Observations about life in Israel from a Canadian immigrant's perspective.
The sun dips behind the trees casting shadows across a green lawn. Students mill about, some sitting on the grass chatting, others studying, heads crouched over laptops. A Jewish student stands with her prayer book, facing south towards Jerusalem. She sways as she mouths the words. Beside her, a Muslim student unfurls her prayer… Continue reading Milk and Honey
In the mornings when I walk my dog, I pass a gan. Gan is a preschool in Hebrew, yet it also means garden. In this ‘garden’ of children, I usually hear the energetic sounds of toddlers creating, learning, sharing, and of happy shouts in the playground. Yet this day, the school yard was transformed. The… Continue reading Garden of Children
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I was recently struck by a headline “Bicycle Responder Who Saved 2,500 people Recognized by Community.” 2,500 people? Did this good news story make it outside of Israel? Meir Farkash, an EMT volunteer (emergency medical technician), has been to 2,500 calls in the past four years – all on his personal bicycle! Of these calls,… Continue reading Loving Our Neighbours
In Israel, life could become clamorous with negative headlines and doomsday politics. We read the news, dismiss most of it as inaccurate and hope one day the world will wake up and understand the truth. Our personal antidote to this dissonance is to walk the trails of the country we love. We take out a… Continue reading Resetting the start button
Israel is a multi-cultural Mosaic. These days, you hear many languages on Ahuza, Ra’anana’s main street. And we can spot the countries of origin right away, without even hearing the language spoken. For instance, French men tend to wear tight pants and chic leather loafers while les femmes grocery shop as if parading along a… Continue reading Dreams Come True
A few weeks ago I read an article about the new ‘Cadenza’project in Jerusalem and realized how perfect Israel is for such an endeavor. A concrete encased electric piano is placed on a busy thoroughfare of Ben Yehuda Street. Here, people rush on and off the light rail, head to the office and at night,… Continue reading Israel the Extrovert
Start Up Nation. Is that what we’re called? When it comes to ingenious inventions in medicine and high tech, yes. When it comes to basic services, we are, well, just starting up and have a long way to go. I’ve written about the post office services (Doar) many times. Some of my most frustrating moments… Continue reading Starting Up Nation
How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel! Numbers 24:5 In the Torah, as the Jews encamped in the desert, the prophet Bilaam looked at them from a mountaintop and bestowed this praise. This very line from the Torah is also said in combination with a verse from the Psalms to form the… Continue reading How beautiful are your tents
Life in Israel 