Oct 6th

Its only 2:30 pm here right now, but we have a 2 and a half hour break so I thought I'd write todays entry now.

Well today was pretty interesting(I thought,) Mir( Ronly's cousin and our tour guide) Explained the history of Israel and the present Israel to us. So I have some time, and I'm excited about learning all this, so I thought I'd relay all this information to you

Israeli alliyah(immigration)
First odd...there is no 'Israeli' culture. There are very diverse customs and cuisine, none of wich are native ti israel.
Israel was under British rule until may 14 1948, when the british army left Israel. Because of the halocaust, they realized the need for a state where all jews belong. Israel was technically a jewish state since 1917, when Belford declared Israel the jewish homeland,but because of population and other problems, they weren't accepting alliyah, or immigration.

The first alliyah's after this declaration were eastern european, so Israeli culture was much like most of europe. So when the first alliyah's from the mediteranian arrived, they changed the whole way of life. They brought many different foods, culture, and cuswtoms. Ashkenazi( eastern european) and sephardic(mediteranian) jews began to differentiate themselves. Racism within a race developed. The racism between ashkenazi and sephardic jews has improved, but since Israel is only 50 years old, many still cling to their past way of life


After the situation between the sephardic and ashkenazi jews had begun to settle, The ethiopians made alliyah in groves. Two, in 1985 and 1990. Unlike the first alliyah's where people immigrated over a few months, these people arrived literally overnight. These ethiopians understandably had problems adapting to Israeli life, and to this day still tend to stick together.

Changes in Israeli culture
Israel had television tince 1967, however until 1991 there was only one channel. When other channels came into the mix, there was competition between the different stations, which started a whole new culture of advertisment and programming. Also, until 1979 there was only one political party. The forming of a new party furrther seperated sephardic and ashkenazi jews.

Israel today
The area between hadera and gadera is the most populated in Israel.
The city of Nei Bach is very religious, almost to the point of being like amish people
Lod is not a city you want to go to. It is the city most known for drugs, and it has a high arab
population
There are 4 main religious cities in Israel
1.tiberia
2.svat
3.jerusalem
4.hevon
Tel aviv is the city to go to if you want night life. Like many cities in europe, it is open late, and has a great party life. Also like meny european cities it is very expensive and hard to find a place to live
Jerico once held the only casino in Israel, until it was bombed
Haschad is in the area that is most targeted by bombers in the gaza strip
Ness Ziona is the greenest city in Isreal

Thats all for now.

Since its now 4am and I haven't posted this yet, I'll tell you about my night out in Tev Aviv. Tonight was Sasha and Lauren's birthdays', so we all made a big Israeli dinner, from scratch. It was quite an event. 16 people in the kitchen together trying to make different things. Ronly brought over her son, and he helped us beat eggs and stuff...mainly he just entertained us when we were done our jobs...he's 3.

After dinner we all got together and went to the port in Tel Aviv. It was amazing. Tel aviv really is the 'city that never sleeps.' We got there at about 10, and left at 330, and it was still going strong. We went to 'golina,' wich is a club along the port. The port is an actual beachside port, with various ritzy resteraunts and clubs. Anyways, golina was packed. I mean people were crammed against each other, couldn't move without hitting someone packed. It was fun though...definatly an experience