Nostalgia Sunday – Stuff we had to do without

November 24, 2008 - 12:41 AM by · 6 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Life, Nostalgia Sunday 

Stuff we had to do without
Back in the old days, children, not so very long ago, newly-arrived American immigrants to this dry and barren country could not buy chocolate chips for love or money.

Desperate for the foods of our native land, we took matters into our own hands. We made chocolate chips from what was available locally, stuffing a few Elite “cow” chocolate bars into a plastic bag and bashing away with a hammer. From the shards and cocoa dust, we fashioned cookies.

Moreover, there was no peanut butter. And so, we learned to roast and grind peanuts into a paste in our newly purchased 220v blenders (adding a half-cup of oil would prevent blade getting stuck in mid-grind).

There was no cream cheese to put on the New York bagels that in any case we did not have. Once again, ingenuity prevailed; we mixed one cup of yogurt with one cup of soft white cheese, hung the liquid in a cheesecloth bag over the sink and hoped for the best.

But perhaps our worst deprivation at this season, dear children, was the lack of cranberry sauce.

Emissaries were dispatched to bring us cans of the stuff. Sometimes they arrived, and sometimes they arrived bearing Tasters Choice instant coffee as well.

And when they did, it was surely a time for thanksgiving.

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Who are you?

October 6, 2008 - 9:05 AM by · 8 Comments
Filed under: General, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Religion 

magen-david.jpgOne of the reasons my wife and I moved to Israel many years ago, was so that our children would grow up in a Jewish environment and help build the Jewish state.
It’s quite a surprise 20-odd years later (and I mean odd), that we’ve instead raised a brood of Israelis.

Sure they’re Jewish, and the chances that they’ll marry Jews is pretty darn high compared to their chances of even meeting a Jew in New England, but I think that they would identify themselves as ‘Israeli’ before they would ‘Jewish’ – just like many American Jews would call themselves ‘American’ before ‘Jewish’.

Of course, in Israel, it’s almost impossible to separate Jewishness and Israeliness. The national holidays are Jewish ones, the national institutions are all kosher – even when secular grade school kids learn grammar, the examples might be well-known Biblical verse. But as those elements become part of you and second nature – especially if you’ve grown up like that since birth – it just becomes another part of being Israeli.

They willingly go to the army, pay taxes, hike the trails, and listen to Asaf Avidan, but not because they feel a sense of redemption of Israel rising from the ashes of the Holocaust, or the homecoming after 2,000 years of Jewish exile. They do it because it’s their Israeli culture. Sure, they’re patriotic about their country, but only as they would be about any country they were born in and grew up in.

But, is that enough? What’s to keep a young Israeli here – with high taxes, miluim, security threats as a constant way of life? The superior quality of the coffee at the cafes and the nightlife in Tel Aviv? That may work for a while, but unless there’s that historical, religious underpinning.

My challenge for the new year is to do a better job than I’ve done at nstilling that feeling in my children that there’s a special mission and privilege of living here – and that, in the end, you can’t really separate Jewish and Israeli.

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Life at the zoo

October 2, 2008 - 7:08 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Travel 

GorillaI miss being lazy. I yearn for the days of sitting around doing nothing on Friday and Saturday. Catching up on TV, lounging around, eating leisurely meals, etc. However, those days are over and will only be available again about 20 years down the line or so. It was a bit easier when my daughter was younger and napping twice a day. That was a guaranteed 4 hours I had to chill. These days she’s napping once a day for only an hour and a half. When she’s awake she is a high octane ball of energy and she gets bored around the house pretty easily despite the dozens of toys. With this in mind we recently purchased a membership to the Ramat Gan safari/zoo. We’ve been going pretty much every weekend for the two months and the reasonable cost for yearly membership has already paid for itself. A good, sound investment, and only 20 minutes away. She already knows her way around. She know the “elephen” is to the left and the “monkey” is to the right. She doesn’t care much for the birds. But said “woah” when a giraffe almost licked her. Her favorite animal is still the “beebras” (zebras). Its amazing how much she retains from the few hours we spent at the zoo. Just yesterday, five days after we visited she jumped on my wife’s back and said “tzofie baby monkey.” She now requests “baby monkey” every five minutes. I love this kid.

Some kind of varmint

Elephants in Ramat Gan

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