When’s the right time for a rite of passage?

October 15, 2009 - 12:32 PM by Gilah · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel, health 

It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
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Cops and robbers on Shabbat in Jerusalem

March 15, 2009 - 5:12 PM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, coexistence 

The scene of the crime.

The scene of the crime.

It was a strange scene on our way to a bat mitzvah yesterday morning in Jerusalem. We were driving down Emek Refaim St. on the way to Kol Haneshama, and passed the Rendezvous women’s fashion store with the front plate glass window smashed to smithereens, and mannequins strewn around the sidewalk.

Two policemen were sitting on the side guarding the store against looters, we thought. Even though it looked like vandals had been at work over Shabbat, never a laughing matter, the way the mannequins were askew was actually quite comical. My wife remarked that it looked like they had been nabbed attempting a breakout, which cracked up the kids in the car.

It was only this morning that we opened the paper and saw that the shop had been the target of a robbery, and that the police had shot and killed one of the burglars. According to The Jerusalem Post, an Arab man and a Jewish woman reversed their Mazda 3 vehicle into the display window at the clothing store.

They then started filling the car with merchandise, when police arrived on the scene. The crooks ran into the car and attempted run over the cops, who opened fire in return. A car chase ensued, until a few blocks later the getaway car stopped and the driver, Salah Salaima, 30, tried to flee on foot. However, the police had succeeded in wouding him and he collapsed after a few yards and died of his wounds. The female suspect, in her 20s, was taken into custody.

Man, it was a good thing we didn’t know any of that while we sat in the synagogue. After that cops and robbers scene, the intrigue and excitement of the Parshat Shavua, Ki Tissei, and the saga of the Golden Calf, would have paled in comparison.

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