A week ago was our 1 month anniversary of arriving in Israel, so I figure it’s a good time to do a general check in for all of you who have been dying to know how things are going.

Settling In

I initially gave us a 2 week target for getting all the basic services we needed set up. For the most part, we succeeded. We got cell phones for the two of us, a checking account, got our visas in order at misrad hapnim, got internet access, found a gan (pre-school) for Aliza, kashered the kitchen, bought some necessary home accessories, put up mezuzahs, unpacked, and got he process started for getting health care. (More on that later). I originally had the two week deadline in mind for two reasons. One is that I hate dragging out up front costs -get them all out of the way so I can start reaping the benefits of all these things. The second is that I was under the impression that I was going to have some contract work beginning in mid-November, and they wanted me on the project as soon as possible. Of the two companies for whom I was doing some sub-contracting, one project (the one supposed to begin around mid-Nov), appears to have been delayed somewhat indefinitely. The other was also delayed a few weeks, but did kick off this week. This is, I suppose, the life of a contractor.

Wanderings

On the plus side, what better time to be unemployed than when you’re in an exciting new country? I certainly wasn’t complaining (and you’ll notice I didn’t start begging for more contracts or calling headhunters :-)). We still had to find a gan for Maya, getting health insurance has taken about a half dozen trips to various offices (so far), and Jerusalem has no shortage of wonderful things to explore. I picked up a copy of Rogov’s ultimate guide to Israeli wine (released in Israel but not yet in the US), and found an excellent local wine store. We’ve been taking advantage of the plethora of kosher restaurants (wow – we can actually go somewhere and NOT have to bring food or snacks for us or the kids! This is an entirely foreign concept to us).

Health care

The basic way it works is that because we have to be here 6 months before we can get into the national healthcare system. (Most Israelis have some costs deducted straight from their paychecks. It’s a percentage of salary, and the unemployed are still covered even when their income is zero). Until then, we have to buy it privately, which is actually fairly inexpensive. We’ve been to the health ministry and the healthcare providers offices a combines total of five times now, and each time we got a little bit closer. The first time the ministry wasn’t open on Wednesday mornings, the second time we got what we needed, but then had to go sign up with a provider, the first time we did that they lost our paperwork, and the second time we did that they needed me to come in separately to sign since they wouldn’t accept only one spouse’s signature. We should be insured in the near future. (Until then, don’t worry, we still have COBRA).

Health

Getting insured will be good because it seems like we’ve all been continually sick since we got here. I suppose a new country with new germs which none of us are attuned to, plus two children in nursery school will do that.

Israeli Institutions

The banks suck, the phone companies suck, the cable companies suck, the ISPs suck, the government is bureaucratic and arbitrary, can’t get anything done without having connections, and everyone tries to take advantage of you pretty much all the time. The Israelis (and other immigrants) I’ve talked to seem to just accept this.

The Girls

Aliza had been in a Hebrew immersion program in the states for a few months before we came here, and it was definitely worth it. We also started reading Hebrew books and putting an emphasis on using Hebrew phrases and words around the house. She’s been in gan (pre-school) for a few weeks now and it suits her. Her teachers commented after the first day that she acted as if she’s been there for months. (Although who knows, they may just say that to reassure us). She’s always been in preschool and daycare type settings so she’s used to the structure and peer interactions. The gan is dati (religious but not haredi). They have a shabbat party every week, they discuss the Jewish holidays and learn holiday songs, and do the usual running and jumping 3-5 year olds do. Her Hebrew has improved incredibly to the point where she has now taught me words I didn’t know on two occasions. I look forward to the time when I will have her translate for me in stores.

Religious Life

So here’s the thing about Israel, and especially Jerusalem. It’s really easy to be Jewish. I mean really easy. Only once have I walked away from a restaurant because I didn’t trust the hecksher, and only twice have I picked up a product in the grocery store and put it back because of the questionable kashrut status. (Both times it was a product made in Asia with a triangle-K on it and no other visible hasgacha. Go figure). Only a few weeks after I arrived I had already reached the point where I had practically stopped looking for kosher certifications and had to keep reminding myself to check for them. When we were looking for gans one of the ones we looked at was a non-dati (non-religious) gan. They still served only kosher food, separated meat and milk, discussed the Jewish holidays, and had a little shabbat party on Fridays. That’s right, that’s what counts as a non-religious preschool here. The second Friday night I was here I hadn’t bothered to find a local shul, so I simply walked out the front door and started walking. Within 3 blocks I came to an ashkenazi shul that was just starting minchah. In the mornings I see plenty of people carrying tefillin bags, and if you forgot yours, chabad has set up stations at heavily trafficked locations (like the central bus station), so you can put on tefillin while waiting for your connecting bus to arrive. Steimatzky, the Israeli equivalent of Borders, sells mikraot gedolot. Bookstores sell biographies of the Rambam next to biographies of Ariel Sharon and Steve Jobs. Streets are named after famous Jews and Jewish events. The malls have shuls in them. Every corner store sells hannukiahs this time of year. In the malls, next to the cell phone stands are stands selling judaica. Flower stands appear on Fridays. Streets are empty on Friday night. In fact the most difficult thing religiously has been that I have gotten completely used to the things we (non-Israelis) do because we’re in a non-Jewish country. For example you don’t necessarily have to tovel new dishes here. However you do have to follow all the agricultural rules (maaser, orlah, shmitah, yovel, etc.) As American Jews, I think we have partially built our identity on our status as a minority group, and that clearly cannot exist here. I’m actually going to flesh this last point out into a post in its own right later.

Security

I include this only because when I started telling my friends we were engaging in this endevour, a couple people included “stay safe” with their farewell wishes. I think most of the people who said that had probably never been here, and it is easy to get a very skewed view of what it’s like from only reading the news. The truth is that when you walk around Israel it looks like any other country. People simply go about their lives like anywhere else. There are clearly areas of heavier security (for example near the prime minister’s house), but that’s no different from the higher security around the whitehouse. There main difference from anywhere else I’ve been is that here there are also security checkpoints in front of malls, banks, and other establishments. However the checkpoints are fast and non-invasive. They take a quick glance in your bags, make you go through a metal detector (sometimes), and ask you if you’re carrying a weapon. I’ve never had the process take more than 20 seconds, and I’ve never had to wait in line more than 60 seconds. If you’re pushing a baby stroller, they usually skip it and just waive you through.

I think it might be the nature of Jerusalem that makes it impossible not to find symbolism in even the smallest actions. To that end, and because a picture is worth a thousand words, I present a pictoral history of the free Gilad Shalit encampment, followed by photos I took a few weeks ago of workers dismantling that same encampment.

If I’ve learned anything so far in my excursion to Israel, it’s to have more respect for immigrants. Frankly, this is really, really, really hard. Small errands that used to take twenty minutes now turn into half day excursions. Methods I used to use to find information no longer work. The “fine print” has gone from time consuming to “completely unreadable” because it’s in another language. Even things which are supposed to be helpful (like traffic lights and signs) are suddenly of limited value due to either cultural or linguistic differences. I know in the long run these are all things which will get better – my language skills will improve, I will become more acclimated to the culture, I will find other support systems to replace the ones I’m used to (what’s the Israeli equivalent of slickdeals?), and I will eventually know the bus routes like the back of my hand. However right now, it’s just really really frustrating.

Seeing as I’m a big fan of his, I felt I had to try the Rambam’s drink when I found it at machane yehuda. It was very… almondy. Overall I can’t say it’s high on my list of food recommendations.

On a totally unrelated note for those of you who read this blog through the RSS feed and don’t see the images on the sidebar, I’ve added a bunch of photos to the flickr stream – both of sites in Jerusalem, and picture of the kids acting cute.

Rebecca and I realized we had nothing in particular that we had to do today (this is actually a first), so we decided to go to the old city and the kotel. When we got there, we discovered that it was the Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd. (I discovered this of course by googling “what Ethiopian Jewish holiday is it today” on my iPhone when I noticed a large prayer service of Beta Israel chanting in Amharic.) There was initially a fairly basic prayer service (or at least, basic from the parts I overheard), followed by some sort of chanting in Amharic that was well coordinated between two people (perhaps reading from the torah). At one point several people got up from the group to start dancing, and that’s when everyone stopped to watch.

If you want to know more about the holiday, check out the IAEJ page – they have the best single description I could find on the web. The only problem is that for some reason their webserver keeps trying to redirect the user to a new website which doesn’t have all the same content, so just hit your browser’s stop button before you can be redirected. It’s worth the read.

For years now I’ve said that the race I’d most like to see/participate in would be to run up the down escalators at one of DC’s metro stops with the long escalators – perhaps Wheaton or Dupont circle. I can’t figure out why no local radio station has thought of this and turned it into a contest. (Also whenever I get off at Wheaton, I take it as a matter of pride to walk up all 230 feet without stopping for breath.)

Anyway, I now have something better – stair races. Holy cow do these things look awesome. It combines three of the things I like – meaningless competition, skyscrapers, and looking down on people. The famous Azrieli towers in Tel-Aviv host a stair race every year. That’s 1144 stairs, from the parking garage to floor 49. (Fairly awesome video of last year’s race). I’ve missed the cut off date for this year’s (the race is tomorrow), but you can bet I’ll be there next year. Here’s the real question though – where on earth do I train?

There is an Israeli food known as שניצל (shnitzel). I have eaten it many times, both in Israel and the US. To the best of my knowledge it has always been a fairly simple food – basically breaded fried chicken breast. The variety of types of shnitzel available here has taken me somewhat by surprise. In a few local grocery stores it seems like half the frozen food section is taken up by shnitzel. There are dozens of types – chicken, turkey, various styles of fake meat, broccoli, corn, fish, you name it. I honestly had no idea shnitzel could even refer to things other than chicken.

When Jews meet, we love to see who we know in common. In part it’s a way of confirming the other person is part of the same group as you, in part it’s a throwback to the days when Jews were geographically dispersed and wandering countrymen were the best way to get news about the rest of the tribe. Since Israel now has the majority of the world’s Jewish population it has become a great place for Jewish geography. Already I’ve run into:

• Dan D. – an old friend from DC who I didn’t know was even in Israel. He’s getting married in Dec and is working for a law firm here.
• Nili A. – another old friend from DC who I did know was living here.
• Mrs. Sacher – The grandmother of another old friend from DC happens to live across the hall from us.
• The paramedic who did CPR on the man who used to live in this apartment. Yeah, this is a small country.

With my year in Israel, I’d wanted to run the Jerusalem half marathon. My dad was going to be in town for Passover, but the half marathon was too far from passover for him to make one very long visit, and it doesn’t make sense to do two short trips so close together. Then he found the Tel-Aviv half marathon. It’s two weeks later, so he could include it in the Passover visit. Having accepted his challenge, I now have to start training. With all the craziness surrounding the move, I’ve only run twice since the 10K in Rockville about a month ago.

Today was my first run in Jerusalem, and I must say, running in this city is tough. All the roads are narrow and twisty, the sidewalks even more so, and cars park on the sidewalks. The terrain is extremely hilly. And when I finally did find my way to sacher park (the only flat place in the area), I discovered that for some reason joggers here run on the left. I can’t imagine why – they drive on the right, and I’d always assumed that the two were related.

Food shopping in Israel is a lot harder than in the US – there are so many more choices! In the states, let’s say I want to buy yogurt. While there are 50 brands, I know that my local grocery store carries about four which are kosher. Of those two are the extra-sugary type I don’t like, so that leaves me just two, so I buy whichever one is cheaper. I just came back from Rami-Levy where I must have spent 20 minutes in the yogurt section – there must have been 20 different kinds of yogurt. How am I supposed to choose? Not to mention that it’s all in Hebrew which makes everything take longer.

On Friday night my brother and his family came over for shabbat dinner. I walked them part way home, which ended up taking us through mea shearim - perhaps the most ultra-orthodox neighborhood in the world where almost all of the modern amenities (television, the internet, women working outside the home, miniskirts, red clothing, and birth control to name a few) are forbidden.  I’m not usually a big fan of gawking at chasidim so it’s a place I’ve only been when I had an actual reason to go, and this was the first time I’ve ever been there on shabbat. As you could expect, the streets were filled. What was most surprising was not that small children were in the streets – they’re blocked off to vehicular traffic on shabbat, but that kids as young as 5 seemed to be wandering around with no adult supervision. In Israel kids seem to be allowed to roam alone at far younger ages than in the states, but mea shearim really took the cake.

My brother also took me on a brief tour and explained the politics of the pashkvilim (street posters – the best way to disseminate information to a geographically contained group of people without radios, TVs, or computers). Since Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the rosh yeshiva of the Mir yeshiva had died earlier that week, the area was packed with death notices for him from a variety of groups. Since Finkel was a member of degel hatorah, some of the posters had been put up by degel hatorah and included their logo in the corner. Almost all of those had the degel hatorah logo ripped off by the locals – being in any way engaged in secular politics in considered to be engaging with the outside and unclean world. While Rb Finkel himself was too respected for his name to be torn down, any reference to a political party is still unwelcome.

Google translate has proven it’s weight in gold already by helping me translate information from banks, phone companies, cable companies, and more. While my Hebrew isn’t awful, the scope of my vocabulary is somewhat limited. My religious background has taught me a slew of words relating to mundane everyday activities. The Hebrew class I took taught me how to order food in a restaurant, make an appointment, and be a tourist. Nothing however has taught me how to open a bank account, order internet service, or read a warranty. It’s those situations where google translate comes in useful. Today for example, I went to the bank. After looking up a few words while waiting in line, I confidently strode up to the counter and announced to the clerk that I wanted to retreat.

Thankfully the man behind me in line spoke English and helped translate.