Observations about life in Israel from a Canadian immigrant's perspective.
One big family. When my daughter Aviva’s new Ethiopian soldiers arrive on base, they are beaming, white teeth gleaming behind open ready smiles, happy to please and succeed. Aviva shows them how to stand at attention and how to work under time constraints. Echad, shtaim, shalosh (one, two, three). She shouts this mantra several hundred times… Continue reading Wearing army boots
Their lives are too hard. They are so sweet and know so little. They’re like my children. Learning how to tell time. These are the words of my 19-year-old daughter, Aviva, who is talking about the Ethiopian soldiers she supervises. All are all new immigrants to Israel. Aviva started working as a mefakadet (sergeant) in… Continue reading Our mosaic, Eretz Israel
Who said Israel had enough problems? Tuesday night, the wind was howling so ferociously, we decided to close all the shutters in the apartment, clamming ourselves in like oysters. Still it whistled and clamored, finding cracks to enter and buffeting the curtains. Looking at my iphone, I saw the strangest four-letter word forecast. There were… Continue reading Dust in the forecast
It is Wednesday afternoon and we are at the tekes siyum (graduation ceremony) of our son Ariel’s 32 soldiers. This exciting moment marks the end of their six months’ basic training. Proud parents, grandparents, siblings and cousins come out. Some hold up large signs, others wear matching T-shirts printed with their soldier’s picture on them. Everyone… Continue reading An Officer (and a Gentleman)
They hate us. Again. Israel and the Jews are equally despised and blamed for world calamity, tragedy, economic downturn and political unrest. I am so accustomed to Israel bashing, Jew hating and anti-semitic lies, I am no longer surprised when we get blamed. When something terrible happens and we first hear about it on the… Continue reading Israel's Good News
“Chik chak.” That’s what he said when he left the Misrad Hap'nim, the Ministry of the Interior. Black Israeli humor at its finest; there is no chik chak in government offices. Here we were sitting, standing, fidgeting, playing with smart phones, hemming and hawing, checking our watches…all waiting to receive our new identity cards, the… Continue reading Chik Chak
I have roughed it. At least I thought I had…until last week. Over the years, I have backpacked through Southeast Asia and trekked the Himalayas. I have slept in yurts, barns, shacks, tents and palapa huts, in dark forests, under sequoias and in steamy jungles. I have slept at 16,000 feet in a tent buffeted… Continue reading Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Tonight, as darkness cloaked Eretz Israel, we lit the first candle of Chanukah. The wicks, floating in vials of olive oil, flickered as they brought light into the night. This is symbolic of the Jewish people; our mission is to light up a dark world. Our contemporary world is cloaked in a very thick black… Continue reading Swords Into Plowshares
Mother always gave me paper whites. Each December, she would hand me a gift-wrapped pot with bulbs poking out of rocks. It didn’t look like much. I would be depressed by the onset of winter, a time when horizon and ground melded, the dark, drab sky perfectly morphing into the dark, drab concrete; and when… Continue reading Mother Gave Me Paper Whites
Isaiah's wise words: Chapter 60, verse 20. Arise mourner. Arise. Arise. The rabbi said this three times--and still it was not enough. I felt glued to my chair, paralyzed, afraid. And then, as if a puppeteer pulled a string, I rose from my chair and braced myself to face the world: a new, hardened reality;… Continue reading Arise Mourner
Life in Israel 