Interning In Jerusalem Summer 08

Much has happened since I left the States. As I perused my previous writings, I realized how apprehensive I must have been about interning in a foreign country, even though I obviously didn’t want to admit it. Now that I have been at the Jerusalem Music Center for exactly one month, I can finally express my views and feelings fully.

It’s amazing to me sometimes how different it is here. Many of the ideas that I suggest to my co-workers are either unheard of in Israel or impossible to act upon in Israel. By this point, I feel like I have used every inch of brain power and imagination to find new ways to promote the Center. I’ve used all of the tricks up my sleeve and yet I know that if this place was America, so many more possibilities would be available. What I learned in my Intro to Public Relations course last semester about international PR was right on the mark. Even so, I did achieve a few successes here and there, which I am very happy about. As for my co-workers, I could not have asked for a sweeter group of people. The thought of leaving the warm atmosphere of the JMC in a month seems so uncomfortable. Besides the importance of upholding a hearty work ethic, my desire to assist my co-workers is not only for my personal success, but truthfully to ease their workday as they care about the Center very much and work very hard. I want them to succeed in their efforts. I want them to see that their caring nature makes a difference. If only the arts could be so successful. If only communities could realize the importance of culture in society. If only Middle Easterners could understand the concept of organization.

Besides interning at the Jerusalem Music Center, I have also found myself assisting the Hand in Hand Arab and Jewish Education schools. Here too, I have suggested very significant forms of action concerning the evaluation process of their new curriculum, which covers the issues of: history, citizenship, language, identity, and relationship to the land. While my ‘supervisor’ understood the importance, as an American Jew who made Aliyah, his supervisors did not. I even told them that I would take care of the entire evaluation process, despite my lack of time and transportation. None the less, I received the red-light and left them that idea with a description of how they could evaluate their curriculum and what a ‘focus group’ was. I did get to write an invitation to Tony Blair and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to visit the schools, which I must admit was pretty cool.

With all of these discoveries, it makes me question how I could ever work outside of the States. Despite all this, I have learned a lot from my experiences and I am enjoying these moments in my life as a female, Jewish-American intern in Jerusalem.