dating back to the 14^th century.

We saw their beautifully detailed ceramic and metal works.

Lastly we saw how their sewed scarves and table clothes.

My appreciation for all of the above work has increased tremendously. Whether the work was tedious or simple, long or short, the hard work and in some cases minute detail required to make these truly authentic products cannot got without recognition. The stuff you see in souvenir shops may not just be junk, but the product of hard, backbreaking work.

Though, it was difficult to enjoy the day fully because of the constant heckling. But it wasn’t the hecklers; it was the way people would shoo them away like flies that buzzed in their ears. It was just brought to my attention that the hundreds of people we’ve seen over this trip struggle to make a living by practically begging for people to buy their knick-knacks.

We left the souk around 2 and drove for maybe 4 or 5 hours to Tangier where we are going to depart from for Spain tomorrow (Thursday, January 31) morning. 

Marakech & Casablanca, Morocco Days 7 & 8

I’m writing this on Thursday, and this blog is for Sunday and Monday, the 27th and 28th of January, so I apologize for the possible ambiguity and/or poor writing because I’m so behind, but here we go.

On Sunday morning I woke up in Marakech to some out of the norm sounds on the busiest street in Marakech. I walked out on my porch to see a sea of people on the street running the Marakech marathon.

We made our way to the souk after cutting through the middle of the marathon, surely pissing off plenty of runners.

Despite the guys trying to put snakes and monkeys on us, the souk in Marakech was one of the few times we were really able to see Morocco for what it is. After traversing through the old Jewish quarter of the Medina, the word for the old Arab or non-European quarter of a North African town,

 we visited a cosmetics shop, for lack of a better word. It was a shop that sold oils and creams for what seemed like anything, from congestion to hemorrhoids, and dry skin to mosquito repellent.

We spent a little bit more time in the souk then took another four hour or so bus ride to Casablanca and arrived just in time for dinner. We went to one of the four or five Jewish clubs there and had our first meat meal in what felt like weeks.

The next morning we went to King Hassan II mosque, the third biggest mosque in the world.

Here are some quick fun facts about it!

• The architect of the mosque was Christian.
• The minaret, which is the tall tower on all mosques, is the tallest in the world at 200 meters high.
• 2,000-3,000 people come to pray daily; 15,000-20,000 on Fridays, and up to 80,000 come on Ramadan!
• The marble floors are heated for the winter, and they open the retractable roof a couple times a year for the big holidays.
• And lastly, the mosque cost between 600 million and 5 billion euro (or between $808,140,000 and $6.75 billion). The numbers are huge and the range between them is also massive, but those are the numbers I got from my two sources, Raphy and our tour guide at the mosque.

After our visit to the mosque we visited one of the last remaining Jewish schools in Morocco, sang and played with the kids, and then had lunch. Before leaving Casablanca we visited the “Moroccan Jewish Museum,” founded and run by our guide Raphy.

He collected Jewish items left behind from all over Morocco, and has been working for years to restore synagogues and make the memory of the Jews in Morocco a lasting one. It was an incredible, once in a lifetime opportunity to be given a tour of a museum by the founder of that museum.

After spending about an hour at the small museum we drove to Rabat, the capital of Morocco, ate a delicious dinner and spent the night in the hotel.

I wanted to end with a question I’ve been thinking about for a couple days now. It doesn’t really have an answer, but it’s something to think about. After learning about the great relationships between the Muslims and Jews in Morocco for hundreds of years, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if the Jews stayed in Morocco and their relationship with the Muslims remained the same. The majority of the Jews left only 50 years ago. Could Morocco have been the driving force behind a more tolerable Muslim world towards the Jews through both example and advocacy?

Last thing, the wifi opportunities have been limited hence the delayed posts, but I'm doing what I can. The trips almost over, but hopefully I can get them out one by one so I don't just dump a whole bunch on you at once. I hope you've enjoyed!

Marakech, Morocco- Days 5 & 6

We woke up after an exciting night in Telouet to a spectacular rainbow,

and left early Friday morning to begin our winding accent then decent from the mountains so we could make it to Marakech (the end is pronounced “sh”) in time for Shabbat. When we arrived in Marakech in the early afternoon we visited the Jewish Quarter of the old city, which contains a shul built in 1492 that continues to have morning services.

At one point during our visit Raphy, our tour guide who single handedly resurrected the history of the Jews of Morocco and even built a Moroccan Jewish Museum, told us something I found very touching and worth sharing. Raphy said, “I didn’t do my work for the Jews, but for the Muslims. When the Muslim kids grow up and see the negative media concerning the Jews, they will know more about the Jews than just what the TV says. They will understand.”

After our visit to the synagogue we checked into the hotel and got ready for our Shabbat in Marakech, Morocco, with a Jewish community of only 250 people. The number used to be about 120 times as big at 31,000 Jews before 1948.

We spent Shabbat at a different synagogue than the one we visited early that day. This synagogue contained an Ark that was miraculously saved by the current Rabbi’s father. He took this beautiful ark from an old synagogue that burnt down not too long after he moved it. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures, but it was large and handcrafted by two brothers (I forgot what year it was from).

A few things really caught my attention during our Shabbat in Marakech. On Friday night the “lecha dodi” was one of my favorite parts. The stark difference between the familiarity of the words and the foreign tune is one of the most basic yet moving parts of learning about and experiencing Judaism from all over the world. The tune, which sounded very similar to the call to prayer, is something Moroccan Jews hear five times a day, so it’s not surprising that the Jews incorporated it into their prayer. The call to prayer is pretty self explanatory, but I may or may not elaborate on it more in the next post, I guess we'll see how much time I have/how I'm feeling.

One other interesting part of the Friday night service was that “Yigdal” was sung to the tune of HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem. What I found so fascinating was that they live in a country of roughly 5,000 Jews with dwindling communities, and their connection to the land of Israel was so apparent during “Yigdal.” When we just look at them and hear them pray we feel virtually no connection, or it may be better to say distant, from them, but we are able to connect with these North Africans whom we otherwise may have never interacted with or thought of.

Lastly, on Shabbat morning it was so cool to hear the Rabbi give his speech in Arabic, French, and Hebrew. He was just jumping between the three languages surprisingly fluidly. How often do you get a chance to hear that?

Now to add a little color to this blog, here are a couple more pictures from Marakech.