Yom HaShoah

Today was Yom HaShoa, Holocaust rememberance day. On Yom Hashoa, at 10 am, a siren sounds in the city, and everyone is supposed to stop what they are doing and stand silently for the duration of the siren. I am told that even cars on the street pull over and the people get out to stand. I was in ulpan what the siren sounded.

Some minutes before the siren, three Arab students got up and left class. This is because the teacher told us that everyone had to stand for the siren. They left so they would not have to stand for the siren, and they came back as soon as the siren was over. These three surprised me: they are good students and speak Hebrew much better than I. They are always attentive and respectful. I suppose leaving the room was less disrespectful than remaining and not standing, but it was insulting nonetheless--to refuse to mourn a crime against humanity simply because the victims were Jewish. Some of the goofier Arab boys in the class waited for the teacher to prod them before they stood, and one made for the door once the siren had started. The teacher breathed fire and said in Hebrew: "You do not leave; you do not move." He stayed. As soon as the siren was over, the goofballs went back to goofing around. All in all, the experience left me feeling pretty uncomfortable in that class.

As an exercise, we read a short text on the Holocaust. First we listened to the text being read on headphones. Then we read it again to ourselves and underlined words we didn't know. For me, every sentence contained words I didn't know, yet I understood perfectly. The story is , of course, very familiar. Finally, we raised our hands to ask the teacher the meaning of words we didn't know. For me, there were many of these, but there were also many words I definitely DID know, words I would know even if I didn't know a word of Hebrew. Therefore, I was shocked to hear Arab students ask the meaning of...

shoah ghetto Treblinka
gaz anti-shemiut

On a happier note, today I got a haircut, IN HEBREW! I came in, said hello, explained what I wanted, asked how much it cost, paid, and said goodbye, without ever asking the barber, "Can you say that in English?" Granted the haircut I wanted was pretty simple, and the barber was the least talkative beauty professional in existence, but still, it's a milestone. Usually I don't get too far into these kinds of transactions before I have to switch to English.