New year... new beginnings
The start of a new year never looked so good.
At 9.30am on January 1st, 2007 I got the call I have been waiting for with bated breath (not to mention my knotted stomach!) for the last couple of weeks. I have been offered a job. Not just any job, but an absolutely fantastic job, here in Jerusalem!
I have been offered the position of Campus Affairs Coordinator at The Shalem Center, which is a highly respected academic institution which was founded in 1994 by scholars and public figures from Israel and the Diaspora. The Center advances original research, publication, and teaching in the areas most crucial to the public life of the Jewish people, including Jewish moral and political thought, Zionist history and ideas, Biblical archaeology, democratic theory, and economic and social policy.
My position entails a number of things, but primarily I will be working to recruit top notch undergraduate Diaspora students in North America and the UK for an intensive summer program here in Jerusalem. I will also be promoting the work of Shalem on campuses across North America including securing speaking engagements for the many excellent speakers Shalem has at its disposal. Another area I will also be intrinsically involved with is the student journal project. Shalem financially assists, mentors and supports undergraduate students to establish student journals that focus on Jewish and Zionist themes. There are currently six journals being published, but Shalem aims to increase this number in the coming year.
This is a huge position, with enormous challenges, but I can't begin to express how excited I am about it. The Shalem Center has such a wonderful reputation and the handful of times I have been there to attend interviews have always been wonderful experiences. The people who work there are warm and genuine and clearly very passionate about their work. I have no doubt that it will be an incredibly exciting and intellectually stimulating working enviroment.
As I walked out this afternoon, signed contract in my bag, I sighed an enormous sigh of relief. I think that sigh had been building up for a long time. Finally, I exhaled months' worth of stress, panic and uncertainty about my future. Today, those feelings transformed into joy, excitement and relief. I officially commence my new job on January 21st, immediately following the end of the AUJS Israel Programs, so the timing is fantastic. I now have about three weeks to find an apartment (which hopefully won't be TOO hard!) and best of all, I can now organise to send my lift from Australia, which has been sitting in storage since mid-November. It might take a while until it actually gets here, so I will be living with fairly minimal furniture in the meantime, but in the big picture scheme of things, it's a small price to pay.
It's kind of ironic that I have ended up living here in Jerusalem, because before I left Sydney, friends and family asked where I thought I would end up and I always assumed it would be Tel Aviv. However, I have really developed a soft spot for this city. Jerusalem is full of hidden nooks and crannies and is inhabited by every type of person you could possibly imagine. It's colourful, frenetic, spiritual, historic, modern, utterly chaotic and now, it's my home.
So, here's to 2007! May it be a year of abundant blessings for us all.
At 9.30am on January 1st, 2007 I got the call I have been waiting for with bated breath (not to mention my knotted stomach!) for the last couple of weeks. I have been offered a job. Not just any job, but an absolutely fantastic job, here in Jerusalem!
I have been offered the position of Campus Affairs Coordinator at The Shalem Center, which is a highly respected academic institution which was founded in 1994 by scholars and public figures from Israel and the Diaspora. The Center advances original research, publication, and teaching in the areas most crucial to the public life of the Jewish people, including Jewish moral and political thought, Zionist history and ideas, Biblical archaeology, democratic theory, and economic and social policy.
My position entails a number of things, but primarily I will be working to recruit top notch undergraduate Diaspora students in North America and the UK for an intensive summer program here in Jerusalem. I will also be promoting the work of Shalem on campuses across North America including securing speaking engagements for the many excellent speakers Shalem has at its disposal. Another area I will also be intrinsically involved with is the student journal project. Shalem financially assists, mentors and supports undergraduate students to establish student journals that focus on Jewish and Zionist themes. There are currently six journals being published, but Shalem aims to increase this number in the coming year.
This is a huge position, with enormous challenges, but I can't begin to express how excited I am about it. The Shalem Center has such a wonderful reputation and the handful of times I have been there to attend interviews have always been wonderful experiences. The people who work there are warm and genuine and clearly very passionate about their work. I have no doubt that it will be an incredibly exciting and intellectually stimulating working enviroment.
As I walked out this afternoon, signed contract in my bag, I sighed an enormous sigh of relief. I think that sigh had been building up for a long time. Finally, I exhaled months' worth of stress, panic and uncertainty about my future. Today, those feelings transformed into joy, excitement and relief. I officially commence my new job on January 21st, immediately following the end of the AUJS Israel Programs, so the timing is fantastic. I now have about three weeks to find an apartment (which hopefully won't be TOO hard!) and best of all, I can now organise to send my lift from Australia, which has been sitting in storage since mid-November. It might take a while until it actually gets here, so I will be living with fairly minimal furniture in the meantime, but in the big picture scheme of things, it's a small price to pay.
It's kind of ironic that I have ended up living here in Jerusalem, because before I left Sydney, friends and family asked where I thought I would end up and I always assumed it would be Tel Aviv. However, I have really developed a soft spot for this city. Jerusalem is full of hidden nooks and crannies and is inhabited by every type of person you could possibly imagine. It's colourful, frenetic, spiritual, historic, modern, utterly chaotic and now, it's my home.
So, here's to 2007! May it be a year of abundant blessings for us all.