A Night at the Musem

Our major tiyul over Channukah was arranged by Misrad Klita (Absorption Ministry) and the Haifa Association for Immigrant Absorption who hosted a program at Madatech (Science Centre)  during after hours. We thought it sounded like a lot of fun. Our local Anglo community even coordinated a bus, to make it easier to get there.

The amount of disorganization is something that one can come to expect from Israelis. Our bus dropped us off on the opposite side of the museum from where we were entering.  We entered through an outside gate, where tropit (Grape drink) and suganiyot (Jelly Donuts) were being served as the only refreshments for the evening. The promise that the tropit would be served later in the evening, in a more contained area to avoid allergy exposure, did not come to fruition. Along with refreshments, we were given tickets and bracelets to help organize the meeting and schedule.

We spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out where the different activities are. There was an announcement for everyone to gather around the open area between the two buildings for speeches. The first speaker was a representative from the Mayor's office, with a dvar torah about the miracle of Channuakah and the miracle of Eretz Israel.

That was followed by announcement for instructions for the evening. The first set were in Hebrew, with detailed instructions of where all the events were taken place and when, along with an explanation of the bracelets. That was followed by the first attempt to make announcements by the Russian interpreter. As the instructions were complicated, they ended up taking a time out to stop and explain everything she needed to announce.  During the pause another interpreter took the opportunity to make an announcement in French, that there were not going to be any instructions in French or English as everyone was expected to understand the Hebrew. Next up was the English interpreter who said that if anyone didn't understand they should speak to her privately. Finally the instructions were given in Russian. They concluded with a message in Hebrew, all activities were going to take place precisely on time.

It was time to move on to candle lighting. People were asked to stay (even though it would have made people late for the activities) A Rabbi with a chair and a menorah was brought to the middle. He made the brachot and attempted to light the candles. It was not an easy task in the strong wind. There wasn't any singing afterwards, which was interesting as they had been playing the music half an hour earlier.

Now that our family knew where events were taking place, our family headed to the motion simulator movie. Shlomo was flagged for not meeting the minimum age 6, while a whole bunch of 4 year olds took their seats with no issue. In the end, I stayed for the movie, while the rest of the family explored the museum.

I am not a big fan of motion simulators. Unless the presentation is designed around the motion technology, such as a race car or roller coaster simulation. Otherwise I find there is too much shaking for the sake of having the ability to, rather than creating a multi-faceted experience. I found the same to be true in this case.

It was a cute presentation on the solar system, starting from the big bang, through the solar system all the way to the outskirts of the Milky Way. They then did a zoom in on a cell in the body, showing how the universe is just as expansive in the other direction, as they went down to a quark.

There were two awkward memorable parts from the presentation. After covering the death of the dinosaurs they transferred in to: A meteor will hit the earth, causing destruction to most of the species on earth. The sun will expand and swallow up the inner planets of the solar system before becoming a white dwarf.  Only after declaring a need for humans to find new places in the galaxy to live, did they mention that it won't happen for a long time. That traumatized some of the kids, who thought we were talking about their life time. Some Mom's appeased their kids by saying that nobody has any way of knowing if such an event could take place. I also saw a kid turn to their mom and ask 'What was it liking living your whole life, thinking something was a planet and then one day find out it wasn't.'  Who knew that Pluto's planetary demotion could make me feel so old.

After the movie, I rejoined the family. We decided to skip the 2nd presentation as all the kids were having a great time at the different exhibits. It was much easier to explore when the individual exhibits were all mostly empty.

Overall everyone had a great time.  It was a good reminder of the level of organization to be expected at these types of events.

Channah & Hoodie

The ball is being kept in the air from air blowing from below

One of my favorite activities at Madatech. You colour a drawing. The drawing is scanned and added to the moving screen.

Railway to Chelm

Back in May, then Minister of Transportation, Yisrael Katz came out with the following quote.

'When I work in my current position as Minister of Transportation around Israel to build roads, ports, airports, and train tracks, I know that this is the real victory over what the Nazis tried to do. Each new rail line is the answer to those train lines that transported helpless and hopeless Jews to their deaths..'

I was among many who made the same joke. If the Israeli Authorities were in charge of transportation in Nazi Germany, the death tolls would probably have been significantly lower. Anyone who has ever taken the train or knows someone who has taken the train, is probably aware of bizarre decisions made by Israel Rail. Of course the hypocritical fight over railway maintenance was a big issue a number of years ago. I never dreamed that their level of incompetence could inconvenience my entire community.

The train tracks mark the border between Kiryat Motzkin and Kiryat Shmuel. There is only one pedestrian crossing point. This crossing point is used by many within the community during the week to facilitate ease of kids getting to school, people going to work, getting to shul during the week and on Shabbat and especially for those wanting to get from Kiryat Motzkin to the beach in Kiryat Yam. Given Kiryat Shmuel closes its roads for Shabbat and holidays, this crossing is essential for those needing to get non-emergent medical care as well. Channah uses the crossing to get to school and to get to the bus for after school activities. We, as a family, all use the crossing to get to shul.

The crossing is located just north of the train station. Due to outdated technology the crossing lights and barrier are activated before the northbound trains even pull into the station. This results in unnecessarily long waiting times and impatient people crossing before the train arrives at the crossing. About a year ago, instructions to be me more careful were painted on the ground approaching the crossing. For some reason it didn't seem to change the situation. 

Last week it was announced in the local news that the pedestrian crossing would be closing. The train station could be used instead of the crossing. A 'high tech' solution would be implemented to allow crossing during the hours that the train station was closed. Confusion around the logistics of the change as well as anger at the inconvenience of the move, were of great concern.

It turned out that Israel Railway is in the process of closing all of their pedestrian crossings. The sudden push to the top of the priority list was caused by a 16 year old, with head phones that was almost hit by a train.

As of today the new system is now in place. The crossing is closed by a gate on each side of the tracks.  The gate is locked with a padlock.  A security guard is stationed in front of each of the padlocked gates. There is a ticket machine located outside the train station. (The machine ran out of tickets today) People have to go through a security check. The ticket allows them access to the platform for 15 minutes, where the stairs are located to cross to the other side.  As the train is located in the opposite direction of school and requires going through morning rush hour security, Channah estimates that it adds another 8 to 10 minutes on her trip to school. Another minute or two on the way home as the train entrance from Kiryat Motzkin is at the opposite end of the station. 

I understand the motivation for eliminating the need to for pedestrians to cross the train tracks. There is no reason why they couldn't have come up with a practical solution to achieving the goal. 

10 Years

This morning started out as a typical morning. We had the usual challenges of navigating Shlomo through his morning routine as he continues to develop his sense of independence. Then he was off for another day of Keytana. However, there was a change of status in our home.  As it is our 10th Aliyahversary, Channah and I are no longer considered New Olim.  Peri gets to maintain her status for a few more years.


I once had a tour guide explain the meaning behind Israel being referred to as the Land of Milk & Honey. It wasn't meant to be philosophical or poetic. It was meant as a description to Bnei Yisrael of the type of topography they would encounter. It was to assure them that the land was suited for the type of agricultural work they would need to grow crops, feed their animals and ultimately provide for their families. It is a land filled with opportunity ready was to be unlocked.

Living in this country has been a tremendous privilege and opportunity for me and my family. My 8 years in Beit Shemesh helped me and my family develop in ways that I could not imagine if I was still in Chul. The move to the north has given me an entirely new perspective on life. As a result I am learning to be even more comfortable with who I am and who I want to be.


Channah has thrived in her new surroundings. By the time Channah reached Grade 1, she could pass herself off as a Sabra. For the most part Shlomo passes himself off as more Israeli than Anglo. I love watching Shlomo and Yehduit grow and develop at every stage. I have a wonderful wife, amazing kids and a home that is filled with love. There is nothing more I could ever ask for.

The future of the Jewish people is here. I can feel it when the kids are at the park. I can feel it picking up and dropping off Shlomo from Gan. I can feel it on the beach. I can feel it between the pipes on the ice. I can feel it as I cross the train tracks on the way to shul on Shabbat, knowing that there will not be another train until the late afternoon.  I can feel it at a restaurant, mall or museum. I feel it in the political sphere as society tries to figure out what kind of society to be. It is just part of who we are, living as Israelis. I keep hearing about the disconnect of diaspora Jews from both Israel and Judaism. It is not the first time where Jews couldn't see the future of the Jewish people and ended up on the outskirts of Jewish history.

With a little bit of luck and hashgach pratis, Peri and I have parnasa where we are able to stay home and raise our children. We never lose sleep at night worrying how we are going to provide a Jewish education for our kids. Their Jewish identity is reinforced in the public sphere. Leaving Beit Shemesh has also restored my faith in tolerance. It has taken the edge off of my cynicism which is the only way to survive the religious battles, intolerance and hatred that makes up the fabric of part of the community.

When I made Aliyah, my Charedi Settler (they happen to live over the Green Line) friends told me that I was a 'Confused Zionist'.  'Real Zionists want to make Aliyah and instead buy Israeli bonds. You sold your Israeli bonds in order to make Aliyah.'  It was the best decision that My family and I could have made. After 10 years, I can see how true that is.

Beginning Again

It is with tremendous pleasure and HaKarat HaTov that Peri and I would like to welcome our little (OK not so little) baby girl.

She was born last night, weighing in at 3418 grams (7 lbs 8.5 oz; for those who speak American) 

She is the first of her siblings to make it into the 3 kg club.  She is the first of her siblings (and parents) to reach full term.

This has been a very difficult pregnancy. A special thank you to all those who helped keep life running as smooth as possible, with all the bumps along the way.

Peri and Jason

Rethinking 'The Day We Wish Never Happened'

Over the last little while, I keep sitting down to write about life in the Krayot. Each time it ends up being incoherent and I end up giving up until the next time. So much has changed living in the Krayot and there is so much to potentially write about.

Some topics I have tried or thought about writing about include: living in suburbia while at the same time living in a big city; adapting to a new community; how happy we are with Channah's school, choosing a Gan for Shlomo, being treated as a complete and united family,  the decoy local Anglo Facebook group that is used mainly by outsiders to Spam the community, most community communication is done in the women's Whatsapp group with some taking place in the men's Whatsapp group; benefits of living close to the frequently running train station,  living close to an abundance of malls, grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations and movie theatres; living close to the zoo and a theatre; lack of sinat chinam community fights, living near the beach, streets closed on Shabbat, enjoying Channah and Shlomo getting along from having fun to fighting; Shlomo's love of watching the garbage truck; playing hockey with a different group at a different time with a longer commute; having a mirpeset where Shlomo can play outside and enjoy the weather with the dogs, living with full blown PTSD as the depression symptoms have been weening, changing friendship dynamics, occasionally being left out or forgotten.

On Simchat Torah someone suggested that I wasn't doing enough to remember Gabi. Last night, I spent time rereading all kinds of stuff I wrote over the years to remember her. The fact is these days I don't talk about Gabi very much. In fact, I don't like to talk about the hardships of the past very much. This move has given me the freedom to live my life as me, instead of living my life as what happened to me.

Not too long ago there was an anglo oneg. Someone presented an idea that has really put a lot of my feelings into context. Why did Bnei Yisrael not go directly from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael. Why did they have to spend 40 years to make the transition?  There are all kinds of reasons but they all have one common denominator. Sometimes the destination is not as important as how you get there.

It has now been 6 years since losing Gabi. I still miss her and there are still occasions where I wonder what it would be like to have her around. Most importantly she has changed who I am. I never had the opportunity to raise her. I do have the ability to be a better person because of her. Somehow that is able to remove the sting just a little bit from a very painful part of my life.

Living in Kiryat Shmuel has lifted the burden of the past for both Channah and myself. For Channah it is clear to see as she blossoms in her new school and our new community. For me it is a little more subtle and can't always be seen from the outside. When I smile and am genuinely happy, my Gabi is there too. She taught me things can go drastically wrong, but that means that it is all that more important to recognize when things go right.

Our Life is Strawberries

From Rosh Chodesh Elul until the HaShannah Rabbah marks a 50 day period of self improvement. When the gates of judgment are finally closed, we could just pack things up and go back to the way things were. God adds one more day to celebrate and savour what we have become before we return to our regular lives. It is the only holiday with no specific mitzvot. Chazal decided to fill that void by creating Simchat Torah.

This year this time period has been a time of transition for the whole family as are feeling more and more at home in our new community.

There were a number of highlights during the chag:

Dancing with my father during his Hakafa while holding Shlomo's hand.
When I had my HaKafa Shlomo came running over to help me hold the sefer Torah.
I had the cross over hagbah. It was a lot easier than it looks.

Being in a very Israeli (re: Hebrew Speaking) shul and they still sang the english verse to Matza Chein

In Israel they often do what are called Hakafot Shniot. The basic idea is that Jews in chul are celebrating Simchat Torah a day later we can also celebrate that night. It usually involves some sort of dancing with Sifrei Torah and live music. We went once or twice in RBS before it was cancelled.

This year we choose between the 3 most publicized options. Two of them were at nearby shuls and the third was at the AmpiPark. Pircehi Yerushalim was the main attraction at the AmpiPark which run out. My parents came with Channah and myself.

I would say the ampitheatre holds somewhere between 2000 and 2500 people. I would say that there were about 1000 people there. We enjoyed the concert and I really enjoyed spending time with Channah. She had some great witty insights into the evening, as well as showing off how incorporated she is to Israeli culture.  One song 'Hello' (by Adele) was introduced as as a way to keep the teenagers from leaving. Channah asked me what it had to do with Simchat Torah.

A couple of songs later they announced here come the Sefrei Torah. About two or three sifrei Torah were brought to the front of the seating. A lot of people left their seats to go dance. Pirchei kept singing with some Bresolevers joining in my playing giant shofars. When the medley was finished Prichei was done for the night and the Breslevors took over the entertainment for the evening.

I have written many times about how Simchat Torah can be a time of joy, reflection and sadness all mixed into one.  This year, I just enjoyed being able to be me.

The Shul Search

When I made Aliyah, finding a shul ended up being a fairly easy process. We were easily able to identify the Anglo shuls. We decided to try out one of the shuls that one of our new sets of friends davened at. I went there Friday night. I davened somewhere else Shabbat morning returning for Mincha. At Mincha the Rabbi asked if my family was OK. He had seen me at shul the night before and didn't see me in the morning. At that moment I was sold. He has been my Rabbi for 8 years and the shul had been a very important part of my life.

With the move to Kiryat Shmuel, we had no illusions of a repeat performance. There are not any Anglo shuls. I hadn't realized that there weren't any nusach Ashkenaz shuls in the area.

After eliminating the Old Age Home, Temani Shul, Moroccan Shul and a whole bunch of other sephardi shuls and possible shuls we don't know about we narrowed our search down to 6. There was the large Central Shul, the Romanian Shul (which is attached to a Sephardi shul), a small shul that only operates on Shabbat and Chaggim, a Yekki minyan and 2 shuls on the other side of the train tracks in Kiryat Motzkin.

The goal was to find a shul that was family friendly where all of us could be comfortable.  We tried to not let first impressions be the deciding factor although there were cases it made a difference. Level of friendliness was more or less the same. Some shuls had names on every seat making it very intimidating worrying about not taking someones seat. One shul I tried out a few times, the first time I got there someone did tell me to get out of their seat. The seats had keys for people to store their stuff. There were almost no seats without locks on them. Some places were just not big enough for the amount of people who davened there.  I found myself using the comfiness of the seats and number of air conditioner units as important factors in deciding shuls. There was one minyan where I couldn't figure out what time they started Shabbat morning. At the end of davening they made only one very short announcement: (מנחה ןמעריב כרגיל) Mincha and Maariv are at the regular times. That lead to a very quick thumbs down.

There were two shuls left accross the Kiryat Motzkin side of the train station. One was described as a shtiebel so we haven't tried it yet.  The other was a completely different experience. The first time I went there was on Friday night. The davening wasn't anything special but it had comfortable seats (the kind they use in simcha halls) and 6 air conditioning units. It pulled into the lead based on the merits that another shul we were considering did not have room for Yom Tov seats.

I decided to give it one more try just to make sure that it was the right decision. On Friday night they were giving out calendars to all the members plus a piece of paper with the davening times for the upcoming year. One of the people giving out the pieces of paper asked me if I lived in the area and thereby earning the opportunity to take one. I was happy because it had a phone number on it. I was also happy to learn that daveing starts at 8:30 on Shabbat instead of 7:45 which is what the plaque on the front of the building says.

On Shabbat morning somebody said hello to me in shul. We had a conversation about my background. I came home really excited feeling warm and welcomed. It was the first time anyone had really noticed me in shul since the move.

We tried to call the number on schedule to arrange Yom Tov tickets. The number was out of service. We found another phone number listed for the shul. It kept ringing to a fax machine. I was starting to get a little bit nervous.

This past Shabbat, Peri came with me to shul. We wanted to make sure Peri liked the shul and figure out how to get Yom Tov tickets. We received the warmest welcome. Although apparently a bunch of regular had gone to the other shul because of an Of Ruf and they wanted to make sure there was enough room for the people attending the simcha. It is very kids friendly and also one of the shuls where you will see strollers in the men's section.

I asked someone how to arrange to daven there on Yom Tov. He told me 'You come in and sit down, right here.'  He also introduced me to the shul President. Peri received a similar answer. Apparently the shul doesn't charge for seats or have any reserved seats. Their fear is that someone might not come to shul because they can't afford it and would be too embarrassed to ask. She asked about becoming a member and was told that we shouldn't do that when we are new to the area. Nobody would tell us how membership works. They also told us that if we don't bring Channah and Shlomo to shul this Shabbat they will come to our apartment and drag everyone to shul. It is nice to feel wanted.

The shul is a 450 m walk from our house or 1 km drive assuming you can find parking. We are all very excited that we found a place where we can be comfortable.