When bayit becomes home

August 23, 2009 - 1:05 PM by · 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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Teapacks retires…

November 16, 2008 - 9:02 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

TeapacksReferencing the once flourishing music scene they once called Sderot the “Seattle” of Israel due to the influential bands coming out of the area. The most popular of these bands was Teapacks who went on to be one of the top selling bands in the country and even represented Israel at the Eurovision song competition. Now before I moved to Israel back in 1997 my taste in Israeli music… was…uh…misguided. I’ll save myself the embarrassment and hold off on the listening habits of a previous life. I have my army buddies to thank for getting me in line.

When I was enrolled in Ulpan (intensive Hebrew course) I listened to Teapack’s earlier albums endlessly. They were an amalgamation of ethnic music and rock with somewhat witty lyrics. I learned a tremendous amount of Hebrew transcribing their lyrics. Their live show was always better than their records and I had the opportunity to see them probably about ten times.

As is the case with bands that have integrity, their sound evolved. My music tastes evolved as well and I no longer connected to their more disco pop oriented sound (though their lyrics remained filled with humor and wit). They are widely known for their song “Push the Button” which they performed at Eurovision in 2007 which was all about the threat of Nuclear destruction. I didn’t get it and certainly couldn’t connect with lyrics such as “I wanna see the flowers bloom/Don’t wanna go kaput kaboom.”

After over 18 years as a band, ten albums and numerous hits Teapacks is calling it quits. And not a moment too soon.

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