Month: October 2006

  • Anglo love, support & perspective.

    Hmm. I have been harsher than usual to my sub-people, the Anglo Israelis.To make up for it, I’m posting a comment made to my Jumping in post on the Israelity edition. I’ve been getting support and perspective from different sources since that post… But this one totally threw me off: “Be proud that English is…

  • On lacking style… American style.

    The (typically quiet) religious Ethiopian Israeli girl in my class was up for talking about her thesis topic and getting suggestions. She began to describe her topic, having to do with religious authorities in Israel discriminating against religious Jewish Ethiopian practices. One student in the class, a (typically argumentative) Ashkenazi secular guy, offered some information…

  • Hamoos? Haamas?

    I guess my Microsoft Word is an old version. It doesn’t have Hamas in the spellcheck dictionary.

  • Anglos, Anglos, everywhere.

    Is it a coincidence that every semester so far, all of my professors have been originally Anglo except one? Is it strange that I’m always watching them differently than my peers – searching for clues for successful aliyah?

  • The evils of kugel – who knew?

    Apparently, people are unsure whether this is a joke or not: Hmm… I’m glad there are people out there worried enough about the evils of traditional Shabbat foods to hunt them down and make them assur… A quick explanation – It’s a notice hung up somewhere about how Yerushalmi kugel is now considered forbidden for…

  • The deal with the flip flops.

    “I guess you didn’t get the memo.”“What memo?”“That it’s raining.” Oh. I am not going to apologize for wearing flip flops in the rain. Or the cold. I just have a hard time keeping my feet locked up in shoes (or worse – socks). Does that make me crazy? Does that make me a hippie?…

  • Reverse Starbucks.

    I know this is old news, but nonetheless, I’m curious how the (newish) branch of Aroma, the Israeli coffee shop chain, is doing. They pulled a reverse Starbucks in July, importing Israeli coffee to New York (coffee capital of the world? Maybe coffee per capita). Location: Wooster Street, in NYC’s SOHO neighborhood.

  • Me and HaDag Nahash are not the same.

    My friend is moving to Tel Aviv (sad). I’m still trying to understand Tel Aviv, I really am. I encounter it every so often and recognize that it is it’s own culture, but I do not encounter it enough to truly absorb and comprehend. This is a list of all I ever need to do…

  • Winter's a-comin'.

    Opened the window today, and there it was – the first air, the first gust of that fresh, crisp burst of cold. I love the first breeze of a new season. Note: In two weeks, when it’s damp and miserable and I’m complaining, don’t remind me of this.

  • Movie review from the end of the world. And left.

    We just finished watching “Sof Ha’Olam Smola” which means, “At the end of the world, and left.” It’s an Israeli saying. The movie, in short, is about the immigrant scene in the late 60s, somewhere in the Negev; the government is desperately trying to fill the desert with people (the whole “make the dessert bloom”…

  • Jumping in.

    I made a commitment to myself that by the end of the second year of my aliyah, I’d feel comfortable enough with speaking Hebrew to ‘jump in’ and ignore the ice-cold water around me. Look, it’s hard. I feel slightly guilty speaking to Israelis in English, but the truth is it only comes up at…

  • The Bar Ilan professor warp.

    Finally. After a long year of dodging the language cracks –After a hope broken into pieces by constant disappointment –After a long, painful bureaucratic day of Israeli school – I found my true-to-the-core university experience at Bar Ilan. My last professor for today’s hectic schedule is the first professor at Bar Ilan that made me…