This week was another week of school. Nothing very exciting happened. On Wednesday for our Israel Seminar class we had a day of looking at Women's Status in Israel. We heard from different women that have jobs that are focused on helping women that live in Israel. The first woman went into detail about how the orthodox community is trying to make segregated buses so that men and women don't have to sit on the same bus. This is not allowed and the bus company out here won't allow it so instead what the orthodox community has done is made it so that women have to sit on the back of the buses. This is not something that happens on all the buses here in Jerusalem, just the ones that go through the orthodox communities such as Meah Sh'arim. What was interesting was that the day after hearing this I saw Mohammed and he told he that on Friday he was going to be driving one of these buses that have women sit in the back. I got so excited and asked him if I could join him on this ride. I was excited because I really wanted to see what this was like. He told me that if I did join him I would have to dress like an orthodox girl and would have to sit in the back of the bus otherwise I would get yelled at. I obviously agreed to doing so. On Friday morning as I get up and begin to get ready to go, Mohammed called me and told me he was no longer driving that bus. I was a little disappointed because I really interested in experiencing this.
The other woman, Rachel, works in the government and has taken it upon herself to help women that are specifically in the orthodox movement. We learned that how on the buses here in Israel there aren't any pictures of women's faces because the Orthodox men can't look at them then. She told us about a story of a woman that came it and said her husband had rapped their 6 year old daughter and the courts told the woman that there was nothing they could do because it is a matter between her husband and he daughter and it didn't involve her. So Rachel has taken on the role of helping women in these situations and trying to make it equal for everyone. We then watched clips of a few films and analyzed the role of the women. A lot of the statistics they told us were really disturbing and it makes me want to have a more active role and creating equal rights.
That was the most exciting thing that happened this week, otherwise everything else is the same...school school school. We did have our conference call for LA on thursday night and it was really interesting and it made me really excited about moving down to LA. So of course, out of my excitement I began to look up apartments.... didn't find anything too exciting. I think it is really just going to come down to me needing to go and look at places. I also don't know if I want to have a roommate. Any opinions?
Tonight is the Debbie Friedman concert. For those of you that don't know who Debbie Friedman is, she essentially changed the face of Jewish Music. Much of her music is sang at congregations, and communities around the world. Over my winter break, Debbie passed away so tonight at school we are having a concert to remember her. Me and other students are going to be singing one of her famous songs Lechi Lach. Moms favorite song! I am going to try and get someone to record it on my camera and then I will try and post it tonight on the blog for you all to see.
This week at school we only have 3 days of class because we are having what we a Colloquium. I have no idea what the means but once we have it and I am there, I will fill you all in. That's about it for tonight, nothing exciting :)
Hope everyone is well!
xoxo
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