Archive for the 'general' Category
August 12th, 2008 by elie
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 anytime soon?” and it’s culturally acceptable.
Apparently, it’s not legally acceptable anymore:
“During job interviews, young women are still likely to be asked the embarrassing question: “Are you planning to get pregnant?” Yet there were amendments to the Employment of Women Law in the past year and a half that work in women’s favor, which all working women should know about.”
Womens of Israel! Know your rights! The issues will come up - whether it’s about marriage, pregnancy, breast feeding, kid care. Be aware of the laws and the system in place to protect you before you get there.
Here are some of the amendments in place (courtesy of Haaretz):
- A woman who misses work to breast-feed her baby, or due to a miscarriage, cannot be fired for 60 days after her return to work.
- A father’s unpaid paternity leave can be instead of his wife’s unpaid leave.
However, is it true, as some would argue, that “every amendment that benefits working women deters employers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, from hiring” them?
On the other hand, a hi tech CEO had this to say to negate that:
“Women, at least in high-tech are keenly aware of their rights. They tend to be more loyal to an organization than men. I will never forget [this loyalty] at the height of the high-tech bubble, 10 years ago, when not a single woman left us. If there are amendments to the law - this is natural and proper.”
Well, either way, as long as their are laws and amendments in place, it’s best for us to know about them so we can play by the rules out there.
July 22nd, 2008 by elie
The Bezeq parrot is back, trying to get at me with it’s creepy feathers via my Facebook account. I found this ad on there today:
Well, at least the Bezeq marketing plan includes social networking sites. Even if that means crazy alcoholic parrots.
Doesn’t he kind of look like Ehud Olmert from the neck up?
July 9th, 2008 by elie
I attended a fascinating discussion last night called “Piercing, Tattooing, and Cutting: Traditional Sources Meet a Modern-Day Trend.” It was held in Merkaz Edna and led by Sarah Halevi, a psychotherapist from Efrat.
It was basically a review of the connections and implications of self-marking from sociological, psychological and halachic vantages. While I didn’t necessary learn that much news, I did get a trip off hearing these issues discussed in a somewhat-public forum. The small audience was made up of a pierced girl who was probably younger than me, a girl around my age who is a social worker, two concerned moms (religious) and a very concerned set of parents (religious, somewhat naive).
Halevi summed something up that was definitely news in the way that I’ve never heard it put so simply before. She said she once had a student who explained to her the difference between American teenagers and Israeli teenagers when it comes to self-marking, drugs, etc.
American teenagers want to להכנס (come in) while Israel i teenagers want to לצאת (go out). The Americans are coming from a life filled with numbness and materialism; it’s empty and they need to prick themselves in order to feel alive. The Israelis live in a land of denial; they are expected to buck up and move on when a fellow student is shot and killed on the highway or an older sibling loses a limb in the army. They don’t get a chance to wallow or escape, so they do anything to remove themselves from the situation.
It can go either way, of course, depending on your family and social status, but in a general sense it was interesting. Definitely food for thought for the anxious parents present, who by the way, were all Anglos living in Israel… Maybe that has something to do with it?
July 4th, 2008 by elie
Last night I watched 3/4ths of Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.
Really, it was like any other Adam Sandler character acting film; Little Nicky, Waterboy. His extreme characters are not his strongest point for me (I’m more of a Billy Madison/Happy Gilmore fan). I’m always able to enjoy the twisted nature of his characters, yes, but at the same time, I feel lonely in that fact. Hence, only seeing 3/4ths of the movie; everyone around me was either asleep or unhappy.
Then again, it wasn’t like any other Adam Sandler character acting film. It was like a message of peace wrapped in ridiculous. I was pleasantly surprised by the handful of scenes that contained real dialogue and messages between the lines concerning the cyclical nature of Arab-Israeli violence.
I found it interesting that Sandler was banking on his audience to care for a movie with Arab and Israeli characters. A lot of the jokes totally ostracize people who don’t know much about Israel, while at the same time I think there could have been even deeper jokes for those of us who do. Why stop at hummus?
Of course, I can understand why the Israelis portrayed in the film are nothing like the Israelis in real life; similarly - and even more so - the Palestinians portrayed in the film are nothing like the Palestinians in real life. But I was not ready to get angry. It was half-baked satire, and that’s all i was expecting going into it.
I guess what bothered me more - because I was never going to take this movie all that seriously - Is that Adam Sandler is so much more than toilet humor. I don’t understand what goes through his head when he makes these character movies, which tend to blend together and lack finishing touches, as if he’s reaching for something but never quite there.
Leave that to Sacha Baron Cohen…
June 26th, 2008 by elie
Well, now I know what it’s like to wonder if you have rabies from a stray cat… in Israel.
Last night, hanging out in the hood, a small kitten - probably two months old - ran into our friends’ house and after several other attempts, we were resorted to chasing it into corners, until it got stuck and I grabbed it from the back. I held it out in front of me and raced outside while the kitten, stuggling furiously, managed to scratch my arm and hiss at me. Pretty normal cat captivity stuff, if you ask me.
I managed to chuck it over the gate (it’s true what they say about kittehs landing on their feet) and tend to my wounds. I knew deep down all was fine; the chances were ridiculously low and the kitten was normal looking, fearful and pretty much reacted rightly. But, I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t completely morbid inside, so I assumed that I was developing crazy-syndrome and should really go to the clinic in the morning.
The clinic led to the doctor, the doctor led to the Jerusalem Health Ministry to double-check and to record the case.
I will say this on behalf of the Jerusalem municipality: the Health Ministry was a pleasant surprise. Most people there - all colors and stripes and numbers of layers of clothing - were there to get travel shots. I went straight to the “kalevet” office (כלבת, rabies) and gave over my account. I was told to go see the in-house rabies/scary-spreadable-disease doctor and he was also quite pleasant. He calmly let me know there hasn’t been a rabies case in four years in the Jerusalem area, and that any cases they’ve had since then are from the Golan Heights.
So, if you live in the Golan Heights, watch out for stray kitties in your homes.
Here are the battle scars, in case you’re into that sort of thing:
Definitely a learning experience, albeit not asked for; except for maybe picking up a stray kitten in my bare hands. Last year I was bitten by a domestic dog in the States. I went through the mandatory morbid period and went in for a tetnis shot. Somehow, recording my case with the Health Ministry made me feel good. Like I was part of something bigger: a large potential-rabies pool.
As for the rest of my day? Let’s just say the rabies fears were the highlight. But that’s for another time.
June 22nd, 2008 by elie
It’s Sunday today, which really means it’s Monday - aka, the beginning of the work week - aka, I miss the weekend already.
Here’s a slice of my weekend so we can all treasure it together and breathe through to next Shabbat:
June 22nd, 2008 by elie
It’s Sunday today, which really means it’s Monday - aka, the beginning of the work week - aka, I miss the weekend already.
Here’s a slice of my weekend so we can all treasure it together and breathe through to next Shabbat:
June 13th, 2008 by elie
There are 87658345 reasons why it’s awesome to have a car, and today exemplified reason #5374, which is, freedom.
Today we ventured to neighboring Gush Etzion, where Rosh Tzurim (next to Alon Shvut) was hosting the annual cherry picking festival - פסטיבל דובדבנים 2008 בגוש עציון. We were going mainly for that reason, but the festival was also a carnival where vendors sold their wares (wines, olive oils, cheeses, clothes, etc), kids watched shows and played on rides.
You just have to love summer in Israel. The summer schedule is packed with family-centric activities, but those are my favorite kind, kids or no kids.
You also just have to love cherries. They’re pretty, delicious and so much fun when squished under your shoes. I hope they are good for you too, since they are the only thing I’ve eaten today.
May 28th, 2008 by elie
Since my self-mutilation on a roller coaster story formed, I’ve been making a lot of people laugh with it, and who am I to stop people from laughing? I’m reposting the tale for all of eternity:
This has to be my second most loserish thing I’ve ever done.
So last night I met up with two friends at Coney Island. They had never ridden the Cyclone, so we decided to take it out for a spin. Don’t know if you are familiar, but it’s the infamous 80+ year old wooden rickety roller coaster. I haven’t been on a roller coaster in years, let alone the Cyclone, and totally forgot that roller coasters move really fast. After the first fall, my glasses flew off and I freaked and managed to grab them, at the expense of losing my positioning. When I grabbed for them, we were going for the second dip (I think, who knows) and ended up punching myself in the face. My nose, to be exact. I could smell (and possibly taste?) my blood and thought, well I’ll have to deal with that later. Meanwhile, I was stuck in a terrible position for the rest of the ride and couldn’t steady myself. When we finally got off, I realized a few things:
1. There was blood splattered across my shirt.
2. I had somewhere along the way banged my head against the bar and had a bump forming, not to mention my little non-Jewish nose was becoming increasingly Jewish.
3. My neck and back were completely in pain, only to get worse by the hour (making the drive home interesting and making last night painfully sleepless and making packing my bags today painfully… obvious).
4. I am not as young as I feel.
5. An octogenarian had chewed me up and spit me out.
Sigh. The comfort is that I wasn’t an awkward 14-year-old on a first date. It could be a comfort, too, that I can pack a pretty mean punch when suspended in a moving vehicle going downward. And of course, I don’t usually mind making other people laugh at my own expense.
May 16th, 2008 by elie
With all the Israel at 60 talk going on, I can’t for the life of me remember the Israel at 50 celebrations, which I would imagine were a bigger deal, as the Jubilee number as well as the generally accepted major number in counting anniversaries. I wasn’t yet in Israel at that point, so maybe it didn’t seem as significant.
Today, while searching through my old bedroom, I came across this token:
Whatever I was doing, I must have received that pin. One clue to the ongoing mystery…