Early April in Israel

 I wanted to update you on some things that we are enjoying so far in Israel.

1. Mark found the Charoset flavored Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It was a little disappointing and too much vanilla ice cream base for him. I'm enjoying the Dulce de Leche flavor.

2. We couldn't find certain Jewish items in this apartment so we purchased a set that included tealight candle holders (we found the tealights!) and a kiddush cup. We also purchased a hand washing cup, and a challah cover.

3. When Mark last attended a rabbi's conference, he bought me a tallit from the artisans of Yad LaKashish which is a community organization offering artistic work opportunities to low income elderly in Israel. I love this new tallit (left) and get many compliments on it. We decided to visit the Yad LaKashish gift shop here. That's where we purchased the challah cover. I also got some cute jewelry (matching necklace and bracelet set, below) and a beautiful maroon heavy lace tallit (below) which I wore to services last Saturday at the Conservative Yeshivah's congregation, Moreshet Avraham. I don't always get to wear my tallit. It would be inappropriate in an Orthodox shul.

New tallit

4. We have attended Yakar for Kabbalat Shabbat (upstairs), Ma'ayanot for our first Saturday, Yedidya for our second Kabbalat Shabbat, and Moreshet Avraham for our second Saturday. At Yakar there was a lot of ruach (spirit) and the men danced but the women didn't even though the service leader suggested that we should by suggesting it loudly over the curtain in Hebrew. At least that's what I assume he was suggesting. But maybe no one danced because no one else understood the Hebrew either? We felt very welcomed at both Yedidya and Ma'ayanot. I was even offered an aliyah at Ma'ayanot. After services at Ma'ayanot we were even hosted for a shabbat lunch by Arieh and Nava along with 4 other visitors. It was lovely and delicious. They also had three guests of their own so it was not a small group. The highlight for me was the homemade whole wheat challah. It was so moist and delicious! At Moreshet Avraham, the rabbi was on vacation (Pesach) so we had some students leading and supporting each other. It was fine but Mark didn't like the pace of the davening. We were honored with the third aliyah, but it was one of those "everyone gets an honor" days because of the light turnout.

Bracelet and Necklace

5. Mask wearing is very rare here as we were warned. I have stopped wearing my mask as well. I kept it up through the end of the cruise but once we got to Israel, I decided to stop. Not because there is no Covid in Israel, but because I am ready after the three years of pandemic time passing to accept once again the risk of getting sick. I am confident that if I do get it, I will have a very mild case. I will keep you all posted of course! It doesn't feel good, however, when we are in synagogue, to hear so much coughing and sneezing going on.

6. We live one block from the apartment where the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is living. He is not living at the official residence because it is being renovated. This means that there is a guard and barricades in front of his building that we have to pass through almost every time we leave home. Luckily, the guards examine us but don't really engage with us. The first time, they just asked where we were going and we told them.

7. On our first week here, we attended the Saturday night Rally for Democracy which happened 3 blocks from our house in front of the President's, Isaac Herzog's house. It included a lot of drumming, chanting, and a bunch of speeches that we didn't understand because they were in Hebrew. There were also many flags and signs, plus some new posters that Mark featured on his blog. It was not scary and we left before it ended. We found out later that a group of anti-occupation protestors took over the protest before it ended. Everything was peaceful though. There is an ice cream shop right there, so we got our glida. It was delicious! Especially my chai masala flavor!

8. I plan to attend ulpan (Hebrew language classes) during our time here. We have it narrowed down to 4 choices, two of which we have to wait until after all of Passover ends in order to find out more information. We know the situation about Ulpan L'Inyan and Ulpan Sheli and they both would work, each having different issues with timing for me. The other two are Beit Ha'Am and Ulpan Morasha. We have to contact them on Thursday since the chag ends Wednesday night. We are not sure when their sessions start and how long they last. We do know that they both teach 5 days a week for the entire morning while the others are 3 times a week and 2 times a week respectively. Each has advantages and disadvantages. I'll keep you posted once the decision is made. Update: I have attended two days of Ulpan Morasha so far. I love it! There's a lot more to the story that I will feature in a separate post.

9. Mark is very proud of learning how to make the French press coffee successfully. He had to purchase the French press, buy the coffee beans and have them ground to the right consistency, and followed the directions from the internet to make it turn out right. He also purchased a guitar (a not very expensive one) so that he doesn't lose his calluses again like he did in 2011 over that sabbatical. At the end of our four months, we will leave this guitar with the Swidlers as a gift. Yoni has claimed it but Rafi and Eli (aka George) also would like to have it.

10. I'm staying loosely connected with Piedmont Middle School by staying up to date on my emails, Friday bulletins, Front Page Broadcasts (morning announcements once or twice a week), etc. I am also working on my National Board Teacher Certification components (2 and 3) that are due the second week of May. I did not think about them at all while we were traveling in Europe and on the cruise, but now I am ready to get going. I look forward to being able to tell you that I am finished in a few weeks. It's going to be a frustrating project with a lot of hours of effort but I am committed to seeing it through. Update: I finished Component 2 and am working on Component 3.

11. Some parts of the Passover seder that we may bring home: (a) the person asking the four questions stands on their chair to do so and (b) no one pours their own wine or juice because we are royalty on this night. The other Swidler tradition that was fun was that anyone who asked a question (at their level, genuine and not silly) got rewarded with a chocolate chip (thrown at them). It made for a lot of questions, lots of good learning, and a very long seder. Update: We visiting our good friends Brenda and Steve Ganot in Beit Shemesh for the 7th day of Passover and they told us that they also do the chocolate chip throwing at their seder! More on that trip in another blog post.

12. On Sunday, my New Jersey and New York family got together for a seder. I was overjoyed to be able to WhatsApp video call with them all! It was so good to see their faces and hear their voices after so many weeks away. I look forward to doing that more now that we are here and not traveling as much.