End at the Beginning

This morning is my last here in Haifa.  I'm certain that I will be back to Israel, but these are my last moments sitting at my kitchen table and listening to the waves as they gently roll towards the shore.  It's been fun.  Israel is not at all what I expected and I'm not sure that after five and a half months I really understand it. 

Israel is a young country, full of contradictions, competitiveness, and color.  It's the stony deserts of the Negev and the classy streets of Tel Aviv.  It's the mosque within sight of Matam, the scientific and technological center of Haifa.  It's the tent city student protest parties and the train full of tired youth returning from the military for Shabbat.  It's the warm kiss from a friend and the smile of a stranger baking pitas. Haertz Israel. The land and the people.

A parting story:
Yesterday was the best day we've had during our entire time here.  We started the morning with fresh pastries and chocolate cereal.  We said goodbye to Camel (our car) and Avi our landlord.  Avi has a son in San Jose so we chatted about California, Yosemite, and Tahoe.  He is off to Barcelona in a few weeks.

We walked the beach to the train station and went to see downtown Haifa for the last time.  We had been here before, in February, when it was cold enough to scale the 1002 steps from Yefe Nof to Wadi Nisnas in sweatshirts.  On a gray and rainy day we had wandered down into Wadi Nisnas and discovered an amazing baklava bakery in the midst of a very strange part of town.  We had wandered around the old city and back up the mountain tasting the first flavors of Israel--foreign, exciting and a little scary--as we made our way back up to the Carmel Center.

Full circle, back in Wadi Nisnas nothing looked familiar.  The sun was shining, unmercifully hot, and the little ramshackle village didn't look half as "Middle Eastern" as it had on that gray day in February.  The people were welcoming and warm.  To think that I had once considered them slightly threatening!  We went back to the same bakery where we met some very kind Jewish women.  They were there to purchase merengue cookies but heartily recommended different types of baklava and helped us communicate with the shop owner.  The bakery, located in a Christian Arab village, caters to his neighbors.  For the Jewish ones, he has a sign in Hebrew letters and bakes cakes and cookies in the European fashion.  For the Arab ones, he has a sign in Arabic and bakes baklava and knefe sprinkled with rose water.  Everyone is free to indulge in their own comfort food.

Later in the evening, we went for a sunset swim.  Since jellyfish season is now over, the beach was massively crowded.  There were people everywhere--on the sand and in the water.  We swam out and looked back on the crowd.  It was the world's largest pool party!  There were kids jumping off of their dads' shoulders, Russian women floating around as they gossiped and single men trying to swim aggressively against the waves.  Everyone was happy.  How could you not be?  The water and the gentle waves were like a warm hug, relaxing as it cradled you and rocked you back and forth.  There were no jellyfish, nothing to be afraid of, just sand and water and laughter.  This was the Israel I didn't expect and the one that I'll cherish for as long as I live.

"Shalom," meaning "peace" is the traditional greeting in Israel.  It is also "good-bye."  So go in peace, live in peace, come again in peace.

I used to wonder what the waves whispered as they sighed outside my window.  Now, I know.

Shhhhhhhhalom.

Shopping in Israel + Beyond

Relative to driving up to Costco and carrying away a truckload of groceries and gadgets, shopping in Israel is hard.  It is very dependent upon when you go and where you go.  If you are shopping on Shabbat, you are most likely in an Arab souk where prices are not posted and haggling is expected.  If you are shopping on Friday, you are most likely in a crowded Jewish store where prices are non-negotiable.  Don't get the two confused!

Daily shopping:
Jewish stores are closed on Shabbat and they start closing at ~2:00 p.m. on Friday so they can get ready for the Shabbat dinner.  If you need something from a mall on the weekend you have to fight with everyone else.  If you don't like fighting for space, go early (before 11).  Remember: security guards check all cars going into parking garages.  Stop politely and open the trunk.  The guard will look in your backseat and your trunk and then pass you through.  Don't try to talk with him in English--it just makes him suspicious.  Guys will be wanded at the entrance to the mall.  Women will have their purses inspected.  Mall parking gets creative and dangerous on Friday.  If you want to avoid the crowds, shop on Sunday evening after work.

For groceries, if you shop at Sufersal (red and white logo), register your address for a saver card.  This is like a Safeway Club Card in the states and it is very good to have.  We saved a bundle on 2 for 1 deals.

For a fun and cheap lunch, go to the malls or a market on Friday.  Malls host smaller stalls with farm-fresh groceries or special breads or cheeses.  The cheese stall in the Haifa mall near Matam is especially good.

If you're looking for a special souvenier:

Craft stores:

A very special find is Foad Halbe's Druze Crafts in Daliyat Ha Carmel.  On the main street he is just across the way from several restaurants, on the northern end of town.  Go there!  He sells Druze Glass and hand-weaving wholesale.  This has been the highlight of many shopping trips.  The restaurant next door is very good as well. 

Magdal in Ein Hod.  Magdal works with ceramics in this artist village, just east of the cafe.  Look for the brightly colored pottery.  She's amazing.

St. Patrick's, Milk Grotto Street in Bethlehem.  This store run by Louis has some of the best reasonably priced olive-wood souveniers in Bethlehem.  It may not be high art, but it's nice enough to display on the shelf.  Best olive wood souveniers in all of Israel!  We love the angel we got there.

Arab Markets:

My favorite market for driving hard bargains is Daliyat Ha Carmel on Fridays.  On Shabbat the place is incredibly crowded, but on Fridays you can get some great deals.

Jerusalem has the biggest market with the best selection.  If you want something that looks Middle Eastern, this is the place to shop.  Prices are steep and negotiations aggressive but the variety is excellent.  It is also the best place to people watch if you aren't being crushed by the crowds on Via Dolorosa.

Akko is my favorite souk to wander.  It has a fair selection (we really like the shop just south of the Knights Hall) but the fish market, the spices, and the old city make it a fun place for pictures and general ambience.

Nazareth is ok if you want olive wood carvings but aren't going to Jerusalem or Bethlehem.  Prices are better in the off-season when Christian tourists are few and far between.

Jordan:
If you have time to go farther afield, the markets in Aqaba, Jordan beat anything in Israel.  My favorite place there is Hilawi on the Jeweler's street.  He makes custom beautiful beaded jewelry out of local stones.  Great prices, great place.  It's also a good place to by dallahs.  We got ours at a store on the road to Petra (which might have been a tourist trap) but never saw anything so nice in Israel.

Tel Aviv:
Shopping is excellent if you want a piece of the hip, trendy vibe in the city.  It seemed to specialize in designer clothing.  The store at the Bauhaus Center on Dizengoff had some very cool decorative art.  The craft fair on Friday morning was interesting but slightly overwhelming.  If you like hamsas, that's the place to find one.  Just don't try to shop on Shabbat.  You will be sadly disappointed.

Shopping is more personal in Israel so have fun with it, meet people, and enjoy!  It's not Amazon.com, and that's the joy and challenge of it.

Best Sights to See in Israel

If you're coming to Israel for pleasure, I'm sure you're planning a stop in Jerusalem, a swim in the Dead Sea and maybe an excursion to Tel Aviv.  We've discovered a few spots slightly off of the tourist route that are definitely worth exploring.  Here our our favorites.

To get a great sense of history:

·         Best ruins: Tzippori/Sephoris (mosaics are outstanding – you won’t believe that they’re 2k yr old)

·         Best place to feel like an ancient Roman: Bet She'an (Scythopolis).  Biggest and best collection of Roman ruins in Israel – real feel for a roman city.

·         Best place to feel like a knight: Tel Asruf/Apollonia in Herziliya (a castle on a cliff overlooking the sea). A close second is the Knight's Hall in Akko

·         Best place to feel like a fisher of men: Capernaum (St. Peter's House) in Galilee

·         Best museum: Eretz Israel in Tel Aviv.  Interesting stuff, good explanations in English, and you can take pictures of the artifacts (unlike the Israel Museum)

·         Best place to feel the weight of history: Jerusalem, Old City, on Shabbat in lent.  People will be everywhere, in full religious garb (from orthodox Jews at the wailing wall to orthodox Christians in the holy sepulchre

To experience nature:

• Best wildlife: Agamon Hahula (Hula Lake) just off of highway 90 in the Upper Galilee.  Great in autumn as migrating cranes make a stopover in the thousands.  Good in spring.  Hot in the summer (see Twitching in Israel for more)

• Best lush greenery: Banias is so beautiful, wet and green that you would swear you're not in Israel.  The falls were really flowing in May and I think they are good year-round.  If you can make the trip, couple it with a dinner at Dag al HaDan.

• Best desert landscape: Mitzpe Ramon.  On a clear day you can see the whole crater and even if you can't the diverse colors of the Carpentry are worth making the trip.  I've never felt a landscape this desolate!

• Best unexpected surprise: If you come from March-May there are great wildflowers blooming all over Israel.  The bloom starts in the south and moves north so there's always something good to see.  The diversity of color and forms in the flowers is much better than those in California.  Everyone will go to Mt. Gilboa for the Gilboa iris, but there are good flowers growing elsewhere too!

*If you are in Haifa there are trails down the western wadis from the top of the Carmel to the sea.  Follow the brown signs to the trail at the top of the wadi and then follow the white-green-white stripes on the rocks.  Careful, the rain makes the trails very slippery!

To experience the New Israel:

• Best cultural experience: beaches on Shabbat.  Everyone flocks to the beaches--young, old, families, singles, Arab, Russian, Jew, tourist...On Saturday nights the Haifa Hof Ha Carmel hosts folk dancing just south of the Hotel Leonardo.  Come and watch the crowds!  Last weekend several couples danced while on rollerblades

• Best walk in Haifa: stroll the Louis Promenade on the uphill side of Yefe Nof.  Night or day, it's a gorgeous view.

• Best Arab city: Old Akko (Acre) is a nice medieval town on the sea.  It's a seashore carnival atmosphere of Middle Eastern culture.  There's a fun souk with fishmarket and a great seashore promenade on the southern and western sides of the city.  Make a day of it and have dinner at Uri Burri (great seafood).  It's especially nice on Shabbat since it's still open when Haifa's stores are closed.

• Best way to feel the "vibe": stroll anywhere in Tel Aviv at any time.  It's amazing but the streets will be packed at midnight with more people than were out at noon.

These are a few of our favorite things.  Really, there was nothing we saw that we regretted seeing other than a few really nasty traffic jams. 

Top Tips:
If you are here for a long time, purchase a National Parks Pass which is good for a year of unlimited entries.  Israel has 65 National Parks and more National Reserves so this has more than paid for itself in five months.  Also, parks close 1 hr earlier on Friday than they due on Saturday due to Shabbat.  If you want to make sure to see something, get there before 2.  They will close at 4 and start shooing people out of the parks at 3.

If you are interested in hiking, Carta Jerusalem publishes an excellent English guide to the National Parks.  It has a summary of each park, the trails in them, maps to them, and pictures of what to see.  It's available for purchase at the National Parks.

If you are traveling on Shabbat, target an Arab village for lunch or BYO sandwich.  Tiberias was a ghost town and the only places that were open for lunch were rest stops in the gas stations.  National Parks will probably have a small concession booth selling ice cream and water.

If you want to park in the cities before 8:00 p.m. or on days other than Shabbat, purchase an electronic parking pass (available in gas stations).  Dial in the city code and zone and it deducts from a pre-paid amount until you get back and cancel it rather than requiring you to feed the meter.  Genius! (There is also a way to pay by phone but that requires you to have a cell phone while in Israel).

Don't take life too seriously!  Always a good tip, but of utmost importance in Israel.  Don't get offended or insulted by rude behavior--it's just the way this rather aggressive country is some times.  Laugh it off and let it go.  I can't tell you how many times I've nearly been run down by buses at round-about pedestrian crossings.  The key is *nearly.*  I'm still walking and no harm's been done.

Have fun! La Chaim!

Best Food and Drink in Northern Israel+Beyond

With less than 1 week left before we leave, I'd like to pass on our recommendations for the "best of" Israel.  Here are our favorites for food in northern Israel (with just a few from Jordan). 

·         Best cold drink: fresh squeezed orange juice on the beach or wherever you can get it from street vendors.  Yes, fresh squeezed – they get the oranges out of the fridge and squeeze them in front of you:

·         Best hot drink: Arab coffee.  Finely ground coffee simmered with cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, and a little sugar.  Little sweet, little spicy, really gets you going. (see Small Addictions post for recipe)  #2 is mint tea with lemon—still tasty but with half the caffeine jolt.

·         Best cheap eats : Bruno Casa Della Pizza in Merkaz HaCarmel.  $10 buys you a slice of Pizza and a beer.  Not cheap you say?  It is for Israel…

·         Best humus: Humus Said in Akko.  Yes it’s kitschy, yes the locals all seem to have another favorite, but the only thing they make is great hummus and fresh pitas.  I know it’s totally inaccurate, but from now on, I’m going to picture ‘manna from heaven’ as the lunch we got at Humus Said.

·         Best falafel and Arab food: Arazim in Shlomi near Rosh Hanikra.  Tough choice this one, but they had the freshest salads and spiciest meat. Mmmmm spicy meat.  If you aren't in the mood for meat (or don't want to travel all the way to Lebanon), the best falafel is at Hazkenim in Wadi Nisnas Street in Haifa.  Awesome felafel+pita.  If you are in Haifa, you must try it. 

·         Best chef restaurant: Kimel in Tel Aviv.  The chef has his own TV show in Israel.  Very popular and very tasty!

·         Best unique dessert: knefe, a Lebanese dessert made with shredded phyllo and cheese.  If you find it, you must try it.  If you don’t, settle for the delicious baklava from a local bakery.., Best bakery is in Wadi Nisnas down a small side street off of Allenby (near Shadaha on the northern/coast side of Khuri, ask if you get lost).  Look for the baker on the sign.

·         Best guilty pleasure: Gelato from Leggenda.  Ok, so it’s not indigenous, but it sure is tasty!

Best fish restaurant: Dag al HaDan on the Dan River.  This is a bit of a drive from Haifa, but it's one of the most unique dining experiences in Israel.  Diners are served fresh trout on the banks of the Dan River.  One wonders if the fish swimming in the river have any inkling about their impending doom.

And, last but not least, best hamburger (and best restaurant mascot) has got to go to Moses in Tel Aviv:

Outside of Israel:

We had some amazing food in Jordan.  If you happen to be in Aqaba, look up the Syrian Palace—great food, great service, great location. Al-Arabi in Wadi Mousa had the tastiest shwarma EVER!  Go there if you aren’t too exhausted from exploring Petra.

Best kebab+pita: The Grotto in Shepherds' Field.  If you're visiting Bethlehem in the West Bank, make sure to eat there.

A Helping Hamsa

In the Middle East, it helps to be lucky.  For hundreds of years, during Muslim, Christian, Muslim and Jewish administrations people in this area of the world believed in charms to defend against the "evil" eye and other misfortunes.  One of the most popular and enduring charms is the "hamsa," a palm-shaped amulet (pictured here):

Depending upon the faith of the owner, a hamsa amulet is either The Hand of Fatima(Muslim), The Hand of Miriam (Jewish) or The Hand of God (Christian), although the icon predates monotheism.  "Hamsa" means "five" in Arabic (like 'hamesh' in Hebrew) and the five fingers are reminders of the five pillars of Islam or the five senses of man.  The eye guards against the "evil eye," an ancient curse in Arabia, while the open palm represents blessing and providence.  Hamsas are usually placed near the doorway of a home to protect it and its occupants from any evil that might cross the threshold, although you can see them around people's necks, in cars, and in any room of the home that might need a little luck.

What I find most interesting is that the superstition was so strong the Jewish mystics in the Upper Galilee took up the tradition from their Arab neighbors.  The Hand of Fatima became The Hand of Miriam and the symbolism of five reinterpreted to mean the five books of the Torah. 

Today, the hamsa is so en vogue it's impossible to miss in the Jewish Friday craft fairs and Saturday Arab markets.  From Wikipedia: "In Israel today, it is a trendy symbol that has become 'an icon of Israeliness and secularity'."  The hamsa has been in the background of our own Israeli experience.  When we came here in February our apartment was graced with a malfunctioning doorbell in the shape of a hamsa (we did not recognize it at the time).  Upon planning our departure from Israel we were presented with one as a good-bye gift.  We've probably seen more hamsas than mezuzahs!

Perhaps it isn't so amazing that people from two strong monotheistic religions with no visible representation of God have agreed on this icon of "His" protection.  While the great invisible gods Yahweh and Allah remain in conflict, people embrace luck or fortune to keep them safe.  In a land of high risk, it doesn't hurt to be lucky.

Meduzot (מדוזה)

It's July and, as we expected, it's hot and humid in Israel.  Haifa is averaging a high of 88F and a low of 70F with 65% humidity so it's not that pleasant for walking around.  When you drive inland, the humidity drops but the temps rise to +90F.  This is not a nice time for touring relative to April or May.  If you're planning a trip here, go before the end of June.  So now everyone is thinking "water" and we're sitting pretty right on the beach, with plenty of sandy shore access and a beautiful swimming zone just across the street.  The only problem is that relatively no one is in the water.
 
The first problem is the waves.  We've seen some of the biggest breakers come in from June to July (bigger than they were in March) and swimming is not safe even though there's no storm in sight.  Today is sunny and hot and windy but the waves are in the 6ft range and too dangerous for swimming.

The second problem is the jellyfish or meduzot.  I learned the Hebrew name because yesterday I had a close encounter with one and the lifeguard was the only thing that saved my face from a mass of stinging tentacles.  The waves were up, but still swimmable.  I was trying to get pictures of the local fish for my blog and was focused on chasing a small tillapia.  Suddenly, the lifeguard shouted at me: "meduzot!" but I didn't understand so he switched into English.  "Lady, there is a jellyfish, right there." Sure enough, there it was, about 1 foot away, a blue jellyfish with a 6 inch bell.  I got to my feet and backed away from it, but it must have had a cousin or something because no sooner had I stood up then I felt two stings on the backs of my legs. 

The pain related to them was somewhere between a wasp and a bee sting, so not horrible but not easily ignored.  We had both been stung before with the small broken bits of tentacles that float in the water, but these stings were much more intense.  That ended our swimming for the day and the stings went away in about 2 hours. 

One of my coworkers insists that from July-August she swims exclusively in the fresh water of Lake Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee), and, having been stung, I don't blame her.  In Tel Aviv we saw schools of 8-10 jellyfish with 1 ft bells floating in the waves and I've seen even larger ones off the coast of Dado South Beach in Haifa.  We wear UV shirts to protect our arms and upper bodies so we're pretty safe and usually it's easy to avoid the meduzot when the water is calm.  Dealing with jellyfish is just the cost of enjoying a nice swim in these hot summer months--the water itself is 82 degrees and very refreshing!

Jellyfish identification chart (we usually see the Drymonema type):

If you have a strong stomach check out pictures of a much larger jellyfish school that shut down a power plant just north of Tel Aviv:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2011565/Jellyfish-shut-power-station-amid-claims-climate-change-caused-population-surge.html

Pictures of the jellyfish that washed up this weekend (each white blob is a different stinger):

Shabbat and the City (Tel Aviv, part 2)

Tel Aviv certainly is "cool."  There's a vibe about the place unlike Haifa or Jerusalem.   The Friday markets are crowded and fun.  Everything is on display for the public.  It is a place to see and be seen.  Hip stores vie for attention on the boulevards while farmers hawk piles of cherries in the plaza.  It is a kaleidoscope of color.  Restaurants (at least the ones we tried) are extremely good.  However, like all of Israel, it suffers from the tyranny of Shabbat.

Everything that was exciting and cool--the markets, the restaurants, the trendy shops--everything like that, is completely gone by Saturday morning.  Some restaurants and coffee shops are open which is a small mercy, but the majority of the city is closed.  Plazas are devoid of life.  Large boulevards have no traffic.  Shops are shuttered or display their wares in windows with one light on, as if to mock and say "come back later."  It's like a war-zone and everyone has gone to ground.  The city is empty.

Everyone is at the beach, and I do mean everyone.  The entire city lives by the "shop on Friday, beach on Saturday" cycle also common in Haifa. From an American point of view, this is just too much conformity.  I can go to the beach and enjoy it on Friday while the people are elsewhere, but I can't go shopping on Saturday to avoid the beach crowds.  Silly … 

Beach on Friday

Beach on Saturday

There is also no public transportation from Friday afternoon until Saturday night.  Come to Tel Aviv on the train on Friday and you're stuck until 9:10 p.m. on Saturday.  This might work if you can crash with family or friends, but a night in a Tel Aviv hotel is not cheap ($200+).  It seems like the rules have been made to benefit the natives or the tourists.  Tel Aviv works well if you live there, like to party all night on Friday and sleep on a beach chair, or don't work a normal week. 

Still, it was good to see the city and to be able to stay over on Thursday and Friday nights.  The restaurants were the best in Israel which made it worth it to have two dinners in the city.  We were too tired to take in the fabled night-life scene but given what I've seen in Haifa and Jerusalem, Tel Aviv is the only place you can go out for a "night on the town" in the entire country, so any bar would be like New York crossed with Miami crossed with Vegas.  We overheard one person at the beach saying that he got to sleep around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.  No wonder Shabbat is so quiet--everyone not at the beach is sleeping off a hangover.  Tel Aviv ranks high on my list of Israel experiences, but I still think Haifa with its natural beauty and pleasant beach is definitely the best place to live!

The White City (Tel Aviv, part 1)

In 2003 UNESCO awarded Tel Aviv the title of "White City" to honor its unique collection of Bauhaus architecture, but based on our experience this weekend, Tel Aviv is anything but white.

White implies a bland cleanliness and sterility that is completely absent from the city as it exists today.  Tel Aviv is colorful, dingy, and eclectic--a far cry from the modernist regularity envisioned by its early builders.  Walking around its wide boulevards and public squares built from 1930-1950 you feel like you're in a lived-in and past-its-prime Tomorrowland. 

In its structures you recognize an unfailing optimism, a belief in progress and conformity--the simple line, mass-market appeal and instant accessibility.  As Tel Aviv materialized out of nothing except some sand dunes north of Jaffa, it came to life in this form--bright, white, and centrally-planned.  The city was a blank palate and they designed to point firmly towards the future.  In this architecture there are no cultural elements, no ethnic tensions, or diversity of form which is exactly the vision that early Israelis had for their country: a new Jewish homeland that celebrated equality and hope ("aviv" means the season of spring).  What better way to forge a new society out of random immigrants than with an "international" style and a bucket of white wash?

Today, perhaps like the original dream of equality without ethnicity, some of Tel Aviv's houses are in need of repair.  Many of the old houses are getting a nice retrofit.  White paint is being replaced by mint greens, warm yellows and tans.  Each one has developed a unique character, although for some, the character is decay.  We stayed with a friend in a building built in 1928.  The insulation is terrible and the air conditioning insufficient and the whole place is showing its age.  In a few months, all of the tenants there will be evicted as it shuts down for a retrofit.  You can see why.  The neighboring houses are either construction sites or already improved luxury boutique hotels and residences.  The location is one of the finest in the city and there's money to be made in the up and up Tel Aviv real estate market.  The investments, however, remain uneven and for every three-storey apartment building undergoing a neo-modernist renovation, there's another crumbling to gray dust.

In some cases that's ok as the houses that crumble are bulldozed away to make room for more glitzy glass towers.  Tel Aviv is once again looking like a city of the future.  Real estate prices in and around the city have gone through the roof and there's talk of making Tel Aviv into a mini-New York City.  Trump and other big-name developers have invested in large luxury towers along the beaches and cranes are a prominent feature in the skyline.  Since the Bauhaus apartments are all low-rise 3-4 storey boxes, the planned 43-storey towers should have a nice view.  Which begs the question, who will live here? 

Tel Aviv is a youthful city in which the youth are being priced out (just like New York).  With the US real estate market in shambles, perhaps the bankers of New York are now betting on Israel's center of "cool," but it seems like a condo in Miami would be a safer investment than one in Tel Aviv (within the range of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip).  On the other hand, if you read the demographic tea leaves, Israel is slated to grow and the "it" place in Israel is definitely Tel Aviv so demand to live in the city is going to remain strong for years to come as long as the security situation remains stable and the economy here keeps humming away.  Like I mentioned before, Tel Aviv, is founded on hope and optimism.

Saving the Best for Last

Yesterday we joined a coworker and her boyfriend in Tel Aviv for dinner.  When we met up and explained that, although we had been in the country since February we had not yet been to Tel Aviv, her boyfriend lit up.  "Welcome to Israel," he declared with a broad grin.

To most Israelis, Tel Aviv is the center of the world.  Jerusalem may have all of the old religious landmarks but Tel Aviv is the cultural soul of this relatively young state.  It was in Tel Aviv in 1948 that David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of Israel as the first sovereign Jewish state--a state that would "uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race," while still allowing the "Jewish people to be masters of their own fate."  The secular vs. religious tensions apparent in the Declaration are still plaguing Israel today.  Jerusalem is the religious side--strongly orthodox and very proud of its religous ceremonies.  Tel Aviv is the secular side, the 83% of the Jewish population (Jewish in ethnicity and tradition) that cares more about enjoying life than fighting over territory.  It's a refreshing and playful breath of multicultural fresh air.

Take the restaurant we went to as an example--"The Diner by Goocha."  Goocha had been a seafood restaurant serving everything from fried calamari with parsley and garlic aioli in classic Italian style to a seafood noodle dish cooked in coconut cream and thai peppers.  Last night was just a week after it had been remodeled to look like a traditional American diner.  The menu had changed to include items such as rib-eye "chops" with Hollandaise sauce and New York Cheesecake.  They had even lined the walls with chalkboards to give it the straight from Chicago or New York look.  Everything was new and shiny and it was packed, in the middle of the week, from 8:00 and later.  We left at 10:30 and it really seemed like the city had just started to wake up.  We hear that some restaurants will stay open, serving dinner items well past 2:00 a.m!  Want a bacon cheeseburger at 1:00 in the morning?  Tel Aviv is the place to get it.

We heard from our host that rollerbladers started a protest on Tuesday nights.  They gathered at 10:30 p.m. in such numbers that they shut down the streets and caused traffic jams.  Instead of arresting them the cops worked with them to create a rollerblading route of select streets that are closed from 10:30-12:00.  Now it's more of an event than a protest.

We're going back this weekend because it is an interesting place and it seems a little more like America in its hedonistic pleasures and stay-open-late (even on Shabbat) freedoms.  The food is great and the attractions are supposedly good as well.  How could we leave Israel without visiting it first?

L'chaim!

Family Values

When my coworkers were asked what their top three values in life were, "family" was a unanimous favorite.  In a work setting, when values could be anything from "success" to "developing my career," they chose "family."  I was surprised, since I would not expect the same result among my American colleagues.  Sure, family would be high on their list of personal values, but I don't think they'd be that honest about it.  Would you tell your manager point-blank, work is not the be-all and end-all of my universe?  Maybe...The ranking we gave our values was more or less the same as his own.
They were surprised that I, an American, was in full agreement.  Family has not traditionally been the stated top value of the American businesswoman.  It is either unstated or not that important, but I think the times are changing.  In my generation, more Americans are less interested in the economic or business definitions of success.  Give me enough money to ease my worries, enough status to feel useful, enough activity to fill my day, but work is work and life is what happens in the home.  This was a value that I learned during my six months in Germany (of all places!) and it has led to a very contented lifestyle. 
The Israelis seem to hold family even closer than we do.  In this tiny country, grandma and grandpa are never more than 2 hrs by car, and brothers and sisters don't move so far away.  Families are both large and close-knit.  During Shabbat we have seen restaurant tables taken over by generations of family all sitting together for the breakfast meal.  Grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, young parents and younger kids all gather together, and not just for the holidays. 
Demographers estimate that each Israeli couple has an average of 3 children.  That means, unlike Europe where the favorite child is a dog, Israel is growing and growing younger.  Children are the future and the Israelis are very optimistic.  Like one of my coworkers said, "Kids are joy."  My coworkers have between 2 and 3, so they are definitely doing their part.
Family is the center of life and kids are the center of family.  What this leads to is a very kid-friendly country.  Our beach has a separate kiddy pool with its own lifeguard.  In swimming zones lifeguards admonish the children when they rough-house in the waves.  Restaurants have kid menus; shopping malls have kid zones; even my workplace has a day care service.  Now that it is summer vacation, some workers even bring their kids to work and they hide out in the cubicles or the lounge areas.  Kids are generally well-behaved in public spaces so no one minds.   It's common to see a woman shopping while holding a little girl with one hand and a stroller with the other.  Grandma may even be close by to help.
This is so very different from life in the states when families split up and live in different time zones.  Maybe this is changing due to the recent recession drawing kids and parents back together, but the cost of our expansive geography has often been separation in favor of individualization.  If the job is in one state and family in another, we Americans are more apt to move for the job.  In Israel the job will never be far from family--move from Beersheba in the extreme south to Nahariyya in the north and you are 3 hours apart by train!

So my thoughts for this Independence Day: celebrate all that is good in America--our freedoms to travel, to eat pork ribs, to indulge in a bacon cheeseburger 24/7, but don't forget to include your family.

Israeli Game Shows

In Israel we don't have many choices for TV.  We have a standard cable package which includes some truly terrible movie channels, National Geographic and History (all in English with Hebrew subtitles).  History combines all of its commercials between shows which is very nice, but National Geographic likes to interrupt their own English shows with commercials in Hebrew for upcoming shows--that's one of the reasons I learned the words for days of the week ("rishon be tesha" is Sunday night at 9:00). We also have a bunch of Israeli channels but they are in Hebrew as would be expected.  The English channels usually have semi-decent offerings but occasionally, like last night, the options were dreadful.  That's when I turn to Israeli game shows.  News and stand-up comedy are too hard to follow in a foreign language, but game shows with their standard formats and emotional excitement can be followed without too much trouble.  I can plot the highs and lows in tones of voice and it's clear when someone is winning vs. losing.  Losers usually disappear from the set very quickly.  They don't mince words.  The popular shows are high risk, very public, and unforgiving--but they make for great TV.

Wipeout לחסל
Israeli Wipeout was similar to the US version except that the winner was one of the most athletic men I've seen on t.v. and was able to complete the final course in a blistering 1:23!  No one else came close!  This definitely wasn't the "everyman" vibe that you get from the show in the states.  There was no "I could do that" moment.  It was just fierce and brutal competition.

A Star is Born כוכב נולד
The Israel version of American Idol, called "A Star is Born" was similar in its brutality.  One show featured dueling contestants where one of the two singers got to stay with the show and one was escorted off in front of live t.v.  They sang, the voting lines opened, the judges provided their criticism, and the loser was escorted out (all within 10 minutes!)  Not a show ended without 1 or more contestants permanently eliminated.  For their part, the contestants did not show any hurt feelings or have nervous breakdowns on stage.  They were much less emotional about the competition than their US counterparts.

Who's Still Standing/ Fly Million לטוס מיליון
This spirit of intense but fun competition was definitely on display in the game show I watched last night called "Still Standing."  The game is a new twist on trivia as a person stood in the center of a circle of other people all of which were standing on a trap door.  Each people in the circle has a monetary value which no one knew--there are 2 of each of the following possibilities (50,000; 25,000; 10,000; 500; 1).  The person in the middle selects a person in the circle to play against and then they start a round of trivia.  Each person has 20 seconds to answer the question.  If they answered correctly, their opponent gets a question and another 20 seconds, and they go back and forth like this until someone gets it wrong.  Then, if the person in the circle is wrong, the door beneath their feet opens and they fall through.  The money that their position guarded is revealed and banked by the person in the middle.  This can be anything from 1 NIS to 50,000 NIS.  If the person in the middle wants to continue the game, they call out another person and play for another pot of money.
If, however, the person in the middle fails to answer their question, they go into one more round with the person in the circle.  If the person in the center wins the duel, the trapdoor opens up under the person in the circle and the center person can play on.  If the person in the circle beats the one in the center, the one in the center falls through the floor, forfeits their winnings, and the person left standing gets one more question.  If they answer correctly, they get to find out how much money their number held and then get to keep that amount.  In the game I saw last night, the lucky victor got to keep 50,000 NIS!
It was a very exciting game because it was a battle of wits rather than a multiple choice test.  Both competitors could win any amount of money or end up with a dramatic exit, straight down.  I'm not sure if the lawyers in the states would approve of such an exit in that style, but if they did, it would make a wonderful import.
And apparently I'm not alone in my assessment.  NBC is coming out with a version of it in August: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4080763,00.html

Don't Drop the Millionאל תפיל את המיליון
Apparently dropping through the floor is very popular in Israel, since they use the same principle in a show called "Drop the Money."  In it, two contestants in a team are presented with a trivia question, four possible answers, and a stack of 1,000,000 NIS in cash.  The people have 60 seconds to physically place the piles of money on platforms in front of the correct answer.  Any money placed on the wrong answers falls through the floor when the correct one is revealed.  Also, any money that has not been placed disappears in the same way.  Apparently watching all of this money disappear through the floor is somewhat traumatic which only increases the suspense of the game.  The contestants can gamble and distribute the money across the answers, but they risk losing their hedge if it's wrong.  The next round is played with the remaining money and so on until the final round is just 2 possible answers and the money must be placed all or nothing.  It sounds like a really great show (even if you can't read the questions) as it is easy to identify with the gamble and the emotional highs and lows.  Obviously, they can't opt to stop playing and bank the money.  They have to play through until the end or until they have no money.  The human drama is fantastic in any language.
If you're interested, a full episode is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJzSKkBLa4&feature=related

Total Eclipse of the Moon

Last week, on June 15th, Israel was treated to the longest total lunar eclipse until 2018.  We were extremely fortunate to have a front-row seat.  The moon rose just far south enough to be visible from our apartment window.  The next night it was too far over the building!  The eclipse started around 9:00 p.m. and was at totality by 11:30 when we decided to call it a night.  Here are some photos from the event.  We took these with a 70-300mm IS lens on a Canon 7D.

A cloud passes in front of the moon as it rises

Eclipse is starting!

The moon is disappearing

Further into the eclipse

As we approached totality, the moon went red and very dark

Total eclipse, very dark

Turning Point 5

As you may have heard, Israel is conducting military preparedness drills called "Turning Point 5" today--5 because it is in the fifth year, having started in 2007.  It is a nation-wide defense drill involving everyone with drills in the morning during the work day and in the evening at home.  We were warned repeatedly about the impending drill (they will sound the air raid siren in all Israeli cities at 11:00 and 7:00 p.m. today) so I was a little worried about how the day would go.  If I had been alone, it wouldn't have been so scary--when the sirens sounded we went to the shelter/copy room on our floor and waited for 10 minutes--but my co-workers did their best to make me wish I was back home and safe in California where all we have to worry about is natural disasters.

While we were in the shelter, staring out the window at the traffic below, my co-worker turned to me:
"Do you know how it was? Back in 2006?  They sounded the siren and you didn't know if you were going to be hit or not.  They sounded it whenever a projectile was detected and they didn't know what type or how fast it was going.  You didn't know if it was a 5km range missle that was going to hit the far north or if it was powerful enough to travel all the way to Haifa.  They would sound the siren everywhere at all times and you just didn't know where it would land.  Now they are able to tell the missle type and the trajectory, they think, but back then, sirens were just part of life."
"Some times you were caught outside [when the sirens sounded] and then what could you do?   You could continue driving or you could stop but you weren't safe.  You had to make calls like that every day.  And it didn't really bother people.  The adults, well, they/we are all soldiers so you didn't worry.  Everyone has faced down worse.  But the kids, that's what you had to deal with, the kids didn't know what was happening.  You had to keep them safe."
"How long of a warning did you have?"
"About 10 minutes, you didn't know."

The intercom announced the end of the drill.  They thanked us for our participation.  Apparently last year, many employees didn't even play along with the drill.  "We follow the news; there are no rocket attacks today."

Outside the window I saw firemen setting a large pile of wooden crates on fire in an empty lot.  Others were tending to a "victim" on a stretcher or as my co-worker called it "a tanning bed."  Occasionally a fireman picked up a crate on the edge of the fire and heaved it into the flames.  "That's interesting," I said.  "In the US we don't usually set fires for our fire drills."  "The wood has to go somewhere," he replied.  "They don't want to haul it back home, that's for sure."

What a strange country!  I can't understand the threat of rocket attacks that lasts for months or a nation where everyone is a brave soldier in the home and in the workplace.  I couldn't live here knowing that some one hates me, my city, my home enough to inflict that kind of torture.  Thank goodness that Operation Iron Dome has had some success shooting down the missles.  My co-worker tells me "it's amazing what you can get used to."  I hope I never have to try.

Numbering the Days

One of my goals while living in Israel was to learn a little Hebrew.  Well, my Hebrew is pretty miniscule, but I have learned enough to successfully order a large orange juice from the beach bar ("Mitz Tapuzim, geduld, bevakasha").  So yay for small triumphs.  My cube mate recently decided to take me under his tutelage and teach me my numbers so after I order the OJ I can figure out that the nice man is asking for 12 "shteym-esre sheqalim" (I think Shekel is feminine?). 

As I was learning to count to ten, I realized that the days of the week are also numbered 1-6.  Sunday, the day after Shabbat, is literally "the first day," or "yom rishon."  Monday is the second day "yom sheni" and so on until you get to the seventh day which breaks the pattern because it is Shabbat and therefore behaves according to different rules.  But how wonderful is that to consider that the biblical "On the second day God created..." is being repeated every single week.  We slog through our work week of creative toil until we get to rest on the Shabbat.  It makes a lot more sense than giving the days away to Norse gods and godesses, although Frigga will always hold a dear place in my heart (TGIF!)

In the table below I have an illustration of how Hebrew counts the days.  "First" has a different root word than "one," but after that I have highlighted the Hebrew root in both the number and the day. 

Hebrew roots are more useful than Latin roots in English due to the general lack of vocabulary in the Hebrew language.  Where English might swap to a from German to French to Latin while meaning nearly the same thing, Hebrew has one word that serves many purposes.  I am repeatedly amazed by my co-workers mastery of both Hebrew and English.  I only wish that I were better able to reciprocate the favor.  All I can say is "Ani lo hevanti" (I don't understand) and smile.

Shavuot, Our Last Israeli Holiday

First, apologies for not writing more reguarly, but life has been busy.  Two weeks ago we experienced the last national holiday occurring during our brief six month stay.  It's been quite a fun time: Purim (had to work), Passover I and II, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Lag Ba Omer (had to work), and finally Shavuot.  Six holidays (5 days free) in four months!  During this same time the US has had Presidents Day and Memorial Day off.  I think we got the better deal. 

Israel has so many holidays in the spring because spring is much nicer here than summer.  Spring is an accelerated season (relative to California) and due to its abundance of heat and water, most crops are coming to harvest 2 months before they would in the Central Valley.  For example, fresh corn and watermelons started showing up in roadside stands in May!

Passover traditionally marked the start of the barley harvest, and fifty days later (give or take) Shavuot celebrates the wheat harvest and the bringing of the first fruits to the Temple.  Traditionally, the holiday is associated with the giving of the Torah to the Israelites camped out at the base of Mt. Sinai.  Synagogues stay open into the wee hours as devoted Jews pull a collective all-night study session.  The Book of Ruth is also somehow involved.  But for the secular Jew, there is still fun to be had.  The bringing of the first fruits to the temple became associated with milk and bread, and consequently cheese and specialty pastries.  So, to the observer, Shavuot is a holiday for eating cheesecake, cheese blintzes, and cheese spread on exotic breads.  They even decorated the halls of my company with large milk jugs, hay bales and shafts of wheat.  It's like a more dairy-focused feast of Thanksgiving, crossed with May Day pastoralism, crossed with a harvest festival.

Harvest festival for Shavuot

We enjoyed the time off and the excuse to eat cheesecake. We saw lots of hay bales and possibly the set up for a tractor pull and had a good time.  My parents visited, taking advantage of the holiday to travel with us, but their experience of Shavuot paled in comparison with being in Jerusalem, at the Western Wall, for Jerusalem Day.  Jerusalem Day was the day that Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan during the Six Day War.  One look at the celebrations here is enough to convince you that the UN won't be partitioning Jerusalem any time soon.

Now the holidays are over and it's back to work for another month.  Kids are starting their summer vacations this week and the beach is heating up.  It will be hard to walk past the summer vacationers on our way into work, but we will savor the beautiful sea while we can.  We'll be home again before we know it.