Shabbat Shalom!

Hey everyone,

Like advertised, I had a great weekend. Thursday I picked up my first stipend check and I don't want to brag, but it was 400 NIS. For those of you who don't remember the exchange rate it's about $100!!! On Friday night a lot of the people in the Stagerim (internship) program, mostly from Tel Aviv and some from Jerusalem, got together at a fellow intern's apartment in the Florentine area (pictures from Purim were in Florentine). The apartment is on the sixth floor and is, by far, the biggest apartment I have seen in Israel. The balcony alone could fit at least 20-30 people. In short, it was a blast. Hooray New Friends!

The pictures from Friday night are below:

Benji, me, and Margarita (a new intern who is living in Jerusalem) (Above).

Rahel (Israeli), Abby(American/intern living in Tel Aviv), Sam (Below).

The two girls above with Eliel (French guy who made Aaliyah and is getting a PhD in Astrophysics) (Below).

Everyone listed in the pictures above and Justin (Sam's roommate) (Below).

Please Note: Internet in my room has been awful. The pictures and sentences from Saturday (soccer match between Israel & Greece) and Sunday (trip to Jerusalem) are coming up when I get servicable internet. This post was made thanks to (mi amiga) Gabriela's internet.

Visit to Ashkelon 3-22

Hey guys,

I want to again thank everyone for visiting the blog...it's been getting a lot of individual hits lately and I'm sure that's because many of you have spread the word and have been avid readers yourselves. I should be doing and seeing some very cool stuff in the coming weeks and months and I look forward to bringing that to you in text and picture form.


--

Some funky, new age Israeli art work.

Ashkelon is a city of about 100,000 that sits on Israel's golden [Mediterranean] coast. Situated about 50 km (30 miles) South of Tel Aviv (one hour by bus) and 10 km (6 miles) North of the Gaza Strip the city has a beautiful coastline and beaches and a lot of new medium-rise construction. Villas near the water look, stylistically, like homes in Southern Europe and the Caribbean--red tile roofs, pastel shades of stucco, and architecture that mixes Middle Eastern and Southern European traditions. Though not a major historical site or port city the clean coastline and quaint feel of this Southern city does attract tourists looking to avoid the crowds and bustle of cities further North.

View of the hotels on the beach (above) and an amphitheatre next to the Marina where we met the highschoolers (below).

Mid-rise buildings and some villas to the right (below).

Prior to 2008 Ashkelon was not a target of Hamas rockets. (Hamas is currently the governing body and militant group located, primarily, in the Gaza Strip.) Last year the reality of the citizens of Ashkelon changed as rocket-fire hit the city for the first time. The first heavy attacks came December 2008 as the ceasefire that had held between Israel and Hamas broke down. The months of December, January, and part of February saw, on some days, dozens of rockets being fired in the direction of Ashkelon. Because of the primitive nature of the rockets and hence the difficulty of aiming them, many of them hit outside of the city or lightly-populated areas.

When Sam and I visited Ashkelon I think we were both anticipating something different. The city hummed with activity -- cars whizzed by in typical Israeli fashion- with exhaust fumes, beeping, and a lot of lane-shifting. Vendors were selling clothes and food and people were everywhere. Yet, not more than two or three weeks ago rockets had been hitting this very
town. We saw nothing that even resembled a rocket attack- no burned out buildings, no closed down streets, nothing. With the intent of talking to some of the local inhabitants I had taken a notepad and my audio recorder and fortunately (for me and the readers of this blog) got a chance to speak to two high school seniors (Shenhav and Inbar) who had stayed in Ashkelon during the bombings. They presented a very real and sobering account of life under rocket fire, the conversation moving from what daily life was like to their opinions on the military actions in Gaza. We spoke to them at the Marina, a popular hangout location on the shore with a few bars, restaurants, and boats. Until the girls said that a rocket had hit the Marina and had resulted in several business closures we had no idea that the area had been hit at all.

Shenhav (left) and Inbar (right), seniors at high school in Ashkelon (above).

The conversation was very real for someone coming from a place (Needham) that only gets close to the word "rocket" when people cheer for our high school sports teams [Needham Rockets]. Though some of what the girls said was serious, the conversation was punctuated by laughter and what seems to me as the Israeli spirit. When I asked whether people wanted to stay and raise families in Ashkelon the response was one of courage and defiance--

It's the Fact that they are here, there are [many] more places in our country that people can go, safer places, cheaper places to live in, but I think that if [we keep moving] then...it will never stop.

Powerful words that, to me, define the mentality of Israelis.

--

I am currently working on the audio portion of my trip which (I hope) will be up by next week. I want to thank Shenhav and Inbar for taking time out of taking pictures for their yearbook to speak with me and I want to wish them the best of luck in the Israeli military later this year.

UPDATE: A Quassam rocket landed just South of Ashkelon yesterday (Tuesday 3/24)...no casualties were reported and no damage was done...it was the first rocket attack in ten days

Link: Quassam lands in Ashkelon

Big Things Poppin'

Shalom,

I got a good bit of updates coming up this and next week on the blog....I went to Ashkelon in the South on Thursday and spent all day there...I got a chance to interview a couple of high school seniors about the bombings and took a bunch of pictures so I'll be putting up a written piece, pictures, and an audio bit soon.

I'm also going to a World Cup 2010 qualifying match between Israel and Greece in Tel Aviv on Saturday so I'll hopefully have some cool pictures and a story to tell.

Finally, my first trip to Jerusalem since I've been in Israel is on Sunday. I'll be getting together with my cousin who lives in Jerusalem and she'll be showing me around.

...Stay tuned....

-Pavel

Life...immortalized on photographs

The first two pictures are from a couple of nights ago in Tel Aviv, hanging out with (Philly) Sam, Gabriela (going to college here...from Ecuador/New Jersey), and Benji and Ortal who live in the city.

These three pictures are from a club that a big group of us went to on the waterfront in Tel Aviv the day after Purim. Me and Guille(pronounced Guishe from Argentina) below....everyone says we look a lot a like, but I think my skin is just a tad darker [sarcasm].

Travel Update: I'm going to the South this Sunday (not quite sure where yet)....look for the post early next week.

Work update/ travel update

Hey kids,

Sorry about the dearth of updates the past few days. Between hanging out with some kids and a lack of interesting events I have not had much to post. I have been working quite a bit at the Center to prep for my boss' trip to Italy for the Book Fair so I have been staying a bit later to deal with some issues that have popped up.

I will be getting extra days off next week because I worked this past Sunday . So....that trip to the South is on hold until next week I think. Between now and then I am still hoping to get to Jerusalem (Sunday?) and post some pictures of some shenanigans with some kids you guys haven't seen yet. Stay tuned....

-Pavel

Skype Update

Hey kids,

One more thing. I just got Skype on my computer yesterday, after much difficulty, so get a Skype account! Look me up in the directory, I'm sure I'm the only Pavel Leykin on there. Whenever I have internet in my room I will be on Skype (weekday evenings EST and weekend morning and afternoons EST). Look forward to seeing and hearing from those of you with webcams soon!

-Pavel

Peres Center Update

Hey Guys,

I wanted to let you know what I have been doing at the Mediterranean Dept at the Peres Center for Peace so here goes... The project that we have just started (and submitted a funding proposal for) is called MedTales. The idea is to have a web portal accessible anywhere (schools, hospitals, homes in particular) that has videos of famous Mediterranean idols, easily identified by children, reading children's stories from different Mediterranean countries that carry values of cultural understanding, tolerance, etc. The proposed website will also have an interactive section that will include games, and other tools for children to explore other countries in the region (southern Europe, North Africa, Mediterranean Middle East). The project has, in part, been inspired by a Screen Actor's Guild Project called Storyline Online.

We are currently in the process of partnering with publishing houses, authors, illiustrators, translators, and others from the region to be able to launch the project with a minimum of six nations involved, and hence, have each story translated into six different languages. My boss, Noa, is travelling to Bologna, Italy to meet with potential partners at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the largest in the world (I think). I have been researching organizations to contact, helping plan the development of the website (and project in general) and drafting letters to send out to set up meetings at Bologna. The work has been pretty interesting so far and I'm looking forward to being onthe ground here when we do get the money and partners to get this this going full swing.

We have also been brainstorming other ideas for another project in our dept. and we have one kinda in development - essentially creating workshops and seminars to discuss the concept and idea of a Mediterranean "union" (not in the sense of an EU or NAFTA) where countries are more interconnected socially and economically. The idea of a Mediterranean union is not really on the minds of people in the area and we are trying to get it out into the ether so people actually think about the countries here as having something in common. This idea is a possibility, but nothing definite has been decided yet and I have asked for as much input for an idea as anyone would have in the organization.

It's been a good few weeks getting adjusted and I think that the more used to the organization that I am the more I will be able to contribute.

Thanks,

Pavel

P.S. I should have some more cool stuff coming soon if I end up going to the South this week on a day trip. My goal is to interview some people and take pictures...really get a sense for what living under rocket fire is like.

Some words on Purim

Hey everyone,

If you saw the Purim pics then you can guess it was a lot of fun. For the holiday we went into Tel Aviv to an area that is famous for it's Purim celebration - Florentine Street. The entire street, was packed (as you saw) with the bars open to the street and convenient stores selling tons of overpriced beers. There were people from all over the globe as well, lots of Americans and French in particular all dressed up in crazy outfits. As you can see from the pictures I lost my costume pretty quickly. With that many people in the street it was impossible to keep a child's Zorro cape on my back and as I said before my mustache fell off after one drink.

The street reminded me of New Orleans (those of you that have been understand) with people drinking in the street, loud music blaring, and lots and lots of people. We were out until 4 am and at work the next day I found out several people in my boss (boss included) had been out just as late in the same area as me. Great way to celebrate an arrival to a new country.

Not anything crazy planned this weekend, we went out enough this week, but I'll be blogging about some interesting stuff I have been doing at work - I've been asked about it enough that it deserves it's own blog post. In the coming half week I'll also be putting up a link to a blog that a couple of buddies of mine from Philly (also living at the Absorption Center) are writing and some pictures of friends of mine that I haven't put up yet, so look forward to those.

Best,

Pavel

Purim Pics Vol. 2

This guy was dressed up as a transformer and transformed in the middle of the street (Above)

Israeli girl I met on the street (Above)

Natan (dreads), Benji (pink boa), and Ortal (girl) with some random guys (Below).

Natan and Celine (friend of Ortal visiting from France) (Below).

Girl that had awesome glasses, me (wearing her awesome glasses and Benji's boa), and Benji.

Purim Pics Vol. 1

Benji, Ortal, me, Celine, Natan (above)

For those of you familiar with the "Excuse-me Ladies mustache" (below) you can see who I went as...cape, top hat, curly mustache...unfortunately after the first drink my mustache fell off, I lost my cape soon after, and then ended up switching hats with the Israeli girl I met (hence gold sequin hat above).

The Frenches dressed as a Vikings (below).

Purim, Family, Protests, and Pics

Shalom everyone,

Had a great weekend and the week is about to get really great. Purim, the only Israeli holiday that encourages drinking heavily (so that you can't tell Mordechai from Haman...story here), is essentially a Jewish Halloween. Kids have been walking around dressed up already and setting off small fireworks on the streets and tomorrow night I am going go to into Tel Aviv where I here the party will be pretty fun.

Thurday after work I grabbed a bite and a drink with a girl from work, Sivan, originally from L.A. On the way we saw a large group of Sudanese men standing with signs outside of an Israeli military base chanting pro-International Criminal Court (ICC) and anti-Omar al-Bashir slogans (because of his recent indightment for crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. I didn't talk to any of the protesters, but I did take some pictures...




I got to spend Shabbat this weekend with mom's cousin and her husband (Katya and Dima) who live in Holon, about 10 minutes south of Tel Aviv. They got to Israel about three years ago and have been living in Holon the entire time. Holon is not unlike Ra'anana in the sense that it is a peaceful and pretty "exurb" of Tel Aviv. The exception between cities being Holon is experiencing somewhat of a housing boom - a lot of highrise condo construction. Dima showed me around the city on Friday night and I went for a run Saturday and really like what I saw...pictures below. For family I had never met they were incredibly nice and friendly preparing dinner and a bed and some really interesting conversation. It's great to know that even in Israel I have somewhat of a support system.

Thanks again for reading. I'll be putting Purim pictures up soon.

-Pavel

Rocket attacks into Israel

I am having difficulties loading the pictures onto the blog so in the meantime I wanted to say something a bit serious. Though I imagine it doesn't make the news in the US (or in Europe for that matter) rockets get fired every day into southern Israel from Gaza. Today, several rockets from Gaza landed in the Negev desert in the South and luckily no one was hurt, but rocket attacks earlier in this week led to the closure of schools in parts of the South (mostly b/c of parental pressure). Though I have not been to the South yet (I'll let you know when I'm going), I have spoken to Israelis who point to the fact that this is a part of life. Sderot, a city in the South that has been under bombardment for ten years (don't quote on that figure) has a pile of rockets in front of the police station that have been fired into the city. Recently, Ashkelon and Ashdod, also cities in the South have made news as Hamas militants have targeted those cities as well. I am not writing this to be biased towards one side or another, but I did want to point out something that I felt was important that some people may not have been aware of. I also want to note that I am living (safely) only a couple of hours drive from these attacks and yet I do not feel that I am in any danger.

Check out this article on the Haaretz website:

Rocket fired from Gaza hits near Netivot synagogue

-Pavel


P.S. Thanks for all of your comments. I have been reading them and appreciate you guys taking the time to read the posts and write responses.

Beach and Star Wars-like building Pix

Here are the pix I promised...I went to the beach with the girls that live downstairs and my Turkish roommate (pictured with me) Nathan. We are supposed to get some very hot days this weekend- reaching the low 80s is a distinct possibility.































One of the very rainy days I snapped a picture of this cool looking building outside my office building.

Beach, Rain, and New Job

Shalom everyone!

A lot has happened since my last full blog post and I know I am either not going to get to it all or forget to mention something. Please note pictures are forthcoming in the next posting. I have been busy, tired, or have had crap internet which has been slowing my posting times.

Thursday I went to the beach in Herzilya, a town on the coast north of Tel Aviv. The weather was incredible- talking about 70+ degrees, not a cloud in the sky and best of all the water was (cold) but warm enough to swim in...I didn't bring trunks, but I did wade, and it was very wade-able.

Thursday night we went out in Tel Aviv, had a big night staying out till 3:30ish....it was a get-together for the Stagerim kids (internship) where they received their monthly $100 stipend. Because I had not been here a month I did not get one, but met a bunch of interesting people here from all over Europe (France, Germany, Hungary, etc) some that are making Aaliyah (see one of previous posts) or are here for a few months working or studying Hebrew.

Nota Bene: The program I am on has been cancelled b/c of budget cuts (thanks economy), though I will not be impacted I am one of the last interns to go through the program.

The weekend (till today and maybe beyond) has been a deluge (of rain). It has been raining, thundering, pouring, lightning-ing like whoa. Seriously, like two nights ago, in the middle of the night it thundered so hard that a car alarm went off. Really, it's been miserable weather.

I also experienced what Shabbat means in Israel (in Ra'anana at least). Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday everything shuts down. I mean everything. No public transportation. No restaurants. No supermarkets. Barely any cars on the road. It's like a Jewish ghost town. Very frustrating for secular Jews (me) b/c one is very limited is one's activities.

B/c offices have Friday and Saturday off the work week starts on Sunday. So Sunday, not knowing how to get to my office I took the bus into downtown Tel Aviv....then after going into my buddies office to figure out the bus route I proceeded to walk around for 3 hours going the wrong way (no map), not finding a bus, until finally giving up and walking to my office. Pretty brutal trip, musta been at least 5 or 6 miles.

Today was my first real day in the office and everyone is great; very nice, friendly, and I am starting work on my first project tomorrow- doing some research for our International Children's book project (which I'm too lazy to write about). Buuuut...to who ever I was having the conversation with about knowing someone on Wikipedia...the director of our center (who I am working with) was the Chief Israeli negotiater of the Oslo Peace Accords..... Uri Savir

I might be going to my Aunt's (mom's cousin) for Shabbat this Friday. I've never met her so that should be cool. Also might try to go into Tel Aviv on Thursday. Stay tuned for the next installment and look forward to some pictures soon. Thanks for your readership, I heard the Northeast had a big storm this weekend. Enjoy the snow...

Peace,

Pavel