Religious Dialogue as a Method for Peace in the Middle East

cross-posted here from a live-blogging session at the J Street Conference on jewcy.com

Along with plenty of student bloggers at the J Street conference, I've been blown away by the excitement and the empowerment that has come out of it.

I stopped by the Jewcy booth on my way out of a breakout session on religious dialogue and was roped into sitting down and posting (although it didn't take much effort to convince me).

The panel had a prominent representative from each Abrahamic faith, all talking about how although the Israel-Palestine conflict is not inherently a religious conflict (its based in territorial and ethnic differences), religion plays a huge part in furthering differences, but it can be used to work towards peace.

One of the things that stuck with me is some of the comments that Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said. Earlier in the day, a friend of mine had said that she was concerned that while many people had been talking about Israel's faults and mistakes, no one had been rebuking the Palestinians for the rocket-fire into Sderot and for extremist rhetoric coming from Hamas. This can easily lead to a criticism of the conference for being blindly left-leaning and ignoring some of the important issues that Israelis deal with.

But what resonated with me about this panel was that Al-Murayati, the only Muslim speaker at the conference that I know of, was the most vocal in criticizing members of his own faith for their immoral actions.

This creates a critical message that I believe this conference is bringing to the Israel-Palestine debate. I fear imperialism and I fear people who impose their views on other cultures and ethnicities. One of my main criticisms of the established right-leaning pro-Israel lobby is that they rebuke Palestinians for everything they do, but see Israel as flawless and with a clean slate. But to hear Jews criticizing Jews and Muslims criticizing Muslims is to me an essential part of our individual faiths. Just as in Isaiah we have the quote, "Justice, justice you shall pursue," Al-Murayati also quoted the Koran saying (and I apologize if I vehemently misquote and paraphrase) "Oh you believers, you must promote justice even if it is against your own people and communities" and "One human life is more important than the entire Kabbah."

This is a voice that needs to be heard and publicized, especially throughout the political right, who seem to ignore it. We have an ethical responsibility to criticize ourselves and to allow space for other groups to make their own personal criticisms.

This conference is the beginning of a new movement in leftwing pro israel, pro peace, politics and to see a religious element that supports it is really awesome to see, considering my own religious background.

Plato comic

Heres my new comic, thanks to Hadas DeGroot for the inspiration!

My Comix!

Here are two comics that I made satirizing dead philosophers. I came up with them in my philosophy class and then it quickly turned into a project. Enjoy!

Jew-dapest

Just got back from Budapest and I have to admit - I was really impressed especially with the modern Jewish culture that surprised me with its existence. I never really had a desire to go to Budapest, it just happens to be a large city in proximity to Prague that is perfect for a cheap weekend trip, but after coming back I am definitely glad I went.

Before I arrived, I had learned a little bit about the history of the Jews in Hungary. Because of its relative distance from Germany and the status of many of the Jews in public affairs, they didn't receive as hard of a blow from the Nazis as other countries (e.g. the sheer amount of Satmar Hassidim who survived), although many were sent to concentration camps by the Arrow Cross Party, the Hungarian equivalent to the Nazi party. Currently, there are around 80,000 Jews in Budapest, the largest Jewish community in Eastern Europe. That huge number is due mostly to the Nazis late arrival in Hungary and the Hungarian government's policy during WWII where they preferred to ship off Jews from the countryside when the Nazis demanded them rather than city Jews who were valuable to the Hungarian economy.

While walking around the city, the Jewish culture was not so apparent except for the tourist attractions, something I have gotten used to in Prague (The Dohany Synagogue, pictured above, is the largest synagogue in Europe, 2nd largest in the world, and Neolog in its philosophy - an early European version of Conservative). It was nice to see a couple kosher restaurants, but I figured that the situation with the Jewish community was similar to that of communities in other post-Communist countries: Spiritually decimated by Stalinism, constant fear of antisemitism, and unwelcoming to others (even Jews) based in their difficult history. I soon found out that this is not necessarily the case.

While walking around the hip, young area of Budapest, formerly the Jewish ghetto, looking for hipster bars, we happened across a chill Bohemian art bar called Siraly that we had noticed earlier. We bought some beers, climbed up the spiral staircase, and sat on some couches in somewhat of a film library with a projector screen. Looking around the room, we noticed that there were framed blown-up photographs of Jewish interest: Yiddish culture, bearded rabbis, etc. Intrigued, I wandered around to see what else I could discover. I soon found canvasses with embroidered Hebrew on them, flyers for a Jewish film festival that was currently happening, and a pamphlet for a 4 day Jewish music festival that happens every summer. Then, to make things even better, I went into the basement to find the bathroom and happened across this unbelievable free-jazz show (free like improv not free like money, although it was free) with this amazing saxophonist and an out of control xylophonist and watched that for a while.

It just keeps getting better and better right? So as we're on our way out, I stop and ask the bartender, "so what's the deal? is this the hipster Jewish hangout?" and in response, two young guys come over from behind the bar and start speaking to me in Hebrew. I guess that was a yes. They start telling me how, while its true that there are a lot of uninvolved Jews, and that there is still visible antisemitism in Budapest, there is a thriving modern areligious community (complete with a secular Jewish high school, one of three) similar to what you would find in Brooklyn or San Franicisco. Turns out one of them is the guitarist for a funky Hebrew hiphop band called Hagesher and they told me that they could show us the hip Jewish sights. Unfortunately, we had to leave early the next morning but it is definitely a place I will have to come back to. He told me to check out the two main Jewish-hipsters-in-Budapest sights, Judapest (who calls Siraly the "non-official Jewish urban place") and Marom. After experiencing that unparalleled level of hasgacha pratit, I decided that this is definitely not my last time in Budapest.

pictures!

Sorry I haven't been posting but I DON'T HAVE INTERNET and I probably never will.

Anyways, I figured out that Picasa is much better than Flickr because I have a whole gig to fill up and they upload real fast. Thanks G-d for google/gmail.

So here is the new link - http://picasaweb.google.com/Eric.Salitsky

All my pictures from this trip so far are uploaded, so enjoy!
I also made a new link at the top so you can use that to quickly check to see when i post more photos. Hopefully there will be some good ones after the weekend when I get back from BERLIN.

I'll post a real post again soon, I promise!

This is too good to be true

Somehow, the Miami Boys Choir, along with the legendary Jewish summer camp "Israeli" dance choreography, made it to China. This is just too much.



I know this dance well enough to vouch that they are doing it perfectly. One of them must have been on rikud staff at Camp Ramah.

Weekend to Karlovy Vary

Thought I would update on what's been going on lately.

Classes started officially last week and they're all very interesting albeit a very different teaching style. Besides for Czech, I'm taking Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, taught by a former Jesuit Priest; History of the Jews in Bohemia, taught by Rabbi Ron Hoffberg, the only non-Orthodox rabbi in the Czech Republic and leader of the Prague Conservative community; Circulating with the Modern Cinematic Image, basically an intro to European film studies - it's being taught at FAMU, a very prestigious film school in Prague; and Contemporary Culture and Alternative Lifestyles in the Czech Republic, taught by Pavla Johannson, a scholar in sociology and former member of a very popular Czech new wave band in the 80's.

Last weekend I went with Leili, Mich, and Brendon to the small city of Karlovy Vary AKA Carlsbad. It's kind of a touristy spa town known for its hot springs and it's also the birthplace of the famous Czech drink that tastes like Christmas, Becherovka. Throughout the town there are all these water spouts that pump out steamy metallic water that is apparently very good for you. Everyone carries around these strange looking cups and sips on the water all day. We called it our "old person weekend" because we spent the whole time eating, drinking wine, hanging out in the sauna, getting a tour of the Becherovka factory in Czech surrounded by the elderly, relaxing, and getting very cheap massages.

Saturday night I got to see Islands in Prague. That was cool. It's not too often you get to see some indie shows in Europe and that is a band I would have definitely saw even if I was in America. It was a great show.

Yesterday I went with Brandon and Lauren to the last movie of the Shockproof Movie Festival. It was basically a slasher festival but they had some cool exceptions like Visitor Q by Takashi Miike (which I had already seen). We saw this ridiculous 70s exploitation film from Sweden called Thriller - They Call Her One Eye which was unbelievable. The plot didn't matter, the special effects were ridiculous, EVERY death was in slowmotion, all the sex was pornographic, and the main character saws off her own shotgun to go out and kill everyone that ruined her life. It was awesome. Apparently it was one of Quentin Tarantino's influences for Kill Bill.

Anyways, life is great here. It's been snowing pretty hardcore the past week. Tonight I'm going to see what Capoeira is like here so hopefully I won't get my ass kicked for not speaking Czech and for belonging to a different group. Wish me luck.

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Kutna Hora + Bone Church picture post

Here are pictures from my excursion last week to the medieval silvermining town of Kutna Hora, along with a church made out of human bones. This country is so metalcore.

One Quick Blog About Israel

I know this is supposed to be a travel blog now, but I can't resist talking about Israeli politics a little bit.

Here are two really interesting articles about Arab Israelis protesting against anti-Arab politics in the Knesset (specifically Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beitenu). The first is here on Ynet and the other is a video from the Guardian.

It is disturbing for me when I see people who hold racist policies in high regard in Israeli politics (or any politics for that matter). Lieberman has shamelessly said on many occasions that he wants to forcefully transfer all Arabs outside of Israel. He is also trying to get all Arab political parties banned from running in the upcoming elections on accounts that they are racist. This is pure Kahanism at its best, and that scares me. It's that type of anger that fuels violence and close-mindedness.

If Baruch Goldstein were still alive, he would vote for Yisrael Beitenu, and wherever Baruch Goldstein's politics lie, I stay far far away. How about instead of ousting an entire ethnicity from your country, warmongering in the process, why don't you actually address the issues and figure out how to improve your current situation? How about working with Israeli Arabs instead of ostracizing them? Seeing how much media attention Lieberman's been getting, I'm a bit nervous about the upcoming Israeli elections.

But I am excited to see how the Holocaust Survivors & Grown Up Green Leaf Party does. Yeah, that's right, its the name of a coalition formed by two parties that could not be any more different from each other. If they get even one seat, I will be the happiest man alive. Their platform is so random that I first thought it was a joke. Why don't all parties start combining in order to get more seats? How about the Communist party and the National Religious party? Or Shas and the environmentalist Party?


UPDATE: I spoke too soon... click here.

Music and Communism

Unlike the picture from my first post, this one I actually took

There are a lot of peculiar things that go on in the Czech Republic that don't make any sense to me. Like the type of music that is popular over here. My brain does not comprehend.

Of course there is the standard European obsession over shitty techno and self-destructive divas, but the vast majority of the radiowaves seem to be playing one huge bar mitzvah mixtape circa late 90s. No joke, multiple people have commented on it and we've been trying to figure out why it's like that.

Obviously there are no fifteen minute horas or Debbie Friedmans on the radio, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard the Macarena, the Locomotion, and yes, it's true, the Cotton Eyed Joe. How did the Cotton Eyed Joe travel all the way to the Czech Republic and how is it still popular?!

This phenomenon doesn't only concern songs with cheesy choreographed dances either. Last week I was at the fabled four story club, and I heard DMX not once, but twice in the same night. You know which song I'm talking about: "Ya'll gonna make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here." It was shocking enough the first time it came on, but the second time was too much.

As with all Czech peculiarities, I'm going to blame this on Communism. The Soviets only left in '89 so the Czechs have been quickly adapting to a proper democracy and globalization. That abrupt change has led to some awkward adjustments and the Communist undertones and still very apparent.

Considering that music was very censored during forty years of Soviet occupation, Czechs didn't have access to shitty music, unless it was given special permission from Stalin. So my theory is that they have been slowly catching up to the rest of the world in terms of pop culture, and that seems apparent to me when I hear "Barbie Girl" in the supermarket, Eiffel 65 on the subway, and Sixpence None the Richer at the club.

Picture Post

By request, I'm putting up my first picture post. It consists of 2 different sets of pictures -
The first is from my trip to the Torture Museum, an obvious tourist trap that got me all excited. It wasn't as extravagant as I had expected, but what they lacked in quality they made up for in brutality and one terrible translator with a dry sense of humor.

The next set is pictures from around Prague, including Vysehrad, one of the oldest parts of Prague and also the location of the CIEE study center and most of my classes.

Shabbat Praha

On Shabbas I checked out the Jewish community. At around 3 on Sayurday I headed over to the Jewish quarter and just wandered around, looking at all the beautiful synagogues. It’s crazy to think that the only reason these synagogues are so well preserved is because Hitler was saving them for his Jewish museum after he finished the job. I found the famous one with the golem in it and figured there would probably be mincha so I talked to the guard at the entrance. He was very unfriendly and spoke no English but it seemed apparent that his job was to keep tourists out on Shabbat. So I had a little argument with him, trying to prove to him that I just wanted to go pray, and this British guy told me that he wasn’t going to let people in for a couple minutes. So he showed me around the Jewish quarter, he showed me where the Chabad is and where the kosher restaurant is. He’s one of those Aish miracles who goes to Israel for a week, flips out, and stays in yeshiva for 2 years. He works at the British version of the Discovery channel and he’s in Prague filming for a little while. After services we went to the Jewish community center for Seudah Shlishit which was around the corner and I had a really nice time. There were a bunch of Israelis and Americans, the rabbi was cool and lives on my street, and the Czech ladies were hot.

I’m pumped to spend more time with this community. Shabbas morning services are at the Jerusalem synagogue, the most beautiful synagogue I’ve ever seen and it’s a block from my house. I also hope that I get a volunteer placement working in the Jewish community. There’s a Jewish school that I would love to work at. I added it in on my volunteering application and Jana, the lady in charge of that, told me they were going to work on it. One of the main reasons I’m here in Prague is to get to know what modern European Judaism is like. Is it growing or dying? How much of the Jewish culture is based in thousands of years of history and how much of it is just imported from America or Israel? I wanna set up a Shabbas meal for Mich and Leili and me with the rabbi. He lives like two doors down. Maybe I’ll wait until a know a little more Czech though. Tomorrow I finally start my intensive Czech classes which go on for two weeks before we start real classes. I’ll finally be able to say more than thank you, hello, and two beers please.

Bein Hashmashot becomes a travel blog (for now)

Since I am now living Prague for the semester, I think that I will be using this blog as a travel journal so that people can check up on me if they are interested. I will try to stay up to date with Israeli politics on whatever else I’ve been writing about but I haven’t posted in a while anyways so I figured this would be a good way to keep in touch without sending out those annoying 5 page emails to everyone I know.

Yesterday I was sitting near the front of the tram with my roommate Dan, and seated in front of us was a blind, frail man in poor health probably in his late seventies. He had bandages over his eyes and sunglasses in front of those, he had a seeing-eye dog, and used metal crutches as it looked like he had some issues walking as well. He wore a bright yellow parka and a violin slung behind his back, possibly for street performing. He sat there peacefully moving his head around, humming softly to himself, and occasionally twitching mildly. As I watched this man, I kept looking back and forth from this man to the corporate chains that we were passing. As I noticed the Sony, the KFC, and the McDonald’s I began to think about how much Prague has changed during his lifetime and how he may be completely oblivious to it. He lived through Hitler’s occupation of the Czech Republic, he felt the communist control after that for 40 years, he was there for the Velvet Revolution in the late 80s, and he is surrounded by the modern capitalist mentality that has boosted the country’s economy yet permanently altered the culture. He probably has his route that he has taken every day for many years and the sudden changing aesthetic of the city may be beyond him. I felt bad thinking about that, and I started to think about how this new zeitgeist for the city is somewhat my fault as an American. Who knows if he prefers capitalism to communism, it may not make any difference at all to him as a sickly street musician, but I felt like I owed him some sort of obligation.

As he arrived towards his stop he began to stand up with the help of his crutches and he called out behind him in Czech. I don’t speak a word of Czech so it meant nothing to me, but in my head, I translated what he said as, “Youth! Can someone please give me a hand?” I looked over at Dan and saw that he was thinking that same thing as me, but none of the Czech people behind me were doing anything. The bus began to get a little bumpy as it took a sharp turn and I saw the man struggle to stay up on his crutches while he called out again behind him. I looked back at the Czechs again and saw that they were looking at me. They may have been staring at me as everyone has for just being American but I interpreted that look as, “It’s your move.” I then stood up and put my hand on his arm to let him know that I was there if he wanted my help. He said something to me in Czech which was either telling me to help him down the stairs or yelling at me to get off him. Since I had no idea what he said, I held him tighter and thought to myself, “This is my task, I have to finish it.”

When the tram came to a stop, I carefully supported his arm as he slowly made his way down. As he finished stepping off the tram he repeated “děkuji” (thank you – the only word I know) multiple times but as he overcame the last stair he turned around to look at me and said it louder. I don’t know if he wanted to emphasize his gratefulness or if I had irritated him by taking pity on him, but either way, getting looked in the face by a blind man is somewhat of a haunting feeling. As I sat back down, the entire tram was quiet and I wondered if what I did was right, and if the Czech people behind me thought I was an idiot or a good man. It didn’t seem to matter at that point because the deed was done, but the image of man’s face was implanted in my mind along with the added layer of my uncertainty at his motives for “looking” at me like that. I can see his scraggly white beard, impenetrable sunglasses, and furrowed brow very clearly in my mind and will continue to think about it until it gets overlaid with even more fascinating experiences.

Some of those include Leili forcing me to run through a street mall in order to get to a Beatles cover band show because it was too good to miss even a second of it. She was right.

Or tonight when Michael, my Czech roommate, brought us to a teahouse with floor pillows, hookah, tapestry-laiden cave alcoves and New-Agey medieval music. It felt like we were all hobbits being beckoned to return to the Shire.

On another note, tomorrow is going to be my first Shabbat in Prague. My program set up all the really Jewey kids in the center of town, a block away from the Jerusalem Synagogue, the most beautiful synagogue I’ve ever seen in my life. So that’s a plus. I will definitely go check that out. But I’m trying to decide if I’m going to start breaking Shabbat this semester. I don’t see how I can’t. What would I do, sit at home by myself all day. Even parts of the program are on Shabbat. If I want to have the best experience, I have to leave my safety zone, and unfortunately, that means I might have to leave my jewish zone at some points as well. I will at least make certain rules for myself like – I won’t do actual work or I won’t use my phone or computer. We’ll see how G-d feels about this in the afterlife but for now this decision is for myself and I think it’s the best one.