I am back. What a couple of weeks. The last week before January 1 was a doozy. I had essays coming at me 24 hours a day. I was not happy about it either because it was Chanukah and I would have liked to enjoy it more but we did get some fun in (refer to the previous blog.) So it has taken me a whole week to decompress. I still have four Israeli students left but the work load with them is much smaller and I really just have to finish up with them, not start at the beginning. Now we wait and see how they do. I have no idea how these Israelis will fare. I had one student who I helped with his application but not his essays who called to thank me after the Early Decisions came out for Stanford because he got in; so that is a first for me, to work with someone who got into Stanford. He is crazy smart and I think he got 800 on the math section of the SAT or, at least on the Math Subject test. I have three students right now who have 800 scores (two math and one physics) and I have a female student who has 790 on the math and wants to take it again because that is not good enough. I told her "you Israelis are crazy good at math."
But the highlight for me of this past week was starting my ulpan. It meets three days a week and I don’t think intense enough to make a huge difference but I have decided to do a Hebrew immersion of my own. We have hooked up the TV for basic channels and I am starting to watch the news stations. I watched them while cooking for Shabbat last week and did get some of what was going on. It was a politics station all day that also shows highlights from Knesset sessions. The toughest shows were the opinion round tables where four people basically yell at each other for half an hour and I understood nothing because they were always taking over each other. There is lots going on in this country. We will see what I can figure out. I am also going to try and read the newspaper. They hand out a couple of papers for free on the street on Fridays which I have grabbed on my way to spinning, and I don’t really understand much. But I am going to! So I have this one copy of כל העיר (which means All City but I think maybe is a pun for Voice of the City even though it spelled differently?) with a cover story on who might run in the upcoming mayoral elections in Jerusalem in two years and I promise to translate this article by the time of the election. I just keep reading it over breakfast every morning and I am convinced I will understand it one day.
I went to a really nice lecture at Pardes last Monday night by Dr. Leon Kass who has so many degrees after his name that I am not sure how to describe him except as a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago who specializes in bioethics among other things and, happily, happens to dabble in Torah. He spoke on the Ten Commandments as a universal model for ethics and it was a really interesting talk because he approaches the topic from a very unique and informed perspective. He has many books but only one on Torah, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, which I might check out. Anyway, it was another thought provoking night at Pardes.
Tuesday night was a hoot. The Vaad Bayit (if you remember, this is like the condo association here or building management committee) had their annual meeting in the Castro’s apartment. You might also remember that the Castro’s are French and live on the fourth floor. Our landlords asked if it was possible for one of us to go to fill them in and so up I went. Well, only 7 out of 16 apartments had representation which is part of the problem because not all residents are as committed as they should be, but that is another story. The main thing for me that night was sitting back and listening to the conversation in multiple languages. There are many French in the building and they are the most active participants in the maintenance. Three French men led the discussion and it was a thing of beauty. Speaking at the speed of light, these three men spoke three languages simultaneously: English, French and Hebrew. I did not think it possible that someone could speak three languages at once, but they really did. As usual, I got the gist and only some of the details. So glad I got out of my sweatpants to experience that. Man, French is gorgeous.
Wednesday night was one of the highpoints of Seth’s and my life: Parent-Teacher Conferences at Horev, Zoe’s school. There is no way I can give you many details of the evening because that would not make Zoe happy, but I can tell you that Seth and I are just full of respect and a little awe for Zoe Elisheva Korelitz. She is amazing. It was also nice to see the parents and get a feel for the backgrounds of the student body. Before we came here, so many people who had heard of Horev said that the school was too far to the right religiously. We had learned of Horev mostly through our friends the Kashuk’s whose daughter, Nechama is in Zoe’s class there. She assured us that the students cover the spectrum and plenty are Modern Orthodox. We also knew that about 40 % of the students are Anglo and that the school likes to accommodate Olim (immigrants.) Well, it was just as we thought and really appropriate for us and Zoe. It was also nice that, while there were circles of American parents talking to each other, the majority of the parents were speaking Hebrew. Overall, we found Zoe’s teachers very pleasant, especially her mechanechet, which is like her homeroom teacher. And if we cannot devote too much time to Zoe, let me give a shoutout to her parents. Upon arrival by Gett (a taxi app) to campus, we were handed an extremely complicated looking chart in Hebrew with the teachers and room assignments for the night and, yes, we figured it out. Okay, maybe I am being a little needy.
I just want to mention that Jerusalem feels like a very small town to me already. I see people on the street from our shul and Pardes and the gym all the time. I went to a podiatrist this week because my de-bunioned foot still plagues me, and he lives in the same building as the Canadian couple who I always see at Pardes lectures and the husband just started ulpan with me. And when I'm out with Allison she seems to know everyone and their parents.
Last Shabbat morning we tried a new shul which is a satellite congregation of Shir Chadash (not to be confused with Shir Chadashah) in Katamon. This Shir Chadash is located in one of two beautiful old houses on Emek Refaim. One of the houses is a nursing home and if you know Emek they are both located right across from Sushi Rehavia. Anyway, just mentioning this because the building itself is a spectacular space that is in just the right amount of decay to make it a romantic wonder. It seems to be under construction but we did not stick around for kiddish to get the story.
And Michelle Sider has arrived in town for her 5 week art filled adventure. We are so excited to have her here; she will be busy and only spending part of her time in Yerushalayim. So we started as quickly as possible and had a girls’ night out motzei Shabbat. Michelle, Allison Pollock, Aviva Cohen and I all went to a wonderful and secretive spot that Allison knew about called Gatsby’s. We all put on our best Zelda Fitzgerald and found the place behind nondescript doors on Hillel Street. After being greeted in the entrance library, the hostess slid open the library shelves to reveal a perfectly designed speakeasy. The bartenders were the spitting image of Brooklyn hipsters and set glasses on fire and shook the drinks with abandon.
It was wonderful place for our little table of Huntington Woods to unite in the heart of Jerusalem. We hope to fit in as much time together as we can.
Just so you know, we think Hannah has been to 6 weddings since the last blog. I exaggerate only slightly. She had two more this Thursday night.
But the highlight for me of this past week was starting my ulpan. It meets three days a week and I don’t think intense enough to make a huge difference but I have decided to do a Hebrew immersion of my own. We have hooked up the TV for basic channels and I am starting to watch the news stations. I watched them while cooking for Shabbat last week and did get some of what was going on. It was a politics station all day that also shows highlights from Knesset sessions. The toughest shows were the opinion round tables where four people basically yell at each other for half an hour and I understood nothing because they were always taking over each other. There is lots going on in this country. We will see what I can figure out. I am also going to try and read the newspaper. They hand out a couple of papers for free on the street on Fridays which I have grabbed on my way to spinning, and I don’t really understand much. But I am going to! So I have this one copy of כל העיר (which means All City but I think maybe is a pun for Voice of the City even though it spelled differently?) with a cover story on who might run in the upcoming mayoral elections in Jerusalem in two years and I promise to translate this article by the time of the election. I just keep reading it over breakfast every morning and I am convinced I will understand it one day.
I went to a really nice lecture at Pardes last Monday night by Dr. Leon Kass who has so many degrees after his name that I am not sure how to describe him except as a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago who specializes in bioethics among other things and, happily, happens to dabble in Torah. He spoke on the Ten Commandments as a universal model for ethics and it was a really interesting talk because he approaches the topic from a very unique and informed perspective. He has many books but only one on Torah, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, which I might check out. Anyway, it was another thought provoking night at Pardes.
Tuesday night was a hoot. The Vaad Bayit (if you remember, this is like the condo association here or building management committee) had their annual meeting in the Castro’s apartment. You might also remember that the Castro’s are French and live on the fourth floor. Our landlords asked if it was possible for one of us to go to fill them in and so up I went. Well, only 7 out of 16 apartments had representation which is part of the problem because not all residents are as committed as they should be, but that is another story. The main thing for me that night was sitting back and listening to the conversation in multiple languages. There are many French in the building and they are the most active participants in the maintenance. Three French men led the discussion and it was a thing of beauty. Speaking at the speed of light, these three men spoke three languages simultaneously: English, French and Hebrew. I did not think it possible that someone could speak three languages at once, but they really did. As usual, I got the gist and only some of the details. So glad I got out of my sweatpants to experience that. Man, French is gorgeous.
Wednesday night was one of the highpoints of Seth’s and my life: Parent-Teacher Conferences at Horev, Zoe’s school. There is no way I can give you many details of the evening because that would not make Zoe happy, but I can tell you that Seth and I are just full of respect and a little awe for Zoe Elisheva Korelitz. She is amazing. It was also nice to see the parents and get a feel for the backgrounds of the student body. Before we came here, so many people who had heard of Horev said that the school was too far to the right religiously. We had learned of Horev mostly through our friends the Kashuk’s whose daughter, Nechama is in Zoe’s class there. She assured us that the students cover the spectrum and plenty are Modern Orthodox. We also knew that about 40 % of the students are Anglo and that the school likes to accommodate Olim (immigrants.) Well, it was just as we thought and really appropriate for us and Zoe. It was also nice that, while there were circles of American parents talking to each other, the majority of the parents were speaking Hebrew. Overall, we found Zoe’s teachers very pleasant, especially her mechanechet, which is like her homeroom teacher. And if we cannot devote too much time to Zoe, let me give a shoutout to her parents. Upon arrival by Gett (a taxi app) to campus, we were handed an extremely complicated looking chart in Hebrew with the teachers and room assignments for the night and, yes, we figured it out. Okay, maybe I am being a little needy.
I just want to mention that Jerusalem feels like a very small town to me already. I see people on the street from our shul and Pardes and the gym all the time. I went to a podiatrist this week because my de-bunioned foot still plagues me, and he lives in the same building as the Canadian couple who I always see at Pardes lectures and the husband just started ulpan with me. And when I'm out with Allison she seems to know everyone and their parents.
Last Shabbat morning we tried a new shul which is a satellite congregation of Shir Chadash (not to be confused with Shir Chadashah) in Katamon. This Shir Chadash is located in one of two beautiful old houses on Emek Refaim. One of the houses is a nursing home and if you know Emek they are both located right across from Sushi Rehavia. Anyway, just mentioning this because the building itself is a spectacular space that is in just the right amount of decay to make it a romantic wonder. It seems to be under construction but we did not stick around for kiddish to get the story.
And Michelle Sider has arrived in town for her 5 week art filled adventure. We are so excited to have her here; she will be busy and only spending part of her time in Yerushalayim. So we started as quickly as possible and had a girls’ night out motzei Shabbat. Michelle, Allison Pollock, Aviva Cohen and I all went to a wonderful and secretive spot that Allison knew about called Gatsby’s. We all put on our best Zelda Fitzgerald and found the place behind nondescript doors on Hillel Street. After being greeted in the entrance library, the hostess slid open the library shelves to reveal a perfectly designed speakeasy. The bartenders were the spitting image of Brooklyn hipsters and set glasses on fire and shook the drinks with abandon.
It was wonderful place for our little table of Huntington Woods to unite in the heart of Jerusalem. We hope to fit in as much time together as we can.
Just so you know, we think Hannah has been to 6 weddings since the last blog. I exaggerate only slightly. She had two more this Thursday night.
hanna has been to too many weddings....when will it be her turn...i'm 75 and hanging on by a thread.
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