The Levinski market in TLV (photo credit: FreeIsraelPhotos.com)

Seriously, though, a one-day, minor holiday became a four-day celebration in our life and my kids’ gan, beginning Tuesday, into the actual day on Wednesday, and then bringing home the ‘fruits’ of creation today, including ‘potted’ trees made of styrofoam peanuts and the de rigeur plastic cup full of dates, figs and raisins. To complete the season, tomorrow is the gan trip to a citrus fruit orchard at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, where they will sum up a month-long lesson plan on trees, fruits and how things grow.

In truth, unless you’re invited to a Tu B’shvat seder or have a child bringing home the signs and symbols of the day — sometimes the only connection you have to Tu B’shvat is seeing and buying mounds of dried fruit (Ynet reported NIS 200 million in sales of dried fruit over the holiday) from the store. Unless you actually went out and planted a tree, as many do, really. But despite my gentle cynicism, it’s been interesting to note its comings and goings and see how people relate to it.

I noted on Facebook that some of my more religious friends were discussing the issue of eating dried fruit as opposed to fresh fruit on Tu B’shvat. This blogger comments that we eat dried fruit because our ancestors did, given the lack of fresh fruit during the winter, when Tu B’shvat is celebrated. Makes sense, and as I passed a carob tree on the way home, I picked a piece off — it’s not really the season now — and munched on it.

And, in the spirit of the day, I took myself out to our backyard, where I haven’t spent much time lately, and wandered around, appreciating the fresh pink blossoms on the peach tree and the various winter bulbs that are starting to peek out of the ground. The shkedia, the almond tree, that is sung about during Tu B’shvat is in full bloom right now, and there are pink-blossomed trees all over the place.

Finally, I am thinking about making this chicken recipe, or a version of it, for dinner on Friday night, even though it’s days after the actual ‘chag’, it’s still good to celebrate. As the Israelites like to say, ‘siba l’mesiba’, a reason for a party.

From Cookkosher.com via Ha’aretz:

Tu Bishvat dried fruit chicken rollup
Prep time: 20 minutes
Level: Medium
Serving/Yields: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
4 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts (double)
¾ cup diced assorted dried fruit (apricots, dates, raisins, figs)
4 tbsp pine nuts
2 eggs
½ tsp paprika
1 cup flavored cornflake crumbs
Oil, for frying

Preparation:
1. Pound each double chicken breast thin, and set them aside.
2. Combine diced dried fruit with the pine nuts and set aside.
3. In a bowl, beat the eggs with a fork. Mix in, adding paprika, and set aside.
4. To assemble: Place a pounded chicken cutlet in front of you; position it lengthwise. Place two Tablespoons of dried fruit filling across the middle of the chicken. Roll up the chicken breast tightly and carefully; beginning from the narrower end. Make sure all the filling stays inside.
5. Using both hands, transfer the roll into the beaten egg mixture and then into the cornflake crumbs. Coat it well. Place the roll on a clean surface. You can now secure any ends with 1 or 2 toothpicks if necessary.
6. Repeat with the remaining cutlets.
7. Heat the oil in a frying pan. When the oil is hot, place the rolls seam side down into the pan. Fry them until they are golden brown, turning the rolls so all sides are done. If necessary you can leave the toothpicks in place.
8. Make sure the flame isn’t too high; you want to be sure that the filling is cooked without burning the outside. When the rollups are ready, remove them from the pan and drain them on paper towel.
9. Let them cool slightly, cut them on a diagonal into round slices, and serve.

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Baby in Bamba

Her sidebar of French lessons includes:

Children should say hello, goodbye, thank you and please. It helps them to learn that they aren’t the only ones with feelings and needs.
When they misbehave, give them the “big eyes”—a stern look of admonishment.
Allow only one snack a day. In France, it’s at 4 or 4:30.
Remind them (and yourself) who’s the boss. French parents say, “It’s me who decides.”
Don’t be afraid to say “no.” Kids have to learn how to cope with some frustration.

I chuckled as I read this, because as an American mother in a foreignish land — Druckerman is an American living in Paris — I think about this all the time, wondering if my kids will turn out differently than their American counterparts, or if they’re already different, which they probably are. And if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.

So if I were to look at that list and the general tendencies of Israeli kids, I’d say the following:
1) They know to say hello, not so great at goodbye, thank you when prompted and please, well, it depends.
2) Big eyes on misbehaving? Interesting idea, but I am Jewish, and, now, Israeli. Yelling comes naturally.
3) One snack a day? Lol. This is Israel, where snacks are built-in to the educational system. Moreover, parents think nothing of putting raspberry-flavored water in their bottles, chocolate spread sandwiches for lunch and Bamba for snacks.
4) Who’s the boss? Oh, they know. I think.
5) Saying no. That, I agree with. Just gotta be brave.

So, I would venture to say that the French rules of thumb make sense, but you know, so much depends on where you live and what’s going on around you. This is a land that worships children, where every kind of restaurant has highchairs and people schlep their kids everywhere. Do Israelis spoil their children because they know they’ll be going into the army in 18 years? I’m not quite sure, but I’d be happy to hear from anyone out here.

Comment away.

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In all its glory...my local recycling cage.

That’s meant schlepping bottles in the car, on the stroller, on the way to this or that, and having a stockpile of them in the house at all times. And I can finally get rid of the batteries that have been piling up in my front closet for months because I can never find battery recycling anywhere.

In fact, I’ve been so frustrated about the state of recycling in my neighborhood that I recently wrote a piece about it for JTA, which was just published the other day. You can read it here, and one interesting fact is the following:

“According to Chagit Hoshen, the marketing manager of ELA Recycling, the nonprofit organization that handles recycling collection countrywide, an average of 41 percent of plastic bottles were recycled in 2011. Once the recycling rate reaches 50 percent, the organization says it will build a factory for the production of plastic bottles containing 40 percent recycled raw materials.”

At the same time, at least in my city of Jerusalem, many people still don’t recycle, and I often see neighbors simply throwing out their plastic bottles with the trash, just like they think nothing of tossing garbage out their car windows or sweeping the dirty water gathered from washing the floor out their front door. Of course, that’s not everyone, and there are many Israelis, both native-born and immigrants who take their recycling seriously and will gather their bottles, their cardboard and their tin cans and compost and deposit it in community gardens, community bins and other recycling centers.

In any case, it’s a start and one that I’m excited to begin using.

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A little background: From posts I’ve gathered from Facebook, emails and YouTube comments, Broza was flying to New York — his fiance, clothing designer Nili Lotan, also Israeli, lives in New York — on January 3, and one of the flight staff, who are all generally young, out of the army, sometimes simultaneously in university, asked him for a song. And as he has before, and as he does in his often intimate concerts, such as one he recently did for
the Masorti center in Tel Aviv (he belongs to Kehillat Sinai, a Tel Aviv Conservative synagogue), he sat himself down in the galley, and sang an old favorite, Sigaliot, Violets:

Here are the lyrics, in English, for edification.

VIOLETS

She got married and she is happy
in spite her husband being wild
all the time he is in a bad mood
and even doesn’t know why
for the last three years, she receives
under the door, from an unknown man,
letters of poetry to her
they lighten up her youth.

Who is writing to you, girl, who sends you flags
a bunch of purple flowers when spring comes
who, every ninth of November,
with no name, greetings or hint,
sends you a wreath of violets tied with a bow

The whole night she can’t fall asleep
she day dreams about him
probably a man with a romantic heart,
good soul and simpatico smile
for three years she has been suffering in silence
yes sometimes she nearly screams
and what if her husband found out?
she hides her letters

When her husband comes home from work
throws a questioning glance
He doesn’t say anything,but he knows,
if she knew she would go crazy
Yes, it’s him that writes to her,
he is the lover, he is the subject of her dreams
And what if her husband found out?
She hides her letters.

Who is…

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The Gad cheese grandfather

Carpet tiles (Photo credit: Tchochkes)

But the point of the video, says one commentator, is to recognize the metaphor of the movie. The peak in life, is not necessarily the refrigerator shelf, where it appears that everyone should be situated. But rather, the garbage pail, which may represent the margins of society or a greater mix of products, may offer more self-expression, and, more happiness.

It’s good to get the inner meaning, but you can just appreciate the clever aspects of this student project that has already been viewed more than 30,000 times.

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This photo, of which there was a similar one in today’s Ha’aretz, shows deer walking around in the Odem or Red Forest, the largest nature reserve in the Golan Heights. I love the photo because it doesn’t seem like it could have been taken in Israel, as deer with antlers, romping in the snow, look so foreign to these parts. But Odem is a fairly magical forest, with deer, ibex and gazelles wandering around, overlooking views of the Golan mountains and Mount Hermon.

The forest and the moshav of Odem are located on Mount Odem, which is 3,580 feet above sea level, making it the second-highest town in Israel, after Neve Ativ, which sits on Mount Hermon. Odem, the moshav, has a few business concerns, but most interesting, perhaps, is its winery, Har Odem Winery, which is worth checking out, especially if the snow has melted by the time you get up there.

Why? It was a rainy weekend over here, and that rain translated into snow up there, where a meter of snow fell on the Hermon, Israel’s ski resort mountain, and nearly as much in other northern towns, including Tzfat and other peaks in the Golan Heights.

Of course, once there’s news of snow, the whole country heads up north to see it for themselves, as snow days are few and far between in these parts. The deer, however, get to revel in it as soon as it starts falling.

Lucky. I’m gonna try and join them this week.

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Avraham Michaeli, sponsor of the new bill

I first arrived in Israel in January 1984. At the time there was a rule from the Interior Ministry that one could only remain in Israel 365 days on a tourist visa before one’s “aliyah rights” started to kick in.

For anyone even vaguely considering one day immigrating to Israel, having any of those rights lost or shortened was a big deal financially. They included the amount of time one could buy a car at a discounted rate, similar reductions on rent subsidies, special deals on tuition at university and more.

Since I was planning aliyah, but was in Israel during those years as a tourist, I carefully calculated exactly 364 days in the country and left on that day, only returning when I formally moved here. This represented a significant hardship at the time: I had to leave both my job and girlfriend (the story does have a happen ending: we eventually got married and made aliyah together).

So it was with some surprise when I read a report in Haaretz that a bill in the Knesset sponsored by Shas MK Avraham Michaeli would permit Jews to live in Israel indefinitely on a tourist visa without ever having to formally immigrate (or lose their rights if and when they did make aliyah).

Michaeli’s rationale is that most people, if they stay here long enough, will eventually settle down, vote, and pay taxes like the rest of us, and that forcing them to leave reduces the chances of a future aliyah.

Israeli immigration officials are highly critical, asking why some people should be permitted stay in the country without the burdens the rest of us have – like serving in the army.

The bill has some strong public supporters. Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky supports it, citing birthright as an example and saying, “The more Jews spend time in Israel, the stronger is their Jewish identity and there’s also a bigger chance that they will make aliyah. If you want more aliyah, there should be more Jews.”

Taking the opposing view, a former emissary for the Jewish Agency, Akiva Werber, felt that 27 months (according to rules, revised since my days here in the early 1980s, the amount of time one can now stay in the country without becoming making aliyah or obtaining temporary resident status), was enough to make a decision whether “to share our mutual fate as citizens or not.”

As for me, while such a change in the law would have helped me, I too don’t want to be an after-the-fact freier (the classic Israeli epithet for “sucker”), even if everything worked out just fine.

The bill is probably a tempest in a teacup and is unlikely to pass. After hearing objections, Michaeli instructed the ministries involved to decide “what makes sense from a professional point of view” and report back to him with proposed changes. He said he will consider those changes and then determine whether to amend the bill or continue to push it as is, according to Haaretz.

In any case, the Knesset session on the proposed change has been adjourned for the next two weeks.

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The first episode – aired by Reshet on Channel 2 on Saturday night – scored 43.4 percent rating of 1.6 million viewers. Remember, we only have eight million people in the whole country.

Just like the US version features celebrity judges/coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton, the Israeli edition has its own star lineup – Sarit Hadad, Rami Kleinstein, Aviv Geffen and Shlomi Shabat. It’s been hyped to the hilt on TV promos, and newspaper features, so the anticipation for the first episode was high.

The premise of the show is centered on a blind audition process. The judges, with their seats turned away from the seven performers, have the length of each audition to decide whether to turn their seat around and pursue the singer for his or her team (and a season’s worth of coaching, performances and competitions) only by virtue of listening.

Among the seven competitors was one who raised the eyebrows of native English speakers – 23-year-old Kathleen Reiter, a new immigrant from Quebec. She belted out a version of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” that had the judges swiveling around and facing her in seconds.

“How many years have you been here?” asked Kleinstein.

“I just got here a few days ago,” Reiter answered in fluent Hebrew, to the astonishment of the judges.

“Your voice is huge,” said Hadad, trying to recruit her with a common bond of “girl power.”

Geffen told her that he had a warm place in his heart for Montreal, where he frequently performed, and Kleinstein summed it up, saying “One thing is clear – we all want you.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reiter eventually chose Hadad, and this weekend’s show will indicate whether she made a good choice. In the meantime, she’s happy to be in her new country, albeit equipped with decent Hebrew thanks to her upbringing with her Israeli parents who moved to the Montreal area from Kiryat Haim before she was born.

“I don’t know what the future holds, but I know that this is an amazing opportunity for me and a great start to what will hopefully be a great life here in Israel,” she told me during the week after her debut.

It’s not a bad start, indeed. How many other North Americans get off the boat and become national TV fixtures in their first few days in the country?

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Chefs at work at Machneyuda

Anyway. I was pleased to find that they quoted Asaf Granit, one of the chefs from the very popular Machneyuda, which is in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market and is considered one of Israel’s top restaurants right now. Unusual, really, as Jerusalem is seldom considered the have the best of anything trendy in this country. We may not care, but, sigh, I guess I do. So his contribution to this piece about coming up with unusual dishes was the following:

“Last week, there was a married couple and four young women here for a bachelorette party. We quickly got into a very interesting discussion and I decided to prepare a dish of beef tartare for them – right in their hands,” says Granit. “We put on their hands a layer of beef, onion, parsley and capers, all minced. We squeezed on some fresh lemon, drizzled a little olive oil, and all they had to do was lick their fingers.”

A traditional mahlabia

Lovely. And, finally, a quote from Itai Rogozinsky, who owns the Vaniglia ice cream parlor chain and is most proud of his frozen yogurt made with rosewater, roasted pistachios and apricot jam, kind of a takeoff of mahalabia, a pudding dessert that is popular in many Arab countries. How does this boy who says the yogurt is “a nostalgic reminder of his childhood in Kochav Yair” — a suburban town east of Kfar Saba that has been around about 25 or so years, created by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to solidify the Green Line — know about mahalabia? Probably from the excursions his family used to take to nearby Nablus, Kalkiya and Tulkarm, three Arab towns in the vicinity.

It’s all good, drawing from memories and good flavors to create new tastes. And, interestingly, way down in the article an unnamed source commented that Israeli chefs just travel abroad to the chicest restaurants and come back to copy what they ate there. Would have liked a little more on that idea. Just a little context would help, oh Ha’aretz editors.

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The new guy

And, like Fischer, Levin also speaks Hebrew, not however, as well as Fischer; not yet, that is.

What Teva is known for...

Of course, it’s a fairly major deal to become the chief executive of Teva, which has become one of the world’s largest drugmakers. But nice to know they also require their chief to be a local.

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