Israelis Turn Backpackers Green In Nepal
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 02. 5.07
Practically every Israeli after a two or three year stint in the army escapes the pressures of living in a small country surrounded by less than benevolent neighbours – to go backpacking somewhere else, anywhere else. You can find hordes of them letting loose in Goa, India; in the middle of a jungle in Costa Rica or swinging from trees in Africa. Hoping to make the most out of Israelis’ wanderlust is the Jerusalem-based NGO called Tevel b'Tzedek, which plans to train Israeli backpackers on how to conduct humanitarian and environmental work in Nepal. The project is expected to start this April in Kathmandu. We were given the tip by David Pearlman Paran, at Israel’s Heschel Center featured here on TreeHugger and here at Grist. Heschel will be responsible for giving some of the environmental training in Nepal. According to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the 3-month program will integrate study and service internships for 20 Israeli young adults and will involve them in social and environmental justice programs in the developing world. The group will live together in a vegetarian-kosher and eco-kosher house, which will be non-coercively Sabbath friendly and user-friendly for religious and non-religious Jewish people of all streams.
Tevel b'Tzedek (which means The Earth In Justice) will coordinate service internships for the volunteers in strategic short-term volunteer positions through its local Nepalese partners, working on such issues as slum rehabilitation, environmental degradation, and health.
Among its activities, the backpackers will learn and teach principles on globalization, third world development, and the Jewish tradition of social and environmental justice from the Prophets to contemporary thinkers. Also, Tevel b'Tzedek plans to catch some of the thousands of young Israelis traveling through India and Nepal during their "post-army" trek to entice them with lectures, films, and short-term volunteering opportunities for making the most out of ones’ backpacking experience. For more information on volunteering at Tevel b'Tzedek contact Micha Odenheime ::release is here
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Yeah, I'm SURE the multitudes of Maoist factions who run the Nepalese countryside are going to just LOVE this going on within thier territory.
It' been going on "in their territory" for years. Aside from going green, if we could teach Israelie backpackers some manners and get them to quit their incessant bargaining....
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Ed note to Dinzer: the incessant bargaining is part of the Israeli/Mideast culture. Haven't you seen the Life of Brian? It can be confusing to foreigners, but here in Israel, even when buying tomatoes - bargaining is a form of communication and a point of contact for relating to each other. Sometimes it's tiring (just give me the price of something already!) sometimes it's a nice way to talk to a stranger.
I doubt they'd be considered particularly annoying by the Maoists... if anything, the Chinese love a good bargainer.
Folks at tree huggers....I am the founding director of this new organization, tevel b'tzedek, and although I am happy you are writing about it, I really am NOT a missionary, as was posted in the title of the article. First of all, Jews in general don't believe in missionizing people of other religions because we don't believe that Judaism is the only path to heaven. Secondly, we don't even intend to "missionize" Jews unless to missionize means to help make them more aware of what is going on in this planet and to inspire them from sources both within and without their own culture to try to make a difference...and by the way, I know some of the Maoists, and I don't think they have a particular problem with Jews or Israelis...
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Editorial note: the "missionary" statement was implied to be taken in the green sense...