Page 5
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, June 8, 2005
Cave Junction resident Don Hook (above) visited his
wife, Nancy, who is studying and working in Israel.
Besides posing near a dromedary, Hook viewed
(bottom) a 2,500-year-old olive tree, and (in top right
photo) toured Masada, with the Dead Sea in the back-
ground. (Photos provided)
House increases funding
for K-12, 2-year colleges
The Oregon House fol-
lowed through on its com-
mitment to fund schools
first, passing legislation that
provides $5.275 billion for
K-12 schools and $439.3
million for community col-
leges next biennium.
Both figures represent
sustainable increases from
the governor’s recom-
mended budget, ensuring a
full school year and a qual-
ity education for Oregon
students, according to
House Majority Leader
Wayne Scott (R-Canby).
“When combined with
local and federal funds, this
represents an increase of
more than $700 million, 9
percent higher than the
budget from the last bien-
nium,” said Rep. Gordon
Anderson (R-Grants Pass).
“When session started,
we never thought this level
of funding would be attain-
able,” said Scott. “Our
budget exceeds the gover-
nor’s recommended budget
by $275 million and is still
$25 million higher than his
most recent proposal for
education.
“This is an incredible
investment in Oregon’s
schools that still allows us to
meet our obligations to sen-
ior citizens and the disabled
and keep our neighborhoods
safe,” he said.
Eighty-seven percent of
districts in Oregon are budg-
eting based on a budget of
less than $5.275 billion, and
no district is budgeting to a
figure higher than $5.3 bil-
lion. Additionally, this edu-
cation budget was built on
the assumption that insur-
ance rates would increase by
12 percent this biennium.
Recent information
shows that rates will only
increase by 8 percent next
year, saving schools $35
million to $40 million. This
will be additional, unantici-
pated revenue that can go
directly for programs and
services.
“The House truly put
education first by passing a
budget that puts Oregon
students and schools first,”
said House Speaker Karen
Minnis.
Help sought for JoCo hungry
(Continued from page 1)
are staggering, it’s a solv-
able problem. Many already
are working to make a dif-
ference, and put an end to
the intolerable situation of
families who are hungry.”
She added that more
help will be welcome. And
I.V. residents can give di-
rectly to the two sites in the
valley; or donate to the
county food bank, which
distributes on an equal basis
countywide, she added.
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Nancy Hook finding her roots in Israel sojourn
By CHRISTINA HILL
Correspondent
When valley resident
Nancy Hook boarded an
airplane bound for Israel last
summer, she was on a
search to find her roots.
After spending several
months working and living
in Jerusalem, Hook said that
she found what she’s been
looking for.
“I wanted to go to Israel
to learn more about my Jew-
ish heritage and find out
where my roots began,”
Hook said during a tele-
phone interview.
Regarding her current
residency there, she said, “I
just love it here. I absolutely
love it. It’s the best decision
I’ve ever made except I miss
my kids and my family. If it
weren’t for them, I’d be here
(always) and not look back.”
Since arriving in Israel,
Hook said that she bought a
car and found a wonderful
congregation, which led her
to a good-paying job.
“The average wage here
is about $4 an hour, but I’m
making about $7 an hour
plus medical, which is con-
sidered really good,” she
said.
“I work six hours a day,
three days a week in a soup
kitchen that feeds 55 people
a week. This is something
that I would have volun-
teered to do, so I just feel
like the Lord has really
blessed me,” Hook said.
Shortly thereafter, Hook
found a house to rent in Har
Gillo, a community on the
hills on the outskirts of
Southern Jerusalem.
“I love the architecture
in Israel,” said Hook.
“Everything’s made of Jeru-
salem stone and has arched
doorways and flat roofs.
Jerusalem stone, is a white
stone, similar to gray cinder
blocks in the U.S. Except,
when the sun is starting to
set, the stones reflect a gold
tone, which makes it look
like the city of gold. It’s
really beautiful,” she noted.
After renting her two-
bedroom home for a few
months, Hook was given the
option to purchase the
home, and she did.
Her husband, Don, re-
cently returned home to
Cave Junction after visiting
Nancy and their new house
for three months.
“We started remodeling
our house while I was
there,” he said. “And our
daughter, Charity, came and
visited for three weeks. We
took a boat ride across the
Sea of Galilee and even
went floating in the Dead
Sea. We’d take black mud
and rub it all over our bod-
ies; then get in the water and
rinse it off, and it was very
firming for our skin,” Don
said.
“There's so much his-
tory over there,” he added,
“that it’s really amazing.
And I know Nancy is really
happy to be there. I’m
proud of her because she
wanted something and went
for it. She now has full dual
citizenship in both countries,
America and Israel, and is
learning the Hebrew lan-
guage pretty well.
“She knows most of the
words, but they talk pretty
fast, so conversational He-
brew is pretty difficult. It’ll
probably take her a few
years to get it down com-
pletely,” he added.
Besides learning a new
language, Nancy has had to
learn a new culture and its
customs.
“Religion is a way of
life here,” she said.
“Beginning on Friday eve-
ning at sundown is the
Shabbat or Sabbath. It lasts
24 hours, and during that
time the whole country
shuts down. Airlines, buses,
stores -- everything just
shuts down.
“You’ll see men head-
ing home with flowers, and
it’s just quiet for 24 hours.
Nobody drives. They’ll
walk or ride their bikes to
where they need to go.
“The whole country
does it, not just a few peo-
ple. Then, at sundown on
Saturday evening, every-
thing starts back up again,”
Nancy explained.
Her taste buds had to do
some adjusting as well.
“They eat a lot of fruit
and vegetables and pita
bread,” she said. “But they
absolutely don't eat pork. In
fact, I believe it’s illegal to
even have pigs on Israeli
soil, but, one place in South-
ern Israel exports pork, and
they have the pigs on raised
platforms so they’re not
touching the soil. It’s very
interesting.
“Also, they don’t eat
any shelled-fish or crab, or
any fish with fins and
scales,” Nancy noted.
During her free time,
Nancy will drive along the
countryside, where “you’ll
see camels, goats and Bed-
ouin camps scattered among
the hills.
“Bedouin,” she said, “is
an ancient culture left over
from the time of Abraham.
It’s funny, because at night
you'll drive by the deserts
and see all these tents set up
with generators and TVs,
but their homes are just
tents, and they have their
herd of goats next to them,”
Nancy said.
As far as feeling safe in
Israel, Nancy said she
doesn’t even think about it.
“The media really hypes
stuff up,” she said. “There’s
not nearly the crime here
that they say there is. The
trouble is in Gaza, which is
far away. In fact, I felt more
scared visiting my mother,
who was ill in Los Angeles
a few weeks ago, than I
have the whole time I’ve
been here,” Nancy said.
“The world needs to
know what's really going
on,” she said. “There’s a lot
of one-sided reporting on
the nightly news in the U.S.
They’ll show soldiers re-
sponding with gunfire to
Palestinian children who are
throwing rocks, but what
they don’t show is that those
children’s parents are stand-
ing behind them with guns
shooting at the soldiers.
“The Palestinians are
training their 3-year-olds
how to use machines guns
and to hate the Israelis, the
Americans and basically
anyone who’s a Christian,”
Nancy said.
“And,” she added, “I
believe it’s the U.S. and
France and a few other
countries that are going to
train or are already training
the Palestinian soldiers and
giving them weapons. But
the Palestinians are just go-
ing to take that and retaliate
on Israel.
“Until they start to love
their children more than
they hate the Jews, then the
fighting won’t stop. They’ll
keep sacrificing their chil-
dren and themselves to Al-
lah until Israel is wiped
out,” Nancy said.
Nancy insists that “what
you see on the news is not
what’s really going on here.
Everyone is really family
oriented.
“Even most of the
Arabs in Israel are very
friendly, nice people.
There’s just a small percent-
age of radicals that ruin it
for everyone,” said Nancy.
She plans on returning
to the states beginning in
July. She’ll stop at a week-
long conference in Pennsyl-
vania before visiting her
mother in Los Angeles for a
week. Finally, she’ll make
her way to Cave Junction
around mid-July. She plans
to stay until the first part of
October, when she’ll take
the 17-hour flight back to
Israel.
“Our goal is to eventu-
ally be able to spend six
months in Cave Junction
and six months in Israel,”
Nancy concluded.
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