This morning, my mother and her husband arrived in Israel at 7 on a NBN group flight, and then we had the privilege of welcoming them to Karmiel (where they will be living)!

There’s been a lot involved in the aliyah process – I guess that’s true of everyone – and though there are some important details that we had hoped to have worked out before they arrived that didn’t yet coalesce (living arrangements!), we’re glad they’re here!

Avivah

Sometimes I miss the days of blogging when my readership was much smaller –  I didn’t have people telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about, making negative judgments about my character, or telling me that I said something I didn’t say.  On the other hand, I didn’t get to interface with as many people as I do now, and I’ve always felt very fortunate that my readership is for the most part a very high quality group of people!

Due to some negativity to my recent posts, I considered not writing any more about Karmiel and the religious aspects of life in Israel.  These have caused me more stress than anything else I’ve written about for the last (almost) six years.  But I’ve decided I’m going to continue to share my personal experience on the topics that I feel are important to me, and if someone doesn’t like it, well, I can’t control what others think of me.

So on to the post that I wrote before I got all this fun feedback!

Yesterday afternoon I was listening to some women sharing some of the challenges they faced when moving to Karmiel, when one asked me a really good question that I had to think about before being able to answer:

“Since you had all the same issues and difficulties when you moved (that those sharing with me were having a hard time with), why are you still so happy to live here?”

I tried to be very, very realistic when I moved here, and to have minimal expectations of anything.  Unrealized expectations are very painful and the source of tremendous frustration.  As realistic as I tried to be, I couldn’t know before arriving exactly what to expect, and it turns out that even some of my low expectations were too high; they didn’t match the reality I found.  I then adapted my expectations since the choice was to feel bothered and disappointed.

Along with being realistic, I try to look for the good in the situation; I’m not a Pollyanna but I do believe that the objective truth is the glass is filled halfway, and we make the choice to see it as as half full or half empty.

A specific example I was asked about was my feeling about living in a community that is primarily secular.  Where someone else might be bothered that this isn’t a Sabbath observant community, I focus on how amazing it is that in a secular city, Shabbos music plays thirty minutes before candlelighting throughout the city to announce the imminent arrival of Shabbos, there are so few cars driving on this day and how almost all the stores are closed.   I appreciate how many people who aren’t visibly observant respond to my “Shabbat shalom” greeting in kind – it makes me feel aware that I’m living in a Jewish country even if the city is made up of a secular majority.  Focusing on what I appreciate helps me stay positive when I see or experience things that I don’t like so much.

I also realized that I needed to actively take steps to find inspiration for myself in order to continue growing spiritually.  So I did, and now sharing with others is part of my spiritual and social experience here – in my weekly parsha classes I attempt to share ideas and thoughts that I personally find uplifting, encouraging, or inspiring.

Some people have commented to me when discussing this topic that I seem comfortable with myself religiously, and it’s true – a lot of inner growth for me has happened over the years when I had to define and clarify my values and then find ways to appreciate and validate myself in the absence of outside validation.   Homeschooling in the Orthodox world for so many years provided lot of opportunities for this!   This is something that has come in handy with feeling inner peace about who I am religiously, especially as I now find myself in a society in which religious definitions are very different than in the US.

My dd15 brought up a pivotal point when I asked her thoughts on why our family has been pretty happy here despite the difficulties, and that was regarding the attitude that we came here with.  Our attitude was: this is where we’re going to live and we’re going to make it work!  Moving somewhere else wasn’t an option, and neither was being unhappy on an ongoing basis.  We weren’t constantly asking ourselves: should we have moved here, where would be better, looking for other communities, etc.  A big part of this is that we bought a home here and so we had an inherent motivation and commitment to overcome frustrations and make it work.  An equally big part of this is that as parents, we’ve tried to teach our children to find solutions rather than grumble about what we don’t have, and that has meant trying to walk the talk!  This saved us a lot of mentally spinning our wheels and constant self-questioning.

Karmiel has been a great place for us, and though there have been disappointments and issues we didn’t expect that have come up, we’re all pretty satisfied with our choice!

Avivah

Today I spoke with several different women about a similar topic – the ups and downs of moving to Karmiel.  I’m a big believer in being optimistic but staying realistic.  What that means is that if you ask me what I like about living here, I’ll tell you but I’ll also caution you about things you may not hear from other people (someone recently told me that I was the only one who gave her an accurate picture of the realities of Karmiel).

Knowing that Karmiel is increasingly being considered as a place to live not only by those making aliyah but those living in Israel, I’ll share the following:

Physically – Karmiel is a physically beautiful city.  My husband’s tennis partner who has lived in the area for many years told him that one of the nicknames of Karmiel is ‘Charmiel’, because it’s so charming.  It’s well-designed, well landscaped, and well taken care of.  A joke that’s reflective of the priority on maintenance in the city is: when there’s a traffic accident, the first vehicle on the scene will be someone from the municipality’s maintenance department to replant the flowers that were damaged by the cars.

There are lots of parks for children.  It’s a big enough city that you can get anywhere in the country with public transportation, so you don’t need a car.  However, if you’re in one of the outlying neighborhoods of Karmiel, you’ll probably find it much easier to live here with a vehicle because buses are less frequent (though still regular)- I live in the center where it’s not a concern at all.  The public transportation within the city is excellent – the buses are all new, clean, and comfortable.  You can purchase a local day pass that’s good for unlimited bus rides for just 7.70 shekels from 9 am and on.  And if you want taxis, then there’s a flat rate charged of 15 shekels within Karmiel, 20 shekels if you need to get to the industrial zone.

The local shopping is good and you can get anything you need without needing to leave the city – food, electronics, furniture, cars.  Many people come from surrounding areas to do their shopping here, particularly at the major shopping center called The Big (this includes many Arabs from the local villages – it’s very interesting seeing such a variety of people!).  Kosher meats and hard cheeses (edited to add: with a badatz hechsher) aren’t widely available in the majority of stores but they are available in two or three stores in the city.

Housing – In Israel, real estate is very expensive and prices are constantly rising.  Coupled with the banks’ insistence on at least a 30% down payment, purchasing even a modest home can be very challenging.  Something that has brought many people from the center of the country to here is that they can afford to buy something much larger and nicer than the area they were coming from, for less money.  (Rents aren’t significantly less than areas surrounding Jerusalem, and the rental market here is tight.)  The apartment prices have risen dramatically in the last three years, but still constitute a very good deal considering the general market in the country.

Socially – Karmiel is a city of 52,000 (a couple visiting from Ashkelon told me a couple days ago that they were told 70,000 by several people during their visit, so I’m not sure who’s right – I got my stats on this from the NBN site), and there are a lot of immigrants here, particularly from Russia.  This definitely affects the atmosphere here.  It’s common to hear Russian spoken, and in just about every government office or store I’ve been to, it seems that most of the people working there speak Hebrew with Russian as a second language – this is different than Jerusalem, where English is usually the second language.  You don’t hear a lot of English when you’re out and about, so much so that when I hear English, I feel the desire to walk over and introduce myself!

Since many of these Russians are not Jewish (not going to get into why the government allows them in based on the Law of Return), this means that Karmiel has a large percentage of not just non-religious Jews, but non-Jews; I believe the number the chief rabbi of the city quoted of non-Jews was 40%.  Olim coming to Israel and looking forward to the religious inspiration of being in the Holy Land and surrounded by their fellow Jews aren’t likely to feel it here.  The modesty standards of secular Israelis tends to be less than that of the average American, and the Russian population brings this even further down.  (I hate to say something that sounds so negative or derogatory but I’m trying to be honest.)

The percentage of religious Jews in the city is supposedly 10%.  I don’t know about how accurate that is or how the term religious is determined.  The charedi community is about 150 families; the garin Torani (seed group for the Torani community) is about twenty five ten families with many others who have some connection there.

The charedi community here tends to be fairly relaxed and accepting, but is still very much a community unto itself.  There is a focus in the local kollel on outreach that is unusual in Israel, but this doesn’t change the social reality as much as you might think when hearing that – outreach is something they do to some degree but my impression after speaking with some of the kollel wives is that there are different levels of commitment to this.

There isn’t much mixing of people in different religious circles – this is something that several people visiting here told me they were disappointed by, having been led to understand that it was a very open and inclusive community.  It’s true that people are more open and accepting, but it means that the definition of the charedi community is broader, not that people are really mixing with those who aren’t part of their defined community.  I don’t mean to overemphasize this and I don’t see this as a negative as much as simply the reality, but it seems that this is an area where people aren’t getting accurate information and after visiting here go away disappointed or disillusioned.   This is very much a community that is based around the kollel; the ‘kehila’ (community) is defined as those who affiliate there.

As far as the religious Anglo community- there are two components.  One group is made up of olim and first generation Americans.  This is a pretty small group, about ten families in the charedi community.  (I’m not sharing statistics on the dati leumi community because I don’t have enough familiarity with those stats to do so, but there are more Anglos who affiliate with different synagogues and movements than what I’m sharing about here.)

The second group is bigger than the first, those who are first generation Israelis, raised by American parents – they speak English and although they were raised here, their mentality has been tempered by being raised by parents from a different culture.  These are generally younger and smaller families, having four children or less.  This group is growing pretty quickly – while we were the only American family to move here this summer from outside of Israel, within the same two week period in which we arrived, six other English speaking families arrived, five of which fit into this grouping.

Schooling – I think the local school options are very good.  The cheder/Talmud Torah is the most classic local charedi school, but it’s more open and accepting than schools near the center (for example, the boys are allowed to play ball at recess).  Someone who moved here from the center told me that this was part of the appeal of living here; in charedi schools nearer the center, it’s become difficult to get your children accepted to schools (I’m talking about very young children, ages 3 or 4) unless you’re the ‘right’ kind of family.  We don’t have that exclusivity here. (Updated to add – the cheder as of the 2013 school year will have an acceptance committee that will determine admittance.)

There is an elementary school (Amichai) for girls and boys (separate classes) that is charedi run but more typical of an American school practically and philosophically (more details on that here).  It’s an unusual school choice to have available, and one I’m grateful for.

At the high school level, there’s what I feel is another great option, the girls high school (Neve Chava).  Like the elementary school I mentioned above, the administration is charedi and the student body is mixed.  That means that they don’t have the focus on controlling the students and every aspect of their behavior both in and out of school that are the norm in charedi high schools schools throughout the country – exploring other schools throughout the region as a possibility has brought even further home to me how lucky we are to have this school here.

Socially, we have a lot of great families living here.  I honestly like all the women that I’ve met, particularly the English speakers; Karmiel attracts nice quality people.  However, somehow all these nice people don’t coalesce into a solid block that makes it feel like a community – I moved here expecting a lot more warmth, connection, and intrinsic sense of community than I found, and though we’ve made it work for us and are happy here, my initial disappointment with this situation hasn’t been unique to me.

Someone moving here at this stage has to be emotionally be prepared for not that much support.  People will try to be helpful because they really want to be of assistance and make things easier for newcomers, but the help is by necessity limited since there are so few English speakers.

So initially someone new is likely to feel somewhat isolated, something you wouldn’t expect when hearing how few Anglos there are since you’d think everyone would band together and all be a close-knit group.  (This is what people looking into moving here tell me they’re expecting.)  To deal with this, you need to have realistic expectations (hence this post) and remember that time takes time – it takes time to make friends and find your place in a new community.  In my last community, it took me almost two years to feel I belonged there.

My goal about sharing information about Karmiel isn’t to sell anyone on living here, but to help them determine if this is a place that will meet their needs.  I want people to move to a place where they’ll be happy.  If that’s here, great.  If not, then what does the community gain by having someone move here who will feel disillusioned on arrival?

I believe that within 3 – 5 years, Karmiel will be a much more popular place to live than it is now.  Anglos are searching for a moderate religious community that is hard to find in Israel, and though it’s not perfect (is anywhere??) Karmiel has a lot going for it.  Currently, it’s at the earlier stages of being on the religious mental map as a place to consider, but the more people who learn about, the more are going to want to come.  When that happens, it’s going to be much more expensive than it is now.  (There are other reasons that it will become more popular and expensive aside from the religious community, like the planned train that will eventually connect here and the main No. Six Road that is scheduled to extend here, both of which will significantly cut travel time to the center of the country.)  If someone moves here now, they have to understand that they’re coming to a community that is in the early stages of developing – this has advantages and disadvantages; it means accepting the limitations as they are right now or being prepared to actively get involved in changing things.  And actually, that’s pretty true of anywhere that someone is going to live!

At the same time, remember that this is why the current prices are the way they are (and they’ve doubled in the last three years)- because it’s not widely recognized as being an option.  Understandably, people want a great buy and a community that is already established and has all the things they want in the way they want them, but this isn’t very realistic since those things don’t go together!

If there’s something important that I didn’t address, feel free to ask in the comment section!  I know there are a lot of specifics that I didn’t share, but I’m attempting to answer the most common questions I’m asked about.

Avivah

What a wonderful Lag B’omer we’ve had this year!

I started my preparations for the night by having all the kids take naps.  Then late in the afternoon, I took in my laundry and closed all the windows to our home since I was warned that one of the few places where people can get permits to make bonfires is in my neighborhood, just a five minute walk from our home, so the smell of smoke will be heavy.

We started off by attending a bonfire at the hesder yeshiva close by.  My husband often davens (prays) there and knows a number of the men but I hadn’t had a chance to meet hardly any of the women yet, so this was a great opportunity.   I was told they would have activities for children and thought it would be nice for our younger kids to have something geared toward them rather than just standing around and watching, so we set off with the six kids ages 13 and down.

Meanwhile, the older two girls went directly from school to a friend in Tzfat and spent the day there.  At about midnight, they took a bus from Tzfat to Meron, which is the hottest spot to be in the entire country on Lag B’omer, since it’s where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was buried.  (Parenthetically, I had originally seriously considered having ds2’s haircut there today, since his birthday is in just a week and a half, but decided against it mostly because of the massive crowds that I felt would be dangerous for young children. )  I was really glad the girls could go because it’s a Meron on Lag B’omer is a very memorable experience, and they’re old enough for it to be positive for them.  They left Meron at about 4:30 am, spent the day in Tzfat, and came home about 3 pm – and promptly fell asleep. 🙂

Back to us and the bonfire.  As we walked to the yeshiva, we saw several other bonfires and it really right away got us into the Lag B’omer mood!  While we were walking, a couple of the kids were saying they wished we could do our own fire and didn’t seem too excited about watching someone else’s.  But when we got there, the bonfire at the yeshiva was particularly huge and extremely hot, and some middle school aged kids who were there started two or three of their own bonfires under the supervision of their parents, smaller but still fun for our kids to watch.

Pitas with hotdogs and drinks were served, dd13 bought marshmallows to roast right before we left home, and the kids all had a nice time.  Throughout the evening, I met several of the other women, including a couple mothers whose feedback about specific schools that I wanted to gather information about was very helpful.

We had intended to go from there to the bonfire at ds13’s school and arrive , but I was too busy chatting to leave when we had originally said we would. 🙂  So by time we got to the second bonfire, we were just in time to see everyone leaving.    Dd11 and ds13 left a bit before dh and I, so they were in time to see the end of a performance there.  We got back home at about midnight, seeing lots of smaller fires along the way, which was something the little kids particularly enjoyed – actually, I think we all did, because there was a feeling of everyone celebrating the holiday at the same time, of being in a Jewish country that I haven’t as strongly felt for other holidays.

The next morning, at 9:45 am Lag B’omer themed music began booming throughout loudspeakers close by.  This was the introductory part of a parade organized by Chabad that we were planning to attend at 10:30 am, but the music got things started sooner. By the time we got there, the plaza area where people were gathering was filled with people, and we were directed to the area where our children were given balloons and hats to wear.  In the meantime, the music was playing, a sefer Torah and tzedaka box were dancing, and the atmosphere was very festive.

Soon afterward, the parade began, led by a truck playing music, with all the children and their parents following through the streets after it.  The streets had been closed for the parade, with police guarding all the possible entry and exit points, and this was the first time the littles experienced being able to walk in the middle of a street!  After walking about fifteen minutes (during which point ds9 and ds6 were separated from us, but they were assigned to each other as ‘buddies’ by me in advance so it was okay), we arrived at Park HaGalil, where everyone was given a bagged drink (it would be called a popsicle if we had taken it home and frozen it) and found a seat under the huge tent that was set up over the stone ampitheatre.

There was music, followed by a performance of two characters who it seems are very popular, Shlomi and Stam.  Their performance was about an hour and was well done, fun and engaging for the kids.   It was really nice to see the wide mix of people in attendance – charedi, hesder, chabad, secular – Chabad does outreach well and it was nice to be part of it.

We left before the raffle at the end, and when we got home made some popcorn (there had been some for sale at the event but I hadn’t taken any money – and honestly probably wouldn’t have bought any even if I had!).  Then we had rest time, because I wanted the kids to be able to enjoy our activities later in the day.

At about 5 pm, we went to a local park to meet six other English speaking families.  Ds13 took his sport equipment, and it was really nice when they had enough people to get together a game of baseball, the first one since we moved – ds13 is a talented baseball player and this is something I think he’s missed since coming here.  Following that they played Ultimate (frisbee) while the little kids played on the playground or with the balls they brought.

All the families brought their own food, but one couple thought to bring ice cream and cones for everyone, which was a really nice treat towards the end of the time we were there.  (They live close by and kept it in their freezer until it was time to serve it.)  The men and older boys sang and then danced together, which was really nice, while we ladies spent the entire time chatting.  It was really very, very nice – we all enjoyed it a lot.  I had planned to stay home when everyone else went so I’d have time to prepare for my class on Shabbos afternoon, but was really glad that I didn’t do that.  (Not sure when I’m going to prepare, but I’ll hopefully get started with that after I finish posting!)

We got home when it was almost 10 pm, and all agreed we’d had a very full and enjoyable Lag B’omer!

Avivah

On Tuesday night, we were eating dinner when suddenly a siren went off.  I had talked to the kids about the sirens that are sounded throughout the country for Holocaust Day (last week) and Memorial Day for one minute each, and explained to them that out of respect for the memory of those who have died, everyone will stop what they are doing and stand in silence.

Our home is located on a quiet residential street, but from one window we can see the busy shopping center a couple of minutes away.  Dd17 happened to be standing there when the siren went off, and she said it amazing, it was as if someone pushed ‘pause’ on the street scene.  Everyone instantly stopped walking and talking, cars pulled over to the side of the road and their drivers got out to stand silently next to their cars, and there was a sudden quietness except for the piercing siren.  We talked about how different Memorial Day here is than the US.  Here, there’s a sense of shared pain for the families of those who died protecting Israel (over 22,000 in the last 64 years).  Maybe it’s because it’s such a small country that everyone either knows someone who died in this way, or knows someone who knows someone – I read once that in Israel, there are only two degrees of separation between all the residents of the country.

There was a lecture that evening in the local hesder yeshiva about the Second Lebanon War given by a colonel of the northern command that I would have loved to go to, but unfortunately didn’t learn about it until the next morning.  (This notice came via an online digest, and when things are posted on short notice, the information that comes through the digest is often after the fact.)

The next morning, I did my shopping in the early part of the morning since the stores closed early for Memorial Day.  I got home in time for the 11 am memorial siren; all the kids except dd17 were in school, and they were disappointed they couldn’t watch the street scene she had described.  Later in the day, ds13 left for his weekly tutoring job in a different neighborhood, and after waiting 45 minutes for a bus, he came home.  He told me only two buses had come by at that time, and this was at a stop that usually has buses going through every couple of minutes.  I looked up the schedules online and found that most of the buses stopped running about 2:30 on Memorial Day, something I wasn’t expecting.

With the end of Memorial Day came the beginning of Israeli Independence Day.  This, too, is celebrated with much more patriotism and emotion than in the US.  For a couple of weeks already, Israeli flags begin flying everywhere – lining the main streets of the city, in front of homes, from car windows (there’s even this cute fabric cover for the exterior mirrors of your cars that is patterned as an Israeli flag that I saw on lots of cars).

>>Did you do anything fun for Yom Haatzmaut? (Independence Day)<<

That evening there were local free concerts that I might have enjoyed attending if not for the fact that we’re in the period of time called sefira, when we don’t listen to live music.   (There are those who feel that Yom Haatzmaut/Independence Day has the status of a religious holiday and do listen to live music, but this isn’t our belief.)  The streets may have been empty of the usual traffic and shopping noise, but oh, my!  – it was so, so noisy. There were fireworks going off and something that sounded like cannons being shot off (I assume those were different fireworks), the singing and sounds of people out celebrating late at night (the national laws regarding quiet hours are suspended on Independence Day), the distant music from the concerts (one concert began at 11 pm) – when I finally fell asleep after 2 am there was still plenty of noise.  I didn’t mind the noise; there’s a sense of national connection when everyone is celebrating together and I was able to appreciate that even without being actively present at any of the special events.

For the day itself, it seems that the entire country has a bbq and goes on trips!   But since most buses aren’t running that day, if you don’t have a car you’re definitely limited in this regard.  Dd17 went with a friend and her family to the Golan to a bbq at an army base to support the soldiers who remain on active duty on Independence Day, followed by a hike.

There were local activities and I sent dd15 and dd11 to scout a couple of sites in advance as far as what would be suitable for a family with children.  One large park had lots of musical entertainment, and the other had inflatable jumping things to play on and they were setting up for some kind of performance later in the day.  I thought I’d take the kids to the second park in the afternoon in time for the performance, but somehow I didn’t really pay much attention to the time and then suddenly it was too late.  It wasn’t something that I felt too badly about missing – while they would have enjoyed this, they were busy having fun all day with friends and each other.

However, next year I’d like to be a bit more proactive in taking advantage of the opportunity to do something as a family while everyone is home from school (well, almost everyone – ds13 had school as usual).  This week I’ve been really busy with others things so my focus wasn’t on planning for this.  It’s nice that there are so many local and free activities, and I’d like to research some of those events further in advance next year!

Avivah

Here we are, eight months after our move to Israel!

I’ve been feeling a bit of a lack in terms of community recently.  I moved here knowing the Anglo community was very small, and that was actually something I saw as an advantage since I anticipated that there would be more of a sense of warmth and connection among those who were Anglos.  However, that didn’t pan out as I expected.

What I found instead was that as nice as everyone was, everyone very much lives their own lives.  This isn’t a small city, and most of us don’t live close enough to one another to naturally bump into each other throughout the week (or even month!).  We shop at different stores, pray at different synagogues, and have separate lives – so this doesn’t make for a very strong sense of social cohesion, though I’m sure most of us would like to have this.  Originally this didn’t bother me that much since I was busy getting our lives organized and I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes who might have had plans for something.  When I was here longer and saw limited movement on this front, it became something I thought about more.

I didn’t want to see something that I have the ability to change, not take action, and then become apathetic and accept the status quo as “that’s just how it is”, and I know that’s the pyschological reality.  So since I have so much extra physical energy and time (said tongue in cheek :)), I decided several weeks ago that it was time to step up to the plate.  One person can’t do that much on her own, but if everyone says, “There’s so much to do and I’m only one person, so why bother?”, then nothing will happen!

This is why I began to offer Torah lectures Shabbos afternoons beginning on Pesach.  My hope was to create a time and place where English speaking women could come to connect and share ideas on a regular basis.  Although I’m very willing to continue giving these lectures each week – it’s something I really love doing – my goal was to involve more people, to build more of a sense of active involvement among others.  At last week’s class, I asked for feedback from the women attending if they’d be interested in having a weekly class, and if there were others who would like to take a turn giving the shiur (Torah class).  The feedback was that it would be good to continue, and this week another woman will be giving the class, with my goal being to set up a regular rotation of women who will give the class.  I’ll continue to speak on the rotation.

I also hope to begin giving parenting classes again soon.  Originally I thought I’d offer these in Karmiel, with a similar goal to above of creating a place of connection for local women, but decided that the Torah lectures were more immediately of value to the women here.  I still plan to begin teaching classes soon, but I’m considering offering them in Tzfat instead, which has a much larger English speaking community. I’d very much like to get that started in the next couple of weeks, but if I see that it’s too much to organize in a different city in that period of time, then I may decide to wait until the fall rather than push to get an eight or twelve week parenting series in before my due date.

I also see the importance of setting up an official women’s organization for the English speaking women in the community, so that there’s a framework for women to get involved.  It’s really hard to volunteer to do something when you feel it’s all on your shoulders from start to finish, and most people aren’t going to do it.  But I think that once there’s a basic structure, more people will be willing to get involved.  I’ve mentioned my desire to get this started to several women in the last couple of weeks, and intend to hold a planning meeting where I can solicit feedback sometime in the next ten days.

Dd15 just started a shmiras halashon group for English speaking girls ages 12 and up that meets at our home on Shabbos afternoons.  For this, she prepares some information on the importance of guarding ones’ speech and leads a discussion, and I think they have some activities as well.  (I took the littles out when she did it the last couple of weeks so I’m not sure exactly what goes on!)  The feedback has been good and she’s enjoying doing it.

Dd17 really wants to have a Friday night davening (prayer) group at our house for girls ages 8 – 12, but I told her that as nice an idea I think it is, I’d rather she not do it.  That’s because there’s a different girls’ group for Hebrew speakers that meets at this time, and I don’t want to create separation between the English and Hebrew speakers (most of the girls who would come are already fluent in Hebrew).  Edited to add: she’s instead running a group for high school girls, in which they meet weekly for a video shiur (Torah lecture) followed by an activity.

The advantage of moving to where there’s nothing going on socially is that there’s room to get involved, but the disadvantage is that there’s nothing going on unless you get involved!

Avivah

This morning I attended the bris for the baby of someone I’ve known for about eleven years now.  We met when he was a guest of ours in Seattle, and he later moved to Israel, got married a year and a half ago, and now he is the father of an adorable baby boy!

It was so wonderful to be able to be there with him and his beautiful wife!  It’s very special to be able to share joyous occasions with friends, especially nice to have the chance to further longstanding relationships after moving to Israel, and it was worth the four hours of traveling by bus (in one direction) to be able to be there this morning.  🙂

From there, I went to a Jerusalem bank to take care of some paperwork for a family member in the US.  They’re moving to Israel soon, and have given me power of attorney to help them purchase a home here for them to move into when they arrive.  I was really glad to get this done; there are so many hoops to jump through when buying a home in Israel, and I have a sense of relief every time one big piece like today is taken care of.  I need to go to the lawyer yet again tomorrow to take care of the next step, but fortunately he’s here in my city so that makes is simpler!

I also took the opportunity while in Jerusalem to buy some maternity clothing, since I can’t find suitable items locally.  I was hoping to do this before Passover, but wanted to combine this with other Jerusalem area errands, so I waited until now.  I didn’t find all that I hoped for – I would have loved it if I found some summery skirts – but I did find a few tops, shells, and something suitable for Shabbos.  This was really in the nick of time since my regular wardrobe really can’t stretch that much further (pun intended) to accommodate my 27 week size.  🙂

I was so gratified that I was able to do all of this and still make the last bus back (4:25 pm) to my city.  When traveling on local buses, getting to and from each place takes so long, especially since I wasn’t familiar with any of the places I was going or the buses I needed to take to get there!

I’ve only been to Jerusalem three times since moving here, but every time I get back to my city, I think how nice it is to be home.  Jerusalem is a very busy city, and I don’t really enjoy the hustle and bustle so much.  We may lack some of the conveniences that are found in bigger cities, but it’s so nice to get back to the greenery and slower pace of a smaller city!

Avivah