Sunday, March 8, 2009
It is our last week in Israel and we are saying goodbye to friends, getting ready to return home. Today was our last Hebrew class with Shelley. We've finished our darbouka lessons with Evan and enjoyed a lovely morning with Rabbi Bill Hamilton and his family. This country is preparing for Purim, which seems like Halloween, Mardi Gras and Christmas all rolled into one. Today we saw a big pink bunny riding a motorcycle in downtown Jerusalem. Sorry we didn't get the camera out fast enough.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
It is Shabbat afternoon, we managed to prepare lunch for friends Ammi and Anat from Haifa as well as Ronne and Bernard who are here with the CCAR. It's no easy feat to prepare lunch in a kitchen the size of a table, but we managed to pull it off. It's good soup weather! Jerusalem is finally getting some of the rain it needs so badly. It's windy and cold and Israelis are thrilled and grateful for every raindrop; I discovered that my winter coat is not at all rainproof. Last night, we walked in the pouring rain to the Jerusalem hotel to join a group of rabbis on a bus to Shabbat services in Mevasseret Tziyon. We were two cantors among several hundred rabbis who were divided up and hosted by different congregations around the country. The service was pleasant and the congregational participation was full-voice, but the music, except for one or two pieces, was shopworn and identical to Kol Haneshama and Or Hadash. There's a lot of Debbie Friedman liturgy here and it seems that the Israeli reform movement is badly in need of some new creativity. After services we were warmly hosted at the home of Shaul and Tania Feinberg, where we enjoyed a traditional Shabbat dinner with several of Shaul's rabbinic colleagues.
Last week we were delighted to have a few days "on the coast." Laura, Roy and I joined Henry and Laurie in Herzliyah--truly another world! After living in a kosher apartment in very kosher Jerusalem, it was a novelty to find ourselves in restaurants where they serve "shrimps" and hamburgers with bacon. Herzliyah was our base for a day of touring and "hiking" with Laura, Henry and Laurie. Our guide, Yuval, did the best he could working around the weather. We did manage to do some great eating. Our most challenging hike was Arbel, a mountain up in the Galilee. The pictures say it all...
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Laura arrived last night just as Shabbat was about to begin, a challenge for her sherut driver who insisted on driving through parts of town full of observant Jews who resent drivers on Shabbat. She joined us for Shabbat dinner after a walk through the new city. We enjoyed a traditional chicken dinner in our kosher kitchen--nice to pull out the meat dishes for the first time.
Today we toured the Old City, haggled with a few merchants in the shuk, but mostly enjoyed walking around the city on this warm and sunny winter day.
Tonight we will head out to dinner on Emek Refaim with the Wolks who are here with their grandson.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
It is Sunday evening and we have just completed our first week in Jerusalem. It's been a glorious week for us, sunny and warm. Great for us but not so for Israelis who are very concerned because the Kinneret has reached its lowest level ever and the Dead Sea is receding at an alarming rate. These drought conditions have been going on for several years. It's a far cry from the winter we spent here eleven years ago when it snowed at least 3-4 times!
We've had a marvelous week filled with hours of walking through the streets of Jerusalem. We celebrated Erev Shabbat at Kol Haneshama, then went to the home of our friends Evan and Don, for a lovely Shabbat dinner. Shabbat morning was spent at HUC where the first-year cantorial students presented a special service for Shabbat Shirah. We've loved living on Jewish time and were among the throngs at Machane Yehuda who purchase their challot, food and flowers before all the stores close down for Shabbat. Today we marked Tu B'Shevat with a seder at HUC. How much more meaningful this holiday is when not celebrated in the frigid Boston temperatures--the fruits are so plentiful and stores are filled with dried apricots, dates, almonds and figs.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Dear friends and family,
We leave tomorrow for Jerusalem, having had the most extraordinary week in Haifa. We have been welcomed with open arms and treated like royalty. Edgar and Deborah Nof, Ammi and Anat Perelman, and Yuri, the Or Hadash president, have been extraordinarily kind and generous, entertaining us and taking us to places that are totally off the beaten path. We've been to a winery where they make wines from everything from carrots to passion fruit, walked along the beach in Haifa with Edgar several times, eaten the best felafel in Haifa, enjoyed fabulous dinners and had the most remarkable experiences. Today was the first day it has rained in a long time; there is a drought and rain is badly needed. Ammi drove Julie Vanek, Roy and me to some beautiful places outside of Haifa. The highlight was a "Spice Ranch," a kibbutz that grows spices. One could spend the entire day there eating! In addition to a tremendous variety of spices, they have freshly made granola, halvah, soups, salad toppings, rice flavorings. Needless to say, we stocked up for our move to Jerusalem.
We finally did a little singing. We performed a little at the end of Shabbat services, also sang tonight after Havdallah. This is a marvelous, tight-knit Jewish community and we will miss being here.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dear family and friends,
We flew home from Buenos Aires yesterday and have a few days to get ready for Israel. Highlights of our six days in Buenos Aires were a comfortable bed, hot shower, food that was not ham and cheese, and Shabbat services at the Libertad Synagogue. We walked for miles, checking out the ice cream and the charming neighborhoods of the city that is one of the ten largest in the world. Summer in Buenos Aires is hot and humid, something that felt oppressive when we were touring but we appreciate a lot since returning to frigid Boston.
In contrast to the simple life of Patagonia, here we enjoyed steak dinners with Argentinian wine, tried all kinds of ice cream, and attended a Tango show that was quite a spectacle.
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