Last Lunch at the Hadassah Youth Center
Last week I ate my last meal at the Hadassah Youth Center; also affectionately known as Beit Riklis. It was quite a day. After 38 years of hosting the Young Judaea Year Course in Israel, we were closing up shop. Year Course was moving to a brand knew home- the Judaean Youth Hostel. Hadassah had spent 22 million dollars building a brand new facility complete with (hopefully) state of the art classrooms, auditorium/gym, swimming pool (summers only), weight room, and 130 rooms. In addition to hosting Year Course, the location is being run by a management company who will rent the rooms to groups and individuals. Hadassah wants to make money off of this endeavor as well as host the oldest year in Israel program around.
All morning the porters moved boxes onto their trucks. The chanichim performed the age old ritual of moving their luggage down the stairs and out to the waiting buses. For one last time the building was a flurry of activity as we all, staff and chanichim said goodbye to the aging ediface.
Whether we had been associated with the place for years or just a few months it was a strange experience to be saying goodbye to a place that was a part of Young Judaea lore and had a personality all of its own. Built in the 1930’s Bauhaus architectural style, This drafty old building with its echoing halls, crappy food and Spartan, utilitarian classrooms was kind of a home away from home. It was where us old Judaeans thought of as the headquarters of Young Judaea in Israel. For many of us it was where we first learned Hebrew, where we set out to tour the country, and it was where we first fell in love with Israel. And yes, for many of us it was where we fell in love for the first time (and yea, OK, lust also). During our time in Beit Riklis we started to think about life, our place in the universe and the Jewish World. We took those first cautious stumbling steps towards adulthood. Man, did I do a lot of stumbling.
My relationship with Beit Ricklis began 23 ½ years ago as a year course chanich (participant), continued as a year course madrich (counselor) and has culminated these last few weeks as the assistant education director. In between, there were too many visits to count.
This afternoon, Keith Berman, the current Year Course Director and I took one last walkabout. We went into what was once a second floor classroom (the last few years it has been used as a machsan (storeroom). I remembered that during ulpan (Hebrew class) I would look out the window and see the Old City off in the distance. We wandered into the moadon (recreation room) and spoke to a few current chanichim, told them about how the room used to look. I suddenly had this image of Lisa Litt (my old year course girlfriend) coming into make tea in this big Goldstar beer mug she carried around. I remembered one night almost all of us gathering to watch The Three Musketeers on TV; and I remembered the wine and cheese party Gia Machlin (I think) and a few others organized. I think that was the night that Ronit Tuchman and Scott Copeland started going out (they are still together by the way). The chanichim, who were reminiscing about their few months in Riklis and about their summer course experiences of a couple years before, wanted to hear some stories from us. So I told them the incredibly morally uplifting tale of how, that first Friday night in Israel, I along with a few others went on top of the rotunda outside the moadon and drank. When I went to jump down to the big balcony just outside the moadon my pants leg got caught on an iron railing, I flipped, landed wrong and broke my wrist. Aww memories.
The meal, by the way, that last meal, was just as crappy as ever. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to Beit Riklis. The experiences we had there, from the food, to the classes, to the tiyulim (field trips/hiking around Israel), fed us, sustained us, but inspired us to do more, to seek more, to be more fulfilled. I hope we have all tried to do that, live our lives as fully as possible as adults, as Jews, whether here in Israel or in the US. I think that is one of the main things that Year Course was all about.
OK, so I’m waxing a little nostalgic and maybe even being a bit maudlin, but who cares.
One thing is for sure, the new building is amazing and within a couple of years Beit Riklis will be a distant memory. The impact that Year Course can have on lives, the lessons it will impart, from the idiotic (like don’t jump off a roof drunk) to discovering your worth and place in the Jewish world and the world at large will continue.
Keith told me after we had wandered around the building for a bit: “Ok, that’s enough. I’m not going to miss this place one bit. Don’t look back. Look forward.”
Sounds good.
Last week I ate my last meal at the Hadassah Youth Center; also affectionately known as Beit Riklis. It was quite a day. After 38 years of hosting the Young Judaea Year Course in Israel, we were closing up shop. Year Course was moving to a brand knew home- the Judaean Youth Hostel. Hadassah had spent 22 million dollars building a brand new facility complete with (hopefully) state of the art classrooms, auditorium/gym, swimming pool (summers only), weight room, and 130 rooms. In addition to hosting Year Course, the location is being run by a management company who will rent the rooms to groups and individuals. Hadassah wants to make money off of this endeavor as well as host the oldest year in Israel program around.
All morning the porters moved boxes onto their trucks. The chanichim performed the age old ritual of moving their luggage down the stairs and out to the waiting buses. For one last time the building was a flurry of activity as we all, staff and chanichim said goodbye to the aging ediface.
Whether we had been associated with the place for years or just a few months it was a strange experience to be saying goodbye to a place that was a part of Young Judaea lore and had a personality all of its own. Built in the 1930’s Bauhaus architectural style, This drafty old building with its echoing halls, crappy food and Spartan, utilitarian classrooms was kind of a home away from home. It was where us old Judaeans thought of as the headquarters of Young Judaea in Israel. For many of us it was where we first learned Hebrew, where we set out to tour the country, and it was where we first fell in love with Israel. And yes, for many of us it was where we fell in love for the first time (and yea, OK, lust also). During our time in Beit Riklis we started to think about life, our place in the universe and the Jewish World. We took those first cautious stumbling steps towards adulthood. Man, did I do a lot of stumbling.
My relationship with Beit Ricklis began 23 ½ years ago as a year course chanich (participant), continued as a year course madrich (counselor) and has culminated these last few weeks as the assistant education director. In between, there were too many visits to count.
This afternoon, Keith Berman, the current Year Course Director and I took one last walkabout. We went into what was once a second floor classroom (the last few years it has been used as a machsan (storeroom). I remembered that during ulpan (Hebrew class) I would look out the window and see the Old City off in the distance. We wandered into the moadon (recreation room) and spoke to a few current chanichim, told them about how the room used to look. I suddenly had this image of Lisa Litt (my old year course girlfriend) coming into make tea in this big Goldstar beer mug she carried around. I remembered one night almost all of us gathering to watch The Three Musketeers on TV; and I remembered the wine and cheese party Gia Machlin (I think) and a few others organized. I think that was the night that Ronit Tuchman and Scott Copeland started going out (they are still together by the way). The chanichim, who were reminiscing about their few months in Riklis and about their summer course experiences of a couple years before, wanted to hear some stories from us. So I told them the incredibly morally uplifting tale of how, that first Friday night in Israel, I along with a few others went on top of the rotunda outside the moadon and drank. When I went to jump down to the big balcony just outside the moadon my pants leg got caught on an iron railing, I flipped, landed wrong and broke my wrist. Aww memories.
The meal, by the way, that last meal, was just as crappy as ever. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to Beit Riklis. The experiences we had there, from the food, to the classes, to the tiyulim (field trips/hiking around Israel), fed us, sustained us, but inspired us to do more, to seek more, to be more fulfilled. I hope we have all tried to do that, live our lives as fully as possible as adults, as Jews, whether here in Israel or in the US. I think that is one of the main things that Year Course was all about.
OK, so I’m waxing a little nostalgic and maybe even being a bit maudlin, but who cares.
One thing is for sure, the new building is amazing and within a couple of years Beit Riklis will be a distant memory. The impact that Year Course can have on lives, the lessons it will impart, from the idiotic (like don’t jump off a roof drunk) to discovering your worth and place in the Jewish world and the world at large will continue.
Keith told me after we had wandered around the building for a bit: “Ok, that’s enough. I’m not going to miss this place one bit. Don’t look back. Look forward.”
Sounds good.
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