Chanukah Covid Whiplash

thanks to cousin Jen for bringing the balloon kit when she was here last year!

Since we started coming out of the last lockdown, everyone has been prepared that we would be in lockdown again for Chanukah.  So it was absolutely no surprise when a nighttime lockdown was announced from 6 pm-4 a.m., set to start on Wednesday, the day before Chanukah. But then a legal challenge was brought, the challenge won and the ban was struck down and then, for some reason that I cannot fathom, not only did we not have a lockdown, but EVERY store that was still required to be closed (and there were plenty of them) was allowed to open. WHAAAT? Covid whiplash, indeed....

On the bright side, by the end of the month, Israel is set to have 4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine on-hand, and, with the first doses already in the country, it's possible that the vaccination program will start as early as December 20 (!) (evidently, we are waiting for the needles themselves to arrive, as well as for a program to be fully set up for who/how/when).

It was fun to be working in the Old City Thursday--the excitement over Chanukah was palpable; the air literally felt like it was buzzing. Tempting to scoot down to the Kotel for the candle lighting with Netanyahu, but I scurried home instead (not like I was likely to get in, given security issues and Covid issues!). 

wow--mosaic menorah at one of my schools!

Shalom Shachne is currently with Chana, Penina and Ilana at the Dead Sea for a visit. This involved
standing in line for over an hour on Friday to get Covid tests, as there is a road closure going into the Dead Sea (as well as Eilat--the only areas in Israel where hotels are open now), and one can only get in with a negative Covid test within 72 hours of entry. Don't think too hard about this, because it makes your head hurt; YES, there will be a small percentage of people who will become positive AFTER their test was taken. And, YES, they will end up there. And NO, you don't need a second test no matter how long you stay in these "Green Tourist Islands".....Just don't think about it too much. That's what I do. Rather, focus on the latest from "Puppy Cam"

Lastly, as our own little Chanukah miracle, we went out for a Shabbos meal for the first time in nine months. Wow. We ate at a separate table on our friends' balcony and had a lovely time. Nevermind the conversation, just eating someone else's food after nine months was totally thrilling!

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In "historical" news: a big thank you to Jeff H. who sent me a heads-up that our old house in Philadelphia is on the market now. It was so sweet to see the photos of a place we know so well, and see the great job they've done renovating (wow, real eye-popper of a price, though!!). For those of you who would like to take a trip down memory lane: https://www.trulia.com/p/pa/philadelphia/2403-lombard-st-philadelphia-pa-19146--2017363477

Covid Wedding

Here is what a Covid wedding in Israel is like these days:

First, it's a pleasant surprise to actually get invited, as the Corona rules are quite strict regarding numbers of guests. The chuppah was held in the backyard of a synagogue that abuts a park in our neighborhood. A few hours before the wedding, a message from the bride came in on my phone: "Ellen, can I assume you two would rather be slightly farther away from the ceremony, but in a place with less people?" Why, yes, she could assume that (clever friend)! And then I had this odd revelation that this was the Corona-equivalent of doing a reception seating chart.....

Her future husband had called the police to check that, although the guidelines say 20 people per wedding, could they have 60 people in three different locations just for the ceremony? The answer was "yes, but we will be coming to check". 

When we arrived, the wedding coordinator and her (small) team was actually functioning as a "Covid Safety Team", making sure that everyone was obeying the rules. Masks and hand sanitizer were available at the check-in table (although mask-wearing is a law here, and while you will certainly see people wearing masks incorrectly, it's pretty rare to see people not wearing a mask at all). The coordinators were allowing ten people in at a time to visit with the bride before the ceremony, and then showing us where we would stand for the ceremony. Although we were standing outside of the synagogue area in the park, we actually had a great view, right alongside the chuppah (although my feet still aren't talking to me after standing in fancy shoes for 2 hours, after eight months of not wearing such things). 

Another group was set up in the reception area, which had 5 tables of three, and one table of four (equals 19!). The bride and groom's table was alone in the next section, where the chuppah was being held (although it held the full 20--and probably a few more given the three musicians, photographers and videographer--during the ceremony). All in all, a lovely, beautiful evening and a very good job was done keeping it "within the rules". How do we know? The police did, indeed, come check before the ceremony started and allowed everything to proceed. Whew.

So how was it??? BEAUTIFUL--a lovely reflection of a special couple who took all the Covid lemons put on their big day and turned them into the most wonderful lemonade.  Look at this photo--you can tell:

  

Awesome photo, right? That's because
www.PhotographyByPenina.com was on the scene!

A HUGE "mazal tov" to Shira Chana and Yosef. We were honored to be part of your special day!

Daily/Weekly/Monthly (?!) Update

 Here's the big news around these parts:

We had Cousin Jillian over for Shabbat. Which is really a big deal when you consider that NO ONE has been to our house for a Shabbat meal for the past 8 months. While we would have hosted probably 30 times since March, instead we had one--ONE--guest. Wow. No pressure, Jillian. It was really a great Shabbos together. Thankfully, none of us had forgotten how to have manners when necessary (I was getting a little worried.....). She's a total sweetie and, once we made up our "rules" for the weekend ("can we hug?" "are we supposed to wear masks aside from when eating?") and decided our "covid pod" now numbers 6 and includes Jillian, we dispensed with masks and hugged with reckless abandon (which no longer sounds like a silly thing to say). It was wonderful to have a Shabbos that felt so totally normal in a way that almost nothing has for the past 8 months.

In Covid-related news, Israel's numbers are going down, thankfully, and outdoor malls and stores were allowed to open yesterday. Here's a "before" and "after" shot of swanky Mamila Mall just outside the Old City. It was SO nice to go to work yesterday and have the mall be alive with people instead of feeling like something out of a Scooby Doo episode:

Grades 1-4 in Israel went back to school last week and it was great to see kids walking around with backpacks and having some sort of normal schedule. Predictably, a few days later there was an outcry by some parents asking for their children to go to school without masks on. Somehow they seem not to understand that the choice is likely "go to school with a mask on" or "sit at home NOT in school and don't wear a mask"....Ilana's school is trying out a program of having classes a few hours several times a week in outside yards. Today was the first one. So far, so good :)

And finally, a recent favorite in "puppy cam"

So I guess the update is a little boring, but boring is fine by me. You know that curse, right--"May you live in interesting times"? 

Sukkot with Corona

 Frankly, it's been sad walking around this week. The motzei Shabbos before Sukkot is always a hopping time in the mercaz with tons of vendors selling anything and everything that might be needed for the holiday. This past Saturday night, however, was like walking through a ghost town, with only the supermarkets open....

We made some additions and changes to our sukkah this year, the main one being that we got beams installed on our mirpesset/porch so that we don't need canvas or wooden walls (the houses here, being designed for the religious community, are generally built so that porch walls can be used for the sukkah). And for those of you from the Northeast who are used to being chilly if not downright cold at night in your sukkah, that is, indeed, a fan in the corner; it's going to be in the mid- high 80s this weekend). A big thank you to Carolyn L for the Sukkot cloth napkins that are still going strong close to 20 years after you gave them to me as a gift!

 

My small addition (done in the "Elka and Solomon style" of adding something small and new each year) is this:

In the corner of the sukkah, I put a little rubber "coronavirus" and a tiny sign saying "it will be okay".

A thought I read is that this year, without guests, we will be more in tune with truly inviting the ushpizin, the spiritual guests we "invite" every night as we enter the sukkah

For those beloved family members we usually Zoom with on Sundays, we won't be on this week or next week because of Sukkot. Sending love.

And for anyone who wants a blast from the past, here is the link to my very first Sukkot blog post after we made aliyah. Wow, what a lot has changed in 5 years!

Life in Lockdown

Israel is pushing 7000 Covid cases per day and today the lockdown restrictions get even stricter, with less businesses open and less general movement allowed. Slightly hard to imagine what *less* businesses being open will look like.....This is what fancy Mamila Mall, just outside the Old City in Jerusalem, looked like the other day 

Parking in the garage underneath was ridiculously easy for 9:00 on a weekday, although I laughed out loud to see that some people insisted on playing the Israeli game of "let's-park-in/on-some-unusual-place" despite there being many open spots:

Restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery. Here is the pizza and falafel store in the mercaz 

I have a "red letter", which is a semi-official piece of paper that allows me to travel around. Traveling would be pleasant as the traffic is, of course, much lighter than normal, but police roadblocks make travel VERY challenging. Waze told me my normal 40 minute commute would take twice as long, due to a roadblock that had the main highway down from four lanes to one. To get to work the other day, I went through two police roadblocks (where I just had to say, "I'm a nurse going to work") but theeeen got to the Old City where it is a whole different ballgame: all the entrances have physical barriers preventing entry except through the gates that have groups of officers stationed to check letters, match identification, and on top of that ask each person to explain why they need to enter. I saw this up-close-and-personal when I forgot my letter the first day of lockdown and almost wasn't able to go to work. Thankfully, I got in after 15 minutes by sort of/on purpose/not exactly understanding what Mr Officer said and going through while he was talking with someone else (and praying I wouldn't get arrested. Let's just say that that Red Letter was printed, put in the thickest plastic protector we own and put in my bag before I left the house again).

It is so sad walking around and seeing almost everything shuttered. I have no idea if the economy will be able to rebound from this second hit (current predictions are that it will take 4-5 years for the country to financially recover) 

On the plus side for me personally, however, I ended a very long work day yesterday by being one of the few people allowed to go to the Kotel (because first, you gotta get in to the Old City and there's only so many people who live- or work there). 

The stairway down, which normally has a robust number of people collecting tzedakah  money, looked like it was Shabbos and not Thursday (in the front right of the photo, you can see scaffolding for the construction being done to make an elevator--HOORAY--to the Kotel plaza)

And the plaza itself was shockingly empty

Each section right near the Kotel is divided up into areas for 20 people, with spots on the ground to show each spot

It wonderful to be there and have the time and space I wanted and needed so much during this extremely-challenging time.....

Wishing us all a very sweet, happy and HEALTHY New Year

Fuggedaboudit!

 Forget about the nighttime lockdown that our city was part of; Israel now has the very dubious distinction of being the first nation to go into a second country-wide Covid lockdown. Tomorrow at noon, a few hours before Rosh Hashanah starts, all stores aside from groceries and pharmacies will be closed for at least three weeks. Stores are usually mobbed before the big holidays anyway, but, maaaan, things have been crazy busy because no one is going to be able to buy anything but food until mid-October. EEK. 

I still get to go to work during the lockdown. I will report back as to what it's like to be out and about while the majority of the country is limited to 500 meters from their home.  I was thinking today how odd and sad it will be to walk around the Old City with all the stores and restaurants closed.....

May we all be blessed with a very happy and HEALTHY New Year.

Oof--Nighttime Lockdown

 I didn't even get to post about the first day of school before, BOOM, in-person school is canceled and the girls are back home with a pile of worksheets and some phone-in/video-in stuff....Well, here's the first day of school photo, anyway:

Seems that when boys' yeshivas started on Friday, August 21, there was a predictable surge in cases a week later. Which spread to the sisters and parents and teachers and and and. So our city (where there are about 450 active cases out of about 25,000 people) became one of 40 cities put on nighttime lockdown starting last night and lasting for a week. Public schools and those under any amount of guidance from the Ministry of Education are are also closed, but this means that there are a fair number of fully private religious schools still operating. I fail to see the logic, because I think these decrees need to come from the Ministry of Health and everyone should be required to follow them, but my input was not asked for at a governmental level. I also fail to see any logic in shutting a city's borders from 7 pm - 5 a.m. Is Covid only active at night?! (The thinking behind this is that large [or should I say "large"] events like weddings will be forced to be small since guests can't come from out of the area. I still think it's pretty dumb. But I think the desire to do SOMETHING is huge for governmental officials who are desperate to appear that they are at least trying). 

In other, more positive news, Penina did something highly-unlikely for teenagers here and passed her driving test on the first try! The Israeli driving system requires a minimum of 28 lessons before taking the test AND there's no driving outside of lessons. SO: we gave the driving school a chunk of money and they gave us back a kid who knows how to drive. Pretty good deal in my book (and, having done it the US way twice, I'll say that I vastly prefer the Israeli way. Definitely money well spent)

Sign says, "new driver" 

Another bit of happy news is that cousin Jillian just started medical school here, so we get a real live awesome relative here for the next FOUR YEARS! Wahoooo!!! This is us visiting her while she was in bidud:

It got better, though, as we were able to visit from across the hall

I've been back at work part-time and starting tomorrow things start getting busy in my schedule. For a depressing chuckle, you can take a look at the type of outfit I typically wore at work last year

and how I look at work this year. Thank you, Covid-19, for the wardrobe update (not)

And, finally, since this post has so many photos, here's one more: Percy in his favorite position for being carried around. I love how he hangs his head over our arms:

5 Year Aliyha-Versary!

Well, so much for my plan of "weekly updates".  Here we are, weeks after my last post. Sadly, it's been intentional as I just couldn't bear the thought of describing how bad things were here. Things really heated up in Israel with a second Covid wave and got crazy in our town, which was high on the list of affected places. We knew a number of people who were outright ill and even more who were in bidud. Our street got veeeery quiet as a bunch of families were in quarantine and one family got sent to a corona hotel because the whole family was sick. A rabbi Shalom Shachne is close to (who lives right near us) was in the hospital for a week, but thankfully has recovered. He's the metaphor for our town (and the country as a whole), I'd say. Thankfully, infection rates have gone down here and will, please Gd, continue heading that way.....(Of course, since school starts next week I'll have to turn my optimism into "cautious optimism").

Ilana's elementary school graduation DID (briefly) happen in-person. Mothers (only) were allowed to come in groups of ten to see their daughters (wearing face shields) receive their diplomas, have a 5 minute festive snack and hit the road so the next group could be admitted. The school did a very nice job making things corona-friendly: each girl and her mother got a "table for two" with a pre-packaged salad and muffin on it. After a festive snacking/photo op moment, the principals scurried around changing tablecloths and plastic goods so that the next group would have a fresh setup. It was lovely to at least be able to snap a photo of Ilana getting her diploma and cheer on the girls. Good job with a crazy situation.

We are all missing our annual summer trip to the US, and have tried to make the best of the situation . Penina, while terribly disappointed at not being able to return to her job as a camp photographer in the US, was one of the photographers locally for Camp Simcha Without Borders. Since seriously ill children couldn't, of course, travel to NY to the big Camp Simcha , the camp held small sessions for kids around the world. I'm so proud of her that she used her talents to help this special camp:

We did our best to whoop it up by having a few "day-cations" locally.  Yesterday, to celebrate our 5 year aliyah-versary we went to a boutique winery (only 15 minutes from our house!) for a tour and tasting.

THEN:

AND NOW:

Lastly, Percy the puppy continues to be a delight and a wonderful addition to our family. He's grown "tremendously" and now weighs 1.2 kg (i.e slightly *more* than a bag of flour). I snapped this photo yesterday of him reclining on a pillow and it makes me laugh every time I see it:

Cousin Gil Visits!

And gets the prize for being the first person since March to be inside our house for more than 15 minutes.  (Masks off to eat and for photos).

 Percy, as a "Corona Pup", was thoroughly confused as to why anyone other than the five of us would be in our house....

Thanks for the visit, Gil!

Weekly Update

Not that I've been posting weekly, but maybe this title will encourage me to start a trend.....I do think it's interesting to have a diary of what life is like here, and my friend Heidi (hi Hids!) told me she likes to "compare and contrast" life in the US with my reports of life here, so here are some random thoughts:

First off, the public school year ended with a bang.  Or maybe that was more of a whimper.  It seems the teacher's union representing middle- and high school teachers was less-than-thrilled with the mandate handed down to them to work nine extra days at the end of the year to make up for "corona days".  When negotiations broke down, a lawsuit was brought, and last Friday, an hour before Shabbos, the court ruled in favor of the union and BOOM, just like that, school had ended for the year.  Most people didn't even find out until after Shabbos ended Saturday night and, based on what I saw on the local groups, there was a general feeling of "WHAAAAT?  Yesterday was my kids' last day at school?!  There was no closure! They didn't even take home their stuff!!!"

For our family, it hasn't made any difference.  The ruling only applies to Penina's grades/school and she was only going in for bagruyot matriculation exams anyway.  And they'll still be having those until the end of July (where's that eye roll emoji?!)

Speaking of bagrut exams, here's some crazy news: Currently there are almost 1000 corona patients in the educational system and over 23,000 people in quarantine from schools. Yet the District Physician's office today announced that quarantined students can sit for bagrut matriculation exams, which, as Dr. Eliana Aaron (you can join her daily Whatsapp update group at https://chat.whatsapp.com/EewEcjXLjY39MRSpXC4qcj) so aptly notes: "makes no sense epidemiologically unless they are in complete isolation from other students.  University exams will be given over Zoom, not in-person whenever possible.  It is reasonable to ask why high school students can be sacrificed to COVID sitting in a testing room with 'quarantined' students, while university students remain protected?"  YEAH--you tell 'em, Dr. Eliana!  Is the Israeli educational system's motto "Bagrut uber alles"?! 

Ilana is preparing for 8th grade graduation this week.  Since they have been together at school for the past few weeks, it is not as challenging as the virtual graduations students had in the US (although I loved how our friend Eitan's school made a video of each student walking with cap and gown and giving a speech).  The school originally announced that they would be making a video of the play and song/dance the girls had put together, and that Thursday's official graduation ceremony would only be for the girls and school staff.  I'm hearing whispers that they're trying to find a way for the mothers to attend. Meanwhile, here is the class picture (thanks to Meyrav's Boutique Photography), which makes me want to burst out laughing and crying at the same time:

Ilana is bottom row, second from right.  MAZAL TOV, Ilana!

And, lastly, the puppy update!  His name is Percy (officially "Sir Percival of [our town]), but, yeah, there's a little bit of Percy Jackson homage in there as well.  Here is my favorite picture of him.  He's playing "the tickle game" with Chana, which he looooves to do:

Who even knew dogs had armpits?!  He had his first vet appointment and we found out he weighed 800 grams.  That's less than a package of flour! We really saw it when we gave him a bath--that puppy is all fluff and very little else!  Ilana has not disappointed as a pet parent, getting up early in the morning with him (and a few times during the night) and showing endless patience. Here is a photo she took yesterday:

Bidud Redux

Yesterday, I started a blog post talking about the dissonance between what the Ministry of Health recommended and how it's all playing out in reality, since 17,000 (!!!) students and staff are in quarantine now.  The basis of my draft post was from Dr. Eliana Aaron's (aka "my boss") daily Covid-19 Whatsapp updates.  The info is Israel-centric but covers worldwide issues (to join, send a whatsapp message to: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Hdho9y6lAIj0OfKZKGH5eW):

"The Ministry of Health made recommendations regarding the safe return of children to schools.  This included capsules of 15 students, masks, distancing, hygiene and other measures.  The problem is, the Ministry of Health has no authority in the schools.  The Ministry of Education decided that these measures were not possible in a school environment, so capsules were eliminated and regulations were not enforced.  The idea of having a capsule system, similar to what many work places are doing now, is to expose limited numbers of staff and students to a potentially infected person.  The maximum quarantine needed for a sick student would have been14 other students plus teacher/s - so 15-17 others.  With the current situation, we are seeing a breakdown of the school system because of mass quarantines needed."

So how did Israel get to 17,000 students and staff are in bidud? Because as soon as one student tests positive, the entire school is shutdown and everyone is in quarantine.   Weeeeell, today we saw this up close and personal when Penina's school became the latest with a student who tested positive.  The girl is two grades younger than her (that's all the info we know) and we've only been sending Penina on an "as needed" basis for bagrut matriculation exams.  As she was walking home from one today, her phone went berserk with messages from her class: the police had come to shut down her school, with one class being herded out while in the middle of a bagrut exam.  Although, by the time she got home, it wasn't a surprise to us since OUR group chats were going nuts too.  She gets to be in "house bidud" since she's not in the girl's class, so we'll think positively about it being a two week vacation from going outside (the students in the girl's class have to be in "one room bidud").  

Some nice news is that she'll at least have extra company while hanging around the house: we got a puppy last week! He's a very cute and tiny Maltese.  Still working on the name (although my mother's suggestion of "Corona" was spot on.  We had actually planned to finally cave to Ilana's years-long desire to own a dog when Penina graduates high school next year.  We even thought we'd call it "Penina", just to keep things simple.  But worldwide lunacy moved the schedule up a fair bit).

Penina says she's part of the "Pup-Parazzi" ("Puppyrazzi"?).  And although I'm likely going back to work part-time (two afternoons a week) starting next week, I'm delighted I'm still home, as it's enabled me to do "Mutt-ternity Leave" and work on house training him (he's a natural!).

Of this photo shoot with Chana, Penina says, "It's JUST like doing a newborn shoot!!!"

Back to Shul (!!)

Israel has such low numbers of Covid-19 infections (b''H) that I heard someone describe it as "we flattened the curve and then we jumped up and down on it a few times".  So the big thing this past Shabbos was that shuls opened up for the first time in two months.  Our synagogue, although it holds about 100 people, chose to allow only 15 people in by invitation only.  This meant that the male Board members and some people who live on the same street as the synagogue were able to come in.  Shalom Shachne, as one of the Board members, 'made the cut" (although, nice guy that he is, he said he felt terribly guilty going into shul as the rest of the street davened outside and/or tried to listen in through the windows).

The rules are that everyone who enters needs to use hand sanitizer, wear a mask, bring their own prayer book, and be 2 meters from another person unless they live in the same house.  It's been quite lovely having him home for the past eight weeks, and having him davening at home has certainly brought our house to a higher spiritual level.  And those "mirpeset minyanim" (did you remember your ulpan word from the last blog post?!) have brought the whole neighborhood to a higher level.  I'm glad he/they are back in shul--it's where they're supposed to be.  But I will miss hearing so much davening around me, miss hearing the late night singing from across the valley, miss hearing Bircas Cohanim from just a few houses away.  For me, these were definitely "silver Covid linings".

Back to School (!)

I know this probably sounds CRAZY to those of you who already know that your school is done until the end of the year, but most of Israel is back to school, now that the numbers of those infected are "down to a trickle".

Ilana went back to 8th grade a few days ago.  Penina just had her first matriculation exam and that led to the first time she walked back into school in 67 days (she's been counting), although we expect her to sometime this week rejoin the rest of her class in being back full-time.   The challenging thing with starting this past week was that we were in the middle of a really strong heat wave leading to temperatures in our city of 106 f.  And it lasted for six days (thankfully, not at that level of heat.  But you know it's bad when we say things like--"Wow, it's ONLY going to be 91 f on Friday--that's ten whole degrees colder than its been").  This led the Ministry of Health to temporarily lift the requirement that students wear masks at school.  Which everyone seemed to take as "do whatever you want, go wherever you want, what the heck, we're all done with this thing".  Or maybe not QUITE that bad, but something like that.  We'll just say that our kids were part of a minority wearing masks in school and good for them (personally, I think all masks should have "I'm Wearing a Mask Because I Care About You" printed on them. Might make it easier for people to deal with wearing them).

The heat wave finally ended, but the crazy weather is still out full-force because this morning we got a downpour of rain, the likes of which are unusual after Purim, rare after Pesach and almost-miraculous the week of Shavuot.

For those of you who are reading this on the Blogspot page, you've probably noticed the blog's spiffy new header.  My thanks to Chana C of New Hampshire, who made our original header, which showed people at the Kotel. 

I asked her to update the header since we haven't been to the Kotel in a looong time (on what turned out to be my last day of work in the Old City, I was so intent on high-tailing it out of there and getting home that I didn't go to the Kotel, although had I known I wouldn't be back for months, I would have likely made a different choice....).  Interesting side note: davening at the Kotel for the holiday of Shavuot at the end of this week is by lottery.  I think it's beautiful that I live in a country that you win the lottery and get to pray at the holiest site!  Anyway, the new header shows the view off our mirpeset (there's your new Hebrew word for the day so you can impress people saying "porch" in Hebrew), since that's where we're spending huge amounts of time.  To follow-up to a long ago conversation with our pal Damon, who told us how he was spiffing up his Manhattan porch, we gussied ours up by sweeping (aim low is my sometimes motto), buying two lounge chairs (ooh, they come with cup holders AND cell phone holders now!) and getting a new hanging swing to accompany our glider swing.  

New and Improved!  Thank you, Chana!

Chana

Chana, for some reason, was offended surprised that she was not mentioned in the last two blog posts, so I'll make up for it by devoting an entire post just to her (although I'm not sure why she would have been included in a post about schools in Israel returning to in-person studies, but anyway.....).

When Chana graduated college last spring, she accepted a fellowship at her college in Online Education.  So, basically, she's got a job in THE field of the moment and, although she was one of the only people to work in the almost-empty department every day (job requirement, it wasn't by choice), she is working remotely here and it's going fine.  Since we're used to Shalom Shachne working US hours (approximately 4-midnight), it's all good.  She spends her mornings jogging or riding her bike and spends a huge amount of time developing a nefarious plot to make us all, umm, huge by baking tons of pastries.  Yesterday she made mini apple pies and apple turnovers, and last Friday afternoon got on a huge (there's that word again) baking kick and made a vegan lemon-blueberry loaf and coffee cake AND she and Ilana made the most adorable gingerbread cookies.  My favorite was based on this photo of SS and Shrek-the-hat-wearing-Horse 

And here's the cookie (yes, she probably does have too much time on her hands)

Today, Chana had a very big day (in Covid-19 terms, that is).  She went TO THE LIBRARY.  Today was the first day it's been open and it was by sign-up (and the 16 slots open over this week and next got filled in VERY fast.  I was very grateful I was on my computer when the email came in so I could snag her a slot in the very first time slot [super clean books!]. Only 4 people at a time were allowed in (one per family, masks and hand sanitizing required).  Each group got only 30 minutes in there, which was significantly cut into by the book return and checkout process.  In order to keep the process "no touch" (the librarians sat behind plexiglass with no openings), the librarians used each person's name to  open the patron's account and "check in" their book returns by having the patron read off the book names.  The books themselves were put into a box to be left for three days before library staff touches them).  The checkout process was similar-but-worse in that patrons had to read off the bar code on each book in order to check them out.  I guess this is the positive side of only being able to take out ten books at a time.  But it sounds like a LOT to do in only 30 minutes.

Overall, I'd say one of the "silver coronavirus linings" is this unexpected time with Chana.  She lives in the college dorm in Manhattan (job perk) and, since it's unclear when the dorm (or the college, for that matter!!) will open again, we'll hopefully have her here through the summer, at least.

School. Or Not....

On the super plus side, Israel is doing great with coronavirus infection rates.  "Spread of Covid-19 Halted" blared the headline of the Times of Israel two days ago.  This great news, however, is leading to one of the next logical questions: "when can kids go back to school?"  Which is odd to hear when my MA public school-teacher friend Kerry has just told me that there will be no more in-person school in Massachusetts this year. 

Sometimes I feel like we're on different planets than everyone else--we locked down so much earlier and had such stronger restrictions on our movement (MA just announced that everyone has to wear masks starting mid-week.  We've been at this for over three weeks as a law, and close to two months as a suggestion).  But now Israel is opening up the economy and here we are talking about kids going back to school.

On Friday afternoon the government announced that, starting SUNDAY, many students would be returning to class.  Given that a vast swath of the country is Sabbath-observant, this timing seemed INSANE to me.  How on earth would they be able to get things ready (even basic things like covering the water fountains)?!  This crazy timing led some mayors to rebel and refuse to open their schools on Sunday. 

In the educational framework that Ilana's school is part of, the plan was to start with grades 6-8 (no explanation of how they chose those grades. And it can't be that the kids have to go back to school to get the parents back to work because the preschoolers aren't back yet, and the 6th-8th graders are a totally useful age to have at home, especially if there are younger kids).  Ilana's school, however,  said yesterday that they were planning to open the whole school (grades 1-8) this week and wanted to know how many students to plan for.  Classes would be split into groups of 15 (which is about half of the normal class size in her school).  I was asked to find out how many of the parents of her classmates were planning to send their kids back to school, and was pretty surprised to find out, after a day of talking with parents, that only 5 parents were planning to send their child back at this point, and 22 said an outright 'no' or that they would wait two weeks and see what was happening with the infection rates and then re-evaluate (that's the group I fall in).  That seemed to be the upshot in the other grades as well, and, in the end, the school is going to remain "Zoom Schooling" for at least the next few weeks.  WHEW.

However, then there's Penina's school.  Her school is part of a different educational system with different grades being sent back (because why should the entire country be doing the same thing?!).  In her school system, it's grades 1-3 going back and also 11-12, which includes her grade.  I was hoping, hoping that maybe her school would also poll parents and find similar things to Ilana's school, but no such luck (Ilana's school is a private-public mix and Penina's is straight public, so the parents have less say and the government more/total say in Penina's school).  Why grades 11 and 12?  Because here the students have to pass a series of bagruyot.  These matriculation exams are necessary for graduation from high school, and the government is concerned about getting off-track with the bagrut schedule (thus saith Penina, "they're teaching the students to value test scores over their lives"). The school just announced tonight that it is reopening Wednesday.  Sigh.  She will not be going back at this time.  Parents are not required to send their child back to in-person classes, but the student will have to go in for the exams themselves.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I really hate feeling that the children of this country are guinea pigs in a very big science experiment, and that someone high up in politics missed the class about "change one variable at a time".  Okay, Israel--you want to open up most of the stores this past week, and let malls start opening on Thursday--FINE.   You say we can now have weddings and funerals with 50 people rather than 10?  GREAT!  But can we please not do everything all at once and send a million children back to school the same week?  Can we please just take this slow and see how things play out? 

What's Cooking Here

I'd say the main things that are cooking are some yummy dinners because, hey, I've got all the time in the world now (having all the ingredients is, however, another story.....Israel has still not recovered from Passover's "Eggmaggedon", when, during the most egg-use-intensive holiday of the year, there was a national shortage.  Importing 12 million eggs from Europe was supposed to solve the problem, except that this meant that each citizen got 2 eggs.....On the plus side, the country's been holding up just fine in the toilet paper department).  Anyway, we even made potato latkes by hand (like, with a hand grater!) because, well, did I mention we have some extra time on our hands?

The girls started back to virtual school on Sunday.  Ilana's going a half day and Penina is going about 3/4 of a day.  They attend classes on Zoom, which I think is great, as it encourages getting out of pajamas.

Here are some random thoughts I'm having:
--Growth hormone is released only during deep sleep, so I wonder if children are growing more now that they're getting additional sleep since they don't need to wake up so early for school?

--I wonder what the rates of traffic injuries and other "accidents" are these days?  How much have they decreased?  (I took a great course in nursing school, the premise of which was that "accidents are injuries, and injuries are preventable".  *I* thought it was great.  Shalom Shachne says it changed our lives, and not for the better 😂)

--I'm telling everyone who will listen--ie my family and now all of you--that I suggest taking Vit D supplements, unless you're someone spending lockdown suntanning in the backyard.  I imagine relatively few of us are getting enough natural Vit D at this time

Yesterday, Ilana's school announced a two hour window for parents (only) to come pick up everything their children had left at school.  The school had one pickup time right after lockdown started over a month ago, when students (only) were allowed to go in and get specific books the teachers asked them to have at home.  It's too bad they didn't initially ask them to take everything, which was what Penina's school had done (then again, the very first night of lockdown, there was a severe wind- and rain storm and part of the roof of Penina's school blew off (!), so, from the beginning of all this, her school wasn't sure if they would be up and running again before the end of the year). It was surreal to be in Ilana's classroom with other parents, all of us wearing masks and gloves and throwing books and pencil cases in bags so we could get out of there as soon as possible.....Definitely not like PTA night a few months ago, that's for sure!

Nefesh b'Nefesh just started online Hebrew conversational groups, which I started taking to supplement my twice weekly ulpan which is now "listen only".  Today was our second class, and I found out that 3 out of 10 people in my class had made aliyah in the last few months, and one arrived in March and had 1 1/2 weeks of being out and about before lockdown began.  That's some unusual aliyah.....(Interesting that there are people continuing to make aliyah now.  Then again, if you're coming from Europe [like the three people in my class], between the antisemitism and the rates of coronavirus, you're probably only improving your life by making aliyah). 

As someone who loves to stay home, my days feel pretty reasonable, as long as I look at it one day at a time and just think that I'm having a Sunday day (not that those exist here.....).  And then I go out and see people wearing masks, and, wow, it all hits home what a time we're in the midst of.....

These are the things that count as newsworthy in my life these crazy days:

Woohoo--Chana is finally free to leave the house!  Her first big adventure was taking out the trash to the bins at the end of the street (a coveted expedition these days, now that Israelis are only allowed to go 100 m from our houses unless we're going for food or medical care).  We celebrated by putting a "Welcome Home" sign on the door and singing "Siman Tov u'Mazal Tov" when she returned:

The city is also trying to make staying indoors easier by sending out a Simcha mobile to liven things up--a flatbed truck with a DJ with lights and a fog machine and a couple of motivators (some wearing masks) encouraging us to all come out and dance on our balconies.  Love it!

I've been trying to get the hashtag #tinyruns to popularize, although since I'm only posting in the 10-person running group I belong to, I'm not aspiring to Frindle-like popularity.  Here, for example, are two of my recent runs:

last 10k for a while--March 19

#tinyrun of 3 km: 100 m back and forth and back and forth and back.....How that guy ran a marathon in his living room I cannot imagine!

Penina was supposed to have gone to Poland and returned by now.  We are hoping that she will get another chance to go next year, before she graduates high school.  What the heck--I made her a welcome home sign as well (although I needed to open the door to show her, since she hadn't left the house that day):

Perhaps unsurprisingly, she said that Poland felt quite similar to here....

Lastly, although life in general feels stressful due to the "Zombie Apocalypse" (as we call it), my personal and familial life has taken a large step down on the stress scale since I got laid off from work 1.5 weeks ago (and, even better, my last direct patient contact was two weeks ago, so, in spite of all my beloved students who coughed on me while being examined, baruch Hashem, I'm still here).  The downside of being employed by a company that works almost exclusively with gap year students and tourists is, well, I'm sure abundantly apparent to everyone reading this....

Hang in there, wash those hands and stay safe, everyone!

Shabbos in Bidud

Here's your new Hebrew word for the day: "bidud".  It's from the same root as levad, "alone". Chana was, thankfully, able to leave NY (now the US epicenter for coronavirus) Tuesday night, and, following Ministry of Health protocols, is in bidud for 14 days.

I drove her home from the airport and we tried very hard not to rob some stagecoaches on the way (thanks, Penina, for helping add some humor in there).  (MOH guidelines for driving: mask [cloth acceptable if you don't have a "real" mask] and glove, windows open and passenger in the back seat.  I'll say it wasn't conducive to pleasant conversation....)

Once home, it was upstairs to the third floor.  Thankfully, her bedroom is there along with our guest room, a full bathroom, a balcony and even a treadmill (sadly, it doesn't work well for the running Chana likes to do, but at least a person can get a few steps in).  It's DEFINITELY not a palace up there (those of you who have stayed in our "B&B" are nodding now, I'm sure), but it's a lot better than those in bidud who have their bedroom and that's it; when needing to use the bathroom, those folks need to mask and glove and then wipe down all the surfaces they touched before leaving.

We worked hard to get the third floor to be as pleasant as we could.  Shalom Shachne took up the small refrigerator in his office (no workers coming now who need to put their lunch in, anyway) and Penina and Ilana stocked it full of tasty things to eat.  We put signs and photos up all over:

Shabbat was, as expected, pretty darn different from a regular week.  Shuls are closed, but people were encouraged to go outside on their balconies/gardens and sing Kabbalat Shabbat "alonetogether".  What happened was the most beautiful cacophony of singing--some started a little earlier, some started a little later, some were singing on the same street as us, some from one street to our left, some from eight flights of stairs above us.  It was SO BEAUTIFUL.

We brought a folding table and chairs up to our second floor hallway where they *just* fit--one chair is at the entrance to the bathroom, one chair at the entrance to our bedroom, one at the bottom of the stairs to Chana's floor and one a few inches away from the stairs going down (it's not terribly dangerous, don't worry, Mom).  Shlepping all the food upstairs felt a lot like an indoor version of Sukkos, except without the Sukkah  :)

I couldn't think of any games we could play together, as Chana is really supposed to be behind a closed door (she peeked out a few times, but, hey, it was REALLY important that she check out Penina's new skirt to she if she wanted to borrow it), but there was a lot of singing.  While I'm sure many families sang extra Shabbos zemiros, we gotta be us and sang every song we could think of that could be switched to have a coronavirus/bidud theme in it.  For example:

(With apologies to Frozen)
"knock knock knockknock knock
Chana?  Do you wanna build a snowman?
No thanks, I'm in bidud
I never see you any more
Come out the door
It's like you've gone awaaaay (even though you're home)"

(And with apologies to the Beatles)
"Biiiiidud
Don't be afraid
Take two weeks and
You'll feel beeeetter
Remember
To always mask and glove
When you bring homemade muffins
To show your looove, loooove, looooove"

Thankfully, she's still pretty jet-lagged and exhausted from a super busy last week in NY, so there was also a lot of sleeping.

4 days down, 10 to go.....Wish us luck!