Purim

Purim in Yatzitz is over and we are exhausted. Ruth is right, Purim really is a big deal in Israel. Last night we went to hear Megillah reading at the shul in Yatzitz. Scratchy followed us to shul which is about 7 houses away from where we live but started chasing a horse that was on the sidewalk nearby. He chases horses just like he chases cars. The shul in Yatzitz is very pretty and we are starting to get to know some of the regulars there. Their services are according to Nusach Sefaradim and we are slowly getting used to the differences. Noa and Maayan have adjusted and found the “candy man” almost immediately. Noa has even picked up some of the Sefardi customs from Gan.

This morning we went to a parade in Mazkeret Batya. What a blast! Hundreds of kids dressed up and walking down the main street with their parents. We noticed that the most common costumes for boys was police officer and for girls was bride. Our two girls wore Chinese outfits from Value Village. The parade was made up of bands, clowns, acrobats and all the kids and parents. Everyone walked together and participated in it, not like the parades we are used to where people watch other people perform for them. Some parents were very creative and come up with beautiful costumes, some very elaborate.

Afterwards we took a sherut to Rehovot and passed yet another parade. Not wanting to miss it we jumped off the mini-bus and walked around a while longer.

We then walked to the train station at the north end of Rehovot (the girls have become excellent walkers) and arrived just in time for a train to Zichron Yaakov. Zichron Yaakov is a kind of sister city to Mazkeret Batya. Both were founded around the same time and have that quaint European feeling. Zichron Yaakov means “in memory of Yaakov” (Baron Rothschild’s father) and Mazkeret Batya means “a memory of Batya” (Baron Rothschild’s mother). We were heading up north to visit our friends Ruth and Menachem and their 4 kids.

This was our second trip on the train in Israel. The first one was when we went to Tel Aviv a few days after we arrived. At that point we approached the entrance to the train station and Noa froze. All public facilities here have guards outside. You can’t walk in to a bank, restaurant, mall or bus/train station without going through security. They examine your bags and in some places, such as bus stations, will put your bags through x-ray machines similar to those used at airports. As we appraoched the train station door Noa saw that there was a guard there with a gun. She had never seen a gun before and her understanding of guns is that they are used by “bad guys”. We had some explaining to do and since then she has gotten quite used to seeing guards with guns and soldiers with M-16s strapped to their backs walking down the streets or shopping at the grocery store. As I write this I think that I have also gotten quite used to seeing firearms on a daily basis here. It is part of life in Israel. When we were in Canada we talked to the girls about what life would be like for them in Israel. When we explained to Noa that after high school she would be going in to the army for two years like most other graduates, she announced to us that she wanted to be a ballerina in the army! We have seen all kinds of soldiers since we arrived, some in pants, some in skirts but so far we have not seen any soldiers wearing camouflage tutus. But in Israel you never know….

As it happens we spent the hour and a half train ride sitting together with a female soldier. The girls used most of the 90 minutes to eat their ice cream cones (it was very warm today) and talking with Ella, our new chayelet friend (female soldier) about her work in the army. Noa got to ask Ella questions about her dog tags, green beret and uniform. Ella shared with us her news that she received a promotion today and was given three stripes to make her a sergeant. We all congratulated her and watched as she removed her two-striped patches from her coat to make way for her new rank. Noa, our five year old with excellent interview skills, subtlety asked Ella if she had a “special” friend. Ella told her that indeed she did and took out from her wallet two small snapshots of Assaf, her boyfriend taken “before” and “after” the army. Alison noted that there was quite a difference in the way he looked in the two pictures. Ella smiled and explained that Assaf “grew up” in the army.

It did not take looking at “before & after” pictures of Ella for us to realize that this young soldier, sitting across from us, probably no more than nineteen herself, has also grown up, probably way too quickly, like most Israeli kids that are garbed in green, given guns and taught to defend our tiny slice of the map.

To Ella, who became a sergeant today, Happy Purim and Mazel Tov!

Purim & Elections – Let the Zaniness Begin

Purim & Elections – Let the Zaniness Begin

You can feel the buildup to Purim as walk you through the streets here. The stores are displaying costumes and sweets and for weeks kids have been shooting off firecrackers and lighting roman candles at night. Everywhere you go you see the preparations and feel the excitement as kids prepare their costumes for this annual holiday. Our friend Ruth sums it up simply: “Purim is a big deal here.” It really is. Coming from Canada, I can only compare it to Halloween, that fun holiday that other kids got to celebrate while we stayed home handing out candy to the neighborhood kids that came to trick or treat. Here, the whole country is celebrating a holiday that does not require fasting, encourages having fun and does not commemorate a tragedy in Jewish history. We forget sometimes that we are actually in a Jewish country where one of the leading news items is kids in costumes or the whole class in one school that dressed up as police officers (they were adorable) and the weather woman wishing us a “Happy Purim.”

Today the kids got dressed up in their costumes and had a celebration at Gan. They brought in a clown to perform for the kids. Speaking of clowns… the TV commercials started showing last week for the upcoming elections. They are something else. In a country where the world subtle is not known, the commercials are a real slugfest for votes. Some commercials extoll the virtues of their leaders with sappy “call home” type pieces that nobody believes and the next moment attack the leader of the other party. There are 31 parties running for the Knesset. The method of voting here is very low-tech. They don’t use electronic ballots or the old “X” on a piece of paper, you are given an envelope and you put a piece of paper inside that has a letter or combination of letters representing a party. Sometimes the letters will stand for a word or idea. The Labor Party uses the letters EMET which means “truth” while Kadimah will use Ken, which means “yes”. I don’t know if it is an accident or not but the “Party for the Struggle with the Banks” has chosen the letters “PUTZ” which is a Yiddish word and not complementary to say the least. Besides the Bank party there are a few other partys that have a single issue agenda. I wonder how “Strength to the Poor” and the “Green Leaf Party” (marijuahna) will deal with serious foreign affairs and security issues.

The commercials are part of the Israeli race to the Knesset and the TV news reports on the various messages shown in the ads as well as all the mistakes that were made. The best ad we have seen so far is for Meretz. The commercial showed different people at the Kotel each whispering their wishes. Very effective and did not attack anyone else.

One party had to pull an ad because they were attacking Charedim and yesterday we heard that Shas had to pull one of their ads that promised people who vote for their party would receive a place in the world to come. While waiting at the bus stop last week we saw a poster asking people to protest and instead of putting a ballot in the envelope the organizations request that people put a piece of toilet paper in instead.

P.S. Here are the answers to our Purim photo puzzler:
1) Dome of the Rock is gone; 2) Tree has moved; 3) Orange bags have multiplied; 4) Band on David Zvi’s sweatshirt is a different colour; 5) Stevy has a twin; 6) Strap on camera bag is larger; 7) Alison’s watch is missing; Zoe’s sleeve is longer; 9) Maayan’s sock is taller; 10) Why have just one Mishpacha Epstein, when you can have two? Chag Sameach!

P.P.S. If you haven’t receive our Purim photo, we apologize. E-mail us, and we’ll send you one.