Yohoshua! and break

And so we reach the end of 2006. And I send out a HUGE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

YOHOSHUA HARRIS!

baste the fuckers
miss you tons and tons

The break continues....

After going down to Battery park with Anmol, I went again the next day with my favorite German couple, Michael and Manu. This time we took the Staten Ferry to get a slightly closer look at the Statue of Liberty (when my hair wasn't getting blown in my face).

On the way out Michael couldn't resist mocking the tourists waiting in line for the ferry. This was us just a mere hour earlier. He kept asking why every five minutes the clock that "showed the boarding time" went back 5 minutes (indeed, it was just a clock, telling the actual time).

Excellent panoramic picture of Ground Zero

The next day Michael, Manu, and I did a (food) tour of the Lower East Side. We started out at Delancey and Essex looking at one of the oldest synagogues in NY which is now home to the Shul of New York (look at my earlier post on the High Holy Days). We were lucky that one of the shomers (workers) was able to let us in...

The inside, even though there were no lights on, was pretty impressive. I love that they've left the pain peeling with only hints of the grand decorations that were once on the walls. Michael and Manu were pretty impressed, and decided to come with me to Shabbat services (to be discussed later...)

Ahhhhh, the Forward Building. Home to the Yiddish newspaper "The Forward" as well as the romantic meeting place of my Grandma Edie and Grandpa Harry! Oh those romantic Socialist Jews!

What is a tour of the Lower East Side without a ridiculous amount of deli meat at Katz's? NOTHING. We had also stopped at Gus's for pickles and Kosar's for bialeys. And Ross and Daughters for some rugelach and halva (Jewish sweets).

In the past few nights we've also had some nice dinners, a curry and a German noodle dish. I also went down to Brooklyn to visit Russell and Sam with Rachel B. and Tzipporah. I think it was a pretty nice night, though perhaps better for some than others...

At I-House we've also played some mean Trivial Pursuit which turned into something more like Charades since each team needed a dozen hints to get any answers right

(pictures today were provided by Michael, quite the photographer)

Battery Park 'n Stuff

The exploration of NY continues! Today Anmol and I went all around the south of Manhattan. We took a tour via Lonely Planet. It went a little something like this...
Battery Park. First we wandered around Bowling Green, and the followed the tourists to the water. People were lined up for the ferries, but we were content with the view of Lady Liberty from the shore. Take a minute to read Emma Lazarus's The New Colossus. My sister teaches it in her NYU classes (ooooooooo). If It doesn't inspire you, nothing will.

For further inspiration we turned to Starbucks, it was chilly out!



The Sphere. The sculpture once stood in the World Trade Center plaza for thirty years. It was damaged in the attacks. Ironically, it symbolized world peace. Now an eternal flame (or shika in Hindi) stands in front of it.

We then went up to the Financial District and visited Anmol's future places of employment. We tried to take pictures with the Charging Bull sculpture, but there was a truckload of tourists taking pictures one by one (not in convenient groups I offered to organize for them!).









Here is the Fraunces Tavern museum and restaurant. It was built in the 1700s. Beyond that, and looking real cute, I'm not sure of its importance.

This is a sweet street called Stone just off of Beaver (named for the pelts once sold there) and Pearl (similarly named). It's buildings date to pre-Civil War, and I'm sure the cobblestones are twice as old. It reminded me a bit of being in London. From there we wandered over to Wall Street (named for a wall Dutch slaves built there to keep out marauders). We visited Trinity Church (not pictured) and peeked at the graveyard which serves as the eternal bed for such exciting people as Benedict Arnold.










Wall Street, all gussied up!


























What it's like to be inside a Christmas Tree!

The patriotic New York Stock Exchange

We also visited the WTC area, Ground Zero and a few other sites. It was a great tour and left us both exhausted. What next?

Break has Begun

On the 19th Jacki, Suzana, Imre, Michael and I met up for cookies and decompressing in the I-House main lounge. Michael and I ended up staying there and talking for another 5 hours, until 4 am. So, I was a bit tired on the 20th, but I didn't miss lunch with the whole gang of I-Housers for a long lunch at Swish starting at 1 and going on to the Hungarian Bakery at 5. Then I was mercifully able to take a power nap until class at 7. The class was really a pot luck "networking" session, and I left when an older gentleman began asking Michelle if her theories on revolution through peace education has any theoretical backing. YAWN.
Me and Santa Clause at the local fire station (the firemen said it was the most attention he's gotten in weeks)

The 21st most everyone left, and there's just a few of us hanging around I-House. I ended up playing Uno German-style with a group of people until Dan came down and wanted to introduce us to poker. It's a much more fun game than I imagined, though I've also learned I have no poker face. I did win the first few games easy, but then it was all downhill. We all ended up in the pub, where I got a bit tipsy and, as I remember it, had a very cheerful night. I stayed up until 4 am and the next day....

I woke up at 9 to hang out with Michael and Prithvi and a selection of other I-Housers to the Met. We looked at two exhibits. The first was Glitter and Doom, portraits from the Weimar Republic (Germany between WW1 and WW2). To say it's not my type of art would be an understatement. Very dark and grotesque, stark caricatures and debauchery. Eeeeks. Then we moved on to French Impressionists. We headed home and Michael came over for my favorite film (EVER maybe) Walk on Water. It's an Israeli film with lots of Germans told almost entirely in English, everyone's happy.

At some point (I can picture it, but can't remember the time) I met my new friend Anmol (Hong Kong). On the 23rd he, Michael, and I went out to explore the city. We walked across Greenwhich Village and SOHO and probably wandered into half a dozen other neighborhoods. We bought holiday gifts at Sabon, had Cafe Aroma's at Cafe Aroma, and I was introduced to D&G. We stopped at the Angelika to see The Fountain. I had seen Aronofsky's other films, and not cared for them, so I have say I liked this one quite a bit more, though it was still odd as all get out. What was great was that Anmol said he loved Aronofsky, and then slept through the entire film. When he awoke he was staring straight into the eyes of Lauren Ambrose. He must have assumed he was still sleeping, but he wasn't, she was really there with us. We were super sly and hung around after the film to see her come out, with her hipster boyfriend. We then headed back to SOHA and had a really lovely dinner at Toast, which became my political soapbox as we discussed the Holocaust and Israel (do I ever have different conversations???).

Yesterday, the 24th, was a slow morning. I met up with Shira and Mike (her fiance) at Union Square for the Holiday Market. Tons of Israeli stuff there, but I'm holding out for when my mom takes me to the official show later in January. I then met up with Michael at 3 at the Times Square Church for Christmas services. I knew it was going to be a non-Denominational service, but I was sort of hoping there would be some Catholic ritualism stuck in there or some Gospel happiness. It was a very different church than I've ever been to. It's housed in a theater and was packed, holding over 2,000 congregants. It's was very impersonal, and uncomfortable (no room for even my tiny knees), and it wasn't about everyone singing together but more of a performance. It was definitely an experience and I think Michale and I both got something out of it. We then walked around Times Square at night. I took Michael to the Hershey's store and got him a free piece of candy by explaining he was a deprived German and had never had Hershey's before (true story) and we went into the Bubba Gump restaurant (one of his favorite movies). When we got back to I-House, it was time for the traditional Chinese food. Melissa chose the place to order from, known for it's meatless meat, and we ended up having enough food for lots of other's to come and enjoy.

Today I'm meeting up with Shira and Mike and a few of their friends to see a film and grab more Chinese. It should be a lovely Christmas!

Finals are Finally Over

I am exhausted, and finals are over. Now I just don't know what to do with myself. I'm looking at a long break when most people will be out of town. So I'll mostly be acting as the 7th wheel on some German dates and hanging out with Shira. If you're a friend, come visit! In this blog, I will offer you a few of my favorite sites, the kind that I have turned to in my times of need these past weeks of studying/ writing.

Asofterworld: This mix of photos and offbeat plots make for some funny, dark, comic strips
Go Fug Yourself: These girls critique the fashionable so trendy they're ugly. They say what's in my head, just how I wish I could say it.
Rate My Professor: This may only be fun for undergrads, but I still get a kick out of it
The Brick Testament: Legos plus Torah study, what's not to love? (I find the blood amusing)
Tolerance: Education for all sorts of Peace Ed related stuff, well I find it fun
Words Without Borders: Short stories from around the world, translated conveniently into English!
Chromasia: Simply the most stunning photographs I've ever seen
Found: The stories of things found anonymously
This American Life: Radio shows that tell three stories related to a special theme, I love NPR!
Sodoku!: need I say more? I can now manage the medium ones!
PostSecret: Secrets people can only tell anonymously through postcards

Enjoy your break, or make one of your own!

Matisyahu!

As good as things have been, I'm a bit frazzled. I've had a headache for 3 days, I lost my keys (I think they got thrown away at the party), I've got an exam coming up I just can't study for... and on and on. So tonight was a welcome and very surprising break...

(Pictured: Me, Marsha, Rachel)
I went out just to meet up with Rachel B., my old roomie from Jerusalem and personal therapist. We had dinner with two of her stunning friends, Kristina and Marsha and then I walked them all over to the Matisyahu concert. I was bemoaning that I couldn't join them, that I would have to buy a ticket for the next concert, when a bright young man approached us with tickets to sell! So in I went for my first real American concert (I've seen Peter, Paul, and Mary as well as Simon and Garfunkel before)!

(Pictured: Matisyahu meeting his fans)
It was everything I'd feared it would be, but so much more manageable then I had thought. We were in the standing area so it was packed with 14 year old boys stoned and drunk and every now and again they tried to crowd surf and always went smashing to the ground. The ground was sticky and I got splashed with beer. It was crowded and sweaty and people were pushing and shoving. And then, the concert got started! First off were a bunch of political rappers, which didn't go very far with the crowd. Meanwhile, some guy Chris, the social butterfly of the concert who wanted to know every one's name, proposed to Rachel and kept saying he would wait for her, forever!

When Matisyahu came out it was fantastic energy. This big guy, fittingly named Bear, felt bad that I couldn't see and hoisted me up on one of his shoulders. Once I got down, the concert went great. Rachel and her girls, loooong time fans of Matisyahu even got a wave and a wink from him. It was intense and fun and something I would otherwise never have done. Matisyahu, for those not in the know, is a Hassidic Orthodox Jew (a Jewy Jew Jew) who sings song of praise to reggae tunes. There is such a disconnect between his look and his sound, I love it. I highly recommend that anyone and everyone check him out! At the end of the concert he lit the menorah (second night of Hannukah!).
(Pictured: Matisyahu, the Messiah? He does have a nice menorah)

Third night of Hannukah:
PS~ I just ran into Mark Zemel from EIE, haven't seen him in easily 5 years. What's with the reemergence of EIE? Is this some form of omen? I'm enjoying it!

Hannukah Hootenanny!

Before we get to the big party, I had a much smaller affair the other night when Micha came by! He and I went to high school in Israel together (EIE) and last I saw him was over a year ago before heading to Israel again. He's looking at medical schools and doing very well for himself, though he doesn't like NY and is strangely in love with Cleveland. We were able to gossip about the few people we're still in touch with (Ariel is married, David's in community college, Radparvar is in the mafia, Daniel is out in LA...), very exciting stuff. (Pictured: Miiiiiicha)

Friday night there was a Francophone Cultural Hour. There were cheeses, and breads, and meats, and crepes. After milling about using our best French aaaaah-cents, there was a cabaret of music, dance, and film from around the French speaking world. It was great, a mix of salon and comedy hour.

So, very last minute, I threw together a Hannukah party which was more or less an excuse to get friends together before the month long break begins. I had gone out earlier with Paul and Honza and picked up three dozen donuts, and Honza got some drinks. Everyone gathered in my room, and it was noticeably German-heavy. In fact, for the majority of the party, I was the only Jew plus a half- who came and left early, and a full- who came and left late. Otherwise there was a great mix. We started off by "lighting" my magnetic menorah and saying the three blessings. Then we gambled the night away. I was nervous dreidle wouldn't be exciting, but people got really into it, and after a few times around I was no longer needed as referee and everyone could tell the nun from the gimmel. Sweet success. (Pictures: Magnetic Menorah)

Marie, Jared, Suzannah, Paul

Imre, Honza, Me, Jochen

Me and Michael

Sandra, Jochen, Michael, Mara

There were others there, but this is a random sampling!

Sunday Supper: Seeds of Peace

Why am I blogging so much nowadays? First off, I've got lots of nice things going on that I just have to share. Also, it's finals time and I find I'm super chatty when I have papers piling up (and dishes, and garbage...).

Tonight was Sunday Supper, when the I-House community comes together for a dinner, a guest speaker, and some musical entertainment. I was especially excited because the guest speaker was none other than Janet Wallach, president of Seeds of Peace. My three months of working 9-5 at their Jerusalem Center really paid off! I was able to meet with Janet and two other students Marie (Belgium, SOP counselor) and Nikos (Greek, involved in coexistence orgs) before her talk and introduce her to I-House and discuss our studies. Then we headed to the reception, where my role was somewhat unclear. I was supposed to help introduce her to other resident members, but I mostly caught up with friends I haven't seen since waaaay before finals. Then, I sat next to Janet at dinner! She gave an excellent speech, and although I'm a bit biased, I was very inspired by it.

My finals are going alright, almost manageable.
Peace Ed: a paper on the Jerusalem Center, looking at its programming. Big thanks go out to the ever professional JC intern Miss Rachel Buxbaum for all my first-person sources.

Middle East Ed: I wrote my big paper on encounter programs, focusing on their historical development and questioning there efficacy. The small Middle East Ed paper is on the misuse of the terms Islam, Islamic, and Muslim. Let me tell you: Islam refers to the religion itself, Islamic is an adjective only to be used for issues of faith or doctrine, Muslim refers to the practice and followers. In use, therefor, Islamic Extremism is not a correct phrase, rather it should be Muslim Extremists. In the context of education, Islamic education is never fundamentalist, it's Muslim radical education that most people mean to say is a problem. So There. I have a presentation on the big paper yet to come...

Family Ed: Already did the presentation, which, I truly quote, was lauded as a "Tour de Force" now I just need to complete the paper which looks at memory as a definer of in-group and out-group culture.

Ed & Econ: An exam, but not until next week.

I can't be social until Wednesday, when all my papers are turned in and I can focus on the one presentation and exam. I'll be soooo relaxed then. I need eggnog...

Today is My Day

Let it be noted forever in the history books that today, December 8th, is My Day!

1. I'm an Intern!

Yes, you are now reading the blog of shiny new intern for One Voice. I will be focusing on acting as a resource for college-aged students promoting Israeli-Palestinian coexistence and democracy on their campuses. If working at OSU with Israel Action Committee and founding the Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Club didn't prepare me for the stress that is coexistence advocacy, nothing will. So now I get to develop programming, look up texts and films for resources, and act as a personal I-P Programming Crisis Hotline. I'm very excited about my coworkers and the office itself. I'm looking forward to put what I'm learning at TC into context and gain some real experience.

2. PeaceGames

I attended an event at TC put on by Ed-Tech Interactive to learn about games being used in classrooms. There were some old favorites like Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail (which they seriously promoted as History Education) and a few new blocky looking programs that promoted math, language, and cooperation skills. But the real star of the show was a presentation on Peacemaker. Jim Diamond presented her preliminary PhD work on the game which challenges students to act as either the President of the PA or Prime Minister of Israel and react to realtime situations. The game is still under development at Carnegie Mellon and is being tested on students there as well as in Qatar. The point of such games that deal with the social sciences is not only to teach historical content (dates, names, places) as well as developing multiple perspectives and empathy (seeking values in history). I have quite a few questions about the Peacemaker game, and since it's not out yet it's very hard to get a demo of it, so I asked Jim to find out a bit more when he meets with the developers. And yeay, I have a new friend now and he said he'd share his notes and he's excited aobut my input too!

3. Celebrity Spotting

I walked past, twice, a filming of What Not To Wear!!!!!!!! I saw Clinton and Stacey arm in arm about to change some lucky young woman's life. Let me tell you they're beautiful people!

4. Wine

I stopped by my local liquer store to pick up soemthing to bring to my sister's tonight, and lo and behold I am a STAR! There's an Israeli Kinneret winery!!!!!!!! To be honest, it doesn't get high reviews, but I bought myself a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot of... MYSELF. I will taste it tonight and let you know if you should all run out and get some. Though, I have ot say, the bottle alone seems worth it. Unlike Kineret Challah, it's even spelled correctly.

Memory and Reconciliation

Last night was a big activity time for me. I think not doing anything all semester added to the fact that I'd do just about anything right now to not look at my finals ended up with me having an incredibly positive and fun educational night:

The Journal of International Affairs presents

The persistence of Memory: Historical Reconciliation in the 21st Century

A panel on the theoretical and practical challenges of seeking justice and reconciliation

All the panelists were genius, and incredibly articulate on a topic that (for me at least) can be very hard to discuss. They were able to compare a number of different cases of reparations and restorative justice, from African American issues to Rwanda, the Holocaust to East Timor.

Jonathan Bush is a professor at Columbia Law School and his focus is mainly on the Nuremberg Trials, though he can certainly discuss everything under the sun. His initial discussion was on defining "victimhood" as a part of the reparations process. He turned first to the argument in favor of reparations of African-American slaves and the fact that it has been a contested issue in that community as early as 1875 and was written about by W.E.B. DuBois. Yet, there was no reparations made, rather the freedom was seen as enough and there was far more pity and economic incentives given to the white Southern gentry who had lost their unpaid labor. He related this changing sense of victimhood to Germans and Czechs post World War II.

Elazar Barkan (ISRAELI!) is co-director of the Human Rights Concentrations at SIPA. He defined two different forms of justice. Retributive and Restorative. Retributive would refer to trials, whereas restorative would be the reparations and apologies made as well as museums built. In the middle are truth commissions. His focus was on how history is constructed and shapes conflicts as well as conflict resolution. Over time the idea of justice changes as history and "facts" change. He advocated historians being active leaders in peace processes.

Peter Rosenblum, Clinical Professor of Human Rights Law at Columbia, focused on the fluidity of memory. That there is no "moment" of truth. He used as an example the defining of genocide in Rwanda, and how it was perceived as important when people "knew" it was genocide. That this plays back on the post-Holocaust "Never Again" which was allowed to happen again.

Priscilla Hayner, co-founder of the International Center for Transitional Justice, also added quite a bit to the discussion, but I have nothing for her in the notes I'm writing off of. Likewise, Alice Miller, the moderator, added a great deal to the discussion.

Memory is a political act. It is a process that changes in reaction to current events and shapes current events at the same time. It can be falsified and used, such as propaganda. An example that was given was on China and Japan. Japan has never forgotten their part in the destruction of Nanking. China, on the other hand, under the Communist regime has suppressed it because the image of "victim" is not desired.

Barkan also addressed a question on memory "dying" or key events being forgotten. His response was that such events will be remembered as long as they are useful and the pain remains. Those that go unaddressed won't disappear, as well the ones that do will no necessarily fade away either. He said this is light of the Holocaust, and that perhaps it will eventually no longer be necessary or needed in our cultural memory, but at the time being it certainly is and continues to define relationships.

There was also a discussion on practicality of truth commissions. They are cheaper than Marchall Plans, which would address the actual structural issues that often promoted the conflict. Also, truth commisions are somewhat more symbolic that providing actual justice. Those that participate in them, and are able to name their aggressors, expect more than just those memories to be recorded.

There is so much here that I want to apply to my own work. Specifically, how narratives and history have maintained the conflict in Israel-Palestine as well as how it can be used in their reconciliation. I am hoping to take a course with Barkan as soon as I can.

Brittany and I stuck around for the excellent food and wine afterwards, and then headed over to the CICE launch, a student journal at Teachers College addressing comparative education. Unfortunately we missed the panel, but were able to chat with peers and professors over more food. Then we went to our department social, which had not been advertised so it was a pretty small but sweet affair. Then back to I-House where we had some delicious rum eggnog and tried to discuss education policy with Prthvi and Druv before heading up for a sleepover (Brittany's train wasn't running).

Sleigh bells ringing...

December already. To get into the spirit I suggest a cinnamon mocha at Starbucks (or your preferred mom & pop). If you're over 21, a shot of Czech Becherovka would do twice as well, but it's expensive I hear, even more than a venti latte with two shots of syrup.

This past week has been just this side of insane. After three nights of no sleep, things finally picked up. First there was a North building party. It was for Beer and Dessert and attracted a failr large crowd, babies too. It was fun to hang out with Melissa and my RA David, who I had recently sent several nagging letters about my neighbors.

Next I headed to an I-House cultural hour (last one was America, see previous post) in this one we toured Nepal's taxi drivers, climbed Mount Everest with a yettie, and chatted with monks in Tibet. And there was a yak dance, not to be missed. The food they served was good, but spicy beyond belief. If not for the 4 cups of chai I would not have made it. Afterwards, Honza, Michael (new German friend) and Suzanna sat around chatting about academia.

Pictured: Honza and Me after being welcomed-Nepal-style


Then things got serious. I haven't left my building since Thursday, my room since Friday. Finals.
* Middle East: 1 big paper, 1 small paper, 1 short presentation
* Peace Ed: 1 big paper
* Econ: 1 exam
* Family as Educators: 1 big paper, 1 big presentation
GAH. Well, the big Middle East paper is done at any rate, and with rave reviews (from my mom and dad, but I take what I can get). Now I'm trying to figure out how to climb the Ladder of Abstraction for Family as Ed...

Tonight I went next door for some late-night tea to my neighbor (the quite one) Susan. She invited over another friend, Julia (German) and we had a really surprisingly long evening. We did comparative genocide (Holocaust vs. Rwanda), comparative films on terrorism (Munich vs. Paradise Now), comparative bosses (unorganized vs. forced role-play). It sounds heavy, but it was a good time.

Today was also highly productive. I woke up early to schedule my classes for next semester!
Courses I've Scheduled:
Issues &Institutions-International Education Development
Education in Emergencies
Multicultural Approaches for Teaching Young Children
Human and Social Dimensions of Peace

Courses I'm Still Considering: (all are short-term weekend courses)
Practicum on Conflict Resolution
Peace Operation, Trusteeship,OCC Regimes
Development & Conflict Prevention:Critical conscience

And I'm looking at internships within either Middle East conflict resolution or peace education in NY (there's plenty of conflict here, believe me).

I am so ready for Winter Break, especially now that I've got my heater working. I plan on staying in NY the entire time. After all, everyone else pays to come to NY over break, why would I pay to leave? I'm hoping for some quality time with friends visiting and Brittany and I are going to be super-tourists and see this place we've been living in for 4 months.

Pictured: the yak dance