Sunday, October 09, 2005

New Material

ז' תשרי, תשס״ו
Read on down from before my post wishing you all a Shana Tova (although I still do, and a g'mar chatima tova at that).

Apologies for my lack of emailing -- I'll get there. Please know that I really appreciate your emails even if I don't get to respond to them. Hopefully I'll get to the point where I can be in touch on a more regular basis.

Oh, and please note, if it's of interest or relevance, that Israel has moved off of Daylight Savings Time (sniff!) as of this past Saturday night, so the difference between here and the U.S. is six hours now, not seven.

Only in Israel

ז' תשרי, תשס״ו

…could I learn a story in gemara involving one Abba Chilkiya and then be riding in a cab the very same evening and have another car pull up alongside to ask my driver directions to Abba Chilkiya Street.


Friday, October 07, 2005

Outsider

ד׳ תשרי, תשס״ו

My school is in a rather religious neighborhood. The children in such areas are often very independent, running errands and going outside to play without direct parental supervision at much younger ages than would be expected these days in most places, because there is an unofficial but very strongly enforced “neighborhood watch.” Strangers are recognized as such and adults are alert to children, theirs or otherwise. Small children might be allowed, therefore, to go out alone even before they are old enough to safely cross the street alone; they are taught to stand on the curb until an adult comes along to cross them over.

Today I was standing in front of my school waiting for a cab. Along came a little girl of about four, maybe; she stood there at the curb looking out at the street. The procedure I’ve described above wasn’t at the top of my mind at the moment, but seeing her standing there looking purposeful but quite still I asked her in Hebrew if she was all right. She solemnly nodded her head yes without looking at me and continued to stand there. Not wanting to make her nervous, I stepped back a bit and continued to wait…and so did she. I thought maybe her mother or an older sibling was coming home soon and she was out to greet them. I’m not sure why the simple goal of crossing the street didn’t cogently occur to me, but it didn’t. After a bit I considered asking her if she was waiting for someone, but just as I was about to do so, two men in the standard black hat/black coat/white shirt attire came down the street, and I think she called out to them. One of them asked her if she wanted to cross the road, she said yes, and he walked next to her to the opposite curb before continuing on his way. She scampered off to the playground, and I was left feeling a bit foolish and rather unreasonably hurt.

Had I realized straight off what she needed, I would have offered my assistance, and my guess is she probably would have accepted, although perhaps warily. But despite the fact that I am a woman and I was standing next to her for several minutes, she wouldn’t have trusted me for the small favor that was natural for her to ask of these unknown men. Because I am an outsider, a student at a foreign institution that just happens to be located near her home, but not at all a member of her community. I suppose that’s the just way it is, and that it’s safer for these kids to recognize who is and isn’t one of their own. Nevertheless, I found it very sad to have been branded an alien among Jews by this small child.

On Pedestrianism and Other Transportation Matters

ד׳ תשרי, תשס״ו

One observation I’ve made about Jerusalem in the realm of my professional “field” is that although the city is very spread out, and so because of sheer distance one might not be inclined to walk from outlying neighborhoods, there are sidewalks nearly everywhere, even along the big three-and four-lane roads. Yes, the air is unpleasantly polluted from vehicles, and yes, parking on said sidewalks is prevalent and in many places legal. But in most cases the way is (at least minimally) passable and safe, and there are designated pedestrian crossing areas even at huge five-way junctions. Unlike in the U.S., where often you have to watch for turning cars even when crossing with the light, most intersections here have reserved pedestrian green signals, meaning that when the “walk” light is on no cars have a right-of-way across the pedestrian path from any direction. Usually this entails several crosswalks across a road with islands in between, where the lights on each crossing segment are in different phases at any given time. But surprisingly enough, Israelis, who rarely wait for much else, seem to wait for the green light at each segment…wisely, I might add, as when the pedestrian light is red there are often cars turning from three lanes away that would be quite unforeseen until they were a very immediate danger. (The New York impatience in me has been taking a bit of a thrashing from my intelligence; generally I wait for the green as well.)

So I just wanted to make this point. The city overall has many traffic-flow problems, pollution as mentioned, and accessibility nightmares for handicapped people…but in certain spheres many American cities could take a lesson from Jerusalem.