This week, Career-Israel trekked South to the Negev. On our last day, we visited a community of "Black Hebrews." They claim they are Jewish and have Jewish backgrounds. Our speaker told us that when the Romans were invading and destroyed the Second Temple, natural instinct says to go South as they were coming from the North. So while some tribes moved East, they moved South to Africa. During the British Empire and the Slave Trade, many tribes in the African villages were split up and those who were taken did not have time to bring symbolic materials with them and only carried on the oral tradition. In the Americas, the speaker said, the slaves talked about their Jewish heritage through songs. The songs were about the Jordan River, not the Ganges or the Euphrates River, as well as about the Messiah not Christ.
In 1966, a priest in Chicago had a 45 second vision (even the speaker seemed a little skeptical about that) to bring the Black Hebrews back to their homeland the next year. So in 1967, when J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King were making the mark in history, 400 Black Hebrews left America for Liberia. The visionary said that they were to return via the same route they took. Liberia welcomed them with open arms, but after a few years they knew this was not the place they were supposed to be because of the disease, death, and economy. And so they trekked onward to Israel.
In Israel, they were granted citizenship under the Law of Return, which gives any Jew the right to citizenship. They established a community where diet and health are regulated. They follow an organic vegan diet and exercise three times a week. These laws are mandated by the community. The leader of the community said that no one has ever been sick and all the diseases that "they" say African-Americans are predisposed to do not appear on any charts.
Why do they claim they are Jewish? First of all, they say "Judaism" means from the tribe of Judah and if they can claim this then they are Jewish. In addition, they follow the laws of the Torah. Not the Talmud or any other interpretation. They supposedly follow exactly what the Torah says. Besides the fact that the Torah specifically says not to do this, there are a few inconsistencies. They wear fringes on their garments in the interpretive manner, but they shave the four corners of their face and not everyone wears a kippah. They observe Shabbat, but they fast when the Torah clearly says not to do this.
Up until this point, I could understand their interpretations on religion even if I did not agree. I do not think they are Jewish, but I can see where they are coming from. It was when we took a tour of the community that my doubts began to simmer. They still believe in polygamy, but do not practice it because "Israel still don't think it be cool." (Side note: Since most of them are Black and from the US, the little kids speak like they are from the Block) In addition, everything is based on the conscience of an individual. There are no locks on the doors because if someone does steal from them, the individual has pay the price. If they do not exercise three times a week, it's the individual that has to pay the price. There are no consequences. We spoke to the Doctor who essentially believes that beings can live forever. At first I thought that he meant if we eat right and exercise right, then we can live the same amount of years as the biblical characters. However, someone directly asked him if he thought that humans could live forever and he said yes. I asked him about deterioration of the brain and his answer was that the community is only 40 years old, you can't see the results yet.
The Black Hebrews are definitely something I will be thinking about in the future.
In addition to this community, we hiked through Mitzpe Ramon and Maktesh Gadol, which is actually smaller than Mitzpe Ramon since they discovered Ramon after, and saw some beautiful views in Ein Avdat. Now that I am back in Jerusalem, I can appreciate the desert and can safely say I will not live there, despite the propaganda we were given, and I am so thankful for indoor plumbing.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Questions, questions, questions
Working at a school for seeing-impaired children has raised many questions for me that I would love to research:
1. How does attachment style in blind children differ from those who are not?
2. How are the blind affected by gender stereotypes?
3. Where/How does a blind individual pick up certain social cues?
4. What's the standard for determining attraction?
When I was sitting in a classroom listening to professors lecture me about how so-and-so had a huge list of questions, all I could think of was "how has everything not been answered already?" However, working in an environment of my interest promotes me to think about the psychology behind how these blind children grow up. It's a very different world if you are blind and as a seeing-person, I imagine a difficult one too.
1. How does attachment style in blind children differ from those who are not?
An experiment done by Mary Main concluded that there are 4 different attachment styles both for children and later discovered by Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver that the same can be applied to adults:
Secure: Child protests caregivers departure and looks for comfort
Avoidant: Little distress upon caregivers departure
Ambivalent/Resistant: Distressed upon caregiver's departure, but unable to comforted upon the return
Disorganized: Display of contradictory behaviors
While it is the bus/taxi drivers that drop the kids off, not the parents, I wonder how our presence in the classroom effects the children. One boy, for example, will give anyone a hug. Is it that he doesn't get enough attention at home? Or is it that his mother is avoidant when dealing with him? One of the girls shows no change in emotion when we say she is going home nor does she show any emotion when she enters the classroom. One thing she does do is cry a lot despite being greatly attached to one of the other teachers. These are the kids that are completely blind as opposed to the ones who can see, but only slightly.
On Sunday, we had a Chanukkah party with the parents. It was mostly the moms, but there was one or two dads, at least in my classroom. The kids all look exactly like their parents. It was adorable seeing them together. It was also easy to see why some of the kids act the way they do. The boy who is always giving out hugs, had a mother who didn't really seem that interested in making the dreidel with her son. He is obviously vying for attention. In my opinion, I think that he wants to be touched so that he knows he exists. His whole world is through sensory tactility. Even when I put him to sleep, I will hold his hand. This doesn't usually help, but at least he stops crying.
The girl who is attached to everyone, but has one specific one she loves, and who I would classify as "secure attachment", had both her parents there as well as her older sister from one of the other classrooms. The girl who is the most independent and talkative had a mother who let her be creative while guiding her in the correct steps. And the boy who is quiet, but knows exactly where to put his arms and legs when you pick him up has mother who is quiet and shy, but was attentive towards the boy.
2. How are the blind affected by gender stereotypes?
In many of my psychology text books, there was always the claim that children learned about stereotypes based on observation. One specific example that I remember was a picture of a girl putting on lipstick with her mother. If blind children are unable to observe because of their impairment, how do they realize their gender? I could see that if a child heard mostly women's voices from the kitchen and mostly men's voices from the living area, that an assumption could be made that women are in the kitchen because they do the cooking. That's how females learn that stereotype. At a family get-together, who are the ones that are usually in the kitchen helping out and who are the ones sipping a beer on the porch?
I ask this question because one of the kids was wearing his twin sister's socks. Another boy was wearing a pair of pants that were clearly from the girls' section. Being unable to see what colors and style they are actually wearing, how is gender specified. In addition, I wonder if blind children are more willing to play with toys that are commercialized for the other gender. There are no gender specific toys in our classroom. There's a pink ball or a purple bell, but no Barbies and trucks. Because they are unable to see this gender-specific toys, how do they understand the world in terms of "male" and "female"?
3. Where/How does a blind individual pick up certain social cues?
When seeing-individuals talk to someone, they are subconsciously reading the other's face. We see when we verbally hurt someone when their facial expression changes. We then know not to talk about that subject anymore and we move on to a different one. Since the blind are unable to see these subtle changes, are they more in tune with tone of voice? Even seeing people use their sub-conscious to determine tone of voice.
On Friday, I was across the room and called to one of the kids. She turned, looked at me, and gave me the cutest smile and sparkling eyes. When I call the blind boy's name, he'll turn his head and say "what?" He doesn't realize that the correct social response is to turn and respond to my smile on my face. This also goes for table manners as well. Obviously one and two year olds don't really have table manners. However, they know they are supposed to sit until they are done eating (even if they don't want to) and they know how big of bite they need to take, most of the time, so that they won't choke. The blind boy is able to feel how big the cookie is, but he still stuffs the whole thing in his mouth and asks for another one. He is always the first one done with breakfast and lunch unless one of us gives him his food piece by piece. The seeing kids still stuff the food into their face, but they don't usually bite off more than they can handle.
4. What's the standard for determining attraction?
I think it would be interesting to look at married blind couples. There have been experiments where it has been proven that the most successful marriages are the ones where the two people have similar facial features. I guess the blind would be able to use touch as their method of attraction, but what how else do they determine this? While physical attraction is not everything in a relationship, it is part of it so how do the blind take this into account, if at all?
When I was sitting in a classroom listening to professors lecture me about how so-and-so had a huge list of questions, all I could think of was "how has everything not been answered already?" However, working in an environment of my interest promotes me to think about the psychology behind how these blind children grow up. It's a very different world if you are blind and as a seeing-person, I imagine a difficult one too.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Visitor or Resident?
While waiting to meet a friend, the security guard by Jaffa Gate made small chit-chat with me and asked me if I was visiting here or living here.
I was unsure of how to answer that.
I'm a visitor as I'm not yet here permanently. I don't know every place in Jerusalem and still need help when I go into unfamiliar territory. I can barely communicate with cashiers and I can hardly haggle at the Shuk. I travel every weekend or so to a different place in Israel that I haven't seen. I don't know how to get there and I don't know how to get back without intensive planning and stressing.
But I'm also a resident. I don't need a map to figure out where I'm going in the streets of Jerusalem. I know the twists and turns of the road enough that I don't have to pay attention to the bus route I'm taking and can read a book. I know my way around the confusing shuk of the Old City. I know certain landmarks and the non-touristy places to eat. I feel like a resident, but I'm a visitor. My parents came to visit me last week and I was the one that took them to a different part of Jerusalem. I knew where the good coffee shops and the good bakeries were. I knew the shortcuts and the best time of day to visit a site. Even when we went North to Tiberias and Nahariya, while I didn't know exactly where we were, the roads were sort of familiar. And, Israeli standards are the same every where. It didn't faze me that there were vegetables for breakfast (unlike the more fruity one in the US) nor did it faze me when I saw our small room in one of the hotels.
However, in light of current events (Fire in Haifa), I feel even more like a resident. On Thursday, the program took us to Haifa for a cultural tour. When we arrived at the Bahai'i Gardens, we could see a smoke cloud, but it was nothing to worry about. Our tour guide told us that there is a firing range near Carmel Park (where the fire seemed to be coming from) and that someone probably hit something accidentally setting it on fire. We continued onward to Elisha's Cave in Jewish tradition and Elijah's cave in Christian tradition. The church was beautiful and serene. The smoke reigned over us as we ate lunch and hiked down to Elijah's cave where the question of "what makes a holy site holy" was proposed. Elijah's cave is a hunk of rock. Who's to say that Elijah stayed here. Where's the proof? On the other hand there are many things in Judaism that are based on faith. Because of that, we create reasons and thoughts as well as special places that can accommodate the ideas and people of the Torah. As we reached our last stop before dinner, the madrichim began collaborating. The fire in Haifa was worse than they thought. By the time we finished hearing about Ahmadiyya Islam, three out of the four entrances to the Druze village were closed. In order to make up for that, we went all the way around Mt. Carmel. As the bus passed the beach, it seemed as if it was 430 in the afternoon when in reality it wasn't even 3. The cloud from the fire covered up the sun giving it a neon pink glow. We could see the helicopters weaving in and out, either for news reports or for humanitarian efforts. As the bus continued, I saw the actual flames and the reality of the situation hit me.
I had studied in Haifa in two years ago. I was on those mountains. I hiked through that park. My friend and I got lost in that park. I know people who live in Haifa. Who have made Aliyah and are living there. But it wasn't only that. The situation was first-hand. I wasn't hearing this from the news. I was seeing this. Natural disaster first-hand. Israel wasn't a far away country. I was here. I AM here. The only thing on the news is the fire. The only things people are talking about is the fire. When I rode the bus to work on Friday, the radio had new reports about the fire. When I walked into work, the first thing my co-worker said to me was "did you hear what happened". This is the worst fire Israel has had. A Ha'aretz reporter went as far as comparing it to the Yom Kippur War in 1973 as Israel was completely unprepared for both disasters.
Because I so involved in the situation, I can feel more empathetic than I would if I was in the US. It's not that I wouldn't feel bad if I was at home, it's just that it's that I can more easily relate to the situation because I am living here. Thus, I am a resident of Israel.
pictures of the previous few weeks
I was unsure of how to answer that.
I'm a visitor as I'm not yet here permanently. I don't know every place in Jerusalem and still need help when I go into unfamiliar territory. I can barely communicate with cashiers and I can hardly haggle at the Shuk. I travel every weekend or so to a different place in Israel that I haven't seen. I don't know how to get there and I don't know how to get back without intensive planning and stressing.
But I'm also a resident. I don't need a map to figure out where I'm going in the streets of Jerusalem. I know the twists and turns of the road enough that I don't have to pay attention to the bus route I'm taking and can read a book. I know my way around the confusing shuk of the Old City. I know certain landmarks and the non-touristy places to eat. I feel like a resident, but I'm a visitor. My parents came to visit me last week and I was the one that took them to a different part of Jerusalem. I knew where the good coffee shops and the good bakeries were. I knew the shortcuts and the best time of day to visit a site. Even when we went North to Tiberias and Nahariya, while I didn't know exactly where we were, the roads were sort of familiar. And, Israeli standards are the same every where. It didn't faze me that there were vegetables for breakfast (unlike the more fruity one in the US) nor did it faze me when I saw our small room in one of the hotels.
However, in light of current events (Fire in Haifa), I feel even more like a resident. On Thursday, the program took us to Haifa for a cultural tour. When we arrived at the Bahai'i Gardens, we could see a smoke cloud, but it was nothing to worry about. Our tour guide told us that there is a firing range near Carmel Park (where the fire seemed to be coming from) and that someone probably hit something accidentally setting it on fire. We continued onward to Elisha's Cave in Jewish tradition and Elijah's cave in Christian tradition. The church was beautiful and serene. The smoke reigned over us as we ate lunch and hiked down to Elijah's cave where the question of "what makes a holy site holy" was proposed. Elijah's cave is a hunk of rock. Who's to say that Elijah stayed here. Where's the proof? On the other hand there are many things in Judaism that are based on faith. Because of that, we create reasons and thoughts as well as special places that can accommodate the ideas and people of the Torah. As we reached our last stop before dinner, the madrichim began collaborating. The fire in Haifa was worse than they thought. By the time we finished hearing about Ahmadiyya Islam, three out of the four entrances to the Druze village were closed. In order to make up for that, we went all the way around Mt. Carmel. As the bus passed the beach, it seemed as if it was 430 in the afternoon when in reality it wasn't even 3. The cloud from the fire covered up the sun giving it a neon pink glow. We could see the helicopters weaving in and out, either for news reports or for humanitarian efforts. As the bus continued, I saw the actual flames and the reality of the situation hit me.
I had studied in Haifa in two years ago. I was on those mountains. I hiked through that park. My friend and I got lost in that park. I know people who live in Haifa. Who have made Aliyah and are living there. But it wasn't only that. The situation was first-hand. I wasn't hearing this from the news. I was seeing this. Natural disaster first-hand. Israel wasn't a far away country. I was here. I AM here. The only thing on the news is the fire. The only things people are talking about is the fire. When I rode the bus to work on Friday, the radio had new reports about the fire. When I walked into work, the first thing my co-worker said to me was "did you hear what happened". This is the worst fire Israel has had. A Ha'aretz reporter went as far as comparing it to the Yom Kippur War in 1973 as Israel was completely unprepared for both disasters.
Because I so involved in the situation, I can feel more empathetic than I would if I was in the US. It's not that I wouldn't feel bad if I was at home, it's just that it's that I can more easily relate to the situation because I am living here. Thus, I am a resident of Israel.
pictures of the previous few weeks
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