My Arabic Summer in Haifa
Two years ago, I spent 6 months studying Hebrew at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . It was my first time in Israel and I was excited to learn firsthand about the intricacies of everyday life in Israel. Overall it was a great experience. And one that taught me a lot about Israeli society. The Hebrew University is situated very close to East Jerusalem, which meant I had the opportunity to interact with Israeli-Jews, Israeli-Palestinians, Palestinian inhabitants of East Jerusalem, Druze, and Bedouin. I first became interested in studying Arabic while I was in that linguistic melting pot. In front of Al Aqsa Mosque During my time at the Hebrew University, I also had the opportunity to travel and during my journeys outside of Jerusalem, I truly realized how prevalent Arabic is in Israel. I took a trip to Nazareth and was shocked to find that most, if not all of the signs were written in Arabic. I remember going into a bakery and failing to find anyone who spoke either Hebr