The run-up to Purim

Fasten your seatbelts.  

So right after Julie left, we had the privilege of attending our first Israeli wedding.  Rachel Kashuk married Daniel Tzairi at Kibbutz Givat Brenner near Rechovot.  The Kashuk’s arranged for a bus from Jerusalem which Hannah and Zoe took but Seth and I traveled with the Pollocks.  It was a lovely setting, with a great space and really good food.  It was so much fun seeing the young Detroit contingent as you will see from the pictures below.            

The mature Detroit contingent consisted of the four of us plus Susie Kresch; very fun.

(Zoe also seemed to have a good time.)

For those of you who have not experienced an Israeli wedding, everything is very relaxed.  The ceremony, the attire.  Mind you, there were women who were very dressed but there were also men in jeans and they looked fine to me.

A highlight of the night was the dancing which included a traditional Temani dance.  Daniel comes from a Yemenite family from Petach Tikvah.  I find it impossible to follow dances so I gave up after a while but it was fun to watch.  The dancing on the men’s side was great.  Just a suggestion: Mix up the gene pool!  I know my tired old Lithuanian and Ukrainian Ashkenani blood could use a dose of Yemen or Iraq or Morocco or anyplace that has more fun and better food than we do. Just saying.  The young people in this country are really good looking and I think it is because there is much mixing of the gene pool. Daniel and Rachel are great together.  Allison and I got to enjoy their company again on Wednesday night at a sheva bracha.  I am so grateful to have been here to share this with their family.

In between these two events, I had to do one of those Farber informational nights at 2:00 AM again.  This time for juniors and parents.  I had to take a nap before, but I got it done.  That is the last one of those for the year which makes me happy.

Then on Thursday my friend Chaya touched down from NYC but went straight to the Dead Sea for a night.  She came to us the next day and my week of (almost) living like a tourist began.  We had some big day trips planned but I knew we would not get a chance to see everything that I would have liked, so after Shabbat we hit the ground running.  

Chaya and I made our way to the shuk to check out a Saturday night there.  The food vendors do not open after Shabbat but the restaurants and bars all do so we got to see those and all the artwork.  We had some pizza and made our way home because we needed a good night’s sleep.

Sunday morning at 8:00 AM we met our guide Nikky Raisman out on the street for our day of exploring the Old City.  We have not spent much time in the Old City since we have been here, which shows you how it is possible to live in Jerusalem and not be engaged with it, but that would be a loss.  I had arranged this tour with Nikky a while ago because I knew I really wanted to get a good understanding of Jerusalem and explore it with someone very knowledgeable and I knew Nikky would be the one to do it with.  Nikky invited us to her home for a Friday night dinner soon after we arrived.  She and her husband are friends of the Goldmeier’s, whom they met during a three year fellowship at Henry Ford many years back.  Nikky has had several careers including working for the Supreme Court but she became a tour guide a few years ago.  Many of you may know that to become a tour guide in Israel is a big deal and involves a two year course.  Anyway, I knew that Nikky would be someone who could discuss all facets of history and many points of view so I arranged for a day of the Old City:  top to bottom, all religions, all time periods.

I wanted to start on Har HaZeitim (The Mount of Olives.)  One, I knew this would be a spectacular view and two, it is where Jews have chosen to be buried for so many centuries that I did not want to end with it.  It seemed like a better place to start.  Nikky liked the idea.  Caveat:  not everyone feels comfortable going to the Mount of Olives.  Jewish groups are usually accompanied by an armed guard, as are funerals.  NIkky would not drive and park her car there with Israeli plates.  The Mount of Olives is in the Arab village of Abu-Tor which is part of Jerusalem but, as with everything here, it’s complicated.   So we took a cab.

Anyway, we were up for it and we arrived with about a thousand Christian pilgrims/tourists so we felt very safe. Here is the amazing panoramic view that Chaya took from the top.  The cemetery is closest to you but you can orient yourself with the Golden Dome to see the Temple Mount.

I will not give everyone a history lesson because there are over twenty five hundred years of history here but the Mount of Olives is a very important place.  The Via Delarosa starts here which we followed on foot.  Nikky had one of those walking apps that kept track of our steps and I forgot how many kilometers we walked that day but it was in the double digits.  
Anyway, we descended through the Kidron Valley with so much Jewish and Christian history and then made our way to the Lion’s Gate.  Another caveat, not everyone is comfortable walking in through the Lion’s Gate.  I think we covered all of the gates of Jerusalem that day except for the Jaffa Gate which is the one that we usually go through and is closest to the Jewish Quarter.  We did it all – Muslim, Armenian and Jewish Quarters.  We were surrounded by many Christians since this is Lent and they make pilgrimages here.  It made things very busy.  Chaya had never been to the Temple Mount and wanted to go.  I had been as a child back in 1974 and had even gone into Al-Aqsa Mosque which is no longer allowed but I was happy to go with her.  The problem is that there are restricted hours up there and the lines to go up were so long that we could not get in.  Christians from all over the world.  Yes, the Temple Mount is also very treasured by Christians.  Besides being the site of Jesus’s time in the ancient Temple, they believe this is where his trial took place.  

So Nikky promised to get us a good view of the Temple Mount even if we could not get to it so she said she would take us to a good look out point on someone’s roof.   And look where she took us.  

Yes, it is Yeshivat Orayta where our own Avi Greenbaum is studying this year.  So we knocked on the door to ask permission and met Avi’s madrich even if Avi was not there.  And for a small donation to the Yeshiva we got to go on their roof for the most spectacular view of the Temple Mount.  Seth had joined us for this part of the tour as you can see from the picture.

Every place was fascinating and Nikky was great at explaining the ancient history and the current geo-political conflicts.  A little tip for anyone planning a tour, the best bathrooms in the Old City are in the Viennese Hospice in the Muslim Quarter along the Via Delarosa.  You can take the citizens out of Vienna but you cannot take the Vienna out of the citizens -- so clean!  It is a cool place to sit and stop.

We ended our tour at the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter and then through the Zion Gate to Mount Zion.  It was a spectacular day with so much history and this city is like no other.  It truly feels like the center of the world.

To add to the excitement, it was erev Shushan Purim so there was definitely a buzz in the Jewish Quarter.  This was my first Shushan Purim and I was pretty clueless about it so I will be happy to explain.  For those of you who know Purim, the most raucous of Jewish holidays, the holiday takes place on the 14th of the Jewish month of Adar everywhere except in Jerusalem.  The battle at the end of the Purim story that took place in the walled city of Shushan continued throughout the 14th.    Thus, since it would not be appropriate to celebrate until the fighting is over, in walled cities from the time of the Purim story, Purim is celebrated the next day on the 15th.  Guess how many walled cities from that time are in existence?  Jerusalem and Sfat (although now I guess there is a debate about Sfat.)  So if you wanted you could have celebrated Purim in Tel Aviv on Sunday and then driven to Jerusalem and celebrated Shushan Purim on Monday.  (Which some people do.  Some, sad for them, purposefully do the opposite and have no Purim). It is so appropriate that in Israel the one extended holiday to a two day “Yom Tov” would be Purim.  It is all about the fun.

I am going to break here because this blog will be way too long.  I have so much more to share.  Next installment will start with Purim.
In the meantime, I include this picture I took in the parking lot behind my building walking home from the health food store the other day.  I’ll tell you why I took it.  The sky here is amazing.  I think I might have mentioned the blue of the Jerusalem sky.  It is like nothing I have ever seen.  So on my walk home, I looked up and noticed that the color overhead was indescribable and thought I would try to capture it in a picture.  Maybe you get a sense.  The sky is very close to you here; maybe because you are elevated and surrounded by hills.  In any case, it is something to behold.
Until next time.

Happy Purim

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fake News

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“All the Jews That’s Fit to Print”	Shushan, Persia                     14 Adar	5 Darics
______________________________________________________________________________________
George enjoying himself on a winter romp at Cranbrook.  “I like four seasons,” the schnoodle says. ____________________________________ George Says “no”! “Everyone kept telling me they were coming back, but I was never fooled,” George said upon hearing his family was making aliyah.  Although he is entertaining a tempting offer to join his current humans the Sulkes- Wilcoxes in London  (continued p. 11)	Freedom Isn’t Free זה לא חופשה וזה לא חופשי Ever wondered why the State of Israel offers so many incentives to new olim?  ‘Cause Israel is expensive!   In what is turning out to be a closely watched experiment, the Korelitz family has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund their aliyah.  “We figured there were lots of people excited at the prospect of our not returning, so why not give them a chance to put their money (continued    p. 10)	Korelitz’s Make Aliyah ! After months of being called ‘fakers,’ the Korelitz family has decided to silence their critics and make aliyah.  For those who have been reading the Korelitz blog there is no need to go over the many reasons the Korelitz’s have for their decision.  When in the same week, though, Sheryl was offered the position of Admissions Director at Hebrew U., and Pardes (continued p. 127)

Friends and Fun

Oh, where to begin?  So I will try and relay all of my exploits but not necessarily in the right order.

I have had big college guidance adventures.  While I am here, I want to visit Israeli universities that my American students are interested in, so I made arrangements to visit Bar Ilan University and IDC Herzliya.  Two weeks ago, I traveled to Ramat Gan to get a tour with Josh Weixelbaum, the Director of International Student Recruitment at Bar Ilan, who spent a day with me.  

The HIGHLIGHT of the day for me was being greeted by Hannah Ruby as I got off the bus.  She was using the Bar Ilan libraries to study for finals, as the university is right next door to Givat Shmuel.  For those of you who do not know, Bar Ilan is the largest national university in Israel and it is also the only religious one, meaning that students are required to take Judaic courses along with their general studies program.  Not everyone who goes there is religious nor are they even Jewish.  It is a very good university and they have an international program that is taught in English.  That is what I was going to check out specifically.  So Josh drove me around in a golf cart and introduced me to students and staff.  Most of the Farber students who are studying right now in Israel are at Bar Ilan.  Partially, that is a practical choice based on where they live (Givat Shmuel) which is also really a social choice.  When you are on your own as a new immigrant, having a community is so important. Anyway, I really liked the school.  It is a nice campus and they are trying to grow the international program.

I had a little down time at one point because Josh went to his office to do some work so I hung out at a BESA conference that happened to be taking place on campus. Some of you might be familiar with BESA but I was not.  It stands for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.  It is one of the feathers in the cap of Bar Ilan, an academic think tank that is well respected by international governments for its research; it is on the right politically and directs its research toward the government in matters of national security and its work is sought by all sorts for its analysis of the Middle East.  

I was lucky enough to be at Bar Ilan while they were conducting a one day conference called Strategic Challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean.  I sat in on a panel of presenters in English which included Konstantinos Bikas, the Ambassador of Greece to Israel. The fun began after the four presenters opened up the floor to questions.  Guess who was in the audience?  You will never guess. The newly reinstated Turkish ambassador to Israel who was a little miffed that he was not asked to be on the panel.  He was invited to attend, however, and probably last minute, as Turkey and Israel literally just reestablished diplomatic ties about a week prior to this event.  Well, I got to see diplomacy in action as the Turkish ambassador took issue, most respectfully, with the Greek ambassador on his discussion of Cyprus and many comments that were made about Turkey in relation to Russia.  Everyone was very polite and let the Turkish ambassador speak his peace until the end, when the BESA professor said he happily welcomed back the Turkish ambassador, who we all could see was a persuasive and effective diplomat, but the professor took offense at the Turkish ambassador’s comments on Hamas; in that respect he had gone too far.  What fun.

Then this past week, I got the royal treatment at IDC Herzliya. I made my way to Arlozorov Station in Tel Aviv and was picked up by Wendy Keter, the Director Emeritus of IDC’s international program. She drove me to campus, introduced me to the staff of the program, took me around and treated me to lunch.  I know Wendy from her visits to Farber and so arranged this day with her.  It was wonderful and I was so impressed with the international program.  

For those of you who do not know about it, IDC is Israel’s first private university founded 22 years ago and their Recanati International School has really set the bar for international programs in the country.  Very beautiful campus, well run, professional and organized, it feels very different from the 9 national universities in the country.  I think it is a great choice for American students who want a different college experience.  Taught in English, the international program currently has 2000 students from all over the world.  There are an additional 5000 Israelis in the Hebrew language programs.  About 9% of the students are not Jewish but I love the fact that the international school is filled with Jews from all over the world.  86 countries are represented in the program.  The two wonderful women who run the financial aid office let me in on some trends in the Jewish world:  Venezuela has no economy any longer and Argentina is close behind; Brazil as a country is a mess so while the Jewish community there is strong, Jews are still trying to leave; South Africa’s economy is so bad now that while Jewish students want to come to Israel, the rand is making it almost impossible to do so.  I arrived on a day when MASA (a program of the Jewish Agency that grants scholarships to students to study in Israel) declared that they were allocating extensive funds specifically for South Africans because of the economic situation there.

Anyway, amazing place and I highly recommend it.  

Detroiters are still visiting.  Zoe and I hitched a ride with Allison last Monday to visit the Kresch’s in their new apartment in Bet Shemesh. The apartment is beautiful and it was wonderful to see Susie, Eddie, Talya, David and Atara. There is a mall on the lower level of their complex and we went to Waffle Bar for dinner and, in typical Kresch fashion, Eddie insisted that he, Allison and I celebrate our birthdays together in the last days of February since we could not be together in August.  Sparklers came to the table and everything.

Then Julie Sherizen arrived for our giant pajama party that lasted from Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon. Lots of fun catching up, eating, exploring and doing Jerusalem.  After a rainy start the weather got beautiful and the sky turned an amazing Jerusalem blue for the duration.  Here is a picture of us returning with the granny cart after shopping for Shabbat at Pasha (the best Shabbat take out!)  

Here is a picture of us eating at our terrific corner falafel stand.  

Julie got to meet Cobi the wonderful owner who is Israeli with a thirty year sojourn in Australia.  Recently returned, he has been making wonderful improvements to the tiny property on the corner of Pierre Koenig and Rivka.  

Julie has confirmed that לחם של תומר (Tomer’s Bread) is the most magical of bakeries (obviously pictures can't do it justice, but see for yourself)

and that the pickles from the Bet Lechem produce store could indeed be the best pickles in the world.  

Allison, Julie and I spent a perfect Friday morning having breakfast outdoors at Café Kadosh under the awning during a brief downpour.

On our way to breakfast !

And Julie had a special Nitzanim Shabbat where she got to meet our rabbi and ran into former Detroit shlichim, Chen and Amotz.  Then Seth and I put Julie in a cab and sent her on her next adventures.

We have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks but I do not want to give anything away.  You will have to keep reading.

For now, let me just say that so far Adar has proven to be a month filled with pre-Purim joy.  Zoe barely has actual school because her school days are filled with Adar fun and she keeps being let out early.  Hannah has finished her first round of finals.  Amazing!  (Here is Hannah the poster child for Tel Aviv University, sitting center with her friend Tova, as they appear on the TAU website.)

And finally for the merriest moment of all.  Today as I was folding laundry, I glanced out my window to the gan (nursery) next door just in time to view a playground full of Santa’s elves making Adar fun in the Holy Land.  Seth insists that they have no idea who Santa is, let alone his elves, and they just think it’s dress up.  In any case, it was a riot and made me as happy as a holiday can.  And Purim is not even here yet.

So be happy!

What Happens in Israel...

The Dog Days of Wonder

Well, I am leading quite a cushy life right now - just dealing with minor issues that come up with the Israeli applications, lull with Farber before the storm of the juniors starts in two weeks.  I am on Ulpan hiatus until after Pesach; I could have continued in March but we have so many visitors coming that I felt I needed to take a little break to appreciate the visits.  So going to the gym, doing ulpan homework and prepping for Farber with no pressure.

No one else in my family is so stress free.  Hannah is in the middle of finals, which are nerve wracking and difficult, but she is doing really well.  In Israel, they let you retake your finals so, while that might seem to lighten the burden in the abstract, in reality, you really don’t want to retake them and so don’t think that way.  Hannah is operating in Hebrew and English at Tel Aviv University. She has written a paper in English and has some reading assignments in English depending on the subject.  Lectures and exams are definitely in Hebrew.  She has nine classes.  ONE OF THE HIGHPOINTS OF MY LIFE was helping Hannah study for her Intro to Renaissance Art final.  She aced it.

Seth is really busy with Pardes because he is working on a big project for them so he might be out of communication for a while.  And Zoe is plugging away in school.

And so I am enjoying my time.  Some of the wonderful visitors we have seen over the past two weeks have been LeahAnn Kleinfeldt, the Kornblums and Deb, Dalya and Jacob Apap.  More people in town still and we will try to see them.

And last Sunday was a treat.  There was a Hillel teachers’ trip in town and Seth had arranged for us to go out together on their night off. There were 8 of them -- Cathy Fridson and her husband, Howard, Pam King and her husband, Chris, Marisa Hernandez, Melanie Weber, and Dana Levy with her husband, Bruce -- and we really looked forward to seeing them.  They left the restaurant choice up to us and we chose Crave in the shuk. We figured they would want a very Jerusalem experience and Crave is the hot restaurant in the shuk, if not the city right now.  They don’t take reservations and, like all restaurants in the shuk, it is really small.  So I decided to show up early and camp out at the front door which did help a bit and we got a table for ten just as everything was filling up.

The food at Crave is very fun; very casual street food and the space has great energy with lots of Anglo help.  Supposedly they have the best kosher Reuben sandwich in the world (people who have eaten it have concurred) and great pulled brisket and fish tacos.  Seth and I split two things and we were tivoni (vegan) for the night.  Then we walked around Ben Yehuda for fun.  Here we all are.  Plus there is the very happy picture of me and Dana, the very first employee at Ruby’s Balm, who is now a teacher at Hillel so Seth and I get to share her.  She came with her husband, Bruce and we had a blast catching up.

Some recent cultural highlights.  Went to see a showing of Singin in the Rain (the movie) at AACI (Association for Americans and Canadians in Israel).  Allison was my date and we brought the average age of the room down quite a bit, but it was fun.  They have a movie maven who introduces classic movies that they show there as part of a series.  We ended up liking his intro which had great anecdotes about the making of the movie and the perfectionism of Gene Kelly.  Of course, we had seen the movie.  It was just fun to see it again.  I was reminded of an experience I once had when I was in Paris right after college.  I saw a matinee of Bringing Up Baby (which is one of my favorite movies and also happens to be the source for George’s name) on a rainy day and felt very homesick for the USA.  I did not feel homesick this time but when you are watching Singin in the Rain in a foreign country, you cannot help noticing how American it is.  Is there a country in the world that makes such positive movies as old Hollywood?  A fun time was had by all.

We spent a beautiful Shabbat at the Italian Synagogue.  We met Batsheva Hadar and her husband, Avraham there upon their return from two months of summer in South Africa.  We had arranged this date months ago during a dinner at the Italian Restaurant, Agas V’Tapuach.  The owner is a friend of theirs and had mentioned that he reads Torah every year at his shul on the anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah.  We were all invited to come hear Parshat Yitro and for the Kiddush following, with food provided by the restaurant.  We saved the date because...well, why not?!  It gave us an excuse to go to the Italian Shul without feeling like complete tourists.  After all, we had an invitation.

The synagogue is beautiful and so unique

It was transported from Italy in the 1950’s and reassembled here to be used by the Italian community of Jerusalem. Here is a link with information.  The women sit upstairs behind beautifully painted gold baroque wood work and we pushed out the screens during the Torah service to get a clear picture of everything below.  I was not at all familiar with Italian traditions; Italian Jews are pretty rare and they have their way of doing things.  It is not Sephardic; it is not Ashkenazi; it is Italian.  As Seth explained, the Roman Jewish community is 2000 years old and has not been influenced by outside communities because things were just so good in Italy why would you do things differently?!  In general, the tunes were not anything wonderful (Seth would disagree) except I did like the reading of the Haftorah which does sound substantially different and the Birkat HaKohanim (Priestly Blessing) was definitely different; the pressure is on the kohanim to really sing.  They do Yizkor every Shabbat and read names of the deceased handwritten in a large book designating each Shabbat.  Batsheva told me they actually say Yitzkor everyday but I do not know about that.  As you would expect, they had the best dressed Torah I have ever seen.  It wore the most gorgeous damask velvet covering and it takes a long time to undress it because it is wrapped in a wimpel (something else I have never seen).  The highlight for me was when they opened the ark; it is over 350 years old and stunning.  First there is the fabric covering which is pushed aside to reveal wooden doors that are BEYOND.  

Someone then has to open these doors with a large old-fashioned key and then more fabric is revealed.  This key is actually used during the service.  As Batsheva said, “Very Old School.” The Gabai made the announcements in Hebrew and then Italian where there was much discussion of defibrillators.  Zoe did some sleuthing at Kiddush and found out that someone had choked on lasagna the previous week and was recovering in the hospital.

Yonatan did a splendid job reading Torah (you might remember he has an amazing voice from the Chanukah blog where he lit candles in the restaurant) and an equally good job with the Kiddush: mini pizzas, fresh mini rolls with mozzarella and anchovies, mushroom and spinach quiche, caprese salad and delicious mini tartes of all sorts.  

The Kiddush took place downstairs in a room covered in frescoes which doesn’t look like any synagogue I have ever been to.  I wondered if the people there were really Italian.  The first sign that they were is that when services ended, I heard the echo of “Ciao’s” around the room.  Then we had the opportunity to speak over treats to someone  who was a member of the community.  He was an older gentleman, born in Florence, whose father was killed in the camps and he was a hidden child.  I asked about the size of the community and he said there are about 500 Italians left in Jerusalem and around 10,000 in all of Israel.  He said there are only about 40,000 Jews left in Italy so that puts the world population of Italian Jews at around 50,000.  I felt as if I was talking to a rare African Rhino.  And then I started thinking about how things would be different if Italian Jews had dominated early twentieth century immigration instead of Polish and Russian shteltl Jews.  Think of the food and the architecture and the language!  But, of course, that is ridiculous.  Italian Jews were not leaving because life was good there.  They weren’t stupid.  So here we are with our cholent and gefilte fish.  Sigh.

Guess who went to Bezek (the cable company) to return a router and deal with extraneous charges on our bill?  Me. Ta da! In Hebrew. Ta da! The things that can make you happy on this kind of adventure, huh?

Apropos of nothing, I had my teeth cleaned. Nothing exciting but just as annoying in Israel as the States.   Now I have been to a podiatrist, general practitioner, dentist and walk-in clinic and found all these experiences to be perfectly fine. Just saying.

It has been heating up here but the rains return later this week. Winter is not quite over yet.

Be Happy.  It’s Adar !  /  משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה

What Happens in Israel...