Holocaust Conference

Pretty amazing that almost 50 world leaders are here now, noting the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.  Here's the "view from the street":  First off, things here have been getting busy for the past week, when the first leader (Australia's PM) arrived, but things really heated up on Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for Thursday's big ceremony.

I usually work in 4 schools in various parts of Jerusalem on Thursday, including one in the Old City.  It looked like today was going to be a REALLY bad day to shlep around Jerusalem, with the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway closed for large parts of the morning while Mike Pence and Vladimir Putin arrived, and Pence scheduled to visit the Old City not long after I'm usually at my school (but well within the time for the whole place to be shut down by security).  The chief of traffic police sent out a message saying something like, "unless you absolutely MUST be in Jerusalem on Thursday, we ask that you not come".  Ilana's friend had a high school entrance interview scheduled at a Jerusalem school and not only was the interview cancelled, the school didn't even open for the day!

In the end, I went into work Wednesday (when I tried to find out if my usual parking garage near the Old City was even open, I was warned by the online denizens that I was likely making a huge mistake).  Thankfully, I found that, WHEW, all was pretty quiet in the city.  A HUGE (huge huge) security force was out--according to a news article I read, 11,0000 security officers are in Jerusalem today; I believe it!  There were security officers at most intersections as I entered the city and the presence grew and grew until, around the major hotels that the bigwigs were staying at there were hordes of officers around, and the street that the David Citadel and King David hotels are on was totally closed off to traffic [I have a feeling Putin and Pence got through]).  For those familiar with the city, from Gan Sacher up through Rechavia and all the way to the Old City there were barriers along the sidewalks (no crowds out watching yet, though!) with security officers on every block.  It was very impressive to see. 

My vote for best speech (although I haven't read through them all yet) was by German President Steinmeier who said, “I wish I could say that we Germans have learned from history once and for all, but I cannot say that when hatred is spreading. I cannot say that when Jewish children are spat on in the schoolyard. I cannot say that when crude anti-Semitism is cloaked in supposed criticism of Israeli policy.”  He finished his speech by saying,  "here at Yad Vashem, I renew this promise before the eyes of the world. And I know that I am not alone. Today we join together to say: No to anti-Semitism! No to hatred!”   AMEN

Black Friday

Or, as they say here, "Blek Frrrriday".  It was here.  Or maybe it still is.  All last week I heard ads on the radio saying, "Black Friday sale: all this week".  And there's even a mall that's been advertising its sales "all this month".  What are they even basing Black Friday on?! Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, there being no need to commemorate friendship among Native Americans and Pilgrims.  (Of course there are the American ex-pats who still indulge, although everyone I know who made turkey and pumpkin pie had it for Shabbos dinner, Thursday the 28th being a regular work/school day here)!  Shalom Shachne says that Israel hasn't figured out how to have so many retail holidays like the US has, so they have to latch on to whatever they can.....Today, even though it's Monday (Israel evidently hasn't yet been tipped off to Cyber Monday), I repeatedly heard ads exhorting people to come in for "the last day of the Black Friday sale". 

But this sign really took the cake (er, pumpkin pie?!):



My friend sent this photo of an ad in Yiddish for Black Friday.  So come on down to the Shvartze Freytag sale!  And don't forget the cranberry sauce!

Jen is here!

So what's an amazing side benefit of having Cousin Sela here in Israel for a seminary year?!  Her mom, my deardeardeardear cousin Jen, coming to visit!!!!  And they even came to us for Shabbos, which was all the more incredible because Jen has hosted us for Shabbos 248 times (exactly) over the years, and, due to our formerly living near her parents (Hi AP!), we have hosted Jen and co. exactly zero times over the years.

I also got to meet up with Jen, Temima and Sela (in L to R order) and walk around the Machane Yehuda shuk after work the other day

We just HAD to try the famous chocolate rugelach at Marzipan Bakery.  I would say they are justifiably-famous, as I don't even LIKE rugelach much and I thought these (warm from the oven and literally dripping with chocolate) were delicious

I am cracking up because Temima and I, at opposite ends of the store, whipped out our phones to snap a picture at the exact same time.  Temima won.  (Look how GOOD all that stuff looks!!!!)

I think the nicest thing was just knowing it was *possible* to run into Jen and Temima any day/any time.  Like Penina, in Jerusalem to celebrate her birthday today (woohoo!  Happy 17th, Penina!!!!) who, boom, "accidentally"' met up with them.  "Coincidences" are just so much more common here--land of Hashem and all :)

Four Year Aliyah-Versary (!)

I've been musing over this post since August, when our actual Aliyah-versary passed.  What to write about? 

How it's so nice to finally know people and how sweet it was that on our 2 a.m. flight back to Israel from NY this summer there were two other families from our neighborhood on the same plane? 

How Penina was reading some homework recently and said, "Can you believe this--I'm just READING this in HEBREW?!" 

How much easier each start-of-the-new-year is over the last one, and how this year's schedule so easily fell into place because we know who is offering dance classes, where the place for horseback riding lessons is, etc? 

How food shopping takes me a fraction of the time because my label-reading Hebrew has vastly improved?!  While my regular Hebrew has also (mildly) improved, my level of "food shopping Hebrew" is SUPER good now.  I can tell what kosher supervision a product has and if it contains gluten in just a few seconds now.

While touching on those, I decided the main thing I wanted to share is a concept I heard at a shiur by Rebbetzin Shoshana Pol over a month ago and have thought of often since then: In whose merit are we living in the land of Israel now?  When we think of our great-grandparents and further back in time, there are endless generations where the thought of even being *buried* in Israel was too much to hope for. 

In the merit of which ancestors do I get to live in Israel when for thousands of years my people prayed three times a day to be here but the word, the dream, of Jerusalem was as close as they came?  In whose merit do I get to live in modern Israel where I drive my car on a four-lane highway to get to Jerusalem (no donkey from the port of Haifa for me), walk into the Old City with hordes of tourists, all of us excited like we're walking into Jewish Disney World, and sit in my office in a building that's so ancient I can't get phone service because the walls are 7 feet thick?!  In whose merit do I live the life of luxury I have?!  True, it's not American luxury, but when my main complaint is that no place sells "Earth Balance" natural margarine, I'd say we're doing pretty well.

I don't know whose merit brought me and my family here, but to Hashem and to all my ancestors, I hope you are feeling my most heartfelt thank you.  Because it is such a blessing that we are living, and thriving, here.

In case you think I'm exaggerating about the office walls!

Simchas Torah (AKA "Easy Simchas Torah Potato Chip Flag")

Whew--the end of the season is upon us!  Today, Penina and a friend took a special "only-running-during-the-Holidays" bus at 5:30 a.m. so they could daven at dawn for Hoshanah Raba at the Kotel!

But the main reason I'm writing this post is to remind myself next year of what easy crafts I like to bring to shul for the holiday, since it's a big time to give out goodies to the kids (and, who am I kidding, to the adults, too).  I searched earlier today to find a link to how to make an "Easy Simchas Torah Potato Chip Flag" and, oh my, couldn't find anything.  So here you go world: here's my post :)

Steps: 1) take a mini bag of potato chips (I used TapuChips 18 gram bags)
2) put a regular drinking straw at one end of the bag
3) fold the edge of the bag over on itself and tape down (I used white duct tape)
4) take a tiny piece of tape and put it around the bottom of the bag, sticking to the straw (otherwise, I have found that the straw is not secured and often falls out)
5) wave your flag!

Ilana made teeny Torahs out of Winkies/Zazas/umm, can't remember what we called them when I was a kid (help me out here, Deb!)

Steps: 1) glue stick two candies together (hot glue gun was not necessary, glue stick worked fine)
2) put a small sticky note around the front
3) tie with a little piece of ribbon

Chag Sameach!

The Holidays

Well, it's been an intense season here, with the holidays coming one on the heels of the next (although I will take this year's schedule of Shabbat and then a brief break with Rosh Hashanah starting on Sunday night, rather than last year's three-day marathon of Shabbos going right into Rosh Hashanah.  On the downside, though, the supermarkets were madhouses on both Thursday *and* Sunday).

Chana arrived a few hours before Yom Kippur started, which may not have been the smartest thing to do in terms of preparing to fast for 25 hours (pretty sure I've never read any pre-fasting advice that suggests international plane travel, although I was glad to see a number of other religious people arriving as well.  There was, at least, comfort in knowing we weren't the only lunatics with this idea).

We were able to buy her a "Welcome" balloon at the aiprort, but were stymied in our quest to get her an iced coffee, because the restaurant was closing.  Thinking I'd have better luck at Departures, I went there only to find a literally empty terminal with closing stores and two very bored-looking security agents with absolutely no passengers around.  

With thanks to the Times of Israel for explaining, because I truly had no idea that the airport closed down!  Love this country!!

The holiday of Sukkot is always neat here.  Even taking the trash out to the bins at the end of the street is (slightly more) fun because you get the visual tour of every single house on the street with a sukkah outside of it.  Super props to the apartment of single guys at the end of the street for figuring out how to get a sukkah up on their tiny bit of outside space:

Stores have "Happy Holiday" signs up

And Ikea had some very cute displays of sukkahs around the store (I love how they included the cot to show that people also sleep as well as eat in their sukkahs)

We had an interesting experience having three seminary girls (including Cousin Sela!!!!) here for the beginning day(s) of Sukkot.  Interesting because they keep two days of holidays like those not permanently in Israel, and we have only one day.  So while they were having a full Holiday day, we had a "like a holiday" day, with lots of hanging out (and definitely far better meals than we would have had without them with us), board games, shmoozing and homemade french fries.  I guess the big difference is that we could use our phones and they couldn't, and that they had to do all the rituals themselves--i.e. one of them had to be the "Aba shel Yom Tov" and make kiddush while another had to light candles. 

It's been a (slightly exhausting) blast.  We're nearing the end, with Shabbos and then Simchas Torah and then a big BLUMP right back into normal life/routine.  But I will leave you with a photo I took while walking to work in Geulah, a religious neighborhood in Jerusalem (I love all the sukkahs up on balconies, and the boys playing in the courtyard)

and one final photo of a product that made me laugh out loud when I saw it at the store.  I will tip my hat to the marketing pro who knew what to do to make sure the product sold in Israel:

Could you see it?!

Happy Holidays!

Back to School

Sunday was Day 1 for Penina and Ilana.  In Israel, some schools start on September 1 and some schools start on the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul.  This year, the days coincided and the whole city went back to school on the same day.  It was great to see kids in every sort of school stressed excited at the same time about school starting.

how did they get to be in 8th and 11th grades?!

Today, Cousin Sela arrived for a year of seminary, which has everyone here very happy about seeing her a lot (no pressure, Sela).  I was able to meet her and her friends at the airport and give them a proper welcome.  (The sign says "welcome" and their seminary name)

Tomorrow I start back at work.  This year, I will be going to on-site clinics in seminaries twice a week and being on-call two other days a week on the new health hotline that 500 students will be using.  It's a new service, so we'll see what happens!

Glad to be back home after our big US trip and wishing my parents a hearty Mazal Tov on their 60th wedding anniversary!