Archive for the 'new york' Category
August 31st, 2008 by elie
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? - the number 13 is not a reference to the Bar Mitzvah, but an unlucky number that must be avoided. For my American side, the number 13 conjures up thoughts of black cats and witches; pretty much Halloween.
I have heard of very old-school high-rise buildings in New York that were built to ’skip’ the 13th level; who would want to live or work on such an unlucky floor?
That includes the office building where I work while I’m here in New York. Here’s the solution: 
A little American ignorance never hurt anyone, eh?
To be fair, Israelis (and Jews) are plenty superstitious. It’s just not concerning the number 13.
August 27th, 2008 by elie
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 Hills are not exactly breathtaking… Which is all the more reason my 12,000+ mile climb into the mountain range was so incredibly cool.
The road ahead… is long and winding.
On the way up, past a lake.
That’s a whole lotta trees… Jerusalem forest pales…
The ultimate view. A little bit of everything.
This kid actually scurried by, posed, and ran off with his friends.
This was over 12,000 feet up,
What a palette.
A rocky view of Rockies.
Do not mess with this guy on the side of the road.
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado: Stephen King’s inspiration for The Shining.
August 25th, 2008 by elie
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, in an English accent,
“This is the E train, is it?”
Even if he is wearing an NYPD t-shirt…
August 19th, 2008 by elie
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 everything and carry it over to the bus driver. Then I walk back to my seat and feel guilty that if it’s laced with explosives, I just killed him.
Yeah, that never gets old.
August 7th, 2008 by elie
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 could analyze that and decide what the undertones mean.
May 26th, 2008 by elie
It was my longest stretch between my last visit to the States, and I have compiled a quick list of things I’m mildly shocked to notice during the past two weeks I’ve been in New York:
1. Capitalism.
Oh, how I have forgotten this. My concept of capitalism has been dumbed down to long Supersol lines on erev Shabbat. The day I arrived in JFK, I had trouble remembering how to say the word for the big advertising message thingies on the highway… ah, right, billboards.
2. Water usage.
Not gonna lie: I get freaked out here how high the water comes up in the toilet before, even before flushing.
3. Tasteless produce.
My chicken soup is drastically different (and needs drastic amounts of salt) in this sad state. It’s also unfortunate how expensive it is to buy fruits and vegetables. The chicken may have been cheaper.
4. ‘curity.
I suppose there are different types of security. House security, car security, building security, financial security, emotional security… But none of the American types of security are Israeli security. It gets me every time.
5. Loneliness.
In my years as a resident New Yorker, I’ve felt hurried, hasty and rushed through crowds in New York City, but never lonely, not until now. It’s the first time I’ve felt alone in my city of bajillions of people.
May 25th, 2008 by elie
Today was the most bizarre day I’ve experienced in a really long time. The same day consisted of me holding the newborn boy of a girl I consider a cousin as well as punching myself in the face on Coney Island’s Cyclone.
This pseudo cousin gave birth to her first child deep into Saturday night. This afternoon I was on the Southern State to see and hold the closest thing I have to a blood nephew (I say that with all due respect to my nephews-in-law).
This was the first newborn in my adult life that I actually cared about before meeting it. I walked in the room to find my pseudo family wiped out with exhaustion, and my friend handed me the baby boy, a tiny package of 6 pounds and some ounces. He was absolutely beautiful, and if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, well, I had a lot to behold. New(!) mother also looked amazing; as her sister - the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister - told me about the birth, I couldn’t stop being so utterly proud of this little girl I used to play mattress-stairs with.
This experience just totally winded me; I didn’t know what to expect but felt so comfortable with it each second I was steeped in it. Family; new members of family. I’ve never witnessed it - or been a part of it to that degree - firsthand.
After I tore myself away from the family, I headed towards Coney Island to meet two college friends of mine. We strolled along the boardwalk and then figured, we’re already here, why not take a spin on the Cyclone? The Cyclone is a rickety decades-old roller coaster that is a rite of passage for New Yorkers born and bred. I’ve ridden the Cyclone; my father has ridden the Cyclone, my father’s father… that’s the kind of legend it is. It stands (and dips and dives) for the youth of the Brooklyn-bred.
The experience was everything the baby-beholding was not. Adrenaline pumping as we climbed into the car, profanities flying as we ricketed up the first curve. Somewhere around the second drop, my glasses came off. I realized it and quickly grabbed for them, getting myself stuck in a position of holding the seat bar instead of sitting back. Somewhere in that mess, I managed to punch myself in the nose, smell my own blood, hit my head and severely strain my neck. When the ride ended, I found myself speckled in red with my nose pulling a Pinocchio.
How had I gotten from holding a one-day old baby and being so moved I could barely talk, to icing my nose and not being able to move my head sideways? Or maybe the question should be reversed - when does this youth ride come to an end? When do you realize you’re pathetic for trying?
I feel young, and I know from family history I will feel young for a long time to come. But this is a different kind of young - it’s a youth based on a different kind of curiosity, not the kind pumped by adrenaline and profanities. This youth is not as bold, not as daring, not as stupid, but it is a journey of satisfying many of the questions I’ve held and learning the new questions to be asking. This youthfulness might not be any smarter than the past one, but it’s definitely not stupider.
Or maybe I have it all wrong; maybe I’ve been out of New York for too long and missed the message altogether. Maybe New York was asking me if I really feel up to being here. Maybe she has something to say for those of us who leave her.
Maybe Brooklyn was giving me a beating, showing me what it really means to come back.
May 15th, 2008 by elie
Usually when I touch down in JFK, flying over Queens at dawn, I get teary-eyed and patriotic for my hometown. I’ve been pretty emotional about New York since I left; even before I left.
Maybe it’s because I landed here today coming off the Presidents Conference, or maybe it’s been a year and four months since I’ve last visited, or maybe it’s all the changes I’ve undergone since last time I was in New York… But as soon as I saw the straight rows of yellow lights lining Far Rockaway from over the wing of the plane, I don’t know. I wasn’t feeling it. I missed the chaos of Jerusalem streets. I thought about the forest I live in, the bare roads I take to get to work. The green, the brown, the blue, the white.
Usually when I get into my parents’ car our of JFK, driving through Queens and Brooklyn, I get culture-shocked in awe of the bigness, the vastness that I have so quickly forgotten in three and a half years.
Maybe it’s because I have really built a quality life for myself, or maybe it’s because I’m doing more there in Israel than I ever imagined I’d be doing in the New York daily grind, or maybe it’s because in Israel, every single moment seems to count for something… But as soon as we passed the giant shopping centers, when I saw the first advertisements off the highway, and after viewing jeep after 4×4 after four wheel drive… I don’t know. I’m not feeling it. I just start to feel really bad for people living here.
Have I turned my motherland into a place for fun shopping? A place to be in awe, but in a not so comfortable way? And wouldn’t that make sense, that she did it to herself? Staring at these over sized products, overgrown people, at these American phenomena…
I’m interested to see how this develops over the next week and a half that I’m visiting New York. Is this a no-turning-back point for me in my aliyah or perhaps in my self-imposed American exile? Is this something we all acquire with age? Or with stepping back?
If nothing else, I am really enjoying walking barefoot over carpet and inhaling the fresh smell of hardwood floors.
March 29th, 2008 by elie
Over the past few months, I’ve been watching people come and go from Israel. I haven’t been back to New York in over a year and it’s nearly a year since I left the country at all. If you take a look at my past passports, you know that’s a bit insane.
At this point, I’m holding out for the summer, when I have a couple weddings I’d like to attend. I’d likely stay for a couple months over the holidays. Various family members, however, disagree and want me to visit ASAP.
We will see what happens with regard to New York. I’m losing my patience as far as leaving Israel for a trip to anywhere. I have time and I could have money.
Stay tuned…
May 2nd, 2007 by elie
Here is example #178 of something you’d never see handed out in Jerusalem:
I heard about these NYC subway edition condoms being handed out in a new campaign while I was in New York in February… I thought it would make the ultimate token of NYC love. My brother was kind of enough to mail me a couple. I hope that’s not weird.