Haifa (Part II) and This Week in Jerusalem

Now, where was I when I last left off? Oh yes, our week so far, starting off Saturday morning in Haifa (Part II).  After a pretty good night’s sleep, we woke up and went downstairs for a huge breakfast buffet at the hotel. The buffet was filled with typical Israeli breakfast foods (16 types of cheeses, 10 different salads, and 6 fish items – I counted) plus some of the boys’ favorites from the States (French toast, hot chocolate, and sweet pastries). We ate a big breakfast and had lots of hot drinks; the WK counted that with the natool coffees, teas, and hot chocolate, our family consumed 10 different cups of liquid at breakfast (and that’s just the hot drinks!)

It was still raining when we left the hotel shortly before 10 am and walked about 50 meters to the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art. Pentheus had heard of the museum and very much wanted us to take a look. We used the museum passes that we had bought on Thursday and were able to enter the museum without paying. Although the museum was small, the Tikotin was very interesting. There was a photography exhibit we enjoyed, and we saw the 1965 and 2003 “reprise” of Yoko Ono’s performance art "Cut Piece" wherein members of the audience used scissors to cut off pieces of Yoko’s clothes until she remained in a bra and tights on stage. Like I said above, very interesting!

After the Tikotin, we returned to our hotel to relax a bit and then check out. We moved our belongings to the car and gathered the food we had purchased on Friday, so that we could have a picnic lunch later in the afternoon. We headed out to the Baha'i Gardens and Shrine (about a 7 minute walk), where we had made arrangements for a tour in English at 12:30. The Baha'i faith, which began in Persia in the mid-19th century, believes in the unity of all religions and sees all religious leaders (Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, Moses, and most recently Baha' Allah) as messengers from G-d who were sent at different times in history to fit the changing social needs but who brought substantially the same message. (http://www.bahai.org/) I'm not sure you can tell from the pictures below, the Baha'i Gardens and Shrine are on the side of a mountain in Haifa. One can enter from the top of the mountain and view the gardens on the way down to the Shrine or vice-versa. Unfortunately, when we arrived there, we were told that both the Gardens and Shrine were closed for the day, due to the heavy rain and concern about the steps being too slippery.

We were very disappointed, especially because it wasn’t really raining at that point, and there were lots of people waiting at the gate with us who felt the same way. We weren’t sure what to do next, as every other museum (except for the Tikotin which we had just seen) closed at 1 pm on Saturdays, and because it was Shabbat, we weren’t going to drive anywhere else in the area. I consulted the section of the Frommer’s book on Haifa, and announced we were going to walk to "Mitzpeh Shalom" (Peace Park) to start our picnic lunch earlier than planned. The walk to Mitzpeh Shalom took 45 minutes, with a bit of stopping and starting. Mitzpeh Shalom is lower on the mountain than the Ba’hai Gardens entrance, but there are no steps going directly down. Instead, we had to walk from the Ba’hai Gardens entrance all the way to the end of the street and make two quick right turns, so that we could then walk all the way in the other direction to Mitzpeh Shalom.

Our picnic lunch was good – yogurt, bread, cheese, fruit, pretzels and a couple of Israeli candy bars to split. It wasn’t raining at this point, and the sun was out. The boys were able to run around a bit, and we all looked at the various sculptures in the park. There were other people enjoying the park as well – a man was playing guitar next to his girlfriend and there was a group of Arab men barbecuing and enjoying a water pipe.

After killing a few hours at Mitzpeh Shalom, we continued down the street (and down the mountain) until we came to the lower entrance to the Baha'i Gardens and Shrine. We had hoped that because it wasn’t raining anymore, that there was a chance they would open up the area to visitors again, but that wasn’t the case. At that point, the only thing we could do was to turn around and walk back up the mountain (the same way we came down) to wait for Shabbat to end when we could get into the car to leave. We took our time getting back to where the car was parked (particularly because we were walking uphill), and there weren’t too many complaints from the boys. As we walked by the Baha'i Garden entrance, we saw that the gates were open as were the steps to the first viewpoint! Although we could only see a bit more of the Gardens from the bottom of the first set of steps, the views were great, and we were so glad we got to see something!

Here are some other shots of Haifa, (especially for you, MKG) - Haifa is truly a beautiful city.

We left Haifa around 5:30 when Shabbat had ended, and we drove to Givatayim, a suburb of Tel Aviv, to have dinner with Colonel Aharon and Rachel Bar Nir, good family friends of Pentheus’s family. The Colonel and Mrs. Bar Nir are probably in their seventies, and it felt like we were having dinner with any set of grandparents. Mrs. Bar Nir worried the boys didn’t eat enough healthy food (to be honest, the food wasn’t so great), but the boys certainly enjoyed the chocolate cake with frosting and the chocolate candy she gave them. We had a lovely time with the Bar Nirs and were so glad that we saw them. We had been trying to find a time to get together since we arrived in August, but our schedules hadn’t matched. We left the Bar Nirs about 8:30 or so and drove back to Jerusalem. Both boys fell asleep in the car, and it was nice to have some quiet for a while. When we returned to our neighborhood, Pentheus easily found a parking place, and the boys went right to sleep. Pentheus and I unpacked from the weekend and watched some college football on TV. (I couldn’t get the Michigan-Ohio State game, for which I understand I should be thankful!)

Sunday morning the boys went back to school, and I had Ulpan. In Ulpan we watched a video on ynet.co.il about the "y'reed m'cheerot“ (street fairs) that were being held in Tel Aviv. At these “street fairs” shopkeepers, artists, manufacturers, etc. from Southern Israel brought their products to Tel Aviv to sell their wares in an effort to recoup sales that they lost when their business were forced to close during the recent rocket attacks. From the video we learned words and phrases such as "mechamem et halev" ("warms the heart"); "lefargen" (to award/reward); and "sheetapone" (flood, as in of people or water). We also learned the word "m'ahdahniya" which is the word for "deli", but almost everyone in the Ulpan class challenged our teacher and said that the word is never used. Our teacher insisted that it was, so I wrote it down. Little did I know that within the next 24 hours I would see the word used not once, but twice, to mean exactly that - "deli" or maybe "smorgasbord":

In the first picture, the sign says that Italian deli take-out food is on sale on Fridays, so that it can be eaten over Shabbat. ("M'ahdahniya" is the first word in the second line of the sign. Note that Hebrew is read from right to left.) The second sign at a store near the Emek offers a "deli of soap products" available at the store. ("M'adanhniyot" [the plural] is the first word in the first line.) Guess the word is used!

Sunday afternoon, Pentheus and the boys went bowling in Talpiyot and then returned the rental car. They called me from outside the rental place to invite me to join them for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Little Italy, and I thought it was great. I ordered a lamb, sweet potato and arugula pizza which was delicious! (I thought I had taken a picture of the pizza but I don't see it on my camera.) The CK liked my pizza more than the pasta he ordered, so I ended up sharing my meal with his - the sacrifices a mother makes for her son. J We'll definitely be going there again before we return to the States!

 Before going home from Little Italy, I stopped by the Inbal Hotel, across the street, to make an appointment for a massage! When Operation Pillar of Defense and the "tseva adom" started, good friends in Cambridge sent me a voucher for a massage to let me know "in a hands-on way" (their words, not mine) that they were thinking of me. It was a very sweet idea, and on Wednesday, I had an awesome massage! The voucher allowed me to use other facilities at the spa, so before the massage I used the treadmill, and after the massage, I sat in the sauna before showering. It was a very relaxing few hours! The gift was much appreciated, and I definitely needed it.

On Monday, I left the house at 7:45 am to walk the boys to school and didn't return home until after 2:30. I sat at Cafe Duvshaneet for a few hours in the morning, drank my natool, and wrote the previous blog post. Then I walked to the Emek and did a bit of shopping. The CK had a birthday party to attend, and I bought a birthday present for him to bring. I also went into one of the gift shops on the Emek and bought "chapatzei noi" (gift items - I can't think of what we call them in English - they are nicer than just knick-knacks but not super fancy. Feel free to supply the English word for me.) for the boys and a pair of earrings for me. I had the "chapatzei noi" shipped to the States so that they will have something from Israel waiting for them when we get home. I then met my friend, Jessie, for lunch at the Grand Cafe. Jessie and I had a great time, as we always do. I have loved seeing her while we have been in Jerusalem, and I will miss her a lot when we go back.

On Tuesday, while Pentheus and the CK were at the birthday party for one of the girls in the CK's class, the WK and I did a bunch of errands and kept busy. The CK needed a few new textbooks and a stencil with geometric shapes for school. I had been to 3-4 different stores near the dira but hadn't been able to find the stencil, so the WK and I went to a store further away. After the store, we went to "Canyon Malcha" (the Malka Mall) to buy some wine glasses (because I have somehow managed to break 4 of them from the dira!) and went out to dinner. I think I have mentioned this before, but I love the fact that all of the restaurants in the Food Court at the mall are kosher. The WK and I split a steak sandwich from Roza's and then bought gummy candy for dessert. (Gummy candy, another thing I will miss a lot when we return to the States.)

Last night I went to my first book club in Israel. Jessie had invited me to join the group temporarily, and I enjoyed meeting the other women. All of them, except for one woman, have made aliyah to Israel from the United States. Only a few of us had read the book, so after about 20-30 minutes, we started talking about other things. All of the women are very interesting, and I liked listening to their stories about what brought them to Israel and what their lives here are like. I'll be in Israel for one more book group, and I look forward to meeting with them again. 

Nothing too exciting today. The house cleaner came again, which was good, because we're having company to Shabbat dinner tomorrow night and a couple of guests to Shabbat lunch on Saturday as well. I went to the grocery store and to Ace Hardware to get a few things we needed. (By the way, "mafteach bragim" is Hebrew for wrench.) I had a splitting headache when I returned from shopping and tried to lay low this afternoon. I had asked the CK to go to the department store with me this evening because he desperately needs some new clothes. He has outgrown almost everything we brought from Cambridge, except for some of the shorts and t-shirts which he can't really wear now because it isn't warm enough. I had planned for the CK and me to have dinner out when we were shopping, but the CK really wanted to stay at home to read his book. Instead, the WK and I went to dinner at Katamon HaYashan (The Old Katamom) café. The WK and I spent a lot of time talking, and we enjoyed being together.

Despite the fact that the boys’ behavior hasn't been so great for a lot of the time we’ve been in Israel, it’s still been amazing to watch the boys grow and change during this experience. The boys have clearly gained more independence, in more ways than just going to Park HaMoshava or the “makolet” (corner convenient store) by themselves. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, but the boys have adopted a more “Israeli” manner in the way they communicate. It’s not just that both the CK and the WK are much more likely to speak out about something they don’t like (see note above about not knowing if this is good or bad!), but they’re also more curious about what’s going on around them and more likely to think about things from a different perspective. Sometimes I think Pentheus and I have been so focused on our day-to-day living in Israel, that we forget about the big picture. I wish we could see into the future and hear what the boys as adults will tell their families and friends about the crazy 5-month adventure during which they lived in Jerusalem!

It's just after midnight early Friday morning, and the UN General Assembly just voted 138-9-41 to recognize Palestine as a non-member state. I can hear the fireworks in Jerusalem as those who supported the UN resolution celebrate. I can't say that our time in Israel has been boring!

Open House, Haifa (Part I), and Lots of Cows

Wednesday evening, the CK had a “bayit me’areach” (open house) at the home of one of his classmates from Kitah Alef (first grade). The kids in each class are divided up into groups of 5-6 kids, and three or four times a year, these small groups meet in one of the children’s homes to do a special art activity or group project. Because Israeli schools typically do not include Kindergarten or Pre-K, there are no “feeder” schools from which the Kitah Alef classes are populated. The idea behind the “bayit me’areach” is simply to create bonds between the Kitah Alef children because, presumably, the kids in Kitah Alef will most likely be in their class for at least the next 5 years, and possibly 11-12 years, if the kids go to the same high school as well. I had thought that the “bayit me’areach” only happened in the Szold School, but apparently, these occur across the country in all Kitah Alef classes.

When I brought the CK to his "bayit me’areach", he initially requested that I stay at the house with him and the other kids, but I told the CK I wouldn’t be staying. I thought that my being there would constrain the experience for him, and I didn't want to “mess up his groove.” The CK was totally okay with my not staying, and, in fact, the second we arrived at his classmate’s apartment, the CK ran into one of the rooms and played with the other kids. The CK had a great time overall, and we were all glad that he went, even if this is the only one he will attend. During the bayit me’areach, I had a natool and pastry at a nearby café and researched our trip to Haifa that started on Thursday morning.

So, the whole family went away for a long weekend to Haifa, then to Alon HaGalil, and then back to Haifa. Pentheus and the WK picked up a rental car late Wednesday afternoon and then picked up the CK and me from the CK’s bayit me’areach. We left the dira Thursday morning and drove straight to Haifa, about a 2-hour trip from our dira in Jerusalem.  Our first stop in Haifa was the Israeli Train Museum in the port of Haifa. There was nothing about the Train Museum in our Frommer’s book, but we had read about it in Things to Do in Israel with Kids. When we decided to go to Haifa, Pentheus remembered it from the book. The museum was great – we climbed in, on, and around actual trains, and we learned about the different types of wheel arrangements (Co-Co, as opposed to Bo-Bo, etc.). Another building of the Train Museum was filled with lots of train-related items, like the actual tickets from the past 65 years, different types of train whistles, telegraph machines, schedules, etc. The museum was really neat, and the boys had a great time. The WK kept saying, “This is awesome!” Big “yays” to Pentheus for remembering it.

(I love this picture with the old, wooden trains in front of the super modern-looking building!)

After the Train Museum, we tried to get lunch. We followed the directions in Frommer’s to go to Yotvatah restaurant (remember the Yotvatah B’eer in Tel Aviv, where the boys, my Dad and I had dinner and breakfast, and where my sister Karen and I had dinner?) at the end of the beach boardwalk, but we couldn’t find the restaurant, just an empty building. When I called the phone number in Frommer’s, and the line had been disconnected, we figured we needed to find another place to eat. We looked around and in the area where we were in Haifa, there weren’t many restaurants. We drove more into Haifa and found a restaurant called Abu Zhid, and after we looked for parking for a long while, we found a spot and were seated at the restaurant. Unfortunately, there was nothing on menu for us, except for hummous and very expensive fish entrees, although Abu Zhid had a great variety of (non-kosher) meat and true seafood. Instead, I went to a “makolet” (convenience store) down the street from Abu Zhid and bought yogurts, pita breads with za’atar or melted cheese, bananas and water, and we ate a “picnic” lunch if that’s what it’s called when one eats on a park bench on the corner of a busy street.

From lunch we went to the National Maritime Museum, also in the port of Haifa. There we bought “museum passes” that allowed us entry to many of the Haifa museums. I think we paid 50 shekel/adults (about $12.50) and 40 shekel/child (about $10), and we used the pass to get in to 4 different museums. The National Maritime Museum was kind of interesting, and had a good exhibit on piracy, but none of us thought the museum was that great. The most compelling part of the museum, at least according to the boys, was the National Geographic video that explained how ships are made (and, to be honest, I think anything on a TV screen would keep the boys mildly entertained). We kind of sped through the museum and headed for the Clandestine Immigration & Naval Museum right next door.

We all enjoyed the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum. Aside from having lots of interesting items and information about the illegal immigration by the Jews during and after the Holocaust and World War II, the museum included one of the actual boats, the Af Al Pi Chen (Nevertheless) that was  used to transport illegal Jewish immigrants from Europe. Inside the museum, we found out how our street, Yordei Hasira, got its name, and read the story about the 24 seamen (23 members of the Hagana and a British major) whose ship disappeared whilst on a mission to destroy fuel depots in Tripoli. Parts of the museum reminded us, especially the CK, of the illegal immigration camp in Atlit and the Hagana Museum in Tel Aviv, both of which we visited last month.

Unfortunately, the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum closed at 4 pm, and by the time we arrived there, it was after 3:15. We wish we had gone to that museum before going to the National Maritime Museum, which didn’t close until 5 and didn’t have that much we wanted to see. The CK gave me a particularly hard time about it, which wasn’t that much fun for me.

From there we drove to Alon HaGalil, a moshava (a one-time collective farming community but now a small town) about 40 minutes away from Haifa, to visit Pentheus’s friend, Uri and his family. Pentheus worked with Uri in 1990-91 and remained in touch with him over the years. Pentheus had last seen Uri when Uri had been in Cambridge in 1999 for a business meeting, and I had met Uri then as well. Uri, his wife Michal, and 3 daughters are “good people” and we had a great time with them. They live on a fairly large plot of land and have 3 dogs, a cat, and a horse. Despite the fact that it was pouring rain (and dark) when we arrived in Alon HaGalil, we all went outside to meet the animals and to feed/pet the horse. It was a lot of fun.

Uri and Michal, had planned for us (Pentheus and me) to go to a movie with them Thursday night, and Uri’s youngest daughter (Yasmine, who is a junior in high school) was going to hang with the boys, but we couldn’t find a movie we wanted to see enough to get us out of the house during the horrible rain storm, complete with thunder and lightning. (We did, however, teach Uri the phrase “chick flick” when he read us the descriptions of the movies that were playing.)  It ended up being a great low-key evening during which we sat at the kitchen table and talked with Uri and his family while the boys drew pictures and played “Go-Go” (the next generation of the stupid Supergoal card game that I hate) until they fell asleep on the lounge chairs in the living room.  After the boys finally went upstairs to sleep, the grown-ups stayed awake and talked until after midnight.

We had many great conversations with Uri and his family. They all speak English fairly well, and the conversation bounced between Hebrew and English. I learned a lot of new Hebrew words (“l’tzachtzeach” – to brush teeth; “l’havreesh” – to brush hair; “sheegrah” – routine; “l’ahbehd” – to process; “madeem”- uniform; and “t'zoonah”- nutrition, to list just a few). At one point, Uri’s two older daughters, one of whom is in the army right now and one who is 3 years out of the army and in University now, had an “argument” about whether Operation Pillar of Defense had been a “lechima” (fighting action) or a “milchama” (war). After going back and forth for a while, the daughter who is in the army now said that if she and her friends are the ones doing the actual fighting in the thick of it, then they get to decide what it was – and, according to her, it was definitely a “milchama.”

I could write for a long time here about the “hafsakat aish” (cease-fire), in terms of what the English newspapers and the people with whom we talk are saying about it, but I am certain that I would not do the analysis justice. Accordingly, I’ll just offer a few sentences. There are lots of articles in the Jerusalem Post about how Netanyahu didn’t do enough and that the “hafsakat aish” was weak, and plenty in Ha’aretz about how Netanyahu did the right thing by not engaging Israel in a brutal ground invasion. I’ve heard some people talk about how upset they are with Netanyahu because they voted for him based on his promise of security and his hard stance against Hamas, and others praise Netanyahu for his restraint and for still seemingly being open to resolving the conflict, even if it involves working with Hamas, albeit via a middle party like Egypt. (I must admit, it’s scary that Egypt, torn between facing loss of aid from the U.S. and loss of face in the Islamic states in the Middle East, acted as the middleman - not quite the uninterested party.) The two things on which almost everyone agrees, at least from what I have read and heard, is that the “hafsakat aish” is likely only temporary, and that Netanyahu's handling of the conflict improved his relationship with Obama and the Obama administration. (As an aside, in the last few days, the WK has stopped sleeping with a kipa on his head, and the CK is down to sleeping with only 4 stuffies, instead of 5.The CK is still hyper-attentive to any siren, but it doesn’t stop him from doing what he wants to do.)

It rained all night on Thursday and it continued on Friday. After a leisurely breakfast with Uri and his family, we planned our day. We had wanted to go to the National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space, but it was closed on Fridays. We looked for other museums that were open but didn’t find any. It didn’t matter because at the CK’s “bayit me’areach” on Wednesday night, the mother hosting the event had told us about “Shveel Peerot Hachalav” a dairy farm in Beit Lechem HaGlilit, near Yokneeam, about 15 minutes from Uri’s house. Despite the rain, our family, plus Uri, Michal, and Yasmine headed out to the farm. We had a great time – feeding calves, petting and milking cows, making butter and chocolate milk, and learning all about the dairy farm. I have never heard the word "peetma" (nipple) used so many times in one hour!

We left the dairy farm, said our goodbyes to Uri and his family, and picked up a quick lunch of homemade pita (made by the wife of the man who sold them to us!) with chocolate (for the WK), za’atar and hummous for Pentheus, and hummous for me. (The CK preferred to eat a few jelly beans, potato chips and a bite of a candy bar instead. We decided not to push it because he had a big, healthy breakfast that morning.) We drove back to Haifa and checked into the Nof (View) Hotel, which truly has the best “nof” in Haifa. Windows on both sides of our room showcased panoramic views of Haifa – one side the city and the other the beautiful port. We took desperately needed showers (remember, we had been at a working dairy farm in the rain!). After Shabbat started around 4:15, Pentheus and the boys then took a walk around Haifa, and then we got ready for dinner. We had pre-paid for the dinner buffet at the hotel, and it was okay. There was a decent selection of meat, chicken, and fish entrees, plus a lot of salads, side dishes, and multiple desserts. After dinner, we went to bed fairly early and got a good night’s sleep.

Favorite Hebrew Word of the Day

I've been struggling to write this blog post. I've thought about what I wanted to say, written and subsequently deleted sentences multiple times, and then started typing again. I'm not sure what the difficulty is. The day had big highs and huge lows, and I've cried more than once. Maybe I will try to write this post again in a day or two. For now, I'll just say that I learned a new Hebrew word, and I am happy to be using it: "hafsakat aish" - cease-fire.

Another Rocket Siren in Jerusalem (we're all okay)

2:15 pm Jerusalem, 20 Nov 2012.

We just had another "tseva adom" alerting us that a rocket was launched at Jerusalem and that we needed to seek shelter. After the alarm stopped, we waited 10 minutes, per protocol, before leaving the boys' room, which is the "safest" room in the house. The boys were in the middle of their Hebrew class in the living room, and I was literally italicizing the word "exactly" in the second paragraph below (about the location of our hotel in Tel Aviv) when the "tseva adom" sounded. Overall, the boys (plus Pentheus and I) seemed to do "better" than last time. At the beginning, the CK was crying and wanted me to hug him; then, the CKwanted to stand by himself ("I don't want anyone to touch me.") next to the bed. The boys' Hebrew tutor was with us during the alarm, and I think her presence made it easier for the boys, although because she is 18 now, she only heard her first "tseva adom" last Friday night, too. The difference being: unfortunately, she has had to practice and "prepare" for things like this. She said that Jerusalemites were referring to Friday night's event as an "azahkha emeht" ("real" alarm, as opposed to a drill). It turns out that the rocket this afternoon landed in an open field about 15 kilometers from us. While I know that 15 kilometers is relatively far away, it's pretty damn close, too.

The boys seemed to be able to "bounce back" fairly quickly after this one, as I can hear them in the living room reading Hebrew aloud with their tutor. I know it's only been a few minutes and perhaps none of this has hit us (no pun intended, I assure you) yet, but it's kind of sad and disturbing that we have been able to "adjust" to this so quickly. I mean, we've had 2 sirens alerting us that missiles aimed at us have been launched, but we go right back to whatever we were doing. I don't want to "get used to it"! I guess, though, that's the only thing we can do - get back to whatever we were doing. The other option is to let the sirens paralyze us, which would be worse.

I have deleted my initial sentences from this paragraph because they were all about how there had not been alarms about missiles aimed at Tel Aviv since Sunday and Jerusalem since Friday night. I had written about how we continue to listen to the news and read the English Israeli newspapers online to find out what's going on in the rest of the country. I just heard about some of the details related to the stabbing at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv this morning, and I have to admit it's a little weird knowing that just last month, Dad, the boys, and I stayed at the hotel exactly across the street from the Embassy. I keep reading articles about how close we are to a cease-fire but I don't know how accurate the reports are. One analyst has said that the fact that Hamas launched a rocket at Jerusalem may be a sign that a cease-fire is close, and that the rocket was an effort to "save face" with Hamas supporters before a cease-fire goes into effect.

Everyone is understandably nervous about what's going on. Wherever we are, people are talking about it - at our synagogue, on the bus, in restaurants. The buses that used to play music now only play the news; the typical "mahkolets" (convenience stores) where we go to shop run out of English language newspapers before we get there. We all feel for Israelis living in the South, and now that we have had a small taste of what they've been experiencing for months, our hearts ache, especially for the children. I read in the Jerusalem Post today that 85% of all children under age 10 and 50% of all teens in Southern Israel suffer from PTSD. I can easily believe it. Here's an ad from today's newspaper in which a bank is offering special deals to those in the South whose homes were destroyed by the rockets.

The reality is that I know we are all thinking about it. As I walked the boys to school on Sunday, I made some comment about how things are getting back to normal, and the CK said, "Yeah, but I bet everyone is scared." I agreed with him but also told him that we can't let that stop us from doing things we wanted to do. The WK has still insisted on sleeping with his kippa on every night "to keep him safe," and I doubt the "tseva adom" this afternoon is going to stop him from wearing it any time soon. When the CK hears any loud noise (like an ambulance siren or a car alarm), he states aloud, "That's just an ambulance siren, not a 'tseva adom'" as if he physically needs to hear the words to convince himself of their truth. But, we're living our typical lives as much as we can, and doing what we need to do.

As I think I have mentioned, our Ulpan teacher has been great about teaching us practical words and phrases as part of our class. Well, at Ulpan on Sunday morning, all of our new words and phrases came from watching ynet.co.il, an online news source based on Yediot Achronot, an Israeli newspaper, on a laptop. To be honest, I hadn't expected the words "teel" (missile), "ahzahkha" (alarm), "charahdah"  (anxiety), and "beeroot" (interception) to be so practical, and I didn't think I would need to know how to say "From the roof, he could see that the two rockets landed in the open field." By the end of Ulpan, I knew a lot of new words, but I was really sad, too. At Ulpan today, we used many of the words from Sunday and added on more - "p'geeah y'seera" (direct hit), "rahsees bohair" (burning remnant), "cheesool" (assassination/elimination), "mahtach" (barrage), and too many more. Kind of wish we were back learning relevant words from a video detailing sites of the Old City as seen from a Segue like we did in our second Ulpan session!

The boys and I have continued to go out to see the sites. Sunday after school, the CK and I went to the former Central Prison of Jerusalem which is now a Museum for the Underground Prisoners. Sort of like the one we saw last month at Akko, the prison was used to hold prisoners, both political ones like those who fought for the Jewish underground (the Haganah) and criminal prisoners (Jewish and Arab). There was absolutely nobody else there except for the CK and me. We saw a movie in English, and visited each of the 58 rooms in the museum. (Seriously, the CK wanted to see every single room, which we did. The CK was upset when we were getting ready to leave because we hadn't seen rooms 36 and 48, but we did end up seeing them after all - they were on the same hallway as the bathrooms we used before we left the museum!) One of the interesting things we saw was the doors to the prison. The bottom opening of the door is raised 6 inches from the floor and the top opening is only at the 4 feet mark. Doors were made this way to make it difficult for prisoners to escape - a man can't just run out the door; he would have to remember to lift his feet and duck his head:

The labor work the CPJ prisoners did was to make gravestones and coffins for the British soldiers who died in the conflicts.

After the museum, the CK and I walked a bit to downtown Jerusalem and hung out for a while. Then we met Pentheus and the WK at Luigi, an Italian restaurant near the San Simon Park about 10-15 minutes from the dira. Dinner was only ok, except for the foccacio which was yummy, but we had a good time.

Yesterday after school, the WK and I spent the afternoon together. We took the #13 bus downtown and then took the "rekevet kala" (light rail) to Har Herzl, at the southwest terminus of end of the rekevet kala line. Our goal was to go to the Herzl Museum (also called the World Zionist Organization Museum) and to walk around the Har Herzl Memorial Park, where Theodor Herzl, Zev Jabotinsky, Yizchak Rabin and many other Zionist and national leaders are buried. Har Herzl also acts as the military cemetery for war veterans and those killed by acts of terror. When we arrived at the Museum just after 3:30, the Museum was closed; despite the fact that my Frommer's guide stated that the Museum was open until 5 pm, the Museum actually closed at 3:15. But at least we could walk around the Memorial Park.

Despite everything that is happening, we're still very glad we are in Israel, and as we think about leaving at the end of next month. Pentheus and I get more and more sad. To be honest (and this won't surprise many of you), I have cried almost every day this week thinking about having to leave. When I picked the CK up from school, the first thing Meital (his teacher) said was, "Chaval sh'ohzveem" (Shame that you're leaving), to which I responded, through tears, "B'vakasha, ahl t'dahbree ahl zeh" (Please, don't talk about it.) It's not that I don't want to come back to the States; I, we, all of us do. We've missed our friends and family terribly. It's just hard to think about the end of our adventure. I do know one thing, and I couldn't have said it better than the bumper sticker I saw on a car on the way back to the dira after lunch today:

No pictures today - just that we are okay

Can't sleep. It's after 11:30 pm here, I'm exhausted, but my mind is racing. I left the boys' room a few minutes after staying with them for about an hour. The boys are finally asleep - the WK is lightly snoring and the CK is still clutching all 5 of his stuffed animals. I usually don't write blog entries on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), but I figured that I could, especially because this Shabbat has been anything other than restful thus far.

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So that's what I wrote last night. My post was interrupted by the CK, who woke up, noticed I was no longer sleeping next to him, and became very upset. I moved back into the boys' room, crawled back into the CK's twin bed, and slept fitfully until this morning. Every time I moved or rolled over, the CK would make sure to tighten his grip on my arm...

All day long, I have been thinking about whether and what I should write about the "tseva adom" ("color red" siren) that we had in Jerusalem last night, about 45 minutes after we lit candles to welcome in Shabbat. When it first went off, I think it took us a while to figure out what it was. It's funny that I write it took a "while" - it was probably only 8-10 seconds, though it seemed like much, much longer. Pentheus, the boys, and I moved into the safest place in the dira and mostly hugged each other for the duration of the siren. It seemed to last a long time. Not to be dramatic, but it would be gut-wrenching for me to write (and I imagine for you to read) in this blog what the boys were saying and doing, during and after the siren.

After a while, we left the room and moved back to the living room. We talked about what had happened and let the boys know what they should do if there is another "tseva adom." The boys came up with all kinds of scenarios, e.g., what to do if they are in the street walking somewhere (answer: go to the inner staircase of the closest building) and what to do if they are at Park Hamoshava (answer: same as above). It was pretty surreal to be talking to the kids about things like that. It was also hard being so reassuring to the boys, when we were winging it, too. I guess the good news is that, at the time of the "tseva adom", Pentheus and I assumed that it must be a false alarm because we didn't know that any rockets from Gaza could even come close to Jerusalem. (If you don't believe me that's what we thought, check out my previous blog post where I wrote that out after I assured the kids it was true!) It was kind of frightening all over again to learn that it was not a false alarm.

Today there were no sirens in Jerusalem, and we had a pretty typical Shabbat. Pentheus and the boys went to synagogue for services, and I joined them after getting a little more sleep. (I could lie and say I only slept in because I was tired from sleeping with the CK, but it's fairly normal for me to get some extra snooze time in on Shabbat morning). After services, Pentheus and the boys went to the rooftop of our dira for about an hour. Pentheus read the paper (we bought all of the English papers yesterday, too), while the boys fed one of the turtles cucumbers (who knew turtles ate cucumbers?!) and watched the other turtle sleep. We had lunch together and then the boys went to Park Hamoshava while Pentheus and I hung around the dira. Later, we did Havdalah (a brief service to mark the ending of Shabbat) and had dinner.

The boys had a hard time settling down for bed tonight. (While I know some of it was related to last night, most nights have been difficult for the boys regardless.) The WK insisted on wearing his "kippah"  (yarmulke or head covering) to sleep because he thought if he "wears a kippah, G-d will keep me safe." The CK sought security via another route by trying to convince me to sleep in his bed again. I stayed with the boys for a while, and then Pentheus spelled me until the boys were asleep. I am a little worried that the CK will have a hard time going to school tomorrow morning, but we'll deal with that when/if it happens. The WK wanted to know what they should do if there is a "tsevah adom" on the way to school; once it's okay to leave the inner staircase of the closest building, should they come home or go to school (answer: go to whichever is closer). It's clear they are thinking a lot about this and processing it in their own way. It's almost heart-breaking to watch them have to do this.

Today we received an email from the Szold School (where the boys attend) letting everyone know that if any Szold families have relatives from the Southern part of Israel (where the vast majority of rockets are being aimed) staying with them until things cool down a bit, that all children are welcome to learn at the Szold School for the duration. I have no idea if that is typical, but we are majorly impressed by that. Israelis do everything they can to make sure we are all in this together. (On a selfish note, I have to admit I was psyched that I read the whole email in Hebrew and understood what it was saying! Always taking an opportunity to learn some more Hebrew.)

The last day has been rough, there's no doubt about it, but we got through it. I'm not sure why exactly, but seeing your posts on Facebook and reading your emails do help. As crappy as this whole thing is, we also want to make sure you know that we are okay; we really are. We're making thought-out decisions, based on the information we have, and we are doing what we need to do. That being said, feel free to keep sending up good thoughts!

Jerusalem Th Night 15/11/12

So, clearly there is a lot going on in Israel at the moment. I won't go into the details about number of rockets or "tseva adom" alerts ("color red" - an alert that rockets have been fired and that one should seek shelter immediately, between 15-90 seconds, depending on city/region) to which the people in southern part of Israel have been subject over the past few days (never mind, the past few months and years) or the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) response to Hamas in Gaza within the past 48 hours. You can read those details, analyzed from every perspective, in newspapers and online. In this blog post, I want to write about how we've been experiencing and what we're feeling.

First of all, we are totally, totally okay. There is no current threat to Jerusalem, and we are not in harm's way. Thanks to everyone who has emailed, called, messaged, and sent us good thoughts and wishes. Although Israel is a very small country, we feel very removed from what's happening only 60 miles away. I read an article in the paper this morning about how even though the people of Tel Aviv are technically within range of the rockets from the Gaza Strip (or the "Strip" as all of the English newspapers seem to refer to it), Tel Avivians act (and feel) like they are in a "bubble" amidst all that's going on.

That being said, what's happening is affecting us. The boys and I went to Ammunition Hill yesterday afternoon after having postponed the visit because of rain earlier in the week. In order to get there, we took the #13 bus downtown and then the "rahkevet kalah" (light rail) to the Ammunition Hill station. While we were on the bus, I received an email from the US Consulate, announcing that because of what was going on, all non-official US Government travel in the West Bank and Gaza had been canceled and that US citizens were advised to exercise caution in traveling to and in the West Bank, including Gaza. We have received a couple of these emails before, but each previous time had been a result of demonstrations and political activities in the Territories/Gaza. Also, this email included travel on Routes 1, 90 and 443, which are highways we have traveled on many times, including on the way to and from the airport outside Tel Aviv. I received another email with the same info early last evening, so it's clear they mean business.

One of the things they have at Ammunition Hill is a movie with a model depicting the action, and we hung around outside the theatre until the English version was ready. As we waited, a female soldier who works at Ammunition Hill talked to us about what was going on. She indicated that there might be a war soon, but hopefully not. This information definitely startled the CK, and from that point on, he was very worried and scared throughout the movie and last night about the possibility of war. (It didn't help that the movie gave hour-by-hour details about the fighting in 1967 and ended with homage to the 183 Israelis who were killed in the battle.)

I assured the CK that Pentheus and I would always do whatever we needed to do to keep our family safe. We reminded the CK that Jerusalem is far away from where the rockets are being dropped and that the Israeli army is strong. I'm kind of angry at myself for even engaging in the conversation with the soldier at Ammunition Hill. Maybe I should have just smiled and steered the conversation away from the topic. We were able to calm the CK down, and he has been feeling better today.

We've had several other connections with the violence, including at the CK's guitar lesson today, when his teacher told us that in the middle of a gig in Beer Sheva last night, his band and the whole audience evacuated the club and went to the bomb shelter after the "tseva adom" went off. Also, our friends' daughter, who is currently doing a volunteer program about 30 kilometers from Gaza, and others in her program faced a "tseva adom" early this morning and subsequently came to Jerusalem until the weekend ends. Plus, kids we know on other programs, like Young Judaea's Year Course, are being moved around to make sure everyone stays safe.

As I typed that last paragraph, our next door neighbor came over to check to see that we were okay. She wanted to make sure we knew what was happening and to tell us not to travel anywhere South or to Tel Aviv. We were surprised the she included Tel Aviv, until she told us that a rocket allegedly landed in a Tel Aviv suburb just 15 minutes earlier. The general consensus is that if there is a successful strike on Tel Aviv, the more likely Israel is to launch a ground invasion in Gaza. Kind of weird considering the article about Tel Aviv that I discussed at the beginning of this post (which I wrote a couple of hours earlier).
I went to Cafe Duvshaneet this morning (Thursday instead of Friday), so that I could buy the English newspapers and read what's happening. We've also gotten information from the Internet obviously, but I wanted to sit and read. I would have a very hard time reading the newspapers in Hebrew, although I can guess what they are saying. I took a few pics of the headlines.

I have to admit that it feels tense here and we're all a bit anxious. While I am not worried about our safety, really I am not, I am very sad about what's going on. I'm not a good enough writer to describe how we're feeling. It sucks that I have to keep reassuring my 7-year old that we're safe, and it really sucks that I can't reassure myself that this isn't going to escalate into something more ugly. I can't image how the Israelis in the line of danger feel, and it makes me even more sad to think about it.

Despite all of that, we had a good time at Ammunition Hill. Ammunition Hill was a key battle site for control of East Jerusalem (including the Old City) between Israel and Jordan. The trenches, bunkers and other remnants of the battle site remain at Ammunition Hill, as well as a museum and the national memorial site for fallen soldiers from the Six-Day War in 1967. (http://www.g-h.org.il/en/about-us and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ammunition_Hill) The boys and I had been looking forward to seeing Ammunition Hill, as visitors can (and, believe me, the boys did) walk through the trenches, climb over bunkers, and check out the actual battle site.





After we left Ammunition Hill, but before we boarded the rahkevet kalah, we called Pentheus and made a plan for a family dinner in "mehrkhaz ha'eer" (downtown Jerusalem). Last night was the first time that Pentheus had been downtown since we arrived in Israel, as he mostly spends time working at his computer during the day, and we typically go to the Emek (as opposed to downtown) in the evening. We had a good meal at Moshava 54 and enjoyed spending time together. The boys were psyched because we sat at a table with high stools and a good view of the huge TV tuned into a sports channel. (It didn't matter much that the volume was off and that all of the text was in Hebrew; the boys could still tell that San Antonio beat the Lakers.)

I guess I haven't written yet about what we did earlier this week. On Tuesday after school, the family had lunch together, which was nice. Then, the boys and I went to the Science Museum because although it wasn't raining anymore, it was too muddy to go to Ammunition Hill. The Science Museum was okay, but nothing super exciting. The exhibits seemed a bit outdated to me even though supposedly they were fairly recent. The exhibit I liked the most was "Science-That's All of the Story" in which science themes were pulled out and illustrated from popular Israeli children's books. The boys loved the water exhibit.

Last night around 9 pm, my friend Jessie called on my cellphone to see what I was doing. When I admitted I was watching a rerun of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (the one where Ali's hamster dies and Ray arranges a funeral at Deborah's insistence), Jessie said she was in my neighborhood in a car with a few girlfriends, and did I want to go out for drinks with them. I was totally willing to forgo the hamster funeral and left the dira about 2 minutes later. We went to a restaurant/bar called "Mona's" a couple of blocks outside downtown Jerusalem and had a great evening. There were 4 of us in total, two women (Jessie and a friend of hers whom I actually knew a little bit via a mutual friend) who had made aliyah many years ago, one woman who is here with her family for her husband's two-year sabbatical from Indiana University and me. I very much enjoyed hanging with them and was glad to have been invited.

Today I didn't do much after I left Cafe Duvshaneet. The CK had his guitar lesson, but the WK's Hebrew lesson was canceled because his teacher is out of the country until mid next week. We had pasta for dinner - super exciting, and then Pentheus tried his first Oreo Cakester, a kind of Oreo whoopie-pie that the CK has really been into these days. The boys are hopefully almost asleep, and Pentheus has his weekly work conference call. I'm hoping to go to sleep fairly early tonight because I haven't been sleeping that well. We don't have big plans for the weekend, but I am sure things will come up. Let's pray for calm in the rest of the country.

Park Hamoshava by the CK

(Text and pics by the CK, typing by the Katamom)

On the first Friday night after we got to Israel, we walked by Park Hamoshava on the way to services at the Kol Haneshama synagogue about 15-20 minutes from our dira. We called it Park Hamoshava because it is across the street from a building with a sign on it that said "Moshava" which means "colony" or "settlement" in Hebrew. We later found out that the park's real name is "Gan Beit Elisheva" according to Gidon, the friend that the WK and I made there. Park Hamoshava has a soccer court.

As you can kind of see, the people on the court are from my school. If you look close enough, you might see the gray shirt has my school logo on it. Usually, I go there because Gidon is almost always there. Park Hamoshava has a big grassy area with some rocks that you can climb on.

One of the rocks looks like it has a Mayan calendar on it.

There is also a jungle gym at the park. Usually, when we play a game like hide and seek (or another game that involves hiding), we usually hide near there.

After a couple of weeks, Katamom and Pentheus let us walk to the park and stay there by ourselves.

At the corner (across from the Moshava building) there is a "makolet" (convenience store) that has a lot of my favorite candies in it.

Usually, we get at least a shekel (about $0.25) to buy something. For a shekel, we can buy gum, a popsicle, or a Laffy Taffy. There is also another makolet by the park. There I get a watermelon popsicle.

I will miss Park Hamoshava when we leave Israel.