December has been eventful, full of sweet sufganiyot (jelly donuts), travel, hiking, and a lot of internship work. The semester wraps up in early January, and while I will be here next semester, there is a big rush to finish projects, hang out with the community, and make the most of my time here.
For Hanukah, the Jewish “Festival of Lights,” I was responsible for making latkes for the entire community of 50 of us and for 15 prospective students. Some friends helped, and we chopped and grated 25 potatoes and 5 onions. That was not the hard part though. When we started frying the latkes on our nifty hotplates in my apartment unit, the latkes just sizzled a bit and did not fry. Two hours later, we had only made 10 latkes. Thankfully, a few people were adventurous and took some of the latke batter and the frying pan outside to the fire, where it fried a bit more quickly. After 4 hours, we had two full plates of latkes.
It was a frustrating experience, but I tried again the next day with a different pan and hot plate. Miraculously, the latkes only took an hour to fry! It was nice to share the latkes with the community, as some people were trying them for the first time.
On the fourth night of Hanukah, I hiked to the top of Electric Mountain with a few others to light the Kibbutz Ketura’s giant Hanukkiah. The Kibbutz has nine giant canisters that they place at the top of the mountain overlooking the Kibbutz. That way, everyone at the kibbutz can see the light of the Hanukkiah, and the Hanukkiah is displayed to everyone passing on the highway. The fire is beautiful, and it was especially special to light the Hanukkiah at sunset from the top of the mountain. Though the huge flaming torch was a bit scary…
For Christmas weekend, I traveled with my friend Abdallah to Nazareth. Neither of us is Christian, but we wanted to explore Nazareth’s old city and churches and be part of the Christmas spirit, as Nazareth is a majority Christian city in Israel. There was a beautiful Christmas tree in the center of Nazareth with a Christmas market surrounding it. It was very different to hear Christmas songs in Arabic and to eat Arab street foods, such as Turkish potatoes and a sweet yogurt called mahalabia, in contrast to the gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate that are more common back home. I also enjoyed Nazareth’s Christmas parade the next day. Unfortunately, I could not go inside some of the historic churches as they were closed for the parade.
Interestingly, Nazareth is very pro-Palestinian, which is something that I did not realize before I visited. For example, in the middle of the central square, a giant sign says “Jerusalem, Capital of Palestine.” (When Trump announced the American embassy move to Jerusalem, the mayor of Nazareth “canceled” Christmas, and then later “re-instated” it.) In Nazareth, there are also a few signs with verses from the Quran in the central square, which I found interesting as Nazareth is a majority Christian city. In another part of Nazareth, there was a mural about the Naqba, and some vendors were selling goods “made in Palestine.” In general, I understand that Israeli Arabs have a very complicated identity. Perhaps Nazareth will become part of a future Palestinian state when there is a two-state solution, yet I wonder if all Israeli Arabs in Nazareth want that.
On the positive side, Nazareth seems like an example of co-existence. Most tourists in Nazareth were Jewish Israelis, and I was told that many Jewish Israelis are curious about Christmas and want to experience Christmas. (I assume that many Christian tourists want to celebrate Christmas with their families.) At the parade, the speakers spoke in both Arabic and Hebrew, and Israeli Jews, Muslims, and Christians enjoyed the parade together.
On Christmas Day, I went sand-sledding in the Arava desert, just a few miles away from the Arava Institute. A group of us made sleds out of cardboard ahead of time, though despite our great ingenuity, none of the sleds worked. Although sand is soft and flexible, all the sleds got stuck. We did have fun making sand angels, rolling down the hill, eating coffee and chocolate together at the top of the hill, and enjoying the beautiful view and sunset. I then traveled into Eilat to get my obligatory Jewish-American Christmas meal of Chinese food.
Happy New Year! I wish you all a year of fulfillment, health, joy, hygge (comfort), and adventure.