A Few Of My Favorite Things

With my time remaining in Israel having dwindled to a scant week, I've been thinking a lot about readjusting to life in the States. Many things about Israel are frustrating to me, and I won't miss them much. Other things in the Israel experience are so similar to the U.S. that it hardly makes any difference whether I'm here or there. Then there are those things that, because of personal experience or impersonal observations, cannot be replicated back home. These are just a handful of the things that are distinctly Israel to me, and that I expect to miss when I go home.

Dogs On Buses

And dogs in restaurants. And dogs in malls. And dogs in kindergartens. And dogs in hospitals. Israelis bring their dogs with them everywhere they go, and no one in this country gives a rats ass. Feeling jealous, dad?

Galgalatz

Sure, they play an indefensible mix of 80's pop, cheesy oldies, kitschy garbage and teeny bop Hebrew music, but Galgalatz is an Israeli institution. My friend Nimrod goes so far as to insist that their weekend program, םופשבוע רגוע (chilled out weekend), is auditory lithium intended to prevent riots or road accidents.

Chutzpa

I have a challenge for any of my readers who will be in Israel in the future: Go to any falafel stand all across the country, order a sandwich, and try to pay with a 100 shekel bill. If the cashier doesn't demand a smaller denomination (so called "small money"), he is either stoned or missing the frontal lobe of his brain. Just try it. Trust me.

Cheap Hummus

Supporting my half-kilo a day hummus habit is about to get a lot more expensive. What bothers me the most about the whole situation is that hummus is just about the perfect food, but it's seriously disrespected in the states. Think about it: You can use it as a main dish or a condiment. It's vegetarian. It has fat, protein and carbohydrates. And it's fucking delicious! I'm gonna have to spend some more time on Lawrence when I get back to Chicago. Not even sure where I'm going to find the stuff in Minneapolis.

The View From The Top Of The Carmel

I've lived here for a full school year, and this view still manages to take my breath away. My parent's house in Chicago is as close to the Lake Michigan shore as the university is to the Mediterranean, but because Chicago is flat we could never see the water. In Haifa, the water is not visible only when there is a building in front of you. The picture does not do justice to the view.

Maccabi Haifa

Maccabi Haifa didn't have a great season. In fact, they finished in fifth, costing their coach his job and giving Menachem plenty of heartburn along the way. Even so, I followed loyally all season and had a great time along the way. I learned something about soccer, although mostly I enjoyed the atmosphere at the games. These are cutallthebullshit contests, with legions of angry, somewhat unbalanced fans screaming their demand for nothing less than total domination on the pitch. The focus is always on the game too. There is no jumbotron, no contests in the stands or T-shirt cannons, and the only time the PA system is engaged is to announce a scoring play or a substitution. It's a novel idea, no? And there is way too much money in American sports for it to ever carry over. So for one last time in Israel, let me proclaim "הדם שלי ירוק."

Egged

Egged has been my primary mode of transportation, both in Haifa and all across the country. I've taken buses between Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Tiberias, Eilat, Netanya and Nahariyya, as well as innumerable intracity trips in Haifa. They aren't always timely or comfortable, but Egged has always gotten the job done for me, and it will be a shock to say goodbye to those big, green buses.

The Family

Israel can be intimidating, especially initially before one makes the adjustment. I had it easy. Most of my Israeli cousins live in Haifa, and I got to spend a full year getting to know them. My time with them ebbed and flowed depending on my schedule and whether or not I was traveling. I definitely spent the most time with Menachem, who I had lunch with semi regularly. I'm definitely going to miss Shahar (the little guy pictured above) and his little sister Tooty (real name is Shai.) Devora always made sure there was someone to look after me in Haifa, while Karmit and Shani were more than happy to share their kids with me. It's easy to say they are family, but they have been both family and friends while I have been in Haifa and I'll never forget it.

U of Haifa Dorm Life

Whether it's playing cards, drinking and nargila in the backyard, barbecues or weekend bonfires, I had an absolute blast living in the dorms this year. I lived in a dorm once before, my Freshman year in Champaign. And it was nothing like this. People at IT kept their doors closed, were involved in themselves and uninterested and meeting the other people in the dorm. Not so in Haifa. The overwhelming majority of my friends live here in the dorms, both Israeli and international. I've met Jews and Arabs, people who identify with Peace Now or the settlement movement, and international students from all over the world. I've made dozens of friends, and I've learned a lot about the world I live in.

Hebrew

I could write a long post just on my my complicated and ever changing relationship with the Hebrew language. As I was growing up, my attitude ranged from pride to distaste to indifference. When I first arrived to Israel, Hebrew was exciting and novel. However, after a few weeks I got frustrated with struggling with the language every day. Of course it got easier over time, and now it has become just another part of my day. I speak only Hebrew in my house and at work, and only Hebrew with about half of my Israeli friends and many of my family members. I hope that I'll be able to keep my skills up back in the states. Hebrew is an incredible language, logical and beautiful and uniquely Jewish, and I'm immensely proud to say that I finally speak it.

Student Day In Haifa

Israel has a fine tradition called "Student Day" which I was lucky enough to be a part of this past Thursday. It is a celebration of all things student and it meant a big party down by the beaches with several prominent Israeli musicians. It was going to be huge, with students from all over Haifa and the North in attendance.

Elliot "prepares" for the Student Day concerts.

The international school gang gathered at our usual spot on the boardwalk behind the lowest level of the Talia dorms for dinner and pre gaming. I was getting pretty amped up because some of the acts were supposed to be really good. The show didn't disappoint.

Pregamin' it.

The last time I saw a show at the convention center, it was Purim and the party was inside. The Student Day concerts were out on a big open field that I didn't even know existed, across the street from the Haifa Mall. It was quite a setup they had - food, liquor and cigarette stands formed a perimeter with tents and nargila rentals towards the back, and space in the front for dancing facing a huge outdoor stage.

Aviv Geffen performing early on.

As you've just learned, Aviv Geffen was the first act I saw. He was nothing short of phenomenal. One of the most talented musicians in Israel, he gives a great show. Next up was Beri Saharof. I'll admit that I wasn't really familiar with him before the concert. I liked his style though. He was a very easy going stage presence that meshes well with his Hebrew ballad style of music. I was less impressed by ٌRon Denker.

Pyrotechnics were a big
part of Saharof's act.

At about 1 A.M., the headlining band, Infected Mushroom, took the stage. This was after 20 minutes of the Haifa University student union standing on stage and patting each other on the back. Some things are constant even cross culturally. I was most excited about seeing them before I arrived but by the time they finally began to play, I was just exhausted. I took one of the earlier buses back and only heard about 20 minutes of Infected Mushroom. That was dissapointing, but it was great to see so many Israeli acts in one night. How can we bring Student Day to America??

Lea, Elles and Dani at the concert.

A Jewish Engagement

One of my Madrichim, Levi is marrying a girl a grew up with, Ilana Slutsky. I didn't even know they were dating until last Thursday night, when they announced it at an international school event. It was, as they say, an utter mind-fuck. Tonight I went to the engagement party. It was religious, which came as no surprise. It was also mostly Americans. I arrived at around 7, and had a watermelon daiquiri in my hand less than 5 minutes later. It's a Wednesday night and I have class in the morning, so I had no interest in getting drunk, but it was tough not to. They were drinking like it's going out of style.

The party is in the quiet, wealthy neighborhood of נווה שאנן (Nave Sha'anan.) My cousin Prechia lives in the area, though I didn't see her. Did I mention it's a wealthy neighborhood? They had a gorgeous view of the bay facing North, looking out towards Acco and East to the Galilee. If it wasn't for the smog, it would have been flawless. Haifa holds the "honor" of being Israel's most polluted city.

The party was nice, albeit predictable. Levi gave a nice speech about Adam and Eve, and the yearning of the person for his soul/mate. It would have been utterly nondescript, but it was in Hebrew and I followed perfectly. They'll be going back to Chicago next week to celebrate with her family. I wish them a hearty mazal tov and all the happiness in the world.

النكبة - Nakba

President Bush is in Israel today, here with other heads of state and foreign diplomats to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday. As the celebrations roll on into their second week, I would like to take a moment to pause and ruminate on tomorrow's "Nakba Day." The word Nakba (spelled out for you in Arabic, and intentionally capitalized in English) means "catastrophe." Not surprisingly, it refers to the creation of Israel, the flight of Palestinian refugees that fled or were forced from their homes because of the fighting, and the destruction of over 100 Palestinian villages in what would become Israel.

Israel is dear to me, as it should be. Having lived here, I no longer see it through rose colored glasses, but rather with a skeptical eye and a heavy dose of reality. I believe this is healthier. I love this country but I feel it is my responsibility to recognize that the culmination of our collective hope and drive to regain our Holy Land did not come without significant bloodshed and hardship. Israel was not born by immaculate conception. Nor was it only Israel that was born in 1948. There were two nations born as a result of that war, Israelis and Palestinians.

60 years later, Israel is thriving. It's far from perfect, but Zionism has been a fantastic success. We Jews have realized self determination. It would be immoral and unjust to deny it to the Palestinians, whose fate we are bound to. It is time to realize that making concessions is not a sign of weakness. We have our Jewish state, our Israeli society, our Promised Land, and it is beautiful. For our sake, as well as for theirs, we must help the Palestinians to build their state alongside ours.

The Eternal Learning Curve

Indulge me for a moment while I bitch about something trivial. I've been here since October, and I had never learned how to use the can openers that Israeli's use regularly. I know what your all thinking now. "It's a can opener, what could there be to figure out?" Allow me to show you.


No crank, no wheel, no nothing. The thing was baffling to me. I bought a junk can opener from Supersal just because it looked like one from home. Suffice it to say, it didn't work as well as one from home. It still gave me a sense of comfort. Then the unthinkable happened: I went to open a can of tuna last night, and discovered that my shitty can opener was broken. No longer would it open anything. I was left with but one choice. I could force myself to work the survival can opener, or I could stop eating anything that comes in a can. Being the hardheaded person that I am, there was but one choice. I grabbed the survival can opener, and I began to struggle. And how I struggled. I was sweating, my arm was aching, and I was making no progress. Then, suddenly, I braced the opener against the under lip of the can, and made a small bit of progress! Emboldened, I tried to replicate my technique. It was no picnic, but I eventually got into a rhythm, and by the time my pasta was done cooking, I had opened the can! (Don't ask about what I was making - I'm still a student.) I know this is all pretty nerdy, but it's very exciting for me.

Israel At 60

This week, Israel celebrated 60 years of independence, יום העצמאות. As guests in the country, we international students took the opportunity to participate in all of the traditions associated with the holiday. Independence day is always immediately preceded by a memorial day for fallen IDF soldiers. I went down to the memorial park in front of Haifa city hall for the city's public memorial. It was a nice service, albeit very long. At 8 P.M. on the dot, an unbroken siren was broadcast all across the country, for one minute of reflection and respect. During this tone, everyone stops what they are doing and stands in silence. The ceremony was timed so that the siren would occur about 20 minutes in.

Haifa commemorates Israel's fallen soldiers.

The ceremony featured speeches by members of the military, the cabinet of the Knesset and the chief Rabbi of Haifa. There were also several musical performances. During the last part of the ceremony, they scrolled the names of every fallen soldier from Haifa, from 1948 until today. Needless to say, it was a long list. Wednesday was subdued, with businesses closed during the day as a sign of respect for the memorial day. In the evening, things started to heat up again. I headed down to the German Colony with a group of friends, where we would eat dinner at one of the cafes while waiting for the celebration to get underway. I'm glad we arrived early, as the streets were absolutely packed by 8 P.M.

Dinner in the German Colony.

The celebration began with folk dancing in the center of the crowd. I dug deep to find my Ramah roots, and I jumped into the fray. It was mostly little kids and their mothers dancing, but no matter. Thousands of people were streaming onto the Kikar at the corner of Ben Gurion and Yafo in the German Colony, holding plastic hammers, balloons, wobbly ears and all manners of toys with the flag of Israel painted on.


Folk Dancing at the Independence Day celebration.

There was mediocre live music until 10:30. when all the lights in the city went dim and we were treated to a spectacular show. Massive lasers beamed all the way from the Bahai Gardens lit up the night sky, while slides of Israeli newspapers and major events of the past 60 years scrolled past on illuminated buildings. The music was loud but soothing - much less brass than at a 4th of July celebration. Suddenly, the fireworks began to explode over the port. Everyone turned to face the water and watch the fireworks display. All in all, the performance lasted about 20 minutes. The fireworks drowned out much of the music, but when they finally went dead, the last several bars of HaTivka (Israel's national anthem) came through loud and clear, and the crowd sang along at the top of their lungs.

Laser light show from Haifa's Bahai Gardens.

The next day was a chill, relaxed day of celebration. The traditional way for Israelis to celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut is by barbecuing. We took the the cue and many of us spent the day at Kibbutz Sarid, 40 minutes Northeast of Haifa. We ate tons of delicious food, played paddleball, dozed and had a group reading of Jack Kerouac's On The Road. I came home at around 6 in a serious food and sun coma, and the rest of my day was spent hanging around. I imagine that this should be obvious, but celebrating Israel's independence in Israel is just a lot better in Israel than anywhere else. It was quite an experience.

Euroleague

The Euroleague final was played Sunday night between Maccabi Tel Aviv and CSKA Moscow. I can only assume that acronym is some kind of secret Russian police. The game was a huge deal in Israel, though I had a hard time getting worked up about it. Maccabi's roster is stocked with failed NBA players and college ballers who couldn't make it professionally in the states. Even so, the moadon of the dorms was packed with people to watch the championship game, and I came along for the experience.

It was a strange one indeed. First of all, the game play was weak. Maccabi got smoked by CSKA, falling 91-77. It wasn't as close as the final score would indicate either. Watching these teams play was like watching Big Ten basketball - not a compliment, believe me. If your interested, the postmortem is available here. Usually, I'm the one in the room with a ton of knowledge about the game, the competitors and the history of the teams. Not Sunday night. I was like THAT guy who shows up to a Super Bowl party, and then asks which team is wearing the lighter colors during the halftime show. Except I knew better and just kept my mouth shut.

The strangest thing about the whole thing was the way the room was divided down the middle. I was sitting on a bean bag chair on the floor, surrounded by people on couches, so I couldn't see across the room. Everyone in my area was cheering for Maccabi and groaning when they would mess up. It was the opposite way around at the other end of the hall. Someone was definitely cheering for the Russkies. I asked my friend Omri, expecting him to tell me that they were ex Soviets who had made aliyah but were still supporting their home squad. "Nope," he would tell me, "it's the Arabs." Apparently, just because it's Israel on an international stage, they have to cheer against her. It was really annoying some of the people sitting by me, but nothing came of it. What a fucked up country this is sometimes.

El Al showed a commercial during the game that really should be a part of the state's hasbarah efforts. It began with Israelis from all sects of the country singing individual lines of the national anthem: A black Jew, a couple of Mizrachim, some religious Zionists, Europeans, children, Druze... Then they all joined together in harmony for the last couple of lines of Hatikva. They really ought to show this ad in the states. Just bring together 150 or so wealthy American Jews, put them in a room, serve them bagels and orange juice, and show this 45 spot on a projection television. They would pull out their check books and practically beg to give their money away. So are you listening, Israeli government? There's some free money out there for you, and I know how you can get your hands on it.

Happy Purim!

I knew this country knew how to party, but I wasn't truly prepared for the biggest party of the Spring: Purim. What an absolute fucking blowout! In an effort to maintain a strong distinction between Purim and Israeli Halloween, I went to the Haifa Masorti synagogue to hear the megillah being read (Masorti means "traditional" in Hebrew, and is roughly equivalent to the Conservative movement back stateside.) Because it was a Masorti crowd, it was very kid oriented: There were performances by kids in between the chapters of the reading, and a costume competition seemed to be rapping up as we arrived. My boss at Ofakim apparently goes to this synagogue. She handed me a gragger and I made solid use of it. The best costume I saw all night was at the synagogue, where a guy had dressed up as the plummeting value of the U.S. Dollar. I can't really describe it, you simply had to see it.

Hearing the Megillah reading.

Once we returned to the campus, the drinking began. It is traditional on Purim to drink until you can't tell the difference between the phrase "Blessed is Mordechai" and "Cursed is Haman." I'm proud to say that I reached that goal! The student union was throwing a big party at the "Gan HaCongressim" convention center in Haifa. The headline act was Ivri Lider, who would be performing in concert. Eli decided to come back to Haifa to see the show. We met up at my place and busted out with copious quantities of scotch, vodka and beer. Nate showed up with two bottles of wine (something I don't recommend trying.) Once we were all good and shickered, we grabbed the 11 PM bus to the party.

Nate playing around with some costume ideas.

The convention center is a lot bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. There were at least four different dance floors with DJs spinning all night. I danced for the first 2 hours or so, before moving upstairs to get ready for the concert. Ivri Lider went on at 2 A.M. As usual, Eli and I made sure to get spots at the front. He put on the best show I've seen in Israel to date. He was energetic, exciting, and played for a solid 100 minutes.

Nimrod and Ayelet at the Ivri Lider performance.

Ivri Lider also provided me with one of my favorite stories from Israel. During his last song, he came down off the stage and was walking up and down the barrier separating the crowd from the band. He stopped in front of us and held out the mic for Eli, who was singing at the top of his lungs, and sang about 4 bars directly into the microphone. After strolling down to the end, he came back, reached into a bag he was holding and fed me a piece of chocolate candy. The whole thing was so strange but it's hysterical. Apparently the episode was broadcast on the closed circuit television feed, as both Nimrod and Ayelet saw it on the 25 foot screen. What a way to end the night! We went home at 4 A.M., more or less sober and utterly exhausted. The best part of the whole thing is that I woke up the next morning feeling like a million bucks. No ill effects whatsoever, and I partied as hard as I have in years. Israelis sure know how to do Purim.

All smiles at the concert.

Hasbara

I'm well aware that Israel needs to promote itself, but sometimes that gets a little out of control. Planning moadon bishul on tuesday afternoon, I had settled on making shakshuka and was searching online for recipes. (I know it's easy, I just wanted a little guidance.) What I came up with was a recipe posted on the ministry of foreign affairs website. Check it out here: Shakshuka Recipe.
Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but it just seems to me that they can put the time and bandwidth to better use.

As you can probably guess, it's slow around here. I'm getting into work at the school and my classes. The international school is going to the Negev for hiking and a little touring over Shabbat, so I will write it up when I return. Shabbat shalom.

Where's The Beef?

Spring has returned to Haifa. The trees are in bloom, wildflowers are carpeting the Carmel park, and the whole city has been taken by a warm, wholesome air. Of course a return to spring means a spike in outdoor activities. Yesterday I was out and about all day, enjoying my new friends, my freedom and the killer weather we are being blessed with.

Budding flowers on the tree outside my bedroom.
Soon the whole area will smell like flowers again.

At about 11 yesterday morning, I met up with a group of people and we went on a romp through the park. It was never intended to be a hike, and so we took it easy, talking and joking as we wound our way down the path. Someone started talking about plans for late night, and I tossed out a suggestion: how about a bonfire in the park late that night? The idea took and I began to spread the word. We walked for almost two hours and I had begun to work up an appetite when we came back to the main road. Bill had been telling me about a "Druze Pita" stand that was only open on Shabbat. We walked over to it and I bought myself a sandwich of just baked pita, labneh, zatar and olive oil. We sat by the side of the road people watching for about an hour while I munched, indulging in lots of olives and about 8 dixie cups full of tea. It was magic.

A lazy afternoon in the Carmel park.

That evening we went to a soccer game, Maccabi Haifa versus Maccabi Herzliya. The game was astoundingly slow for the first 65 or so minutes, and then picked up for the rest. It ended in a 1-1 tie, the second tie I've seen in person at Kiryat Eliezer stadium. One of my friends remarked "There's no overtime? But aren't they required to have a winner?" Unfortunately, ties are perfectly legal in soccer. They are just patently un-American.

This look is a keeper.

One of the best things about going to Israeli games is that you get to see a side of Israel that doesn't show its face in most places. Frankly, Israeli soccer fans are overwhelmingly crude, chain smoking yahoos, the lowest common denominator of society. We rode the bus back with a group of nut job teenagers, who were thrilled to pose for pictures, chat with me about Michael Jordan, and hit on our girls with the reckless abandon of a pervert who knows the object of his lust doesn't understand a word he is saying. I told them to knock it off.

MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

When I got back to campus, David and I began our search for wood. It was awfully shortsighted of me not to collect wood during the daylight hours. Armed only with my wits and the tiny flashlight that my dad got for free from Dan hotels, I made my way off into the night in search of dead trees to strip for larger fuel. The coyotes were out last night and they were a little close for my comfort. Judging by the sound of one of their howls, it couldn't have been more than 10 yards away. I was understandably a little nervous walking around in the dark. I was searching near this outdoor bathroom stall when I heard something move in the dark, and I froze. I scanned the woods with my light but I didn't see or hear anything else, so I took a breath and stepped forward. Thats when I happened to flash my light into the bathroom for a moment, and the big red eyes staring back at me nearly caused me to stroke out. Regaining my wits a split second later, I fixated my light on the bathroom door and was treated to this absurd spectacle.

"You might want to give that a minute."

There was a fucking big, stupid cow staring at me from the bathroom. He seemed perfectly relaxed. I'm sure if the cow had an interior monologue, it was thinking something along the lines of "what?! I come here every night. What's your problem?!" I'm not even sure how the thing managed to turn around in there. The bathrooms are pretty narrow. My composure regained, we managed to collect enough dry wood for about an hour and a half of fire.

The humble beginnings of our bonfire.

We attracted a group of about 15 people, who mostly sat around talking, drinking wine and goofing off. The fire never got very big, but thats probably for the best. It was big enough to warm everyone's butt and keep away the coyotes, so that's all I can ask for. I'm definitely going to organize another one of these, and next time I'm collecting the wood during daylight hours.

David and Mallory warm up by the fire.

A Mediocre Evening With Idan Raichel

Some of you may remember that I attended a Masa sponsored Hadag Nachash concert last year in Jerusalem, and came away disappointed. Last night I ignored my better instincts and attended their spring concert, featuring the Idan Raichel Project. I saw them live in Champaign 3 years ago and it was one of the better concerts I've ever been to, so I had hopes for this one as well. Masa chartered a bus for us this time around so I rode with the other Haifaniks to Jerusalem directly. We got off the bus and were milling around outside before going in when I got tackled from behind. Bev Baer was hanging off of my back and screaming. I've said it before, but this sort of thing only happens in Jerusalem. Completely fucked up. She is spending the year in Ramla volunteering, and was in J'lem for the same reason as I. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to catch up because security was shooing us inside, so we had to say goodbye for the time being.

Bev and I outside the convention center.

Our seats were in the balcony, and well off to the left. The sight lines weren't great so we couldn't see the stage very well. We were treated to a half hour of verbal masturbation from a parade of self-congratulatory government officials before the band finally took the stage around 9:30. The concert itself was better than the Hadag Nachash show but just as short. They were on stage for all of 1 hour from start to finish. It's shameful that anyone would even call that a concert. Still, they were mostly good when they were playing.

Americans pretend to get excited over
songs they've never heard before.

I made my way down to the lower level to get closer to the stage, and there ran into Eli and the rest of the kids on his program. We hung out for about 10 minutes and talked about scheduling a time to go to Jordan together (yes, I am trying again.) The band closed out the concert by playing their hit single "boi", which got by far the loudest reaction, probably because it is the only song 90% of the audience recognized.

A candid shot of the international students dancing.

Because the show was over at about 10:30, we had no problem making it back to the bus by the 11 PM time we had set before going in. And to think, I had worried we were going to miss the end of the show! It was a lazy ride back to Haifa, with one stop in Netanya to drop off a group of Israelis who had hitched a ride with us. We got home around 1:15 in the morning and I went straight to bed. These kitsch , theme concerts just don't work for me anymore, and I will not be going to another if there is one. Shabbat shalom.

הכיף הוא על הכיפאק

Last night I attended a concert in Tel Aviv that was a full decade in the making. Lets flash back to the late nineties for a moment. Yoyo's were at the height of popularity, while Pokemon were just making a splash. Everyone knew how to dance the Macarena. People the world over were panicked by the Y2K bug, except in the U.S. where everyone was more concerned with whether or not the President got a blow job in the oval office. And back home, I was holed up in my bedroom listening to Kaveret, Tipex, and a groundbreaking Israeli hip hop group called Shabak Samech. My fascination with Israeli culture would grow and diversify as the years passed, culminating in this 9 month sabbatical here in Haifa. Last night, I met Eli and his roommate Daniel in north Tel Aviv to see Shabak Samech in concert, performing live as a group for only the second time since 2000.

Me and my ticket stub.

Their music style is silly, bordering on ridiculous at times. One of their most famous songs has only one line: שום דבר לא כבד מדי בשביל הפיל שלי. Literally, it means "nothing is too heavy for my elephant." I'm sure its some kind of inside joke with the band and they think it is hilarious to hear a concert hall full of people chanting it along with them. Because of the general goofiness of the act, the crowd tended to skew young. If not for this one eminently creepy 30 something guy who was trying to dance with a group of teenage girls, I might have felt like the oldest guy in the house.

Clearly we were excited to be at the show.

In spite of the predominantly teenage crowd, the show was phenomenal. They were on stage for nearly 3 full hours, and played just about every known song they have from the last 15 years. They especially brought the house down with one of Mook E's solo songs,
.כולם מדברים על שלום, אף אחד מדבר על צדק

Shabak Samech

We generally avoided the pit area in front of the stage, because we had jackets with us that we wanted to put down, and because it was a good 15 degrees hotter crammed into the crowd. Even so, I couldn't resist the allure to spend some time jumping, dancing and screaming with the rest of the lunatics. For your viewing pleasure, here is a clip from last nights concert. It really captures what a lot of the show was like.


Dropping the bomb.

That night the three of us crashed at Daniel's parent's house in a small, wealthy neighborhood called צהלה, just outside of Tel Aviv. This morning I woke up first and had tea with Daniel's parents before the other gentleman rose. Around 12:30, I said my goodbyes and hopped on a bus bound for the Arlozoroff train station, where I would catch my train back to Haifa. Here is where the madness began. I'm not terrificly familiar with Tel Aviv, and the bus I was on took a very roundabout route, actually going out west through Ramat Gan before coming back into the city. Because of my poor knowledge of the city, I badly missed my stop and got off in south Tel Aviv, by the Azrieli towers. From there I was able to find the Hashalom train station.

Closing out the concert.

I was cursing my luck at this point, even though I was relieved to have located a train station. The runaround cost me a half hour, which is a problem on a Friday afternoon when the buses in Haifa stop running shortly after 3. I quickly lost the sourpuss look though, when one of our madrichim, Or, came running up to me on the platform! Only in Israel does this happen. Apparently he was hanging out with friends the night before in Tel Aviv and was headed back to Haifa also. We chilled and talked the whole way north. Of course my concerns regarding the bus schedule turned out to be rooted in harsh reality. I had missed the last 46 bus, the only line that runs directly from the central bus station in Haifa up to campus. I hopped a 131 up to the Horev Center, and then transferred to the 24 which took me home. Israeli public transit is frustrating sometimes, but I was too tired to worry much about it. I headed back to my room to shower and get changed, and now I'm ready for Shabbat dinner and then some quality time with friends afterwards. Classes finally resume next week. Shabbat shalom.

The Best Silvester Day Ever!

Little did this American son know, but much of the world refers to New Years Eve as "Silvester Day", in honor of Saint Silvester, a Catholic Pope from the third century C.E. It's mainly a European custom, but Israelis have adopted it. Oh yeah, and the dude was apparently virulently anti-Semitic. How quaint. The party got started at noon with my Rabbinic Literature exam! I didn't really know what he wanted from us when I walked in the door, and my feelings haven't changed much the day after the test. It was just one of those exams. I'll keep you abreast of my grades as they roll in of course.

Instead of going to the community center for our normal volunteering project, we celebrated the new year and the last meeting of the semester by going bowling with the kids at the mall in Lev HaMifratz. It was a blast. The bowling alley looked like any alley you would expect to see in the U.S., but as always there were some key differences. One in particular that caught my eye was the claw machine. The prizes weren't dolls or toys or anything like that. Each prize was a pack of cigarettes with a 20 shekel bill taped to the outside! I'd like to make a joke about this, but honestly it is simply a sad reflection of today's Israeli society.

Me with Amit, one of my tutees and a "checkers" hustler. I got whupped by a 12 year old.

I played my usual uninspired round of bowling, checking out somewhere in the mid 80's, but I still managed to win a free round of bowling when I bowled a strike during the special 6th frame. I gave it to one of the kids, since he'll get more use out of it than I would have. We all gathered for pizza afterwards and then had to bounce back to campus so the kids could go home.

Students and tutors chilling at the bowling alley.

I came back for a little pre party with some of the boys on campus, and then a bunch of us went over to the Hungarian's apartment for a new years party/birthday party for Anna. It was a nice, chill get together with some great homemade food and a nice mix of people. We toasted the new year at midnight with champagne and watched fireworks explode over Wadi Nisnas from their living room windows.

I called it a night early and was home by 1 A.M. on account of this still being finals week. I took my "Terrorism and Responses" exam this afternoon - piece of cake. Tomorrow's Arabic exam will be another story. There is just a massive amount of material and it all gets mixed together in what my professor benignly calls a 'salad.' To me, it's more like mixing cold medicine with alcohol. I'm not ready to go yet but I'll be putting in some heavy study hours tonight. Wish me luck!

Dahlia And Itay's Wedding

Last night I attended my first Israeli wedding. The bride, Dahlia Weinberg was the President of IllinIPAC when I was a freshman at the U of I. I still remember vividly sitting in the Hillel library with Eli, yelling our opinions to anyone who would listen. I don't think the group had ever seen a couple of freshman like us. Fast forward 4 years and Dahlia is now married! So weird. I'd met her husband once before, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem last June. He's a real nice guy, and he looked significantly more nervous before the ceremony than Dahlia did.

I had a definite Israeli moment on my way out of Haifa. I missed my intended train because the bus from campus left 10 minutes late. When I eventually got to the station, I asked the mouth breather behind the ticket counter when the next train to Netanya would leave. "15 minutes." And when will it arrive in Netanya? "15 minutes." Needless to say she didn't know what she was talking about. I bought my ticket anyway and made my way onto the platform where there are train schedules posted on big signs. The signs aren't the clearest things to read, and I knew I would need to transfer to another train, so I flagged a woman down and asked if she could confirm to me how I was going to get to Netanya. We got to talking and lo and behold, it turned out that we were both headed to the wedding! I really think this sort of thing only happens here. She got off in Binyamina to meet her husband, while I transferred to the next train and wound my way to Netanya, where I met up with Reut.

For those of my readers who don't know Reut, I met her 4 years ago in Champaign when she was working as the Israeli שליחה to Hillel. She's 34 years old but she acts like she is 19 sometimes, and she is definitely a free spirit. My date for the evening. We spent most of the night chatting about people back home, but we moved out onto the dance floor for the last 45 or so minutes. It's a shame the wedding was on a Monday night; there were caterers walking around with bottles of liquor, just offering shots to anyone who wanted one. I maintained my discipline, drank one glass of wine and called it a night. After all, I did have class this morning. A hearty mazal tov to the new husband and wife!

On Strike

As Israel's education woes deepen, the combined student unions for all major universities are about to remind the government and professors that they are also a force to be reckoned with. There is no scheduled class on Sunday, as it is a special day off in celebration of Chanukka. Starting Monday, university students at all 8 major Israeli universities will strike, locking out the professors and any students who would attempt to cross the picket line. All classes would be locked out, including those taught by adjunct professors and other instructors. The strike is in protest to the continued deadlock in negotations over the professors contracts which has robbed them of nearly an entire semester. From what I understand, the university will physically be closed by the student union, with physical barriers including chains and piles of tires. Needless to say, I'm suffering from a touch of culture shock right now.

As far as I am concerned, the whole thing is a damn disgrace. I have supported the professors from the beginning, and I continue to blame the government for an impasse that threatens to cancel the semester. Now the students, who are rightfully pissed off about the situation, are going to exacerbate it with this action. It's just madness. We received a frantic email from the international school office this morning telling us that should the strike be carried out, classes will meet in the moadon of the dorms, or in individual apartments if necessary. At least it would probably entertain my roommates if we held Arabic class in my living room one morning. There's that to look forward to.

I took my Arabic exam this morning and I think it went pretty well. With that out of the way, midterms are officially behind me. I earned an "86" on my midterm assignment in Arab-Israeli Relations. Not too shabby. Frankly I'm not sure how he reached that number, since some classmates of mine got 85's, while at least one guy got an 87. I seriously doubt he used a rubric to grade these exams, so I have to wonder what made the difference in the grades there. Personally, I think he just assigned a number to each paper based on his gut reaction. Exams went pretty well for me this time around.

It's a cold and rainy day outside so I'd like to make weekend plans, but I don't really know what to do. I am going to a dinner party tonight and then hopefully out to the pubs. Some friends invited me over at some point this weekend to play cards so that may or may not happen. My only solid plans are spending part of Saturday night at Carmit and Shani's place for candle lighting and hanging out with the family. I'm sure I'll pull things together in the end. I always do.

יהיה בסדר

It means "it will be alright", but more than that as well. My friend Nimrod taught it to me a few days ago, over something that seemed important at the time and feels more superfluous now as I mourn Sparky's death. Even so, I am starting to make peace with it and move on a little bit. It comes and goes. Last night I couldn't fall asleep because I was focused on him, and I ended up sleeping through Hebrew this morning as a result. Still, the smiles are returning. It's been a little while so I'll get you up to speed on my life this past week.

This past Tuesday morning, Nimrod and I went jogging along this path that runs through the Carmel National Park, adjacent to the road that runs down the mountain from the University. The scenery is beautiful and the course is challenging, with hills and sharp curves as you wind around the upper Carmel. I always jog with my mp3 player in hand, and I slip my ID card and my bedroom key into the rubber case around my mp3 player. When we finished our jog, I glanced down and realized that my key was missing. It had fallen out somewhere along the road. I was ready to panic, but Nimrod mentioned that he had heard the sound of metal falling towards the beginning of our run but didn't think much of it. He assured me we would find the key, telling me "יהיה בסדר." As skeptical as I was, I will never doubt him again. He found it! It was laying in the middle of a parking lot. I was just stunned. I had a midterm exam at 3 that afternoon, and I didn't quite feel like going to my exam stinking and covered in dried sweat while I waited for my new key. I'm sure my classmates would have been just as appreciative if they had known.

The exam went alright. The structure of the test was a little loopy. I'm not sure how else to phrase it. A lot of my friends were upset with our professor over the test, although I didn't think it was terrible. Some of his questions were vague and some needed clarification, but overall I didn't think there was anything wrong with the test. I'll put up the results when I have them. My last midterm was a take home in Arab-Israeli relations, which I will hand in at 3 PM today.

Having supportive friends has definitely helped to soften the blow of losing my dog. Meredith has called me a few times, and I also spoke with Eli and Marc over the phone. Several other people have left me messages on facebook and on this page, and I thank you all for your well wishes and support. It's been important that I have that support network here in Haifa as well. I really started to feel a little bit better yesterday afternoon after Hebrew class. I went with a group of people to this week's featured Wednesday concert. "Monica Sex" were performing and they gave a nice show. The sun was shining, and everyone grabbed a glass of beer and just talked and listened to the music.

Culture Wednesday at the university: Things are improving.

My roommates have also been very supportive, especially Samer and Hamza. I don't know them very well, but I am going to make an effort to change that. They are both great guys who have made a point of talking to me and comforting me. I've been eating with them more and I hope to make this a habit from now on.

Last night at מועדון בישול, we made pasta bolognese. The club has really grown. We had about a dozen people last not, and that gave us logistical problems that we didn't have when there were only 4 or 5 people. Still, the meal turned out quite well. The meat was nicely seasoned and we made an interesting salad with fruit and pecans. Needless to say everyone went home as full and drowsy as usual. I felt like I usually feel after thanksgiving dinner last night.

This weekend I will be away from Haifa on tiyul. We are going to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea, and finishing our weekend with a hike up Masada. By the time I get home on Sunday night, I expect to be exhausted and be badly in need of a shower. I'll put up lots of photos and stories when I get home. I love to see Israel on foot, so this weekend should be great for me. Shabbat shalom.

Cultural Haifa

While I'm here in Haifa, I really hope to see what the city has to offer. To that end, on Friday morning I visited Elijah's Cave, a holy site at the base of the Carmel, and the Israel Maritime Museum which is about a block from the cave. The rest of my time this weekend has been spent with friends, or working on various school projects that are coming due sometime in the coming week.

Elijah's Cave is now a synagogue. In Biblical times, Elijah is said to have lived and taught here, hid here from the rage of King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. I went in and looked around for a little bit, then grabbed a copy of Tehilim from the bookshelf on the far side of the cave and read a couple. It was really a very short trip, but it was nice nonetheless. I thought about Papa Ruby for a little bit while I was inside, and then we left and walked over towards the museum campus.

A blurry photo of the inside of the cave.

I was surprised to learn that the Maritime Museum is less about Israeli maritime history and more about the maritime history of the world. It was still definitely cool though. The museum has two main exhibits. The upstairs exhibit is about the development of seafaring and shipping throughout the Mediterranean, and various parts of the exhibit touched on the ancient Greeks, Phoenecians, ancient Egyptians, ancient Romans, Macedonians, and of course Jews. The downstairs exhibit was all about piracy, which was really pretty cool. They had lots of old weapons and maps, as well as artifacts from different piracy cultures from all over the globe.

A model of an Ancient Greek shipping vessel.

After the museums we went to Hadar to pick up some produce for the week, and then headed back to the University. I went to Shabbat dinner in the moadon again this week which was excellent, and some friends and I went out to a pub in Mercaz haCarmel. People got a little silly, and later at a waffle joint, Dominique got a hold of my camera and started snapping photos nonstop.

Before the madness began. Dominique is the guy with the full liter of beer on the end.

This weekend has been mostly work for me, and I apologize for not updating more frequently. I have two presentations to give on Tuesday (1 in Hebrew, 1 in Terrorism and Responses), and the second presentation is not even finished yet. My Hebrew presentation is on the linguistic similarities between Hebrew and Arabic. It's a cool topic so far as I am concerned, but it's a dry presentation. This is intentional, because if people zone out and aren't listening, they won't have a lot of questions to ask me at the end of the presentation. With that, I'm going to get back to work. I'll update again soon.

It's pretty, but it just isn't me.

Tiyul In The Galilee

We left campus at 8 this morning for our educational tour of the Galilee. We were all over the Northern part of Israel, going up mountains and down into valleys, and winding through ravines and Wadis. Today was the kind of day it was totally impossible to dress for. At times it was sunny and warm, at other times it was overcast and cold, and we had periods of high winds and rain mixed in.

A cold morning foreshadowed a strange weather day in the north.

Today's tour was organized for students in the "Contemporary Israel" class, so we had class time interspersed with each stop on the tour. The overall topic of the trip was Labor Zionism and the seeds of the country planted by the pioneers of the second and third aliyot. Our first stops were on the Gilboa ridge overlooking the Jezreel Valley. The photo above is from the top of Mount Shaul, where according to the Tanach, King Saul and his army were routed by Philistines, and Saul committed suicide by falling on his sword. The Labor Zionists were avowed secularists, but they still used imagery from historical events like the battle at Gilboa to promote their ideology. I mostly like the mountain from the view at the top.


One of the missions that the Labor Zionists took upon themselves was the draining of the swamps that dotted the Jezreel Valley. The swamps were breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes, so draining them was an absolute necessity for making the valley habitable for large kibbutzim. The Labor Zionists took this principle a little too far, eventually doing ecological damage by eliminating every swamp in the valley. Of course they did not have any knowledge of ecology science, and the state is now working to protect the environment. We stopped next on Mount Gilboa proper to look out across the separation barrier into the West Bank. Each time I do this, it's a startling reminder of how close the West Bank is to Israeli cities.

A small Palestinian village just across the border from Israel. The separation barrier can be seen in the bottom left hand corner. Jenin is about 2 KM Southeast of here.

Our next stop was the Kinneret Cemetery, where a number of prominent Labor Zionists are buried. The cemetery is not traditional, because of the secular ideology practiced by the Labor Zionists. Today, people visit more to see the cultural icons buried in the cemetery, such as Rahel the Poetess, and the recently deceased Naomi Shemer the composer of "Jerusalem of Gold."

Naomi Shemer's grave.

We went to Tiberias next for lunch. The city sits on the western shore of the Kinneret and it is mainly a tourist attraction. Parts of it remind me of Florida, which is not a complement. The resort district is nothing but old guys walking around in flip flops and shorts. Tiberias has been home to a number of very famous Rabbi's, making it an attraction to a lot of Orthodox tourists as well. The city does have a nice shopping area where we went for lunch.

The modern city of Tiberias.

Our last stop was Mount Arbel, where we looked out across the Kinneret at the Golan Heights, and down the cliff at the Ginosar Valley and the Druze village of Wadi Hamam. The Galilee has a very large non Jewish population; by some measures Jews are the minority in the area. The last time I was on the Arbel was on Ramah Seminar back in 2002. It was our first real hike of the trip. My luggage was lost on the way to Israel, so I was hiking in sandals, and I blistered up pretty badly. It was cold, windy and rainy at the summit today, so we were all very grateful to head back to the bus. It was a nice, educational tour, but I would like to tour the Galilee on my own when I have time.

The village of Wadi Hamam, just below Mount Arbel.

Clubbin'

I went to the "Soundstage" club at Kibbutz Yagur last night. There was a concert there by a band called "היהודים." Needless to say, this would never fly back home, whether the band members are Jewish or not. It was a heavy metal concert, which sounds just as bad in Hebrew as it does in English. They went on stage at 2 AM so I had plenty of time for dancing and that part of the night was a blast. The main dance floor was playing Israeli club music, primarily in Hebrew, so we ended up there. If I had ignored the language though, this would have been no different from any club I've been to in the U.S. Hot and poorly ventilated, strobe lights and inflated drink prices, skanky women and creepy men. Call it a little taste of home.

This completely inverts my learned preconceived notions about kibbutzim. Back in elementary school, when we would study the origins of the state of Israel, we learned about the socialist collectives called kibbutzim, where groups of ideologues joined a collective to farm the land and live a simple, Marxist existence. The problem isn't that this definition is wrong, so much as it is hopelessly outdated. Today the kibbutzim exist as small capitalist ventures, selling whatever it is that will help to enrich themselves. For Kibbutz Yagur, this means running a very successful night club. As an aside, I didn't get home until after 4 A.M., with an 8 o'clock Hebrew class waiting for me after daybreak. Baaaaaad idea.

We pulled together my cooking club again last night, and I think it is starting to gain some traction. We had a few more people this time and we've already agreed to stir fry next Wednesday night. I really hope this works out, I love to cook and I love to get together with my friends for dinner. One more class (Arab-Israeli Relations) and then the weekend is here! I've got a lot planned so I'll fill everything in as I go along.

Cooking Club schmoozes after dinner.