1988-1989 Rothberg Yearbook

V
Here w e have Richard Spencer and his reflections of our special Ulpan:
The class w as a m icrocosm of Israel. Sum m er Ulpan class, Bet 1, at Haifa U niversity — w here the
U niversity of C alifornia had its Ulpan — contained all kinds of different folks. There was us, a fe w other
Am ericans, a Swede, a Germ an, a couple of Latin A m ericans, and a South A frican w ith an accent so
thick you could slice it w ith a machete.
Now, I don't w a n t to sound like Jam es W att, Ronnie Reagan's old Secretary of the Interior, w ho was
made fam ous by his "B lack, tw o Jew s, a w om an, and a cripple rem ark. Each one of these students
came to represent a life-style, a country, a continent. It w as like learning Hebrew w ith the United
Nations — only a pro-Israel UN! W e connected — most of us, anyway — by being Jew s draw n to the
Jew ish state fo r as many reasons as there w ere Jew s in the class. And th e non-Jew ish students'
desire to learn Hebrew brought them closer to the rest, w ho also shared th is desire.
W e w ere also of vastly diffe re n t ages. There w ere young Californians, the m iddle-aged South
A frica n im m igrant, and a retired A m erican w om an w ith some spare tim e on her hands. It w as at firs t a
little strange to be in the same class as someone th a t could have voted for W arren Harding, but in tim e,
distinguish ing features like nationality and age became less im portant as w e grew to know each other.
So th is is ju st a taste ■— maybe ju st a sm ell — of my sum m er Ulpan class. Som etim es it seems like
yesterday that I w as greeting th e Colom bian w ith a "Com o estas?", som etim es like an eternity.
Richard Spencer