Whoops

Well... I meant to post about Zach's beach volleyball tournament (where he would have liked to have won one more match, but had a great time), about Shavuot, about the week-long national emergency drill (which included all branches of the military, all emergency services in the country, and the entire civilian population), about local/regional reactions to Obama in Cairo, and maybe some concluding thoughts about our time here in Jerusalem. But the time has slipped away and now Zach and I are busy packing and organizing for our return trip tomorrow.

It has been a great time in many ways for each of us. Zach is leaving markedly more fluent and comfortable in Hebrew, independent and comfortable navigating the city (and the country, really), in first place in his division at Scrabble Club, and having solidified some nice friendships here. I did not end up putting in the time and improving my Hebrew as I had thought I might, but I too have deepened some very nice friendships here, (no comment on my Scrabble game) and will miss the life and energy of the city. And Daniel (who will follow us home at the end of the month and his seminar here) has enjoyed engaging work and colleagues, wonderful time with many friends and cousins, and hours and hours of walks exploring (and getting lost in) the city's neighborhoods. We will all miss many things about our life here, but we are looking forward to seeing you all again. L'heet.

The Shuk

Machane Yehuda is the big fantastic market in West Jerusalem. There is an outdoor part, an indoor covered part, and nooks and crannies and alleyways to get lost in for hours. There
is everything. They have every kind of fabulous fruit, vegetable, middle eastern spices, breads, olives, cheeses, sweets, meat, fish... along with pots and pans, plastics, clothing, hardware, coffee and felafel places, and even a teeny tiny synagogue. And now new chic kinds of little stalls and shops of designer clothes and upscale looking cafes have moved in (which the old timers are none too fond of). I can not get enough of the place.

Olives, pickles...

...more pickled things

Traditional Middle Eastern Sweets

...and not so traditional

In the Neighborhood, Part 2

An über-
patriotic neighbor hangs—
count them—
47 flags in celebration of Independence Day.

Nice door and patio...

Drying the Coffee Mugs

hmm...

When the Place to Put the Grocery Carts is Full...

just heave-ho and toss yours on top of them all... isn't that what any of us would do?
sheesh.

Six-word Biographies

So my friend Holly tells me about people writing 6-word autobiographies. There is a book that's been published with a bunch of them. She writes one for me. I decide to try my hand and write ones for Daniel and Zach. It was a lot of fun.

The one Holly wrote of/for me:
Designer. Jew. Cheesehead. Begat Scrabble champ.

Daniel's:
Big heart... for better and worse.

Zach's:
Chevraman. Cub fan. Hungry mind. Kind.

*Fyi...
Chevra: Hebrew for fellowship, society, group. Chevraman: someone who loves the company of people, friendships, relationships

Zach. Oberlin.

A quickie update on Zach
and what he's up to.

1. After much consideration and contemplation Zach
   has decided that he will go to Oberlin. We (his parents) are very happy for him and are looking forward to his making it a great experience.
2. Scrabble. He continues to play weekly at the club as well as casually with friends from the club in between. As a result of his tournament play in March, he is ranked 20th in the country. Ah, to live in a small country...
3. Volleyball. He has figured out that if we (his parents) write a letter to the principal of his old school here, stating that we would like him to be enrolled, he can register and play in the big end of year national beach volleyball tournament. Needless to say he is now 'enrolled' in school and has been practicing with 2 buddies with whom he will play in the tournament.
4. Studying. He found himself an interesting place to study 2 days x week. It is
   a year-long residential program, but he was able to arrange to commute and participate part-time. It is just outside of Jerusalem on the edge of the desert.
   He takes 2 buses to get there and then has a bit of a walk, if he doesn't get a ride.
   It is aimed at religious and non-religious Israelis who have just completed their army service and are taking a year before they begin university studies. They study traditional Jewish texts along with modern secular subjects and more. The classes Zach is sitting in on include: Religion and religiosity, history and politics, Hazal (traditional Rabbinic texts), yoga, and some more I'm sure I'm forgetting...
   It seems like he's finding it interesting.
5. Tutoring. He has been tutoring a couple of 10th graders in English at his old school. It's fun and a reason to go to the school and hang out with some friends there too.

More soon on other topics. Love to everyone. xox

Yom Ha'Shoah

Holocaust Memorial Day was last week. It is quite powerfully marked in this small country with very close personal memories of the horrors. Already the afternoon before, shops, restaurants, movies, and all places of entertainment start shutting down early. Many remain closed for the 24 hours. There is an official ceremony that evening, which we watched on tv, after which all regular television programming is on hold; replaced for the 24 hours with Holocaust-related historical or educational programming (or just a screen with a memorial candle burning). Of course in this era of cable tv, where you can get programming originating from other countries, you could watch EuroSport, Fox News, etc. Later in the evening one has one's pick of Holocaust movies...

But the most moving part of the day for me is the next morning. At 9:55 am there is a siren that wails for 2 minutes throughout the country. Everyone stops what they are doing, wherever they are, and stands in silence. I was out in the street (not sure if you can see from the photo). All the cars are stopped mid-intersection, their occupants—cabbies and passengers—outside standing, along with all the pedestrians. This is true on the highways, in buses, at the coffee shops, in offices—everywhere.

Next week is Memorial Day for the soldiers who have fallen in Israel's wars; 2 minutes of standing in silence will also be observed in their memory.

Old-style street sign

Here's the great old-style street sign for our street (replaced in most places with the ugly, modern, legible-in-traffic kind). All signs are in Hebrew, Arabic, and English— Hebrew and Arabic being the 2 official languages of the country, and English for the rest of the world/tourists.

Recycling Israeli Style

These are the recycling cages you see scattered around the city's neighborhood corners, to which we all dutifully schlep our plastics. We recycle newspapers similarly, but those containers are not nearly as interesting...

Our Favorite Felafel

Our favorite neighborhood felafel/
shwarma joint: hole in the wall (almost literally). cheap fantastic food. counter with all kinds of great salads, oninons, zhug (Middle Eastern hot sauce), and pickled vegetables to take as much as you want. soccer always on the television. 10-15 minute walk from our apt.

Pesach in the Desert

Happy passover/Easter/spring! We just got back from spending the first half of passover in Ein Gedi —an amazing oasis in the desert near the Dead Sea—with a whole bunch of Daniel's cousins, aged 2-94. We stayed at a 'Field School' which is kind of a nice hostel owned by the Society for the Protection of Nature here is Israel. It is normally used by their rangers and guides as a base for educational trips and seminars for school groups. During the holiday they rent out the rooms and there were a few big clans of folks who came to spend some or all of the passover holiday. We ate all our meals together in a big camp or kibbutz style dining hall.

The seder itself was a bit unwieldy; even though the other families agreed to have one seder and let Daniel's cousins Steve and Jay lead it, the number of people and children and noise was conducive neither to a very spiritual experience nor to much discussion or conversation. This was a price well worth paying to be with a constellation of relatives whom we love dearly. And we had some really fun singing at the end after many babies went to bed and the crowd thinned out some.

There are many interesting hikes in the area up the various valleys to the springs' sources and waterfalls, which we enjoyed. The landscape (sorry, no pictures ended up getting taken—my bad) is breathtakingly beautiful and biblical; amazing red rock mountains and cliffs dropping dramatically to the Dead Sea, with the mountains of Moab visible across the sea in Jordan. And oodles of ibex everywhere that are not at all shy or afraid of us people. Overall, it was a great way to spend the holiday.

The Mighty Pomelo

Another local treat is this oversized citrus fruit: similar looking but larger and more misshapen than a grapefruit, not as tart, with a very thick soft peel. It had been (for us) quite arduous to get to the actual fruit until our cousin Shmuel showed us how to:

1. drag a knife around its circumference
   
2. pull/slide each half of the peel off
3. break open the inside fruit
4. and serve in the empty half shells

Ta-da!

The pomelo opened and ready to serve and eat—no serving dishes or utensils necessary!

The Lovely Shesek (or loquat to you)

Our latest favorite in-season fruit. It is apricot sized and colored with a similar soft skin, pear-shaped, usually with an odd number of large-ish seeds (or small-ish pits) and delicious.

We have a government

Zach and I arrived in Israel on February 11th, election day here. Last week, some 6 weeks later, there is now a new government. The unbelievable negotiations and horse trading that goes into forming a coalition (of which in the history of the State of Israel only one has lasted the full 4 years of its term) is nothing short of sheer madness. Bibi had to promise so many people so many things to build a coalition that there was not only a danger of his own party not being in the majority in his own government, but he has put together a record breakingly large cabinet of 30 ministers (some without portfolios, some with newly created portfolios like internet/cell phone/communications-something). Zach heard a commentator on tv say that this new government is like a hot dog; we don't want to know what's in it, but hope it will be okay. That seems to sum up the general sentiment.

Beit Guvrin

An enormous archaeological site with ruins from the 3rd century BCE, the Byzantines, the Greeks,
the Persians, the Jews,
the Sidonians (form Sidon
in Lebanon), the Romans, the Arabs,
the Crusaders...
The Arabs are the ones who dug the magnificent bell caves between the 7th and 10th centuries, which despite their beauty, fantastic lighting, and amazing acoustics, had the purely practical purpose to quarry stones. There are something like 800 in the area, but just a few in Beit Guvrin. Today the caves can be rented out for parties, concerts, etc.

Anni & Andrea

We're still here...

It's been a busy couple of weeks...but here's a short update of what we've been up to:

1. Our dear friend Marla Gamaron was in town and we were enjoying getting to spend time with her. Stephanie and Marla had an especially nice day together at the amazing archaeological site at Beit Guvrin, stopping at a 'Spice Farm' on the way.
2. Our sister/sister-in-law/aunt Andrea and niece/cousin Anni Zuckert visited and we enjoyed getting to spend time with them.
3. Stephanie took an intensive one-on-one 2-week ulpan (Hebrew language class).
   
4. Zach spent a shabbat in Beit Shemesh with a new found Scrabble friend (a 50+ yr. old patent attorney who is one of the top two players at the Jslm Scrabble Club) and his family (wife and four kids aged 9-14), which included the chance to play 5 games.

More to come, including pictures, soon.

Sun, Sea, Salt... and Scrabble!

Last week Zach played in a 3-day national Scrabble (played in English) tournament at the Dead Sea. The drive from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea hotel where it was being held is about 1.5 hours, but the difference in climate and landscape is dramatic. Jerusalem is up high in the Judean Hills and the weather here has been cool and rainy this time of year. The drive takes us through the Judean Desert, snaking down biblical looking landscapes, dotted with Bedouin tents and their sheep, goats, camels. Once down from the hills, the red rock cliffs and caves are stunning. This is the area where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, where the remains of the Roman fortress Masada stands. Down at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the earth, the temperatures are predictably at least 10 degrees warmer than in Jerusalem. We had absolutely perfect weather: warm enough to go into the sea, swim, and lie out in the sun reading, not too hot, light breeze... of course, it was a bit lost on those of us in the hotel conference room the whole time with our Scrabble boards...

On to the Scrabble scene: There were some 48 players, the average age of which was 70 yrs. old. Four divisions of play, in descending order of skill: champion, challenge, competitive, and casual. Zach, by far the youngest, was placed in the challenge division. They played 12 games over the 3 days, often lingering afterwards to deconstruct the games, and re-think strategies, end-games, and verify the legality of words played. Sara Schacter, the oldest player at 94 yrs. old, slipped and fell the first evening, breaking a rib or two and getting a black eye. Having only had a chance to play 3 games, however, she was having none of this going to the hospital stuff. "What? So they can tell me I have a few broken ribs and do nothing about it?" She apparently had some kind of pain medication with her, so she remained at the hotel and played the rest of the tournament. Sara received a special lifetime Scrabble achievement award from the Israeli Scrabble organization. Also at the tournament was a spark plug of a woman in her 80s, named Roz. She is not only a mean Scrabble player (she plays in the top division), she is a total hoot to be around. She makes up songs (and sings them) and poems (one of her odes to Scrabble is included in Stefan Fatsis's book on Scrabble, Wordfreak.), and is an endless fount of off-color jokes. In sum, Zach had a fantastic time. He took 4 out of his first 6 games, won some more (I'm not exactly sure how it went), putting himself in first place heading into the last 2 games. If he won the first, he'd have been in good position to easily win all the marbles. But he wasn't going to take the easy way; he lost that game forcing him to win the last one, which he did (but not by much...). He received a lovely 1st place trophy souvenir to bring back to the States. Our dear friend Ricky Aron, who introduced Zach to the Jerusalem Scrabble club 4 years ago, and who was also playing in the challenge division, and whom Zach beat on the way to his victory, gave him his award. Awards were also given for best word, highest scoring word, lowest scoring win, best phony word played (and not challenged off), and service to Scrabble (fewest wins).

In season

We are loving partaking of the local seasonal foods. Some of our favorites include the persimmons (orange tomato-like looking fruits that taste like nothing else we know), passion fruits (hard dark purple/
green shells that one cuts (saws) open and spoons out the delicious small amount of tomato-like-consistency innards: orange flesh w/small greenish seeds), and pomelos (look like huge misshapen grapefruits, but have their very own not too juicy and yummy citrus flavor). Pomegranate season has past and shesek (loquats) season is not yet here. Among those fruits and vegetables you know that are especially delicious and extremely inexpensive here: the tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, fennel, peppers, eggplants, artichokes, oranges, lemons. A friend here was curious to hear that they are now growing acorn squash here and we will soon be able to get them in the stores. She had no idea what it was. The hard squashes and cold weather crops we enjoy in Wisconsin are not so available here: no big Idaho bakers, winter squash, the celery and broccoli are not so great, and all the varieties of greens (chard, spinach, kale, and the like) we love are only meagerly represented. Also the milk and dairy products are excellent, so we are not missing Wisconsin in that way...

Say hi to your cousin Max

Zach's cousin Max, who is in Israel on a Young Judea year course, moved to Jerusalem March 1st for the last months of his program. He stopped by to say hi and check out our place.

In the neighborhood

Across the street

Obamamania

Hizkiahu Hamelekh

Katamon

We are settled into our apartment here, which is small but very comfortable. We decided not to get a car (gas here is 6 shekels/ liter, which comes out to about $6/galllon...), so we are learning our bus routes and are enjoying finding our way walking through Jerusalem's curvelinear streets and footpaths. The neighborhood, Katamon, is great and we are having a lot of fun exploring our new environs. 'Katamon' is a distortion of the Greek words kata-monis, meaning "near the monastery," which refers to the San Simon monastery just up the block from our apt. The lands of this neighborhood were bought by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in the late nineteenth century and the Greek Consulate stands today around the corner from us. Best find so far: Shosh cafe 3 blocks from our house–open early, open late, breakfast all day/night, great fresh food, great coffee, tantalizing sweets, lovely young owner Nir, outlets for Daniel's laptop.

Arrived.

Daniel arrived February 1st and is now full into his routines and work. He is enjoying the work, the walk to and from, and is already a well known regular at a coffee shop (called "coffee shop") in between. Zach and I arrived February 11th: election day here. A huge mess, as near as I can tell. Most of the folks we've been talking to–from the right to the left–are depressed about it all; thoroughly uninspired and unexcited by any of the major candidates. Many voted for one of the (numerous–some 3o-odd) smaller parties. The cab driver who drove Zach and me from the airport said it didn't matter who was PM–Bibi or Tzipi–Obama is what matters. I don't think many Israelis would agree with him...