February

An institution to teach Hebrew to those who need or want to learn, Ulpan has been a focal point of my experience. Five days a week, four and a half hours per day, I have become quite familiar with Beit Ha’am, my ulpan located on Betzalel Street, a chaotic, cosmopolitan whirl pool of people that have one thing in common: to learn Hebrew . Unique to my ulpan is the education of a large number of Arab pupils, many of whom wish to learn Hebrew so that they may study at one of the Israeli universities around the country. In fact, for the first two months, I was only one of two Jews in my class of almost thirty. The motley agglomeration of students in my class includes olim chadashim (new immigrants) from a diverse array of countries, Brazilian missionaries, Arabs from all over the Islamic world, tourists passing through the region, French delegates of NGOs trying to achieve peace in the region, yeshiva and seminary students wishing to hone in on their Hebrew in order to have a better grip on Hebrew texts, South African hippies giving life a run for its money, Mesianic Jews, gentile Germans spending time in Israel as a means to atone for the atrocities that their forefathers committed in the Holocaust, Amish from the Northern United States, Chinese Jews, and me. People come and go as they please; some after one day one will never see again, others have been attending continuously for months.

Well, tomorrow is my last day of ulpan. As much as I have come to dread, even loath the four and a half hour block of time every morning, I know that I’m going to miss it. It has been such an integral part of my experience in Israel. But, five months is enough. It’s kind of crazy to think that when I arrived in Israel six months ago, I didn’t know any Hebrew; not as to some how imply that I am now fluent (which I am far, far from), I feel that I have attained a degree of proficiency.

As for what I will do with the rest of my time in Israel, only time will tell.

Andrew