Snow ... snow ... snow

Jerusalem, Thursday, February 19 ...

Like the other good citizens of Jerusalem, we are hunkered down. But the much ballyhooed snow hasn't materialized, and unless something drastic happens in the next few hours, all the preparations will have been for naught. After last year's snow, which left this city paralyzed for 5 days, someone figured out that having a snow plan might be a good idea. It was implemented on Wednesday. Schools closed at noon Thursday, the powers-that-be begged people to stay indoors, some bus schedules were changed, and the 2 major highways leading into Jerusalem were going to be closed. Snow plows (actually bulldozers because it doesn't snow enough in this country to warrant maintaining a fleet of actual snow plows) were poised and ready. As can be expected, everyone ran to the grocery stores and bought every litre of milk and every loaf of bread they could carry.

While taking a dinner break from writing the above we heard thunder. I looked out the window and indeed we have snow. Maybe an inch  - hardly the deluge that was forecast. Thunder is unusual; it doesn't normally accompany snowstorms. But the streets are empty and no tire tracks, so people really did do what they were asked and stayed home.

It was a remarkably quiet week for us. The only evening activity was on Monday, when Ì went to my first ever professional basketball game in Israel. Games, actually. There were two, for the semi-finals. The reason for going was my hairdresser's future son-in-law plays for Maccabi Haifa (#21), and he said I should introduce myself if I come to a game. Of course I took Nir, whose life, like Ari's many years ago, is consumed by hoops. I got close during the shoot-around before the game, but he couldn't hear me yell his name (I should have had Sid with me), and security was very uncompromising about getting his attention. But he played well - in fact he was the high scorer till he fouled out in the final minutes. The game went into overtime and Haifa lost by a point. I should add that the first game was between Jerusalem and Eilat, and Jerusalem won by 30 points. It took 3 days to recover my hearing, as the video shows.

It's now Friday morning. I promise I will never again badmouth the weather people. It really did snow overnight. About 8 inches. It's beautiful and quiet. No cars or pedestrians. Sid went to the grocery store this morning. He was surprised that there was still milk and bread on the shelves. There must have been a delivery last night before it started snowing. It's supposed to continue on and off during the day, change to rain sometime tomorrow, and then get warmer. By Monday it should all be just a memory. The photos below were taken from our living room. The one on the bottom is something you don't see every day - a snow-covered cactus.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem.

Technology 2, Peggy 0

Life is full of little frustrations. One of mine is technology, in all its forms. I'm a machineophobe, and when it comes to figuring out what all those baffling little symbols mean, I'm hopeless. I had my fill of techno-trauma this week. Between our washing machine and the oven, I was defeated.

The oven is nothing but symbols, and no Rosetta Stone instruction book to decipher them. I just keep pushing buttons until I feel the oven get hot, which isn't the best way to cook. I ruined a couple of good steaks that way. For sure, baking is out. I just hope the chicken I'm making for tonight's dinner will cook through without burning on the outside.

But that's nothing in comparison to the washing machine, which in this case is also a dryer. It's a European invention, designed for the small apartments typical in both Europe and here. This one has an instruction book, which helps only a little. When the guy who gave us the apartment orientation said a cycle takes 9 hours I thought he didn't know what he was talking about. Turns out he wasn't far off. The first load I did took 6. The second was a bit faster because I changed the setting to a 30 minute wash and 3 hour dry. Even after the 3 hours the laundry came out slightly damp. I put in a load at 9 this morning. I set it for a 40 minute wash. It's now 145PM and still washing. Something is clearly amiss. I called the fix-it guy who said it will take 3 more hours, don't worry, and if it doesn't finish by candle-lighting time just disconnect it from the electricity and he'd come over on Sunday to look at it. Fortunately there's nothing in the machine that we'll need before Sunday.

These were the low points of an otherwise stellar week.

Jerusalem is an intellectual moveable feast. The array of educational and entertainment programming is second to none. There's my Monday morning class (3 lectures, each 45 minutes, on the Book of Ezra, Torah (the Bible), and a guest lecturer on a subject of his/her choice, usually topical). On Tuesday night I went to the first of a 4 part lecture series on Megillat Esther, timed for the upcoming holiday of Purim. Each lecturer interprets the Purim story through a different lens. This week's talk was given by a professor from Bar Ilan University, who examined the relationship between King Ahashveros and Haman. He made a very cogent point that they were both manipulative in a very Middle Eastern politics way. Wednesday we went to one of our favorite institutions in Jerusalem - Pardes - for the second of a 3-part series on tools that are used in Biblical exegesis. I think the highlight for this week was a program we attended last night - a presentation by Khaled Abu Toameh - appropriately entitled Meet the Press. Khaled in an Israeli Muslim Jerusalemite, a highly respected journalist, and an excellent speaker. He talked about the so-called peace process and why it's guaranteed to fail, the role of the media in perpetuating the so-called narrative, the cluelessness of the State Department, EU and the international press, the thread of anti-semitism that runs thru it all, and some of the ways the Israeli government needs to work better with its Israeli-Arab citizens. Fascinating.

And we haven't even been to any of the museums yet ... that will be next week.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

Weekend with Dori

Weekend is a relative term in Israel. Not everyone is fortunate enough to work a five day week, and kids attend school 6 days. For a lot of people the weekend is only a day and a half. We spent ours with Dori at her kibbutz.

When Dori came to Israel she did so with a group of 25 kids, mostly from the midwest, for the purpose of joining the army. They are in a category known as "lone soldiers", which is self-explanatory. But there's more to it than that, and more about that later.

The drive to Afula was a quick 90 minutes. There's a relatively new highway that bisects most of the country on a north-south axis, and it cuts commute times significantly. We picked up Dori and another soldier from her group at the bus station, stopped to grab a take-away falafel, and headed to the kibbutz that is their permanent address while they are in the army. Kibbutz Ein Dor was the first kibbutz founded after Israel became a state in May, 1948. The founders were from Europe, the US and South America.

Big changes have taken place in the kibbutz world. They all have an industrial component in addition to agriculture - light industry, manufacturing, tourism, some have even gotten into assisted living. In the last decade or so they have become less communal. There is some private ownership, meals aren't strictly commensal, and the kids live with the parents rather than in children's quarters. What's interesting about Ein Dor is they have a housing development. They allocated a few acres for private building. Dori's host family, who are not members of the kibbutz, live in one such house.

We stayed in the small guest accommodation at the kibbutz - small but larger than the apartment we had last year - consisting of a bedroom with ensuite bathroom and living room/dining room/kitchen. All this for only 150 shekels (about $39 at today's exchange rate) a night. Actually it was quite comfortable; not luxurious by any means, but much nicer than the creepy hotel we stayed in last year. 

Dori's group gets together every Friday at 6PM to talk about their week. We were flattered that she asked us to join them. What surprised us was they began by saying the traditional Friday night blessings for wine and bread - kiddush and hamotzie - something I never thought would happen on a Shomer Hatzair (socialist-Zionist) kibbutz. Then everyone took a turn talking about the high and low points of their week. That's when one particular aspect of being a lone soldier became much clearer. These 25 kids have left their homes, families and friends to come to Israel and have one of the most intense experiences a person can have. Not an easy undertaking. But to do it without a support structure makes it even more challenging. This is a country that is very family-centric, and one of the things about being in the army that makes it easier on both the soldiers and their families is the fact that they get frequent leave. The ability to go home for a home-cooked meal, to be with family and friends, to have that kind of support is very important. Lone soldiers don't have that luxury. So the kibbutz and the members of the group become the family. For them it was group therapy. For us it was a window on their world.

Then it was off to dinner. Dori's host family - Dana and Michael, their 3 delightful kids and her parents - couldn't be nicer. They embrace Dori as one of their own. Dana is a great cook and put on an amazing spread. It was a lovely evening.

Dori let us know she doesn't get up early on Saturday. She has to make up for the average 4 hours a night sleep she gets on the base. We agreed that noon would be a reasonable start time. Sid and I don't sleep in, so we got up and took a walk around the kibbutz. When Dori got up we all went to a "hoummousiya" - a hoummous restaurant run by one of the members (private enterprise at work), and then went on a short hike. The weather was sunny and warm with barely a cloud in the sky. In other words ... perfect.

For dinner we went to Tiberias to one of our favorite restaurants - Decks. Sort of. Decks is literally a deck with an enclosure on the shore of the Galilee. During the winter they dismantle the enclosure and share space with the Chinese restaurant next door, which isn't one of my favorites. But a combination of a curtailed Decks menu and the fact that the one thing that keeps me coming back to Decks (duck breast) wasn't available, we ordered off the Chinese menu and the the food was excellent. Dori's boyfriend Ron joined us. He's a kibbutznik, the grandson of one of the founders, currently serving in an elite unit of the paratroopers. Good-looking, but even more important, a very nice young man.

We offered to drive Dori back to her base on Sunday morning but she wouldn't let us. She didn't want to take us out of our way, particularly since we couldn't go on the base with her. (That will have to wait till later this month.) She was very grateful, at 7AM, to have us drive her and another soldier to the bus station in Afula.

It was a great weekend.

A Busy First Week

So here it is, Thursday. A full and action packed week has gone by.

We had a quiet first Shabbat. Between residual jet lag and just being overwhelmed at being here, all we wanted was to be home alone.

There is a quality to Jerusalem on a Friday afternoon. I've written about and experienced this countless times, and it never gets old. Jerusalem is overcrowded. Too many cars and buses on the streets, too many people and not enough sidewalks. It's very busy and noisy. But on Friday afternoons everything glides to a halt, as people close their stores and businesses, go home and prepare for Shabbat. It's utterly magical and it doesn't occur anywhere else on the planet.

The week revs up again on Saturday night. We went to a program at one of the nearby synagogues; the topic was Nahal Haredi, a niche social experiment that has been very successful. Without going into details, which would be way too time-consuming, Nahal Haredi is an ultra-Orthodox army unit. The soldiers are assigned very hazardous duty - going after terrorists where they live. Because of their background, many of these soldiers have special difficulties entering civilian society after they are discharged from the army. There is a support organization that assists them with the re-entry process, and they have a website (who doesn't?) nahalharedi.org. They do very important work and they are worth supporting.

Sunday we walked over to Machane Yehuda - it's hard to stay away. Even tho we didn't need to do much shopping, there are things you can get at the "shuk" (market) that are just better than any grocery store.

Monday it was really time to get down to business. I had my 3-hour womens' class, and it was as if I had never left. Then it was off to Krav Maga, with the teacher I took private lessons with last year. It was great to be back and it's a wonderful class - 3 religious men and me. Because this country never ceases to surprise, one is Haredi (see above and google "Haredi"). We train outside, in the rose garden next to the Knesset, rain or shine. The weather this week has been exceptional, and training outdoors gives a sense of realism that I don't get in the ring when I train at home. And that's the point. Moshe, the instructor, is very very good at what he does. And I ached when I got home.

Tuesday we had to get ready to move, so we repacked and prepared to say goodbye to the palace we lived in for the first week of our visit.

Wednesday was another big day. I met Batsheva at 9AM for a ceramics class. I'm not the craft type, and not at all creative. I dabble in beading, and that's about it. Batsheva, on the other hand, can do anything. I tried to convince her that this might not be my thing, but she said just try it and besides it gives us time to be together. Well, it turns out it's not just a ceramics class. It's 3 different classes - 2 hours each - beading, ceramics and vegetable carving. I learned new beading techniques, which was fun. But the big surprise was the ceramics. I started working on a horse head, and despite my aversion to getting my hands dirty, it was a lot of fun. Regrettably I could't stay for the vegetable carving because we had to change apartments.

So I rushed home to vacate apartment # 1 and move to apartment # 2. The new place is only about 5 minutes from the old one, and it's quite nice. A big kitchen that opens to a living/dining room. Two very good size bedrooms, a very large bathroom with 2 sinks and something I've heard of but have never actually seen - a washer/dryer that's a single machine. We haven't tried it yet, but no matter what it sure beats hand laundry. We hired a taxi to move our luggage, and spent the next hour or so unpacking and getting settled.

Then it was off to my Israeli daughter Yafit's birthday party at a new Georgian (as in Russia) restaurant. We didn't get home till after midnight.

And today was an intensive (2 hour) krav maga class, home to shower, and off to see my grandson Nir play basketball.

Tomorrow we go to Dori's kibbutz for Shabbat.

More next week..................