Lizrael Update

Month: August 2008

  • Lucky number 13.

    Here’s a subtle cultural difference you don’t think about that often as a dual New York-Israel citizen. In Israel – as in Judaism in general – 13 is a great number. It’s the number when a boy becomes a man, at least mitzvot-wise. In Anglo culture – or is it Christian culture? European culture?  –…

  • For purple mountain majesties…

    The following are 1/10 the amount of photos I took in the last 48 hours I’ve been in Colorado visiting family. It was hard to pick out just ten, and even that is a ridiculous amount to post. But guess what? The Colorado Rockies are breathtaking and I’m a country girl now. Ok, the Judean…

  • Only in America…

    There are certain things that are inherently American, like baseball and apple pie. To add to the growing list in my mind, I present to you… iPod vending machine at JFK airport: Starbucks drive-thru in Longmont, Colorado:

  • In touch with my American roots.

    After six months in England, I couldn’t stand it. In Israel, it’s really nothing special. But as an American female currently located in New York City, riding the subway, there is nothing sexier to me at this moment than a hot, sweaty, lacrosse player boarding the train, looking dazed and leaning over to ask me,…

  • The twisted mind of an expat.

    I’m in New York City for the next three weeks. On one stretch,  between my office on 35th to the bus on 42nd, I hear not one – not two – but three Hebrew conversations. I get on the bus, there’s a six pack of hard lemonade in my seat; former passenger leftovers. I drop…

  • My semi-Mehadrin life.

    Checked the mail today. Being in a  new district, outside of Jerusalem, makes for interesting mail. Tzur Hadassah is technically a part of Matte Yehuda (מטה יהודה) but it borders Beitar, which is technically in Gush Etzion, however… yeah. So in the mail, I usually get telephone books for different districts, catalogs for different shopping…

  • Doda? That's me.

    Last night I got to be the family member who picks up my cousin’s sick kid from a camping trip near my house. Basically, I have Israeli cousins up north, and they sent their daughter on a youth movement camping trip which was located about 15 minutes from my place. She had called them late…

  • Israeli working women: Know your rights!

    I was sent this article by a fellow Israeli working woman: Israeli working women: Know your rights Israel is a completely different ball game when it comes to employee privacy, workers’ rights and being a woman in all that. You can sit at a job interview and get asked, “Are you planning on getting pregnant…

  • And on the 7th day…

    It’s been a long, meatless week. We are coming to the end of the ‘Nine Days’, the mournful count between Rosh Chodesh Av to the Ninth of Av, or as it is (affectionately?) known as Tisha B’Av. During the Nine Days, we refrain from meat, wine, fancy entertainment. You know the drill. I’m tired of…

  • And now, a little bit about Gsus…

    Since I’m already on the topic of religion and conversion, and since Israel is a ridiculous place even without all that, here is an image courtesy of Tel Aviv’s Ibn Givrol that you can feel free to nail into your head… Does the crown of thorns come in extra small? Gsus Sindustries. Based in Amsterdam.…

  • A covenant, a conversion, a first.

    For me, there aren’t daily Israeli-firsts anymore; it’s more like periods of firsts washing up on the shore. I pick them up and hold them to my ear and listen to the waves of meaning they try to offer. At least, some of the time. I participated as a support/witness for a friend undergoing conversion…

  • The New York questions.

    When Israeliborns ask where I’m from ‘b’makor’ there are usually a few follow up questions that I get after I answer I’m from New York. Por example: Ahhh, so you lived/you have been to Brooklyn?! Are there a lot of Arabs there? Have you been to Harlem? Is it really scary? I wonder if you…