From Here to There. Random thoughts on transportation in Israel

Driving

You probably casually skipped over references in the last couple of blogs about our driving here or driving there.  But for us, this was a big deal ! We’ve always been a little bit afraid of driving here, and in all our visits over the years we’ve never driven.  Not once. This entire year has been no exception.  Trains, buses, cabs aplenty, but driving ourselves?  In part, there’s just been no need. Pardes is a five-minute walk for Seth, we have two grocery stores not much further than that, Zoe has a bus she catches around the corner to get to Horev.  When Sheryl had big trips entailing a lot of schlepping she imposed on Allison to give her a lift.  

But Pesah plans entailed a lot of moving around, and anyway we thought it was time to bite the bullet.  Geez, what were we worrying about?!  The hardest part was all the paperwork for renting the car. (Compounded, of course, by our fears that our limited Hebrew was going to cause us to miss some important detail.)  After that, it was all smooth sailing, if you don’t mind the metaphor.  

Random addition:  We rented from a small, independent agency the Pollocks recommended, but you’ve got to tip your hat to Avis in Israel.  (Sorry, if you aren’t familiar with Game of Thrones this won’t resonate.)

Anyway, back on the road.  We used our fancy 21st century apps (Waves for directions and Pango for parking), didn’t hit any serious hol hamoed traffic (a lot of Israelis are on the road at this time of year but it wasn’t anywhere near what we feared) and only had to use our horn a couple of times.  Although we clearly outed ourselves as foreigners when we did give our horn a short press. There’s basically no such thing in Israel as a short honk.  Five to ten seconds seems to be the average, and Israelis tend to be a little trigger happy.  People will honk even when there seems to be no possible, logical reason to do so.  You can be sitting at a ramzor (traffic light - a combination of two words: remez/hint and or/light. So clever!)  and somebody will honk at you if you are letting a group of people finish crossing in front of you, or frequently just in anticipation of the light changing.  Sometimes not even that.  Israelis don’t really need an excuse to use their horns.  It’s not quite as natural as breathing, but pretty close.

We still love the fact that we’ve been able to do without a car the entire year, but we feel proud of ourselves for finally joining the ranks of Israeli drivers.  Of course, like everything else this year we’re just ‘fakers’ and didn’t have to deal with the worst of driving culture in Israel.  E.g. - some day maybe Hannah will share with you the travails of getting a driver’s license here.

You definitely see fewer people driving on Shabbat than other days (though Seth seems to think that there are more drivers in Jerusalem on Shabbat than there were let’s say 20-30 years ago. Probably just more drivers, period).  What you do notice more on Shabbat than other days are student drivers.  Since the roads are less crowded it seems to be an ideal day for those not observing Shabbat to take lessons.  Any time you see a car with a ל sign on the roof (Lamed, for the first letter of the Hebrew word “learner”) you know it’s a student driver.  Seth’s heard there’s an expression for when someone is sort of meandering thoughtlessly in front of you on the sidewalk “hey, where’s your lamed?!” .  Never actually heard anyone use it, but doesn’t mean there haven’t been countless times when we’ve wanted to use it ourselves.  

The Bus Drivers

These guys get a bad rap.  I do not know why.  They can be a little rude but not really.  First of all, as a recent Eged bus line “Sick out” revealed, they are ridiculously underpaid.  Also, they have a hard job driving around all the time and they get no training.  Both of our girls have had the experience of having to give directions to the drivers because the dispatcher evidently sometimes just tell the drivers to head out on a new route without bothering telling them what to do. They also have to take payment for bus passes, reload the RavKav (bus pass) and make change while driving which is very difficult.  (And sometimes a little dangerous feeling.)

Despite Hannah’s and Zoe’s evidence to the contrary, Sheryl has had nothing but success every time she asked for help.  (Seth’s record is 2 for 4).  Still, the drivers have been very nice and they tend to be protective of people who do not know where they are going (thus Sheryl's success.)  The drivers usually tell the lost souls to sit by them and they will take care of them.  That invisible wall between the driver and the passengers does not really exist much here.  First of all, drivers play the radio a lot -- whatever they want and really loudly sometimes. Very often, people hang out and talk to the drivers in the entrance way of the bus which looks dangerous to me but they don’t seem to care.  And at least one driver we saw at Purim had decorated the entire area around his seat and entrance in honor of the holiday.  No issues with the bus drivers.

Taxi Drivers

Ditto for the cab drivers.  We have had a cab driver give us a free ride (I think we mentioned this in an early blog when we went to Zoe’s school.) He literally would not take our money. They are a chatty group and Sheryl always likes to talk to them because she gets to find out stuff about the country.  We don’t use cabs much to save money but when we do we use GETT, which is like Uber, but uses taxi drivers and is actually an Israeli company.  (Helpful tip: make sure you have GETT if you are going to the Israel Museum. We’ve been stuck there more than one evening unable to get a cab, even after big programs.)  Sheryl still tips cab drivers which people tell her she shouldn’t do but she can’t help it.  Old American habits die hard.

Jeff and Debbie Devries told us a nice cab driver story when they came to us for Shabbat lunch a while back.  They got a little lost going to the shul and ended up walking too far.  They could tell they were lost but not sure where to go so they figured they would ask a cab driver.  This cab driver offered to take them there for free (they were close to their destination) and, of course, Debbie and Jeff said no thank you and when the driver realized they could not drive because it was Shabbat he proceeded to follow them to make sure they got to where they were going.  People do that kind of stuff here all of the time.

One of the peculiar habits of cabbing in Israel is that if you are traveling alone, the default seems to be be to get in the front seat next to the driver.  If you tried this in NY, you would probably get a strange look -- or worse -- from the cabbie.  When we go anywhere as a family Seth always takes the front seat, but after two cabbies in a row yelled at him a few years ago for “slamming” the door  (ever since a favorite family anecdote), he’s very careful to close taxi doors ever so gingerly.

Mass Transit

The mass transit in Israel is pretty good, and getting better.  The new fast train between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (see here) is scheduled to open next year, ahead of schedule.  It will be electric (good for the environment), fast (about 30 minutes instead of the hour+ for an average car trip), and popular (expected ridership close to 100,000 per day).  A few more years down the road Tel Aviv will open its first light rail system.  (Here’s an article, and a map of the final plan.)

Closer to home (Jerusalem), there was a lot of uproar earlier in the year when plans were announced for the expansion of Jerusalem’s light rail.  As expected, the next phase will run down Emek Refaim. Residents of the German Colony neighborhood were largely unhappy about this.  Some are still trying to fight the plan, but don’t put too much stock in their chances.  Here’s the master plan for Jerusalem’s light rail, for those who are interested.

No planes within Israel which we did a few years ago, flying back and forth to Eilat for Oren Lerner’s bar mitzvah) and no bikes. Electric bicycles are quite popular here and Sheryl has been really keen to get one.  Maybe back in Detroit.  We also haven’t used scooters, which are really popular among the elementary set.  

Otherwise,

planes ☑

trains ☑ and

automobiles ☑  

We’re best buddies with Israel Katz!  (That’s the head of the משרד התחבורה והבטיחות בדרכים/Ministry of Transport and Road Safety if for some reason you didn’t know that!)

What Happens in Israel...

Plain Pesah

Pesah

We hope everyone had a great Pesah.  Ours was lovely, if somewhat low-key.  So, not a lot to report, especially since we mentioned last week about the prep.  Just a short entry to check in.

One thing I did notice: with just a small kitchen to turn over, no seder to lead, and no seders to cook for (since Sheryl usually tries to pitch in a little on that 😌), the start of Pesah seemed a little abrupt.  I didn’t feel quite in the right (or at least typical) state of mind as we headed off to shul.  It was sort of like, “oh yeah, it’s leil Seder.”

Still, it didn’t take long to get into the mood, and by the time we got to the Pollock's I was definitely looking forward to a great night.  And we were not disappointed!  The food and learning were both exactly what you would have wanted.  It was just us and the Pollocks, so everyone felt relaxed, comfortable. Zoe -- understandably -- was feeling a little unenthused at being the youngest child at age 16, so she prepared a little Torah in place of reciting the 4 Questions.  After discussing her words, though, we all joined in together to recite. And so it went all night: We read, talked, sang, laughed, learned. Things finished up at a decent hour (around 1:00 AM), and we had a short walk home.  There’s really nothing like being in Israel at an hour like that, looking around at the other groups of people walking around in the middle of the night and knowing they’re all on their way home from seders, too.

Nitzanim was crowded of course the next morning.  A lot of the regulars were away, but it’s a popular place for visitors.  The Greenbaums are among a number of families we know who daven there regularly when they are here.  We mentioned last week their hosting us for Shabbes dinner before Pesah, and I got to daven with Joseph and Avi a number of times over the Chag.  The Tefillat Tal, marking the end of the rainy season, was externally a little less solemn than at home (no kittel for the chazan) but it was recited beautifully.  For certain one of the most moving parts of my tefillah experience this year.

It was of course a ‘short’ hol-hamoed this year, and we didn’t do much.  We did have one big excursion, however, and that was going up to Netanya for a day.  It really felt (and looked) like Miami Beach, though Netanya has had a large influx of French Jews the last few years, which adds a different flavor.  

But it’s still Israel.  Quick insight, courtesy of Hannah:  Imagine checking into a nice hotel in Miami.  Maybe not the nicest, but a good, 3-star branch of an international chain.  Now what would you imagine would happen to two employees at reception there who were arguing loudly with each other at peak check-in time.  Fired, maybe?  Certainly reprimanded.  But in Israel no one blinked at the Netanya Leonardo when two women there yelled recriminations at each other over who was to blame for some computer problem. Just another day here.

We got lucky, ‘cause the weather was calling for cool and rain, but it ended up being nice and we spent all day on the beach.  The Greenbaums were actually staying in Netanya for a few days and they walked down the beach to visit with us, which was nice.  The Pollocks were also there (not so unusual for them, since Benjamin’s parents have an apartment there) and we spent a few hours with them in the evening, including some Pesah pizza and then ice cream.  

So that was about it for Pesah.  A couple of days back in Jerusalem just relaxing around the apartment reading and eating.  (Including Ben and Jerry’s kosher-for-Pesah.  Charoset ice cream, anyone?) Then Hannah headed back home, and she, Zoe, and I all headed back to school.

We’re heading into the Yoms, so hopefully we’ll have something meaningful to share soon.  Time to start getting ready for Shabbes here.  Have a great one, everybody!

What Happens in Israel...

Petite Pre-Pesah Post

Sorry to start with bad news, but after many weeks, Sheryl is taking a break and the blog is back in my hands.  We hope to have you back to your regularly scheduled programming as soon as possible.

We’ve been trying to enjoy vacation as much as possible.  Which has been made easier by a relatively low-key pre-Pesah season. Zoe and I have been on vacation, and it’s a slow season for Sheryl with work, so we’ve had plenty of time and a leisurely pace the last week or so.  A small kitchen and having our one (!) seder hosted by the Pollocks means that Pesah Prep is all the easier.   

Which is not to say that some things don’t feel just like home -- I had to make three or four runs to the stores the last couple of days to buy new items we forgot/didn’t realize we needed.  Sheryl often comments on how ridiculous the amount of Pesah stuff we have is (a good-sized closet awaiting our return in Huntington Woods). We’re not there yet, but we were starting from scratch, so we had a few items to buy.  No problem, though; just more items to add to Hannah’s “trousseau”  when we leave this summer.

Sheryl and Zoe started the week off with a visit to "the Tayelet"  (Haas Promenade) a lovely series of walkways not to far from our house.  It’s got some of the best views of Jerusalem, 'though pictures don't really do it justice).

I was actually there a few weeks ago with a small group from Pardes.  I crashed a little field trip with a small class that was discussing the whys and hows of teaching about Israel.  The Tayelet is a great place from which to do that, because it’s connected to many, overlapping narratives about the city and Jewish history.  Avraham, David, Talmudic times, Middle Ages, Modern history (itself divisible into many aspects, not the least of which being Israeli-Arab relations): all their stories are reflected from this beautiful outlook.

A slightly more ambitious outing was a self-guided tour we took of the Talpiot neighborhood, which borders our neighborhood of Baka. Actually, not entirely self-guided, as we were using a very nice guidebook loaned to us at the beginning of the year by my teacher/colleague/friend Susan Wall.  We saw the spot (now an apartment complex) where Jerusalem’s first airstrip stood a hundred years ago.  We also saw some of the homes of early founders of the State, including Eliezer Ben Yehudah, the “father” of modern Hebrew.  Sadly, Ben Yehudah himself never lived in this house (he died during construction) but his wife lived there for many years and so the house is still associated with him.  Today, it’s actually a hotel/hostel, though there is a visitor’s center addition on the back and evidently they sponsor some events there.  
 We Just checked it out from the outside.  

We did go in, though, when we got to S.Y. Agnon’s house.  Agnon, as I’m sure you know, is widely considered Israel’s greatest writer, and it’s only Nobel Prize winner in literature (1966).  Sheryl has actually been making her way through (in translation) his very long Only Yesterday.  Anyway, Agnon had an amazing, often turbulent life (one small tidbit he lost his library/rare book collection to a fire in 1924, and then again during the Arab riot of 1929, an obvious tragedy for a man like Agnon)  and they do a great job at this house/museum of giving you a sense of it and of his personality.   At one point, the family had a view of the Old City and Temple Mount from their rooftop (evidently part of the reason for their having chosen the spot) but the growth of the neighborhood in the intervening years has obscured that.

From there, we made our way (after a fortuitous discovery of the Talpiot branch of Lechem shel Tomer) to Ramat Rachel.  Most famous as the site of the recent Korman wedding, Ramat Rachel is also famous as being one of the first kibbutzim.  I hadn’t been there since my first Israel trip 35+ years ago, but by then it had already added tourism to agriculture as a source of income, but not yet hi-tech, which was added to the mix about 15 years ago.  The truth is we were pretty tired by the time we made it there, so we didn’t look around much.  Rested, enjoyed the views, then headed back home.

On the way back from Ramat Rachel

And our third recent outing was our most ambitious of them all.  We decided to drive up to Tel Aviv.  We didn’t really have plans.  We had hoped to visit Hannah at Tel Aviv University, but she said she wasn’t going to be on campus that day.  So we decided to visit the Diaspora Museum, which Zoe had never been to, and neither Sheryl nor I had visited since it was redone. The museum sits on the campus of TAU, so we figured we would combine museum-going with checking it out even if Hannah wasn’t there.

Outside one of Hannan's main buildings on campus

Visiting the museum was clearly fortuitous planning, because what did we discover upon entering but a special exhibit on Bob Dylan in honor of his 75th birthday.  (For those of you who don’t know, I am a rather large Dylan fan!)   

t was very well done.  Further sign that this was meant to be was Sheryl sitting down to this fortune-telling jukebox, containing Dylan’s entire catalog.  You sit down, it picks a song at random, and it plays what is supposed to be ‘your’ Dylan song.  And what did it choose for Sheryl?  Her favorite Dylan song, “I’ll Keep it With Mine”!      

We started with that, and afterwards anything  was going to be a let down.  The new exhibit (some of it, thematically at least, is the same as the old exhibits) was actually quite enjoyable, but the the old exhibits were bizarre!  Completely unchanged in over 30 years, run down, barely lit, just sitting there on the top floor.  Hopefully they’ll get around to doing something with this space, but for now they are not doing themselves any favors by keeping it open.  Really, just creepy.  Yikes!

We took a short break in between touring to grab lunch at their Aroma Cafe, which is clearly used by museum visitors and TAU community.  After the museum we spent a few minutes walking around Hannah’s campus.  Not particularly impressive architecture, and it’s small (the entire campus could probably fit in the parking lot of OCC’s Orchard Lake parking lot) but it was a treat for us to be able to see where Hannah studies.

Of course the highlight of the day (the week.  The month?) was heading a few miles to the east to finally see Hannah’s apartment. After eight months, it was about time!  We did get slightly lost (I entered last year’s address into Waze.  Oops) but we got there pretty quickly. Only one of Hannah’s roommates was home with her, Jessica, but we had a nice visit before heading back home.

And now Pesah is about to start.  A few people in town. Including the Greenbaums, who kindly had us over for Shabbat dinner.  Their apartment is near ours, and they usually daven at Nitzanim which we’ve made home this year, so I’ve seen Joseph and Avi a few times this week.  Zoe and I enjoyed our search for chametz last night, and as I usually do, took care of the biur (burning) myself this morning.  I figured there would be random fires around town (there were

though not as many as there will be in a month for Lag B’Omer) but the city also organizes spots around town.  Not as well done as Jerry’s at YIOP of course (when I got there this morning there was just the bin and one guy with a set of matches trying to get it started),

a little later, after it got going

but as Joseph pointed out, it’s nice that the city provides for this.  Avi even found this location for us online, since the city posts the locations on its website.

OK, it’s getting late and there are still some things to do some I’m gonna run.  More Pesah later.  In the meantime, Chag Kasher V’Sameah.

What Happens in Israel...

Post-Purim, Pre-Pesah

This is my final catching up blog and I think Seth will be ready to share for a while.  As I write this, I am listening to the Gan (nursery) next door learn “Chad Gadya,” for the seder.  Living next to a nursery is a treat.

Marathon Day.  So on Friday morning, March 17 we three Korelitz’s got up at 5:30 AM for Zoe to run the 5k.  There was a 5K, 10K, half and full marathon scheduled and they were starting at different times.  Zoe did not start until 7:30 but our issue was getting to the starting point.  The full marathon literally covers the entire city and so most of the roads are shut down and there is no public transportation working until after the race, so we knew we were going to have to get there on foot.  It is not that far of a walk but we wanted to leave enough time.  

So we picked up Zoe’s friend, Edya at a prearranged corner and started making our way to Gan Sacher Park.  The starting point was actually somewhere on Rupin Street in front of the Knesset.  Not sure exactly, I never got that close.  As we left our apartment there were already barricades and police stationed at intersections.  The race wound past us at the end of our block so we were in the thick of the route.  And as we made our way up and I do mean UP Kovshei Katamon (a street to be mentioned later) we encountered many volunteers who would spend their day making this happen.

This was the 8th year of this event and it has swelled to 30,000 participants with 3000 international runners.  You can already sign up for next year’s race on the website, and I suggest to everyone who is a runner that you should do it if you can.  Even though I did not take part, I can tell you that Jerusalem is a spectacular place to run and a huge challenge. For those of you who have been here, you know this city is one hill after another so the running is not easy.  Allison Pollock did the half marathon for a second year and she was pretty nervous about it and she is an amazing runner: She runs overnight!  To Eilat!

The day was perfection -- that Jerusalem blue sky without a cloud and the temperature was a perfect runner’s 55 degrees.   The closer we got, the more people we joined.  By the time we got to Gan Sacher, it was packed.  The half marathon started first.  And as we were sending Zoe and Edya up to the starting line, we heard clapping and yelling and turned to see about 6 African runners wrapped in gold foil warm up capes walk through the crowd.  It was the Kenyans!  And now it felt like a real race.

Edya and Zoe, heading off to the Starting Line

We told the girls we would meet them at the end and then Seth and I tried to figure out how to do that. Finding the 5k finish line was not the easiest thing.  At one point we thought we were as close as we could get when a lovely, soft spoken police officer took pity on us and let us stand where we were not supposed to.  When you stand around with someone for half an hour, you end up talking and it turned out he was a Beduoin and was stationed there with a guard who was starting the army the next day.  The other guard was also not Jewish but I did not get his story.  Meeting Bedouins is not something that happens every day. Everybody has a story.

But then Seth and I figured it out and found where to stand.  And watching the runners cross was a blast.  Lots of kids in the 5K.  We got there in time to cheer Edya across the finish line and waited for Zoe.  And waited.  And finally, we decided that maybe she made it in before Edya so we called Zoe on her phone and she had finished but after Edya, so, somehow we were standing there when she finished and missed her.  There was a lot going on, but we still felt bad.

We met the girls back at Gan Sacher and watched the happenings going on. Here are our happy and victorious giborot (heroes in the feminine!)   It is a giant party.  There was a screen showing real time images of the marathon and they showed a trio of runners outside the walls of the Old City who we figured out were the front runners.  Here is a shot of what they looked like and a couple of other pictures to give you a sense of the hills as they run around the Old City and one with the Mt. Zion and King David Hotels in the distance.

More on the three of them later.

Then it was time to make our way home and so we left Edya behind to meet her sister and started the schlep.  On our way, we saw the half marathoners running up Ben Tzvi.  It is not a huge incline but it is a long uphill trek to the finish line.  The intersection of Herzog and Ben Tzvi is a fun spot to watch because as the runners come down Herzog, they turn onto Ben Tzvi for their last push to the finish line.  Uphill.  We stood there a bit to watch and our favorite moment was probably when we heard the singing of an entire army unit as they made their way down the hill.  There were thousands of people running for charities over the course of the day and we saw several army units running together which was usually being done for a charity or as a tribute to someone. If you have never seen an IDF unit running as a group, it is a thing to behold.  So we heard them before we saw them and then this unit appeared in the crowd of runners, all wearing matching t-shirts.  We had no idea which unit it was but they were in good shape.  In their midst they had a flag bearer who we assume ran all 13 miles with that Israeli flag raised high.  As they approached the turn onto Ben Tzvi they let out a war cry to inspire them to the finish.  It was amazing!

Then inspired, we continued walking home, cutting back through Katamon, arriving at the top of Kovshei Katamon.  Remember this street from the morning?  Well it is a long 45 degree angle straight to the top.  We were lucky because we were going downhill this time and got to see all the half marathoners as they slogged their way up.  Most of them were not even running at this point or just barely. (↤ Here is a picture with Zoe walking down.) There were people at the sides of the street cheering everyone on.  It was tough going.  And then, we heard a siren down the hill and the crowd started to part and a car appeared with a digital timer attached to its roof and a two motorcycle escort behind.  We had no idea what it was but I noticed that the time said 2:06 or 08 and then we saw him:  the leanest person I have ever seen running at a spectacular pace up that hill.  We figured out it was the marathon leader and he zoomed by us.  To watch running like that was a treat; it was beautiful.  Not far behind were the other two runners who had made up the lead trio.  They did not get the escort.

At that point they were really close to the end of the race because when I checked later the winner, Shadrock Kipkogey from Kenya, finished at 2:17:35.  He had won the year before but did not beat his time.  Allison was waiting at the finish line to see people come in and she said he came in cool as a cucumber. The number two runner was from Ethiopia and number three was also Kenyan.  The first woman, also a Kenyan, came in almost a half hour later and Allison said she looked like she was going to die.   

It was an exciting day and a day to be proud to be a Jerusalemite as the marathoners took in this city’s 3000 years of history along the way.  It was a great display of civic pride on behalf of its citizens who volunteered and took part in huge numbers.  

But it ended up being a day filled with sadness as well.  As Seth and I were waiting for Zoe to finish the race, Hannah texted us that Savta Engelhart had died that morning.  It was not unexpected at that point but it felt hard nonetheless.  We called her Savta (grandmother) because that is what Hannah and many others called her but her name was Esther Offer and she was Miriam Engelhart’s mother.  I could spend a lot of blog space on the Engelhart’s of Cleveland but I do not think they would like that.  I will just say that the Engelhart clan made Aliyah the year that Hannah decided to stay in Israel and they were Hannah’s adopted family, official or unofficial.  Their three older sons had made Aliyah on their own previously and the rest of the family came during Hannah’s year.  Yael is one of Hannah’s best friends and you saw pictures of her in Thailand.  I never had to worry about Hannah during her two years in Jerusalem because I knew the Engelhart’s were there to take care of her.  When Hannah needed somewhere to stay for Shabbat, she was with them and, sometimes, it was even just Hannah, Miriam and Savta spending Shabbat together.

I had the great honor of briefly getting to know Esther this year.  I spent a wonderful day with her eating cheese Danish (a passion we shared) and hearing her life story.  She was born in what was Hungary or Czechoslovakia or Ukraine depending on when you are talking about.   There was her normal life before the war reading Gone with the Wind, then surviving Auschwitz, and then building a life after the war.  She made her way to Palestine and was actually here for the very first Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Independence Day) in 1948.  But life was hard here and she had the opportunity to go to the States and she did, first settling in Detroit and then Cleveland, leaving a huge legacy on the Modern Orthodox community of that city.

But she made it back to Jerusalem.  She was 90 and she made it and this time she made it here with the most precious gift, the most generous and loving family imaginable filled with grandchildren and great grandchildren and extended family too.  They are a family who makes the world a better place and Esther was the acknowledged and adored matriarch.  She was strong and smart and funny and you wanted to be around her.  I know I will think of Esther on this Yom Ha’Atzmaut and I hope for all those in the years to come as all.  Her life was a triumph.

So March 17 was an emotional day and I was very grateful to be in this city to experience all of it.

Hannah had to walk all the way from the central bus station when she got in from Givat Shmuel because there was still no public transportation.  She felt as if she had done a good part of the marathon herself.  We were glad to see her when she arrived at the door.  It was a good Shabbat to be together.

Toto, We're not in Shushan Anymore!

Seat belts still fastened?  We continue.  

So Purim was very fun.  The whole city seemed to be up for a party. When Chaya and I went out the Saturday night before Purim, everyone working in the shuk was dressed up.  And these are not religious people.  For the week before Purim you see people walking in the streets wearing silly things.  People working in stores and restaurants add silliness to what they are wearing.  It seems like the children are dressed up for a month.  Lots of face paint.

Minnie mouse ears and devil horns are big.

So after our day of touring Jerusalem, we made our way to our shul, Nitzanim, for megillah reading. It was so packed in the women’s section that women were literally standing in the aisles.  Zoe was sitting on a step.  I was worried that we would not hear everything but he was a good reader and got the job done quickly.

Unfortunately, it was raining which put a damper on festivities around town.  People say that it can be a big party with people hanging out in the streets but the weather really was not good.  Zoe had a school party.  Hannah was at home in Givat Shmuel and had celebrated regular Purim because Tel Aviv U. had their first day of the semester on Shushan Purim.  Seth ventured out to check on the happenings and Chaya and I were a little pooped out.

The next morning, Zoe and I made it to a women’s megillah reading at Ramban.  It was very nice.  I found this article from The Jerusalem Post interesting.The idea that women’s readings started in the States but are now so big here tells you a lot about the trends right now in Orthodoxy.

We hope all of you saw our Fake News Purim shpiel.  We apologize to those of you who missed the “fake” part.

We had a lovely Purim Seudah (meal) at the Pollocks with Benjamin’s parents, Scott and Karin. Homemade pizza and Ben and Jerry’s.  What could be better?

I know we were supposed to get drunk but I was pacing myself. The next day, at 8:30 AM, bright and early, our car and tour guide, Alon Yitzhaki, were arriving for our personal wine tour in the Judean Hills.  Alon is a sommelier who works in a fancy restaurant in Tel Aviv and also has a wine tour company.  He was our host for the day.  

There are three wine regions in Israel:  the Golan Heights, the South/Negev and the Judean Hills.  I chose the Judean Hills because it is closest to Jerusalem for a day trip but also because it has the richest, oldest history of wine-making.  To make a long story short, this area of ancient Israel was a major wine producing region for centuries for several reasons:  the climate, its location -- as wine was sold along the trade route between Mesopotamia and Egypt -- and during Roman times taxes were paid in wine provided for the sitting Roman army.  These were heavy taxes demanding a lot of wine to keep the soldiers happy.  People traveled from all over the ancient world to Israel to be trained in wine-making.  Wine production here was strong until the 7th century, i.e. the Muslim conquest.  

This country was bereft of vineyards and wineries until the mid-nineteenth century.  Thank you Tepperburg’s!  And more famously, in the 1880’s --  thank you Baron Rothschild!  But now the wine is flowing and world class.  We visited three wineries:  Nevo, Tzora, and Tzuba.  Tzora was our favorite.  We learned a lot about how wine is made, the different types of wine, how to drink it, etc.  It was great fun.

Here are some action shots of us during the day.

Just so you know, it is not easy to taste so much wine.  I learned to spit and did some of that.  Chaya did not and by vineyard 3, her taste buds were not as sharp as needed.  But we spent the end of the day eating lunch at Shoresh with a spectacular view overlooking their vineyards – reviving.

It was wonderful.  Thank you to Chaya for this gift of a day.

A little interlude that night.  Zoe had signed up to do the 5K of the Jerusalem Marathon.  She had been training and we needed to pick up her runner’s kit before the race that Friday.  So after Chaya and I got home, Zoe and I made our way to the Pais Arena where they were holding a runners’ expo and distributing the kits.  We had a lovely ride with our GETT driver, Yermiyahu,  where I got to practice my Hebrew which is always ridiculous while Zoe is around because her Hebrew is so good.  I only embarrassed her a little.  I think.

I bet you think that going to an arena in Israel to pick up a packet for a marathon with 30,000 runners would be a stressful, torturous experience. NOT!  So well run and pleasant.  Zoe wanted to write to Michael Bloomberg and tell him how well it went.  I took more pictures of the process just to further embarrass Zoe. Great ride home on the bus and I think Zoe was starting to get excited for the race.

Wednesday morning.  Up early.  Coffee for Chaya and almond croissant for me from Lechem shel Tomer.  And then we made our way to the White City, i.e. Tel Aviv, for two days of exploration.   And when I say White City, I really mean it.  The first thing we did after checking into the lovely Rothschild Hotel was make our way to the Bauhaus Center on Dizengoff Street.  Besides having a great gift shop, you can rent an audio walking tour that begins with a movie in their basement.  Then they hand you a map and send you on your way for an hour long walking tour.  Here is an “action shot” of Chaya on the tour.

So Tel Aviv is called the White City because of its endless urban landscape of monochromatic white Bauhaus/International Style buildings that were built in the 30’s.  There are over 4000 such buildings and Tel Aviv has been designated a World Heritage Cultural Site by UNESCO.  There is a big preservation campaign underway and it makes a huge difference when the buildings have been restored.  It is wonderful to see.  A few of the buildings had “for sale” signs in front advertising apartments and I was very tempted to go shopping.  Even Dizengoff Square is currently being refurbished to its original beautiful circular design and I am excited to see that on a return visit in the future.

All that culture made us hungry. I know that people complain that there are not a lot of kosher restaurants in Tel Aviv but there were plenty along Dizengoff when we were walking; we went into an amazing hummus and grill hole-in-the-wall that could not have been better.  We were looking forward to walking off our lunch but the skies started to turn grey so we decided to take out our umbrellas and walk to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to take cover.  It was a wonderful way to pass a rainy hour or two and when we emerged, the sun was out.

After a GETT mishap, we decided to just walk back to the hotel which was very pleasant since Chaya is an excellent navigator and we did not spend even a second being lost.  A big thumbs up for the Rothschild Hotel 96 (there is more than one Rothschild Hotel) which is in a beautifully restored historic building along Rothschild Blvd.; it is wonderful, small, well designed and very service oriented.  In each room, they provided a combination scrap book/photo album of Baron Rothschild’s relationship with Israel which was fascinating and, yes, I actually read it.  I have added Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild to my list of Jewish heroes. He might be at the top.  I did know about him but, wow!  The Jewish people are just really lucky sometimes and he is an example of the right person at the right time making a world of difference.  

So we were supposed to meet Hannah at a restaurant called Rendezvous but upon arrival it was closing for a private party.  I mention this because it looks like a really nice place and should be checked out on your next visit.  It took some research to find a newer exciting kosher restaurant so I was disappointed but we decided to make it easy and went back for sushi.

Here we are.  Chaya took the pic.

The next day was all about our feet and how far they could take us.  We started on Rothschild Blvd (See these shots from our hotel balcony) and just kept walking.  Our first goal was the Carmel Market, Tel Aviv’s version of the shuk.  Crazy, overwhelming and filled with a lot of junk.    There is food and produce as well, but also lots of cheap goods for locals and chazurai for tourists.  Then onto Neve Tzedek which is just lovely urban living.  Really beautiful. And then we continued to make our way to old Yafo.  

I suggested to Chaya that we walk along the beach so she could air out her lungs before her return to NYC. What a treat.  It was a spectacular day.  The sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. There was an intense breeze off of the water but it felt great.  We passed lots of Arab school children on school trips and watched some intrepid Russians plunge into the water.

Old Jaffa or Yafo has lots of history.  It has been a port for thousands of years, mentioned as the spot of Jonah’s embarkation, and a major site of Allenby’s defeat of the Ottoman Empire.  Here is the picture we took looking at Yafo.  And here is the picture taken with Yafo at our backs of the modern Jewish city of Tel Aviv that grew in its shadow.

Yafo is fun to walk around and has a crazy flea market that some of you may have been to.  There is some great stuff here and great food.  I have no idea if this stuff is overpriced but it was really fun to walk around.

Walked all the way back to our hotel where I had to say goodbye to Chaya.  She was spending the evening with relatives and flying out that night.  Chaya had not been here for ten years and a lot goes on here in that time.  It was a treat for me to be a tourist with her.

I made my way to Arlozorov Station for the bus to Jerusalem.

Stay seated.  The story continues.