Skip to main content

Reflection

I know I should be writing more here. There really is so much to tell, so much to share, I could write all day, but no one would read it, and, it would get boring fast, as I would have no time to go out there.

This experience is so rich. Part of the reason why I am finding it so difficult to write about it is because it's just so overwhelming. I really wish there was a way to tell you, so that you could see what I see, feel what I feel, hear what I hear, ad infinitum. Even staying in this walled-off 'Student Village' on French Hill, the ground which my feet stand upon immerses me... I am no longer an observer, far away, watching the world unfold through a LCD screen, no, now, I am a witness.

But really, what does it all mean? I can see professor Michael Dobkowski saying this, holding his hand much like italians do when they don't understand — but what does it mean?

Anyone who is certain they understand this place, this land, of them I am quite skeptical. Layers upon layers, socially-politically-culturally striated but held together so tightly, inseparable.

This is a place where there is love. No matter what you say about anyone here, or anywhere for that matter, people are people, and we all have an unalienable desire for constructive interaction.

Here there is also a poison that divides. Here lies, and lives, divisiveness. For the rest of my life I will remember walking back to the Student Village and having a specific conversation. Here is a person who believes that, because of his/her Jewishness, an Arab/Muslim would always 'hate [him/her] deep down, because [he/she] is Jewish'. Walls are a big issue here, but the biggest wall isn't the one made out of concrete of Jerusalem Stone, but the ones people perpetuate in their hearts and minds.

This is what tears me up.


Comments

  1. Nick, Thank you for sharing your experience. For me you have offered a very human perspective on things I see flash before me on TV and computer monitors.
    Sue Louis

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On this Labor Day, a call to academics studying work… to get to work.

  By Nicholas Croce, September 6, 2021   On this Labor Day, a call to academics studying work… to get to work.   After taking a break from doctoral studies four months ago, I’ve come to the conclusion that academics, specifically those interested in the workforce, labor, and precarity, need to get to work. And no, I am not implying that academics aren’t working hard enough: for sure, keeping university classes going during this pandemic is a herculean labor. Nor do I mean to say that professors and social science researchers should drop their academic jobs and get into other segments of the workforce, per se.  After four months of precarious work arrangements, tedious and dehumanizing interactions with welfare, and dealing with the psychosocial impacts of socioeconomic precarity, I am moved to write—no, I am moved to scream, to shout it from the ground up into the heights of academe—that anyone studying modern work needs to get out and experience it, today.    The structure and mechani

Something a Bit More Lighthearted

Before I post something from what I wrote during the journey back to Jerusalem, please enjoy: So, our quaint little apartment here in Jerusalem — 5 P.M or so. We are all sitting in our rooms, listening to music, simply relaxing. Suddenly... An odd sound fills the air, something like a chime, definitely meant to capture one's attention. I run out of my room, thinking, 'Oh no, here we go! Code red!' Thankfully, it wasn't that, but... A voice appears, and I open the door to the hallway, looking for the voice's source. Finding it not in the hallway, my attention is directed back towards a speaker in our apartment. Unrecognized until this moment by any of us, it appears to be some kind of intercom system. The voice is now speaking in very fast Hebrew, too fast for any of us to make much of anything out of it. Then... There is a pause. The voice says something like this: '... Attention... Attention... Beginning at 9 P.M to 5 A.M, there will be... ... The