Developing a town and a career

This past shabbat Yavneh headed south to the Negev. We began with a very short "hike", I'd call it more like a brief walk, at Ein Ovdat. We looked around, it was beautiful. We heard air force jets flying over every few minutes, most likely leaving their Negev bases to visit some friends in Lebanon. After that, we headed back to the busses for lunch at the Be'er Sheva Mall (Canion HaNegev). It was a little surprising to me after spending most of my time in Israel in Jerusalem to actually ask a restaurant if they were kosher and hear the answer, "No." We even found a restaurant that had a neon sign saying they were kosher but had no way of proving it...sketchy!

We wandered around after having the most terrible pizza ever from Sbarros and then went to hear a woman speak about Ethiopian culture and stuff. It was hot and boring and too long, I won't go into it more, because I really didn't enjoy it. Following that we headed to our shabbat destination Yerucham, about 40 minutes south of Be'er Sheva. The hostel looked newly renovated and our room was very nice, not that I'd be spending much time there, but still. In the hostel was a bus from Bnei Akiva's Mach Hach Ba'Aretz as well as a group of Israeli's on a hiking "kaytana" which is basically short week or two week long specialized summer camps. The Israeli kids loved us and we talked to them throughout shabbat. Shabbat was very nice, we had a session on "pidyon shvuyim" or the mitzvah/ramifications of getting kidnapped people released. My small group briefly read over some sources, and then discussed it for a while on a more practical level, as in what should Israel do now. We also had a tour of the town by a local resident, who explained to us the many problems Yerucham faces today and has faced since its inception.

Some of those problems include low expectations of education from generation to generation and the fact that students aren't encouraged to continue their education. Also the fact that there is no industry in the town is a big problem. Apparently when the houses were being built, they were offered on a buy one get one free basis, whatever that means, but it was basically to try to get anyone to come so that they could develop the Negev. There are a lot of immigrants and one of the most prominent hesder Yeshivot in Israel but really its just one sprawling residential district with some run down areas and some nicer ones. Being so isolated probably leads many people to leave. There is a thriving religious community there, I don't know what percentage, but it's certainly present. Oh, and while I enjoyed Yerucham and recommend going there, the food was terrible.

One of the reasons I came to Israel this summer was to "get a foot in the door" in the Israeli industry. You need to develop connections in as many ways possible and that will lead to an interview or two and another interview and hopefully a job. On Sunday morning I took a detour from my usually scheduled work, to attempt to do some of this networking. When I say scheduled, I should say, when I schedule it, because just today I didn't come in until 10:45. But anyways, I didn't go to work, and I was awake. I went with a friend of my dad's who works for a computer company to a client of his. He was hired to wire this really rich guy's apartment in Nachlaot with new ethernet, cable tv, and phone lines. Really to start it is more of a renovation and heavy labor job, but still I tagged along to check it out. He brought with him the shiputznik or “renovator”, an Arab, who had with him 2 boys, probably his sons. It was very interesting to work with them, they spoke with us in English, because I think they spoke English better than Hebrew, and of course with their father(?) in Arabic. I stuck around for about 2 hours observing the scene and laughing at how much this really rich guy wanted done to his house. He wanted to have an ethernet jack or two sometimes in many of the rooms, for no reason whatsoever, but "money talks"! He was really against cordless/wireless for some reason, therefore he also wanted a phone jack installed in many rooms as well.

After that, I had lunch headed back to work. I may go back later in the week to see some more practical work, we’ll see. My site is really coming together now, I've had my 3 most productive days since I've been here, and basically finished the site. All the data hasn't been inputted into the database yet, but the framework is nearly complete. I have some more features to add but the basics are more or less done. On Monday night, we had a dinner with our employers. My guy didn't really show, but the food was good, so I didn't really care about the company. The dinner was an appreciation for all the employers for putting up with us and it was very nice.

On Tuesday night, I went to the mass tefilah at the Kotel. Various Rabbis each lead a spirited perek of Tehillim, in order that the situation in Israel will be improved, on extremely loud speakers, I can still hear them screaming into them now. R. Ovadiah Yosef said a few words as well as the 2 chief Rabbis of Israel were also present, Rabbi Shlomo Amar (Sephardic Chief Rabbi) and Rabbi Yona Metzger (Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi). Following that, and on every Erev Rosh Chodesh, is the sivuv she'arim, the march around to visit all of the Old City's gates. I imagine that tonight's was especially packed because of the mass tefilah, but I can't know for sure. The entire Kotel plaza was literally packed that no one could move, it was unbelievable, and many of these people went on the march. I started it only because I basically had no choice, it was the only way people were moving out of the plaza when I wanted to leave, but then since I had a headache from being near the speakers, I headed back about 20 minutes in. I kind of regret not going, but I may have another opportunity, if I choose to go and experience something one-of-a-kind, on Tisha b'Av night.