Month: September 2011
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Nothing like Chabad gan to start the year off righteous.
Like anything religious ever at all, the Chabad gan in Tzur Hadassah comes with its share of politics. Residents are wary over a charedi takeover. Some of the dati-leumi are at odds with the representatives. But me? I just love their gan. They run a tinokiya (baby daycare), peuton (toddler daycare) and gan chova (kindergarten).…
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Koala’s big boy party time!
On the last day of the year, here we are this morning, celebrating… Koala’s first full night with no motzetz! We had a minute or two of pitiful withdrawal face, and another 3 seconds of desperate thumb-sucking, but then he turned over and went to sleep. For the night! Toilet training has hit a new…
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PUTTING IT IN MY FACE.
The very best friends are the ones who won’t stop until you come to hang out with them in Tel Aviv and then when you’re finally there, a car ride, train ride, and bus ride later, present you with the very best stuffing-my-face-now-nom-nom-nom… Red Velvet. For months, I’ve been hearing about it and salivating over the pics…
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Aaaand, I’m officially *that* person.
I’m cutting up veggies for a salad. Huz picks up a bunch of lame lettuce leaves I’ve put to the side and throws them in the bin. “What are you doing?! I was going to put that in the compost bin I’m making!” He looks at me with wtf?! face. “Oh, I’m making a compost bin. I’m…
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The time has come to return to Israel.
They’re talking to you, Israelis. The Israeli government has been enticing Israeli ex-pats back for a while now. But it seems they’ve added emotionally heart-tugging videos to their Jewish guilt arsenal. The Returning Home Project – not just for born-diaspora Jews anymore. The campaign seems aimed at getting friends and family still in Israel to…
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You know you’re a successful immigrant parent in Israel when…
Are you an Israeli who grew up on the classics in Hebrew kids’ books? Did Ora Eyal draw your story time and color your imagination? Alternatively, are you an immigrant parent in Israel, reading your bilingual kid the classics? Loved this Eretz Nehederet clip from last season, where they reunite the now f-d up adult…
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Time flies when you’re pulling yourself across tiles.
One day, you’re nursing your brand-newborn in your bed at home. The next, (or 5.5 months later) you turn around for under a minute only to turn back and realize your baby is not where you left her, but rather pulling herself at a steady pace across the floor, reaching into the bottom shelf, pulling…
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1 in 4 Israeli elderly live below the poverty line (Shana Tova)
Quick shout-out to Ezrat Avot, in honor of the quickly-approaching Rosh Hashana, Jewish New Year… Back in my old job, around the major holidays, we’d band together and as an office, collectively donate around 20,000 NIS to Jerusalem-based Ezrat Avot. Even though we are no longer giving together, I do hope many of us continue…
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The first victim on 9/11.
Ok, I think this will be the last time I cry over 9/11 this year. No promises, though. A hero’s tale: Daniel Levin was murdered by the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11 just moments before they crashed it into the World Trade Center. A decade later, his family speaks for the very first time. …
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Don’t be colorblind.
Doesn’t matter which side of the line you’re on. Or which color: black, white, orange, blue, or a comfortable shade of gray. We might revere the S word or despise it. But we can’t ignore it. For any stripe, it’s important we all watch it happening, to be sure we are seeing with our own…
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The decade.
In the last decade… I woke up one morning and flipped channels until I found… I stared in horror at the TV… I helped fellow students as the Residential Assistant… I cried… I prayed for security… I went to class… I majored in Terrorism & War… I became a political activist… I watched the second…