Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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A Cable Story.
A couple of weeks ago we were sitting in the comfort of our main room watching a movie when we heard a knock at the door. At 9 o’clock on a Sunday evening in our badly-numbered building, it could only be a wrong number. It was not, indeed, a wrong number; it was two sketchy,…
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City feature: Yafo
This is Yafo or Jaffa, the second half of the area known as Tel Aviv-Yafo. Historically it’s always been a port city and today you can see the ancient ports as well as the modern docks. Its residents are both Arabs and Jews and has a healthy list of places to see and things to…
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March madness.
It’s March, a couple weeks before Pessach, and it’s snowing on and off here in Jerusalem. Ok, I guess that doesn’t qualify as madness, but I really wanted the title pun. Check it out, my boss sent this photo this morning from Efrat, where he lives: He’s also using it as an excuse to work…
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Lizrael update: it's been awhile.
Things have been hectic lately. My role at work has been expanded, I have enough schoolwork to keep me busy until Pessach and thoughts of moving out of Jerusalem loom in the back when I have time to give them room. So that’s what ‘real’ life is like, isn’t it? Work. School. Home. Commute. Weddings.…
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Aussie Aussie puns! Oy oy oy.
Sometimes, when a man loves a woman, and a woman loves that man, and that man happens to be Australian, you get to go to Melbourne for a month on holiday. So we’re going Down Under where Men At Work can sing freely along with the kookaburra as they dance the Waltzing Matilda until the…
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Underappreciated, overrated.
On one hand, we have this report coming out of the BBC World Service, saying that Israel has been voted the least popular country out of a survey of 12 countries (Iran and the U.S. come closely behind). On the other, there is this Happiness Map that shows Israel to be a pretty happy place,…
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Today's word: חברה
The first time I watched Adi Ashkenazi was when she did a bit on the chevre: what it is, where you find one, what it’s like to be a part of one. A chevre (חברה) is your group, company, your mates, whatever little society you are a part of. It might be the kids you…
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Example #732 of how weird Jews are.
Happy Purim:Wait a second, it’s missing something… Ok, now – Happy Purim: (What the hell is Purim? What the hell are these packages? Find out.)
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A clockwork smartness.
“It’s always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you’re going.” Anthony Burgess That’s Answers.com‘s quote for today and, at the moment, pertinent for me. Yesterday we attended a Shabbat meal that spurred a conversation – like most conversations these days –…
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City feature: Herzliyah Pituach
Feeling a pitzy homesick. Departing from New York tomorrow evening. Meanwhile, I’ll reminisce over summer 2004, before I made aliyah, when I spent 2 months living in Herziliyah Patuach, a gorgeous coastal city between Tel Aviv and Netanya.
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Acceptable for all ages.
I call it: Early Skepticism I’m wanting to express my religious frustrations but haven’t yet found the words, so this early photo expresses enough… The dual-feeling, the creeping skepticism, the blind acceptance, the sigh that wins over at the end of the day. Ok, fine, it was just a first-grade siddur party. But I do…
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Deliberate this.
I’m not a particularly nice person. And certainly not always thoughtful, either. But I guess leaving New York and living in Jerusalem for two years has ingrained in me a greater sense of respect; at least, respect that transfers from words to actions. So that’s why I was stunned when an old guy got on…
Questions? Comments? Advice?