Our Peace Pole had become quite a familiar sight, propped up in the back corner of the church, but all that changed last Tuesday when workmen from Tu’ran arrived and proceeded to dig a hole in the garden, and by lunchtime the Pole was duly cemented into the ground. A few of us were meeting for a bible study, and we were caught by surprise by the speed of the work, but it is wonderful that it is finally in the ground with its message of ‘Let peace prevail on earth’ in the four languages: Arabic, English, Hebrew and Russian. Interestingly, as the workmen dug the whole, they discovered a one mil coin, inscribed Palestine (In the three languages), 1939. Not valuable, but fascinating to speculate how it ended up in the garden. Was a schoolchild reprimanded for losing it?
On Sunday we had a dozen people at the service, from Seattle and London, Germany and Holland, so we dedicated the peace pole and cracked open some sparkling red wine (which proceeded to splash over my white cassock!). The official dedication of the garden will be later in the year.
Showing posts with label Russian Jews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russian Jews. Show all posts
Friday, 1 July 2011
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Ulpan - my Hebrew lessons
The place where I go for my Hebrew lessons is also a centre for the neighbourhood, and last week I was invited to join a group of elderly people, who meet every day for tea and talk.
A group of handicapped children from a local school had come to act out how to prepare for the Shabbat meal. Many of the elderly people were obviously quite poor and came from the Sephardic community, Jews from Arab countries like Morocco or Yemen or Iraq, who often ended up in poorer jobs and were subtly discriminated against by the Ashkenazi (European) Jews.
Fortunately this situation has changed over the years, but there still seems to be a distinction between the various groups. Now there is another group, the Jews from the old Soviet Union, over a million of whom emigrated to Israel in the 1990s.
Half of my Ulpan class comprises of Russians who have never quite mastered Hebrew. Others come from Argentina, Hungary and France, along with a couple of Brits. Most are older than me and l have been in the country for far longer.
A group of handicapped children from a local school had come to act out how to prepare for the Shabbat meal. Many of the elderly people were obviously quite poor and came from the Sephardic community, Jews from Arab countries like Morocco or Yemen or Iraq, who often ended up in poorer jobs and were subtly discriminated against by the Ashkenazi (European) Jews.
Fortunately this situation has changed over the years, but there still seems to be a distinction between the various groups. Now there is another group, the Jews from the old Soviet Union, over a million of whom emigrated to Israel in the 1990s.
Half of my Ulpan class comprises of Russians who have never quite mastered Hebrew. Others come from Argentina, Hungary and France, along with a couple of Brits. Most are older than me and l have been in the country for far longer.
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