The more things change . . .

November 15, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality 

Eliesheva reports:

Sign next to the elevators at Bar Ilan today (translated):

Please note. At the sound of the siren, please descend below to the bomb shelter in building 604, room 105.

I remember in 6th grade, learning about the 60s, and my mother telling me that in her day, in 6th grade, they had nuclear attack drills because it was the height of the Cold War. At the sound of the siren, they’d descend below to underneith their desks.

Personally, I prefer the bomb shelter.

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More sumo wrestling news from Israel

November 14, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Life, Pop Culture 

At the risk of making it seem that Israelity is the “Israel and Asia mutual admiration society” blog, I present to you, via Isrealli, the sumo wrestlers!

Tourists in Israel come in all shapes and sizes. North American, European, Asian. Backpackers, scuba divers, pilgrims, and retirees. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, you name it. And in case you think I’m exaggerating, I think the above video proves my point.

Israel is a country built for tourists. They’re everywhere – stopping natives on the streets of Jerusalem to ask for directions, sunning themselves on the beaches of Eilat, filling the nightclubs of Tel Aviv, and of course covering themselves in the mineral-rich mud of the Dead Sea.

But this I’ve never seen.
Wow.

Mind, the video is apparently from last June, but still fun.

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How do you say “Pass the hoummus” in Tokyo?

November 13, 2006 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business, Immigrant Moments, Travel 

As if she didn’t already have a lot going on, Stefanella has decided to embark on the study of Japanese:

I figured life here in Holy Land Central (HLC) isn’t interesting enough. I just finished getting out of boxes after a month’s house-search craze and while I run around seeing to official odds and ends in between work assignments I figured: Why not up the ante? After all, if things were slow enough to allow for an indulgent afternoon nap yesterday (shameful) then it’s time.

Enter…JAPANESE! Yup, time to learn a new language and not just any language, mind you. If it seems odd to be studying Japanese in these parts, check out this clip from my friend Nominally Challenged’s site [Sarah's note: the clip is below]. Now that’ll set your brain a’pondering.

Why Japanese? Friends have asked.

I think it’s a good language for the future and business and yes Cantonese may have been a wiser choice but of all the Asian cultures I was exposed to in San Francisco – the city demographic is nearly 50% Asian – Japanese appealed to me most.

I’ll let you know how it goes…


Oh yes, it is!

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Where everybody doesn’t know your name . . .

November 13, 2006 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Business, Food, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

strawberries

But they do know about esoteric Jewish ritual obligations. An anecdote from WestBankMama:

Israel excels in both its agricultural produce and its hi-tech industries. What is surprising is in what close proximity these two industries are to each other.

Westbankpapa learned this personally when he took a slightly different route home from work one day. Not two minutes from his job in a hi-tech industrial area he came upon a field of beautiful ripe strawberries.

The owner (presumably) had set up a stand to sell them fresh from the fields, and when my husband found out that they were organically grown, he decided to buy some as a treat for Shabbos. There were two prices – one for the almost perfectly shaped large berries, and a slightly lower one for the smaller and slightly mushed up ones (yes, that is a technical term!). Westbankpapa chose the better ones and paid the price gladly.

As he was turning to leave, the seller, who was not wearing a kipa (skullcap) quickly scooped up some strawberries from the cheaper boxes and put them in a bag, and handed them to my surprised husband.

“What is this?” he asked. “These are for you to take truma and maaser from” he answered. (Truma and maaser refers to the portion of the produce set aside for the Kohanim (priests) in the Temple. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem it was a religious obligation to set aside a portion of the produce and bring it to the priests. Now, even though the Temple does not stand, we still keep the laws of truma and maaser as “practice” for when the Temple will be rebuilt. Religious Jews do this when buying from a place where the Rabbanut does not do it for us).

My husband told him that he would have taken from the box that he had bought. The seller wouldn’t hear of it, and refused to take payment for the small amount in the bag.

Only in Israel – would a non-religious person know about truma and maaser. And only in Israel would we have to take them in the first place!

Needless to say my husband went back to this field almost every week, until strawberry season was over.

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So that explains it

November 13, 2006 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business, Food, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

With humor somewhat reminiscent of Woody Allen, Eliesheva explains her “Israeli supermarket inefficiency theory”:

Here is an amateur theory of mine:

Jews are a diaspora people forced into mercantile jobs and ghetto villages -> Jews organize their lives neatly within a ghetto-based society -> Ghetto is interrupted by the Final solution and Jews get homesick -> Jews return home -> Jews become Israelis -> Israelis find themselves using all energy, tactic and strategy in order to survive, at the behest of everyday needs -> Even after overcoming the survival threshold, survival takes precedent over everyday societal efficiency -> I wait in line at the supermarket for 20 minutes with only one person ahead of me.

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