Chalkida

The next day we headed to chalkida, and stayed at a hotel right on the water.There we visited an old synagoge. The synagoge and it's history was told to us in three different languages.First Greek,which was translated into Hebrew by a women, which was in turn translated by rabbi Dov into English.  There had been a synagoge in this place, we were told, since the 14 Th century. During the war most of the Jews fled leaving behind a mere 327 in the Jewish community. When the Nazis arrived in chalkida they demanded that the archbishop write a list of all the Jewish families living in his city. Instead of a questing to their demands the archbishop spent three full days writing his own name on each line, giving an opportunity for all the Jews to escape. Out of the 327 Jews only 22 where killed. We discussed what had allowed so many Jews to survive. Perhaps it was that they were integrated into the  community, someone suggested. Though we are often taught in school that Jews lived separate lives in 'shtetals' here in Greece it was their assimilation and involvement with the greater community that saved them. Because their neighbors saw them first and for most as Greeks and their brethren, they opened their own homes to them and risking their own lives helped the Jews escape into the mountains. 

From the synagogue we were taken to the Jewish cemetery, it's caretaker and the former president of the Shul payed for it's upkeep out of his own pocket, and had discovered there graves from the 1300s. By the cemetery was a monument to the archbishop that had rescued so many- the only Jewish cemetery in the world which has a bust honoring a non-Jew. We walked around the cemetery in silence. Seeing some neyrot I quietly bent down to lit them, and assure myself and these souls that they were remembered. How incredible that these Jews who did not have Hebrew as their mother tongue had chosen to inscribe their gravestones with lashon hakodesh! It was interesting that as the graves became newer there was less Hebrew writing and the hebrew gave way slowly to Greek. I wondered if it was sad. For hundreds of years the Jews of chalikida commemorated their dead in Hebrew alone, and then,over the past century that language had slowly disappeared. 

Athens

It's overwhelming being here. I keep having to remind myself that im in 
Greece. That I'm at the place I've been studying for the past month. 
I've seen slideshows and read articles on the acropolis, and then this 
past Monday I stood there and witnessed first hand the past glories of 
the parthenon.  We arrived here Sunday and were taken straight to the 
museum of the acropolis. Recently built, it mirrored the parthenon and 
held relics found at it's base.  There was this one room all in White 
filled with marble statues of woman. The sun hit the stones as we 
walked in, and you could understand how it must have felt to walk 
through the acropolis and have your breath seized from you by the 
beauty a mere man could create. 

After the museum we ate dinner at the one kosher restaurant in Athens. 
After a long plane ride the food was delicious. Soon Greek musicians 
arrived, and led by the chef we all  began to dance, swinging our legs 
and holding hands in a traditional Greek dance. That night we went to 
explore the bars and cafes sprawling across the city. Greece is a cafe 
country, everywhere people sit quietly chatting in quaint restaurants 
and shops. Our guide mentioned that Americans are always surprised by 
the price of a cappuccino, " you pay for the price of sitting" she 
explained. 

Kivunim is a way to explore yourself and your identity. It is a way to discover about your heritage and culture within a larger context. To understand yourself through the world and your surroundings. To begin asking questions. To seek, to study, to observe. Kivunim believes that nothing is isolated. That we live in a universe where we are all connected, and each of us effect one another. Cultures collide, ideas clash. It is about focusing on the details while at the same time grasping the larger picture. One cannot exist without the other. Kivunim is about breaking boundaries, about stepping outside the box, and what we have been taught. Here, we begin to think for ourselves.