By Leah Spellberg
On The Nachshon Project I have been opened to new opportunities and experiences every single week. For our last Shabbaton before Spring break we had the privilege of going to Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion where we were hosted by different families in the community. Alon Shvut is a Religious Zionist community, and a settlement in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank. I have found that many times in conversation with peers and in the media, when the West Bank or settlements are mentioned, there is a negative connotation attached. People often view the settlements in the West Bank as a barrier to peace and blame the people living there for the continued conflict. For this reason, a lot of times when learning about Israel or traveling around Israel, this topic is either avoided or just barely touched on. Before spending the weekend in a settlement we had a conversation of what it would be like to be there, but I don’t think I really understood until actually living the experience.
The family with whom I stayed was really just a normal family from the United States that wanted to live in a nice community and a beautiful home. I think the biggest difference between me and them is that they are originally New Yorkers and I’m from Chicago. They even made jokes about being “crazy right wing settlers” knowing that was probably something we had heard before arriving. The family welcomed us into their home like it was no big deal and had us for lunch. We spoke with the parents of the family along with three of their children and the grandparents. The part of the conversations that stuck with me the most was how we all perceive that people may not like us simply because we’re different, even if that may not be the case. The oldest son had justcome back from New York where he spent time working in a computer programming company run by Haredim. At first he thought that the people he was working with would not be ok with his lifestyle simply because he had different beliefs, but as it turns out it really didn’t matter. While listening to him speak about his experiences, I thought of how this phenomenon of expecting others not to like me also affected how I perceive people. I thought of how before spending any time in Alon Shvut, I formed a perception of the people that lived there and expected not to get along with them.
It was so nice to be welcomed into a home, that felt very similar to something that I could have experienced in my own home. The weekend and staying with the family made me reflect a lot on how Israel and the settlements are talked about and taught. The people that we met were just people that wanted to live a nice life in a beautiful neighborhood that had a connection to their history; they are not people who want to get in the way of the peace process. Going on from here it will still be hard to speak about the experience, as I believe that the best way to understand the nuances of the conflict is to actually see and hear from the people living inside, but it’s not impossible.
