Yad LaKashish

Israel is largely a country of immigrants. In the 1990's alone over 1 million immigrants came to Israel from the Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Many of the younger immigrants learned the language fairly easily, found jobs, and integrated into Israeli society. On the other hand, those who were older when they immigrated, despite perhaps

The first of many cookies...

...and candies...

holding very high level jobs or positions in their old homes, had a very hard time adapting, learning the language, and getting new jobs, leaving a large vulnerable elderly population in Israel. Yad LaKashish (A helping hand to the Elderly) is a program that was started in 1962. It employs about 300 elderly individuals (most of the current workers there are Soviet and Ethiopian immigrants who came in the 1990's; 90% are over age 70) to make beautiful handmade goods which are then sold in a lovely gift shop on the site of the studios. Former surgeons and engineers (who would never be able to find jobs in their fields in Israel) as well as many others are retrained to use their skills (precision work, technical skills, etc) as artists. They are paid a stipend, given a bus pass and dental care, and given a snack and hot lunch every day.

...and toys...

We had a wonderful tour of this amazing place this morning (along with another multi-generational family from Colorado, that just happens to be renting an apartment at 24 Abraham Lincoln - our neighbors!). We walked through the paper workshop (they make their own gorgeous paper from recycled materials and turn it into notebooks, cards, etc), the pottery shop, the metal shop, the and the embroidery shop. This was such a great experience on so many levels. First of all, it showed our kids (and us) a model for giving disadvantaged people an opportunity contribute to their own support (most of the people also

...and smiles.

receive social security) and to have self-respect through valuable work. Second, it clearly made the workers there SO happy to "show off" their art to us and to see the kids (especially Sylvia). Every single studio we walked through, someone gave Sylvia a cookie, piece of chocolate, piece of candy, slice of cake! They loved her and as she caught on to the potential
pay off, she warmed up to them :) One Ethiopian women gave her a blessing in simple Hebrew to grow up to be pretty like Mom and wise like Dad. In one studio, one of the men was celebrating his 85th birthday. He didn't speak Hebrew or English, but the grandmother from the other family touring with us spoke with him in Yiddish and translated for us.  After the tour, we went on a shopping spree in their gift shop! Unlike buying the Ben Yehuda Street souvenirs (many of which are "made in China"), it felt great to buy the amazing things handmade right there on site, the proceeds of which go right back into supporting the program (20% of their funding comes from the gift shop and the rest from donations). We had been thinking Jonah might get a tallit for his bar mitzvah while we were here in Israel, and he found the perfect one there! It was a new design that they had just started making and the one he got was the first one they had completed. What a meaningful tallit! We also had been looking for a gift for the synagogue from Ella's bat mitzvah class (a "bein gavra l'gavra" - which is the cover that you put over the Torah between readings). We found a gorgeous wall hanging that was perfect and they offered to remove the wall hanging loops for us in the studio. Sylvia picked out an adorable knit doll and a mezuzah for her room, and we found several other things. We left our purchases (except dolly) there to come back and pick up later after they had removed the wall hanging loops, and went on with our adventures. Unlike many of the sites in Jerusalem which touch the visitor either intellectually or spiritually, Yad LaKashish touched our hearts. It was a wonderful way to spend a morning.

Checking on her "zuzza"

A cool synagogue we saw near the shuk

We walked from there to a restaurant near the shuk that had been recommended to us (Rachmo). We stopped along the way at the place where we will be staying when we come back to Jerusalem in August and met Abe's cousin Rafi's cousin Dina (did you follow that?) who manages it. And we stopped at a used book store off Agrippas and browsed both Hebrew and English books in their selection. Rachmo was great - a classic middle eastern meat restaurant on a small street off Machane Yehuda. Jonah chose the roast beef platter - which then came with rice, potatoes, Israeli salad, pita, etc. It looked so good that Abe and Ella chose it too. I got the stuffed zucchini. Along with hummus and a couple of other sides, we all left very satisfied!

Sylvia's "date" - a stranger who sat down across
from her and she tried to make friends with 

Abe was jealous of my friendly
 relationship with the boureka man :)

After lunch we discovered that Sunday is the best (least crowded) day to shop at the shuk! We could fully appreciate each thing without bumping into anyone. We got fruits and veggies as well as bourekas and a babka for dinner, then took our time walking back along Jaffa Street to Yad LaKashish to pick up ou things. Sylvia was so excited to pick up her mezuzza and kept saying "my zuzza! Thank you! My favorite!" (although it's possible she had confused mezzuza with a kazoo, as the first thing she wanted to do when she got it was blow into it). When we got back to YL, we met a family traveling from Minnesota for their daughter's bat mitzvah. We ended up chatting with them for quite a while before heading home. As it was quite late in the afternoon, Sylvia fell asleep in the stroller clutching both her dolly and her zuzza. Super cute. Rather than risk waking a sleeping toddler by carrying her up the stairs at home, we decided to go sit on the patio at the YMCA and have a drink (Abe's turkish coffee came highly recommended with a plate of baklava, so ok, we got that too). Sitting on the patio at the YMCa with the fountain gurgling in the background, and a cool breeze coming in with slightly cooler temperatures expected for the next few days, sipping lemonade with fresh mint in it -- heaven.

In front of the YMCA

Bible Lands Museum

Only a handful of museums are open in Jerusalem and the buses don't run. So, unless we wanted to take the day off completely (and if you think that, you clearly don't know us very well!), we needed to do some careful planning! We decided on the Bible Lands Museum, though we weren't sure what to expect as this museum is not usually high on the list in tour books, etc. Turned out to be an awesome choice (and there were several Birthright tour groups there, so I guess it isn't quite as "off-the-beaten-track" as we thought.)

Outside the museum

It's an unbelievable collection of archeological artifacts organized to show about the lives of various cultures described in the Bible. We followed the family tour, which started with Abraham leaving Ur (we saw the only known example of of a Chaldean horned helmet from that time/place) and led through the Israelites going to Egypt, the return to Israel, various conquests, through the time of Jesus and the talmud. We listened in on some of the tours too - and heard some great stories. One tour guide explained the part of the Exodus story where it talks about Pharaoh agreeing to let the Jews go and then changing his mind, and in the common translation it says that God "hardened" Pharaoh's heart. But in the Hebrew it says that God made Pharaoh's heart "heavy" which refers to he Egyptian beliefs about weighing a person's heart against a feather to see if they were good or evil -- of course Pharaoh's heart was made heavy and he would be judged as evil.

Walking to the park

We spent the afternoon relaxing at home, watching movies/TV, generally taking it easy. Abe took Jonah and Sylvia out to the playground, I made eggplant parmesan, and Ella uploaded her photos (she is taking some awesome photos!). Later Jonah amazed me with his understanding of Hebrew on TV. He was picking up phrases and words that couldn't be deciphered just from the context or images. If we just had 2 months in front of the TV in Jerusalem, he'd be fluent!

And now for something completely different...

We were all in need of a mellow day with air conditioning and no hills -- The Malcha Mall was the perfect choice. It's on the outskirts of town and it's just a big mall - except Israeli style. So, even this was a cultural experience. First, they were having a big indoor farmers market since it was Friday. We bought a challah (you can't usually buy a challah at the mall in Toledo!) and tasted some yummy dips and things. We also had a cell phone victory - as Verizon had updated my phone since our failure at the airport and I could now get Israeli cell service and internet. If you need it, my # is 053-6218191 (from the US 011 972 53 621 8191). We went to a pet store where the featured animals were a chinchilla and a scorpion (are these popular Israeli pets?).

There was a cute play area that Sylvia loved with foam cushions and things. We got a kick out of seeing the dad in his IDF uniform come with his baby. He took the baby out of the stroller and put him in the play area. Then he took his gun off his shoulder and put it in the stroller (also not something you see every day in Toledo!).  We marveled at the variety of head coverings people were wearing and the clear significance associated with each one (wigs with scarves covering them, wigs without scarves, just scarves, hijabs, little hats, big hats, knit kippahs, black kippahs, etc etc). People here are constantly evaluating one another and making assumptions about one another based on their head covering. Ella and I enjoyed watching how the more religious women shop for clothing (essentially, they have a long sleeve undershirt and a long skirt, and then they wear whatever clothes they want (low cut, sleeveless, etc) on top of that. A funny moment was at lunch when Sylvia was coming out of the restroom walking toward the table and wanted to tell me something about her pacifier (very loudly), but she ended up saying the first 2 syllables quietly and just the last one loudly, which left her shouting "fire" in a crowded restaurant. Luckily, no one there spoke much English, so there was no panic :)  All in all, it was exactly the relaxing day we were hoping for.

After a nice rest and a little housekeeping, we took a fairly long walk to Mevakshei Derech, which we had heard was the closest thing to a Reconstructionist synagogue in Jerusalem. It was a very small group (with Abe, Ella, and I they almost had a minyan) -- they said they get a larger turnout on Saturday mornings. It was a nice service, the people who were there were very friendly (they put out some toys for Sylvia to play, with etc), and we enjoyed the visit, and a delicious Shabbat dinner at home afterwards.

The government district

All of the government buildings in Jerusalem are in the same general area (around Givat Ram), so we decided to combine visits to a few of them today (having called/emailed ahead to arrange tours - sites in Israel seem to be more geared toward tour buses that individual tourists, so it is necessary to arrange visits in advance rather than just showing up).

Our first tour wasn't until noon, so we headed
out in the morning to Gan Sacher - a huge park in the middle of Jerusalem (and near the government district). There were loads of school groups in the park, and the kids had a blast on the excellent playgrounds. One was a standard playground, but with a extra tall climbing structure. The other was like a gym with stairmasters and bicep curl machines, etc, except all were playground type equipment (for example, for one of the arm machines, you lifted your own weight by lifting the bars). There was a big group of boys from a local yeshiva there, all kind of showing off for one another how strong they were (they weren't). It was hilarious to watch them when Ella came along (mostly oblivious) in her very minimal sundress. You can pretty much imagine the scene :)

This one pretty much sums it up!

We had a nice picnic lunch in the park and then headed to the Supreme Court for our first excellent tour of the day. What struck me the most about the Supreme Court was how completely open it was to the public. There was security of course, but after that, anyone could go pretty much anywhere. If a door to a courtroom was open, that meant that court was in session and you were welcome to go in (the only exceptions were in the case of cases involving young children, rape, or national security). We did sit in on a case for a few minutes (this was Jonah's favorite part of the day), but as it was in Hebrew, we didn't understand any of it (and our guide, a really funny British woman, assured us that even if you do speak Hebrew, it's all so technical you can't understand anything anyway). There were three justices in the trial we saw. There is no jury system in Israel, so cases have between 3 and 15 justices (always an odd number) - and the justices of the supreme court include women, Orthodox, Arabs, etc. We learned a bit about the three tiered court system (local, district, and supreme court) and the religious courts which have jurisdiction over marriage and divorce (and any other matter if both parties agree to go there instead). The building was really beautiful and full of symbolism. To reinforce the idea that the court is open to everyone and the law applies on the street as it does in the court, many of the hallways were designed to evoke the feeling of being on a street in the city (e.g., lots of natural light, and street lamp style lights). There was a lot of juxtaposition of Jerusalem stone (representing the old laws and customs) with modern materials (representing the new modern state). Every straight wall was balanced by a curved wall - representing that although the law is fixed (straight) it has to be implemented with compassion and taking individual circumstances into account (curved). In the courtyard, the stone was not Jerusalem stone, but stone from the Negev to remind of where the original Law (the Torah) was received, and there was a thin pool in the middle to reflect the sky - as it is written in Psalms, "Truth will spring up from the earth and justice will be reflected from the heavens" We ended in a little visitors center that told the history of the judicial system in Israel (from the time of the Ottomans actually). It also had an interesting exhibit on the Eichmann trial (the only time the Israeli court has imposed the death penalty.

Ready for her tour of the Knesset

After the tour we walked through a passageway that connects the court to the Knesset (showing the symbolic connection between where the laws are made and where they are upheld). Getting through security at the Knesset and waiting for the tour to begin was a big mess (if they run the government the way they run the tours of the government, this country is in big trouble!), but when the tour finally got underway, it was fantastic. The guide was a student at Hebrew U in Political Science and Psychology, and she conveyed a lot of her opinions in addition to the facts, which was pretty interesting. She spent a lot of time talking about the amazing Chagall tapestries in the State Hall of the Knesset. We also went into the plenum hall, where the Knesset sessions take places Mondays through Wednesdays, and where we had an interesting discussion about the way the Israeli parliamentary system works, etc. This was Ella's favorite part of the day!

The tour of the Bank of Israel was actually
pretty interesting, even if we didn't quite
capture the excitement in a photo.

Following this tour we hurried over to the Israel Bank for our third and final tour of the day. This one turned out to be a private tour for just us (with a somewhat disinterested guide). We had some time in the visitors center learning about the history of Israeli currency. Some interesting facts are that just about all Israeli coins today have images that come from ancient Israeli coins that have been found. The bills mostly have political figures, although the new series that is about to be released all feature poets, and two of them are women to try to balance the gender issue a bit (interestingly, trying to correct the balance between men and women came up in all three of our tours today. This is clearly an issue on the minds of Israelis). We also learned about the introduction of the "shekel" as the Israeli currency (in 1980 - I would have thought earlier!) and the "new shekel" (in 1986). Then we saw a movie about how  the Israeli currency is protected against counterfeiting, and one about the history of currency. As we left, the guide gave each of us a bag containing 3,000 S"H (new shekels), shredded - about $800. I imagine the kids will be hard at work trying to reassemble the bills if they ever get a quiet moment!!

We walked back and at the intersection of Keren HaYesod and Gershon Agron, Abe and I took Sylvia to the grocery store and the big kids walked the rest of the way home by themselves (!) They had no trouble and by the time we got home, they had even made dinner!! Wow! After dinner, we had a little spa night for Sylvia. Poor kid has scraped knees, tangled hair, dry skin and other casualties of living life to its fullest in Israel. Fortunately, she has entered a more agreeable stage than even a couple of weeks ago, aided by the addition to her vocabulary of the word (in English) "gotcha."  As in,
Sylvia: No comb hair!!!!
Mom: I need to comb it. It's all tangled.
Sylvia: Ohhhhh. Gotcha. (and then she lets me comb her hair)
Hope it lasts!

Israel Museum

The Israel Museum is amazing. We were there from open to close (7 hours) and it still was not enough to see everything. We saw:

- The special exhibition on Herod. In the 1970's, archeologists discovered the site of Herod's final palace and burial place just south of Jerusalem (in what is now the West Bank). Excavations continued until the lead archeologist died from a fall at the site a few years ago. Some elements of the site were brought to the Israel museum and reconstructed there (including his mausoleum - one of Jonah's favorites of the day) - evidently there was some controversy as the Palestinian Authority objected to Israel removing relics from their territory.

- The archeology wing - one of our favorites was a cylinder from 586 BCE with a cuneiform inscription on it. The inscription described an archeological find made by Nebuchadnezzar II's people when they conquered Jerusalem (i.e., ancient inscriptions on a temple from 1700 years earlier). Meta-archeology :)

Italian Synagogue

- The Jewish life and culture wing - a highlight here was the rooms where 4 synagogues from around the world (Germany, Italy, India, and a Dutch style synagogue from Suriname) had been reconstructed.

Suriname Synagogue (with a sand floor)

- The scale model of Jerusalem at the time of the Second temple. Originally built by the owner of the Holyland Hotel, this 1:50 scale model was moved a few years ago to the Israel Museum. Incredible detail and scope.

- The Shrine of the Book. This funky building houses the Dead Sea Scrolls -- a collection of scrolls found in the 40's and 50's in caves in Qumran (near the Dead Sea - also now in the West Bank. I wonder what will happen to future Jewish archeological treasures yet to be found in the areas that are now under Palestinian control...). The top of the building is designed to look like the tops of the clay containers in which the scrolls were found. The scrolls were written by the Essenes, a splinter group of Jews from the 1st century CE (a very strict, monastic group). One scroll is the entire book of Isaiah, and fragments
of every book of the current Jewish Bible have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, except for the book of Esther. Other scrolls include books that were not ultimately included in the Bible, and still others describe the Essene's code of conduct and their vision of the end of days (a massive war between the sons of light [them] and the sons of dark [everyone else]). It was especially cool to see how they used the writings of Josephus (a historian who lived and wrote at the same time as the Essenes), archeological finds, and the contents of the scrolls to come to an understanding of the history of the time and place. In the same building as the scrolls was a great exhibit on the Aleppo Codex. Written in the 10th century, it is a codification of the Jewish Bible as it is currently used. Until the Dead Sea scrolls were found, it was the oldest known version of most of the texts of the Hebrew Bible. The codex itself has an interesting recent history - it had been in Aleppo, Syria since the 14th century, but in 1947 rioters in Syria, angry over the declaration of a Jewish State, burned the synagogue where the codex was housed.  It was lost for over a decade until it was smuggled into Israel by a Syrian Jew and given to the State.


- The iconic Ahava sculpture. The kids loved climbing on it!

- The Youth wing. They had an amazing exhibit on optical illusions. The coolest was an elevator that you went into and shut the doors and although the elevator stayed still, the images on the walls moved and took you from the subterranean basement garage of a building through about 40 stories to the roof of the building. The visual images created a real sensation of movement!

Two thumbs up for this awesome museum! Favorite new Israeli food of the day: bourekas (cheese and potato varieties). A hit with everyone. Interesting note: a new ruling just came out a week or two ago that in order to receive kosher certification, dairy bourekas must be crescent shapes and parve bourekas must be triangular, so that people who keep kosher will not accidentally eat a dairy pastry after after eating meat. The Orthodox Rabbinate in Israel really knows no bounds!

Tunnel tours and Menachem Begin Center

Another fun, interesting, and sunny day in Jerusalem...We started our day with the now very familiar walk to the Old City from our apartment. We found our way to the Kotel, avoiding the Arab shuk (souvenir shops, etc), through the Armenian and Jewish Quarters - a much calmer way to go. And arrived with plenty of time before our tour of the Western Wall tunnels. The tunnel tour was really cool. It started with a great presentation, complete with models and simulations, of the building of the Temple Mount 

and the second Temple, and the destruction of the 

The aptly named "Big Rock"

The section of the tunnels closest to where the Holy of
Holies would have been is reserved for women to pray.

same by the Romans. We were then led through the tunnels which have been excavated next to the rest of the Western Wall (above our heads were people's houses). Back in Herod's time, street level was a lot closer to where these tunnels are now and above them was open sky. But, by the Islamic period, street level had risen a lot, and people wanted to build their houses next to the Temple Mount (which now contained the Dome of the Rock), so arches were built in that area to support the houses forming tunnels below (which were mostly unused, except sometimes as sewers and/or cisterns.) If that doesn't make sense, you'll just have to visit it for yourself and see! The part of the western wall that is exposed now is a small fraction of it, so through these tunnels, you can get a better sense of just how long the whole western wall is and how tall it was (almost 100 feet tall). You can also see some of the absolutely enormous stones that Herod used to build the walls. One, which the guides call "the big rock" weighs more than a Boeing 747 fully loaded. Just imagining ancient builders quarrying, moving, and lifting that rock into place boggles the mind. Such large rocks were used to avoid the need for cement -- the rocks stay in place simply due to their own weight. In one part of the excavations, a cool thing they did was built a bridge with glass windows in it. As you walk over the windows, you can see stones from Herod's walls below you, where they were thrown by the Romans as they tried to destroy the Temple Mount. Essentially, you can see the destruction, preserved almost 2000 years later.

Looking down to see the bottom
of the wall

Admiring Herod's handiwork

On our way home through the Jewish Quarter

We came home (stopping for popsicles on the way home - it's really hot here!), ate lunch ("cheese toast" -- an Israeli favorite), and everyone took naps (except for me -- I got caught up on some work, which was very needed!).

Once everyone woke up, we headed back out -- this time to the Gan HaPa'amon - The Liberty Bell Garden -- a short walk south from our apartment (we bumped into Michael Ungar on the way -- he's back in town for the Rabbinical Assembly Convention). The kids wore bathing suits under their clothes, or brought clothes to change into as our destination was the lion fountain, where many local children come to cool off. Although a sign warns against entering the fountain, Jerusalemites from all walks of life routinely ignore it. Wading in the fountain were Arab children, ultra-Orthodox children, expatriate children from the German Colony, and our children! I'm convinced that the lion fountain is the best example of pluralism and integration one can find in Israel. Cooled off and supremely happy, we headed off for our final destination of the day, The Menachim Begin Center.

Couldn't choose just one of these happy fountain photos!

Sitting in Begin's living room hearing about the
incident with the Altalena ship

In a similar format to the Herzl museum (though telling a more complex story), this center about tells the life and political views of Menachem Begin. It traced his very interesting biography from his involvement in Betar (a Polish Zionist movement) which led to his arrest and imprisionment by the Soviets, through his time as the leader of the Irgun military movement in Palestine against the British, to his election to the Knesset and eventual rise to Prime Minister, and finally to his frustration and disappointment over the Lebanon War and his withdrawal from political life. Although the story probably could have been told in a more accessible way, it kept

At a political rally for the Likud

our attention as we moved from room to room and viewed multimedia presentations on each phase of his life, supplemented by commentary from the tour guide. At one point we found ourselves sitting in Begin's living room on his couches, at another we were in a Likud political rally, and at another we were in the Knesset listening to the argument about the Camp David agreements.

On the way home, Sylvia ran uphill the whole way with her arms flying out behind her, and shouting "Superman!!" and then she shared her newest Hebrew word, "Shelanu" (Ours) which she announced first in front of our apartment building and then again in front of the door to our apartment. The big kids' Hebrew is also improving daily (especially Jonah's as he is willing to watch lots of Hebrew Nick Jr.). Words/phrases I know he added today include "muchanim" (we are ready), "mispar" (number), and "yesh li reayon" (I have an idea). The more he knows, the more it seems he is able to learn each day. Finally, as Sylvia went to bed tonight, she said to me (happily), "After wake up, Mommy, more hiking!" And, with that, I think she's pretty much summarized our life in Israel!