At the beginning of March, I took a vacation. My trip to Europe was eye-opening to say the least. I liked Budapest, but I loved Vienna. The moment I stepped out of the train station in Vienna, I knew that I want to study abroad in Europe, overflowing with history and culture, Vienna whetting my desire to explore the rest of Western Europe. I thrive in the cultural intermingling of the cosmopolitan atmosphere, absent in America, well at least in Houston. Both cities are great for walking, with a long history and thus lots to see and do. Bratislava, on the other hand, is a relatively tiny city, crumbling (literally the buildings are visibly deteriorating) after fifty years of Soviet rule. The differences between Bratislava/Budapest and Vienna blatant, Communism envelops the physical landscape as well as the people of Eastern Europe, disillusioned with the promises of improvement of their governments since the fall of the Soviets and admittance into the European Union.
Toward the end of March, some Moishe-Housers and I ventured to Bethlehem through Encounter of the Holy Land Trust, a program designed to foster dialogue between international Jews (as Israeli citizens are forbidden to enter Zone A areas of the West Bank, the areas of dense Palestinian settlement) and non-violent Palestinian activists. We toured the security fence/wall, the Hope Flowers School (a secular institution promoting peace and democracy), Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Nahalin (three villages around Bethlehem, the inhabitants of which will be significantly affected by the completion of the security fence), and various sites of house demolition. The highlights of the trip were the session meeting and having dialogue with Palestinian high school and university aged students and the Palestinian home stay. I plan to participate in the follow-up trip in Hevron in April.
I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity this year to travel--an experience that truly teaches that which cannot be taught in a classroom or learned from watching television, and I have arrived at one overarching conclusion about the improvement of humanity, thus far: empathy and selflessness are imperative to combating the social, political and economic injustices of the world. I must use the best of my resources to combat class rigidity, corruption and poverty and I am so glad that Moishe House has helped me to expand my horizons in this way.
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