וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָעְ

For those of you who look forward to the epicurean moments of the blog we are sorry we disappointed last week.  So consider this the Food Edition of the blog. If the only reason to read the blog is to eat your way through Jerusalem vicariously with us, read away.  

MEAL #1.  
We mentioned a couple of weeks ago our initial steps at procuring visas.  What we didn’t mention is that the office is right across from a favorite restaurant, Cafe Kadosh.  

So we had something of an impromptu breakfast feast of shakshuka, the most outrageous baked goods, some crazy delicious egg thing and Sheryl's favorite, the basic with everything.  

The restaurant has been there since 1967 and has quite a following, but surprisingly we’ve  been able to turn a lot of people on to it who have never been there.  The food was as always delicious, but for Seth and Zoe the highlight of the meal was the following dialogue midway through:
Sheryl:  Can you imagine if we lived here all the time?
Seth:  You mean Jerusalem?
Sheryl: No, in this restaurant.

Now, we have no idea if that will translate to the written page, but it made us all laugh at the time.

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MEAL #2.  Our friends the Pollocks recommended a Lebanese restaurant in the shuk called Manou BaShouk.  Great staff -- very friendly and helpful -- the food was delicious though not our favorite kind of food.  The highlight for the parents was a dish of a whole roasted eggplant with an outrageously delicious tahina sauce.  Great spices on everything.  Meatfest for Hannah and Zoe of a tagine of beef and rice. Probably won't go back but glad to try it and being in the shuk on Thursday night is a blast.  Plus we learned a Bedouin technique for keeping bugs away: you hang plastic bags of water.  Who knew?  (Although the woman said that it wasn't really working.)

On the plus side, we did get a good challah.  Sheryl determined before we got here that she would be suspending her challah-making for the year.  Sad news for the rest of her family, who all love her challah, but we understand that time, space, and equipment all make the prospect too burdensome.  Fortunately, it’s kind of hard to walk down the block on Friday without running into someone selling challah, so each week we’ve been buying challot from different places, trying to find something we think lives up to our standards.  Sheryl spotted a sufficiently looking dense and sweet challah in the shuk and while we were waiting for our food at Manou Bashouk she ran into the bakery next door and procured what is the leading contender, even if it is on the wrong side of town.  We may get it occasionally, but for now the search continues.

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Our friends, former neighbors and for now neighbors again, the Bernstein-Cohens, arrived in town on Monday, after a circuitous journey (through Australia to spend time with Aviva's family and onto Bali to be in Paradise).  We were so excited to meet them on Tuesday at the Tachanah Rishona (the first station), a nice piece of urban renewal.  Brad and Aviva were trying to keep their three kids awake so as to get them onto Israeli time, and we got there as they were eating at Fiori.  The pizza and pasta looked great.  We kept them company and caught up while making sure that the boys got their first train ride in Jerusalem.  

We knew they were living close to the apartment of our friends the Goldmeiers, but discovered on the walk home that they are right across the street.  We actually found this apartment for Brad and Aviva, and in a nice trade they found our place for us.   

MEAL #3
On the way home, Sheryl and Seth stopped off for a late dinner.  Sheryl had been commenting that everyone had gotten at least one falafel since we got here except her, so we stopped at a falafel stand on Derech Bet Lechem.  It had a pretty little eating area that you would never spot from the street. The owner and his daughter were nice and trusted us to pay afterward. Very good falafel but we know we will have to do much more research to find the ultimate.  Hannah has a favorite falafel place.  The Pollock's have a favorite falafel place. It seems like the kind of thing you need to have.  Anyway, after settling up, we had a pleasant walk through the Baka neighborhood, down Reuven street which is just beautiful.

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There are not many things Detroit has over Jerusalem.  Snow removal.  Recycling.  Trader Joe's.  One more thing you can add to the list is Shakespeare in the Park.  For the last number of years the Korelitz family has taken in at least one of The Waterworks Theatre Company’s Shakespeare productions in Royal Oak’s Jaycee Park.  It looked like the streak was going to be broken this summer, but Jerusalem’s Theater in the Rough saved the day with a production of Macbeth at Bloomfield Park.  It was fun keeping the family tradition alive, but we all agreed that our local productions are pretty good.  It was an amazing setting behind the King David hotel, however, and Sheryl enjoyed how it was truly an Anglo production with lots of different accents.

MEAL #4
After  the performance, we decided to try Bardak Pizza which was across from the park and had been highly recommended -- gourmet pizzas with some out of the box toppings.  Sheryl chose the pizzas and went for old standbys with things like pesto, goat cheese, eggplant, etc.  They were good.  But a highlight of the meal was running into Rabbi Aytan Kadden who Seth knows through his work with the Legacy Heritage Foundation.  He lives in Jerusalem and was at the restaurant with his family.  They are great and we happened to see them later in the week on Shabbes at Yedidya, a shul that is literally in our backyard.  Seth knows a couple members of the kehilla and we find it a very friendly place.

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Meal #5
Not a restaurant, but we had a lovely meal Friday night with Dr. Susan Wall, a great educator Seth knows.  (She works at Pardes, and was actually Seth’s first call when he thought about studying there for the year).  It was an intimate gathering with the 5 of us, which was so pleasant because we really got to know one another.  Susan is a pescaterian and her food was great. Even our traditional beef lover, Hannah, praised the meal.  Besides being fed, we got to leave with a few books she lent us.  As you can imagine, that’s a good way to score Korelitz points.

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Meal #6
Okay, Sheryl made a dairy Shabbes lunch that was perfectly pleasant but just wanted to mention this meal because we got to spend it with Elana Greenbaum and her roommate, Deena.  It was a treat and Seth had picked up a gorgeous birthday cake from Marzipan.  Hannah's Birthday, yeah!

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MEAL #7
We got to squeeze in one more birthday celebration before the (secular) day was over! Hannah had one food request for her birthday.  Normally Sheryl makes Hannah a birthday steak but why go to the butcher when you can take her to Roza's for the steak sandwich?  

To be perfectly honest, neither Hannah nor the rest of us were so hungry by 9 o’clock, but hey, duty calls, and we all did our share.  Nice restaurant.  Good music.  Good service (they kept replenishing our water which is a big thing here.)  Crazy full.

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Two more food issues as they relate to Jerusalem per Sheryl.

1.  The bakeries here are ridiculous.  It is an abundance of riches with cafes and bakeries everywhere.  The smell of Roladin every morning when I go to the gym is enough to make me spin that much harder.  I have a thing for those little cheese danishes which are on every street corner.  It is partially the way they taste and partially a wonderful childhood memory of eating at the Rascal House with my father.   I keep thinking that I should be able to eat those at will.  Not such a good idea.

2.  When you go grocery shopping, you should not buy everything that peaks your interest, even if it is on sale.  Those delicious ravioli, cheeses, frozen goodies take up room in the granny cart and you might find that you have over shopped and have 3 bags to carry on top of the granny cart which means you will be stuck at the grocery store until a kind family member comes to help you.  I am not saying that this has happened every time I have shopped but obviously I have issues with spacial relations and impulse control.  

OK, you should be feeling full (or hungry?) by now.  Next entry will likely not be so food-focused.  But no promises.


What happens in Israel...

In Praise of Real Immigrants

We were prepared for the worst this week. Dealing with bureaucracies is never easy, and Israel’s sometimes has a reputation for being worse than America’s.  So it was with some trepidation (albeit pretty small) that we trekked off to the Misrad HaPnim (Ministry of the Interior) to apply for our visas.  

At Misrad HaPnim

The tourist visas you receive upon entering the country are only good for three months, and Seth and Zoe needed to apply for student visas (Sheryl getting a special “rider” on Seth’s).  We were told that we would have to go to the office, where we would make an appointment for 6-8 weeks in the future.

In fact, they were ready to take us that day.  Unfortunately, we didn’t expect this and so didn’t have all our paperwork with us.  Still, they made an appointment for us just a few days later, and so today (Sunday) we went back.  We got called right on time -- already not what you expect in Israel -- and Einav couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful, not at all the stereotype of a bureaucratic official.  Although we are not quite finished (we have to have another department verify that we are Jewish), Einav promised that it will all be quite simple when we return in a month, and that if we ever come back for an extended stay it will be even easier.

As bad as we thought this might be, it never occurred to us that it was anything compared to what it means to be a real immigrant, let alone a refugee.   This week’s Torah reading contains Moshe’s sad recounting of his failed pleading with God to be allowed to “immigrate” to the Land of Israel and the Jewish people’s eventual exile from the land.  It seems appropriate that also this week, Nefesh B’Nefesh, where Hannah works, greeted it’s last plane of the summer.  It was Hannah’s last flight working for NBN before beginning Tel Aviv University in November, and the 75 lone soldiers on board helped bring the total of NBN-aided olim to 50,000!

Sometimes we think with awe about our grandparents who immigrated to America.  True, they were leaving behind varying degrees of poverty and Antisemitism, but still, it is hard to imagine the courage it takes to leave everything and everyone you know -- with the recognition that you will never return nor possibly see family and friends ever again -- to start over in a place where you have no immediate prospects, no knowledge of the language, and nowhere to live.  Minnie Teach (Tkach), Robert Rubin (Reuben Kostetsky): these people are our heros.

Week 2 - The Apartment, Shopping, and Tisha B'Av

Sheryl here.  This week is my turn.  I will pick up where Seth left off.  As you can imagine, all the family members prioritize different things, hence if I had written the blog last week it would have had so much more about the apartment, so here goes….

The apartment is great but it has taken work to get there.  Lots of small things that needed to be fixed and not really clean. A big project was dealing with what is called the “chattel list” -- a list of every single item in the apartment, down to the toilet paper holders.  It was our responsibility to make sure everything was here and that was a project that took several days, including a day of emptying the entire kitchen and counting each fork, glass, etc.  I didn’t mind emptying the kitchen since I had to clean every surface anyway.  That chattel list was a team effort and what we discovered is that the kitchen was not equipped for real Korelitz life.  So what do you do in Israel if you need to stock an apartment?  Road trip to Ikea, of course.  

So last Sunday, while Seth was starting his ulpan, Allison Pollock took me to Ikea in her car.  Don’t know how I would have dealt with that challenge without her but the Pollock’s are an essential part of this year.  Ikea is on the way to Tel Aviv and the roads to and from Jerusalem are very hilly and Allison’s car was a bit of “the little engine that could” with the pick up.  I got to sit back and relax while Allison dealt with aggressive Israeli driving. She is a pro.

Ikea on a Sunday in Israel in the summer.  We think it was an alternative to day camp.  It was CRAZY.  Overrun with kids.  Very successful trip and a high point was getting to buy the Swedish meatballs since they are kosher here.  Nice.

An aside.  My Hebrew is not great, but not terrible.  I do understand a decent amount of regular spoken Hebrew but Israelis really are so patient with we English speakers.  I always try to speak Hebrew first and often just start by stating, in Hebrew, that my Hebrew is not very good and then people always want to help. There was an incident in Ikea that will make the point.  I could not find measuring spoons and cups and asked Allison how to say measuring spoons.  She was not sure but told me to try “something Kapot” (kapot is the word for spoons.)  Well that was not right and I could tell the woman felt a little bad because she did not know what I was saying.  Next I tried to describe the spoons by saying that I would use them to tell if something was big or small and the light bulb went off and you could see that she understood what I was asking for. She had me follow her to where the measuring spoons and cups were and she was so happy that we communicated!  It was very nice and we both felt very accomplished.  But I did not buy them.  They were in grams and all metric system on me and all of my recipes are imperialist and American so the spoons and cups would have been useless.  Of course, I did not let her see me reject them and only dumped them at the checkout.

So that night I made dinner in the apartment for the first time.  Not a complicated meal but a hot meal none the less and that felt like a real accomplishment.

I spent much of the rest of the week dealing with the apartment - cleaning, grocery shopping, meeting a workman and the plumber.  A little aside about the plumbing.  While there really was something wrong with our water system and the plumber did fix it, I always feel that one of the hardest things for Americans to adapt to here is hot water usage.  That whole Dud Shemesh thing is really a challenge to get right.  So the Dud Shemesh is a water tank on the roof that heats water through passive solar heat throughout the day and keeps the water warm in the tank for use at anytime.  Then there is the boiler which is controlled by a switch in the apartment that needs to be turned on for at least an hour or so before you take a shower if you want hot water when the solar heat is not enough.  Anyway, we were not getting hot water but it took a while to figure it out because we couldn't tell if it was the Dud Shemesh or the switch and I think the plumber just thought we were stupid Americans. (We weren't!) We think we have the whole hot water issue worked out. We will let you know how it goes in the winter.

Back to our tale. Our landlords have been great and so responsive so it was all taken care of, just time consuming.  We had to do so many separate shopping trips because we don’t have a car so I can only take so much at a time.  (Seth: "we" means mostly Sheryl). Seth bought one of those “granny carts” that you see people schlep around and I am not the least bit too proud to use one.  They are essential Jerusalem gear.  I did underestimate my purchases on Tuesday at Supersol, however.  When I went to load the granny cart, I still had one extra  shopping bag and a giant box of multigrain cheerios that would not fit.  I had to call Zoe to meet me on the walk home.  I am sure I was really a sight with my granny cart and my box of cereal until Zoe got to me.  The good news is that our apartment is in THE BEST LOCATION EVER.  Seth exaggerated last week when he said we are a 10 minute walk to the grocery stores/mall.  It is 5 minutes at best.  Seth can walk to work and climb the three flights of stairs to get to Pardes in 5 minutes also.

Guess how much a carton of organic free range eggs costs in the health food store on Emek Rephaim (the swanky shopping street for our area of town?)  18.9 NIS or $4.959.  Which is actually not as bad as I thought it would be.  Needless to say, I will not do that again.  I have since found a health food chain that has them for much cheaper.  Jerusalem definitely does the health food stuff very well.  Some really nice stores with good products but you have to pay a premium, though that is true in the States as well.

Zoe went book shopping with her friend Nechama Kashuk on Tuesday. This was for her school books.  It is a specific book store that just deals with school books and seems to stock for the entire city.  We are not sure how it works, but she got all of her books except for math.  Nechama will be her classmate at Horev and is the reason we know about Horev in the first place.  The Kashuks are another essential component of #korelitzfamilyadventure2016.

Wednesday was all about the coffee clatch.  I met up with my friend Aviva Kashuk in the morning and then Allison and I met up with Atira Kirschenbaum at lunch in the First Train Station.  The First Train Station is a wonderful development in our neighborhood of Baka that incorporates old train tracks turned into a walking path/park that ends in an old train station refurbished with restaurants and public space.  Great urban renewal a la The High Line in NYC.

Atira was the Bnei Akiva Shaliach (outreach representative) from Israel for two years with her husband, Eitan, and two girls and now she is home living in Tikoah.  It was wonderful to see her and now she has three beautiful girls instead of two.  Her baby Metar is gorgeous.  It was a completely unrelaxing lunch for Atira even though Tair tried to help with the baby and Gefen entertained herself.  It was a treat for me to see them.  Lisa Parshan, another Akiva friend who made Aliyah last year was supposed to meet us but she was stuck in meetings.  A rain check on that.

That night Seth went to a talk at Pardes and Zoe and I decided to do an explore of the neighborhood.  We went deeper into the more industrial part of town and there is much gentrification going on.  Like any major city, there is the clash of the old neighborhoods for long term local residents and the new building and businesses that cater to wealthier newcomers looking for space.  Jerusalem definitely has this problem, but I have to admit that the new construction in the city is beautiful.  Some of the older buildings really look like they need to come down; they were built quickly and cheaply, often without any regulations back in the 60’s and 70’s and they can be very ugly.  That said, we are not sure we could afford to buy the apartment we are renting and it is not that fancy.  

Highlight of Thursday is that we had a cleaner come to the apartment which makes me a level of happy that I am not sure can translate to the page. His English name is Seth which was interesting for him and our Seth as they do not usually meet many others.  His Hebrew name is Saadya which is much nicer anyway.  He is great and now I feel normal in our apartment.  All the work on everyone’s part has paid off and it was worth it.  This is a great place to land for the year and a thank you goes to Aviva Cohen for finding it for us and to Allison for making the trip to vet it for us.

Remember Thursday night is our going out night.  Hannah could not meet us but the three of us tackled the overwhelming choice of where to eat in this city.  We were going to go to a Lebanese restaurant but since it is the nine days and we cannot eat meat that seemed like a waste.  We decided to do dairy and chose a restaurant recommended by several people called, Piccolino.  It is in the center of town off of Yoel Solomon Street which is a happening place on Thursday nights.  What a scene.  The street itself is so beautiful at night and the restaurant is a treat.  When we arrived without a reservation, we were not sure we could get in but I just stood there and smiled and the hostess found a spot for us.  She asked if it was okay for us to eat outside and we said yes and boy were we rewarded. We were taken to the most spectacular courtyard with beautiful lighting and multicolored umbrellas overhead.  You definitely did not feel like you were in Kansas anymore; it was pure Mediterranean, just beautiful.   

FYI:  The Thursday night during the nine days is for a popular dairy restaurant in Jerusalem what New Year’s Eve is for a popular restaurant in the States.  It was so crazy busy but we just were happy to sit and take it all in.   We did get fed and the servers were very nice and attentive.  The food was delicious.  Italian.  Seth and Zoe got really rich pastas and I got a whole fish (which is my favorite thing in case you ever need to know this) and there were great appetizers.  

So I had expressed the desire to walk home when we were first making plans for the evening and Seth said that it was too far, and I said it was absolutely not too far because I know that walk and it is a great way to spend 40 minutes.  Plus, on the way home it is all downhill. After dinner he was so on board and so the three of us walked from the city center home.  We encountered much teenage drama hanging out in the city center.  Then the quiet and beautiful way past the Great Synagogue and Keren HaYesod and then down to Emek Refaim which was also filled with all sorts of people out for the night.  

And if there is one overwhelmingly happy perk of this year in Israel, it is that I get to be an urban dweller again.  Don’t miss the car.  Don’t miss the lawn.  Love the energy of the city.  The rest of the family may feel differently.

This Shabbes was spent at home with the four of us at night and lunch with our friends the Kashuk’s.  Aviva is an amazing cook and their apartment is beautiful.  We did not stay too long there because we went right into Tisha B’Av after Shabbes and everyone felt they needed a rest.  We heard of so many wonderful, exciting options for hearing Eicha on Saturday night.  Some of them sounded very moving and included walking the walls of the Old City.  Instead we went for close by and simple.  It was not great for me and Zoe because we could not really hear.  Oh well.  So much for dramatic.  All I can say is that the conversations about being in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av are exciting enough.  Much talk of redemption and whether we are open to seeing it right in front of us.  Rabbi Lau gave his sermon (in Hebrew) at Shul that morning about this; we also discussed this at lunch.  Today on Sunday, Seth, Zoe, Allison and I went to learning sessions at Pardes, one of which addressed this issue as well.  

The last session we went to at Pardes was a movie about Rabbi Nathan Lopez Cardozo and his life.  He is the father in law of Rabbi Michael Cohen at Young Israel of Oak Park and we are definitely aware of him and his writing.  He is such an unusual figure and was definitely embraced by the Pardes crowd.  We felt a little proprietary about him in that setting but realized that his presence in Jerusalem if quite large and maybe growing.  And we were grateful to have something help us get through the fast.

Thanks for checking in during week #2.  Even with the jetlag being over, I cannot say I feel settled.  So much to work out every day. Not quite immigrants but not tourists either.

What happens in Israel…

Welcome all to our blog.  We’ll try to post once a week for those interested in updates on, as Hannah likes to call it, #Korelitzfamilyadventure2016. (Soon to be renamed #Korelitzfamilyadventure2017. Or #Korelitzfamilyadventure5777 if you want the more Jewish approach).  As you probably know, we’re stay-at home-kind of people usually, so this really is extending a bit beyond our normal comfort zone.  I can’t promise any great insights into life or the human condition (certainly not from me), but if you are interested in the day-to-day goings on while we are away this might be the place to check.

So here we go!

Just getting packed up and out of the house was travail enough, but since that isn’t strictly part of the adventure I won’t bother you with any of the  details other than to give a shout out to Julie Sherizen, who graciously agreed to schlep us out to Windsor on Monday morning.  Flying out of Toronto (via Windsor) for the first time, we really appreciated not having to recheck our bags and being able to get kosher food at the airport.  We also ran into Paula Katz from YIOP (Mazel Tov on the new grandson!) and spent the time waiting to board with her.

Although Hannah had told us she wouldn’t be able to get off work to greet us at Ben Gurion, I still harbored some hope she would be there.  Still, it was a wonderful surprise and joy to see her smiling face as we exited customs!

It was an easy trip to our new apartment (maybe more on the apartment itself next week), and Hannah let us in with the keys she had picked up for us the week before.  It's a bit weird moving into a new place -- everything feels a bit off -- but it will feel like home soon enough.  Hannah’s staying with us for a good part of August, so we really are all together again as a family.  The hardest part  for me may be getting used to sleeping off a (fairly) major thoroughfare.  It's been a while since I've done that, and the traffic definitely woke me up a few times.  (Actually, had pretty bad jet lag and it took a week before I actually put together a real night’s sleep). But like the apartment as a whole, I'll get used to it and soon enough it will just be background noise.

The next day Hannah went to work while the rest of us walked to the mall ten minutes from our house to do some more shopping.  Our main activity, though, was signing up for bus passes (a Rav Kav).  Hannah had clued us in to a great bus app (looks like you can use it just about anywhere in the world) called Moovit, which is great for bus stop to bus stop, but not so great on the walking directions to your location after you get off.  Stick with Google for that!  Another interesting fact: unlike what you might expect, Israeli bus drivers are NOT necessarily a good resource for their routes.  More than once already we’ve experienced a driver not in possession of the basic information you would expect them to have.  Evidently, drivers can be given a route without even learning it.  (You can ask Hannah for some funny -?- anecdotes about drivers turning to the passengers and asking which way to go!)  But between Moovit and friendly passengers we’ve done ok so far.

On Thursday we went to visit Zoe’s new school, Horev.  This was our first real encounter with getting lost after getting off the bus, and we stopped into a makolet (basically a convenience store) where the clerk was about as helpful as a bus driver: no clue.  Fortunately, Sheryl spotted a cabbie and asked him.  He offered to take us there and I asked him how much. “No,” he said, “I’ll just take you there.”  I tried to give him some money, but he said it was a mitzvah.  Way to go Shimon the cabbie!

Our time at Horev was pretty short.  We actually spent almost as much time speaking with an 8th grader and her mom as we did with the Head of School, Rabbi Meizlish.  He and Zoe spoke for a few (he thinks her Hebrew is fine, by the way!) and then a bit more with all three of us.  I think Zoe has learned what she needs to know in order to start from friends and acquaintances who already go to Horev, but I’m sure we’ll all be learning more soon.  

We ended up that evening going out for dinner in the Shuk with Eli Sherizen.  It’s our goal to go out for dinner every Thursday night (sort of the equivalent of Saturday night in the States), so at this point we are one for one.  Our choice was a new Mexican restaurant Burrito Chai, opened by a husband-wife team.  She’s American-born, and it seemed the entire wait staff was, as well.  The service was good and super-fast.  Even better, I think it might have been the best burrito I ever had!  The churros (Mexican donuts) were perfect!

The highlight of dinner, though, was a classic Eli Sherizen story.  (Used here with Eli’s permission).  Dinner’s coming to an end, and with no fanfare whatsoever Eli reaches into his wallet, takes out a card, turns to a guy leaving at the table next to us, and says “here you go.  Here’s his card.”  The four Korelitz’s were bewildered.  Evidently the guy had been saying he needed a massage, and his dinner companion said he needed to go to some masseuse named Sruli.  

Whose card Eli just happened to have in his wallet.

The guy loved it.  Said how he had just made Aliyah, was already anticipating some struggling, but these “only in Israel” kind of events made it all worthwhile.  We all smiled, but didn’t have the heart to tell him this wasn’t really an only in Israel kind of story.  It was more of an “only Eli Sherizen” kind of story!

Have you ever gone grocery shopping in Jerusalem on a Friday afternoon? Don’t!  It is the definition of balagan.  The mall near us has a grocery store called Osher Ad, which is not quite Costco but bigger than average.  My favorite part is watching what happens in a grocery store (all of them in Israel) where they don’t have any little bar to separate the groceries of one shopper from those of the next.  Most times the cashiers don’t ask and you end up having to yell to them to stop and to take off that unwanted item, which actually belongs to that person after you.

Fri. night we went to shul at a place called Nitzanim.  We’ve been there before and liked it, and it’s probably the closest place to our apartment.  It also happens that the father of a friend of Zoe's is the new Rabbi there, so that somehow seems a plus.  Besides Zoe’s friend (Edya) we also ran into a few other people we know there, including Neil Schloss, Ari Eizen, and Miriam Barth.  Came home to a lovely dinner, some of which was take-out (there are abundant providers of this in Jerusalem on a Friday).  I’m sure the high point for me was being able to give both my daughters their blessing.

Shabbes morning we went to another favorite shul of ours, Ramban, which although a bit further than Nitzanim, is still closer than anything I have from my home in HW.   Afterwards we had a delicious and all-around fabulous lunch with our friends the Pollocks.  (And another friendly face from back home, Eden Gilan!)  The Pollocks have been (emphasis on the present tense) a great help every step of the way this journey and I honestly can’t imagine it having started off so smoothly without them.  

So ends week one.  Hopefully all the Korelitz’s will take turns,  from their own perspectives, sharing highlights from #Korelitzfamilyadventure2016

What happens in Israel…

Seth