Picking up where I left off...

Sorry for the hiatus - winter break was short and then spring semester was a sprint the whole way through, but I WILL finish this blog this summer. On with Adventures in Ireland!

The next Monday (October 12, if you're paying attention) was a busy day, the kick-off of a busy week. After my Monday classes, I killed some time in the library and then went to a meeting at Iona to help plan and discuss Jewish Cultural Night and the Jewish Cultural Festival, both of which were to take place that week. Janusz wasn't there and I was told he was sick. I was the only Jew in the room, but Cliona was there, so I wasn't really on my own. I agreed to teach a couple Israeli dances and Cliona volunteered to organize the food preparation. I said that if Janusz couldn't be there, I could teach some Jewish songs too, and promised to get lyric sheets to Richard, one of the people at Iona, as soon as possible. I left the meeting totally jazzed and walked to fencing club planning songs.

Wednesday was Jewish Cultural Night. Janusz still wasn't feeling well, so I was planning on teaching some fairly typical, easy-to-learn songs. I wanted to teach songs in Hebrew and English, religious songs and cultural songs. My final song list consisted of Shalom Rav, Ilu Finu, Heveinu Shalom Aleichem (the one with the shoo-bops and hand motions), Not By Might, and Where Ever You Go, There's Always Someone Jewish (which I admit was more than a little ironic, given the circumstances!). I wanted to teach easy dances so I decided on the clap-clap dance (which I have never known the name of - it's the one where you "carry the pizza") and Od Lo Ahavti Dai.

I made it through classes and RAN home. Technically the festivities were supposed to start a half hour after my last class finished, but I decided to run home, shower, and quickly create the dance music playlist and just meet the group at the synagogue which was right around the corner from where I lived. I finished just in time and dashed to Cork Hebrew Congregation (http://www.corkhebrewcongregation.com/) where I found the group listening to an older gentleman talk about the history of the Jewish community in Cork. Although I disagreed with some of what he said (he was speaking from an Orthodox standpoint and tended to dismiss the Jews in the area who weren't Orthodox), it was really interesting to hear him talk about the rapidly disappearing Jewish community. He wasn't fighting to revive it. It really surprised me - I couldn't imagine a Jewish community in the US that wouldn't fight to continue, he seemed very matter-of-fact about the fact that it seemed likely that there would be no Jews in Ireland in a few generations. But because he wasn't sad, it seemed almost wrong for me to see the situation as sad. His explanations for the migration and population loss were logical and were I in the position that his grandchildren (who were present and around my age) are in, I could see why leaving would make sense.

From the talk, we all headed back to Iona for the festivities to truly begin. The food Cliona had organized and prepared along with the kosher and non-kosher wine that had been procured was being passed around for everyone to sample. Hummus, falafel balls, matzah, cholent and cookies were all available for people to try. After it had quieted down, I began teaching songs. Everyone was very enthusiastic - the song sheets I had made had transliteration and translation so even for the songs in Hebrew, everyone could understand what they were singing. The musicians helped, quickly picking up Ilu Finu. By the time we were done singing, at least a third had left - but since we started with probably 30 or so, there were still enough left to teach some dances too. The clap-clap song was a smash hit, although by the time we tried Od Lo Ahavti Dai, I think most people were too distracted and a little too drunk too pay much attention. I had convinced some Butler people and one of my flatmates to come, so it was really fun. If you're on Facebook, check out this video of the evening: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=504683126442&subj=746811962.

After leaving Iona, I met up with a couple other friends, because Sophie's dad was in town. I hung out there for a little while and then headed home, completely satisfied with the evening and absolutely wiped out.