Jenny & Max in Israel

Israel is in the past, and the future is.....

2007-08-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

Firstly, we apologize for taking so long to blog. A quick summary of the events of the past couple months is the following:

May 31: Pardes classes ended
June 6-12: Jenny, me, Shira & Annie visit Greece from Israel.
July 29: We return to the states, a little jet-lagged and very culture-shocked.

Ever since:
While back here in the states we have been jumping around between parent's basements and friend's couches, all the while trying to figure out what the next step is. We're considering moving to either Chicago, Denver, or the Twin Cities; and hoping that our job searches will aid us in the decision.

Seems sad that this blog is coming to a close, but after all, it is titled, "Jenny and Max in Israel"!

Perhaps we'll start another one on another fun topic, if that topic ever comes around! Until then, Shalom Chaverim!

This is my home too ...

2007-05-22T09:06:00.000-05:00

Throughout the last several weeks, we celebrated 4 Israeli holidays - all quite moving and meaningful to us. We also celebrated our birthdays while on a trip up to the Galilee region with Pardes. I just wanted to write a bit about each experience and share with you some of our feelings as we head into our home stretch here in Israel - we have 1 more week of school and then almost one more month after that. We depart around midnight on June 27th - hard to believe!

YOM HASHOAH - Holocaust Remembrance Day - April 16, 2007

We had special programming for this day at Pardes. We heard the stories of an Auschwitz survivor, listened to a lecture from the individual who works at Yad VaShem (Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) in the department of Righteous Gentiles (individuals who helped Jews during the war), and saw a presentation by the group of students from Pardes who went to Poland this spring. The day was very moving, although I was most impacted by the speaker from Yad VaShem since my Bubbie and Zadie (my mom's parents) survived the war with the help of a Polish farmer. As the focus of holocaust programming is usually very concentration camp heavy, I was pleased to see a presentation regarding the experiences of so many other Jews, who did not go to camps, but rather hid away with the help of non-Jews. It was also interesting to hear from our friends who were in Poland this March - many shared pictures and poems they had written while visiting some of the camps and memorials throughout the country.

At 10am on the morning of Yom HaShoah, throughout the entire country of Israel, a siren is sounded. Everyone stops what they are doing and stands in silence for the duration of the siren. Even cars stop on the streets and people get out and stand outside their doors. It was quite moving and amazing to imagine the entire country participating in this act of memoriam.

YOM HAZIKARON - Memorial Day for all who died while serving in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) - April 23, 2007

The day before, the dean of Pardes took us to Har Herzl where the IDF (military) cemetery is located. We learned about various groups of people who gave up their lives defending the state of Israel in its almost 60 year history. The cemetery is really nice - beautifully landscaped and on a hillside of Jerusalem. Some of the stories were unbelievable - such young individuals who died in the Old City in 1948 when it was captured and other soldiers who gave their lives protecting the country in the 1967 6-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. We went the day before Yom HaZikaron in order to avoid the crowds of people who come on the actual day and as a result, we saw members of the IDF lighting memorial candles and placing flowers on every single grave in preparation for the holiday. Just being at the cemetery helped us to have a much better understanding of how united this country is and how even as different as all of the immigrants are who come here, everyone believes so strongly in the existence of the state that it holds the country together.

That evening I attended a memorial "techas" (ceremony) at a neighborhood synagogue with some friends and faculty from Pardes where we heard some singing and experienced the 2nd nation-wide sounding of the siren at 8pm. From there, we headed to the home of Alex Singer, a member of the IDF who was killed in Lebanon in 1987. He was an American who decided to move to Israel and volunteer in the army. His story and family are amazing and helped to provide a more personal perspective to what Yom HaZikaron is all about. Alex's parents actually published a book which compiles his letters and drawings (he was an amazing artist) during his time in college and leading up to and in the Israeli army ... and the sections that I have read are quite inspiring.

On the actual day of Yom HaZikaron we had a day of special programming at Pardes filled with speakers and presentations both about Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, which was beginning that night. One more siren came in the morning, and Max and I actually went up to the roof of the Pardes building to get a bird's eye view of the scene. Not every single motorist stopped, but for the most part, everyone driving or walking stood silently for the blast. It was fairly surreal - especially when you know Israeli drivers (they are honking and screaming at each other much of the time!).

A couple of the day's activities at Pardes were the most meaningful for me. One of them was a break-out session where I was in a classroom with about 10 other students to discuss questions such as the following: What do you enjoy the most/least about Israel? How has your relationship with Israel changed since living here? Would you ever consider making Aliyah (moving here permanently)? etc. All year, I feel like I have been holding up the minority opinion among my friends here. Although I enjoy Israel and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to come live here, my home is in the U.S. I have always planned to live in America and be a leader in the diaspora Jewish communities. And on top of that, I have also (perhaps) been more outspoken than others regarding those things I dislike about Israel. So I started sharing my thoughts with the group - elaborating first on my dislikes -- about how on often occasion, Israelis are abrasive and rude, about how the Rabbinut (religious arm of the government) seems to have their hands in everyone's business and is creating problems for so many secular Israelis and immigrants, about how Israelis leave trash everywhere and how dirty much of the country is, and about how hard it is to get any service here while in a bank, post office, etc. But then I started sharing about the things I have enjoyed this year ... I spoke about how amazing every single holiday celebration has been, about how supportive and loving the community is that I have found here at Pardes, about how remarkable it is that Hebrew, a language outside of Israel that is only known in prayer, texts and the synagogue, has been revitalized here as the official language, and about how much pride people here have for their country. And as I shared these thoughts and listened to so many others explain why they are so connected to this tiny piece of land, I think I finally allowed myself to become more connected to this place. At the end of our session, I still remained one of the individuals in the room who does not anticipate making Aliyah, but I can say that for the first time all year, I feel that although I don't desire to move here any time soon, I can no longer rule out the possibility that in the future, I may feel differently.

We next returned to the Beit Midrash for a panel presentation of Pardes alumni who have all since made Aliyah. They shared their stories and answered our questions. The 4 panelists couldn't have been more different from each other in their journeys in making Aliyah and in their careers and how they feel about Israel today. A highlight was to hear from Linda (leaving her last name out for privacy, but the famous radio foreign correspondent Max and I have listened to for years) who lives here with her family. At the start of the panel, my all-to-familiar feelings of annoyance that Pardes was deep down trying to hint at how wonderful it is to make Aliyah came to the surface. But as I listened to the speakers and realized how remarkable their experiences have been and how they each connect to the country in a different way, I found my initial disgruntled attitude fading away and I started realizing how I am connected to Israel in a more deeply.

YOM HAATZMAUT - Israel Independence Day in 1948 - April 24, 2007

Following the conclusion of our programs at Pardes, we ventured out on the town for a true Israeli celebration. Parties were going on all over the city, including a huge one downtown where several streets were closed off and tons of people listened to live music, ate and drank in the streets. There was also a huge Israeli dancing party located in the large government center in the city - literarily hundreds and hundreds of people dancing in circles for hours at end. It was fun to try to join into the dancing and of course watching Max try to dance! :) The contrast to the observance of the somber and reflective memorial holiday that afternoon to the celebratory and jovial nature of the nighttime parties was stark. It's as if all of the hardship, pain and sacrifice that has gone into the formation and sustainment of this country explodes in a fervor of pure joy, appreciation and pride! We stayed out late - absorbed the atmosphere and had a nice walk back through town to our neighborhood.

The common practice for the day of Yom HaAtzmaut is barbequing in the parks. Everyone has the day off from work/school, so we jumped on the bandwagon and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of sun, BBQ and friends at a nearby neighborhood park. It was fabulous. One of the many days I have had this year where I have looked around and realized how amazing it is that we are here, experiencing this country and lucky to be surrounded by friends.

YOM YERUSHALAYIM - Jerusalem Day (i.e. commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967) - May 16, 2007

The celebrations began the night before with huge concerts in a few of the major city parks. We visited Gan Sacher, the largest park and closest to us, to enjoy a public concert full of (cheesy) music about Jerusalem. Then we spent the night wondering around the city - there were tons of people out - enjoying people watching and the music. Although the younger and secular crowds were out celebrating, it seemed that Yom Yerushalayim was much less celebrated that the other holidays. We actually had a discussion in one of my classes about this. This day carries a lot more controversy than the others because many people feel quite uncomfortable celebrating an event that has created a quite difficult situation for the country. Although the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, thereby providing Jews access to the old city was quite exciting, the situation in the city remains difficult, as I'm sure you are all aware. In many ways, people feel that the city continues to remain fairly divided today, as East Jerusalem is filled with Arab neighborhoods and the Temple Mount is run by Arabs. I think it is a good thing that many Jews are sensitive to this tension and therefore refrain from much celebration. And yet, fireworks fill the skies and parades march the streets for much of this night and day.

We actually had classes on Yom Yerushalyim so we didn't attend many of the city's daytime events, but we did have a inspiring lunch period. One of our teachers shared his personal experiences when he left his university and came to Israel about a week before the 1967 war broke out. He basically felt that he believed that the state of Israel was not going to survive the conflicts that were arising and felt that he wanted to be here to die with those defending the country. He shared stories about how he helped out driving trucks around the country and within the Old City and about the variety of people he met during that intense time. He also remarked that these experiences greatly impacted his life and continue to do so today. It was quite moving to hear of his connection to this country - his parting quote was "Your big decisions stay with you." - quite poignant for us as we are trying to decide our next steps.

Around the time of Yom Yerushalyim, we experienced two other events related to this 40th anniversary that are worth noting. The first was that Michael Oren, author of "6 Days of War", came to speak at Pardes. He was incredibly dynamic and spoke about the similarities and differences (both personally and for Israel) between the 1967 6-Day war and last summer's 2nd Lebanese War. He had also just been in DC advising our government (or as he put it, "all of the people we dislike in Washington") about the situation in the Middle East. He had quite interesting things to say about the Iraq War as well as the current and future situation here. Need less to say, I hope to find time to read his book - he was quite brilliant.

Second, Max and I attended a student event for MASA, an organization that provides scholarship money for individuals studying in Israel on long-term programs. (The trip we took last fall to the north to clean up bomb shelters in Kirat Shemona was also through MASA and we have attended various events run by the organization throughout the year). This event basically commemorated the 40th anniversary and also boasted a few speakers, including current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. As many of you probably know, Olmert is not that popular right now and many want him to step-down. He even received a few boos at this student event. In any case, it was interesting to see him and hear him speak (he spoke in English) - he kept his words light and focused on the celebration of Jerusalem and the future of the Jewish people. The best part of the event though was probably the fireworks, which were set-off directly above the walls of the old city - they were magnificent and well awaited, after sitting in light rain during the entire program.

BIRTHDAYS

Max and I celebrated our birthdays while on the final Pardes tiyul of the year. We were up in the western part of the Galilee region, hiking not far from the Mediterranean coast. This picture is from the second day's hike - overlooking an old crusader castle I think. The trip continued into Shabbat - we stayed up in Peku'in, a Druze village, and had the opportunity to meet and hear about the Druze religion and their relationship with Israel. On Friday night, Pardes had a large Tish (Shabbat celebration with singing, eating and drinking), which they also turned into a large birthday party for us and for another friend of ours who was also celebrating his birthday. They had cake and lots of treats, and some of our friends even sang the song "Ob La Di", changing the words to talk about the 3 of us. We also had the opportunity to share a few words with our school - it was nice to be able to briefly speak to the whole community about how we were feeling as the year is beginning to wind down. That Saturday on my birthday, I read Torah at services, which is something I had been wanting to do all year, and it was remarkable how much my improved Hebrew and my familiarity with the text influenced my ability to be able to lein from the Torah! All in all, we had great birthdays, the only damper being that I got my first ever bee sting on our first hike, and my left hand remained painful and swollen for several days :(

That Saturday night was Lag B'Omer (the 33rd day of the Omer counting period which goes from Passover to Shavuot), which has become synonymous in Israel with bon fires. While up in Peku'in, we had the chance to visit the cave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, traditionally thought to be the author of the Zohar (the book of radiance), who was believed to have died on this day. Anyway, we were exhausted from the weekend and so opted to return to Jerusalem after Shabbat ended instead of attending a bond fire on the way home. We arrived in a city filled with smoke and ashes - we even had the chance to drive by Gan Sacher (the big city park) and see the celebrations in action - it was quite crazy how many fires were going ... the poor poor Israeli environment!

****

Whew ... that's our update for now. We just finished celebrating the holiday of Shavuot, which we hope to write about soon. Otherwise, we will soak up our last week of school before we head to Greece with a couple of friends at the beginning of June!

Whirlwind Tour of Israel

2007-04-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

We are sorry for not posting in a while ... we are just starting to catch our breath and get back to our life in Jerusalem. We spent much of the last 6 weeks enjoying visitors, celebrating the holiday of Passover, and traveling around Israel. We had some time off from school for the holiday, which enabled us to explore some new parts of the country as well as to take our families to some of our favorite sites. We also had a 3-day trip with our school to the North in the middle of our vacation and in the middle of our family's trips. Another highlight was that Max and my brother played on the Jerusalem team in a frisbee tournament in Tel Aviv, which was quite exciting for me as I have never seen them play together and because their team actually won the whole tournament!

Anyway, instead of boring you with all of the details of our travels, we thought we would present 10 of our favorite spots that we visited during this time. But we want you to know that it was hard for us to even narrow it down to this list as there were so many wonderful places in this tiny little country. Oh, and if you are interested in seeing more pictures, we have now provided a link on the right side of this page to a Picasa site that is hosting them.

#1 - Caesarea

While my mom was visiting, we spent some time on the Mediterranean, and one of the most beautiful and interesting spots we visited was the city of Caesarea. Built by King Herod and named after his patron Octavian Augustus Caesar, the city was a great commercial center during the Roman empire and even became the headquarters of the Roman government in Palestine in 6 BCE - over 2,000 years ago! And the history is of course more extensive than this as the city was captured and recaptured, built and rebuilt by various groups over hundreds of years after the Romans abandoned it. The city has contained temples, theaters, markets, residences and much more - all carefully planned out and built upon the bay. The ruins also include a Roman aqueduct, located a bit up the beach, which is mostly buried under sand but is fairly spectacular nonetheless. We were mostly taken by the beautiful views of the sea as well as the massiveness of the city that used to be there.

#2 - Sea of Galilee (aka Kinneret) & Hamat Gader Hot Springs

The largest of Israel's fresh water sources, the Sea of Galilee is located in the north of the country, not far from the Jordanian and Syrian borders, and sits at about 200 meters below sea level (compared to the Dead Sea, which is about 400 meters below). It's a beautiful area for hiking, a key component in ensuring Israel's water supply, and is known for its numerous mentions in both the Old and New Testaments. When traveling with my mom and her friend Robin, we stayed right on the eastern shore of the sea for a few nights and enjoyed beautiful sunsets. We also ensured to bring my brother and Max's parents here to enjoy the views and test out the water.

While driving around the north with my brother, we also made a stop in Hamat Gader to enjoy the natural hot springs, which are located just southeast of the sea. I could not believe that the hot springs were entirely natural as the pressure and heat were amazing ... another incredible phenomena that results from Israel's placement on the African/Syrian rift. The site is known for the ancient Roman spas that were found here ... the Romans really thought of everything.

#3 - Mt. Bental - Golan Heights

In the 6-day war (1967), Israel captured the area known as the Golan Heights from Syria. Over time and additional fighting, this area, which consists of the northeastern most part of the country, stretching along the border with Syria from the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee towards the Lebanese border, was ultimately formally annexed by Israel. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and starkly contrasts to the dry, brown and very hot Negev desert in the South. The Golan Heights consists of green hilltops, beautiful wildflowers in the Spring and even receives enough snow for a ski resort up on the Hermon mountains. In addition to its amazing views and hiking spots, this area is of great strategic importance for Israel as it's elevation allows easy viewing into the Hula Valley and Galilee regions as well as into its neighboring countries. However, as Syria still desires to reclaim this territory, the Golan Heights remains a bargaining chip in Israel's quest for peace.

Mt. Bental (around 1200 meters above sea level), located in the Golan, provides great views of the Golan Heights and of Syria. We thought these signs told much of the story ... from this spot, we were only 60 Km from Damascus and 135 Km to Amman. I also never expected to see Baghdad and Washington D.C. on the same sign ... Up on this mountain there is a bunker, originally built by the Syrians, taken over by the Israelis in the 6-day war and then manned again by Israel during the Yom Kippur War (1973), which is now open to the public. Inside the bunker, there is a simple exhibit of the living quarters, kitchen, communication room, etc. utilized by the Israli soldiers. Walking through and peering out towards Syria from the bunker gives you a whole new perspective of what it means for this land to be a part of Israel. We spent time with my mom, my brother and Max's parents driving all throughout the Golan Heights during which we had great views of Mt. Hermon, the tallest peak in Israel standing at 9,069 feet -- see all the snow!

#4 - Hiking in the Golan Heights

We had some of our best hiking experiences in this part of the country and wanted to share some of the pictures. and with Max's parents (see waterfall below)
In addition to hiking in the Banias Nature Reserve (located in the northern most part of Israel, close to Lebanon) with my mom , we went on a 7 hour hike through this region with Pardes one day. We basically followed a river the entire way - climbing over rocks, through the water and along the banks. It was quite a challenging experience due to the terrain and the fact that there was much more water flowing through than usual. We were also with at least 50 other people and so keeping the whole group moving through the often difficult path was quite a task! In any case, we saw some amazing waterfalls and enjoyed the day (see us next to waterfall). With my brother, we hiked throughout Yehudiya Nature Reserve (located in the lower part of the Golan, closer to the Galilee) which involved us swimming across a mini-lake in the middle of the hike! I can't even express how cold the water was ... we actually found out that our friends who tried to do the hike just a few days after us were not allowed since there was risk of hypothermia from the water temperature - yikes! Going to and from the river valley were the most beautiful wildflowers, which made the hiking even more enjoyable.

#5 - Nimrod's Castle

This national park consists of a huge fortress located on a hill in the Golan, which was build by Crusaders and largely dates to the 13th century. Although Max and I did not visit the castle together, I took my mom and her friend Robin and Max later took his parents, we had similar experiences there. We both ended up exploring and climbing around much of the castle by ourselves and were really impressed with the immense structure and the beautiful views. There were tons of areas to explore - rooms on top of tunnels and passage ways and various lookout points. I guess Max actually managed to climb his way outside of the fortress and ended up having to scale a wall to regroup with his parents ... I think I'm glad that I was on my own for that one :)

#6 - Tzfat/Sefat

A town located in the north in the hills, Tzfat is known as one of the 4 holiest Jewish cities in Israel.
It is the birthplace of what one thinks today of mystical or kabalistic Judaism and continues to be a strong center for Jewish learning today. We spent time visiting the Synagogue Quarter, which contains many 16th century shuls where well known Jewish thinkers/writers used to pray, and the Artists' Quarter, which was taken up by a collective of artists in the 1950s. Tzfat also has wonderful views of the Galilee region and great Judaica shopping. These are just a couple shots of a beautiful wooden Torah Ark in one of the synagogues, one of my favorite statues from the Artist Colony and some Israeli soldiers (very common to see them walking around in all cities) strolling through the town.

#7 - Golan Winery

A pit-stop on our Pardes Tiyul to break up all of the hiking was to the Golan Winery where we had a tour and a tasting at the famous Israeli (kosher) winery, located in the city of Katzrin. Kosher wines are typically thought to be poor wines relative to the wines produced by the rest of the world, but this winery has begun to change that stereotype by winning top awards in France for their various wines. As I had never visited a winery before, I really enjoyed seeing the whole wine-making process in action - from the stainless steel holding containers to the oak barrels and finally to the bottling. We even got to taste a few different wines and received a token wine glass to take home. I was excited that they made a Gewurztraminer wine (my favorite!) so we treated ourselves to a couple bottles, which we later happily enjoyed during Passover. Max opted to take his parents back to the winery on their trip up north, and in addition to tasting many of their classic wines, they got to taste one of the dessert wines actually made from frozen grapes. Max says that this wine tasted almost like a cold shot of sweet, fruity brandy ... yum!

#8 - Old City of Jerusalem / City of David

We just wanted to highlight a couple fun things we did closer to home over our vacation.

Western Wall Tunnels -- With my brother, we took a tour to see the excavation of the Western wall, which was quite amazing. Archeologists have actually uncovered much of the entire wall that used to stand around the Temple Mount (in the old city) during Roman times. Most people are only aware of the small portion of this wall, known as the Kotel or Wailing Wall (see photo during night time), that has been designated by Jews over centuries as a sacred spot due to its proximity to the Holy of Holies, which is thought to be up on the Temple Mount. During this tour, we actually walked (underground) along the length of the wall and it was incredible to see the unbelievably enormous stones used in the building. It's hard to imagine how anyone today, even with equipment, could move these masses of rock, let alone how it was done over 2,000 years ago when all that was really available was slave labor.

Church of Holy Sepulchre -- Although Max and I had been to the church previously this year, he and his parents actually visited again the day before Easter.
The church is the heart of the Christian quarter of the old city and is believed to be the place where Christ was crucified, laid in his tomb and was resurrected. During past visits we were able to move about freely and see all of the stations within the Church, but during Easter weekend Max said that it was so crowded with pilgrims that simply walking anywhere was difficult. However, the place was pretty incredible to see: people were bearing huge crosses on their shoulders - reinacting Jesus's path along the "via dolorosa", packs of nuns were trying to push their way through the crowds, not to mention that an AV system was trying to be setup inside the Church in preparation for the globally televised "midnight mass". All of these things and more contributed to the frenzy inside and out of the Church - good thing they went relatively early!

#9 - Petra, Jordan

All we knew about Petra, Jordan before last month was that "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" was partially filmed there. Although that fact is true, the ancient city of Petra has now certainly become one of the highlights of our trip this year. The city is over 2,000 years old, and rather than existing as a site of ruins, it has been preserved virtually untouched until today. The city's uniqueness lies in the fact that it was built inside a sandstone ravine, and every structure exists as a "cut-out" from the walls of the ravine. A picture certainly is worth a thousand words in this case, so we tried to post several. Walking through the city simply means descending gradually though the gorge (the same one Harrison Ford travels through on horseback at the end of the movie). We went on a Friday, a day that Arab schools are off, so the area was packed with Jordanian school groups. There were many opportunities to haggle and buy keepsakes, of which we are quite guilty. Aside from the city of Petra itself, the excursion was significant because it was our first time in an Arab country. We are used to seeing Arabic written everywhere in Israel, as it is one of the three official languages along with Hebrew and English, but in Jordan there was surely no Hebrew to be found, which was a little unnerving. Also, when you leave Israeli customs and enter the Jordanian crossing point, you are welcomed by huge pictures of the King of Jordan - smiling at you! Funny how that is normal in their culture - imagine if every time you entered the USA you saw a 30'x20' picture of George Bush!

#10 - Eilat

The southern most city in Israel, Eilat has mostly be developed recently as a touristy beach town. Although not known to be one of the "must see" spots in Israel, we had a wonderful time just relaxing at our hotel as the conclusion of our travels. And of course it was exciting to dip our toes in the Red Sea - a new Ocean for me - since it feeds into the Indian Ocean! From our hotel rooms, you could see the shores of the city of Aqaba, Jordan to the east and the Sinai mountains of Egypt to the west - pretty spectacular!

**************

Overall, in addition to seeing/experiencing so many wonderful places during these trips, I also really enjoyed being able to drive around the country - it gave me a whole, new sense of what it means to live here ... to learn the laws of the road, to deal with Israeli drivers, to know my way around practically the entire country ... it was quite a feeling!

So, now we are back in Jerusalem, getting back into classes for the last few weeks. This past week has been very exciting in Israel since we are in the middle of celebrating 3 Israeli holidays - we will plan to write more about them soon! Happy Spring to everyone.

Jerusalem 10k

2007-03-19T16:17:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed probably one of the most "Israeli" experiences today - as we joined some hundreds of Israelis on a 10k race through part of the city! The 10k was in conjuction with the 15th annual Jerusalem 1/2 marathon, which 3 of our more daring friends ran. Max actually decided to run with me at the last minute as a girlfriend of mine who had signed up with me became fairly ill this last week ... lucky for him, we had a great race and a great experience! From using our Hebrew (more than we usually need to) to pick up registration packets, to listen to annoucements, to understand the award ceremony and to check our bags ... we really felt like we were participating in an Israeli event ... and of course, if you know that Israelis can't even form lines to check-out at the grocery store, imagine trying to line up with them at the starting mark of a race :)

During the run - which Max and I did without walking once! - we were surprised to see many people walking and stopping. Confirmed by our friends who ran the 1/2 marathon, we concluded that unlike these types of races in the U.S. (my reference is Chicago), many Israelis didn't seem to train and therefore didn't know how to pace themselves. Rather, many seemed that they were just out on race day for the fun of it. In contrast to these types however, as I always experience when I run races, there were several runners who finished the races in "record" times - and not surprising, the Ethiopian Israelis made quite a showing securing the top honors for both races, and for both men and women.

Here is a pic of us after we finished - it took us about 1 hour and 6/7 minutes to run the 6.2 miles, which was partly due to the fact that the entire course was up and down the hilly streets of the city (it's so much easier to run in Chicago!). We enjoyed fruit, popsicles, and fresh bread at the stadium (where the race started and ended) after we were done!

Maybe the most exciting part of the race was listening to the cheers from the Israelis that were both working the race and the spectators along the path. Hearing "B'hatzlecha" (good luck) or "Kol HaKavod" (well done) and many other expressesions that we didn't even know just made the experience so unique! And it was a wonderful sunny day in the 50s ... perfect weather to enjoy the run, which took us through the big city park, Gan Sacher, up to the Israel Museum and to some great look-outs of the city.

Yay to the 5 of us from Pardes who opted to enjoy day away from school to experience a different aspect of life in Israel!

After returning to Pardes for afternoon classes, we then officially started our Pesach vacation -- so for the next 3 or so weeks, we will be traveling, enjoy guests (my brother comes Friday and then Max's parents at the beginning of April) and soaking up the approaching Spring weather as we anticipate the holiday. We are actually leaving tomorrow morning for a 3-day trip up North and will surely have more to report when we return!

Purim, Purim, Purim

2007-03-06T04:00:00.000-06:00

Jenny's mom, Millie, arrived to Jerusalem last Thursday, ready for what was sure to be her topsy turvy 'round 2' in the holy city. And how could it not be? As we've mentioned before, Purim has all the right ingredients of a colossal holiday: the costumes of Halloween, the eating of thanksgiving, and the drinking of St. Patrick's Day & New Years combined! - not to mention the mitzvahs of sending gifts to your friends and to the poor.

All of Jenny's practice during the past 3 months paid off when she read her portion of megilla beautifully on Sunday night, surrounded by the Pardes community, the press and other guests. The public reading of the book of Esther is done both on the evening of the holiday and the morning after. The 10 different readers, one for each chapter, were all very different in style and performance. Some readers, who had a lot of dialogue in their chapter, read their portion in several different voices: low and authoritative for the king, high and soft for Esther, etc. - all contributing to the funny and light atmosphere of the holiday.

Following the reading on Sunday night was our school's Purim Shpiel in which students perform different humorous acts and skits. Many people thought Jenny has been dressed that night as a ballerina, but she was actually dressed as Carrie Bradshaw, from "Sex and the City", in order to act in a certain skit. I was dressed as Spiderman. Yes, I know. I just couldn't find a Batman costume, so this had to do. Not only that, but the costume was the size of a small boy, so you can see that it was 'forced' on a bit - made for good laughs. In addition to the shpiels, I emceed a service auction to raise money for students at the school. I was a little nervous going into it, but I received a lot of good feedback afterwards - I guess I had drunk the appropriate amount in order to be funny and not sloppy!

After the next morning's reading, Jenny, Millie and I walked around the neighborhood of Baka. We found a nice coffee shop and spent some time relaxing before the following rounds of celebration. Next we were off to the home of my gemara teacher, Meesh, who hosted the traditional Purim 'seudah' (meal) for the entire school. Those 3 hours consisted of a lot of food, alcohol, and singing - not to mention explaining to Meesh's children why grown-ups act so weird when they drink.

Next, we ventured to another party at our friend, Marni's, house. It was nice and low-key, save for a friend of ours who was dressed as a cohen gadol (high priest), and had drank himself silly. You can see in the picture that I had pity on him and had to be his dance partner.

Upon returning home from Marni's, we heard the sound of singing and drum-beating from our next door neighbors, so we decided to stop in, dance a bit, sing a bit, and take pictures with their cute daughter, Yonit.

You would think that by now we had had enough Purim and were ready to crash, but we instead we mustered our strength and headed into city center to see a free concert. The band was called, "Ha Dag Nahash", which means, "The SnakeFish". They were pretty cool. I'd liken them as the beastie boys of Israel. The scene downtown was very young and hip, and we surprisingly saw a lot of our friends there! Who would've known?

So that was our Purim. Jenny and her mom are traveling up north this week to see the Golan and the Kineret sea. I meanwhile, due to being home alone, get to be the brunt of jokes at school such as, "Did Jenny leave you an allowance while she's away?, "Are your shoes tied correctly today?" I guess it means I have a lot of friends.

Rosh Chodesh Adar ... Purim is on its Way!

2007-02-19T12:34:00.000-06:00

We thought we stumbled upon the twilight zone on Sunday when we showed up at school and discovered faculty acting like clowns and preachers, students wearing crazy hats and costumes to class, and the morning services being led to tunes like "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer," "Joy to the World," and "A Whole New World!" I guess we should have known something was coming since for the last week or so, "April fools" type of jokes were appearing all over the bulletin boards ... one teacher even posted a full-out schedule for the celebration of Rosh Chodesh (new month) that involved the students participating in ridiculous activities like communal mikveh dipping and praying in togas on the roof! Several of my girlfriends and I did not catch the joke so quickly and were pretty mortified at the idea that our school was planning these types of activities!

In reality, Sunday actually marked the first of the month of Adar, the last month of the Jewish (lunar) calendar, in which the holiday of Purim falls. So we didn't really enter the twilight zone per say, but rather we started the month of Adar, which is celebrated as sort of the "jokester" time of the year. The Book of Esther, which is a book in the Writings section of the Hebrew Bible that tells a story of Jewish survival in Persia and which we read on the holiday of Purim, describes that the fate of the Jews was "turned on its head" after we were miraculously saved from the evil decree of destruction. As such, the month of Adar has come to be celebrated as a time to turn everything upside down! Basically, if you were ever into the "trick or treat" aspects of Halloween, then this would be your hay day!

Growing up, especially as little kids, we celebrated the holiday of Purim (which actually comes in the middle of the month of Adar) by dressing up in costumes and going to the synagogue to hear the Book of Esther being read, but it wasn't common in our community to really celebrate the beginning of each Hebrew month, so the concept of turning the whole month of Adar into a joking time is new to us. As with all of the holiday seasons on the Jewish calendar, this one has also been so much fun to experience here in Jerusalem as everyone is in the spirit of the celebrations! The bakeries are overflowing with humantashen, which are triangle shape (like the evil Haman’s hat) cookies that we eat this time of year, and many other stores are filled to the brim with costumes, masks, wigs, hats, glitter, etc. It is so amazing to walk around and experience a whole society that is marching to the tune of the Jewish calendar. And not that it was ever so difficult to live in the U.S. and abide by the Christian calendar with the Christian holidays sort of dictating seasons of celebration, but it is just so amazing to really experience the holidays in an environment where everyone is on the same page. Just to note, Israel also uses the January to December calendar just as we do in the US to organize dates, but it seems to co-exist with the Hebrew calendar - so most things are listed with both sets of dates so that it is always clear when the new months and Jewish holidays fall according to both calendars. As a fun fact, we learned that you can actually write-out either date on your bank checks - so cool!

Interestingly, Max and I have actually spent much time this year learning about the holiday of Purim. As it turns out, we learned all of the Mishneh (first codification of Jewish oral law in 200 AD) of Massechet Megillah (the tractate that describe the laws related to Purim) in one of our morning classes, and we are now studying the Gemora (further documentation of Jewish oral law from around 300-400 AD) on the same subject. We have also studied the laws of Purim in our Halacha (Jewish law) class, and I even took a class last semester just to learn the trope (musical notes) for the reading of the Book of Esther on Purim. Further, my Women and Mitzvot class is currently discussing the role of women in the reading of the Megillah - the Book of Esther - and whether women and men are able to equally fulfill each other's obligations in reading the story on Purim. So, not only is Purim the culmination of this festive month of Adar and the finale of the Jewish calendar, but it will serve as a sort-of marking point for our studies as well. It might seem odd that we would spend so much time in so many different classes studying a holiday that came relatively late in our history - the story is thought to have happened between 586 and 516 BCE - and that this holiday was entirely created by the Rabbis and not discussed in the Torah. But as we have learned, it is these aspects of Purim that specifically make it quite relevant for us to study today as we are asking questions like - How did Rabbinic Judaism come to be the type of Judaism most Jews are practicing today? And how did the Rabbis create laws during the time that the 1st and 2nd Temples were being destroyed? And how do we specifically practice today the components of the holiday that were established hundreds of years ago? In other words, as Purim has sort of become much of the bane of our existence here at Pardes, we are really looking forward to actually celebrating the holiday in about a week and a half.

As a tidbit, today, the holiday of Purim is celebrated on a different day in Jerusalem (one day later) than in every other city in the world! So instead of doing the 4 mitzvot (commandments) of reading the Megillah, having a seudah (feast), giving gifts to the poor, and giving gifts to each other on the 14th of Adar, this year we will do these things on the 15th! So, as we make our way towards that day of celebration, we will keep you updated on our preparations and experiences. And in the meantime, I am persistently practicing my chapter of Megillah that I will be reading for Purim and we are counting down until my mom and her friend Robin arrive next Thursday!

4 States at once? Try 4 countries!

2007-02-01T16:34:00.000-06:00

Last week we traveled with Pardes to Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel. Although we didn't actually spend much time in the city proper, we hiked a great deal in the mountains of the area and we stayed at a kibbutz about 30 minutes north of Eilat. I tried for a while to write a description of what a 'kibbutz' is, but found that I was babbling and going on for far too long. So check this article out if you want to learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz

Kibbutz Ketura, were we stayed, was founded in 1973 by a dozen Young Judea (a popular Jewish youth movement) eighteen-year-olds. Today it is the home of over 40 families and the kibbutz primarily produces dates. It is an incredible story in of itself, (as you can see from the picture, who would think that you can make things bloom in the desert?)
In addition to prestine date palms (picture), the kibbutz agriculturists also maintain an "experimental orchard", which we were able to tour. The woman who runs it is a world-renoun Ph.D., who is obessed by the question, "What will grow down here in the desert?" One of the kibbutz's claims to fame is that they are currently sucessfully growing a 2000 year old seed which was found at the archeological site of Masada!

There is much more to say about the Kibbutz, however I again refer you to its website for a more eloquent and accurate summary:

http://www.ketura.org.il/hist.html

The best things about staying at the kibbutz were the opportunities I had to speak with different kibbutz members. The first night, I joined a friend of mine, Matt, who is a student with Jenny and me at Pardes, to the home of Matt's uncle, Steven. Steve was a very nice host (in the home that, of course, he didn't own) and we spent several hours grilling him about why he had chosen, as a twenty-year-old, to move from Brooklyn to the middle of a desert in the middle-east in order to farm for the rest of his life. We also inquired about how life works on a kibbutz, with respect to work, family, finances, etc. The second day I met another member of the kibbutz named Michelle. She had spotted me in the dining hall at breakfast and was transfixed by a black, glow-in-the-dark, constellation t-shirt that I was wearing. Michelle must have been really into astronomy, or more likely, astrology, because she couldn't stop looking at my shirt and asking about it. I told her that if she really liked my shirt then I would be happy to trade it to her for a 'kibbutz ketura' t-shirt. Needlesstosay, my constellation t-shirt has made aliyah.

The hiking was astounding. That's me, very small, in the picture. We traversed canyons, cliffs, gorges, and wadis - all of which displayed a variety of limestone, sandstone, granite, sulfur, and more geological compositions that I can't recall.
Along the trails we encountered archeological inscriptions, wild ibex, sand dunes (see video),
and best of all, a view over the Gulf of Eilat which included the Red Sea, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia together. Take that, Four Corners!

By the way, this is my beautiful wife during her first time at the shores of the Red Sea!

Glorious Guests Followed Luminous Lights

2007-01-22T14:14:00.000-06:00

Although Chanukah has come and gone and it has been a couple weeks since all of our visitors returned home, we wanted to recap the wonderful weeks we had celebrating the holiday and spending time with our family & friends.

The best parts of celebrating Chanukah were seeing all the signs of the holiday everywhere around you. For example, the city had huge Chanukah menorahs lit up all over the place as in this picture, and we even took a tour of some of the more religious neighborhoods to see all of the menorahs placed in windows and outside of doors - it was quite a sight to see so many menorahs all lit in one area!

Also, every single bakery had sufganiot (fried, jelly-filled donuts) piled sky high! We had heard of the custom of eating these donuts in the US, but it is even more popular here. And I have to say, especially not being a big fan of donuts in general, that some were pretty good. I even learned how to make them with a friend here who hosted a Chanukah party - so perhaps we will bring that custom home with us! Another fun change for us was actually lighting our chanukiah using oil this year. In the past, we have always used the little colored candles, but at the urging of our Halachah teacher, we bought a sort-of disposable menorah with little shot-like glasses that we filled each night with oil. Watching the oil burn out night after night seemed to be much more in line with the "miracle" that happened in the Temple so long ago. Here's a picture of what our menorah looked like on the 7th night!

We were lucky to have my sister, Betsy, and her fiance, Joel, come to visit during Chanukah as well as our good friends Nicki and Dan. We all enjoyed Shabbat meals together and even tried a new Ethiopian restaurant, which turned out to be quite a treat! The picture of me and Nicki is from just hanging out at our apartment, and the one of the 6 of us is from the restaurant - it's a little "smoky" due to all the incense they had burning there ... we even got real Turkish-style coffee after dinner, so Max was very happy.

While Nicki and Dan spent some time in the South, we toured parts of Jerusalem with Betsy & Joel. One of our favorite stops was at the Hadassah Hospital to see the infamous Chagall windows! They are quite a site - 12 huge stained glass windows - each designed to capture the essence and story of each of the 12 sons of Jacob. As these 12 sons later become the 12 tribes of Israel, which play a key role in our biblical Jewish history, hearing about the windows and how the artist chose the colors and images was quite interesting. This shot is one of our favorite windows - representing Levi - the only one done in yellow!

We also visited the Israeli Knesset (parliament) with Betsy and Joel, where the menorah - the national symbol of the state of Israel - stands. We were grateful to have them all here over the holiday as it was wonderful to have familiar faces and of course to catch up on everything going on in the US :)

Our good friend Katherine arrived shortly after Chanukah ended, and as she had never been to Israel before, we took her on a trip outside of Jerusalem to hike and visit Masada and to swim in the Dead Sea. It had been just about 10 years since either Max or I had climbed Masada, and it was both challenging and breathtaking. We enjoyed the hike up and views of the Dead Sea and surrounding mountains, and the ruins on top are much more spectacular that I remembered. There are so many different historical time periods reflected in what remains of the city that was atop the mountain. Here, Katherine and I are standing in one of the many storage rooms that were originally built and used by King Herod to store all types of food for his "resort" stays on the mountain.

I think Katherine's favorite part of her trip, and a highlight for us too, was getting to swim in the Dead Sea! As the lowest place on earth and the saltiest body of water, it is quite a sensation just to try to swim and float in the sea! I bet you never knew that Katherine and I used to be on the synchronized swimming team :) It was nice to find out that even at the beginning of January, with the sun shining, we were able to spend some time in the water. Check out this short video of us that Katherine took while we were there: We also really enjoyed viewing many of the Christian and Arab sites around Jerusalem with Katherine, places that we had not yet ventured out on our own to explore! Overall, we had a great time while she visited :)

Since then, we have started our second semester at school and gotten back into the swing of things. Today, we are off on a 3-day trip to the southern part of Israel to hike in the mountains near the city of Eilat. We hope to be quicker about posting about our trip and everything else going on here. Lots of love from Israel!

SNOW ... really!

2006-12-28T11:30:00.000-06:00

Shalom and Happy Holidays! We apologize for not blogging sooner as we have been quite busy with school, traveling and guests. We had a wonderful Chanukkah and are getting close to finishing up our first semester as we head into the New Year. We hope to write more soon about our time over the holiday vacation and with all of our visitors, but for now the exciting news was the snow we received yesterday!

We had heard that Jerusalem was used to seeing snow about every other year, but we always understood "snow" to mean a few flurries without much accumulation. Well, yesterday's storm came as quite a surprise when the rain of the morning turned into snow fall for several hours - even leaving a couple inches of snowy slush covering the streets of the city! We had actually been "warned" by the Dean of Pardes that Jerusalem was expecting snow - he wanted to remind us of Pardes' snow policy and that we follow Jerusalem Public Schools. I found it hard to believe that we would even see snow let alone that we would see enough for schools to cancel (although I was told that as in places like Atlanta and D.C., if there is much snow on the ground here, Jerusalem doesn't really know how to deal with it and closes everything ... funny how I recall going to school in Colorado pretty much no matter how much snow we received!). Anyway, as we have had until now a pretty dry winter and the temperature highs haven't really even fallen under the 40s, I was pleasantly surprised to get a real taste of winter yesterday. And even more surprising was that it was so nice to see the snow - it just doesn't quite seem like December without at least a little bit :)

I had already opted to take the afternoon off from school to hang out with Betsy (my sister) and Joel (her fiancé) during their last day in Jerusalem, and as it turned out, it was a great decision to meet at one of my favorite restaurants, Coffee Shop, for lunch. We ended up staying there for almost 7 hours watching the snowstorm. It was so fun to just watch the amazed faces of the staff and customers as the snowflakes grew and grew all afternoon. Max came to join us after classes ... and we just had a great time playing cards and drinking coffee/tea and watching the snow fall ... one of my favorite experiences this year!

After deciding we had surely spent enough time at the restaurant, we bundled up and went out to pick up take-out and wine to bring home for Betsy and Joel's final dinner here. After some yummy Asian food, we were getting them packed up and ready to leave at 2am for their 5:30am flight - I still don't really understand why all flights seem to leave Israel in the middle of the night – and we took this video to share with you. Now you can finally see a bit more of the inside of our apartment where we have been living since the beginning of September.
height="350">

Sort of in Colorado fashion, we woke up today to lots of sun and a very blue sky with nice white puffy clouds. We were even able to hang out laundry outside! Betsy and Joel are on their way home, our friend Katherine arrives this afternoon, and our other friends Nicki and Dan who were in Jerusalem for a few days last week and are spending this week in the South of Israel, will return to spend a few more days here tomorrow. So, still a bit of commotion around here, but we are really enjoying all of the company.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and enjoys the New Year! Lots of love from Jerusalem - J&M

"Take Five"

2006-11-29T08:33:00.000-06:00

So, most Sundays and Wednesdays, at 1pm when all of the Pardes students are gathered in our Beit Midrash (our main library/learning center) for annoucements, a student is asked to speak about something for 5 minutes. The purpose taking these 5 minutes is for the student to share something with the rest of the Pardes community that is important to them or perhaps something that is going on here in Israel that is impacting them in a unique/interesting way.

This past Sunday, I was asked to speak and my prompt was: If You Had to Describe Your Jewish Identity in One Word, What Would it Be, and Why?

A couple of other students spoke on the same promt during "Take Five" the week before -- one spoke of "Social Justice", highlighting our need as Jews to break-free from laws and tradtions and take a look at the world around us, and the other spoke about "Community", explaining her personal experiences living in various types of communitites and how they have enriched her Judaism. So, when faced with this same prompt, I opted to speak on a slightly lighter note ... hoping to bring some humor to my personal experiences and to shed a bit of light on how Judaism has fit into my life. As my speech was well received by both Pardes students and faculty, I thought I would post it here for you to read if you like. Happy Reading :)

**********************************

In thinking about my Jewish identity, I was initially challenged at the prospect of trying to summarize it in one word. As I understand my Jewish identity to be multi-faceted and ever-evolving … how could I possibly capture it all so simply? I mean anyone who knows me would be shocked if I could keep my comments that brief! And then it donned on me … it was so obvious … so Jewish … how could I not have thought of it sooner? Of course, if I had to sum-up my Jewish identity in one word, it would be -“FOOD!” Now, for all of you literalists, I want to add the brief disclaimer that I don’t mean to claim that every facet of my Jewish identity can possibly be explained through the deep meanings and undeniable truths about Jewish foods – I mean we all know that there is so much more to Jewish life than eating, right? But really, when I begin to revisit the formation of my Jewish identity – from my European roots to my parents’ home and now to the beginning of my own family – I realize the indirect role food has played in influencing who I am as a Jew.
To start, does anyone here know what haba-flochen is? Well, haba-flochen was my favorite dish that my Bubby would make for me when I was little. Although my mom and I aren’t sure if haba-flochen is Polish or Yiddish, it means oatmeal – and my Bubby used to prepare it from scratch in a old pot she brought with her from Europe when she and my Zadie immigrated to the US after the war. Now, I know that oatmeal doesn’t seem particularly “Jewish” per say, but for me, the memory of my Bubby using this specific pot to make me oatmeal tells a much longer story. My whole life, my Jewish identify has been enhanced by being the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors; and I think that in her own way, my Bubby was sharing part of this story every time she made me oatmeal.
While my grandparents took great pride in becoming Americans – literally living out the epitome of the American dream – there was part of their Jewish-European history that always found its way to our table. And although both of my mom’s parents came from fairly traditional Jewish homes, especially my Zadie who we understand grew up quite observant, it wasn’t the strict Jewish observance that they embraced as they began their new lives in the US. Rather, they focused on passing down the Jewish culture to the next generations, which was communicated to me through the foods that found their way to our table. Ironically, it wasn’t until my Bubby’s death that I even realized the large impact her Jewish cooking had on my whole family. While sitting with my parents and siblings retelling memories about my Bubby to the Rabbi for her eulogy, the discussion moved to recalling all of our favorite dishes that she made for Jewish holidays. From her sweet and sour cabbage borsht to her homemade kreplach, beef ribs, and chopped liver - everyone had a favorite! And that old pot, which was likely purchased on the black market by my Zadie after the war, has now outlived my grandparents and will someday become a part of my kitchen repertoire – allowing me to continue retelling our family history to the next generation.

Now, when growing up, I didn’t know anyone else whose mom made homemade gefilte fish – from scratch! – for just about every Pesach. I had friends whose Bubbies made it and many friends whose parents/grandparents would sort of “re-cook” the fish that they bought out of the jars – but my mom did the real thing. And every year, we could anticipate that strong familiar smell from the fish heads, tails, and bones that would fill our entire house for at least a couple days. Similar to my parents’ upbringing, I too was raised in a “Conservative” Jewish home that typically emphasized culture over observance. I don’t really consider either of my parents to be very spiritual and our kitchen did not revolve around the laws of Kashrut. Nonetheless, my Jewish identity was strongly influenced by the special homemade dishes prepared by my parents for all of the holidays. Especially for my mom, I always felt that she was able to connect to Judaism and to the individual chagim through her cooking – it was her way of being Jewish and ensuring that her children also adopted a Jewish identity. So our Jewish calendar revolved around the favorite dishes prepared by my parents – for example, for the high holidays, my mom would make home-made kreplach, and my dad was known for his chopped liver and blinzes, and of course for Chanukah, latkes were my dad’s specialty and my mom made home made “pink” applesauce to accompany.
Almost 2 years ago, when Max and I got engaged, we decided to host Pesach in Chicago for my family, which created the perfect time for me to have my official gefilte fish lesson from my mom! In addition to gaining the “know-how” of making the dish, my mom and I spent the whole day together talking – she retold me stories about her family and she reminded me that at the time of her gefilte fish lesson, she told my Bubby that she was pregnant with me – and I got to share with her our upcoming plans for both the wedding and our year in Israel. I am happy to report that the fish turned out great and that I am already looking forward to my kreplach lesson when we return next summer.

Not only did Jewish cooking help to solidify my connection to Judaism as I grew up, but over the last few years, as I have kept my own kitchen, Jewish foods have continued to shape my identity. One new tradition I have adopted is baking homemade challah for Shabbat and chagim. Interestingly enough, I learned how to make challah from my younger sister, who happened to be more interested in baking challah for its own sake than for the purpose of a Jewish celebration. I think we both have distinct memories of taking peanut-butter and honey sandwiches on challah to school and having everyone ask us, “what kind of bread is that?” In any case, my sister’s love for cooking and her patience for my initial inability to do anything in the kitchen helped me to further explore my commitment to Judaism and to Shabbat. And I have to say that baking challah from scratch truly gives you a new-found appreciation for the story of the exodus and the creation of matza!
Now you may have heard that the first year of marriage can be difficult, with couples worrying about issues such as combining finances, deciding on a level of Jewish observance or maybe even starting a family. Well, for Max and me, I can assure you that our problems in the kitchen topped all of these! We were faced with the impossible task of deciding whose family recipes to follow! I mean, matzo ball soup either is made with bouillon cubes and dill or without, and I wasn’t going down without a fight to ensure that my family’s recipes were maintained! Now don’t get me wrong, Max’s Bubby is also a wonderful cook, but for me, my family recipes, the oral traditions passed down to me over the generations, were literally the bread and butter of my Jewish identity – so, what were we to do?! Ultimately, I decided to initiate a new rule in our household to help solve our problem – whoever was doing the cooking got to choose the recipe – and in the end, as long as one of us is designated as sue-chef, Max and are both happily preserving the wonderful world of Jewish cooking in our home.

As we are all looking forward to the upcoming holiday of Chanukah, we will likely spend some time buying candles, reviewing the story of the Macabees or maybe even gearing up for competitive games of dreydal. But when the holiday arrives, I also urge you to take a look at your table and think about what you are eating. Perhaps the dishes in front of you also tell a part of your Jewish story.

Negev Addendum

2006-11-21T16:14:00.000-06:00

Just a couple more action shots from our Negev tiyul:

Desert Life

2006-11-19T12:50:00.000-06:00

Due to the enormous agricultural and 'planting' operations that have gone on in Israel since 1948 and earlier, many areas of the state are flourishing with vegetation, and it is easy to forget that we are currently living in a desert climate. But 10 days ago we went on a tiyul (trip) to the Negev, the southern half of the state, which is what you would think a desert should look like. Our trip consisted of three days of hiking desert hills, gorges and cliffs, and hopefully the pictures here will do the actual scenery some justice.

You can see in the fourth picture that we were very close to the Dead Sea at times, and I have to say it is quite a sight to see a body of water that size in the middle of the desert. Although we have both swam in the super salty water (the lowest body of water in the world!), we didn't get the chance this trip - hopefully we will have a chance to go on our own soon.

Our Keen/Merrel water-shoes (that we had from Hawaii) were ideal substitutes for actual hiking shoes, and we actually waded through waist high water on the third day! Overall, the hiking was both challenging and fun - a fantastic break from the classroom.

Our lodgings (picture 5) were very nice for desert life. We stayed in a Bedouin-type tent on sleeping bags and floor mattresses - sort of like one big slumber party. The hosts were very friendly and always ensured that there was hot sweet tea available.

In addition to all of the hiking, we also had a chance to meet with a Bedouin tracker (those who know me well realize that this was one of my highlights in the trip). The Bedouin are traditionally an Arabic-speaking, nomadic, desert people who live off the land, and who would raise camels to sell as transportation. Nowadays, most Bedouin live in the modern world, but there are still those who live traditionally, in the desert, and it is they who preserve the practice and skills of desert survival and tracking.

The Israeli army makes good use of this resource, employing these Bedouin to aid them in tracking potential terrorists who enter Israel via the Negev. Our group met with one of these trackers on the first day and he gave us a crash course in desert survival and tracking. The final exercise entailed half of our group walking out a couple hundred yards from the rest of us in a scattered manner, while the rest of us tried to find them. I am happy to report that I got a good look at Jenny's sneaker footprint right before she left me and I was able to find her, far away and under a some large brush (teva trek paid off).

Here is a shot of our friend Chaim - we were joking about how small Jenny's head is in comparison ... overall, we were lucky to continue to making good friends on this trip :)

The movie below is of some of us rappelling down a dried-up river chute. The view of the camera doesn't make it look very steep, but in fact it is!

The following is a six minute movie from the trip made by one of our fellow students. Jenny and I can be seen here and there, but it is mostly a general video showing a lot of people and places we went.

One other highlight of the tiyul was visiting the desert settlement of Revivim - established by immigrants before the state of Israel was officially formed. The survival of the settlement under the harsh desert conditions - which included finding ways to create agriculture and to collect water - sent a strong message to the international community that Jews could actually inhabit the Negev. The success of Revivim actually helped to influence the UN to include the area of the Negev in the partition plan presented in 1948, which was a huge victory for Jews as the Negev makes up a large portion of Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel). Needlesstosay, the residents of Revivim are proud to re-tell their families' stories of how they contributed to Israel's history, and it was certainly interesting for us to learn about their story. It's easy to forget that people didn't used to be able to call up Nefesh B'Nefesh (organization aimed to assist people in moving permanently to Israel) and book a flight to Israel to start their new lives. Rather, people literally had to work the land and prove they could survive in order to make a life for themselves here ... oh how far Israel has come in these past 50+ years. While visiting Revivim, we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets since we have been here ... who would have expected to see the silhouette of the palm trees in the middle of the Negev!?

Since the trip, we have been back in classes, which we are still enjoying. We completed our first full chapter of Mishneh (oral law) and celebrated with a Sium (party) in class today - it is exciting to be able to review our progress and feel accomplished with how much we have already learned this year! Starting tomorrow, we will be celebrating the new month of Kislev - it is traditional in Judaism to recognize the start of each month and Pardes holds special services and bagel breakfasts to celebrate! The start of this month reminds us that we are approaching Chanukkah, and we are already looking forward to the visits of our friends and family over the holiday vacation.

Happy (early) Thanksgiving to you all - we feel a bit far from home when no one here is in "holiday" mode. Luckily, we did come across both cranberries and canned pumpkin in one of the groceries, so our dinner on Thursday won't be without at least some of the American favorites.

Back into the swing....

2006-11-04T15:01:00.000-06:00

Although it's been two weeks since the end of Sukkot vacation, a lot has happened in that time. Jenny assigned me to do this blog entry because there is a lot to cover, and I'm a little more concise than she is. :)

Several of our teachers live in a neighborhood called Gush Etzion, on the east side of the green line. We were invited to a day of hiking to learn about the settlement and to eat dinner in the sukkahs of our respective teachers. The hike was in and around many arab villages, which were full of olive tree plantations. The path we walked was also very ancient as it used to be the path used for pilgrims to Jerusalem, and we saw remnants of Roman mile markers and other structures.

During Sukkot vacation we spent two days at the beach of Netanya. Some friends of ours organized it and we spent a good deal of time relaxing, Israeli style. We lounged in the sun and played paddleball by day, cruised the outdoor Netanya city center by night, and navigated the Israel inter-city buses in between. I remember the beaches of Netanya from my trip here 9 years ago, and I'm happy to report that the Mediterranean hasn't lost any of its splendors.

Jenny's parents visited during the last few days of Sukkot and for about a week after.

Despite not having many things planned for them, we actually did quite a bit, including walking all over the city, visiting the newly rebuilt holocaust museum Yad V'Shem, touring The Israel museum, riding in a city-circumscribing bus tour, seeing the biblical zoo, and probably the highlight of their visit: having them spend a full day with us in classes at Pardes. That day during school they attended our Mishna class in the morning, our Niviim (prophets) class before lunch, and elected to join Jenny in her afternoon class on modern Jewish thought (Instead of my Midrash/Aggadah class? Well, I can't blame them.) From what I gathered, they were very impressed with the school and the quality of the faculty, which felt very good and a little redeeming to hear. In addition to being so active during their visit, we actually had a lot of downtime together to relax, play cards, and catch up in person.

Last week we went on a train ride to Akko with a large organization called Masa. Masa is a very large and generous program that helps to fund a variety of year-long Israel programs for students around the world. This trip was a kind of rally for Masa, and despite the day being very long and the traveling a little arduous, the trip was fun and it was cool to see the old city of Akko and to travel a bit. The following picture is up on their website. Perhaps you can sense a little hesitation in my expression?

The next bit of news that we can report is that we finally have our washing machine. After many conversations with our landlord, the awkward conclusion that came was that I had to install it myself, without any prior experience, without tools, and with the knowledge that my tampering was going to void the warranty on this new machine. Nevertheless, some of the instructions were in English and I successfully installed it. Due to the European size of the washer, we have been running it constantly for the past week in order to get through our laundry. However, it can’t be understated how good it feels to have that project crossed off the list.

The last week of classes contained two afternoons of special programming. The first was a Yom Iyun on Exploring Jewish Identity (The word Iyun comes from Iyin, or eye, so a Yom Iyun is a day of focused, or special learning). We watched a documentary film about people who had left far-right Hassidis communities. There was a guest speaker, Steve Cohen, (you may heard of him - he wrote the book “The Jew Within”) , who gave a very interesting lecture on his research on American Jewry. And then we had breakout sessions. Having Yom Iyuns are typical of any Yeshiva-like schools and we had one last month on the topic of the high holidays, but I felt it was very Pardes-like to have one specifically devoted to such an abstract topic as Your Jewish Identity. The second special afternoon was devoted to the Yartzeit (annual memorial) of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995. That afternoon consisted of a video presentation and a faculty panel, of which (and to our interest) some political opinions were revealed by people we normally only see in classroom settings. So that was fun. :)

Finally, last night Jenny and I went to our first reconstructionist/renewal Friday night service. The service moves locations and this week it was a potluck in someone’s home (we made a sweetpotato pie and a salad) During Kabbalat Shabbat they played guitar, drums and sang a lot of one-line, trancey, spiritual songs. I felt a little uncomfortable because I felt like I was in the presence of a shaman or something. But they also had invited a Christian pilgrimage group from France and some Sufi leaders to the meal, and it was very interesting to hear them speak (mostly in Hebrew) and to have a comfortable cross-cultural experience.

Ok, that gets you up to date. We will try to be more punctual about blogging in the future – two weeks is too much to report on at once!

Sukkahs, Sukkahs ... Everywhere!

2006-10-21T11:29:00.000-05:00

Although Sukkot has come and gone, we wanted to write a bit about our holiday experience that finished up last weekend. First off, this is probably the first time we have really tried to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot as it seems to be one of the "forgotten" holidays among the majority of secular Jews in the U.S. In general, the holiday involves spending time in sukkahs or "booths" to commemorate the days the Israelites spent in the wilderness after fleeing Egypt. It is considered a mitzvah to build a sukkah and then to eat, sleep and really just hang out in it all during the 7/8 days (depending on if the holiday is celebrated here or in the diaspora). I have to say that we both really enjoyed the whole holiday - from buying and building our first very own sukkah, to celebrating with friends and family in our sukkah both during the holiday and during chol hamoade (the days during sukkot in between the beginning and ending "holiday" days), and also walking around to see (and to eat in!) the variety of sukkahs all over Jerusalem.

Here are a couple shots of our sukkah that Max put together -- they sell "sukkah kits" here with the proper type of ceiling and walls so that you can build a "kosher" sukkah fairly easily! I think Max really enjoyed putting his engineering education to work - our sukkah was flawless :)

It was also quite unique to walk around various parts of Jerusalem and see all of the sukkahs. People squeezed them onto balconies and built them in backyards, driveways and parking lots. Can you find the 3 sukkahs built in this one apartment building?

One night during the holiday, we even went to a "Hookah in the Sukkah" party where the sukkah was located on the roof! See the pic below with Max from the party.

In addition to many people building personal sukkahs near their homes, many of the restaurants also put up sukkahs outside so that people can eat at their restaurant and still celebrate sukkot. On Emek Refaim, which is the main drag filled with restaurants that runs through the southern part of Jerusalem, the sidewalks were lined with sukkahs! It was pretty incredible how the whole city sort of transformed for the holiday - and Sukkot being at the end of this holiday season, it really was the icing on the cake :)

Sukkot was also a time for tourists to visit Jerusalem - there were so many people in all parts of the city - and lucky for us, my parents decided to join-in the fun! We will put up another post about our adventures with them, but here are a couple of shots of the big Jerusalem City Sukkah - quite impressive - that we visited with them at the start of their trip:
We concluded the holiday by celebrating Simchat Torah - the day we rejoice in the completion of the reading of the Torah - which involves lots of dancing and singing. We took my parents to Yakar, a nearby synagogue to experience the dancing. At this shul, the women take-over the whole inside of the building while the men dance in the streets - both groups singing around the Torah. I have to say that it was a bit too much for me, although fun enough just to watch everyone else. We returned home for a wonderful Shabbat meal with my parents and some new friends - it was great to have everyone together - and I have to say, that for someone who in the past has been labeled as the kid in my family who can't cook, we made a pretty great dinner of grilled salmon, butternut squash soup, fried rice and green beans!

As quickly as the entire city had built up all of the sukkahs, the sukkahs came down ... and if you weren't here a few days ago, you would never believe that all the sidewalks, balconies, and parking lots were once converted to house thousands of little booths ... amazing to think what it might have looked like in the desert 3000 years ago!

Trip to the North

2006-10-13T01:25:00.000-05:00

To kick off our vacation last week, we joined a group of about 30 Pardes students on a trip up the the Northern parts of Israel for 3 days. The trip was organized through MASA (a nonprofit organization here in Israel) to provide us an opportunity to volunteer in areas of the country that were affected by the war this summer. We spent a portion of each day cleaning out bomb shelters in Kirat Shemona, a city at the very north of the country - in between Haifa and the Galilee - where many of the ketushya rockets hit. Unfortunately, we were a bit frustated as most of the shelters were actually not that dirty and we felt that we could have provided more help if we had had the opportunity to do other types of work. In addition, we weren't really equipped with great cleaning supplies, so there was little for us to really do. Nonetheless, we swept, mopped and whipped down beds.

I can say that even spending a couple of hours in these shelters was an experience - they are a bit scary and it was difficult for me to imagine entire families staying there for a long period of time. The shelters we visisted were located admist neighborhoods, some of them connected directly to apartment complexes. During the war, we were not clear if the people in Kirat Shemona had enough warning that they could stay in their homes until a siren warned them to get to the shelters or if they were practically living in the shelters for the majority of the war since the Ketusha rockets were coming over the hills almost every day. From our trip-guide and others we spoke to, it sounds like maybe there were people in both categories. The shelters were located below ground with only one air-vent/fan for circulation, metal fold-up cots that were stacked up in groups of three, and that was about it although a couple had tvs just sitting on the floor. They were a bit dark even with all the lights on and they were just sort of icky. It's is hard for me to understand how people choose to live in these cities knowing the risks of war, and I really can't imagine staying in one of these shelters for more than a day or so, let alone for weeks. In one of the shelters, we even found pictures drawn by some kids that were dated during the war. It reminded me instantly of the children's artwork that was found in the concentration camps, and although these shelters are being used for an entirely different purpose, it was a little errie to see these pictures left by children who had endured the war.

As there was tons of trash located all around the shelters, we did feel good that we could help clean-up, although we're pretty sure the liter had nothing to do with the war and rather that these communities just don't take care of their trash. It was also quite an experience even to walk around Kirat Shemona and witness some of the damage from the war. In the hills on the north side of Kirat Shemona, practically on the border with Lebanon, many trees were burned from the rockets. We also visited a home that had been destroyed by a rocket, which was pretty devistating. Unfortunately, we couldn't help to clean up this home since the family was still waiting for insurance claim money and aid from the government and our understanding was that the house needed to be left in its destroyed state in order to claim the damages.

In addition to volunteering, the trip was planned with activities to support the economies of the northern cities of Israel that have lacked tourists since the war. We went kayaking on the Jorden River, visited a Talmudic park (see picture of re-built synagogue from time of Romans/2nd Temple Period), shopped at the Naot factory and hiked in/around the Golan. We spent the 2 nights at a Kibbutz, which really reminded me of my traveling experiences 9 years ago - especially since there was a Young Judea group staying there as well - oh the memories!

Anyway, for us, the best part of the trip was getting to know more people and actually making friends :) We were a bit worried that a 2 week vacation after only being in school for a month would be a bit lonely, since we havne't known people in Israel for very long, but the three days up North was a great experience to solidfy friendships!

Upon returning to Jerusalem, we celebrated our friend Marni's 28th Birthday - here I am with Annie & Francine at the party:

We are continuing to enjoy the rest of our vacation - we enjoyed celebrating the holiday of sukkot, we went to Natanya to lay on the beach, and now we are enjoying time in Jerusalem with my parents! We'll plan to write more about these experiences soon - miss you all!

Angels in the Streets

2006-10-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

Yom Kippur in Jerusalem was quite an experience - actually one of my favorites so far as it was truly something that could not be repeated really anywhere else in the world. After running around a bit to prepare for the holiday on Sunday morning and scrounging through leftovers before the fast began around 4:45pm, Max and I left our apartment to attend Kol Nidre services at Yedidya, a modern orthodox synagogue near Pardes. We were immediately aware of all of the others who were also trying to make their way to services to begin the holiday. It really was neat to see tons of others leaving their homes and heading to the various shuls/minyans around the city. It is a custom here for everyone to wear white on Yom Kippur. In the U.S., it is common for the rabbis and/or chazens to wear white robes and for many to use all while tallitot (prayer shals), but here everyone adopts this custom, which relates to the idea of purifying yourself on Yom Kippur as you are being atoned for your sins.

Anyway, we luckily found open seats in both the men's and women's sections at Yedidya and enjoyed a very nice Kol Nidre service. Just as a side note, we had discussed in our Halacha (Jewish law) class the week prior how the Kol Nidre service has been given a heightened status (especially in the U.S., but also for secular Jews in Jerusalem) and is considered among many to be the "most important service of the year." In reality, this service focuses on one element - the annulment of vows - so basically, by participating in the service one is able to annul all vows between themselves and God that they may have made (purposely or absentmindedly) in the last year. It is not really intended to be a profound or amazing service (although the prayers are sung quite beautifully) relative to the prayers of s'lichot (forgiveness) or the Musaf and Neila services of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. And yet, many have claimed this start of Yom Kippur to be the day that all Jews, no matter how religious or observant, should be in synagogue. Anyway, I think this helps to explain why so many Jews are quite disillusioned from the holidays - they are taught that Kol Nidre is so "important" and yet they have such a hard time connecting to the service (as it is a bit obscure and only a small component of the whole high holiday season). Anyway, just something to think about ... even so, we enjoyed the evening and luckily ran into many "Pardesniks" there as well.

After services, we had heard that it was really cool to walk around the city ... honestly, I wasn't sure what would be so different on this night as oppose to walking around on Shabbat, which is nice since there are less cars and you often run into people heading to various homes for Shabbat dinner, etc. ... but this was another experience entirely! We quickly learned that it is illegal to drive in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur, and as such, it is magnificent to walk the streets at night. Everyone is out (as no one has anywhere to go - no eating, no drinking, no parties) - so everyone just congregates in the streets. We walked up Emek Refaim, the main popular drag in this part of Jerusalem, and all the streets around it were filled with tons of people, all dressed in white. All stores, restaurants, EVERYTHING is closed ... and yet, the city is filled with such an inspiring energy. It really brought a whole new meaning to the holiday. We quickly found a large group of Pardesniks and enjoyed seeing everyone. We had some friends who decided to walk all the way to the old city, but we opted to take a slow walk home and enjoyed seeing families in every street - playing games, riding bikes and scooters - all the way to our apartment.

We attended services at Yedidya for the morning and early afternoon. I enjoyed them mostly, although once we reached the repetition of the Musaf Amidah, which I had already heard during the earlier Shacharit service, I started losing interest - it is hard to sit still for 4 plus hours with no food in your stomach :) Anyway, we walked all of the way home, took a quick nap, and then I decided to head to Shirah Hadashah, another synagogue/service a bit more on the modern of traditional, for the Mincah and Neila services. As Max opted to read and do stuff at home, I have to say it was quite an experience just walking by myself from my apartment to Shirah Hadashah. It was so peaceful in the streets, just quiet and tranquil - I almost enjoyed the walking and time to reflect more than the the community praying. Luckily, I ran into my friend Shirah as I was walking into Shirah Hadasha and she helped me to find a seat (since we hadn't paid to reserve one). Overall, I enjoyed the singing atmosphere of the service - hard to believe the leaders can have so much kavanah (~devotion/spirit in praying) after fasting for 24 plus hours.

Anyway, the blast of the shofar, which signifies the end of the holiday, was quite a relief - exciting to be starting the year 5757 in Jerusalem! We conclude the Yom Kippur service by singing "L'shana Haba'a B'Yerushalim" - "Next Year in Jerusalem" - which is a common idea in Judaism. Usually, when we sing this verse, I think literally, that we are all supposed to hope to be in the land of Israel, and that next year, maybe we will be. Well, this year, WE ARE HERE! And yet, everyone still sings the verse just the same. Probably partly out of hope that again next year, we will all be physically standing in the land of Israel. But being here and singing these words forced to me to think about the other reason I have learned why we say this - to hope that by next year, the Messiah will come and that ALL Jews will be together in Jerusalem. I'm still not sure how I really relate to this concept, but mostly I hope that this won't be the last time I experience life in Israel. And although we know that we will likely not be here next year for the holidays, that we keep the hope that Israel will be here and that others can come to experience the holidays as we have this year.

After inhaling a quick nosh (snack) at the community center where the service was being held - it's always such an experience to survive the fast and get to eat again - I headed with Shirah to meet Max and others at a break-fast at our friend Marni's apartment. Yummy food and lots of new friends - a great way to start the new year.

One last note per the title of this entry - I read in the Machzor, which the prayer book we use on Yom Kippur, that we are likened to angels on Yom Kippur as we are in a state of purity, free from all sin for which we have repented. Surely, this one day of the year, the streets of Jerusalem are filled with many wondering Jews, dressed all in white, looking for direction and hope as they head into the next year - maybe the mystical idea of angels isn't so far off.

'Tis the Season

2006-10-01T05:02:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Rosh Hashana last weekend - enjoyed 4 great meals at various friends'/faculty members' homes and tried out services at two different places. On Friday night and Saturday day, we went to Kedem - a fairly small minyan, which was similar to a conservative egalitarian service in the US. The service was held in a community center about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We saw many fellow Pardes students there, and it seemed that the majority of community members were American. It was a nice, more intimate and familiar service, although not as "singy" as we would have liked as we really enjoy all of the High Holiday melodies. But they welcomed us to attend without tickets, which was really nice since most of the services here are booked full for the holidays.

For the second day, we went to the Great Synagogue (see photo), located about a 45 minute walk from our apartment, closer to the Old City. Our experience there was almost complete the opposite than that of Kedem as there were hundreds of people whom mostly seemed to be Israeli. The sanctuary was pretty incredible - quite grandiose with beautiful stained glass windows and a huge balcony (where the women sit) overlooking the whole main room. The service was orthodox in style and there was both a cantor and a full men's choir - so needlesstosay, a bit different than what we are used to. And unlike at Kedem, the seats were definitely assigned to and paid for by individuals members, and it was a bit challenging locating a vacant one. The women's section was filed with quite religious (frum) women and children who were certainly dressed-up more than at other places. It's a bit hard to describe, but it reminded me of being in Brooklyn for Shabbat except that the facility was probably the most exquisite synagogue we have ever seen. The absolute highlight of being at the Great Synagogue was the shofar blowing. Since the first day of Rosh Hashana fell on Shabbat, we didn't get to hear the shofar until Sunday. And the acoustics were so amazing in the synagogue that the shofar sounded very pure, clear and penetrating. It was great - well worth the trip!

Some highlights of our meals included homemade challah, brisket, corn beef, carrot soup and of course the Zimonim, which are foods eaten that represent specific themes of the Rosh Hashana holiday. In short, the whole tradition of eating these foods is based on playing word games at the Rosh Hashana table ... the Zimonim that are traditionally eaten have names (in Hebrew) that coincide which the themes. In our Halacha (Jewish law) class, our teacher actually asked us to come up with some Zimonim in English. The best one we came up with was "plums" to "plummet away our sins." Some of the more traditional foods eaten are dates, figs, pomegranate, and pumpkin. It was fun to eat all of these random foods throughout the holiday!

Otherwise, we really enjoyed having more familiarity with the Rosh Hashana service and the various customs of the holiday after spending time in our classes discussing these ideas. I know that Max also really enjoyed wearing his new, white Tallit (prayer shawl) for all of the services - the same Tallit that served as the Chuppah for our wedding.

*****

After Rosh Hashana, we had a shortened week of classes - it was the last week for those students that were only at Pardes for the holiday period, so we had to say goodbye to them. We had a Yom Iyun (day of preparation) on Wednesday night after classes to prepare for Yom Kippur. We stayed at school until almost midnight attending various classes, eating dinner, doing s'lichot (prayers of repentance) and finally watching the Israeli film, Ushpizin, which was quite interesting and appropriate for this time of year. We specifically enjoyed a class taught that night by the dean of Pardes focusing on our individual T'shuva - the process of recognizing what you have done in the past year and addressing how you want to change in the year to come. The idea is that our fates for the next year are written (in pencil :) on Rosh Hashana and then sealed on Yom Kippur. So these 10 days between the two holidays, known as the "10 days of repentance" are really a time to think about these things in detail.

Yom Kippur begins in about 4 hours ... it's a bit odd that the holiday starts so early ... it's because we went off Daylight savings time last night, so we are now only 6 hours ahead of EST. In anticipation of this Day of Atonement, last night after Shabbat, we headed up to one of the most religious communities in Jerusalem - Meashearim. It was quite a site to see everyone dressed in their classic garb - black long jackets for the men and the women covered from head to foot with long sleeves and long skirts. We went to this neighborhood because we heard that there would be people practicing the custom of Kaparot (from the same root as Kippur), which means atonement. This custom involves taking a live chicken by the wings and circling it around your head while you recite a blessing that basically says that you are putting all of your sins onto this chicken and thereby removing them from yourself. After this is done, the chickens are donated to charity. I know this sounds a bit odd, or maybe even cruel or barbaric, but we felt that it was sort of a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And after hearing about this custom for years, we thought it would be neat to participate on the night before Yom Kippur. We were with about 8 other Americans - we split into 2 groups of men and women since the custom is for men to use roosters and women to use hens. And the young religious boys who were manning the chickens completed the act while we read a passage in Hebrew. It was a little smelly and sort of awkward all crowded together as a chicken was going round in circles over our heads, but interesting enough! Overall, I was just happy we didn't have to actually touch the chickens :)

We finished off the night by heading to "downtown" to hang out with friends at a hookah bar, grabbing a few beers and finally stopping by a waffle stand to enjoy a waffle filled with vanilla cream and chocolate - yum! Downtown Jerusalem is always so crazy on Saturday nights - and it's nice that we starting to find friends to hang out with and enjoy the night life :)

So after running around a bit today to do some laundry at a friends (we still haven't received our washing machine although our landlord said it's on its way), buying a Sukkah (more on that soon) and getting to the gym, we are going to eat a big meal in anticipation of the fast.

On Tuesday, we are heading up north to the Galilee to volunteer in war reparation efforts. Then we'll be back Thursday night, just in time to prepare for Sukkot! We are thinking of you all and hoping that your fall seasons are off to a good start.

L'Shana Tova!

2006-09-22T08:45:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! We are rushing around a bit as we count down the minutes until the start of Rosh Hashana tonigh, but we wanted to write a quick post. We are really looking forward to a fun weekend filled with lots of food, new friends, and trying out different places for services. Today we spent shopping and cooking some dishes that we are bringing to our various hosts throughout the weekend - we made seseame tofu and 2 apple kugels - and we hope everything tastes ok! This is our first time using our little toaster oven - did we mention that we don't have a real oven in this apartment? - so cross your fingers :)

Otherwise, it is certainly evident that it is holiday season here. Here are a few fun things that we have experienced in the last several days that we definitely don't encounter in the US:

-Our 1.5 liter coke bottles have Shana Tova (happy new year) printed directly on the labels
-Every night when we return home to our apartment after class, around 6/7, we hear someone sounding the shofar - a ram's horn that is sounded only for these high holy days - we think they might be practicing for this weekend :)
-Everyone wishes you a Shana Tova - from the receptionists at the hotels, the clerks at grocery stores and even Max's barber - everyone is in the spirit of celebrating the new year
-Apples and honey (foods traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashana) are on sale in the stores - there are also many specials on wine and of course there are round challahs in every store!

We hope you all have a healthy, sweet and meaningful new year!

Love,
Jenny & Max

Tiyul to Arad

2006-09-18T10:07:00.000-05:00

Hello - We spent the past weekend with our school on a trip to Arad, a city that isn't far from the Dead Sea (about a 2 hour bus ride southwest of Jerusalem). It was very nice to get away and to spend time with our new fellow students away from school. It was also really nice since Pardes planned the entire weekend, fed us, organized all activites and everything - so it was a really enjoyable, relaxing Shabbat/weekend.

Arad isn't necessary the destination of choice, as it is relatively isolated and isn't really known for anything in particular, so we spent most of the weekend at the hotel - it was basically like a retreat with sessions, classes and meals. But we did wake up at 5am on Friday morning to go on a hike/walk to see the sunrise overlooking a valley and the Dead Sea, which was really gorgeous! And then we had various activities up on the hill/mountain - I got to do Yoga :) - which was really interesting, trying to balance among all the rocks and pebbles and looking out over the desert of Israel! As we were heading back to the hotel, we ran into a heard of camels being lead by a few guides ... so amazing to see so close and so many at once!

Other highlights of the weekend included a pool at the hotel - which also had a pool of Dead Sea water - very fun. And on Saturday night there was a Tisch (literally table) which traditionally includes a lot eating, singing, and speaking, all while sitting and banging on a big long table. It's a bit hard to describe without visual aids, but quite a site and a lot of fun!

Otherwise, we spent the weekend getting to know people better, attending classes that mostly had to do with preparing for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur that are starting this weekend, and celebrating Shabbat with lots of food, singing, services, etc.

Our week of classes went well ... we are excited to finish up the holiday season and move on to the subjects we will be studying for the year. Love to you all!

Betsy & Joel are Engaged!

2006-09-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

We just wanted to pass along the very exciting news that my sister Betsy and her longtime boyfriend, Joel, are now engaged!! They went camping at the Grand Canyon over Labor Day weekend, and on Sunday, they hiked for 11 hours on the Bright Angel Trail about 2/3 of the way in (and out) of the canyon. Each way was 6.1 miles and a 3000-foot elevation change! Joel proposed at the deepest point that they went, called Plateau Point!

This shot is taken at what Betsy called their "own private rock" where they officially got engaged!

Mazel Tov and Congratulations to them - we are so excited for you!

Are we at Camp?

2006-09-09T13:38:00.000-05:00

Well, our first week of classes have come and gone, and we feel excited, shell-shocked, and a little tired! In short, our days are jam-packed with Pardes classes and our nights already filled with too many ways to try to meet people. Although we are reminded by our faculty that all Pardes classes/activities are "optional" as we are all choosing to be there, it's hard not to want to take advantage of everything. There are classes that begin as early as 7:30am and that run as late as 9:30pm! But if there is one thing we have already learned in our first week, it's that you can't do it all! For example, it's too much to arrive at school at 7am for morning services, to spend the day in several classes, to run errands, make/eat dinner and then finish off the evening by playing ultimate until 11pm at the park. It's hard to believe that we sort of managed this schedule at Herzl every day during the summer - we must be getting old!

But really, we are realizing that the hard-core text study that we are doing in every class really takes a lot out of you. It's crazy that we are actually learning texts all in Hebrew - it's a lot more empowering to feel that these texts belong to us and that we are being taught the skills to decipher them. Much of classes for this month of Elul (the current Hebrew month) are focusing on the upcoming High Holy Days - Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot - by teaching specific texts and subject matter regarding the themes associated with these days. Most relevant, is the theme of T'shuvah - asking for forgiveness, repenting - that is very central to these holidays and to start a new year. It great to spend the days leading up to these holidays really preparing for them.

Pardes also organized a Shabbat dinner for this Friday night where returning students (many students spend multiple years at Pardes) host new students. We had a very nice dinner filled with Israeli salads, Jerusalem kugle, rice, tofu in peanut sauce and more! We have never been to a vegetarian Shabbat meal that tasted so good! We spent the rest of our weekend doing laundry, running errands and resting. We are also slowly starting to make friends - we spent some time at 2 friends' apartments this weekend and also had some friends over to go running in the park. So, slowly but surely, we are setting up a life here.

Thanks to everyone for their emails - we love hearing from you - and miss you!!

Out with Ulpan & Nachlaot ... And into Pardes & Katamon

2006-09-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

After spending our weekend moving and cleaning, we are now living in our new apartment in the neighborhood of Katamon!! Needlesstosay, the apartment was not in great shape when we arrived - mostly due to the last tenant leaving a ton of his stuff (supposedly to come back and get later) and all of his food. So, we relocated his belongings to the balcony at the landlord's request (he was also annoyed that the past tenant left it all!) and as the rain isn't supposed to begin in Jerusalem until mid to late October, his stuff should be fine outside. And we emptied the entire kitchen of all old food, washed everything, and have began to re-stock it with some new dishes and to "kasher" the rest by putting the pots and stuff in super hot water. So, we are starting to feel like we actually live there, and we hope to cook our first meal there tonight. So far we are only set-up to have "milk" meals as investing in 2 sets of everything at this point seemed a bit overwhelming - we figured it was better to get it into shape for milk meals so that we can feel comfortable having people over. One of our main goals this year is to try to decide whether we want to try to keep a kosher home when we return, so we will start slowly and see how it goes :)

Our new address is as follows:

Puchtel
13 Bilu Street
Jerusalem, ISRAEL 93221

We don't yet have internet or a phone line set up - we are working on it and will let you know once we do. One other thing is that unfortunately our camera broke, so we are in the process of trying to acquire an international warranty card from Pentax in the US and then we will get it to a shop in Jerusalem that supposedly will ship it to the Pentax service center in Tel Aviv ... oh the joys of working with a global economy! Anyway, we'll keep you posted on the progress, but for now we hope our stories can do justice to our experience without the videos and pics.

More important, today was our first day at Pardes - and I can already report that it was about 1000 times better than our experience at ulpan. Most of the morning was filled with orientation type activities - learning about the school, introductions, etc. - there are well over 100 students here (not all of whom will be staying for the full year, but we think most are). And we met many nice people from all over the world - most are from the U.S., but many from Canada, Australia, England and other parts of Europe. I would say that off-hand probably about half are recent college graduates who are taking a year off before they attend graduate school or start working. But there are also some like us who left jobs in order to come here for a year - it was reassuring to know that others felt it important enough to "take a break" from the working world to come to Pardes.

Max and I also found out that much to our surprise, we were both placed in the "Bet" level (or second level - bet is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet). As we both felt that the 3 page placement exam that we had to take last week was way over our heads, we are certainly relieved and excited that we don't have to start totally at the beginning in the first level. The class level dictates our morning schedule from 8:30 to 11:45. We will have Chumash/Torah class 3 mornings a week with the 14 others in Bet level and we will have Misneh/Talmud class 2 mornings a week with the same group. Then from 12-1, and again from 2:30-5, we get to pick 4 different elective classes - one for each time slot for Sun and Tues and one for each time on Mon and Wed - we are limited a bit by which classes we can take since we are considered "introductory level," but there are still many choices! Today we got our first taste of the afternoon class - I picked a Modern Jewish Thought class that is focusing on learning about various Jewish philosophers from the 19th and 20th centuries, and Max picked an Introduction to Midrash/Agaddah class (rabbinic commentary). There are other choices for the other dates and times such as Interpersonal Relationships, Biblical Hebrew Grammar, Halacha (Jewish Law), Women & Mitzvot and many others. It will be fun this week to decide on all of these classes!

So that's about it for now ... we will try to get our internet and phone up and running soon! Miss you all :)

Apartment Secured!

2006-08-26T08:33:00.000-05:00

Jenny and I are happy to report that we have signed a lease for an apartment for this year. The price, location, and characteristics (which you can see a little of from the pics) are all good and we are happy to have it secured. It's located in the Katamon neighborhood on Bilu street, about a ten minute walk south to Pardes and even closer to Emek Refaim, which is a popular strip of restaurants and stores. Katamon is known to house many English speakers and students.

From the outside view you can see our place on the 3rd and top level. The next picture is of the main room, which is curved and you can actually see the outside of it in the previous pic. The deck was one of the main selling points of this place, and for those of you who plan on visiting us this year, I look forward to sharing a beer with you while overlooking the Jerusalem skyline.

The hardest part about the process was that the contract was in Hebrew; of which we speak very little, let alone Hebrew legal nomenclature. We had three resources here in Israel (including two attorneys) that were able to read the contract for us and report on its fairness. All three of them told us that the contract was super pro-landlord, worded ambiguously in several areas that we should be concerned about, and generally written poorly - not to mention that we were being required to pay a very high security deposit AND a promissory note. When we tried raising some of our concerns to the landlord, Itamar, his reply was consistently, "well, no. that's not what that section means. if you are uncomfortable than you shouldn't take the apartment." - typical Israeli in our opinion! Well, after waivering back and forth for several days and hearing all of the conflicting opinions, we decided to sit down with Itamar and hash out some of our concerns in person. He seemed to understand and made some handwritten changes to the contract we ended up signing. There still are some reasons for us to be concerned, but I think we may just take out a whole crapload of insurance to cover ourselves just in case!

Ok. We move in on Sept 1st.
Take care, love,
us.

See our Pictures!

2006-08-19T07:22:00.000-05:00

We have posted a link on the right side of our home page to our Flickr account. Click on the pictures to go to the website where we will be posting all of our shots from our year in Israel. We plan to group them by month - so hopefully you can navigate easily.

So far we have just taken some random shots around the city - once we get settled in our place for the year and start taking more trips, we hope to have more to share.

Enjoy :)

Movie & Mall

2006-08-17T06:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we finally ventured a bit outside the main city of Jerusalem to the nearby Malcha shopping mall to see "Superman Returns". The mall was similar in some ways to a large American mall - 4 or 5 levels with all types of stores - clothing, shoes, camping, cosmetics - and a huge food court with both American and Israeli chains of fast food, ice cream, etc. But of course there were differences too - we had to go through security to get in (metal detector and a bag search) and many of the store signs are in Hebrew, English or Hebrew & English. I sort of wondered if Israelis think it's odd that so much of their commercialism is in English - tons of American/English & European brands, lots of English is used everywhere, etc. Of course its fun for us to see familiar things, but we were almost disappointed not to find more "Israel" brands - it's just all mixed up here. Oh, and when trying to find the movie theatre, I noticed a sign with an arrow to a shelter - many buildings here, especially more modern ones, have specific areas for bomb shelters - so that was an instant reminder that we were in Israel.

The movie theater was fairly small and they had assigned seats - which we learned is common here in Israel. A couple sitting near us was shocked to hear that American movie theaters didn't have assigned seating since they said that there would be fist fighting if they didn't have it here... I thought that was interesting to think that American society is actually more civilized in this way?! Also, there was a lot of commotion during the movie - people talking and stuff - not sure if it was just our crowd or if it is just more common here to not just sit and be quiet - sort of like in our ulpan!? The movie was in English with Hebrew subtitles - so nice to just be able to sit back and enjoy the movie. And there is a break in the middle of the movie here - they just stop it and turn on the lights and everyone gets up and goes and buys more food and then comes back. Nice if you have to go to the bathroom, but sort of annoying if you are really into the movie.

When we left the theatre around 9, we figured the mall would be quieting down, but it was totally the opposite. There were tons of people everywhere, the food court was packed and all of the stores were open and showed no sign of closing anytime soon. Totally different to experience this on a random Wednesday night. Of course, it being summer, we weren't as surprised to see more kids and families, but by the time we left after 10, it was still packed and hopping - guess it's the place to hang out :)

Ulpan

2006-08-16T16:30:00.000-05:00

Hello! Sorry it has been a few days since we last posted, but the good news is that we think we found an apartment! We are still talking with the potential landlord and trying to work on a lease contract, so we still have some work to do, but we are getting closer! Once it is more finalized, we will post pictures and tell you all about it.

Today, we wanted to write a bit about our experience in the Hebrew Ulpan we have been taking since we arrived. "Ulpan" usually refers to modern (as opposed to biblical) Hebrew classes - generally focussed mostly on conversational skills. Our ulpan is called "Beit Ha'am" and is located in the heart of Jerusalem at the Gerard Behar Center, about a 5 minute walk from our "August" apartment. We are in our 3rd week of classes, which meet Sunday through Thursday, 8am to 12:30pm (with a break from 10-10:30). This ulpan (there are several throughout the city of Jerusalem) is fairly informal - anyone can take classes (you don't have to have a BA or be in Israeli or speak any other languages), you can begin classes at any time (although they recommend starting as close to the first of the month as you can), and you pay for the time you plan to spend at the school and then you leave when you want. As we completed an ulpan class last year in Chicago, we luckily didn't have to start at the beginning - which was a very good thing considering that when we arrived on August 1st we learned that if you had not already pre-registered for the beginning level, there was no room for you! I was quite relieved that we weren't in that position since I'm not sure if any other ulpans started this late in the summer and Pardes had told us pre-registration was not required. Anyway, we were told to join a beginning class that had started in July and therefore was about 1/3 to 1/2 way through the first level, Alef. Luckily, the level and pace of the class seemed about right ... and so we quickly jumped right in!

Needlesstoday, this classroom environment has been very different to any we have experienced in the U.S. First off, it is EXTREMELY informal. People seem to come in and out as they please throughout the morning and show up and leave class when they want. Of course there is a group of us that arrives on time everyday, that sits relatively quitely and tries to listen to the teacher and to participate in the class, and that returns from break ontime and stays until the end of the class, but we are definitely in the minority! Many students feel at liberty to talk throughout the class and to joke-off. We think part of this is related to the fact that this type of class doesn't really "count" for anything - although we have homework and some tests, we don't think that anyone has to "pass" out of alef level (although we're not sure if there is some type of standard for employers who want a certain level of Hebrew language to be achieved before they will allow you to work here). But you might think that if people were paying for this class and devoting 4 hours a day to learn Hebrew that they would want to pay attention, but that isn't necessary the case here.

The make-up of the class is also interesting - I'd say about half of the 25-30 students (not that they all show up everyday!) are either visiting tourists/students or new immigrants from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Mexico and parts of Europe and that the other half are Israelis who speak Arabic (not sure whether to call them Arab Israelis or Palesitinians or just Israelis). Among the students, English, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Finnish and French are spoken as first languages.

Many of the Arab speaking students are quite young - like 18, 19 - and many make up the "goof-off" contingency. We are curious if perhaps this class is just something that their parents are making them do over the summer so that they can ultimately have an easier time finding jobs ... or if maybe they are bored since Hebrew is a lot like Arabic and maybe they don't need the repetition ... but we really are confused exactly why they are here.

The other half is also quite diverse - and ages range from 20s to 50s. We think we are the only ones who are in Israel to study Judaism - and people actually find this almost odd - and ask us why would we do that? Which is a question we received all the time in the U.S., but we were surprised to hear it here until we recalled (as we had realized when we visited Israel 9 years ago) that for many Israelis, living in Israel has nothing to do with Judaism, or any religion for that matter. They are Isralis just like we are Americans - period. Others in this group are scholars who are working on PhDs and are around for the summer to learn some Hebrew and work on their research. There are also several "new immigrants" who are learning Hebrew in order to ultimately find work and set-up their lives in Israel. If you are not aware, new immigrants are constantly arriving in Israel - it is very common - and the government will actually pay for Alef (first) level ulpan (and maybe Bet/second level too) just to get you on your feet. The government is relatively helpful towards new immigrants - also giving them a monthly stipend and helping with housing and all sorts of other things.

Overall, it is quite an entertaining group - many different accents and personalities! It's funny that when we learn a new word, everyone wants to know what it is in their language, and so I am actually recalling much of my Spanish vocabulary!

To share in our ulpan experience, click on the video below:

Anyway, we are chuggling along in our book, called " Hebrew from the Beginning," and trying hard to get as much out of the class even with the disruptions. As our main goal is just to become as familiar with the language as possible in order to aid in our text studies that we will begin in September, we found that some of the "Evrit B'Rachov" (Hebrew of the Street) that we are learning isn't as applicable for us. It is actually quite possible to survive in Jerusalem without speaking Hebrew on the streets - almost everyone knows English and many signs and menus are in English as well - as compared to Madrid and Paris as I recall. But of course we are hoping to pick up conversation skills along the way, and it is fun and interesting to try to learn some of the slang - much of which is actually arabic!

For now though, we are learning many verbs - the whole organization system is much more complex than other languages and certainly harder than Spanish! - and trying to retain some vocabulary. Pardes has already emailed us a Hebrew placement exam that we must submit by the end of the month and will be used to place us in our classes. Interestingly though, the email from Pardes specifically stated that for beginners, the entire exam would seem quite difficult and it was okay if we couldn't answer much if any of the questions ... so hard to know how much (if any!?) of the modern Hebrew will ultimately help with our studies ... for now we will enjoy the couple weeks we have left!

One last video of us showing the center where the ulpan is located to get a bit more perspective :) Enjoy!

Apartment Search is Very Challenging

2006-08-11T01:46:00.000-05:00

Hi All - Our week of Hebrew classes went well, and although we took some time to try out some cafes, to see Max's cousins who are staying in Jerusalem for a wedding and to walk around the city a bit more, we are overall quite burdened by the apartment search. We have seen some places that were just unacceptable and/or very expensive and otherwise, we are having a hard time finding postings for furnished places in the neighborhoods nearby Pardes that are available for the school year.

We are in the proccess of contacting family friends and relatives who might be able to assist, and we are contining to check all the websites and listings.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we are mostly preoccupied with this, but we hope to post more soon about our Ulpan and our exploration of the city.

B'ahavah (with love),
J&M

How to Communicate?

2006-08-06T10:56:00.000-05:00

Hello - We had a pretty good first Shabbat here in Jerusalem. We tried out a conservative service on Friday night and then headed to HUC (Nicki's school!) for Saturday morning services. Both seemed to be very similar to their respective services in the US - both rabbis spoke English, the books were the same and the services seemed tailored to American immigrants and/or visitors. And now we are back into the swing of the work week - weird to begin on Sunday!? Ulpan is going just fine - we even both passed our first exam :)

Overall, after just about a week here, although we are enjoying the process of trying to figure out everything on our own in a new place (where to shop, where to eat, where to live, etc.), we are also a bit lonely. We are anxious for September to come so that we can connect with our community at Pardes and to meet other students. And of course we are enjoying each other's company, but it's hard not knowing anyone else ... it's making this month more challenging and unique than we believe the rest of our year will likely be.

On that note, we wanted to let you all know the best ways to be in touch - as we miss you! Of course, email works well, and we are supposed to have internet set up in our temporary apartment in the next day or so.

PHONES:

We both have Israeli cell phones. We would love to hear from you although we know it can be expensive. We are also trying to set up a 1-800 calling card number that you can call toll-free from the US and that will bill us for the time - more on that soon.

When dialing from the US:
Jenny - 011-972-52-580-8782
Max - 011-972-52-899-8066

Just remember that we are 8 hours ahead of CST :) The best times to catch us are in the morning in the US.

We also have a phone in our temporary apartment for August. Usually, calling landlines in Israel is cheaper than cell phones, so if you want to try calling that, the number is 011-972-02-623-6484. We are the only ones who have access to this land line, so if we are home, one of us will answer! Of course, we will try to call too.

INSTANT MESSENGER

When online, it is VERY easy for us to talk over IM - so if you have an AOL screen name, please use it. (You can also get one for free online). We will be using Jenny's IM name, which is Jenns55. Please messege us to let us know your names - we will try to have iChat on when we are home and using our computer so we can chat with you. And if you have a MAC - we can talk just as easily as you probably know, so hopefully this will be a nice inexpensive way to hear your voices.

We are still looking into skype and will follow-up as soon as we figure out how/if we can use this.

Lots of love!

Interesting Wake Up Call in New Apt

2006-08-04T08:18:00.000-05:00

We moved into our August apartment yesterday morning on Tisha B'av. Upon our arrival, the cute couple whom we are renting from had brought us fresh fruit, honey, flat bread, oil and juices! Our apartment is located at 29 Hamadregot, in the neighborhood of Nachla'ot, which is just northwest of city center and about a 15 min walk from where we had been staying. Within several streets, it seems that thousands of people are living - apartments are all on top of one another and many of the streets (including sections of ours) don't even allow cars, only paths for people to access their homes. The majority of the neighborhood is built from a white stone, which seems to make-up much of the architecture of the city.

After 2 quite stressful days of searching, we were thrilled to find an apartment nearby our ulpan. And compared to many apartments we looked at, this one was luckily larger and somewhat nicer. We seemed to find that apartments in Jerusalem on average are much more rundown and outdated than those in Chicago (and sometimes even more expensive to rent!). In some ways, during our apartment search, we were shocked at how old the furniture was and how rundown the appliances were. Many units did not have full kitchens (no stoves or ovens) or real beds (only pull out high risers) and many literally seemed to be falling apart at the seems.

Our goal was to find something for August in the areas nearby our ulpan (which is located near city center in Jerusalem), so that we could be close to the old city and to our classes. This way, if we decide to move further south closer to Pardes for the school year, we will still have had the opportunity to live right in the center of Jerusalem. However, we became very worried that we wouldn't be able to find anything suitable that wouldn't cost us tons of money in these areas. Part of the problem was that since we were only interested in renting for August, the prices went up considerably. Mostly though, the quality was just really poor, which as materialistic as it sounds, was really a challenge for us. What was interesting though, was that for all apartments we looked at, the owners were very proud of their properties - almost to a point that we wondered if we were really seeing what they were seeing. It seems that living in Jerusalem is enough for many of these residents, and that many of the standards of US living are just not possible here. Of course, there are modernized and newly built apartments too, but just not the majority and not the ones that were available for rent.

Our apartment has a full kitchen, full bathroom and even a real bed!! The furniture is mostly older or from IKEA and there is no A/C, but overall, it will do for the month. We even managed to negotiate the price a bit, so we feel that this was really the best deal for us upon such short notice. If you would like a tour, please click on the link below:

After getting settled-in, we decided to make our first trip to the Old City to visit the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall. Our apartment is about a 25-30 minute walk from the walls of the old city. Just to note, the streets of Jerusalem do not seem to have any order about them - they are all curved, they all change names many times, and they are almost all at an incline. So, what may look like a quick walk on the map actually takes longer than expected because we usually get lost at least once and we end up hiking up and down hill quite a bit. Needlesstosay, we are getting our exercise and we are sure to never leave without our good old Streetwise map of Jerusalem! The old city was about as we remembered, lots of tunnel streets packed with shops and lots of people walking to get to the wall. ( Just for reference, the wall is recognized as the only remainder of the outside wall that stood around the 2nd Temple, build in about 530 BCE.) The areas around and next to the Wall were filled with people praying ... and on such a mourning day as Tisha B'av, which is the day we mourn the destruction of the temples as well as other sad times in Jewish history, there were many literally shedding tears at the Wall. It was an interesting experience. Mostly, I just sat and wondered that if there is a God, whether he/she can really be reached more effectively at the Wall than anywhere else - of course, many believe the answer to this question is yes, and their devotion to prayer was inspriring and broadening to say the least.

This morning, after a somewhat restless first night, we were first awoken to the very loud honking of a car, literally right outside our window. We sort-of shrugged and tried to go back to sleep, although of course the honking just continued. (As a side note, the street noises are very loud here - seems much worse than Chicago, NY or Madrid - guess that's just part of driving in Israel!) Anyway, the next thing we knew, there was a man making an announcement on a loud speaker from the street, saying "BOKER TOV (good morning) - and then a lot of Hebrew we couldn't understand, followed by a series of numbers. For all we knew, we could have been being summoned out of our apartment or the message could have been a warning of some type ... it was a bit worrisome not to understand. So Max quickly got up and went out to our porch to see if any of our new neighbors spoke English. Luckily, one did and she relayed that the fuss had been about an illegally parked car on our street that was blocking traffic. The woman who had honked incessantly earlier had called the police. And the policeman had been speaking about the car - reading the license plate number - so that the owner could move it. We both kind of just laughed at the ruckus ... and we thought the cops were tough on parking in Chicago!

We spent our morning at the main Shuk (market) in the city in order to shop for Shabbat and begin to stock our kitchen. On a Friday morning, the market streets were crowded with all types of shoppers. We were amazed at the variety of fruits, veggies, nuts, cheeses, meats, fish, spices, olives and more that lined the many streets. And the prices on may items were really inexpensive - like we got 2 beautiful peppers for just under 2 sheckels - which is like 40 cents!! And we bought onions, garlic, cheese, challah, a bottle of wine, a bottle of olive oil and some other extras all for much less than in the states. Of course, there was very little prepared food, everything was sold from scratch, so we will surely be cooking more! There are also grocery stores too, where we picked up juice and pop and pasta sauce, but the market was really a neat experience!

Now we are off to prepare for Shabbat - we plan to visit a conservative synagogue for services - thought we would keep it as simple as possible and stick with something that should be familiar!

Lots of love from Jerusalem - Shabbat Shalom!

Day 3

2006-08-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

Things took a turn for the brighter this evening as we just found ourselves a place to stay for the month of August. We have been living in a temporary studio unit (at 41 King George) for the past several nights but will be kicked out tomorrow morning. Luckily, this new place came through right in the nick of time. Here's a photo of our current view from the temporary apt:

This is looking northwest from King George Street toward Yeshurun synagogue and Shumue Hanagid Street. Ben Yehuda street - which is closed to traffic and is infamous for its many shops and cafes - is a few blocks north of this intersection.

Anyway, after we get settled in tomorrow, we plan on taking a tour of the old city, the wall, etc. - should be pretty cool on t'sha b'av. Also, I plan to take a video of the place which we'll be in during August, look for that post in the next couple of days.

Jerusalem is a busy and hot place, and we're definitely learning something new every day.

We are in Jerusalem!

2006-07-31T09:54:00.000-05:00

We just wanted to let you all know that we made it here safely. Jerusalem is full of people and is as beautiful as we remember - we can't believe it's been 9 years since we were here!

After arriving on Israir airlines early this morning, we traveled from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by sheirut (shuttle). We then met up with our landlord whom we are renting from for the first couple of nights and got settled in our studio apartment located very close to Ben Yehuda and center of the city. We then walked around the city center to locate our ulpan and grab a falaful, and then we embarked on the long walk down to Pardes, where we will be studying starting in September. It's fun to finally see the school we have been planning to attend - and so far the faculty and staff have been friendly and helpful.

Needlesstosay, after 36 hours of traveling, we are exhausted and hopeful to catch up on sleep tonight! We did pick up our cell phones and hope to get them up and running soon. Otherwise, our main goal is to find an apartment for our year-long stay.

Thanks for everyone's good wishes and prayers - we are happy to be here!

We leave for Israel in less than 2 weeks!

2006-07-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

We are departing for Israel on July 30th out of JFK, to arrive in Tel Aviv the morning of July 31st. We will then travel to Jerusalem and stay in temporary housing for a few days. Meanwhile, we plan to enroll in the Beit Ha'am ulpan (Hebrew classes) beginning August 1st and to look for an apartment near Pardes (where we will be studying for the year, beginning on September 4th).

If you're in Chicago, feel free to stop by our "going away" BBQ on Sunday, July 23rd - we will be hanging out from 12-3pm on the lakefront, just south of the Waveland Golf Course (off Recreation Drive) - hope to see you there!!

Israeli News Source

2006-07-19T15:02:00.000-05:00

As you can imagine, we are following the news of the current conflict between Israel and Hesbollah closely, so we thought we would share a link to the Israeli newspaper, Ha'Aretz. The newspaper is directly translated into English on this site, and regarding news in the Middle East, we feel it is more objective than most American news sources.