University of Haifa Ulpan

Today we finished our first week of the ulpan. It’s pretty amazing how fast it is going. They run a very organized program here, and unlike Ulpan Akiva in Netanya, they are much stricter about attendance and tardiness. It’s nice actually because in Netanya, there were way too many breaks, and having students trickle in late all the time tended to disrupt the class.

After classes one day, we took a trip to the nearby port city of Akko, famous for its Crusader/Byzantine/Roman architecture, which includes a lot of cool tunnels and underground arches open for exploration. The old city is largely Arab now, and very poor. The living conditions for the humans were pretty sparse, and as for the condition of the animals that were variously left out dying in the heat, and chained up in the steaming sun without any shade, etc. etc. – well, that is probably enough said.

Akko is probably the most famous for being the beginning and the end of the Silk Road to China. Being a port city, it was from here that the silk was transported across the Mediterranean into Europe. It’s also the place where Alexander the Great established a mint in 333 BCE. In 1799, it was still a very important port technically part of the Ottoman Empire but in truth being ruled by a corrupt Arab regime, operating as a fiefdom. Napoleon tried to conquer the city but was repelled by the Arab leader and his henchmen.

Yesterday, there was another optional trip after classes taking a hike in the Carmel Nature Park; an entrance to the park is right by the university. Our guide said it the largest nature reserve in Israel, and we heard some hyenas howling toward the end of our walk. The trail was pretty steep and rocky – Haifa being built on the side of a mountain and all – and it took over three hours to travel just a couple of miles.

About 250 students are participating in the July ulpan, about 90 percent of them are American. This is a very different makeup than Ulpan Avika, where over half of the students were new olim (immigrants), largely from France and Russia.

I have a private dorm room that shares a living space and tiny “kitchen” (if you can even call it that) with five other women. One is French, one is Dutch, two are American and one is a local Israeli student finishing up her undergrad year in psychology.

One of the Americans is also a rabbinical student, studying at Leo Beck, the rabbinical school in Britain. What we all have in common (except for the Israeli undergrad) is that we are all “older” than the majority of other students, who are largely undergrads. I will say one thing: After sitting around and listening to them make their endless stream of plans every day to go out to funky restaurants, salsa dancing venues, art-house theatres, Tori Amos concerts in Tel Aviv etc. etc., it’s really rather nice being an “old fogie”. I pretty much couldn’t care less about any of these things anymore, and am perfectly content to study quietly and go to bed early each night!