The Health Department

I've heard it said that travel broadens your horizons.  I never really gave that particular statement much thought, I guess because it seemed so obvious, new horizons, new vistas, new all kinds of things.  But you really never think about things being different.  Even if you know things will be, your expectation is likely that everyone basically does everything they way they do it, whatever that is, at home.  Well, if you've done any traveling, even within your home country, you know that’s not always true.  So why do we continue to expect what we expect!?

I was walking through a market in Tel Aviv recently shaking my head once again at the differences I find here.   This time it is in the way food is sold, especially in the open markets.  We have some markets like these, but they are the exception, usually have a connection to organic something or other, and sell food items that we would wash anyway when we get them home.

In nearly every neighborhood there are street markets that sell, in addition to just about anything you might need, all manner of food, open and exposed to all the elements; everything in the air is on the product. Everywhere I go I pass racks of breads and pastries displayed at front doors or on the sidewalk, sometimes within reach of the street, waiting for someone to take them home.  I know  a few people who would be Very uncomfortable with this. 

Even in the grocery store, fresh bread products are in open bins.  Now this could be ok from an, “I’m from the United States and we have local Health Departments and copious local, state and federal regulations about the selling of food, kind of way, if there were like, grabber tong thingies to pick up the bread” but no, not so much.  I haven’t seen tongs. Not yet. 

But does this worry me?  Not so much actually.  I like to buy a small loaf/roll every week from my local co-op.  The size works for me, I don’t need a whole loaf and since there are no preservatives, well, I prefer to avoid the spectacular mold that forms after a couple of days. 

Recently I was in the grocery store just before closing for the Sabbath and as I walked around the end of the aisle to get my bread, I watched another shopper pick up and examine the poppy seed rolls.  All four of them.  Put them in the bag, change his mind and toss one back into the bin.  Now, I like poppy seed rolls, but I decided what I really wanted was the Sesame this week.  Granted, it is likely that ALL the rolls had been ‘inspected’ but I didn't see it, so I felt my roll had plausible deniability in the touched by others department.  Don’t judge me

Back on the street, just about anything that can be sold, may be sold, and without the precise inspections and protections our faithful health department inspectors require.  Fruit, and meat, olives of every kind, bread and other baked delicacies, cheese and meat, all out there without even a sneeze guard.    

So, it’s not what I’m used to, but I've always believed we need to encourage our bodies to build resistance and antibodies so that we will not be victims of every Tom, Dick, and virus that comes along, and certainly this experience is evidence of that.  There are lots of happy, healthy people shopping all around me.

And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work our Health Departments do back home, there are all kinds of other issues that they address in food storage and cleaning, those things that go on behind the scenes.  At least here  you could argue, everything is out in the open!  

Hey!! Grabbers!

Hard Truth

Burning books.  

It’s never been a good thing in my opinion.  Usually it is a political or social statement about the text.  That was certainly part of the book burning that happened last week at the Jerusalem Hand in Hand school.

Many of you are aware that this has been a difficult week for the Hand in Hand family.   Last Saturday night, a fire was set using Arabic/Hebrew text books in the center of a first grade classroom, destroying that room and badly damaging a second.  Racist, violent graffiti was written, not for the first time on the walls, but this time, the rhetoric was amped up, as if calling for death to anyone wasn't disturbing enough.

The immediate response, was, NO! not here, and the week that followed has been a testament to the commitment of not only the Hand In Hand community in Jerusalem and Israel, but the extended family in the local neighborhoods and indeed the world. 

There was no hesitation.  On the night of the arson, parents and staff rallied to prepare classrooms for the 1^st graders and assure the rest of the students would find, as much as possible, business as usual when they came to school the next day.  This is a choice people make every day. A cross that they pick up if you will.  But at the end of the day, differences and all, this is family, and family sticks together.

While the web site home page is currently scrolling photos of the destruction, the media page is filled with articles of outrage and support, for the children and their families, for the path of co-existence between Jews and Arabs, for the dream of Hand In Hand, 

from a world who sees this school, as the model for the future. 

 

On Thursday while I was at the school working with the English class, hundreds of local students walked by on the path below the campus cheering and chanting for the students here.  On Friday, we walked in Solidarity on that same path.  Students came from all over Israel to stand with the students at the school.  Parents, students, staff, family, alumni, community members all walked side by side, all carrying the motto, in Arabic, Hebrew and English, “We’re All Hand In Hand”!

I walked among these pioneers, proud and humbled to be a small part of the work that will continue here, because, it is the right thing to do.  Hate is wrong, violence is wrong, racism is wrong.  We’re sick and tired of it all.

For those of you who have not liked the Hand in Hand Facebook page, may I ask that if  you are on Facebook that you not only like us, but share the page by inviting all of our friends to like us as well.  

For access to the international media response visit our website, HandinHandk12.org