24. Courses, etc.

I've now had about a week and a half of classes and they've been great. Hebrew classes are at 8:30 everyday. I'm not much of an early riser or early-to-bed student so it's been a bit of a change. Nonetheless, it's pretty nice to finish classes early and have the rest of the day free.

Islam, Politics, and Terror is an awesome course. We've started looking at Islamic Law and the downfall of Islam/Ottoman Empire. It's seems that the American educational system doesn't do the best job of teaching the Ottoman Empire or the history of Islam given how many questions we are all asking. It's also embarrassing to have to be explicitly told the difference between Sunis and Shias. That said, it's great to be learning all of this stuff, especially because it's so applicable to events and movements around me.

Contemporary Jewish Issues has been surprisingly engaging. It feels at times like a class that I might have taken in 6th grade, but I'm definitely getting much more out of it today. We're going to talk about how Judaism addresses divorce, intermarriage, homosexuality, feminism and other "hot" topics. We have spent two classes looking at the Torah and Talmud/Mishah (commentaries) in order to define who is a Jew. The debates have been pretty contentious and it's cool to see so many kids yelling about these issues (especially because Bowdoin doesn't quite foster debate on religion).

My course in the Arab-Israeli Conflict is cool. It's a strict history course--no talk of the current conflict but rather a survey of movements, -isms, and tensions before 1948 (year Israel was established). The professor is a diplomatic, historian's historian. Very much a part of the discipline and it's plain to see that he cares about history as a discourse. It's great to learn about the roots of Islamic Nationalism, Arab Nationalism, and Palestinian Nationalism, especially because we've been told they're all distinct.

Finally, my Ethics of Terrorism course is amazing. The teacher is smart though she tends to assert her own opinion a bit too much. She starts each topic with her beliefs so it's tough to argue in the hopes of winning anyone over. Nonetheless, the debates have been great--very contentious and very high energy. I've never been in a class where kids are so eager to tell what they think. This is probably a function of talking about terrorism in the Middle East with a bunch of American Jews who have been told what to think for most of their lives. The most interesting opinions, I think, are from the non-Jews and non-Americans. They tend to have more depth to their opinions and can argue their points more eloquently.

All-in-all, the courses are solid. The afternoons and nights are about as open as during Ulpan (the 1 month Hebrew course) so I'm trying to do some pleasure reading.

Next week I'm going to the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs. There is a trip for only 15 kids that I managed to sign up for. It should be great. We can only bring money and a passport inside. No phones, wallets, cameras or pens. Pretty cool.

I'm off to Jerusalem this weekend to see an Idan Raichel concert. He's a pretty popular musician so I'm gonna tag along with friends. I'm hoping to take a tour of Mea Shearim (the ultra-orthodox community in Jerusalem) and go see an exhibit in the big art museum with stolen works from the Holocaust. I just saw an article about it in the NYTimes so I'm guessing it's worthwhile.