Janna's Jerusalem Journies: The Science Museum and Shapiro Beer

In February I began volunteering at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem. Pretty random, right? I know approximately nothing about science. I had been complaining to my friend, Eileen, in Madison about how I didn't want to be as bored this year as I was at times last year. She emailed me back with a list of places to volunteer that looked fun or interesting. I was too stressed with Hebrew in the fall, so I waited until I was finished with that to pursue any of them. I contacted the museum and met with them a couple weeks later. They really don't take volunteers regularly, but seemed pleased I was interested. The woman I work with, Tal, basically finds things to do for me as I don't speak Hebrew, or like I said, know anything about science.

My first day I got to wander around the museum a bit to become familiar with it all. Not too shabby! After that I worked on holes in the English website and fixed a lot of the wording. That actually didn't take me very long, so I wasn't really sure what I would be needed for next.

I was so happy when Tal called one evening and asked me to help them at their Mini Maker Faire. The Maker Faire is alllllll around the world, and Tal was responsible for bringing a small version (hence the 'mini') to Jerusalem. Basically scientists, anywhere from free lance to students, applied to get their project in, and once accepted, brought it to display and demonstrate.

The fair was March 17th, 18th and 19th. The night of the 17th was the grand opening VIP night, so they had a ton of food, wine and beer. And guess who poured that beer? This girl right here! Yep, I was the beer girl.

When I got there Tal introduced me to Itzik, one of the brothers who owns the beer company. Basically these brothers starting brewing beer from their home and kept winning all these prizes, and now they run a brewery just outside Jerusalem. It's called Shapiro Beer. More on that later.

Itzik showed me how to tap new kegs and how to fill the glass without the foam getting everywhere. Once he was done with that, he said, "are you thirsty?" and handed me a beer. And thus began my night of beer drinking (don't worry I didn't have too much). You may all remember from Germany that I'm actually not much of a beer fan. But they brought their Pale Ale (one of their 3 main kinds, they also have wheat ale and stout) and it was actually quite good.

Luckily, the beer stand was right next to the focaccia stand! These two guys were there from this catering service, and I guess their main thing is fire cooked focaccia. They also had hot tea and coffee. The bread had tons of toppings and super fancy olive oil. They kept making different versions. My favorite were the garlic ones! Mmmm. And I got to eat them fresh out of the fire! The guys were very loud, goofy and fun. We kept trading beer and bread, but they had a lot more beer than I had bread! Anyways, it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed talking to all the different people and goofing off with the bread guys.

Sadly the next couple nights, there was no food, just free beer! I didn't have the bread boys to entertain me that night. However, Skye, David and Katherine came the second night, and Skye, Dan and Eric came the third night. I also made friends with some of the makers and museum staff, so I wasn't bored!

The second night Avi, Itzik's brother, stopped by to make sure things were ok, and I was greeted again with, "are you thirsty?". And...thus began my second night of beer drinking. But now I had Skye, David and Katherine to join me. The second and third nights of the fair were not supposed to be "free beer" nights. Just the first glass was going to be free and the rest would cost money. Avi was so nice and offered my friends to drink for free. But charging for beer turned into an unorganized mess (how unusual for Israel!) and eventually the lady in charge told us we could offer it for free. Skye, David and Katherine wandered around to the different displays and projects. Eventually they ran into her neighbor, Hanan, who works for the museum and he was able to give them a little tour, so that was nice!

The third and final night I got to my beer station to find that it was a huge mess. The makers and museum staff had a big dinner and decided to serve themselves, and by this point the brothers trusted me to run things so they weren't there. Nothing was harmed at all, they just ran out the keg and there was beer everywhere. I changed the keg and cleaned up and everything was back to normal. Only this time the brothers had dropped off the wheat beer in the kegs! I had to try it, and thus began my third night of beer drinking. I LOVED the wheat beer! It was much sweeter than the pale ale and I think the bitterness is part of why I don't usually like beer. But this one wasn't bitter at all! Skye brought Dan and Eric and they wandered around and checked out the museum. Meanwhile things were much more relaxed and I was hanging out with a bunch of the makers and museum staff. I really enjoy talking to strangers (in a safe environment, of course), especially when I'm in such an odd setting. If you think about it, it's just weird that I was there. Everyone thought I was Jewish and when I told them I wasn't, they had a hard time understanding why in the world I was at the museum, and in Israel in general. But they were all friendly and spoke great English so it was fun.

Itzik and Avi came by at the end of the night to pack up their gear and thanked me for helping them by giving me a ton of bottles of beer. Including the stout which I hadn't gotten to try! It was so nice, I wasn't expecting that at all. It ended up being more like I was volunteering for them rather than the museum. After they gave me beer, they also invited Skye, me, and a few of our friends to a party they were having that Friday. It was so nice! I also told them I'd be happy to volunteer for them in the future if they needed anyone, and they seemed happy about that. Who doesn't like free help?

At first we weren't going to go to their party but then decided it would be fun to hang out with a bunch of beer brewers and go to a party thrown by locals. It was in their neighbors' back yard and there were tons of people. They had hotdogs (kosher) roasting, a DJ, dancing and the famous pale ale. It turns out there are six siblings, if I remember right, two are girls. Some of them were born in NYC and the rest were born in Jerusalem, but they were all very young when they moved here. Their grandmother was from Milwaukee! Two of the brothers brew the beer, Itzik and another (dang it I forgot his name!). I think Avi mainly does delivery stuff. Itzik learned how to make beer in Milwaukee, and the other learned in Colorado. So no wonder it was so good! We had fun getting to know them and their friends. They were all so nice and welcoming! It was great to hang out with some locals for a few hours.