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.