Category: 400 thoughts
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The Jewish State of education.
I feel a parental rite of passage has been reached tonight: next year’s daycare decisions. And so I begin the rant that I know others have had and yet here I am, new parent, new experiences, joining the fray. Someone explain this to me: This is a family-friendly country. Walk anywhere and easily spot a…
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Thankful.
Yes. I celebrate Thanksgiving. Every year. There are some modifications, of course. I serve the big holiday dinner on Friday night, since this Thursday is a weekday in Israel, like any other. I don’t have every exact ingredient; fresh cranberries are near impossible to come by out here. But I do manage to order a whole…
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Yeah, this still happens.
I was driving through the entrance of Beitar today. Ahead of me was the shiny white glow of the expansive charedi town, speckled with black movement. Behind me, in my rear view mirror, I could see the remnants of the sun facing Husan, highlighted by the giant minaret cracking the sky. And I thought, what the…
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Being a mom.
At this point in my life I’ve known two too many 12-year-old girls who have fought cancer and lost. The first time I was a kid. This time I’m a mom. Being a mom at a shiva call for a kid makes all the difference. There’s something about kids with cancer where they tend to…
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A bit about us.
We met during the Disengagement, got married during Lebanon II, were pregnant during the Gaza incursion, birthed our baby on Yom Hazicaron eve. Here’s to only good events coinciding between my national life and my personal life in the future.
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My own Israeli Australia.
Just left the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv. If you happen to be an Australian married to an American and you have children together, then I don’t have to tell you how much more of a pleasant experience it is to acquire Aussie citizenship and passport for your tri-citizen child. The embassy is located at…
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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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In three years.
In the last three years, give or take, I’ve gotten married, visited my husband’s home country located across the world, moved to the suburbs, got pregnant, completed the coursework for my Masters degree, gave birth to a son, grown three years older, three years wiser and three years happier. What have you done in the…
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Five years' time.
So, my son now has one of his three passports. The Israeli passport came in today and is it wrong to think, after seeing its expiration date of 2014, that it happens to be excellent timing in accordance with this headline from today’s Haaretz: Mossad: Iran will have nuclear bomb by 2014 Just saying.
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On kids, memorials, and what brings them together.
So it’s come to this: I go to Holocaust memorial services in Israel and all I can think about is how my kids may turn out in this culture. Well, in the first place, I have yet to be impressed by an Israeli-made Holocaust memorial service. They’ve lacked intensity, empathy and authenticity so far. It…
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The little vagina that could (or, My own monologue).
Six years ago I first started to understand the Vagina Monologues sensation while studying abroad at an English university. It was thanks to two lovely ladies who I befriended and who invited me to their rehearsals for the campus V-Day performance that year. I was intrigued and going through a period of introspection so I…
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What I like today.
I like that my company is sending gift baskets to two of our employees who are currently serving in the reserves. I like that the card made for them on behalf of the office is signed, “with love, from (the company) family.” I like that there’s this familyness to Israeli companies, Israeli society.