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That Ginger, Anna

That Ginger, Anna

Tag Archives: jewish

Anna the Kibbutznik

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art, beersheba, desert, economic history, female travel, history, israel, israeli, israeli history, jewish, kibbutz, kibbutzim, middle east, nature, negev, painting, people, Travel, twenty something, ישראל, ישראלי, קיבוץ

What’s up? I want to round out this Israel series (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) by telling you guys about the kibbutz at Mash’abei Sade. This one won’t be too long, but I wanted to talk a bit about the history of the kibbutz movement and some of the amazing people I met there.

SN: Kibbutzim are communal settlements throughout Israel. Think along the lines of a factory town. Kibbutznik are the members of the settlement.

My friend’s sister has lived at this kibbutz for more than 30 years. This is the 4th or 5th Kibbutz she has lived in since she was a teenager. She’s a passionate vegetarian and likes The Voice and Big Brother! img_1616

She left home as a teen and joined a Kibbutz. She went to the army and went home for a short time before deciding to go back to another Kibbutz. She liked that Kibbutz but they sent her on a trip to a psychology convention and after several days at this convention she returned to the Kibbutz and decided she needed to leave. She had another friend at this current Kibbutz who told her to come and she was able to join. She’s worked with children, worked in the kitchen, worked as a librarian, and currently works distributing newspapers and mail! She is also an artist and has been painting since the late 90s! I really look up to her and she was very inspiring to me. Here are some of her gorgeous paintings:

Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi

We were her guests so we got to stay in the KibbutZimer units for Ulpan (Hebrew language school) students. The housing was really nice. It would be easy to live there. No gas, but you have a mini fridge+freezer, kitchen sink, electric kettle, microwave, television w/cable, wifi, table and chairs, a shower, toilet, and bathroom sink. You also get a closet, laundry drying wrack, and a table and chairs outside. I’d definitely recommend this Ulpan if you’re interested in learning Hebrew. If you are just traveling in the region you can also stay in their hotel. You can go to the cafeteria for lunch 6 days a week and dinner 1 day a week and it’s REALLY reasonably priced. Meat, sides, salad bar all for less than 20 NIS (~$6)!

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I met three interesting people there. The first was the director of IT named Dan. He and his wife (who have been together since they were 16) came to the kibbutz in the 80s. He is a biologist by trade and worked in a laboratory and studied for a Ph.D. too. He was injured in the Lebanon War in 1982 and when he recovered he decided to come to the kibbutz with his wife and a group of friends. He travels all over the world, is Vegan (much more common in Israel than one would imagine) and is an amateur philosopher.

I met another lady named Hannah who was a Holocaust survivor. I don’t know much about her but she’s been at the kibbutz for decades, is in her late 80s or early 90s, and still wakes up at 5AM everyday to open the kibbutz factory!

I met one of the neighbors of my friend’s sister who grew up at this kibbutz. She was part of a common kibbutz practice: separating children from their parents at birth. Her daughter currently lives in the U.S. She left the kibbutz and married but recently returned after her father passed away. Her mom was French-Moroccan and her dad was French-Polish and they came to Israel and were part of the initial group of founders of this kibbutz! She baked this amazing lemon cake and gave me the recipe. She currently works in the kibbutz laundry facility and is also a painter!

I met many other interesting people and it was fascinating to see how each person contributes to the unique character of the community and how each person works for the benefit of their neighbors. I even went to my first Jewish funeral which was surreal. The lady moved from Poland to Mexico in the 1930s and after marrying and having children she immigrated to Israel in the 1960. What a full and amazing life!

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The natural environment in this area is absolutely AMAZING. And if you are interested in history look no further. The nearest town is Beersheba and ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB WERE THERE IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS!

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I mentioned in my live video that the kibbutz movement was a manifestation of the Russian Aliyah (Aliyahs=waves of immigration to Israel). These Russian immigrants and other immigrants from Europe built agricultural communes. The first kibbutzim came to be in the 1910s and 20s but the kibbutzim in the Negev didn’t emerge until the 1940s. SN: I made some boo boos in the live video so don’t take it too seriously. These collectivist communes have largely switched from agricultural output to industrial production. See, members of the kibbutz are paid every month, provided with a house, hot water, electricity, phone, internet, and every other modern convenience. But they all have to contribute to the kibbutz for years in order to get these privileges. The peak of the kibbutz movement came in the late 80s but has declined steadily since.

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As I said, the kibbutz reminds me a lot of U.S. Army bases. There was a library, several schools, a clubhouse, an art gallery, a laundry facility, a cafeteria, a clothing store, a grocery, and a pub!

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One thing that intrigued me was that this Kibbutz was largely secular. They did offer Friday dinner and celebrate Hannukah at an optional children’s party, but the only religious activity came from guests staying at the hotel who prayed before Shabbat began. After staying in a 4-Star hotel in the capitol that wouldn’t allow people to play piano in the lobby on Shabbat, had a candle station (the Hilton even had a synagogue), it was confusing that a historical community in the heart of the country had no religious life.img_2150

Kibbutz life is really interesting and I think it is a great way to create new communities. I have my economic reservations, but I think it provides a great quality of life for people from so many different backgrounds! The kibbutzim served a very vital purpose in the founding of Israel and have contributed so much to the economic, political, historical, and social fabric of the society.
Everyone was extremely nice to me and I am forever thankful that I got to have this experience. I’ll definitely go back one day! Hopefully in the summertime! 🙂

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I hope you’ll stick around for my next travel series…I’ll let you know where I’m going when I find out! 🙂

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The Final Countdown: Haifa, Dead Sea, and Yakir

10 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

backpacking, blog, budget travel, day trips, dead sea, haifa, israel, israeli, jewish, kibbutz, mashabei sade, middle east, negev desert, settlements, Travel, travel log, twenty something, writing, yakir

So, I just got back from a month in Israel (read about it: 1, 2, 3, 4) and I am in the midst of my typical post-trip spell of depression. I had a wonderful time traveling and adult life was waiting for my return like a rabid dog. Not looking forward to the next few months-AT ALL-because I have to find a new apartment and a new job in New York City, alone, in the dead of winter. So, while I lament my apparently poor life choices, lets rehash my last week in Israel!

The last week of my trip was an absolute whirlwind because I went on several day trips: Sunday-Haifa, Monday-Tel Aviv (check out my live stream), Tuesday-the Dead Sea, Wednesday-last day at the kibbutz, and Thursday to Saturday-Yakir.

Sunday: I cannot recommend Haifa highly enough and would definitely suggest staying there-if not as a “home base” then for at least a few days-on your trip to Israel. It is clean, there are tons of things to see and do, it is culturally, religiously, and linguistically diverse, and it is just gorgeous. I took the train from Be’er Sheva to Haifa and was only there for an afternoon, but I still got to see a ton. The number one attraction there are the Baha’i Gardens. You must have a reservation to enter and from what I understand when you log on to their site they tell  you when there is space available so that may take some planning. There is free public parking nearby so if you rent a car that won’t be an issue (also lots of parking near the train station), but it isn’t a walkable city since it is so mountainous. There are public busses though, so you should definitely take advantage of that. There is also a beautiful boardwalk which has some nice restaurants, hookah bars, and convenience stores-which were even open in the off season. I visited the Druze community and did a little shopping. This is another community I had only heard about in passing at some point during my studies, but I knew nothing! It is fascinating and their culture is so beautiful and intriguing. I went to Mount Carmel and while the area and many of the attractions were closed off, there were still gorgeous, biblical, panoramic views. We visited my friend’s apartment and had brunch before he took us on a tour of the city and it was a wonderful experience. The train ride back to Mashabei Sade was an effing jungle because it was the end of the holiday weekend, so I recommend not doing that. That being said, I highly recommend the train if you have language issues because it’s easier to get tickets and you know exactly where to get off, when you’ll be there, etc.

A view from the boardwalk
A view from the boardwalk
Picking shells
Picking shells
Druze woman and family
Druze woman and family
Haifa Bay
Haifa Bay
Mt. Carmel
Mt. Carmel
Baha'i Gardens
Baha’i Gardens
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Monday: On Monday, I went back to Tel Aviv for the day because my friend had to take care of some things there. I hung out on Dizengoff Street for several hours, did a live stream, and visited a cafe that I saw during my first week there. Prices were a little high, but it was a very clean place, their bar was very nice, and the food was delicious (light lunch fare). I already talked about Tel Aviv in my past post, but Dizengoff is definitely where it’s at for people watching and dining.

Goldstar
Goldstar
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Abandoned building in Tel Aviv
Abandoned building in Tel Aviv
Gentrification is global
Gentrification is global
RIP
RIP
A memorial on the Tayelet
A memorial on the Tayelet

Tuesday: THE DEAD SEA! So, so worth it. It is obviously in the middle of no where, expensive to stay in the resorts, inconvenient in multiple ways, but I think this area is worth a 2 or 3 day retreat. I was there for an afternoon and unfortunately due to a bus strike I was unable to explore the greater Ein Gedi/Masada area, but I got to float in the sea twice and it was an unforgettable experience. Weirdly enough, there are like no Israeli’s there (seriously, I only heard 2 people speaking Hebrew the entire day). Everyone I met or heard or saw were Russian or Arab or Druze or American. That is to say, it’s a tourist trap. There are “malls” (think strip malls a la Branson, Missouri) and resorts, but very few restaurants. If you plan to stay there, keep that in mind-there will be no going out at night or enjoying anything outside of your hotel. It is a wonderful place for relaxing, star gazing, enjoying the natural benefits of the sea, and checking an item off your bucket list (if you’re weird like me). The bus strike really put a damper on things because my friend and I planned to go to Ein Gedi but after waiting for a bus for over 2 hours, we scrapped the plan and went back to the beach. Make sure you bring water shoes! Holy Moses. The bottom of the Dead Sea is made up of billions of multifaceted salt marbles that range in size from tiny grains like sand to golf ball size. When you try to walk your feet sink into these sharp marbles at least 3 inches and it hurts like a motha! It is true though, you can float at every angle in depths as little as a few inches of water. Just don’t get it in your eyes or mouth!

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Wednesday: Wednesday was a sad day. After 3 weeks, it was my last full day at the kibbutz. I really loved staying there and again, while I can’t recommend Israel for solo female travelers, Mashabei Sade was such a nice place to stay (they have a beautiful hotel for anyone and everyone). I plan to write another blog (be patient-I don’t know when because my life is a dumpster fire right now) profiling the kibbutz and the people I met there, but I will give you some information here just incase I don’t get around to it anytime soon. Kibbutzim were set up as “frontier towns” of sorts in the 20s and 30s. They played a huge role in defending the southern areas during the war for independence and other conflicts. Kibbutzim had different purposes which have evolved over time, but most kibbutzim were dependent upon industrial production from factories and agriculture. They were directly tied the the Labor party in Israel as they were manifestations of socialist-communist ideals, so when that party began to decline in power and popularity, so did the Kibbutzim. Mashabei Sade is a beautiful kibbutz in the middle of the Negev. They also have an Ulpan or Hebrew language school which is open to anyone willing to pay for the classes. Since my friend’s sister is a member of the kibbutz we stayed in the Ulpan housing. The kibbutz scene is a great way to learn about Israel, meet interesting people from around the world, and experience a lifestyle much different than other places in the world. I grew up on and near army bases and it was very reminiscent of that sort of planned community. While I can’t say which Kibbutzim are better than others, I can definitely recommend Mashabei Sade.

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Chana Gargi
Chana Gargi
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Thursday-Saturday: My friend’s nephew picked us up from the kibbutz and we did a mini tour of the Negev before heading to the Yakir settlement in Samaria. The largest canyon in Israel is Makhtesh Ramon. We visited the canyon and drove down into it to see the “painted sands”. It was after sunset so we only stayed a few minutes but there are amazing geological formations and the star gazing is out of this world. I would highly suggest renting a car and visiting the area and if there is a way you can camp anywhere nearby, I know it would be a phenomenal experience (not in the summertime since desert or whatever). After the canyon we drove several hours to the Yakir settlement. Yes, it’s one of those ever-expanding, contentious settlements that has been talked about so much in the media. Again, not going to get into a political discussion in this blog since it’s a travel guide of sorts (I plan to talk about politics and Israeli society in that post I will write about the kibbutz), but it was mind blowing to get to stay in such a contested place. I will say, the settlement had some the nicest and most modern construction I saw in the entire country. I also got to experience Shabbat in a religious, Jewish household which was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Shabbat or the Jewish sabbath takes place from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. They don’t do any work so this means they pre-tear toilet paper, have lights on timers, turn off water heaters, lock up keys, laptops, cellphones, and other electronics, don’t cook or use any type of heat, and do not engage in any type of creative thinking. For a full day they sleep, eat, sing, pray, read, and enjoy the company of family and friends- every. single. week. While it takes a level of dedication I don’t think I could muster, I think it’s a great custom and a wonderful way to prioritize and maintain familial relationships. We went on a walk after Saturday lunch and it just so happened that afternoon prayers were beginning so I got to go into the synagogue (the women’s side, obvi). CRAZYNESS. My first time to witness any type of Jewish religious activity and to visit a synagogue was in a Samarian settlement! I got to see and hear the reading of the Torah and the traditions that surround that activity. It was by far the most unique, amazing, and memorable thing I experienced on my entire trip!

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I left Israel Saturday night (like 6 PM CST) and didn’t arrive home until 11 PM Sunday night. It was a HELLACIOUS trip home and I am severely disappointed in both Virgin America and Expedia. My flight from LGA to DAL was canceled and I was not contacted by Expedia AT ALL and was only told by Virgin America via a voicemail a few hours before I got to NYC (while I was flying). When I got to NYC and tried to reschedule, Virgin America told me in would be three days before I could fly out and Expedia put me on hold for 45 minutes only to tell me they would give me a refund but couldn’t reschedule my flight (even though I know there were multiple flights from NYC area airports to Dallas that I could have been placed on). I ended up calling American Express (those cards are SOOOOO worth the annual fee) and they helped me get home Sunday night. After hours of delays due to maintenance issues, I finally got home and my bag was waiting on me (thank goodness).I just want to end this series by saying that I had one of the most amazing and memorable months of my life in Israel. While I am in for a crazy next few months, I can’t think of a better way to end 2016 and start 2017. Like every nation, Israel has it’s problems, but the natural beauty, the diversity, and the history more than make up for it. I am so grateful for my experience and really hope I get to return one day! Be sure to check out my Youtube channel in the coming weeks for a few videos from my trip.

I will be resuming my previous series soon and next up will be my commentary on Italian regionalism and the recent referendum. I will also be chronicling my search for a new house and job, so be ready for some ranting and raving. Thanks for reading about my trip and lahitraot, y’all!

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Day 1: Interrogations, Tefillin, and Strip Clubs

07 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Personal and Fun, Travel

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

adventure, blogging, bronx, educational travel, female travel, ginger, history, international, international relations, israel, jewish, judaism, middle east, New York City, political science, redhead, religion, study, tel aviv, thatgingeranna, thatgingerISR, Travel, traveler, twenty something, world history, writing, ישראל, תל אביב

יום א

Hey, guys. I’m here in Tel Aviv ready to see stuff and things.

As I wrote earlier today, I’m on a month long stay in Israel!

So, getting here was the MOST hilarious experience I’ve ever had on a trip. The airline I used had a passport control line before you could even check in for your flight.

Apparently, a twenty-something female traveling to a country for the first time with an older man sets off some kind of prostitute-terrorist red flags in their little system because they went hard in the paint.

First, my friend and I went up to a kiosk when it was our turn in line. A young man asked for my passport and asked a couple of questions about why I’m going to Israel (standard stuff). Then he asked my friend why we were together. He said hold on and went and got some older guy. He came and asked me the same questions and then went and got a lady and told her in Hebrew to take me across the terminal to another kiosk.

Now, I’ve seen enough movies and episodes of Locked up Abroad to know if they separate you from people you’re traveling with, it’s about to get cray.

This last interrogator was some intense woman who kept asking me if I let anyone put a bomb in my bag and that innocent gifts can be bombs too.

I now know they then asked my friend where I worked, how I paid for my ticket, if he’d ever met my parents, if I was Jewish, what the nature of our relationship is, etc.

The first guy asked me was if I was a member of a synagogue or church and I said a church so the lady asked me 37 questions about that: When’s the last time I went, did I pay to be a member, what church, where is it located, what religion is it, would anyone know me there. Then they asked my friend where, when, why, and how we met. Then his interrogator and mine kept walking away from their kiosks and comparing our answers.

I have a new passport because my old one expired and they couldn’t understand that. I had to explain everywhere I went with the old passport, the dates and duration of my trips, with whom I travelled and why.

This included day-trips to Turkey and Morocco so I had to give the lowdown on that. Then she asked me all about my job and school and the nature/duration/reason for mine and my friend’s relationship and my financial situation.  They asked each of us more personal questions that made it clear they thought I was either an international call-girl or a terrorist or both and compared their answers again.

Then the lady escorted me to the check in desk and told me we would be intercepted after TSA security.

They followed us all the way to the gate. They intercepted us before we got in line to board as I was exiting the bathroom. They took our carryons into a separate room, made us wait until final boarding was called, and searched each of them by hand (all after the TSA search).

Then, they pulled me into a room alone with three more security specialists and scanned my body, clothes, and stuff. Then they escorted both of us past the line to board and onto the plane.

They did this to two other people on the flight too…I won’t comment on what we did and didn’t have in common.

The plane was a 747-400 that had two stories! I’ve always seen those on TV and in movies but never IRL, so that was neat!

Now, the plane ride was also super interesting. I’d say 90 percent of the travelers were Orthodox Jewish. Now, before I moved to NYC, I thought there were three groups of Jews: Orthodox Jews with the hats and curls, Jews who wore yarmulkes, and secular Jews that just belonged to the culture. Now that I’m not ignorant of the denominations, I know there are dozens of sects and cultural groups. Long story short, I am fascinated and completely naive of Orthodox Judaism so flying with a huge group was interesting. There were a couple of groups of new immigrants and American Christians too.

The food was delicious and all Kosher, of course. Twice during the flight all the orthodox men got up and went through their prayer rituals with their Tallit and Tefillin (shawls and phylacteries).

I was amazed they were allowed to get up and pack and unpack all of their supplies and get in groups and walk around and stand near the exit doors and everything, but my friend said the staff gave up trying to enforce the rules long, long ago.

**Even though it was confusing and embarrassing (like my gingerness doesn’t make me stick out enough), I’m genuinely glad the airline/security and immigration officials take everything so seriously. I’m not being sarcastic or anything like that. It was a hilarious and enlightening experience that I will never forget.**

The flight went by surprisingly fast (as it always does going, but seldom returning) and we didn’t have any issues once we got here. My friend’s nephew picked us up and drove us to the hotel.

I got a few hours of sleep but woke up at 2 AM and haven’t been able to go back to bed.

Side note: It also turns out there are strip clubs here and the window in my room gives me a fullllll, elevated view of the entrance/exit of a huge one called Pussycat. There will be much filming and picture taking of these drunk fools stumbling in and out of here.

Tomorrow my friend has to take care of some business downtown and then I think I’ll go to the grocery store and who knows what else. The hotel is right on the marina so hopefully some beachin’ will take place at some point.

I’m going to attempt to get a couple of hours sleep in the meantime. Catch y’all mañana!

Don’t forget to add me on all the things @thatgingeranna

Waiting for the security specialists to clear my carryons!

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Part 1: Why the Jews and Perché Venezia?

07 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in School and Work

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

academics, bronx, fate, God, grad school, graduate school, historian, history, history student, jewish, jewish history, jews, judaica, judaism, MA, NYU, religion, sephardim, six degrees, student, texas, Thesis, UNT, venezia, venice, writing

So, as usual, I didn’t get to follow the schedule I’d planned for starting this new series because life and that paper chaseee. But here we are now. Ok, this first post will mostly be a background about why this Catholic, Army-brat from Georgia became interested in Judaica studies (didn’t even know that was a thing until 2011) and how a seminar paper from 2012 became a thesis chapter in 2013 and has impacted my life more than I could have ever fathomed. This initial post is more about me than about Jews in Venice (if that’s all you’re here for, just wait for part two-there will be no personal stuff in that one), but I will link to my original paper and the L.A. Times article about the same topic from last year. Part 2 will be an updated summary of my paper/thesis chapter with some new material and commentary.


I am going to start by saying I knew NOTHING about Judaism. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I knew Hitler killed millions of “the Jews” in the Holocaust, that Jews didn’t believe in Jesus, and that they didn’t eat pork, but that was the extent of it. I know about Christianity because that’s the religion my parents are and therefore how I was raised (mom’s Baptist non-denominational and my dad is a non-practicing Catholic). I know about Islam because I had several Muslim friends (see also: hung out with an Imam’s son in the back of his coffee shop after school for a few weeks my Junior year) in Tulsa and I became more curious about that religion when my dad was deployed to Iraq. I’ve learned about Christianity in Sunday School since I was 3 years old and I learned about Islam through independent study, friends, and a couple of university classes. But guess what? In all my travels and all the moves, I had not ever met a Jewish person-to my knowledge.

Circa 2006 or 2007, I went to Alabama with my mom and we had lunch with her uncle. He knew I was interested in history and gave me a jump drive with our family tree on it. He was an amateur genealogist and had traced my mother’s, father’s, mother’s family tree. I never looked at the jump drive, but he passed away in the Summer of 2011 and I thought I’d better check it out. I opened up the document and to my surprise, he traced the family back to the 15th century in Bassano del Grappa, Italy! After some Googling, I saw that research had been done by other people who thought the family were exiled Jews from Spain or Portugal. I obviously thought it was cool, but didn’t really dig any further. When I started graduate school in 2011, I took a class about Venetian History and learned about the ghettos and a little bit about the Jewish population there. A new student arrived the following Fall and we became friends-it turned out she was Jewish. It just so happens that I signed up for a History of the Reformation class with her and the professor was Jewish too (hold on to your shorts, this will get trippy in a little bit). We had to come up with a paper topic and since I always tried to piggy-back my research paper’s off one another, I thought I would expand upon research I’d already done about Jews in Venice.

**Grad School pro-tip: I highly suggest finding a broad topic you like before you start graduate school and using that to guide all of your seminar papers. It turns out my broad topics were Italian Politics and Judaism. I went to two universities and took 25+ classes and was able to spider-web my papers and expand upon a few core topics each semester. (Obviously, I took unrelated courses like Carribbean History and Russian Cinema for which I wasn’t able to research anything related to these topics, but you get what I mean.) If I ever got nervous about using my own prior work, I’d just cite myself and link to my paper on Google Docs, but as far as I know there is no academic dishonesty in this approach and it will cut down your workload tremendously because you’ll be familiar with a group of sources and have already researched a topic that you can just expand or reframe in your next class.**

As a result, I wrote a seminar paper entitled: Jewish Life in Early Modern Venice: Migration, Segregation, and the Economic Necessity of Jews in Venice. I worked really hard on this paper and was proud of it. (SN: This paper contains the least amount of passive voice I could possibly use-so if you have issues reading things written in passive voice you best skidaddle on out of here now…also, this was my first real seminar paper, so excuse the errors and also realize I am NOT AN EXPERT of Judaica-sorry in advance). After some issues with my thesis committee and topic, in 2013, I decided to build upon this paper and some research I’d done about Venice in another course. This paper became a chapter in my thesis (I wrote more about it during my trip to Italy in 2014) and I got into the Ph.D. program at UNT shortly afterward. I left UNT, I had this chunck of research/writing, and a tangential connection to some family history. So, that’s the end of it, right? Nope.

In 2014, I went to Italy and got to visit all the places I’d talked about in my thesis. From the place the first Venetian settlers came from, to the town where my family came from, all the way to the Jewish ghetto itself! Later that year when I got to New York, I quickly found a job in Riverdale, an affluent-and largely Jewish-suburb in the Bronx. I began working for a family as a companion to a lady with Alzheimer’s. I soon found out that her daughter-in-law was from Fort Worth, Texas. The following year, upon meeting her in-laws, I asked them if they knew the Jewish professor who was on my thesis committee (not just because he was Jewish-I’m not that redneck-but because I knew he was an active member of the Jewish community in North Texas) and helped guide my research. It turns out my new bosses’ in-laws were very well aquainted with that professor I took the class with way back in 2012. Then, early this year, I logged into Facebook and had several notifications. 3 or 4 friends that knew about my seminar paper and thesis had linked me to the L.A. Times artilce about the history of Jews in Venice! I found out shortly afterward that I wasn’t accepted into a Ph.D. program, so I really thought that was the end of all this history stuff, but it turns out I wasn’t quiteee done.

As part of my job, I go to a Jewish Senior Center multiple times a week and earlier this year I met a member of the senior center who is an Afghani-Sephardic Jew from Israel. We became close friends, and in the past 6 months my research about Judaism has increased ten-fold (peep my IG if you’d like to see my interactions with the Jewish community in the Bronx). While I’ve branched out beyond Venice, I am still finding new sources which connect to my thesis!

So, a family tree given to me in Alabama in 2007 and viewed in 2011, led to a seminar paper in Denton, Texas in 2012, and a thesis chapter in 2013. An application to a Ph.D. program using this chapter as a writing sample brought me to New York City in 2014, where I found a job with a connection to two Jewish families in Fort Worth, Texas and the Bronx, New York. This new job led me to a Jewish Senior Center and a new friend from Israel, who just so happens to be an expert in the field of Judaica. Here I am, 4 years after writing that first paper and just last week I found yet another connection between Venice and “the Jews”…

*Next up: Let’s talk about the modern day divides within Judaism and the history of Jews in Venice/their importance to the Venetian economy!

*Probably next weekend…

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