It’s been an eventful few weeks, full of holidays, cute anecdotes, law school applications and politics both domestic and international. And now, my pithy observations about all this:
1. My house built a Sukkah for Sukkot. It was really quite nice to sit, eat and sing in. I’d forgotten how much fun sing-alongs are especially when performing silly rock ‘n’ roll. I think the world would be a much better place if there were more of them. When I’m president, increasing the total number of sing-alongs will be my top priority.
2. Finally getting into the schools was a lot of fun. The kids are adorable. One little boy came up to me and, using all the English he had, introduced himself saying: “My name is NO-AM.” He had a huge smile on his face and since he already looked like a bush baby, it took all of my effort not to say, “AAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.” I wanted to bring him home to show my roommates, but it’s illegal and immoral to remove wildlife from its natural environs. Maybe I should feed him a peanut next time, but I don’t want to domesticate him. Some of the other kids wrote me a list of useful phrases to help me learn Hebrew. It was unbelievably sweet. I am really looking forward to a fun year.
3. Law school applications are not fun. Nuff said.
4. There are a few similarities between the Occupy Wall Street movement and the social justice protests going on here. Both are mad about societal inequality. I think the key difference is that the Occupy Wall Street movement, while a large group of disaffected individuals, has few, if any, concrete demands. Yes, peaceful displays of public anger are important to maintaining our democracy, but what can be accomplished without specific goals? The Social Justice Protests here eventually agreed on a specific set of grievances and demands. It doesn’t appear (from over here at least) that Occupy Wall Street has any aims other than protesting.
5. Gilad Shalit has returned home. This is wonderful for Israel, and a demonstration of how much the country truly cares about its citizens. They let over 1,000 prisoners go, many of whom were convicted of violent crimes, like terrorism, for one man. Can anyone see the US ever doing something like that?
6. Muammar Gadaffi is dead. Why haven’t we been stopping certain elements within the Libyan revolution from committing atrocities? I thought NATO’s mandate under the UN resolution was intervention to protect civilians. Let’s hope that NATO fulfills that role. I pray the bloodshed ends soon and a peaceful, democratic Libya is created.
Alan Borenstein is a Ma’ase Olam Israel Teaching Fellow, one of Masa Israel’s 200 programs.
