FKŻ - Jewish Culture Festival

Once a year, my sweet city turns into a flourishing, vibrant capital of the Jewish culture. During this first week of July, you will find in Cracow anything you can think of: lectures, concerts, workshops, discussions and sight-seeing, common prayers and dinners. The festival embraces the whole rich Jewish heritage: Eastern European or Middle Eastern, religous or secular, ancient or brand new. Everything takes place in the lovely district of Kazimierz, which makes a perfectly picturesque atmosphere for that kind of event. Obviously, I coudn't resist it!

As soon as I noticed the name of Rabbi Avi Baumol (Religion and high tech at the JCC) in the festival program, I knew his lecture was a must. And I was right. He described the Bamidbar, Book of Numbers (the fourth Book of the Torah) in such a way that it seemed an adventure story rather than a Holly Book. All the Biblical heroes suddenly became flesh-and-blood people, experiencing struggles and frustrations we are all familiar with. Don't get me wrong, the lecture was far from a naive simplification of the Torah - it was a combination of tradition-immersed spirituality, thorough knowledge, and its life application. Isn't that the kind of preaching we've always been longing for?

I came back to the JCC the other day for the 'Latke-Hamantaschen' debate. This event first took place at the University of Chicago in 1946 and managed to amuse thousands of people worldwide ever since. The rules are simple: each side has to convince the audience which of these two (fried potato pancake or triangle-shaped cookie) is "the perfect Jewish food:. In order to do so, they use the most sophisticated, elaborate and abstract arguments you can think of - referring to history, politics, Bible, gender studies etc. The outcome is juat unbelievably funny. What I loved in particular was that all the people taking part in the debate (mostly American Jews) were so deeply rooted in their culture, treating it as something totally natural to enjoy their identity to the full.

At the top of it all, there was Szalom na Szerokiej, the yearly open-air finale concert of the festival. The atmosphere was the quintessence of the whole FKŻ's diversity. On the Szeroka street, you could see people of all ages, personalities and nationalities, chatting relaxedly or bouncing to the rythm of all kinds of Jewish melodies. Magnificent.

Expect the second part of my FKŻ experiences to be described in a few days. The topic: kibbutzim!

Aleph, aleph, alphabet

Ladies and gentlemen, I've started to learn Hebrew.
Yes, I'm aware I won't be able to become fluent in the language in three months. Sure, there's actually no need to do that as all the Israelis I'll have to do with speak English really good. But... It's just that I can't stand the mere thought of going to a country where I can't read nor understand a single word. 'Come on' I said to myself 'Hebrew can't be that hard'. And got to work.
The first thing to do is to learn the alphabet. Here comes my luck: I've recently, just about 2 minutes away from my home, run into a poster advertising a 'free pilot course of Hebrew caligraphy' (those who live in Krakow still got a chance to enroll: http://www.biblijnespotkania.pl/kurs-kaligrafii-hebrajskiej/). Isn't that a coincidence? So far, I've taken part in one lesson only but it turned out to be easier and more fun than I'd guess.
The teacher would go through the alphabet letter by letter, calmly explaining us how to write it. We used special pens, not natural quills and ink, what made the whole task much easier. Each letter is written with two kinds of lines: the thin one and the wide one (exactly three times thicker). Depending on how you hold and press the pen, you get one of the two. What’s more, most of the letters have a very proportional, square shape and they consist mostly of straight lines- a dream for beginners.
What I loved about the teacher was that he didn’t just focus on the technical side. Leaning over our sheets, he would talk a lot about the biblical symbolism of each letter, its various meanings and usage and the number it’s associated with. There’s a whole magical world standing behind these 22 signs, it appears.
But if some of you thought that it’s enough to learn them in order to read and write in Hebrew, I must set you straight. It is nothing but the printed font, allowing you to read (be careful though, on Facebook the biblical letters are so simplified that they may be difficult for you to recognize) but hardly ever used for hand-writing. And this is why I needed another course. Again, the Krakow Days of Israel (here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/DniIzraelawKrakowie) came to rescue me, offering a free Hebrew class in the Jewish Community Centre. Despite how tired or busy I was, I simply couldn’t say no to such an opportunity. I’m glad I didn’t, as this hour turned out to be very helpful. Apart from learning a couple of useful phrases, we practiced all the written alphabet. Just what I needed. The teacher was very enthusiastic and she clearly knew what she was doing - if you are interested in taking up a course, regular classes at the JCC start in October.
At the top of the post there are my notes from both workshops: maybe nothing of extraordinary beauty but at least a proof that absolutely everyone can start learning. Hope that encourages some of you!
PS. The campaign slowly starts to roll: I have already received first two donations! Big big thanks for the sweet contributors!!! That makes me $35 closer to the Arava Valley for Peace Camp, $1165 still ahead. Wish me luck :)

Israeli movie time

I began the Krakow Days of Israel with a Hebrew movie night in a cosy shisha café (https://www.facebook.com/przyladekkrakow) in Kazimierz, the Krakow’s famous Jewish District. Lying Orient-style on a pile of comfy cushions with a warm pot of rooibos was a perfect way to switch to the Middle Eastern chillout vibe.  

The first film was Turn Left at the End of the World (סוף העולם שמאלה) – certainly worth recommending. No matter if you are searching for a vivid image of what aliyah is about or just two hours of laughter and emotion, I’m sure you’ll be satisfied. It tells a story of two Jewish families – one from Morocco and the other one from India – who choose to start a new life in the dream Eretz Israel. That is to say, in the middle of nowhere. The people who once considered themselves high-class, sophisticated and elegant now need to deal with a complete change of lifestyle: settling in the inhospitable desert, hard, low-paid job in a factory and… getting along with the neighbors. At first they treat each other with a certain dose of distance and superiority. But day after day, the wall of prejudices is crumbled  by common experiences. They are united by personal tragedies and successes, family problems and sport challenges, bonds of friendship and affection. The way it was shown in the movie took my heart completely: without exaggeration nor dramatic kitsch- just ordinary human life, with all its difficulties and wonders. Lovely, funny, moving.

The second movie, Café Tales, gave me somewhat mixed feelings. Café Braun, which splendor is long bygone, is under threat of being closed. A group of old friends  declares war on all the world’s injustices standing between them and their favorite local coffee shop. The plot itself seems to make quite a good movie material but to me it just wasn’t really convincing. All the characters were somewhat too obvious, crazy and lost: colorful but simply exaggerated. The same could be said about editing: sharp, chaotic transitions from one scene to another would just make the whole story unreal. However, there was one great thing about the Café Tales that caught my attention: the way it presented one peculiar feature of the Israeli personality. Although each of the characters was totally different, there was one thing that united them: each of them was firmly convinced about his righteousness. All these macho men and strong women who have gone through a lot shared one rule: fight for what you want. This motivating, but often troublesome motto seems to apply to quite a lot of Israelis. As my Hebrew girl friend  once shouted: “You gotta step out of this <what’s wrong, what’s right>! If you want somethin’, just get it!”