Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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Ynet's perception of Israeli soldiers on Facebook: Naked.
I gave away the punch line in the title, but there ain’t much more to say than that. Here’s the headline of a Ynet news article from today: Classified info exposed on Facebook Basically, some members of the Israeli security establishment were caught with photos of classified soldiers and locations exposed on their Facebook accounts.…
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Israeli Pet Peeve #127: Wrong number.
I have never experienced this anywhere in my life but here with my Israeli mobile number: *Ring ring* Me: “Hello?” Israeli caller: “Hello?” Me: “…hello?” Israeli caller: “Hila?” Me: “No, must be a wrong number…” (about to hang up) Israeli caller: “Who is this?” Me: “What’s the difference?” Israeli caller: “Hila?” Me: “No. Wrong number.”…
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The plumber just high-fived my husband.
We’ve been living here for two and a half months and I still can’t get over how freakin’ nice everyone is around Tzur Hadassah. My landlady is a complete doll (read: Polish) and gets everything fixed for us right away. She’s professional, polite and considerate. This is the exact opposite of the experience we had…
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Priorities, people.
I was passed an article about a Charedi wedding that took place after being protested by the bride’s parents and the “most prominent Orthodox rabbis.” The daughter of multimillionaires was sent to Israel to seminary and fell in love with a Charedi “yeshiva dropout.” They managed to get married yesterday after getting through protests from…
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A Passover theme to helping Sudanese refugees in Israel.
Pessach is a week and a half a way. Obviously I’ve been leaving everything until next week, but if you’re not, good for you. And if you’re trying to figure out what to do with all your leftover chametz – breads, pastas, crackers, snacks etc. – there’s a new idea beside selling it: The Jerusalem…
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My time in jail.
Remember the nationwide drill I wrote about? The emergency sirens went off today at 10 am all over the country, wherever you happened to be standing. And me? I was standing in Ma’asiyahu prison in Ramle. And let me tell you, it’s a little surreal to hear a siren go off in a prison. I…
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I heart the Tzur Hadassah medical clinic.
This is one of those moments when something really good happened and I have to share it with everyone I know. In marketing, we call that a sale. Last night I spent my time rolling around in bed and puking my brains out. Not really how I had wanted to spend my Sunday evening, but,…
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Today's word: שוקו ולחמניה
It must be Israeli food day at work. They just brought us a classic Israeli snack, and as one coworker remarked, “what are we, in kindergarten?” It’s שוקו ולחמניה, a white roll with “shoko b’sakit”, or chocolate milk in a bag: I realize how weird that may sound, but I guess that weirdness was broken…
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Nostalgia is like a box of chocolates.
A coworker, upon returning from vacation, brought a box of chocolate to share today, as per the office tradition. I don’t think she realized the excitement it would cause; she’s an olah like me. We found it very cute to watch the Israelis get excited about her choice: It’s a retro-style box of Elite chocolate…
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Are your medicines kosher for Passover?
Here’s reason #678 for aliyah: The Clalit health clinic, one of the four major health insurance programs in Israel, has a place on their website for determining if the medicines in your cabinet are kosher for passover. You can check it out here (works better in IE). You can type the name of the medicine…
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How they do humor in Tel Aviv.
I needed a sanity check and a little dose of big city, so we drove to Tel Aviv today, parked in the free city-sponsored parking by the Yarkon and then walked through the city for a few hours. It doesn’t take long before you realize that Tel Aviv has its own brand of humor that…
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