A day of remembrance

April 12, 2010 - 12:01 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness 

There’s some strange timing going on right now in the Poland-Israel relationship. While there’s no way to compare the millions murdered during the Shoah with the tragic death of Polish leader Lech Kaczynski and the others killed in Saturday’s plane crash, it is noteworthy that so many thousands of Jewish and Israeli teenagers and adults are in Poland right now, taking part in Holocaust Remembrance Day at the end of March of the Living and other, similar heritage trips to Poland.

The March of the Living program is planning on beginning today’s program in Warsaw with a special tribute to Kaczynski, as the 10,000 participants conduct their ‘march of the living.’

Over here in Israel, I was walking down Derech Hevron, Hebron Road in Jerusalem, making my way to a meeting after stopping in the bank, just minutes before the ‘sefira’, or siren, sounded at 10:00 am in memory of the six million dead. During my early years in Israel, like many who are new olim, I liked to place myself somewhere public for the siren, in order to fully appreciate just how everything stops for that one minute. This year, as in recent years, I hadn’t paid that much attention to where I was going to be, until I noticed scores of teenagers, some South American, others North American — but no locals — all hanging out on various corners, clearly waiting to experience the Yom Hashoa siren. It is striking to watch everything stop, from pedestrians to traffic, watching everything and everyone come to a total standstill.

As for myself, I was hiking up the stairs toward my meeting, and found myself just outside the door. Not a bad place to be for contemplating the tragedy that was the Holocaust.

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Giving Thanks

November 28, 2008 - 12:39 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

There’s an old saying in Israel – “the United States is there, but America is here.” That phrase means different things to different people, but some American olim Turkeys1127.jpgtake it literally around the end of November.

Technically speaking, we have everything we need here to celebrate a “down home” Thanksgiving; turkey is big in Israel, and many butchers stock (or can easily order) whole birds – which tend to be bigger than the ones you’d get back in the States. Cranberry sauce? Very common. Chestnuts can be found in almost every supermarket, and pumpkins are here too (although they grow them very big, and the vegetable store usually breaks them into small “retail size” pieces. You can even do the American football game thing – but only on Sunday and Monday, when Middle East TV feeds the games of the week on Fox and CBS. Believe it or not, I saw an ad on TV tonight advertising “Black Friday” prices at some chain store! Now that couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?

In the best American Jewish tradition, most Thanksgiving celebrants will actually have their turkeys Friday night, in honor of Shabbat and Thanksgiving (as we will). Although there are some intrepid people who actually hold their feast on Thanksgiving Day itself. If you’re into having guests, Thanksgiving weekend is a good time to have them – it gives you an excuse to eat turkey, which is way too big to justify preparing for just one family!

But of course, Thanksgiving isn’t just about the turkey – it’s about, of course, giving thanks. Israelis are actually very good about counting their blessings, especially when they hear bad news from other places – like in India. Right now, many Israelis are thankful that they live in a super-security sensitive country, where security authorities are able to nip potential mega-terror attacks in the bud. Seems to me like a good enough reason to have some turkey!

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Aliyah deals

June 13, 2008 - 4:04 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Travel 

Just read this week that the Absorption Ministry and El Al are offering special benefits to Israelis living abroad who move back to Israel during this 60th anniversary year. The ‘yordim’ who become ‘olim’ will be charged a flat rate airfare by El Al from any destination, and will be allowed extra baggage, a discount on shipping their belongings, as well as tax breaks for ten years, help finding work and programs for returning doctors, scientists and other researchers.
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Sweet deal. I didn’t even get a free ticket when I made aliyah. Granted, snafu of my own, but this could be the opportunity to fix things. Now, my husband has been angling for a flat screen TV, and was thinking of asking friends of friends of friends who are making aliyah this summer to leave some space on their lift for a TV for us, as well as some lawn furniture. Forget the Americans; we need to find ourselves some real, returning Israelis. So anyone out there, let us know! And we’ll be happy to have you for dinner once you get here.

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