Shloimy Lowy, Staff Photographer and Writer
We were on the side of Mt. Acatenango, surrounded by perfectly symmetrical mountains on all sides. Volcán de Fuego, an active volcano, was a two-hour hike south from us. To the east stood three more mountains — volcanoes that have long given up their ability to fire, retired in peace to the landscape that escapes description.
After driving up most of Mt. Acatenango, losing a tire on a 30-degree incline along the way and reassuring the worried among us with hugs and threats, we hiked the final few miles and arrived just in time for its volcanic eruption. If you’ve never seen a volcano erupt, lava spewing to the heavens, red-hot liquid flowing down the side of the mountain, all I can say is: it is a sight to behold.
To the east, a rufous-collared sparrow welcomed the peeking sun with song. Layers of mountains formed a painting of blue and orange; the morning was upon us. Beautiful, magnificent, powerful, evocative, majestic: these are all adjectives we use to describe the indescribable. This was more than that. A few of us shed tears at the sight. If I had to choose a single adjective, it would have to be that word Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel used to describe our interactions with nature: the ineffable. A sense of utter speechlessness at the wondrous world we inhabit.
We were there after spending close to a week exploring Guatemala, including a day in El Salvador. It was the ten-day immersive Shevet Glaubach Center Guatemala trip (yes, the one with the nonstop posters last spring), generously subsidized by the SGC and spearheaded by Rabbi Daniel Coleman. On our trip, we also enjoyed the company of Stern College’s Sociology Department Chair Dr. Jill Katz and Jewish History professor Dr. Ronnie Perelis.
Rabbi Coleman, an Air Force Chaplain, said he incorporated elements of Military Officer Training School into the program. “The students consistently exceeded expectations,” Rabbi Coleman told the YU Observer. “Becoming a group leader or planning an activity for 50-100 people with only a few minutes notice seemed like second nature to them.”
“Navigating a mountain in the dead of night displayed courage under fire – in this case, under the literal fire of an active volcano,” he added.
Throughout the trip, the twenty-three-and-a-half of us (Dr. Perelis had to leave early) experienced the full spectrum of human emotion. Our hearts broke at Refugio De La Niñez, a shelter that works with girls who have experienced abuse, usually at the hands of those closest to them. The refuge shelter serves as a resting place for those girls to live until they are placed in a new home.
There were women as young as 13 who were pregnant, and a 14-year-old feeding her child. But despite their conditions, these girls seemed happy. They giggled when some of the men on the trip let them paint their nails. They were glowing when having their makeup done by some of the talented women on our trip.
Neima Fogel (SCW ‘28) organized the makeup and nail polish activities for the shelter. For her, this was about more than makeup. “Many individuals who experience abuse suffer from a loss of ownership over their bodies and sense of self. In a small way, this activity gave the women an opportunity to make choices about their appearance and exercise personal agency,” Fogel told the YU Observer. “More importantly, it allowed them to feel seen, valued, and cared for.”
Hearts were warmed at the various Jewish communities we visited. In El Salvador, we visited a small community of Hispanic Jews at their community center. We spent the better part of a day there and got to see their mikvah (ritual bath), how they pray and how the community comes together by working tirelessly to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. We sang with them and chased their children around with dart guns. We watched the shechita (ritual slaughtering) of some chickens, performed by the local shochet (ritual slaughterer), and its laws explained by the community Rabbi Shalom Stitou, a RIETS graduate. After dinner, we sang with them and left them a lot of YU merch.
In Antigua, Guatemala, the local Chabad House was bustling with Israeli men and women who had just finished their army service and were taking their “big trip” before real life began. The Rabbi was a character, singing love songs and offering a l’chaim (cheers) to anyone in his field of vision. The Rabbanit was a true Jewish grandmother, making us delicious food and caring for our every need, including the desperate desire to be yelled at occasionally. The streets of Antigua were marvelously culture-laden, lined with indigenous Mayan women selling everything you can think of, from paintings to scarves to flutes to pocketbooks to the juiciest mango you will ever devour.
In the Ohr Chadash community nearby, the men had the pleasure of speaking to Yerachmiel Avraham and the women to his wife Jana. Initially converted to Judaism through the notorious Lev Tahor cult, they were expelled, along with a few other families, for the sin of growing beans, at a time when Lev Tahor was expanding its restrictions on permitted food following the death of its leader. After their expulsion, they built a new community with the assistance of the Satmar community in Williamsburg.
Dr. Perelis, serving as translator, asked Yerachmiel Avraham: “What is the hardest part about keeping Torah in Guatemala?”
Dr. Perelis recalls: “He looked puzzled by the question – ‘nothing.’”
Yerachmiel Avraham continued, “We have what we need and what we don’t have we make or we do without. We are fine without meat for a time or without chicken — we can wait for the shochet to come. We created a dairy business. I have a bakery. We teach our children — those who know more teach more.”
This sentiment was one we all walked away with after our trip. On the journey, we saw what true poverty meant, we visited children who have been trafficked, babies who were malnourished, houses — sheds really — on the side of the road where entire families live in abject poverty, with a single room being used as a kitchen, bedroom and living room, and floors made of sand. Yet, despite their lack of material wealth, the Salvadorian and Guatemalan people were some of the happiest we have encountered.
After visiting an outdoor school in the scorching Guatemalan sun, Bailee Schwartz (SCW ‘27) reflected on this very idea. “Seeing an outdoor school filled with smiling children reminded me how much happiness comes from gratitude, not comfort,” Schwartz told the YU Observer. (For a more detailed overview of everything we did, check out Schwartz’s personal journal of the trip.)
A large part of our trip was learning the local language. Every pair of us got matched up with our own Spanish tutor and had lessons daily. For the director’s birthday, we learned to sing happy birthday in Spanish and we learned the very basics of conversational Spanish.
Over the trip, we also learned that communication does not always have to be with words. I myself became friends with Christopher ‘Chris’, a smiling boy who loved my camera and couldn’t figure out what those strands of hair on the side of my head were. I met Chris at ProChapina, an NGO that assists single mothers and their children. Later, we saw Chris again at Spanish lessons. Turns out, ProChapina was founded by our Spanish School’s founder who wanted to give back to the community that raised him. Chris and I played a football (soccer) card game which I think I won, though I have no clue what the game was or how it was played. Still, despite not understanding him verbally, we got along just fine and had a blast playing whatever that was.
Educationally, we were not lacking. Rabbi Coleman enlightened our trip with the many cultural and historical facts he has gathered up from his many experiences in Latin America. Dr. Perelis lectured on the history of Jews in Latin America, on their origins, their inquisitions and their struggles. Dr. Katz spoke to us about the archeology of Mayan temples and the history of the civilizations predating European conquest. Professor Luis Figueroa, a professor at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (UFM, a university in Guatemala) spoke to us about the more modern history of Guatemala, of the civil war, and of the genocide. At UFM, some of us got to sit in on a senior-level class in Economics, where we discussed the Transitional Gains Trap, a peculiar problem proposed by Tullock, while another group had a hands-on demonstration for 3D printing.
So if you (YU Admin) are worried we did not learn much, let me assure you that the education, the perspective and the cultural immersion we were lucky to have is something hard to match in a classroom setting. Most of all, we got to experience all of this as a group. We learned about each other’s virtues and vices and deeply bonded with each other. Every single one of us got to know the other well, and that, perhaps, was the most rewarding part of it all.
Photo Credit: Michal Bock