Year Three(!) Wrap-Up

We just noted our three year aliyah-versary!!!  Wow--we're really doing this!

This year has had some highlights that I didn't blog about at the time, among them:

--Last year, I ran the local 5k race alone.  It was a really great experience for me and after hearing me wax rhapsodic about it, Penina took up jogging this year, and we ran the 5k together.  It was one of the best mother-daughter bonding things I think I've ever done with her and we're hoping that others in the family will join us next year (and I came in 6th place in my age group)!

--In a very different sort of highlight: On erev Pesach, a 7 year-old boy with severe autism went missing while shopping with his mother in the mercaz.  Just hours before Passover, the holiday that requires the MOST intense preparations of any of them, a giant search party was formed with hundreds of volunteers fanning out to search every nook and cranny of the city.  The search was complicated by the fact the boy is totally non-verbal and does not even respond to his own name, and also that the family wasn't from here, so it's not like he might know the people searching for him (although not sure that would have helped him, anyway). 

Chana, Penina and Ilana joined the search party (I kept on working in the kitchen so we would have food for the holiday).  Their job was to go up and down the street near our house that leads out of town and see if they saw him, or anything unusual in the fields and hills that line the road (we live at the very end of the city). 

b''H, shortly before the holiday began, the boy was found by members of the local volunteer EMT service which has an off-road vehicle for just such situations.  He had walked over a mile from the mercaz and gone out of town (likely walking right through our neighborhood, in fact) and ended up in the middle of a construction site and was stuck in mud up to his chest. 

While it certainly would have been nicer had the whole thing not happened, it was beautiful to see the people of our city coming to help someone in need, even at a time that certainly could not have been convenient for most of them....

--Ilana's bat mitzvah in Israel was also a year highlight.  At her school, the rule is that all the girls celebrate their bat mitzvah in the classroom.  I loved it.  We made tons of gluten-free cookies, Penina made a gorgeous cake, and we had fruit platters and chocolate fountains.  Ilana spoke for 20 minutes (in Hebrew) about the blessings for various foods and the girls did a project making a card with the blessings before- and after- each type of food.  We showed a slideshow of her life and then the girls danced to the set list of songs Ilana had put together.  It was fun, sweet and totally reasonable :).  I loved that no bat mitzvah could be "over the top" because how over the top can you be in a 6th grade classroom?!

The class picking Ilana up on a chair 

 and with their completed projects

--I'm not sure if this is a "highlight" or a "lowlight", but it amuses me that "new olim" moments, while (thankfully) less frequent, have still not ended.  For example, at Ilana's school, ordering school books for the next year can only be done through a company that uses a computerized system that is  in Hebrew.  I was delighted to see that I was able to order the books much easier this year than last year, until I got totally stumped trying to order the last item on the book list that the school had given out.  It didn't seem to exist on the system (and the system, of course, is totally automated and there is no way to speak with a human being).  Finally, I asked on the class mom's Whatsapp group only to find out.....that the "book" I was trying to order was not a book at all, but a required fee for using the system :) .

Or the time when, after Ilana's horseback riding lesson, we were all so hot (not that I'm comparing standing in the sun *watching* a lesson to actually riding the horse, but, hey, Chana, Penina and I were hot too!).  We were so hot that we decided to stop at a nearby supermarket and buy some popsicles.  While there, we noticed they had Italian ices and decided that, yum, they would be even frostier!  The cashier gave us rather an odd look when we check out with our lone product and asked if she could give us some spoons, but we didn't think too much about it....

When we got in the car, Chana tried it and said, "Blech!  This is terrible!  It tastes like really strong orange juice".  Penina tried it and agreed it was terrible.  And then they read the ingredients and found out that they were eating.....orange juice concentrate, straight up.  (In our defense, look at that picture--doesn't that look like orange Italian ice?!)

Tisha b'Av

Today is Tisha b'Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the holy Temples.  We fast.  We don't greet each other.  We read about "sackcloth and mourning".  We don't even wash our hands beyond the absolute minimum.  The weather today is overcast and gray, which even for 6 a.m. is rare here in the summer.

Today is also the memorial service for my sister-in-law Deborah, who died only six months after being diagnosed with a rare type of cancer.  How fitting to have nationwide mourning on a day that is so sad for us personally.  I received an article by email, something about "How to be Sad on Tisha b'Av When Everything is Good" and I thought, "well, we won't need to worry this year about not shedding enough tears on Tisha b'Av....."

I learned a lot from Deborah, especially about parenting, since her "Joshie" (sorry, Josh) was born a few years before we became parents.  Close enough that we saw it on the horizon, but far enough away that we were still totally clueless. 

I was in college when Josh was a toddler.  Once, when we were all staying over at Barbara and Irwin's, Josh was upset that he had only one bagel and wanted two.  Deborah took the piece of bagel, sliced it horizontally and said, "there!  Now you have two!".  Placated child. Jean Piaget's Conservation of Matter in action. I was in awe.

After Irwin died, the kids, spouses and grandchildren piled into the house for the shiva week, which was the sweetest thing during a really rotten time.  "The boys" were going to shul in the mornings to say kaddish (I went too) and Josh came with us one day.  We told him we'd take him the next day, but shul started very early and he was sleeping peacefully, and, as a group, we decided the best thing was to let him sleep.  I did mention we were clueless, didn't I?  We returned home to a hysterical child.  I have a crystal clear memory of Deborah holding him and looking up at us and in a totally fierce "Mama Bear" voice saying, "You NEVER lie to a child.  NEVER".

Fast forward many years to the day of Deborah's very happy second marriage.  I was so glad that we were there to celebrate together.  Family ties meant a lot to Deborah.  So much so that at Penina's bat mitzvah Deborah stood up and gave a beautiful speech about how the family is spread out and we may not see each other much, "but we all know that if we need anyone, all we have to do is call and each member of this family will be there".

I saw Deborah last summer in Los Angeles.  She and Jeff (of course, the two of them) were planning a family reunion for summer 2019.  It hasn't even been a year.  I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that she is gone....

May the memory of Devorah Chana be a blessing for her husband, her children, her mother, her sister and all of us.

Euro-whata?

Yesterday was Yom Yerushalayim, celebrating 51 years since the recapture of the Old City from the hands of the Jordanians.  This is a monumental event in Jewish history, as for over 2000 years before this we were unable to visit or pray at the site of our holy Temple.  Truly a miracle.  We watched videos of the soldiers lobbing hand grenades to enter the Old City, going through the gates that we now happily traipse through like we're going into Jewish Disney World.....Truly a miracle.

Today the US Embassy will be moved to Jerusalem.  Doesn't count as a miracle in my book, but certainly nice to see recognition of the fact that Jerusalem is Israel's capital.  If you'd like some helpful "talking points" about this subject, see this post by America Jewish Congress president David Harris.  It's good.

Things are hot on the Gaza border and up North.  In a few days our Arab cousins will be in mourning for Naqba day, the English date of establishment of the state of Israel (Israel celebrates on the Hebrew date, hence the lack of overlap).  And a few days after that Ramadan starts, which may also lead to an increase in hostilities (or may not.  I'm hoping people are too hungry from fasting from sunup to sundown to cause trouble).  So it's an intense time here.....

But I, who have, for almost three years, steered pretty steadily away from politics, am not writing today to discuss any of that in-depth.  I'm here to talk with you about Eurovision, which I'm guessing that many of you have never heard of.  Eurovision is a singing competition with over 60 countries competing this year.  Why countries like Australia and Israel compete in something with "Euro" in the title is something I can't explain to you or myself, but that's how it is, folks.  Israel won in 1978 and 1979 (our teacher played one of the songs in ulpan and I started humming along.  Had definitely heard that catchy "Hallelukah" tune when I was a kid) and then not until 1998.  And then Saturday night, when a zaftig 25 year-old woman who is clearly SO comfortable in her own skin sang a feminist theme of "I'm not your toy" while making chicken-flapping motions and moving her uber-elastic face in ways that are definitely unusual for pop singers. 

 Is this a big deal?  I'd say that depends.  It wasn't even mentioned on the religious radio station I listen to.  Penina, however, woke up to 630 Whatsapp messages on her class group.  And the secular newspaper noted that half the country was exhausted at work yesterday from staying up until 2 a.m. for the final results.  This IS a big deal for Israel because the winning country gets to host the competition the next year, and I'm convinced the best way for Israel to have better PR is to have people come visit this incredible country.

Netta's favorite expression is "Kapara Alayich" which in current Israeli slang means "you're a sweetheart" or "We love you".  Frankly, I don't get it, as kapara means "atonement" and my association with the word is about chickens swung over heads before Yom Kippur  .  Maybe that's why Netta put the chicken flapping motions in?  I don't know....So when Netanyahu sent a tweet to/about Netta before the competition, he used this phrase.  Those who get his tweets auto-translated to English read "Netta, you're a cow" (for those who know Hebrew, get it?  k'parah).  Oopsie.  And this one was sent out after she won (clearly no one on his staff gets these things in the translated version):

Double oopsie, but way to go, Netta!

Yom HaZikaron

We are at the end of Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day.  The sirens last night and this morning, already wrenching, felt like they were at a whole new level--our little town is mourning the death of one of its own, a 20 year-old soldier who was killed in a tank accident last Shabbat. 

I know the Jewish world as a whole is small and I know where I live is also small, but I am really seeing it up close as it seems like truly everyone here has a personal connection to this family.  In our case, Penina is a classmate of one of his younger sisters.  This morning she made her first shiva call without a parent with her....

Hearing the sirens and thinking of this family in the midst of sitting shiva for their son, grandson, brother.....There are no words. 

May the memory of Eliyahu ben Roni be for a blessing and may his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Pesach Roundup

Definitely had some noteworthy moments over Pesach:

Like when I was at the grocery for the final, final shopping round the morning that the holiday started (don't go late, because EVERYTHING closes early) and I was told at the checkout that I couldn't buy something because "it's scanning as 'not kosher for Passover', so I can't sell it to you" (!!!!).  Which was made even more odd because it was, at this time, literally impossible to buy anything that wasn't Kosher for Passover in my town.  For example, the supermarket that I was in had anything not "KLP" in one aisle with giant pallets stacked at both ends of the aisle preventing entry.  And the item I was trying to buy had both a very high level kosher certification on it *and* a prominent "kosher for Passover" stamp on it as well.  I saw later that they continued to sell it for the rest of the week, so I assume somewhere along the way the computer system got updated.  But, wow, that was very interesting.  I guess that those who want a sandwich on Passover do not move to religious cities :)

We had some great tiyyulim, going around the country while the kids had off school.  Chana was in for two whole weeks, so everything was more fun.

The first day of Chol Hamoed was Sunday, and we discovered that the entire family very much needed a "proper Sunday" Remember, Sunday is a work/school day here:

Sunday here = Monday in the US

We finally made it out of the house at 3:30 pm and went to the Kotel and walked around the Old City (made all the more interesting because it was Easter, so where we usually see mostly Jews and some Muslims that day was mostly Jews and some Christians)

photo by Penina

We also drove down to the Negev desert to "The Salad Trail" and learned about agriculture in there.  Let's just say it hasn't been easy turning the dessert green.  And we came home with the best "field trip souvenirs" we ever got:

My favorite day was when we went flower picking

and then to the Ben & Jerry's parlor.  Quote from daughter: "It was worth it to make aliyah just to be able to have a hot fudge sundae at Ben & Jerry's on Pesach".  (I will refrain from putting in a picture because it just seems too "nyah nyah" to those of who you couldn't join us)

We finished up the day by going to the beach in Ashdod, which was a teeming throng of religious people (yet big enough that it didn't feel too crowded, thankfully).  I had never been at a beach with so many other religious people.  I'm not sure I've *ever* seen a man in a suit and tie at the beach before, but that day I saw many.   It was also very interesting to look around and see the differences in how people were dressed--not like "who will wear a bikini" because, in this crowd, the answer was 'no one', but more like 'who will take off their shoes to walk on the sand and who keeps at least socks on, even when walking in the water'.  My favorite was this couple--the man was wearing a long bekeshe coat and was holding a hat box that likely held his fur shrtreimel, which he had replaced with a navy baseball cap with stars on it.  

A photographic farewell to Pesach:

Home Improvements

Since we rent our house, there are only so many home improvements we can do, but, in the Pesach spirit (as it is THE home improvement time here) here are a few little things we've done recently that have definitely improved things.

Israeli homes have no built-in closets.  This means that there is no coat closet close near the front door.  For many people, I would hazard to guess, this means that, like us, all sorts of non-closet-like places become repositories for coats, sweaters, backpacks and hats.  In our case, the main place was the sofa, which was esthetically unappealing as well as being uncomfortable when we wanted to sit on the sofa.....We chose to improve our "hallway to nowhere"--a dead-end tiny hallway alongside the staircase that has a deeply sloping ceiling giving about two feet of usable space before you have to duck and then crawl.  Our suitcases are tucked in the part that requires crawling and now we have hooks on the more usable part that give us, hurray, a place to actually store coats and backpacks. (By the way, walls here are concrete, and we had to hire a handyman to do this simple thing!)

A closet here does not even really have the same connotation as in the US.  While you can buy a vertical wardrobe with a hanging bar and that's it, most closets here have shelves and drawers, as closets here generally negate the need for a dresser.  Or, as an Israeli friend in the US once said to me, "I don't understand the closets in this country with just a bar and nothing else--what, I own so many ballgowns?!"

We had purchased freestanding wardrobes for Penina and Ilana, and Chana has a spiffy built-in system based on an idea from Auntie Kim, but what about us?!  Our room had an inlet that was made for a closet, but, thinking we would be moving shortly, we thought it didn't make sense to buy something that fit the space there, but perhaps wouldn't fit our next home.  So we spent 2.5 years in a room with a lovely assortment of plastic bins, a few moving boxes and a $20 hanging rack.  The master bedroom was definitely the weak link in terms of storage.  Until we upgraded a few weeks ago, and bought a five door closet (that's how closets are sold here--by the door!) with two hanging areas (ooh--his and hers!), shelves and even shoe drawers on the bottom.  I can't believe how nice our room looks without all those boxes in it!

Our last home improvement has been everyone's favorite.  We bought a "water bar", which offers instantaneous cold, room temperature or hot water. 

There is even Shabbat mode, so we don't have to put out a hot water urn (as long as we remember to push the button to change it into Shabbat mode.....Oops.  Sorry about that lack-of-coffee last week, Honey....).

 This spiffy gadget also means that the top shelf of our refrigerator is now much more spacious, as half of it was formerly taken up by an assortment of Brita filter pitchers, glass bottles and everyone's water bottles (once, a friend of Penina's walked from her house three houses away--at night, when it was cool--and brought her water bottle.  I laughed and told her she didn't need to do that, as we have water at our house (!) and she told me that it had been ingrained into her since she was young to NEVER leave home without a water bottle).

It seems that the neighbors are planning to put their house on the market, since they are also doing some home improvements.  They have converted what was once a bedroom back into its former state as their garage.  The neighbors next door to them did the same when they sold their house, as the conversion to a bedroom was not legal.  So we woke up one morning to workers with sledgehammers tearing the wall down.  Shortly thereafter, the new neighbors moved in and--surprise--we woke up to workers putting a wall up so that the garage could go back to being a bedroom.

the walls are left painted and they even left the hanging light up.  In case the car, you know, wants a fancy parking spot....

Here, There and Everywhere

If only I could blog all the ideas that go through my head while I'm jogging or falling asleep.  Alas, you're stuck with sporadic updates written on the sofa.  You'll deal, I know you will.

So what's new here? 

--we are gearing up for Ilana's bat mitzvah!  Ahh, I remember that Shabbat HaGadol almost twelve years ago.  It was NUTS.  "I'm having contractions?!?!  I can't be having contractions--we didn't turn the kitchen over for Pesach yet!".  Anyway, I will say it set the bar at a totally different level and each season of Passover prep can only seem fairly-reasonable by comparison (and a still-heartfelt-after-all-these-years Thank You for Auntie Paula, Roz, Susie and Rissy who made sure we didn't starve that Pesach).

Her bat mitzvah here will be (per school rules) at the school.  She and I have been working on her dvar Torah about blessings over food, which she will translate into Hebrew with her mentor and tutor, Adina.  When we come to the US over the summer, there will be a luncheon in Malden so no fear if you won't be here after Pesach :)
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--Ulpan started again!   Yay--I'm in for another round!  This time, Irit is back teaching Level Gimel, and it's just what I need.  While I'm nowhere near the top student (that prize goes to the French woman who speaks 6 languages and already lived here for nine years, before going back to France for over a decade), I'm holding my own and trying to absorb all I can.  Which results in some amusing conversations when I'm out and about, as I'm constantly correcting myself as I realize that, although I got my point across, my grammar could be tweaked. So I do.

This class has the least number of Americans of any ulpan I've taken and the highest number of Russians/Ukranians.  I love them because they had to work even harder than I have had to to get to this level, as most of them came without even knowing the alef-bet and had to start in the lowest level, Aleph.  Thanks to 8 years of the Temple Shalom Charles and Esther Lew Religious School, I was able to start in Aleph Plus, which is for students who can read, write and speak, yet do none of it well.  I told Yvgeny that I understand almost 100% of what he says because it's like watching myself speak (were I a male, 60-something, former Ukranian....): I can practically see his mind at work as he slowly and deliberately reaches up through his word bank, searching and searching for the word he is looking for.  It's great!
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--Purim was awesome!  The girls used their loot that Uncle Stephen spoiled them with last summer and went as Hogwarts students.  I borrowed a Professor McGonagall robe and our mishloach manot consisted of breadstick wands ("may contain Ron Weasley's broken wand. We were out of spellotape to repair..."), Hogwarts Hommus with Dried Dragon Flame (Penina's genius marketing for the paprika we sprinkled on top), Bertie Bott's Beans, and Gringott's Gold coins. 

with Maldener Natanyah!

We had a really fun and also spirited-yet-spiritual meal with our friends, the O's.  We each chose "something" to do to enhance the holiday, so during the meal we were treated to a puppet show, original holiday song (from Ilana and Raaya), Purim Mad Libs (my offering--totally cribbed from Malden. Thanks, guys!), and a Alef-to-Tav Purim question and answer (based on a weekly Shabbos-themed Q & A sheet Ilana brings home from school.  This was Shalom Shachne's contribution and it was great; he worked so hard to make up a question related to every letter of the Hebrew alphabet).  Lastly, Penina decorated the table gorgeously and then made "Penina's Purim Pizzeria". YUM.

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--We ended Purim by getting on a plane to San Francisco for my nephew's wedding!
 

Benjamin and Natalie are a wonderful couple and we had a really amazing weekend being with family.  We arrived early Friday morning and left Sunday night, so it was quite brief, but we did so many different things with so many different people that it felt like longer.  We all loved having an 11-person game of "Apples to Apples" Shabbos afternoon in our hotel room, and seeing Uncle Stephen and Amanda, who, despite being from "the other" side of the family, shlepped up from LA since we were (sort of) in the neighborhood.  What sweeties!

Oh, those crazy uncles!

Ilana did a very good job as flower girl ;) and I think the 15 hours on a plane each way was probably worth it because we got a good family photo (miracle!)

Mazal tov, Benjamin and Natalie!  We love you guys!