When bayit becomes home

August 23, 2009 - 1:05 PM by Jessica · 2 Comments
Filed under: General 

n505022728_1241730_1419Last week marked the third year anniversary of the aliyah of my sister, brother-in-law and three nephews, Beth, Ira, Natan, Gabe and Akiva. It’s hard to believe that three years have passed, particularly since we — the rest of my family — waited so long for them to move here. And what once seemed like an impossible dream [natch, Don Quixote] actually happened. We are all, that is, my three siblings and their families, and my mother, in Israel.

It’s a somewhat bittersweet anniversary given that my father, the original Zionist among us, died this summer after a long illness. In fact, he was diagnosed just one day after their arrival. But I’m still going to take this opportunity to look back on their three years, which I see as a real triumph, attesting to their sense of adventure, flexibility and unique personalities.

When they came, my nephews were 16, 13 and 9 years old. Akiva, the youngest, who has Down Syndrome, was the easiest to place in a framework and ended up going to the Feuerstein School, which has been a fairly good fit for him. Hebrew has also proven to be an easyish transition, as he’s got a knack for languages and now relishes using the vocabulary that he’s learned. Gabe is now 16 and as a former homeschooler back in Brooklyn, had a few false starts before he ended up at the Democratic School, a place where you may not do much formal learning, but where he’s learned a mean game of ping pong, made many friends and become a skateboarder. Natan, now 19, has probably had the sharpest learning curve, having started at Reut, a local middle/high school, spent his senior year learning ‘externi’ and then entered the army last fall as a ‘jobnik.’ He had a few false starts, including writing a blog for which he was reprimanded and had to stop writing, but he’s pretty happy, having ended up with a likable Druze commanding officer and a job that has its moments.

As for my sister and brother-in-law, they’re also finding their way, with the expected ups and downs of a major move when in your 40s. They both started out taking ulpan, which my brother-in-law has continued with, although I suspect he does so more for seeing his ulpan friends than for improving his diction. My sister has embarked on many a project, as is her penchant, including starting Shutaf, a ‘kaytana,’ the local word for daycamp, for special needs kids and their regularly-developing friends, which meets three times a year, on Chanukah, Passover and summer vacations.

Life isn’t perfect, in case I’m being too cup half-full. They have a tough landlord (”What’s wrong with a twenty-year-old faucet?”), the ongoing challenges of an extremely special needs son, professional travails and missing the very good chevre they had back in Brooklyn, as well as my brother-in-law’s family.

But I’m pretty sure they’re happy with their decision, and that if pushed, they’d do it all over again. Their new place has become home, despite the ongoing challenges of life in Israel. As my nephew Akiva likes to say, “Let’s go home to the bayit/house.”

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A new driver in the house

May 24, 2009 - 8:16 PM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life 

drivingI recently posted a status update on my Facebook account announcing that my 17-year-old daughter had passed her driving test, and we were now a four-driver family. The reactions were interesting – most of the Israeli responses were enthusiastic ‘mazal tovs’ while most of the American reactions were tempered with ‘oh dears’ and ‘why are you Israelis so happy, there’s another teen driver on the road.’

Well, we are quite happy for her, especially since it was her third test. That’s no reflection on her driving, as most young drivers here fail repeatedly at the hands of the driving instructors, who seem to follow their whim as to what the criteria is on a given day. It’s a wonder that Israeli drivers are as reckless and undisciplined as they are considering how much more difficult it is to acquire a license here than in the West.

After the first two tests, and 28 lessons with an instructor, we had to tell her she was on her own, and if she wanted another test, she’d have to finance it herself. Which she did, which I’m sure added to the satisfaction of the moment for her.

The other reason we’re not upset at all, is that despite having four drivers, we only have one car. So realistically, her actual driving time isn’t going to amount to much for the time being. Plus, she’s required to drive with a parent in the car for the first year. So, despite the young driver, we’ve still got her at arms’ length for a while.

Of course, it would be nice to be able to send her to the makolet for some milk and bread, or take her brother to his guitar lesson. But by the time she’ll be able to do that, she’ll be in the army – where maybe she’ll learn how to drive a tank.

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Overdue kudos for winged communicators

April 10, 2009 - 7:54 AM by Harry · 1 Comment
Filed under: History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, Technology, War 

Soldiers with pigeonsAfter reports surfaced that Hezbollah had succeeded in eavesdropping on IDF soldiers talking on their cell phones during the Second Lebanon War, the army began investing heavily in creating its own proprietary, super-secure cellular network, dubbed Afik Rahav (”Wide Channel”).

But even in the “resounding success” of the latest round of military action against our enemies, this past winter’s Gaza operation against Hamas, was marked by some cellular communication backfirings, as both the IDF and Hamas attempted to rile up the general public on the opposite side by placing calls to random numbers.

But back in the day, communications among and with forces in the field were even trickier. Pre-state Zionist military forces used the low-tech method of carrier pigeons to get messages around the land, and recent Ha’aretz coverage of the aviary units has succeeded in prompting the IDF to honor its communications-minded predecessors.

In December, the newspaper reported that the Haganah’s dovecote at Kibbutz Givat Brenner was in danger of being destroyed and petitioned to preserve it, following Shaul Sapir, 81, who delivered the Haganah’s pigeons, and Aharon Landsman, 73, who trained them, as they visited the dovecote. This would have been a shame, since the Tzrifin base’s “monument to the unknown pigeon” (for real) was retired long ago, with few testaments remaining to remind us of the once-crucial section, which was incorporated into the IDF in the Fifties.

Then, a few weeks ago, the paper reported with glee that amid great fanfare and top-brass attendance,

Pigeon trainers who dispatched carrier pigeons for the Palmach and Haganah, the Yishuv’s military forces, were invited to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Israel Defense Forces Teleprocessing Branch at Tel Aviv University….

Senior Field Commander Major General Ami Shafran spoke glowingly of the pigeon corps, giving respect where it was finally due:

“The pigeon trainers from kibbutzim Ramat Rachel, Beit Hashita, Mishmar Hashiva and Negba, and from the dovecote at Givat Brenner, are some of those who laid down the [nation's] infrastructure, and they are a part of the strong foundation on which our present capabilities were built.”

Image courtesy Copper Kettle from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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Would-be women of the IDF busted shirking and snogging

March 20, 2009 - 10:54 AM by Harry · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, War 

Religious teen women of IsraelThe way the Israeli army interfaces with religion is not so straightforward, which makes sense in a land where the separation between synagogue and state is still being sorted out. The IDF’s Rabbinate came under scrutiny this winter for attempting to boost soldiers’ morale on shaky theological grounds.

And the Rabbinate is notorious for being stingy when it comes to handing out shaving exemption papers for soldiers looking to be able to wear beards based on their interpretation of Biblical commandments, sometimes telling soldiers that they’re “not religious enough” to qualify for the exemption. But if it’s a rabbi’s goal to foster observance, he ought to embrace the individual’s interests, regardless of that individual’s flaws or hypocrisies.

In a society where we are constantly being pigeonholed due to what we’re wearing on our heads and elsewhere on our bodies, I don’t know about you, but my inclination is to say, “Please don’t put me in a box. I’m a real person, not a tidy category.”

Of course, embracing the religious grey area gets trickier when we’re talking about exemption from serving in the army altogether. Ditching the draft is relatively common among Israel’s Orthodox, for better or for worse, and the mechanisms for obtaining exemptions on religious grounds are relatively straightforward, making pleading religious a tempting option even for those who might not necessarily truly have theological qualms with the experience of being a soldier.

After years of turning a blind eye, more or less, to this phenomenon, the IDF is getting smart and trying to crack down on young women who “lie” and plead religious. Sure, it’s possible that a young woman who is too observant to serve, whatever that means, might experience a lapse in faith, but in general, if the army’s detectives catch you making out with someone, you should probably suit up.

“We need those girls, Lt. Col. Gil Ben Shaoul, deputy commander of Israel’s military recruitment center,” told The Associated Press.

The Israel Defense Forces says the surveillance program began last year and has caught 520 young women, many who admitted they did not deserve the religious exemption and signed up for military service.

….Catching the draft-dodgers is fairly straightforward: It takes one weekend, said Ben Shaoul. The young women are usually caught driving on Saturday, drinking or smoking.

Many who attempt to shirk the draft justify doing so on the grounds that women aren’t given “real” opportunities in the IDF.

“I served for two years doing nothing. All the girls do nothing,” said Shiran Cohen, 24, a university student. She said she was assigned to check on ammunition stockpiles during her service, but was frequently sidelined by men in her unit.

Although being a woman in the army can’t be easy, this excuse simply doesn’t hold water. I have fond memories of my days serving in the IDF’s Shiryon (armored corps) unit, where everything I learned about tanks was taught to me by women.

On the first day of tank training, the training officers took me and my fellow conscripts out to the open field and gave us a powerful demonstration of tank maneuvering and weaponry. The audience loved it. When the demo was over, the tanks pulled around and parked by the bleachers where we sat. The hatches opened, and out came four women from each vehicle. Surprise surprise. The bleachers shook with hooting, extra applause and jumping up and down as a special reaction for the ladies. It was a bit embarrassing, and it might serve to highlight how rough it must be to get respect as a woman soldier, but the point is that the opportunities are there for those who are motivated to go after them.

Image of Israeli modern Orthodox teenage women courtesy sethfrantzman from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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