By Eitan Feldman
Eitan Feldman, a sophomore from Lovett College and double major in chemistry and computer science, received a Desirée and Max Blankfeld Fellowship this past summer to travel to Haifa, Israel, to study at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Thanks to Desirée and Max Blankfeld Fellowship for Jewish Studies from Rice’s Program in Jewish Studies and an opportunity to study at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, I was able to spend some time this summer in Israel.
As a double major in chemical engineering and chemistry at Rice, I interned at the Technion in Haifa, where I worked on three different projects: we designed new desalination membranes for reverse osmosis (MLD process); we studied how controllable aspects of membrane formation impact the characteristics of the membrane; and we worked on a process called vapor phase infiltration. It was an exciting experience for me to participate in and contribute to the ongoing research in the lab at the Technion in Haifa. My work and research on the VPI project was the most substantial of the three. It will hopefully help researchers use organic VPI practically, and my findings will be part of a published paper.
During my time in Israel, I met many new friends at the Technion, and I was able to spend some time with my cousins and family. These are difficult times in Israel. I have never found the expression “one Jew, a million opinions” as true as when I was in Israel. I frequently talked to Israelis and tried to gauge their opinion on the ongoing conflict. One set of my cousins joked about the end of Netanyahu’s government. Others talked about moving abroad in the next few years. The opinions on how the war should have been fought also varied dramatically. Some said a strong and demonstrative short attack would have been best. Others advocated for the complete and utter wipeout of Hamas. There was generally strong disagreement and pessimism.
At the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, people seemed more united. I thought it was particularly humorous when I paid for a snack at the vending machine, and it parroted back “united we will win.”
The Technion Institute was a telling example of this unusual unity and coexistence. Walking into the student union, I heard a mix of Hebrew, Arabic and English, sometimes all from the same person. While friend groups were definitely largely separated, there wasn’t anywhere near as much animosity as I expected. Arabs and Jews worked in groups and were sometimes friends. When the Druze village, Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights was attacked in July and 12 children were killed, both communities grieved. Ultimately, Israel is both extremely divided (on multiple axes) but still united.
I have heard it said many times that Israelis are like the sabra cactus, spiky on the outside but sweet on the inside. I’ve been in Israel before and that saying was confirmed. However, on this trip, I didn’t really experience the spikes. At the beginning of my internship, I was often lost. In Haifa at this time the GPS is intentionally jammed. Whenever I asked for directions, I was met with extreme kindness. Strangers went out of their way to get me where I needed to go. For my first Shabbat, I was invited to multiple Shabbat lunches with complete strangers. At this first lunch, I was astounded by the number of different places from which these Jews came: Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Ecuador, Chile, Philippines, Hungary, Belgium, France, Italy, Great Britain and Hong Kong. I, like all of these other foreign Jews, were warmly welcomed into Israeli society.
From my summer, I saw that even with all of Israel’s extensive problems, there is clearly a lot that is worth preserving. Thank you to Jewish studies at Rice for making this experience possible.