Category: aliyah rites
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The truth about sabras.
I’ve been in this mood lately… I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it’s this subtle hostility I’ve been feeling towards my Israeli surroundings. Perhaps it was the head-on collision between two cars on the Beit Shemesh road (speeding drunk teens versus middle agers at 5pm). Perhaps it was the pointless fire in my…
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Ancient lizrael history.
Subject: update from the mideast Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 09:30:06 -0400 hey friends, i honestly dont think ive felt this happy in years. im in a place where i belong and im having an incredible time. its so real and unbelievable at the same time. i never understood those ppl who go to…
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American taste since…
Ah, the good old days. Pesach celebrated with the family back in America. My grandmother’s Sephardi dishes, my brothers’ haggadah-reading entertainment. And of course, who could hold an American Pesach seder with the family without this gem of an experience: Kedem grape juice! I know plenty of American olim who claim that it’s better than…
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I need to be schooled.
Today we volunteered at a ‘shuk kach-ten’ – kind of a giant yard sale where you bring junk and take other people’s junk. It was at the elementary school in Tzur Hadassah. It was also the first time I have entered an Israeli school while it was in session. Kids running everywhere. Not unlike my…
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Support from the inside.
Since motzei Shabbat, I, like everyone else, have been watching as Gaza, the news and – at least my – inbox have exploded. And by inbox, I really mean all forms of electric communication. I’m getting messaged, emailed, SMS’d, tweeted: Help organize food and supplies to Israeli border towns! Host a family from the south!…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Typical Israeli supermarket conversation.
Russian man with silver teeth: grumbles something in heavy accented Hebrew (or maybe it was Russian?) and points to a package of frozen dough Me: “Slicha?” Russian man with silver teeth: grumbles something else in Hebrew, pointing to the price Me: looking confused Russian man with silver teeth: smiles big, “Aaah…. Priveyet, russian russian russian…
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Turning new olim into reality TV.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just keep a blog? There is a new show going into production called HaOlim (“The New Immigrants”) which is a sort of Real World for new immigrants to Israel. As Jewlicious reports: “So the concept is pretty straightforward. Eight young olim from different countries live together in a big house…
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An Israeli county fair in the dream of aliyah.
Spent the evening strolling around the Yom Haatzmaut celebration going on in the Tzur Hadassah elementary schoolyard. Clowns, kids, silly string, shaving cream, noise makers, cotton candy, lights, balloons… This no singles’ event. I started reading old entries from a few years ago, describing my purpose for moving to Israel, my role in the aliyah…