Perhaps the most common complaint I’ve heard from Americans about Israelis is that they cut in line. In the few months I’ve been here it’s happened to me a ton, and frankly it’s hard not to take it as an insult sometimes. When there are two people standing in line at the register, why would you feel the need to cut if front of one of them?
I think I may have figured out the root cause of the problem. Middle easterners have a different sense of personal space than we do. Even when people wait behind me in line, I’ve noticed they usually seem to be breathing down my neck. When I walk up to a line, I leave what I feel to be an appropriate (American sized) space between me and the person in front of me. When an Israeli approaches, he sees the line, and sees me loitering behind it. I’m not perceived as being part of the line, and that’s why I get cut in front of. You would think knowing this would help me avoid the problem, but it doesn’t. My conception of personal space is simply too deeply rooted in my psyche – I can’t crowd the people in front of me no matter how much I know it to be in my best interests.
Back when I was going through my youthful internet-libertarian phase, there were several common refrains I saw on usenet. (Yup, I just dated myself). One of them was that if the pen was mightier than the sword, then the internet, by definition, had to be far mightier than that. Since those days, I’ve watched as a few movements have sprung out of, or being helped out by, the internet that have proven that statement correct. The organization known as Invisible Children seems to be on the right path as well. Check out this surprisingly well put together video on Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, and one of the world’s most brutal warlords who has left a horrific legacy in his wake.
While the film is clearly meant to distill a very complex issue into something that can easily be consumed by the general public, it does so at a cost. It doesn’t really mention the fact that the war in Uganda actually ended a few years ago, although Kony is still on the loose. This campaign would have been more appropriate a few years ago, and a little mention of the changing nature of the conflict should have been included. More time is spent showing the filmmaker’s son (for emotional impact) than discussing the issues. However the filmmaker’s main goal was clearly to make the whole thing easily accessible, so I just going to ignore my natural contrarian tendency to nitpick and appreciate it for what it is – an internet campaign (one of the best I’ve ever seen) to bring a truly evil man to justice.
Purim in the US is practically a non-holiday. We go to work, rush to hear megillah, act normally at work the next day, and have a festive meal in the evening. If purim hits a weekend then the festivities are drawn out a little, any many synagogues have started having kids events for a few hours on purim evening or purim day.
In Israel, purim is a week long party. Starting on the first of adar (2 weeks before purim), the schools start having purim related events in school for the kids. (I heard about more than 1 clown that visited Aliza’s class). Starting on Tuesday most of the kids I passed on the streets were wearing costumes. Wednesday was ta’anit ester (the fast of ester), and while it is, by definition, a more somber day with far fewer costumes, I still saw kids wearing costumes, people in the shuk with funny hats, and American yeshiva students buying costumes.
Thursday is purim for the whole world except Jerusalem, (which celebrates a day later). The Mamilla mall seems to have become the major place for national and religious celebrations by the non-Haredi population in Jerusalem. I would say it was crowded except that doesn’t do it justice – it was a mob scene from one end to the other. There was music, performers, rides for kids, and everyone was in costume. (I honestly felt a little out of place). The old city by comparison was fairly boring. I walked through the Jewish quarter and other than seminary girls dressing in costumes they’re far too old for, the old city’s domination by the haredim left it looking largely like it does on any other weekday.
The whole week there are events at malls, museums, and cultural centers. Apparently purim night is the biggest night in Israel for bars and clubs. It makes sense when you think about – it’s a holiday where nothing is forbidden, and for once everyone is off from work without having to get ready for something.
Imagine the following scenario. It’s a few days before purim. I walked into a kosher bakery in a very Jewish area. I had noticed some hamantashen (pastries traditionally eaten on Purim) in the window and asked for some. The lady behind the counter stared at me blankly. I repeated my request and still only got a blank look of non-comprehension. That’s when another customer leaned in and said “they’re called oznei haman.”
I’ve actually had this happen a few times. In America for we’ve adopted a bunch of Yiddish terms into our religious vocabulary. (Daven, fleishig, frum, etc.). Since they’re religious terms, and the language has a Hebrew connection, I just assumed they were used in modern Hebrew as well, however in modern Hebrew they’ve opted to use Hebrew alternatives to the point where people have never even heard of many of the terms I use. Overall I like this better (I’ve got opinions on the modern use of yiddish that I won’t bother to include here), it just takes some getting used to.
Sometimes I feel that living in a country where my language skills are poor has been nothing but one continuous lesson in communication skills. Many things I’ve noticed are things I already knew on an intellectual level, but having them demonstrated just proves how true they are. As part of my job involved communicating technical information to non-technical people I’ve always paid attention to expert advice on communications (don’t use acronyms, speak slowly, be simple, etc., etc.), but this is definitely a more immersive experience. I often deal with non native English speakers professionally, and I have a new appreciation for how they must think of me. Some of the things I’ve either learned or had reinforced include:
Most communication is non verbal. My language skills have improved to the point where I’ve managed to have some fairly complex conversations with people in person. I usually have to let them take the lead, but I can at least understand and provide responses, which, if not grammatically correct, and understandable. I talked with a cab driver a while back about the status of Sudanese refugees in Tel-Aviv. I managed to sign up for a cell phone plan and understood what I was getting. A few weeks ago I even managed to talk my way out of trouble when I was stopped by the police without my teudah. (I’m still not entirely sure why I was stopped, but that’s not because of my language skills, it’s because when I asked the officer what I’d done wrong, he told me he was asking the questions not me). On the other hand even simple conversations are difficult on the phone. When a parent of one of Aliza’s classmates called to invite her to a birthday party, I actually had a much more difficult time understanding his simple instructions.
Answer questions using the words the questioner used. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one before, but it I’ve found it useful. Since my vocabulary isn’t that expansive yet, I’ll often ask a question using simple terms. For example, at the bank I might ask “If I use my ATM card to buy something, will you charge me money?” The teller might answer “If you use an ATM card for a commercial transaction a three shekel line item charge will apply“. While the teller’s answer is more accurate, many of the key words in the sentence aren’t words I used, and I’m less likely to know them. Even if I do know some of them, anticipation is a huge part of speaking and understanding when you’re out of your element. While it may not be as precise, using the same key words in an answer that were presented in the question increases the likelihood of the answer being understood.
Don’t use jargon. IT people are constantly told not to use acronyms when speaking to non-IT people. When we forget (which obviously happens a lot), most people simple spell out the acronym. However that doesn’t really help. A non technical person is just as lost knowing that SQL is an acronym for Structured Query Language as they were before is was spelled out. That’s the reason I’ve expanded the standard rule prohibiting acronyms to prohibiting all jargon.
One of the things I’ve learned by living in Israel is that while I’m very different from Israelis culturally, I’m actually fairly similar to people from other Anglos from places like England and South Africa. On that note, the following video has been making the rounds on the Israeli/Anglo social networks. I think I’ve said everything in that video in the four months I’ve been here.
I never fail to be amazed at the longevity of the Simpsons. When I was a kid I remember how Bart Simpson was the ultimate bad boy. Only the cool kids wore Bart Simpson T-shirts. My parents didn’t even let us watch the show. With their 500th episode coming up, they’re now in their 23rd season. Most college students have never known a world without the Simpsons. If the characters aged normally Lisa would be an attending physician somewhere, having completed her residency 2 years ago. (What, you though she’s go to law school?) Maggie would have just graduated college, and Bart would be, well, I’m gonna guess jail.
I was somewhat surprised last week to see that people in Israel even knew what valentine’s day is. It’s had a minor change though – somehow while migrating across the Atlantic it lost the associations with Saint Valentine and Cupid. It still has the hearts and flowers though, and it’s been renamed יום אהבה – day of love. The celebration is fairly muted – I saw one flower store with a large display of heart shaped balloons and roses, and one colleague sent an email wishing a happy day of love to the company. He was then rebuffed by another colleague who said that we Jews should be celebrating our own holidays, like טו נאב – the ancient Jewish day of love which wikipedia claims has become the Israeli equivalent of valentine’s day. I’m curious to see how the later is celebrated (it doesn’t come around till late summer), so I’ll have to see what that looks like for comparison.
Via Flickr:
There was a general strike here last week by Histadrut – the umbrella labor union in Israel. on Wednesday banks, government offices, the rail system, and universities closed. A few days later trash pickup stopped. Thankfully the strike ended Sunday morning. Let me tell you, I have never been happier to see a trash truck going down the street than I was when I saw one on Sunday afternoon picking up overflowing dumpsters.
Every Hanukkah, menorahs appear around every Jewish community. Chabad expends a significant amount of time and money putting up their distinctive chabad menorahs with the straight branches connected to the main stem at an angle. Chabad has decided to make this their standard menorah that they use all over the world, and I have to respect their ability to standardize on anything in this day and age when we Jews can’t seem to standardize on anything. The problem is, it’s completely inaccurate.
The bible, lacking pictures, gives a textual description of the menorah, which is a little vague on some details like the straightness of the arms. Chabad bases their menorah on the Rambam (Maimonides), who drew a menorah in mishnah torah. The problem is that the Rambam, living in 12th century Baghdad, had never seen the menorah, which disappeared some time during the 6th century. There have been numerous archaeological discoveries which have shown the image of the ancient menorah depicted on coins, mosaics, pottery, and even ancient graffiti. While there is some debate about what the base of the menorah looked like, all the graphical representations show the menorah with curved arms. The Biblical Archaeology review has an exceptionally nice gallery of ancient depictions of the menorah which you can peruse at your leisure.
Why does Chabad insist on continuing to use a shape that is wrong? Some treat it as branding - a simple and easily recognizable symbol. People who want to be downright hostile to Chabad also claim that this shows a separation between Chabad and the rest of Judaism, but that’s reaching IMHO. My feeling is that it’s probably just another case of tradition trumping what we know to be historically accurate – a choice was made, and without a central leader, they have no mechanism to change that decision now. Besides, you know how we Jews are about tradition. If I can eat Turkey, then Chabad can have a straight armed menorah.
Every Hanukkah, menorahs appear around every Jewish community. Chabad expends a significant amount of time and money putting up their distinctive chabad menorahs with the straight branches connected to the main stem at an angle. Chabad has decided to make this their standard menorah that they use all over the world, and I have to respect their ability to standardize on anything in this day and age when we Jews can’t seem to standardize on anything. The problem is, it’s completely inaccurate.