Forests, Protest, and Other Things

Shabbat is over, my homework is done, so time to blog.  First, I must tell you about the Jerusalem hills.  Our wonderful summer intern, Amy, arranged a shabbat hike for us last weekend in the Jerusalem hills.  "Hills" is the wrong word.  Mountains is more like it.  A little google told me that the area is really the Judean Mountains.

On Shabbat morning, our prayer leader, Rabbi Kelman moved our usual Shabbat morning Kiddush inside because it was so hot.  A few bailed on the hiking because of the weather forecast but most of us were not deterred from our trip however, we all went home, packed donned our sun screen, hats, collected our water, and made our way back to the college to catch a bus out to the west of Jerusalem.
Amy prepared us well, telling us to bring plenty of water . . . we would need it.

Amy loves to hike and she chose a gorgeous route for us.  We started out on a trail into Wadi Qetalav.  A wadi, for those not into the desert lingo, is a usually dry creek bed.  Most of the year, this is a rather dry place.  But, for several months starting in November, we will get quite a bit of rain.  During these months, many of these wadi's will carry some water.  Jerusalem actually gets almost the same amount of annual precipitation as London, England.  But, it all comes in a few months, November through March.

It was dry and hot but there was not complaining from anyone.  It was too beautiful.  We all knew what to expect from the heat.  I didn't know what to expect from the forest.  In this particular area, most of the vegetation is native species, not the non-native or near native conifers the JNF is famous for planting.  The native species are hearty and flower and fruit despite the conditions.

I think Amy did not know all that the hike would be.  We helped her out in her effort to challenge us by taking a wrong turn.  This wasn't her fault, we were off up the trail before she could say much to stop us.  Besides, getting lost is half the fun of getting anywhere.  Instead of making a loop back to our starting point we ended up hiking through the Soreq Stream Nature Preserve and up to Ramat Raziel.  This is a moshav established in 1948 and named after a commander, David Raziel, in the Irgun.  Funny anything would be named after anybody in the Irgun, it generally isn't viewed very well here.  (Elle?  I think this should remind you of our conversation tonight).  They were a very militant and militaristic Zionist group.  Some of it was absorbed into the IDF after Independence.  I suppose some parts of the Irgun must have been well intentioned.  Ramat Raziel is a nice small town, very quiet on Shabbat . . . just the way I like it.

After our exhausting hike up the mountain, climbing about 2000 feet in only about a mile, we needed a place to rest.  The park in Ramat Raziel was just the ticket.  The Ramat Raziel welcoming committee was closed for Shabbat so we were greeted and entertained by a local cat and dog.  For his efforts we fed the cat a little leftover cake.  The poor dog got nothing . . . he looked a little crazy.

Protests . . .

Tonight I can hear protests outside of the Prime Minister's residence . . . or as close as the protesters can get to it.  The issue at hand is the cost of living.  The protesters have set up tent cities in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to protest housing prices.  There is something of a free market here.  I can't say that I know enough about the Israeli economy.  However, I can tell you enough to know a few facts I have observed.  What the protesters say is true.  Rents have risen dramatically in the past few years, and have priced many young Israelis out of the market in the cities where they have to work.  There are a lot of building projects going on but mostly they are for very high priced apartments.  There are many apartment buildings in Jerusalem that are vacant and in disrepair, I assume, waiting for the right time to renovate or sell.  In essence, I think the housing market is broken.  It appears there is plenty of space for everyone but little motivation to build affordable housing.  There are plenty of foreigners who are investing here and buying high priced property.  I think the vacant buildings are probably owned by people waiting for the next foreigner with money to arrive to sell for a good price.  I hate to disturb a free market situation but when foreigners are driving a local situation, I think it is well within the right and purpose of the government to step in somehow.  I hope a solution can be achieved that respects the essence of a free market AND can help the Israelis who need it, because they do.

Other Things . . .

Enough already!  I apologize for the grammatical or spelling mistakes.  I don't have the patience right now to read everything I've just written.

Shavua Tov