The Weissers' Journey to Israel

Winter of 5772 – The winter of Sachlav

2011-02-25T11:47:00.001+02:00

It’s funny that one of the top Google searches that end up on this blog have something to do with Sachlav pointing out to the post entitled: From Rompope to Eggnog to Sachlav

This winter I’ve had a chance to have a nice and warm Sachlav featured below. No Rompope or Eggnog this year either.

From Chanukah 5771

It was really good with its coconut and nuts on top.

This winter has basically passed by just like a Sachlav: warm, very sweet indeed and with just a bit of some hard pieces.

Warm – Not much cold this winter and unfortunately not much rain either although the last two weeks some rain has come down.

From Chanukah 5771

Very Sweet – It has been great to have family visiting and sharing some time and Chanukah with us. Celebrating Hanukah in Israel was once again a unique experience. Below some highlights (feel free to click on the Chanukah 5771 link for more pictures).

Our brave Maccabee From Chanukah 5771

From Chanukah 5771

Visiting Neot Kedumim From Chanukah 5771

And some of the sweetest moments this winter (I guess it was much before winter), G’d has blessed us and we will have our first Sabra.

From Blogger Pictures

He is so photogenic :)

Shabbat Shalom.

Superbowl forecast endorsed by the Chairman of the Mexican Steelers Fan Club in Israel

2011-02-04T12:33:00.001+02:00

Too funny.

Take a look, click on the image below. (Some Spanish is required)

Go Steelers!

Sincerely the Chairman of the Mexican Steelers Fan Club in Israel

As always sorry for the sporadic blogging.

Lots of things and events going on lately. I’m thankful for all that I have received and pray for peace, health, life, happiness and sustenance.

Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh tov.

Sabra Album – Baywatch edition

2010-11-26T11:47:00.001+02:00

Continuing to post pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that they are part of the popular “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra).

For previous versions of the Sabra Album click on: Take 1 , Take 2 ,Take 3, Take 4, Take 5, Take 6 – Marketing Edition, Take 7, 9th of Av Edition and Machane Yehuda Edition.

Going to the beach in Israel is as fun as any other beaches but in addition it is a great and unique cultural experience.

Something unique about Israeli beaches are its lifeguards. They come as sabras as it can get. Their job is to safeguard the physical and moral integrity of all of us, beach visitors. However what is unique about them is their style and approach that is an art as much as it is a science.

Hearing their sweet voices through their megaphone harmonize with the sound of the sea as they approach to visitors saying for example:

(authors of these poems will have to excuse my loose translation)

“KID, HEY, KID WITH THE RED SHORTS, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER? GO TO YOUR MOTHER RIGHT NOW AND ASK HER WHAT YOU ARE DOING ALONE”

“LADY WITH THE WHITE HAT, HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO TELL YOU TO LEAVE THAT FLAG ALONE?! DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I’M SAYING?”

“HEY, YES YOU! GET CLOSER TO THE SHORE! DO YOU WANT ME TO COME DOWN AND GET YOU?”

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Below a photo of what their booth looks like. Look close at the picture. The red flag on top indicates it’s dangerous to swim. And now look closely to the things hanging outside.

From 9 Av + Aug 2010

The shorts read “Lifeguard”, it indicates that the lifeguard is inside the booth, and you don’t want him to come down and get you. :)

And below a couple of pictures from typical Israelis spending some good time at the beach.

From 9 Av + Aug 2010

Oh, yeah, Happy thanksgiving!

By the way, you can click on the Facebook like on top of the post if you enjoyed the post.

Shlomo Artzi – the Israeli Springsteen

2010-11-19T00:57:00.001+02:00

Following my passion for music and in continuation to my concert reviews I wanted to share with you a great concert experience I had some months ago.

Rajel was so kind to invite us to a great concert right in Jerusalem’s gan saker. We went to see Shlomo Artzi.

Shlomo Artzi is kind of an Israeli version of Bruce Springsteen. In fact I did some research and they were both actually born in 1949 a couple of months apart and they both have 3 children. In terms of albums sold they stand 1.5 million vs. 185 million (guess who’s got what?), OK they are not really comparable, but somehow they have many similarities. They both have very poetic lyrics, both are loved by the mass and have had a very long musical career.

I have been listening to Shlomo for a very long time. I might owe him a lot for my Hebrew as much as I owe the Beatles for my English (although I think the Beatles did a better job).

More than two years ago we had tickets to see Shlomo and that same day I had a fever. I guess it was from excitement :), so it had to wait for two years to see him.

The concert was in an open park, we brought our picnic carpet which helped us keep a “private” area as well as some snacks. The concert started and it was very exciting to see Shlomo. He is a very good showman and artist, however he is definitely not at the peak of his career.

Shlomo makes very interesting arrangements to his well known songs that make his old songs once again modern, however many times during the concert he started to recite instead of singing, again and again and again. It’s clear that his voice is not what it was, and quite possible that there was some alcohol influencing his performance as well (but not confirmed).

All in all it was a great night and a great concert. Below some photos an a very short video of the concert.

The story does not end there. A couple of weeks ago we went to a great musical play.

It was called לילה לא שקט (Restless Night) and just like Mamma Mia is to Abba, “Restless Night” is to Shlomo Artzi. It was a very entertaining play and put together very nicely at the Cameri theater in Tel-Aviv, all based and inspired by Shlomo Artzi’s songs.

The singing was much better and powerful than the concert. The story was not a big deal (just like it was not a big deal in Mamma Mia), but it was funny, well performed and a good restless night.

Apparently there were a couple of famous actors, however we are still not familiar with all the Israeli celebs., nevertheless we did recognize the girl from Kochav Nolad (Israeli version of American Idol). If they would have sold a CD of the show I would have bought it, I guess I will have to wait to see if it gets to Broadway to buy the CD.

If you want to read more about concert experiences don’t miss:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

D's Salve a la Reina en Mexico

Zvika Pick at Israel’s 62 Celebration

From Toyota to Alan Parsons Project

And by the way, the rumors and news of U2 and Coldplay in Israel for Summer of 2010… well… I guess they are not coming anymore even though the weather still feels like summer.

I hope to soon attend more concerts to share with you.

It’s back, and it's better than ever!

2010-11-02T20:41:00.002+02:00

Hi loyal readers.
By now I might have lost most of you, but I want to announce that the blog is back and better than ever. With sooooo many things to write that have been going on for the last couple of months. (I don’t promise on updates as you were used to, sorry I cannot keep the pace).
I don’t even know where to start: The greatest Aliyah for us after our own, my parents visit, the high holidays 5771, the Shlomo Artzi concert, a couple of birthday parties, the Bnei Akiva of Mexico reunion in Israel, our recent visit to the Knesset (Israeli parliament), and many more adventures.
So lets get started…
As you can see the Aliyah regressive clock reached to zero, we are so happy and lucky to have my in-laws in Israel. We are very proud of them and wish them lots of success in their Klitah and all the things that will start to take shape. I can already see how they are enjoying it as well.
Welcoming them at the airport was very exciting for all, we could not believe that they were already here. Below are some pictures from their arrival as well as their citizen ID ceremony in Jerusalem in the western wall digs.

May' G’d continue to guide them through their Aliyah as He has done until now and as He continues to do for us.

Sabra Album 9th of Av edition

2010-08-04T23:22:00.001+03:00

For previous versions of the Sabra Album click on: Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4, Take 5, Take 6 – Marketing Edition, Take 7 and Machane Yehuda Edition.

Now to our new Sabra Album.

Just as I did last year (From Destruction to Love (Peace & Love)) to finish the 9 of Av fast (marking the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash/Holy Temples among other atrocious events in Jewish history) –I went to Jerusalem to the Western Wall. The entire experience was so unique to Israel. Here are some pictures so unique to Israel.

Thousands of people filled the Western Wall

Fast breaking “oasis”

Right after the fasting is over thousands of hungry man and woman rush to this “oasis” to get a free drink, coffee and sweet pastries. Note the separation for men and women.

Now the most interesting part is the drink disposing technology. This is better than any modern refrigerator or any home soda maker, just turn the faucet and you get instantly cold: Soda, Water or Petel (flavored water). Genius!!!

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Sabra album. Feel free always to comment on my blog. Next I’m planning on a Sabra Album Baywatch edition.

You might have noticed a new countdown clock on the blog. I have decided to keep indefinitely the “Next Family ALIYAH” clock since ultimately I will see you all here. The other clock is for the “Next family visit”.

We are so excited for both clocks that almost reached 0. We are happy to welcome soon our cousin from NY who will be here for a year, and right after that we will be welcoming my in-laws that are making Aliyah and little by little reuniting the entire family. Yishar Koach to you!

Happy 2nd Aliyaersary!

2010-07-23T07:41:00.001+03:00

With gratefulness to G’d we celebrate 2 years in Israel.

The best is yet to come…

Kids graduation photos

2010-07-20T16:01:00.001+03:00

Just a quick post to share some photos and videos.

Last month we had both of the kid’s “graduation” parties.

Let me first share a video from Batya’s graduation that is very appropriate for today (9 of AV) followed by photos from the event:

Below some photos from Ilan’s graduation from Gan Trom Trom as well as links to videos (only for hardcore fans):

You can access the videos at the links below:

Ilan's Gan Arava Trom Trom Graduation # 1

Ilan's Gan Arava Trom Trom Graduation # 2

Ilan's Gan Arava Trom Trom Graduation # 3

Ilan's Gan Arava Trom Trom Graduation # 4

Ilan's Gan Arava Trom Trom Graduation # 5

Ilan's Gan Arava Trom Trom Graduation # 6

And since we are already in the sharing photo mood, below some picture from a visit to Jerusalem as well as a company event where Batya decorated her own sodamaker machine and was among the top 10 designs.

Happy 2nd Birthday Blog! – Celebrating with an exciting announcement

2010-07-08T21:59:00.001+03:00

This week this blog celebrated its 2nd Birthday. Thanks for your following (or not?).

I most admit this year was not as strong as the previous one, time and strengths to write are different now, but I’m still here…

So the blog has had 8,084 visits, from 74 countries, appeared on 270 searches. Can you guess what the top searches have been for my blog? “eggnog” “sachlav” and “rompope” (no kidding). Do you remember the memorable post: From Rompope to Eggnog to Sachlav?

Another popular Google search has been “Sabra Album” I guess thanks to these:

Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4, Take 5, Take 6 – Marketing Edition and Machane Yehuda Edition

Last year we celebrated here Happy Birthday Blog - 1 Year

And now for the exciting announcement (drum roll please…)

The “Next Family Visit” countdown clock will be reset to August 10 when we will be welcoming with so much excitement to my in-laws. We are so happy and proud of them. Congratulations suegros!!!

We are so happy to be able to re-unite little by little the family in our real home, we are happy to have parents and grandparents here in Israel for us and for the kids. What they don’t know is that even though we got here before they did, a strong reason why we are here is because of them and the education that they gave to their children.

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the Airport!!!!!

10 years of love!

2010-06-25T17:00:00.001+03:00

Why not use last years video to celebrate?

Enjoy once again:

From Blogger Pictures

Feliz aniversario mi vida.

Te amo.

I know what you did last Sunday

2010-06-14T22:59:00.001+03:00

Almost 2 years ago as we were just getting assimilated into the Israeli culture I posted about You know you are Israeli when:

Now we are still slowly but surely getting there.

The photo below will be recognized by anyone that was in Israel on Sunday 1 week ago.

From Blogger Pictures

You know you are Israeli when: You put your 3D glasses on to see the opening of Hisardut (the Israeli version of Survivor) in 3D.

Now below a photo that more of you will be familiar with:

From Blogger Pictures

Oh yes, the World cup is here and we certainly watched the opening game where Mexico shamefully tied against South Africa. You would be surprised to know that in addition to being the self proclaimed Chairman of the Mexican Steelers Fan Club in Israel (COMSFCI) I have now named myself also the Chairman of the Mexican World Cup Team Fan in Modiin – Buchman branch (COMWCTFMBB).

Finally, a photo of what my family is starting to look like after the last couple of pictures (just without the pets and the baby):

Until the next time…

Israeli pasta in Italy?

2010-05-26T22:39:00.001+03:00

I know it has been a while, but I'm back.

The last month I made a couple of trips to Milan Italy for work. Apart from the success of the event and meetings we had there it brought also some unique experiences.

First I wanted to share the picture below. Can you tell from this picture which one is the famous designer and which one is the world renowned blogger?

Milan is a nice city, I got a chance to visit just a little. Italians were friendly and I think a couple of weeks more there and I could speak Italian. And the food... well that exactly the point I wanted to write about.

Have you ever felt as if you are being tested in terms of your loyalty, faith or something similar?

For those that don't know, pasta is my favorite food by far. However being out in an unknown city might be challenging for someone that keeps kosher. I was able to see it, smell it, even hear its sizzling as it past around the table on a pan held by the waiter, however, I just chewed my raw veggies. Man...that home made paste looked sooooo goooood.

I fortunately was able to visit a couple of Kosher restaurants in Milan: Pizza E Carmel (Pizzeria Carmel) - eat an OK pizza slice, some delicious ricotta raviolis and some fettuccini too, yes it was all for me. On another opportunity our host in Italy was kind enough to take some of us in my honor to another kosher place called Denzel where we ate some juicy hamburgers, it felt weird to be eating out in Italy hamburgers but it also felt good to eat some meat for a change.

As I learned from my first trip to Europe, it's necessary to come prepared and bring some food just in case, so I took with me some food this time just in case. It was kind of funny to bring packets of dried instant Israeli pasta (Osem bags) into Italy, don't you think?

All in all...it's good to be back home.

Israel turns 62!

2010-05-07T12:04:00.001+03:00

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s independence day). 62 years ago we established our own country and today we have a lot to celebrate. Yom Ha’atzmaut brings a great sense of pride among all, and for some of us it even has religious significance.

How did we celebrate? We started the night before first with prayers and singing at our bet hakneset (synagogue), after that we went out together with thousands of Modiinians to the celebrations by the park with fireworks a concert and other great performances.

Speaking about concerts and as my loyal readers know about my passion for music, I must comment on the one we attended at this Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration in Modiin.

About a year ago I was introduced by an Israeli friend to a new singer (well new for me and actually very old for the rest). Zvika Pick, was huge in the 70’s here in Israel with his pop music, and he has gained popularity again after being part of Kochav Nolad (like American Idol, let’s call it Israeli Idol :)

For the last couple of weeks I have been putting some of his music which sticks to your brain without being able to get rid of it, so Batya and I were very familiar with his songs during the concert. It’s interesting to mention that even though I only have a greatest hits CD from Zvika Pick, he did not include any song that the CD did not have. I’m not sure what that tells you about the rest of his songs. Enjoy the Zvikavideo below from a piece of my favorite Zvikasongs, the video is not that good was is great is hearing us sing in the background, it’s Batya, Liora and me.

If you are interested in reading more about concert experiences in Israel you can take a look at:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

D’s Salve a la Reina en Mexico (even though it was not in Israel)

From Toyota to Alan Parsons Project

(by the way, in addition to the Alan Parsons Project concert I was able to go to for free, another good thing that the Toyota recall brought was a nice gift certificate sent by the car dealership which to be consistent, I spent on a couple of CD’s)

The day after we celebrated by going to a military airbase were we saw the airplane exposition. We have gone a long way in 62 years.

See some pictures below:

Shabbat Shalom and sorry for the slow blogging but the computer was down for repair for a week and then I was out of the country for some days (some posts about that trip soon perhaps?)…

Ilan’s celebrations

2010-04-20T19:46:00.001+03:00

Just wanted to share some photos of Ilan’s birthday celebration at gan as well as last month at home. But before that I want to share some great creativity from Liora over the years as she has made Ilan’s birthday cakes (lets see if you can catch the similarities :).

From Blogger Pictures

From Ilan 3rd b'day

From Ilan Bday

And now some of Ilan’s pictures from this year’s celebrations.

Stay tuned as I will soon write about our wonderful Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli independence day).

Chag Haatzmaut Sameach!

Sabra Album – Danger! No Passage!

2010-04-14T23:03:00.001+03:00

If you have been following the blog you are familiar with my Sabra Album. For all the rest, my Sabra Album is a delightful collection of pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I’m calling them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra). (You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4, Take 5 and Machane Yehuda Edition if you missed them).

This time I just want to share one image I took from our last visit to Ein Guedi. The sign below reads “DANGER! NO PASSAGE!”

A picture is worth a thousand words…

From Sabra Album

What do you mean Danger? A real Sabra does not fear anything nor does he follow any rules he does not believe in. A real Sabra has gone through so much danger before that he is not going to be told what is dangerous and what is not.

Are you a real Sabra?

Happy 110th blog post!

2010-04-09T18:38:00.001+03:00

You might ask yourself, why is 110 so significant? Why not 100, or maybe 120? The truth is that I completely missed the 100th so lets celebrate the 110.

Thanks for your following, I have enjoyed sharing with you our experiences here in Israel. Please keep on posting comments at least I know someone is at the other side of the screen.

Some numbers to celebrate:

7,264 Visits

10,888 Page visits

2,347 Visitors from 67 countries

Thank you.

Now with the post…

During my last post I talked about misspells on packaging. It’s funny but the day after at work we had some urgent packaging/care instructions translation needed from English to Spanish, so there I was thinking of my blog post and now I need to make sure it all makes sense and there are no misspells, I read it several times to make sure it was 100% :)

We had a wonderful Pesach, we were 18 (9 adults and 9 kids) at the Seder night with 2 other Mexican families which all contributed with food. We finished all at 12:30am by which most of the children were still awake, participating and singing. It was a very joyous holiday.

We did many things during the holiday, here are some pictures of all that we did the week of Pesach including: Visit park Canada (forest 15 away from home), Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea, the new Modiin Park, seeing the Harley Davidson ROI (Raiders of Israel), a day at the pool with our friends, and a visit to Mrs. Greenberg.

Why is this packaging different from all other packedging?

2010-04-06T23:27:00.002+03:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Pesach, for my readers outside of Israel, I guess you are still doing the matzah thing? I ate a delicious Shwarma on a big warm laffa today. :)
Pesach apart from being one of my favorite holidays because of the family interaction, food and all the different symbols it has, it brings with it a great opportunity to get to know new products. When all the big brands are eaten and get all the market share during the year it’s time for those little ones that have their Kasher for Pesach, Lelo chashash kydniot niche (a topic I would not dare to explain or discuss). And Pesach is exactly their time to shine.
Here are some pictures to expose some great Packaging examples from these great quality niche products:
1. ChocoNit
The #1 instant chocolate milk powder brand in Israel is called ChocoLit (by Strauss-Elite), this Kasher Le Pesach knock off is called ChocoNit. Read closely the product description and you will find what makes this product worth of a mention on this blog.

From Sabra Album

Instent Cocoa Drink?
But still it was enjoyebl :)

From Sabra Album

2. Matzah meal
One of our home’s favorite dish (after pasta) is Matzah Balls. And this time Liora made them from scratch by using some real Matzah meal (grinded Matzah), eggs and carbonated water (which we happen to have unlimited supply). I really hope I don’t have too many misspells/typos on my blog but at least I know that the word Ibgredients will be automatically detected by any spell-check on any language (unless you write it in all Caps). See below.

From Sabra Album

By the way the matzah balls came out better than the prepared powder they sell
3. Mimrach Tmarim (Dates spread)
One of the greatest discoveries I had this Pesach was how good Matzah tastes with a good Mimrach Tmarim, it even competes against Matzah with avocado and salt. I need to give credit to this product since it tasted sooooo good, but it’s just funny how they explain some of its uses in the back.

From Sabra Album

English is complicated, if it sounds like “Y” why do you have to write “IE”, but then again a simple spell check would have discovered Cooky, but wait, all caps once more. Conclusion, either get someone to read through your packaging translations or do not write in all caps. :)
(*Note: After posting this I received a comment -see comments- that "Cooky" is actually a legitimate spelling, and I checked, she is right. Why is English so complicated?, thanks "mother in Israel")
But you should not judge a book by its cover, below a front shot of the product, I really recommend it.

From Sabra Album

If you are about to make Aliyah and are reading this blog, here is a great job opportunity: Check for this relatively small companies and offer your English proofreading consulting work, they really need your help, especially for text in all caps :)
If you enjoyed this pseudo-marketing blog post make sure you read:
Sabra Album Take 6 – Marketing Edition
Captive (and hungry) audience

פםח שמח תש”ע, Happy Passover 5770

2010-03-28T23:01:00.002+03:00

I want to wish you all a Happy Pesach, might you all re-live our exodus from Egypt and celebrate our freedom in a meaningful day. Enjoy from the family (physically and in heart) and let the children know how important this night has been for our people throughout the generations.
Enjoy a video that was almost in its entirety produced by the kids.

What will make this Pesach my Festival of Freedom?
Read from my post last year here.

Today, 4 years ago

2010-03-24T21:59:00.001+02:00

2006

From Blogger Pictures

2007

From Blogger Pictures

2008

From Blogger Pictures

2009

2010 - Today

From Blogger Pictures

Happy Birthday Ilan. We love you.

Stay tuned for a supper Pesach production coming very soon.

My Child’s prayer

2010-03-16T22:45:00.001+02:00

So many emotions and so difficult to write them all.

Last month we had Batya’s mesivat sidur (Prayer book party), where 1st graders from her School Shivtei Israel officially receive their first sidur (prayer book) from which they can now actually read and pray.

The mesiva was beautiful. 120 excited children and 240 proud parents. I’m so thankful to G’d for the opportunity to be celebrating this great accomplishment in my daughters life and to see it happening all in the land of Israel, the place to which all Jews face when praying.

There were many songs with choreography, speeches, official giving of the prayer book and Hamalach Hagoel, the blessing Jacob gave to Joseph's children Menashe & Ephraim (Genesis 48:16) with all the children below a gigantic Talit held by all the fathers.

Batya was so excited for the entire month or more as they were practicing for the event. During the event she was very happy it all came out so well and felt a very strong connection to his prayer book.

That same Friday we went in the afternoon to Jerusalem’s old city before we spent Shabbat in Maale Adumim and Batya brought the new prayer book with her and prayed by the western wall with much intention and straight from her huge heart directly to the ears of G’d.

For the hardcore family and friends who would like to see all pictures you can access it by clicking below.

Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

For the rest here are some highlights:

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Receiving her Sidur from Rab David Lau.

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Hamalach Hagoel prayer under giant Talit

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Batya and her teacher.

From Mesivat Sidur Batya 5770

Also, below some videos for those of you still hanging in there :)

Chodesh tov to all.

From Toyota to Alan Parsons Project

2010-03-12T17:04:00.001+02:00

You might ask yourself, Toyota? Alan Parsons Project? What?

About a month ago I received a call from Toyota that apparently I’m the lucky winner of a free repair of one of their recent car recalls. For most of the Toyota car owners this is a disadvantage, as for Toyota… well, they are in real tzores (read also trouble), but for me it actually turn out to be the beginning of some good luck.

As I turned my car in they told me it would take about 30 minutes and not more, but I should have known better after a year and a half in Israel. As I return from half an hour in the supermarket I was told that the car was almost ready (it was actually ready 20 minutes after that), as I was waiting in their rather comfortable waiting room I took a newspaper and started to read though the headlines. I then found an advertisement for many concerts among them one for Alan Parsons Project for which I kind of wanted to buy tickets but never got to it. The advertisement said that they were giving away 50 (or 100?) double tickets to see them, so I had nothing to loose and sent my text message to be part of the drawing (you know where this is going?).

I’m not sure if (a) not a lot of Israelis know about Alan Parsons project, or (b) among the people who actually read the Friday paper (Yediot Acharonot) who knows how many actually stopped to read the advertisement and (c) if they read it, who knows how many actually sent their text message, or (d) I’m a lucky guy or (e) all of the above, but a couple of weeks after that day I received a call from the ticket box office company saying that I won a pair of tickets. Of course at first I had no clue what they were talking about, but then I remembered.

Liora was not really interested in going to see him so I called my friend Dani (as seen at Paul in Tel Aviv blog post) who kindly shared with me the pair of free tickets. It was great sharing another good concert with you Dani. By the way thanks also to my friend Sebastian wherever you are (Philly?) for introducing me to this great band several years ago.

The concert was very good, even though the first half needed a little salt and pepper, for the second half as they say here “hichnisu lahem et ha-pilpel” and it turned180 degrees , the Heichal Hatarbut in Tel Aviv stood up to dance. They were actually very good, and you can’t beat the price. By the end he actually presented the bassist that turned out to be Israeli (Guy Erez). The lead singer was pretty good as well (although he needs to work on his dancing skills) PJ Olsson (to be honest I never heard of him before the concert).

Thank you Yediot Hachronot for the tickets, next one is Jethro Tull in Caesarea if (e) is also the right answer (I already sent my text message).

Even though the prohibition of Video and photograph was strictly enforced by Alan himself and his staff below are some pics and a video from others (today every cell phone is a camera).

Picture credits to Oren Amram and his music forum who managed to sneak in some photographs. Video bellow from Amit.

If you are interested in reading more about concert experiences in Israel you can take a look at:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

D’s Salve a la Reina en Mexico (even though it was not in Israel)

I’m looking forward to A couple of good things coming up in 5770 even thought they have not confirmed.

Until the next concert…

Shabbat Shalom.

Purim is not over until the fat king sings…

2010-03-06T21:50:00.001+02:00

Last week on Friday was supposed to be the Ad-lo-yada (till-you-won’t know) which is a annual carnival done in our city of Modiin celebrating Purim, however it was cancelled because of rain so a week after Purim the street carnival took place and we once again took out our customs to celebrate.

Below some pictures of kids having fun at the event.

By the way, did you notice the new picture on top of the blog? Beautiful isn’t it. It’s a panoramic shot I took of our city, Modiin. Also notice the “Next family visit” countdown has been set, Pa y Ma we are looking forward to your visit.

Have a Shavua Tov, Great week.

Happy Purim 5770 & more

2010-03-04T22:45:00.001+02:00

As it’s already common I will start with apologies to my loyal readers for not being able to blog recently, things have been veeeery busy, but I’m back.

Purim Sameach to all!

To remember some good old times last year you can check out Happy Purim 5769

We all had a very happy holiday. Especially the kids that celebrated for the entire week with many activities at school. For the reading of Megilat Esther (isn’t it amazing you can get a summary of the story on wikipedia? If the Purim story would have happened during the internet era I’m sure they would have ordered to write the book online:) )on Saturday night the kids dressed up and were very excited, afterwards there was a magicians show. On Sunday afternoon we had our Seudah (Meal) as part of a joint effort with 3 other families with kids, it was lots of fun. That same night Liora and I went to a party from Liora’s work and to be honest we felt a little more in the middle east than what we would have liked (if you know what I mean).

Below some pictures from Purim:

In the spirit of sharing some photos, below some photos of another Tiyul (excursion) I did with Rajel and the kids to Givat Hatitora here in Modiin. Enjoy some of the great views we were able to enjoy from our beautiful land.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Last year we also visited Givat Hatitora but back in February 2009 it was very cold. Take a look here.

And since I’m sure you are still hungry for pictures, below some pictures from a Shabbat we spent with our friends at Maale Alumim (remember my Praying Towards the West blog post?):

Still a lot to talk to you about and pictures to share, hopefully soon I will share. Soon too, learn how I used my marketing background to win a couple of concert tickets and of course a brief report of the concert :)

And closing with a photo worth for a Sabra Album mention:

From Sabra Album

Taken in Jerusalem’s old city a table with Tefilin to wear that reads “Tefillin, Just do it”, talk about strong branding :)

Shabbat Shalom.

2010-02-14T17:27:00.002+02:00

Dear friends (especially Pittsburgh and U.S friends).

Do I need to say more?
Come and visit Israel.

Have a great and Happy month of Adar.

It was a great Tu v’Shbat!

2010-02-04T23:23:00.001+02:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week we celebrated Tu V’shbat, the “New Year of the Trees”. As part of the holiday I attended one school party with Batya, a gan (kindergarten) party with Ilan where he was dressed up as a gamad (dwarf) and a tiyul (excursion) I did with the kids and Rajel (our newest family member in Israel) to a hill 10 minutes walking distance from home. Also a couple of weeks ago Rajel and I took a tour of Modiin old and new that was guided by Modiin’s deputy Mayor, the tour included some very cool views of the city as well as an ancient Maccabean synagogue that’s very close to our home.

Enjoy the photos:

During our Friday night Shabbat dinner Rajel prepared for us a Tu v’shbat seder where she explained to us and the kids about the Shivat Haminim (7 species) that are written on the Torah as special and holy produce of the land of Israel. We ate each of the species that Rajel bought at Machane Yehuda (remember the Sabra album Machane Yehuda edition?)

It was a great Tu v’shbat!

Ma’aser for the first time

2010-02-01T23:28:00.001+02:00

Last week we celebrated across Israel (as well as outside of Israel) Tu V’shbat, the “New Year of the Trees” which has become kind of the Earth day of the Jewish Holidays. This holiday takes such a different meaning when you live it in Israel. Not only because of all the dried fruit that is sold across the supermarkets but because it also represents the planting and growth of our land, the land of the Jewish nation.

Out of the 613 Mitzvot (commandments) we are given, several of them cannot be performed because we do not currently have the temple, others depend also on a Cohen (priest) performing them, others are gender specific, and others are dependant on being performed in the land of Israel.

A couple of months ago for the first time in my life I was able to fulfill the Mitzvah of Maaser (Tithe) which is made on any produce grown in Israel and is therefore a commandment that can only be performed in the land of Israel. It dates back to the giving of Tithe to the Levites (Maaser Rishon) as well as the gathering of Tithe to take to Jerusalem during the days of the Temple in certain years of the seven year cycle (Maaser Sheni).

Note: Consult your local Rabbi for details. :)

Below some pictures of us performing this unique Mitzvah for the first time in our lives.

Step 1: Gather the fruit - We are lucky to have in our garden oranges, lemons, passion fruit, olives and grapes. We gathered oranges and lemons this time.

From Ma'aser

Step 2 & 3: Cut small piece of each kind of fruit and say the brachot (blessings)

From Ma'aser

Step3: Put cut pieces on bag and let them go bad before throwing them away.

From Ma'aser

Step 4: Enjoy the fruit of the holy land (blessing of the fruit before eating of course)

From Ma'aser

Soon I will put some pictures of Tu V’shbat, kids school parties, a small tiyul (excursion) maybe tell you about the great Seder Tu V’shbat Rajel did for us and show you some nice pictures from a tour around Modiin with our Deputy mayor as a tour guide.

Chanukah 5770 in Mexico

2010-01-18T22:48:00.001+02:00

We had a great time last month in Mexico and wanted to share many photos we took over there.

Thank you all for the hospitality, great time and your love. And for you some photo treats.

We miss you.

Enjoy pictures from different events as well as pictures from the wedding.

Ech omrim “Trajineras de Xochimilco”?

2010-01-12T21:57:00.001+02:00

First things first, if you have noticed the “Next family visit” clock just got to 0. The Israeli nation gained last night with the arrival of Rajel who just moved to Israel. We are so excited to have her here and are so proud of her. Congratulations Rajel!

Now with the post title, I need to give credit to Benji from www.whatwarzone.com blog for inspiring me with him post Ech Omrim "I'm Wearing Shorts in January"? Ech Omrim means “How do you say” in Hebrew.

Now with the Chinanpa de Xochimilco. Last month we visited Mexico and I felt so much like a tourist when I was there, an Israeli tourist that is.

As good tourists we went to Xochimilco which was declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO and is a series of canals on what was an ancient lake many centuries ago. The fun thing to do is rent a Trajinera (special boat) and it’s driver and go trough the canals, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling and listening to everything around you. Think gondola in Venice, but in Mexico.

Below are some photos from beautiful Xochimilco. But just before that a quick story:

As we were in the Trajinera enjoying Xochimilco we passed by one of the many commercial Trajineras and a man (picture below) with a Polaroid camera asked if we wanted to have a picture taken (and sold) as I was taking photos with my digital camera left and right, I kindly said in Spanish “No thank you, I have my own” and the wise man with the Polaroid replied “With that one (camera) you can only see, whit this one you can see and touch” :)

From Xochimilco 2009

So now enjoy the pictures however they do no justice as you can only see Xochimilco but cannot really “see and touch” Xochimilco.

Now for a taste of Xochimilco’s sounds enjoy the following video of the Mariachis, including the negotiating tips of our driver, the show and the actual negotiation with the Mariachis, extremely funny…

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes - Happy 2010!

2009-12-30T14:46:00.008+02:00

Dear loyal and non-loyal readers:

I wish you many changes for the good in 2010.

Lets be thankful to G'd for all the good changes and opportunities he provided in 2009 and those that are already coming in 2010.
Cheers for a great new beginning!
Here is a picture I recently took of a shelf full of Rompope. Lets celebrate! (remember from my previous blog post From Rompope to Eggnog to Sachlav?)

From Other

And to celebrate this Shabbat Vayechi as a new calendar year, lets take a look at what Vayechi looked like a year ago.

First: Ilan singing Hamalach Hagoel, the blessing Jacob gave to Joseph's children Menashe & Ephraim (Genesis 48:16)

Second: Batya explaining parsha Vayechi 100% in Hebrew (after only 5 months in Israel)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...........

A message from the Chairman of the Mexican Steelers Fan Club in Israel

2009-12-29T00:26:00.001+02:00

The boys gave a good game yesterday against the Ravens but odds are against us and I don’t think we will make it to the playoffs. Nevertheless my support to the Steelers continues from the Holy Land.

I guess we each have our own Holy City.

I recently came across the following video (Thanks Yossi).Enjoy on the link below and you will understand what I mean.

http://www.post-gazette.com/multimedia/?videoID=102712

Sincerely,

The Chairman of the Mexican Steelers Fan Club in Israel

Other post about the Steelers as seen from the Holy Land:

Summer is over

מ.ג (XLIII) is in our hands

Happy Holidays - NO work on December 25

2009-12-26T20:53:00.001+02:00

To all my Jewish readers, I hope you had a wonderful Chanukah, to others:

Happy Holidays!

If you have been following the blog for over a year you might recall a post titled “Working on Dec. 25” where I recall that it’s my first Dec. 25th in my professional life that I work. Take a look at it here: Happy Holidays - Work on Dec. 25

Why didn’t I work this Dec. 25? Well…nothing to do with the date, it’s just a Friday and over here our weekend is on Fridays and Saturdays.

We actually had a very special Dec. 25 and 26th with some very special guests that stayed with us this Shabbat.

This Shabbat we were lucky to have the opportunity to volunteer to host 2 soldiers from a special program called Nativ. These soldiers are new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union that came to live in Israel from Jewish families however are not Jewish according to halacha (Jewish law). This program is the first of other seminars that these soldiers are doing as part of their formal conversion program.

It was special for me to be able to take them to the synagogue for the second time in their entire lives and explain what, where, when & how. It was probably the first time in their lives sitting at a Shabbat table. I hope we were able to give them a good taste of what a Jewish family is and what Shabbat is all about.

Shavua Tov. Have a great week!

My first Podcast – now available at Jobmob.co.il

2009-12-20T03:52:00.003+02:00

JRAW 2009: Podcast of Job Search Success Stories
Listen in as 3 current and former job seekers share the insight from their job search strategies.

3 current & former job seekers

Natasha Shine shares her story of good thinking and a little bit of luck.
Doug Caldwell inspires with the innovative ways he’s using social media on his job search.
Israel Weisser – winner of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest – talks about his recent job search history beginning with a move from America to Israel, which involved finding 2 jobs in under a year.

Thanks to all 3 of them for their motivating adventures.
Read more at: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/jraw-2009-podcast-of-job-search-success-stories/#ixzz0aBoOdrQ2
Click on the link above to access the actual podcast.

D’s Salve a la Reina en Mexico

2009-12-16T08:13:00.001+02:00

Lots of blogging material has been accumulating in the wonderful vacation we are taking in Mexico with family.

Just a quick post about a great concert I was invited to by my sister and brother in law joined by my brother and sister in law, instead of going out for tacos on Saturday night (in the end we also went for tacos after the concert – by the way the food I have been eating for the last week is a topic for a whole new post)

As you have already noted if you have followed my blog one of my passions is music, specifically rock music, as evident on many blog posts such as Happy Thanksgiving – Thanking Freddie, George and John for their music.

As it’s already a tradition and given the importance that rock/music concerts play in my life I’d like to write about this unique concert and experience we had last Saturday night here in Mexico. For other major concert experiences in Israel I recommend to read my posts about:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

I’m looking forward to A couple of good things coming up in 5770

This concert was by a group called D’s Salve a la Reina (G’d save the Queen) and it’s a Queen tribute band from Argentina. If I was a little more ignorant about Queen (which I’m not) I would have thought it was the real thing. Take a look at some of the pictures I was able to take (sorry about the quality).

This guy had the voice (not quite Freddie but not that far), the looks and the moves and a very good band backing him up also with sort of the moves and looks, but hey Queen was always about Freddie.

Below is one of the many videos I found on YouTube for this band, see it for yourself, if you are not a Queen connoisseur you could not tell the difference.

Thanks to my siblings for this magic night, we had a great time! It was also great closing it up with a good round of Tacos with Tehina which is possible only in Mexico.

Stay tuned for many more post to come about Mexico City in the eyes of an Israeli from Mexico.

Chanukah Sameach to all.

Chanukah Sameach 5770 - חנוכה שמח תש”ע

2009-12-11T08:11:00.001+02:00

Dear Friends and Family,

I wish you all a Chanukah Sameach full of light.

They say that light is stronger than darkness. A small candle can be seen in a completely dark room, however many candles are needed to completely illuminate a dark room. So too each one of us has the potential to illuminate this world and be Or Lagoim, a light unto the nations, each one of us makes a difference as we see with a single candle in a dark room, however we need the light of everyone to illuminate the entire world. Let us all remember what we fought for back in 167–160 BCE and continue to follow on our religion, live and love our land and distance ourselves from negative influences that go against our values.

Enjoy the video card from the kids below:

Lyrics & Stage Director: Batya

Producer and Director: Dad

Technical assistant: Mom

Special appearance: Ilan

Music: The Beatles

חנוכה שמח

If you liked this video you can take a look at last year’s here Chanukah Sameach 5769.

Exciting announcement! – Clock has been reset for a very important arrival.

I am so excited to announce that the “next family visit” clock on the blog will be set once again, but this time it’s not just a visit, this time it’s an Aliyah. I’m so excited for my sister in law’s Aliyah as I was for my own. I’m proud of her for her accomplishments and her smart decision and wish her lots of success and an easy klitah in our land. We are happy to have you here and hope we can slowly but surely bring the rest of you over here, where we all belong.

Pre-Chanukah photo treats

2009-12-08T23:33:00.001+02:00

Just a quick post to share some photos of two different events at Ilan’s gan. One was when we planted some plants outside of his classroom and the other one a pre-Chanukah party with some photos with Ariela.

Chanukah is not even here and I have already eaten more than 5 sufganiot or pontchkes (Punch-cakes as Batya calls them in Idish) – i.e Chanukah doughnuts.

Cant wait for our trip to Mexico. In honor to both our trip to Mexico and Chanukah I can’t think of a better song but the following, enjoy:

Sorry about the quality, it was the best I could find online.

Get it? La Bamba? Mexico? Menorah, Chanukah? :)

King David vs. Chinese Warrior

2009-12-02T21:25:00.001+02:00

Dear loyal readers,

Your favorite blog was attacked yesterday by a Chinese Warrior. This Chinese Warrior came specifically from San Ch’Ung in the island of Taiwan.

Fellow bloggers, please take note.

The above mentioned warrior is a modern warrior aka Spammer. It all started with a random comment on the blog saying “I'm appreciate your writing skill.Please keep on working hard.^^” (clearly translated by Google) from a person named 非凡 which means “Extraordinary” in Chinese (thanks again Google translate). Some time after that I received in a time period of about 10 minutes more than 50 comments one on each blog post with links in Chinese.

I have already taken measures to go after the San Ch’Ungean warrior (many other Ch words come to my mind in Spanish for this person) it’s my way of defending my modest blog and its visitors. Just think of it as King David with his slingshot against the Su Ching… warrior. Justice will prevail.

How does this affect my loyal readers?

Just disregard messages and links on the comments section in Chinese (I have taken out several of them), and when you post a comment you will need to confirm a word on the space provided.

That’s it for now.

Happy Thanksgiving – Thanking Freddie, George and John for their music.

2009-11-27T00:01:00.001+02:00

To all my American readers or foreigners living in America I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. We certainly will miss our dinner with our Canadian friends as we assimilated to the American “turkey with gravy while the ball game is on, but don’t stay up too late since I’m going to Macy’s at 6 am tomorrow” culture.

What are we doing this Thanksgiving?

Well…. I’m blogging for now and will go to sleep soon, that’s it. I guess we never really assimilated to the Thanksgiving holiday, but it’s a good time to stop and thank for all that we have and all that we are.

I don’t typically remember but November 24 commemorates the loss of one of the great rock singers Farrokh Bulsara or as we all know him better: Freddie Mercury from the band Queen. I remembered it because of this great video I came across with.

Hilarious, isn't it? It had 3.5 million views in only 2 days, how about that?

Thank you Freddie for your music. And since we are in that mood too lets thank George Harrison for his music (commemorating his death on November 29) and John Lennon (commemorating his death on December 8) both of which I consider among the top.

Coming soon… I’m doing another guest post but this time it’s not a contest as it was back in “5 Israeli Job Search Tips” (which by the way I got 1st prize thanks to your support), this time I’m giving back. Lets see how it turns out. Don’t worry I will keep you posted. Just make sure you check the blog every once in a while.

Also, very soon, the family clock will be reset, I’m just waiting for confirmation of date and approval to make it public. (No, we are not pregnant).

We are very excited about our visit to Mexico. Can’t wait to see you all!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Thanksgiving.

And for those with time (and the understanding of Spanish) listen to the following promo that I remembered after craving for a juicy turkey. Un clasico!

From Rompope to Eggnog to Sachlav

2009-11-20T11:43:00.002+02:00

As I was sitting down with Liora last night relaxed and drinking a warm Sachlav it occurred to us that we have passed through several drinks similar to this depending on the country we are living. We asked to ourselves, how many people in the world you think know and have tried these three drinks? Very few…

They might all look the same, but they each have their distinguished taste to me.

Rompope: Mexican drink made with eggs, milk and vanilla, with Rum.Rompope to me has the taste of home, family, old friends, my roots, my founding base, my family values.

Eggnog: sweetened dairy-based beverage made with milk, cream, sugar, beaten eggs, and flavored with ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Popular throughout the US, Canada and Luxembourg (go figure). Eggnog to me has the taste of a honeymoon, new beginnings, community building, strong friendships, new family, educational and professional achievements, transition.

Sachlav: A sweet creamy milk, cinnamon, and rose water drink thickened with cornstarch. Warm. I would think it’s middle-eastern and not only Israeli. (ok, lets assume it’s Israeli). Sachlav to me has the taste of my land, my people, our mission, challenge, my children’s future, my spiritual growth. I’ll have the Sachlav thanks.

Now how many of you actually know and have tried the three of them? You should!

Shabbat Shalom.

Captive (and hungry) audience

2009-11-17T23:25:00.002+02:00

I have been wanting to blog about this since Acharei Hachagim (after the holidays). It tries to bring in my marketing experience by analyzing something unique and maybe funny in Israel just like it was done with The Sabra Album Take 6 – Marketing Edition (which I highly recommend).

Captive Audience + Opportunistic Marketing = Consumer Need

“A captive audience is a person or a group of people who have gathered in a certain place for a purpose and are provided or exposed to information that are unrelated to their actual purpose of being there.” From Wikianswers® “with nowhere to go” that’s my addition.

“Opportunistic Marketing communication are the messages and other media used to communicate to consumers by taking immediate advantage of the circumstances” I just made up this definition.

Now let me explain. Every Shabbat and holiday a bunch of leaflets are available at the synagogue both in Hebrew and English from different organizations that talk about Parshat Hashavua (the weekly torah reading) or the holidays. For a couple of years I have enjoyed following and studying both on-line as well as hard copies of the TT (torah tidbits) by the OU (They do a great job every single week). The TT for Yom Kippur is one that you spend a lot of time looking at given the many hours you spend at the synagogue. Now here is the back cover to that Yom Kippur’s TT:

From Other

Now you know where I’m going with this…

The ad reads in Hebrew: “Brazilian grilling party at Papagio Jerusalem”

Are you kidding me? I haven’t eaten for 25 hours, I’m hungry as a wolf and I’m sitting at the synagogue with nowhere to go looking at the back cover of my TT. What a perfect recipe. If I were the OU I would charge triple for that back cover. So for now I have a new consumer need to go and eat at Papagaio.

So the equation:

Captive Audience + Opportunistic Marketing = Consumer Need

Can also be represented as:

Synagogue on Kippur + Food ad on Kippur = Go to Papagaio

Makes sense?

I most admit that I’ve had cravings for a churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse) since I accompanied my co-workers at a Brazilian restaurant in Bentonville AR several years ago. I saw them enjoy one piece of meat after the other while I was munching on my crunchy lettuce (don’t get me wrong, it was a good salad). So now that I have it Kosher… well I haven’t tried it yet, but hopefully soon will.

Note: I did not receive any commission from Papagaio for this post, and I wouldn’t reject a free dinner for two either.

To be continued…. (I hope)

Mr. President and Me

2009-11-10T21:57:00.001+02:00

Sorry for the sporadic activity on the blog, it has been busy around here.

Below a picture at a recent event I attended. I know it looks like a balagan (chaos) but if you look closely you can see me (the tall guy behind the lady in red) and you can see our President Mr. Shimon Peres (the only guy with a tie).

The last time I had such close encounter with an Israeli political personality it was with the back then prime minister Menachem Begin in 1981. You can read about my encounter with the prime minister Begin at a previous blog post here.

Continuing on Mashina

2009-10-30T09:34:00.001+02:00

Continuing my investigation on the roots of Mashina’s song Night train to Cairo, I found the following rare footage believed to be the origin of the song:

I warned you that this song is addictive and gets stuck in your mind.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about read the previous blog post

A Night at the Party – Mashina Unplugged !

2009-10-28T22:25:00.001+02:00

Hi there. Sorry it has been a while since the last post. We have been busy lately.

This last week or two we had some interesting party experiences in Israel. You must think we are party animals, but you are wrong, we don’t go out that often but this time we did.

A Night at the Party

We were invited to an Israeli birthday party. OK, we thought to ourselves, we are going to chat a little, eat a little, maybe even have a schnapps (drink) and go home, right? Well, it was certainly a first and it took me back to my teenage years. The party in their small apartment had a DJ with two huge speakers, yes there was food and drinks, but it has been a while since I saw disco dancing at a birthday party, “DISCO, DISCO” as The Zohan said. It was fun and too bad we left 10:50 pm because we heard that because the party went on after 11pm the police came to shut them down :)

I never blogged about a beautiful wedding we attended of a couple that we met since they met in Pittsburgh. It was a great and beautiful wedding but it also had a lot of firsts. Without going into details I recommend you read at your own leisure one of my favorite blogs writing about An Idiot’s Guide to Israeli Weddings, it's a must read for first time foreign or recent immigrants wedding goers in Israel. It’s all true about the dress code, presents, music, etc.

משינה אנפלאגד – Mashina Unplugged

Isn’t it funny how Unplugged looks and is written in Hebrew? I think that will be a topic for a Blog one day.

As it’s already a tradition and given the importance that rock/music concerts play in my life I’d like to write about a great concert and experience we had last Saturday night. For other major concert experiences in Israel I recommend to read my posts about:

The historical Paul McCartney in Tel-Aviv concert

The Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem

I’m looking forward to A couple of good things coming up in 5770

Our good Mexican friends spontaneously asked us if we wanted to join them for a Mashina concert in Modiin. Thanks so much for the invite, it was a great night. The concept was of an unplugged concert which was cool, the group I did not know much about but I know they are Classic Israeli Rock. I bought myself a CD on Friday and listened to it the entire day to be prepared. The kids enjoyed dancing to the beat of ריקוד המכונה that Friday as I prepared myself for the concert.

It was a great night and a great concert, although I did feel a little bit like a fish out of the water when it was the audience’s turn to sing and had no clue about any of the lyrics. There’s a song that I did know it's jingle even before buying their CD which was their concert’s last song. Below is a link to the song from a 2003 concert, if you have heard Classic Israeli Rock then you will recognize it. WARNING: The song is highly addictive and you will be repeating it in your head for the next couple of days. If you don’t recognize it at first wait until minute 1:38 and sing with me …או... או … או... או

Now that’s good stuff, right?

Well, I like it a lot, however as I was writing this post I discovered the following video from an 80’s British group called “Madness” (you remember that 80’s song “Our House”?) that disappointed me a little in terms of Mashina’s originality, however, I still like them.

Until the next concert….

Parashat Bereshit 5770 – Genesis 2009

2009-10-15T23:11:00.001+02:00

Continuing with the educative side of my blog, I have decided to post a quick movie on this week’s parsha (torah portion): Bereshit (Genesis).

Enjoy it:

Bereshit 5570 – Genesis 2009

Creative Director: Batya

Executive Producer: Daddy (that’s me)

Music: Genesis (get it?)

Flamingo on the Phone Productions

Copyright: _VDCCLXX

Shabbat Shalom.

Sukkot 5770 Quiz Winner

2009-10-08T21:28:00.001+02:00

I’m sure you are all eager to know who won the Sukkot 5770 Quiz.

Lets just say that many of you participated (I think) but only two of you actively, but only one actually followed the contest rules to post it on the comments section.

Well, I think I get it, my readers are just not interested on interacting, although I do thank you for all your comments when you do have something to say. I just thought a contest would be something fun to do….(not). It’s OK I learned a lot from the quiz.

Here are the answers to the Sukkot 5770 Quiz:

Question 1: “A Sukkah that is higher than twenty cubits (about 10m) is ….” ?

Answer 1: Psula (Invalid), (Mishna, Sukkah 1,1)

Question 2: “A Sukkah that is less than ten handbreadths (about 80cm) in height is….”?

Answer 2: Psula (Invalid), (Mishna, Sukkah 1,1)

Question 3: “A Sukkah on the deck of a ship is ….”?

Answer 3: Kshera (Valid), (Mishna, Sukkah 2,3), however…”A Sukkah on the deck of a ship: Rabban Gamliel declares it invalid and Rabbi Akiva declares it valid.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 23a)

Question 4: “If one hollows out a haystack to make a sukkah out of it, it is …..”?

Answer 4: Psula (Inalid), (Mishna, Sukkah 1,8)

Question 5: How about a two floor sukkah?

Answer 5: Tanna Kama: The upper is Kshera (Valid) and the lower Psula (Invalid), Rabbi Yehuda: If no one is in the upper sukkah the lower sukkah is Kshera (Mishna, Sukkah 1,2)

Question 6: And a sukkah in a treetop?

Answer 6: “Kshera (Valid) but it is forbidden to climb into it on a festive day” (Mishna, Sukkah 2,3)

Note: Consult your local Rabbi for halachic questions. :)

And the winner is…

Well, the prize will be divided into two.

1) My father in law who answered and wrote on the comments

2) My father who answered over the phone and since it was VOIP (computer phone) we will count it as answering on the computer/internet. (Contest rules 5, 7) :)

Your official “Weissers’ Journey to Israel” Blog T-shirts will make their way to you. Thanks for your participation.

Here are pictures of many other Sukkot for you to tell if they are Kasher or Psulot.

Enjoy the “Achrei Hachagim” (after the holidays) season.

By the way, I just realized that I somehow deleted the previous post (I still need to learn how to use Windows Live writer I guess), so here are again some pictures of our visit to Neot Kedumim during Sukkot. Enjoy.

Welcome new year 5770, our temporary dwelling

2009-10-03T23:32:00.002+02:00

This is one of the most beautiful seasons in Israel. You can feel it’s Chodesh Tishrei (first month of Jewish Calendar).

We had a wonderful Rosh Hashanah and meaningful Yom Kippur. Had wonderful meals at home and at friends, hosting and hosted. Liora made some wonderful dishes including the Gefilte Fish a la Veracruzana that she prepared from scratch. Prayers were very nice at the Synagogue, the kids were so good and played with their friends while we were able to pray, many of their friends from school go to our synagogue.

This time I did feel like a pro (see comments from a year ago about Praying with the Pros). I was prepared with my own Machzor (praying book) and kittl (special white robe) that arrived late last year with our shipment.

Our temporary dwelling?
Last night Sukkot started (Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles). I will soon post some pictures so that you can see our beautiful Sukkah. The kids were so excited to build it, decorate it, eat in it. Inviting people over in addition to the 7 Ushpizin (seven shepherds of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David) is also a custom. We were invited last night and we had 3 different families today with lots of friends for the kids.

We are commanded to dwell in our Sukkah for a week. Our sages explain that leaving your comfortable and safe home to expose yourself to the outside elements on a temporary structure puts yourself in the hands of G’d, he will protect us all, it’s a calmed security feeling.

The previous explanation of the Sukkah and the meaningful Rosh Hashanah we had made me reflect about last year and next year it inspired me to think about: our Aliyah decision (moving to Israel), living in Israel, finding and loosing employment, sickness and health... Knowing that He will always protect us has kept me with a calmed security feeling. However, It is not a sense of security that drives one to just wait for things to happen. I don’t believe it works that way. One needs to look and work hard for things and only after that He will help.

One can learn so much from a Sukkah. It requires a full commitment and trust in G’d, so too leaving Pittsburgh to live in Israel, leaving a “secure” job to look for a new one and the many changes we had gone through this last year has hinged in our trust in G’d.

I’m grateful to G’d for bringing us here and keeping us here, for our health, our sustenance, our spiritual growth, and our overall wellbeing in the land he choose for us. It was not easy, but to be honest it was not bad at all, with hard work and His help it all works out in the end. It was a very good year and the one coming up will be even better.

Moadim LeSimcha to all. Have a happy and meaningful Sukkot.

I have been thinking of many future blog posts but just haven’t had the time to write. Some upcoming topics include: my field work about Israeli customer service, sabra album, a VERY effective print advertising on Yom Kippur (I’m even thinking of starting something like Sabra Marketing), the most delicious falafel I ever had (4 varieties), an Achnasat Torah that was one of the most beautiful events I have ever attended, I will be blogging about the blogging contest prizes I received (after I receive them), and many others. Just let me know you are still enjoying the blog by 1) becoming a blog follower (see right hand column) 2) commenting on the blog 3) both.

Shanah Tovah 5770, שנה טובה תש"ע

2009-09-17T22:10:00.003+03:00

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Dear Friends and Family,

We wish you all a Shanah Tovah שנה טובה

May this new year bring only blessings to you and your loved ones. Let us all pray for a year of health, peace and spiritual growth full of accomplishments.

May we all soon see the day when we celebrate together in Jerusalem.

With love,

The Weisser Family.

A couple of good things coming up in 5770

2009-09-16T20:47:00.003+03:00

Great news for Summer of ‘70!

Look who is coming to town:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3775381,00.html

This summer we had Madonna, Pet shop boys and others. (all of which I could care less)

Summer of ‘68 (2008) we had Paul McCartney, read about it here http://weissersinisrael.blogspot.com/2008/09/paul-in-tel-aviv.html , that was a good year, that was a very good year.

Can we book Pink Floyd or Yes for Summer of ‘71?

Also very soon I will be updating the “Next Family visit” clock, for a very very very special family arrival. It’s so exciting! (no we are not pregnant)

We did it!!!!!

2009-09-15T00:53:00.003+03:00

Some very exciting news to share with you.

Click below to find out:

Announcing the Win ners of The 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest

I want to thank you all for your help on this one. To every single 1861 of you.

Thanks to all of you that re-tweeted it including: @TzionE, @yuval_danieli, @joshweinstein, @Tips4Geeks, @davidcorman, @tallynetzer, @viviancohen, sorry I’m missing many of you, but thank you too.

Thanks to all friends and family that forwarded on email and Facebook, including RDW for forwarding to the Shaare Torah mailing list.

Thanks to all bloggers and sites that linked to my guest blog including my friend at http://aliyahbyaccident.blogspot.com/ , thanks also for your editing advice, I owe you an iced coffee. Thanks to http://www.brazencareerist.com/, thanks Zvika for posting it at http://www.bneiakiva.net/bogrim-olim/, thanks Mickael at https://gvahim.org.il/, and others I can’t find.

Thanks to those that got it on email, saw it on Facebook, saw it on Tweeter and got it again on LinkedIn and still kept me as your social media contact/friend. :)

Thanks for your forty some comments on the actual blog post + the many emails, Facebook and LinkedIn messages I received with your feedback I appreciate them. That includes many past interviewers that knew I was talking about our interview experience, thanks not only for your comments but also for all the material to create the blog post (that includes the guy from HOT cable).

Good job to all the other contestants with your very interesting posts. As I would see one by one getting put online I thought that they were so good that would probably take the 1st place away. You also were able to bring a lot of unique users and have all set the bar higher for next year’s contest.

Thanks to Liora and the kids for your support on my “Blogging career”, I love you.

A special thanks to Jacob Share at http://www.jobmob.co.il/ for the opportunity to participate (by the way nice meeting you in person yesterday at the JBloggers convention), and of course to all the sponsors. It was fun, I learned a lot about the power of social media and gained a whole bunch in terms of professional opportunities.

Thanks to Hashem for providing me all that I have today and making me all that I am today.

Hey, you can now say that you are following an “award winning blogger” :) Now make sure you do sign up to join the “My blog followers” list on the right.

Feliz dia de la Independencia, Viva Mexico! (no it’s not on Cinco de Mayo).

Shanah Tovah.

Summer is over

2009-09-11T01:05:00.001+03:00

Summer has definitely come to an end, how do I know? Here are the signs to look for to know that summer has come to an end.

1. Back to School

Oh yes, the universal sign that summer is over is when kids go back to school. In Israel school starts always on September 1 (unless it falls on Saturday). Batya started Kitah Aleph (1st grade) and is doing great. She likes it a lot, is making new friends and learning at the speed of light. She wakes up and before living her room she is already dressed and ready to roll. She is going to the local religious public school which is relatively new and has seen growth of 50% or more year on year. Batya’s class has 38 kids (thirty eight – just like on checks to make sure there is no confusion on the number), and there are in total 3 1st grade classes with 38 kids, I guess she will be able to make a lot or friends :) and hope she can get 1 minute per day from her teacher. There are a lot of things to talk about preparing for 1st grade such as the expensive school bag that is a must that is bigger than the kids and that have to be purchased also with a set of wheels to carry it.

Ilan is doing very well at his Gan as well. He cried just a little the first day but after that he has not cried again. He is very happy and starting to make new friends.

Liora is working full time at a pre-school with babies starting at 1.5 years. She is working very hard but enjoys it a lot. The three of them are on the same street and all at a 5 minute walk from our home. I just love every morning taking both kids by the hand and walk to school.

Enjoy some pictures of the first day of school.

2. Is the grapevine dying again?

The second time around there is no reason to alarm. We have been very careful with our backyard which has grown beautifully regardless of the reduction in water use mandated by the government (no kidding, because of the scarce of water in Israel there are laws of how much you can use for your garden). We have Passiflora (I think it’s called passion-fruit), oranges, limes, olives and of course the grapevine which gave some tasty grapes this year. Well, about this time a year the grapevine starts to dry up as if it was dying. That scared us a lot last year until spring when we saw new green plants growing. Today it has grown beautifully and it’s ready to rest for the next season.

3. Football season is back

You can see it on the streets, thousands wearing their team’s shirts, preparing for the season opener… Well maybe not thousands, maybe hundreds… Well maybe not hundreds maybe 2? Am I the only one around here who cares about the Steelers? Lets see if I can stay awake for the 2:30am game.

Picture taken today as the Steelers football season opens.

4. Crembos are back, honey is on sale and the Hummus tasting clubs are starting

I’m not sure how to describe them but Crembos are an Israeli sweet candy/snack that comes out only when it starts to get cooler. Why? Because it consists of a chocolate covered… whipped cream, sounds interesting doesn’t it?

Also it’s this time of the year when the supermarkets are filled with everything for your holidays, sales on honey, sales on cake, sale sale sale. Yesterday we even received a gift bag that included a honey cake and apples, isn’t that nice?

This is also a great time for food companies to do all their sampling activity given that everyone is going out shopping to prepare for the eating marathon of our holidays. So yesterday I had a Hummus tasting experience where I tried about 6 different kinds of Hummus (all same brand) a tchina (sesame seed sauce) and some other spicy salads. I never thought you could have so many kinds of hummus until the Hummus connoisseur pointed out the differences to me as I was tasting them. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to try them, it I had to: 1) look at the appearance 2)”on pita” the aroma 3)”in mouth” sensation 4)”finish” (aftertaste); or just dip and eat, since this was my first ever Hummus tasting event I ever attended.

5. The “acharei hachagim” syndrome starts to proliferate

I have written several times about the “acharei hachagim” (after the holidays) phenomena. You definitely know that the summer is coming to and end when you hear it. It means that the month were nothing in this country gets done is going to start soon, so why start something now when you can wait until after a month when the holidays are over.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming holidays being this our second year celebrating them.

I hope I can come up with something creative to share with you in celebration of Rosh Hashanah and that I have enough time to do it next week. Meanwhile enjoy last years’ here which received rave reviews. I recommend watching the video bloopers if you never saw them.

Goodbye 5769, hello 5770. We will miss the 60’s :)

Coming soon a big announcement about the guest blog post contest I participated in. Also, I started to do some field research and will soon present to you a report about customer service in the consumer product industry in Israel, you will be amazed with he findings, I have.

Hey it’s now 1am, I almost made it to the Steelers game.

"Arise, go through the land, to its length and to its breadth..."

2009-08-31T18:31:00.015+03:00

Sorry I have not had any posts lately but we were out for part of a week, then have been busy on vacation with the kids, some interviews, freelance work, and now getting ready for the end of the “Chofesh Hagadol” (large vacation) and the beginning of school.

Just want to start giving all of you a huge thanks for your support and comments on my guest blog post as part of the contest. Thanks to your support I have maintained the 1st place by far (1866 unique visitors) and will hopefully (and probably) get the title.

See rankings here.

Not only that but many good things and opportunities have come out from the blog, so regardless of who wins I have already gained a lot.

Now to the blog topic…
There are so many things I have been thinking to blog about but so limited time: there are all the things we did during our trip to the north, the continuation of our vacation here in the center, the wonderful world of Israeli banking, the adoption of Tcheli (our new car), ready for “Kita Aleph” (first grade), Israeli’s consumer product and customer service experience, some new Sabra Album pics. and many more.
For now I will try to cover some of our vacation experiences and would love to hear your requests for the next topic, please comment.

G’d said to Abraham: "Arise, go through the land, to its length and to its breadth, for to you will I give it"
This summer has been a great opportunity for us to do just that. We have such a beautiful country and yet so small. It’s amazing the concentration of beauty and activities one can find here and it’s all less than 2 hours away.
A couple of weeks ago we headed north for 3 nights and 4 days and had so many great experiences.
Some of the places we visited include Shvil Hatapuzim (the orange path) where the kids enjoyed this small low tech amusement park in the middle of an orange grove with a swimming pool, mini golf, riding cars, boats, etc… we had a great time and then continued our trip north to get in less than an hour to our hotel/inn in Kibbutz Ginosar.

From Trip to North Aug 2009

Every day was full of fun. Some other places we visited included:

Luna Gal, Israel’s first water park surely could use some renovations and maybe expansion. The place has a sign in the entrance limiting the occupancy to 3000 visitors, after that the gates are closed. We got there early and there was already an ocean of Israel’s crème de la crème, nevertheless the children had a great time. By the time we left there was a tumultuous people gathering outside the gates screaming at the gate keepers to let them in.

From Trip to North Aug 2009

We also visited Kibbutz Ein Gev where we had a succulent lunch but then the fun was just starting as we visited “HaNagaria shel Saba Yosi” (Grandpha Yosi’s wood shop) where the kids were able to paint and ensemble their own wooden toys. After that we rode the mini train that took us through the Kibbutz, its banana fields, animals, etc.

From Trip to North Aug 2009

We were all so excited to do our first river tiyul (trip) which for me is the truly Israeli tiyul (we did the Megarse river). It involved walking to a river then walking through the river. It was very nice and the kids enjoyed most of the tiyul. Liora had a funny and scary moment when a meter long fish went through her feet. To be honest and to her credit, the fish was definitely creepy, maybe that’s the reason she screamed the way she did.

From Trip to North Aug 2009

Other activities we did included swimming in the Kinneret (sea of Galilee), swimming pool, drumming, bonfire, boat ride through the Kinneret (more on this on the next Sabra Album), and some great fish restaurants.

From Trip to North Aug 2009

For more pictures of our trip click on this Album link. There is also a video here.

Back in Modiin we also have had a lot of fun with the kids doing many things around the area such as:

Bowling

From Many activities Aug 2009

Going to the beach

From Many activities Aug 2009

Visited the Ein Yael living museum where the kids were able to bake Pita bread, make wine with their feet, walk through archeological findings from the roman period, visit a rebuilt ancient roman market street, milked a goat and drank the milk (OK the kids didn’t do it, but I did), made pottery and many other things

From Many activities Aug 2009

We had a nice picnic with lots of family in Jerusalem.

From Many activities Aug 2009

Liora started to work last week so I had the entire week to have fun with the kids. And what did we do?
We went to the Ramat Gan Safari/Zoo where were we saw a bunch of interesting animals including (and) the Kids TV Start Yuval Hamevulval at his show which for my Mexican readers he is like a cheap version of Chavelo.
For a video of the kids enjoying Yuval Hamevulval’s show click here.

From August many activities 2

We went to Chavaya Vakramim about 15 minutes away from home. There we baked another set of Pitas, made pottery and other arts and crafts, did a 40 minute tour of their many exotic fruit trees and tried some of them, we made tea pouches with all kinds of aromatic herbs the kids gathered. The kids also harvested their own grapes and made our own grape juice with their feet, this time we did get
our own bottle, I was able to perform the Ma’aser blessing and mitzvah (Tithe) as well as used it for Kiddush (Wine blessing) twice during Shabbat and then at Havdalah after Shabbat.

From August many activities 2

We visited Kifzuva which is a small amusement center at Kibbutz Zuva. The kids had lots of fun but I was very stressed because of the amount of people and wild kids running and jumping around the inflatables and games.

From August many activities 2

The four of us went an afternoon to the Park Hakofim (Monkey Park) and had a blast visiting un-caged monkeys and many other attractions including the bubble pool.

From Park Hakofim, Jerusalem & Other August 2009

We finished the last Friday of vacation all together in Jerusalem to visit the Kotel (Western Wall).

From Park Hakofim, Jerusalem & Other August 2009

For more pictures of our summer activities access the following links:
Machane Yehuda, Bowling, Beach, Ein Yael, Family - http://picasaweb.google.com/israel.weisser/ManyActivitiesAug2009#
Safari, Chavaya Vakramim, Kifsuva - http://picasaweb.google.com/israel.weisser/AugustManyActivities2#
Keitana (camp) Batya & Eichal Haatzmaut (Independence Hall) - http://picasaweb.google.com/israel.weisser/KeitanaBatyaEichalHaatzmautJuly2009#
Ilan’s Gan graduation party - http://picasaweb.google.com/israel.weisser/IlanSGanMesivatSiumJuly2009#
Park Hakofim, Jerusalem, Friends -

http://picasaweb.google.com/israel.weisser/ParkHakofimJerusalemOtherAugust2009#

FEEWWWW! I think I deserve a break. I’m glad the kids are going back to School, but I will definitely miss having fun with them. It has all worked out so well. In other (professional) circumstances I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to spend that much time with the kids, help Liora and go through the land’s length and breadth. I’m thankful to G’d for this opportunity and am also thankful for the upcoming opportunities.

I want to give an official welcome to Ariela to Israel and wish her a great year. We are glad to see you here. I'm waiting to hear from the next confirmed family visit to set up the clock again.

From Destruction to Love (Peace & Love)

2009-08-07T16:03:00.006+03:00

1291 unique visitors in less than 3 days can’t be wrong.

Make sure you visit the soon to be award winning (I hope) guest blog post at:
http://jobmob.co.il/blog/israeli-job-search-survival-tips

The blog post talks about my Job Interview experience in Israel and has received rave reviews.
And now…. back to our regular programming…..

Destruction

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Commemorating Rosh Hodesh Av 5769 and how the first days of Av are of great sadness (technically it’s actually 3 weeks before) getting us to the 9th of Av (last week) which among many other things marks the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash (Holy Temples) and is remembered with a 25 hour fast. This year about 3 hours away from breaking the fast I decided to visit the Kotel (Western Wall) to pray right next to where it happened on 586 BCE and again on 70 CE. Why? Because I live here and I can do it whenever I want!
It was an unbelievable experience to be among thousands of people praying and in lamentation.
It was also an unforgettable experience to see thousands of people breaking their 25 hour fast at the same time. I thank Liora for preparing a cheese sandwich for me to take with me that every time I would open my bag I would get the smell of fresh baked bread waiting for the clock to turn to 8:05pm. After sundown there was a big bus giving away cold drinks and pastry, however I was not brave enough to get one for myself, I just sticked to my sammich (as they say in Pittsburgh).
It is amazing to see how Jerusalem has been rebuilt, alive and full of light. It’s happening! May we witness the reconstruction of the 3rd temple speedily and in our days.
Enjoy some of the pictures by the wall and the breaking of the fast.

Day of Love (Tu b’Av)

From Other

Yesterday we celebrated Tu b’Av (15th of Av), which marks a "high" to counter the "low" of the Three Weeks leading up to Tisha B'Av. In today’s Israel it has become the Day of Love and a chance for stores and manufacturers to capitalize on selling flowers, chocolates and gifts.
During the day and taking advantage of Liora’s day off we went to the City of David’s archeological park where David established the city of Jerusalem aprox. 1000 BCE. It was an amazing experience to see the guide using a Bible to walk us through all of the discoveries, the tour also included going through the tunnels that King’s Yechizkiyahu built to channel the water in defense from the Assyrian threat. We had a great Day of Love, take a look at the pictures below.

Peace & Love – From Woodstock (‘69) to Jerusalem (‘09)
40 years wondering in the dessert, 40 days waiting to receive the Torah by mount Sinai, 40 days of the flood, many times the number 40 figures in our history. This summer it’s actually 40 years of the Woodstock Festival and what better way to celebrate it with the spirit of Peace and Love (love from 15 of Av) than by going to a Woodstock Revival in the holy city of Jerusalem. By the way on August 8 it will be 40 years since the shooting of the picture for The Beatles Abbey Road Album.

I went with my good friend Ari and had a great time and a very unusual experience. The crowd was mostly American, there were babies, children, adults and older people just like in the real Woodstock but on a much much much smaller scale, there were probably a couple of thousand people. You can read about the event HERE. The lineup included some apparently famous guys that interpreted songs from Crosby, Steels & Nash, Hendrix, Neil Yong and The Doors (although they did not attend to the original Woodstock). If I heard right one of the performers did play in Woodstock.

Our sages explain that the temple was destroyed because of hatred among the Jewish people, that night showed a beautiful state of love among so many different kind of Jews (OK, they were mostly American but nevertheless from different religious denominations).
The performers were excellent and most probably not under the influence (?) like 40 years ago. I was amazed particularly by one of the groups headed by Lazer Lloyd who has a long beard, black hat, hanging tzitsit. They did Hendrix in an unbelievable way. You can watch one of his videos HERE (for Hendrix lovers only). One of the songs he performed was imitating Hendrix legendary Star Spangled Banner however he did the Hatikva (Israel’s national anthem) instead and was beautifully played, I recorded part of it but the sound quality is not too good (it was too loud) and apparently I was not meant to record it all because the battery died in the middle. Enjoy (I apologize for the sound quality) .

There was time for Mincha prayer (afternoon prayer) in a corner and Lazer Loyd even gave a quick Dvar Torah (short sermon) about Tu B’Av in between songs. For an interview he said "It's not just a concert; it's like being at Mount Sinai all over again". I love this country!
The atmosphere was beautiful, full moon, and the night was cooling down. I felt once again part of “the people” just like I did and described on the blog Paul in Tel Aviv. By the way I missed you at this concert Dani and hope you did well on your exam.
Enjoy with me the memories of this wonderful Peace & Love experience with some pictures of the event below.

Peace, Love & Shabbat Shalom.

5 Israeli Job Search Survival Tips

2009-08-05T01:22:00.003+03:00

I promised it for a while.... well here it is.

Here are my top Israeli job search tips based on personal experience. Hope they help you or at least make you laugh!
Read more here:

http://jobmob.co.il/blog/israeli-job-search-survival-tips/#ixzz0NFn3aKoF

I have posted this as a guest blogger.

Note that the original post name was "My Big Fat Israeli Job Interview", however it was changed to 5 Israeli Job Search Survival Tips so that readers can understand exactly what the blog post is about.

Enjoy.

Sabra Album Take 6 – Marketing Edition

2009-07-31T16:06:00.010+03:00

Welcome to the 6th edition of the Sabra Album. Continuing to post pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I’m calling them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra). (You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4, Take 5 and Machane Yehuda Edition if you missed them).

Lets use a Marketing approach this time for the Marketer’s enjoyment among the readers. I will use the 4 P’s (Product, Place, Price, Promotion) to make a point in the different photos.

Promotion

From Sabra Album

The store on the picture above is in a very commercial street in Tel-Aviv. The sign on top reads “End of season all year long”.
Good slogan? Well.. you’ll be the judge…
The sign on the left window (partially blocked by the Tel Avivian fake blond guy with the dog) reads “For Rent”
I guess not such a good slogan. It reminds me of the Zohan movie with the electronics store named “Going out of business”. But in this case their season did end.

From Sabra Album

Now here is something I loved when I saw it. I love this country!
The sign at the entrance of the gas station in Jerusalem reads “Promotion: Newspaper (picture) or Challa (picture) with fueling of 180 Shekel or more. On Friday and holiday eve only.”
Not sure how efficient this promotion is. I would say that it gets you to step down from your car and into their convenience store, hopefully you will buy some highly priced impulse item.
On the picture the sign by the gas station and my daughter holding the free Challa we got.

From Sabra Album

This is one of the best outdoor execution of a campaign I have seen here in Israel and it’s so Sabra too. What is written on the advertisement at this bus stop could not pass without me placing it on the Sabra Album.
The ad is for a company that prepares high school students for the standardized test (Psicometri) to get to college and it reads “Waking up drunk wearing only a sombrero in Guadalajara and the Psicometri. There are things you prefer to do only once”. (Note that the Mexican City of Guadalajara sounds funny to Israelis given the work Jara which in Hebrew means Sh#@t.)
The other ad reads “War with Iran and the Psicometri. There are things you prefer to do only ones”.
Great concept, great execution, well written for its target audience, and most importantly very Sabra.

Place

From Sabra Album

This picture was taken at a store in Jerusalem’s old city right next to the Jaffa gate and the entrance to the Arab Shuk. If you watch closely, who is the store’s target market?... Wrong! It seems as it’s targeting all! Hanged on the entrance you can find on the left a Belly dancer custom, next to it a Talit (Jewish prayer article), and to its right a set of Kefiot (Traditional Arab headdress). Playing a little Sesame Street: “One of these does not belong with the others”. In strict marketing theory the Talit is definitely out of place, right? Well, the store seems to be targeting tourists from all religions and I would bet that they have been in business there since the Turkish empire. Distribution of all these articles at the same point of sale seems to be working.

Product

From Sabra Album

This store/museum had already its place in the Sabra Album Machane Yehuda Edition. This time I visited Jerusalem’s main marketplace on Friday with Batya and we had to stop by this store/Museum. The store owner (Yeoshua a.k.a Shuki) was glad to talk to us and pose for a picture. One would wonder what does a museum with pictures of prime ministers, presidents, political figures and important Rabbis do in the middle of the marketplace, well the product/service it sells is not really the “Museum” it’s just the environment it creates for its underwear store. What Starbucks cafés are for coffee, Shuki’s museum/store is for underwear, it’s all about the environment/experience you are in. Every time I’m in Machane Yehuda I visit him and chat a little, I always try to buy something however I end up empty handed. It’s just interesting to see the picture of political personalities right next to a rack of tighty-whities.

From Sabra Album

We might all look different, dress differently, come from different places, have different religious and political opinions, however we all have the same prayer and pray to the same G’d.
This picture was taken by the Kotel (Western Wall).
We might all have different packages but in the end we are all Bnei Israel (Children of Israel) inside (just like Intel inside).

Price

1 Kilo of Mango – 7 Shekel
1 Kilo of Cucumber – 2 Shekel 49 Agurot
Hearing the sounds and songs of Machane Yehuda – Priceless
Enjoy the videos below with the sounds and songs of Machane Yehuda on a busy Friday. The guy is singing about “Colorful watermelon, welcome to all buyers thank you very much, plums, peaches, joy of life, cucumbers add a lot to your salad… “ Please note right in the end… that’s the most Sabra part as he stops singing to take on a call…”Alo?.

Shabbat Shalom to all.

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Commemorating Rosh Hodesh Av 5769

2009-07-24T15:27:00.004+03:00

The month of Av has been historically a month when the darkest events have happen to the Jewish people. Both the first and the second temple were destroyed on the 9th of Av.
To commemorate the start of this month (and our 1 year Aliyah anniversary) we visited Jerusalem to pray by the Kotel (western wall) for the quick rebuilding of the 3rd temple. We also visited an interesting archeological site called “the burnt house” where a house dating back to 70 AD was burnt most probably during the destruction of the 2nd temple. A funny fact was that when we got there and wanted to enter they said that the burnt house is temporarily closed because of a water leak….
During this visit to old Jerusalem we also enjoyed a delicious and out of the oven pita with Zathar. It is always so magical and amazing visiting the old city of Jerusalem. It’s right in front of our eyes but so close that we can’t see it but we are truly living special times where Jerusalem has been rebuilt and with such livelihood, spirit and beauty.

Enjoy some pictures from our visit including the western wall, the burnt house and the Menorah built in pure gold according to studies on what the menorah in the temple should look like ready for the 3rd temple.

Isn't these amazing? Take a look at the announcement below by the municipality.

Public Service Announcement Regarding Tisha be-Av
Message from the municipality:According to city law, public businesses providing pleasure (restaurants, movie theaters, sports facilities, swimming pools, game areas, bowling, etc.) will be closed on Tisha be-Av — marking the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash (Holy Temples) – from Wednesday evening July 29 at 7pm until 6am Thursday morning.

Years and years have passed and in our modern days we continue with our traditions and laws in our own land. Imagine if your local U.S city regulated this for Memorial Day?

Shabbat Shalom to all and may we soon see the rebuilding of our temple and by them we shall all see you around here.

Soon… a new edition of the Sabra album with a never seen video special and later on "My Big Fat Israeli Interview"

Happy 1st Aliyaersary!

2009-07-22T02:34:00.007+03:00

Today we celebrate 1 year since our Aliyah.
I want to share with you this happy moment with a video recounting our last year.
It’s so good to be home!

In case you were wondering how acclimated the kids are, take a look at the video below and you’ll be the judge.

It’s Summertime!

2009-07-10T11:11:00.005+03:00

Summer is here and it’s starting to get hot.
The kids are all set up with their respective camps/Gan.
We have a new road to thank for bringing the beach closer to us. We have visited the beach more often thanks to the 30 minute door to sand advantage. Below are some pictures of the beach as well as a circus event in Modiin. Summer is filled with lots of activities for the children.

We are hosting this Shabbat our friend from Pittsburgh that was in Israel for a year, this will be her last Shabbat during his year in Israel. We were happy to see you here and hope to see you in Israel soon.

Ilan had a special event at his gan and was de Aba Shabbat. He is so happy there, has made lots of friends and is becoming a true Israeli kid (for better and for worse). He had several play dates the last two weeks. See pictures and video below.

My Big Fat Israeli Interview is coming to your favorite blog on August 3. More on this later.

Happy Birthday Blog - 1 Year

2009-07-02T12:49:00.005+03:00

This is where all the magic happens.

Click on the image to make larger and try to reveal the message on the computer.
Inspired by my 1st (or second?) grade lunchbox that had a similar concept with sesame street characters on it.

The blog has reached a major milestone: 1 year!
There have been since July 2, 2008:
- 68 posts (hey that’s more than ones per week)
- 134 comments – most commented was I’m in Love!
- 3,697 visits
- 5,586 Pageviews
- 724 Absolute Unique Visitors
- Day with most visitors – July 10, 2008 (official blog launch): 49 visitors
- 16 different countries in 4 different continents (I know where you are :)

United States 56.78%
Israel 23.75%
Mexico 18.31%
Canada 0.46%
United Kingdom 0.22%
Venezuela 0.11%
India 0.08%
Germany 0.05%
Spain 0.05%
Peru 0.03%
Italy 0.03%
Belgium 0.03%
Australia 0.03%
Denmark 0.03%
Ireland 0.03%
Netherlands 0.03%

Below some memorable posts:

This is how it all started – Here we go… Welcome to our Blog!
Some of the most funny include – To be Israeli , And the award goes to… , Yom Kipur & trip to Jerusalem, Happy Purim 5769
For originality take a look at the Sabra Albums: Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4,Take 5 and Machane Yehuda Edition
Romantic - I’m in Love!
From the heart - The most honorable Aliyah, A miracle in our days, Goodbye Pittsburgh :(

For more posts browse through the Blog Archive to the right

Do you have a favorite blog post?
What would you like to see this new Blog year?
Please comment…

Thanks for following the blog and commenting on it, it keeps me going. Maybe I should become a Pro? - Blogging like a Pro

Welcome Toothfairy (Bienvenido Raton)

2009-06-29T09:33:00.002+03:00

Last Saturday Batya lost her first tooth. We were all so excited. I felt very excited to act as the Raton (the mouse – apparently Mexican folklore does not include fairies) take her tooth at night in return for some shekels (I was lucky VAT did not increased yet I saved myself 1%).

Also this week at Gan they celebrated early (or may I say very early) her 6th birthday. Given that her birthday is always the second day of school she did not celebrated her 5th birthday at Gan. Enjoy the slideshow

I'm in love!

2009-06-23T10:10:00.006+03:00

Yes! I'm in love!
9 Years of love?
How about 18 years + of love?
Some say the magic started about 20 years ago in Israel. Well the magic is still alive and back in Israel.
Feliz Aniversario mi vidita. Te amo.

From Collages

Click on the picture to see it larger.

My girl is going to 1st grade

2009-06-22T20:04:00.004+03:00

I’m so proud of Batya. Last week it was her graduation from kindergarten and now she is up to 1st grade.
I was so proud as I watched her do her dances, singing, etc. Can you believe she started the school year with just a couple of words in Hebrew and now she can understand and speak most of it?
The theme for the graduation party was math. We were so happy with her Gan as well as her Ganenet (teacher), this year they won a national award for best public religious gan, they had visitors from different schools and offices to learn from her gan. And we happened to fall there.
Enjoy the pictures and videos. I understand if you fly through the videos, for a parent or grandparent it looks like a real Broadway production.

A Sweet Guest

2009-06-19T00:50:00.003+03:00

We are so happy to host my niece Liora. She is so sweet and the kids love her too.
Although we’ve had a rough week in terms of doctor visits for the kids and for us (yep, several visits in just a week or two, but thank G’d nothing serious), we have been able to go out a little. Below are some pictures of us with my niece Liora (Lioris, as we call her not to confuse her with the other sweet Liora). Below some pictures including our visit to Mearat Hanetifim with stalactites and stalagmites, a natural wonder. Enjoy.

I want to thank R. for letting me know that she is one of my blog followers and for giving me some strengths to write this post although it’s already 12:40am.
I’m hoping to be able to post very soon pictures and videos of Batya’s graduation party that took place today. We are so proud of her.
Ariela, I’m setting the regressive clock for your visit…See you soon here (Please just confirm the right date). Jaco, Judy, thanks for the opportunity to host them.

New Sabra Album photo and other photos

2009-06-09T19:54:00.002+03:00

Sabra Album
Below is a photo for the Sabra Album. Continuing to post pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I’m calling them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra). (You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3, Take 4, and Machane Yehuda Edition if you missed them).

Look at what the merry go round “gate keeper” at a local ambulatory amusement park is carrying on his waist!

From Sabra Album

Some titles for the picture above:

- Talk about a secure amusement park…
- Sir, I’m sorry but you are overqualified for this job and no you will not have to bring your gun to work.
- Kid! Get back on that horse NOW!
- No jumping the line, or else…
- Excuse me kid I will need to frisk your cotton candy
Any other ideas?

I wanted to share some miscellaneous photos from a visit to family, a BBQ with some friends and the visit of our friend Efrat who we were so happy to see, a visit to the beach in Rishon Letzion that we discovered we are only 30 minutes away “Door to Sand”. Enjoy.

Camels and hummus and planes, oh my!

2009-06-07T23:43:00.005+03:00

The last week of May we visited the South for the day to attend our cousin’s graduation ceremony (see two postings below), we took all a day off and left early to visit the Israeli Air force museum.
On our way south I was amazed at how big and undeveloped the south is, yes we are a small country but there is definitely room for many more in our little country. There are very few roads that travel all the way south, unfortunately, even though they are mostly very good roads (especially road 6) as far a we got to, but an accident that closed the road for close to an hour had us in the car for a while.
We got to the museum and the kids were as excited as I was to see all the planes, however, I saw something different, I felt proud of what the people were able to form from basically nothing. The IAF (Israeli Air force) was never officially inaugurated, it was just transformed from being an unofficial defense force before the independence using transformed civilian planes that were donated or from obsolete equipment. It was that same IAF that defended Israel in all of its wars allowing the continuance of the Jewish state and avoided other huge world issues, such as what they did a day like today (June 7) in 1981 when in Operation Opera the IAF destroyed the Iraqi Nuclear reactor, we can all be thankful for that too. Among the pilots that took part in the attack was the late Colonel Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut that was part of the fatal Columbia mission, he ones again made us all proud wearing the star of David on his flag patch up in space as well as bringing his kosher food.
The drive through the desert was beautiful, going through a lot of Bedouin villages, kind of the way our patriarch Abraham lived except for the aluminum walls, hot water, electricity and cable dish. Some camels on the dessert made it interesting for the kids to keep their eyes open and for me to avoid any of them on the road.
We stopped by Beer Sheva just like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Prophet Elijah, and many more, however they probably did not have the restaurant we went to back in their days, we all enjoyed an excellent lunch the Israeli way: Many salads, hummus & sauces with Pita to start and once you are almost full it’s time for the meat to come with a some rice and French fries (Chips in Hebrew), it’s an entire experience and it felt like an Oasis in the middle of the desert, although I was actually surprised on how nice and big Beer Sheva is.
From there we went straight to the graduation ceremony by Ben Gurion’s grave, great view and emotive ceremony!
Enjoy the pictures from our trip below.

The sound of War

2009-06-02T21:32:00.000+03:00

It was a little bit scary to hear the “War sirens” today at 11am.
Today the entire country had a country wide war drill. Citizens had to go to shelters for 10 minutes after the sounding of the alarm.
It was not scary to actually hear the sirens because I (and the entire country) knew about the drill, it’s just scary to think that you actually need to have such thing.
Drivers were advised not to stop therefore I heard the sirens from my car while I was driving through Hod Hasharon. The kids and Liora did have to go into a shelter. Batya even asked us today where our shelter room was.
It’s funny but apparently some businesses even planned for it, we tried to get to a pharmacy early morning and it was closed with a message saying “closed until after the drill”.
It’s good to know that we are prepared and as safe as we can, however it would be better if we didn’t have to worry about that at all.

We are very proud of you Hillel!

2009-05-27T22:00:00.005+03:00

Today we all went South to our cousin’s graduation from Marva where he had a 6 week military training program.
I will have a future post with photos from our trip to the South, in the meantime I wanted to share with you the photos and videos of the graduation ceremony.
The ceremony was held in the Negev (southern part of Israel, desert) in Sde Boker by the grave of David Ben Gurion (Israel’s George Washington :) ) who had his humble home right there with a breathtaking view of the desert. His dream was to populate and make the Negev fruitful, today the biblical city of Beersheva is the 4th largest Israeli city and it’s located in the middle of the desert. By the way we were there and had a very fruitful meal.

Hillel we are very proud of you and were so glad to be able to be there with you in such an exciting moment. You have a month to go on your program and we are sad to see you go but at the same time glad we were able to spend time with you. Congratulations on this achievement!

For those of you that would have liked to be there below are the photos and videos to make you feel closer to the event. Enjoy.

I just thought about it but today we were closer to Sinai where the giving of the Torah happened.
Chag Sameach to all.

A time to bless and a time to give

2009-05-27T00:16:00.001+03:00

I wanted to share with you a couple of incidents that happened to me the last couple of days that are very simple and seem to be insignificant, however if you think about it they are so special and they are the little things that make Israel so special.

Scene 1:
Last Sunday on the way to Herzliya I stopped at a red light. A peculiar happy jumping bearded guy, dressed in white with a large white knitted kipah (skullcap) carrying a big Tehilim (Psalms book) stopped by my window, he wished me for a good day and a good month (it was Rosh Hodesh). I’m not sure why but he sounded as a California surfer who just returned from an awesome day at the beach. He gave me as a gift a miniature Tehilim (Psalms book) and a CD with pictures of many white bearded Rabbis (no, I’m sure it was not a ZZ top CD), then asked for some charity. As I looked for some coins to give I realized the only thing I had was bills for more than what I wanted to give so I asked for change, he said he didn’t have, the light turned green and he then wished me again a good day. I did listen to part of the CD on my way back home, I reserve my comments… Hey it was a freebee….

On Monday morning I decided to put some coins in the car so that I have for parking meters (which I did not have that Sunday and had to ask at a store) and in case I encounter any other person that might ask for charity.

Scene 2:
Today on my way home I stopped at a red light. A man dressed in a black coat with a large black kipah (skullcap) and long beard was walking from window to window and sweating in the warm weather. I was glad I had some coins to give this time. I opened the window and gave him charity wishing him a good day and a good month. He smiled at me and asked if I had a cigarette. I replied I did not have one and mentioned they are not really healthy. He reached out to grab my hand and asked me to give him a blessing so that he leaves the cigarette addiction mentioning his complete Hebrew name (Pluni ben Pluni), the light turned green and I didn’t really have time to put together a coherent blessing for him so as we shook hands I told him (in Hebrew of course) “May all your problems be solved soon”…
Maybe in the end I blessed him for something higher than what he requested.

I guess one day you can get a blessing in return for nothing and another time it’s your time to bless and give.

The End.

From Other

Chag Sameach! – Our City of Peace

2009-05-21T23:58:00.002+03:00

I just wanted to share a quick video of Ilan singing in honor of Yom Yerushalaim (reunification of Jerusalem). Chag Sameach.

Also we received a very special guest, our cousin on uniform (but without boots…local joke). We are looking forward to his graduation next week.

By the way the Next Family visit clock was reset already. Liorita, we already want to see.

Revolt by the Mediterranean

2009-05-20T10:44:00.004+03:00

Revolt by the Mediterranean
Last week we celebrated Lag Baomer (celebrating the victory of Bar Kochva’s revolt against the Romans among other things) and went with friends camping by the beach. We had a very good time and the kids were so excited about the adventure. The adventure started even before we arrived because we had to look for wood to put together our bonfire, no wonder why I saw a week or more ago children all over Modiin gathering pieces of wood, so what we did was stop by an industrial city and look by their waste areas. We celebrated Lag Baomer by lighting the bonfire which also served to enjoy our hot dogs, marshmallows and handmade Pitas. We sang and even studied about the holiday by the fire. At night I witnessed what must have been a youth revolt outside our tent given the loud voices of drunk singing kids in addition to their firework show that went all night long, so we did not get much sleep that night (the kids did). It seems like tents have a peculiar acoustic property that make the outside sound as if it was right next to the tent.
In the morning we enjoyed the beach and then visited a nearby town (Zichron Yaakkov). We had a great time. Enjoy the pictures.

Sabra Album
You become a local if you start breaking some of the nonsense laws, a couple of pictures to illustrate with an example. I guess we are becoming locals now. This can be part of the Sabra Album. (You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 , Take 3 and Machane Yehuda Edition if you missed them. Continuing to post pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I’m calling them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra).)

From Sabra Album

You can see we camped right there.

From Sabra Album

Just a stroll through the beach on “beach clothing”

An amazingly brave girl
It was 3 weeks already since Batya broke her elbow. She was so brave throughout those 3 weeks. The cast did not stop her. She went by writing with her left hand and the last week she even started to use her right hand. At her school the teacher said that she refused to be helped and did not want any special treatment, she pushed hard to be able to accomplish what she needed. The cast was taken out last Monday and she was not afraid at all (she just mentioned she was a little nervous), I remember when at 13 they took my cast out and I cried like a 5 year old (I guess 5 year olds don’t cry, at least not my daughter). Now that she doesn’t have the cast every new movement she does is a celebration and accomplishment, very soon she will be back to normal. I’m so proud of her.
Below a couple of new pictures with my grandmother signing on Batya’s cast.

Be Happy!

2009-05-08T17:06:00.001+03:00

Just a quick post to wish you all a Shabbat Shalom.
Below a cake given to us last night by good friends to cheer us up.

From Other

By the way I have been thinking and promising for a while to write about the job search experience in Israel, I have been getting great material lately. I’m thinking of naming that post “My Big Fat Israeli Interview”. Any other ideas? Feel free to post a comment with ideas.

A miracle in our days

2009-04-29T21:43:00.003+03:00

Two unfortunate events.
Before introducing the main topic of this blog post (A miracle in our days) I’d like to write about two unfortunate events that have occurred the last couple of weeks at home.
First and as you can see from the pictures below, we had to go back to the doctors given that Batya fell in our backyard and broke her elbow. She is doing fine and adjusting to her cast that she will have for 3 weeks according to the orthopedist. She is also learning to use her left hand to eat, write, etc. She has been very positive which has helped her a lot.

From Other

Speaking about being positive, I believe I’m in that camp too. The first day after returning from the Pesach holiday (Passover), I learned that my services will no longer be needed at the company I was working at. Things were not working well on both sides and I know it’s going to be for the best (at least for me), so here I am again on the job search business. I actually enjoy doing job hunting a lot, the part that is not too enjoyable is knowing you don’t have a job. I will not be going into details and think I should probably do an anonymous blog and write about my experience there (or not). I will keep you in the loop… there are a couple of things already cooking but nothing concrete yet.

Sorry for not writing since after Pesach but job search has monopolized the time I have in front of my computer.

Talking about unfortunate events, I wanted to say hi to all family and friends in Mexico City and hope you can go on with life as usual soon.

A miracle in our days
Chag Haatzmaut Sameach to all (Happy Independence day)!
Many feelings going through my heart as we commemorate Yom Hashoa (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom Hazikaron (Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day) and culminating with Yom Haatzmaut (Independence day).
I want to share with you some of the things I experienced commemorating these days here in Israel as an Israeli citizen. Yom Hashoa as well as Yom Hazikaron gets the entire nation to a standstill for 2 minutes as sirens sound across the country for 2 minutes. During these days most TV stations shut down their broadcasts or have a special programming dedicated to the remembrance and radio stations have special programming. Entertainment venues are by law closed.
As we remember the 6 million Jews that were killed during the holocaust for the sole reason of being Jewish not too long ago, we see today that we have a country that will open its doors to any Jew for the sole reason of being Jewish. While we did not have a strong and organized defense force back then we commemorated yesterday the fallen soldiers of one of the strongest defense forces in the world with a purpose that goes well beyond safeguarding the state of Israel, they are also safeguarding the existence of our people. During the 61 years of short existence of the modern state of Israel, the country has been able to sustain 7 wars and look at us today, we are stronger than ever. That’s what I call a miracle! A miracle is being able to say one day “I want to go and live in Israel” and do it with no real barriers being on the way. Yes there are many difficulties and issues to deal with but not what I would call real barriers like the ones we had more than 61 years ago.
Yom Haatzamaut was a beautiful experience, for some of us it combines our civic and nationalistic feelings with our religious believes, it’s sharing together with our people in our land what we have been able to accomplish. Israeli flags everywhere, people celebrating, fireworks, music, dance, Manguels (BBQ),… This is what it’s all about…
Below are some pictures of our Yom Haatzmaut celebration including the kids, flags everywhere, our visit to the Latrun Tank museum.

It was very nice being able to host my grandmother at home last weekend, below are some pictures of her visit.

Now we are excited to host this weekend my niece who’s here for the March of the Living program.

Back from Pesach vacation - Many pictures

2009-04-17T17:05:00.004+03:00

I’m not sure where to begin with all the things there are to write about: 1. Vacation, 2. My parents visit, 3. Pesach in Israel, 4. Our trip to the north and the many things we did there
I will share with you many photos (you have to know that most of them were taken by my father who does not miss any photo opportunity). Below is a selection of them as well as a couple of videos. Enjoy.

Below some random photos during my parents visit

A very nice day for a visit to the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem

An opportunity to get the family together

Our trip to the North and the many adventures including our stay at Nof Ginosar by the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), ride on a horse carriage, visit the Golan, ancient synagogue archeological site, family bicycle ride, drumming by the Kinneret, Hammat Gadder, Sfat, etc.

You can't miss these two videos. One Batya selected to drum and sing Eretz zabat Chalav udvash and the other one a crazy guy in the middle dancing with a funny afro.

Here comes the Sun...

2009-04-08T08:39:00.002+03:00

What was I doing 5:45am this morning?
I joined thousand others in Modiin and millions (don't quote me on this number) around the world to do Birkat Hachama (blessing of the Sun).
It is a ones in 28 year opportunity to acknowledge G-d as the creator of all and appreciation to one of his creations: the Sun, as he enters into a new 28 year cycle since its creation on a Wednesday 5769 years ago.
Here are some pictures and a small video of this morning’s event.
Chag Sameach.

Festival of Freedom

2009-04-06T21:45:00.004+03:00

What will make this Pesach my Festival of Freedom?

1. Taking vacation from April 8 and return until April 19 without worrying that people at the office might need you (because everyone else is on vacations too)

2. Doing one day of chag (holiday) vs. 2 days outside of Israel – just for this one it’s worthwhile making Aliyah (moving to Israel)

3. Enjoying Pesach with my parents. We’ve had a great time together (I’ll share some pictures soon)

4. Enjoying a new diaper free family. Yes, Ilan decided one day last week that he was ready

5. Celebrate together with the entire nation our exodus of Egypt. Seeing it at the supermarket, TV, work, radio, streets, garbage bins, etc.

6. Seeing Israeli flags lifted at every light post of the city in preparation to our Independence day. Can you believe how far we got? From leaving Egypt as slaves to celebrating 61 years of our modern state

7. Not having to thoroughly clean the house for Pesach nor do any food shopping or cooking and leaving it all to the hotel while we enjoy the view of the Kineret

8. Not having to clean our big Van and cleaning just our little car. I actually miss our Van especially these days when we have guests. Macy I know you are taking good care of it.

9. Enjoy my kids sing all the Pesach songs and listening to everything they are learning all with a Hebrew accent

10. Being able to live free as a Jew in a land of our own. Why did we leave Egypt in the first place? To get where? You are right…

11. Being able to blog about it :)

What will make this Pesach your Festival of Freedom?

Chag Kasher Ve’Sameach
May this Passover bring your and our entire people a physical and spiritual Freedom.
Lets us all pray to be able to celebrate soon the 5th cup, when He will bring us all to the land which He swore to our ancestors.

The cake - Soccer Hachmonaim

2009-03-29T21:16:00.003+03:00

I forgot to include a photo of Ilan's birthday that Liora creatively baked and found ingredients to decorate (please note that there is no ready-to-use baking goods like in the U.S).

From Ilan 3rd b'day

Since we are talking about Soccer, it was interesting watching last night on TV the World Championship qualifier game Israel vs. Greece that was held in Tel-Aviv. It was just funny to hear Israel vs. Yavan (Greece) in Hebrew given that I've always heard Greece in Hebrew when we talk about the Chanukah miracle and battles back in 165 BCE. 2174 years later we face each other and in 90 minutes we decide the winner, or not? The game ended 1 - 1 . Just an interesting point to ponder...no miracles involved this time during the encounter, however if we really think about it, it has been several miracles to get where we are...

Our baby is now 3 years old

2009-03-26T21:16:00.003+02:00

Just a quick posting to share with you some pictures of Ilan's birthday.
On Shabbat we had two Mexican families from Raanana and Modiin and we did a small party for Ilan. On his birthday he had a party at his Gan (kinder) without us, but they were very kind of taking pictures for us. That day there was a beautiful rainbow and at night Ilan enjoyed his present.
Enjoy the pictures.

Escape to the woods

2009-03-23T21:52:00.003+02:00

Last Sunday I decided to leave work a little early and we all went to the forest/national park called Neot Kedumim 10 minutes from home. We had a picnic at a tent they called “Abraham’s tent” and walked around the beautiful flowers. We had a very nice time. It is nice and important to break the routine. It is difficult to find time to do such things given that we have no Sunday off. The only day the kids get a day off on a regular week is on Saturday. Work on Sundays is one of the things that has been very difficult to get used to. Enjoy the photos below.

An honorable visit
It is so nice to be able to spend some time with my grandmother as she visited Israel. Below is a picture of us after having a delicious breakfast by the Jerusalem wall.

From Other

Photo opp. with the stars
Below is a photo with two co-workers and TV stars from the children’s show “The Island”. Work doesn’t typically look like this….

From Other

Resetting the countdown
Very few days now for my parents visit. I’m very excited about their visit and look forward to spend some time with them over Passover in the North.

Stay tuned for a couple of pictures of Ilan’s birthday cake and party at his Gan.

Toss the Osnei Haman away… Get the Matzot out

2009-03-17T22:08:00.003+02:00

Purim is over and all those candies and Osnei Haman need to be consumed, why? The entire country is switching from candies and costumes to cleaning products, matzah and food for Passover.

We had a great time on Purim which although it lasts only one day for us it lasted about 4 different days because of the different events we attended. We had a great time celebrating on Friday with the entire city and thousands of people on the streets. It’s a great holiday where regardless of people’s religious level everyone is celebrating. We also attended the Anglo Olim party on Thursday organized by the ministry of Absorption in Modiin. Another party was the Megilah reading itself at our synagogue and the day after to close Purim we were invited to our friends in Raanana to celebrate with many other Mexican families. It was a very fun holiday and so special seeing the entire country celebrating it. It was funny to drive in the traffic towards Raanana and watching many people in their cars and on the busses with costumes. Below are more pictures of Purim as well as a visit to Tel-Aviv’s beach.

We had lots of fun with our friends from Pittsburgh, below are some photos and a video of the kids. Now it’s your time to come and visit us!

I apologize to my blog followers for reducing the creativity on the blog, sometimes I just feel dry, but sometimes there’s lots of material to be funny and creative. Ideas are welcome :)

Happy Purim 5769

2009-03-08T21:35:00.004+02:00

Dear Family and Friends,

!פורים שמח

We wish you all a wonderful Purim full of Joy and celebration.
It is magnificent to be able to celebrate all the hidden miracles that kept our existence at the same time that we live new hidden miracles that keep us stronger than ever against our enemies.
Enjoy the video card from the kids.

Purim is still tomorrow night, however in total the kids have already been in 3 different celebrations.
It is wonderful to see everyone religious and non-religious celebrating on the streets, at school, at home and at work.
Below are pictures from the different costumes during the different events as well as a video of the kids at a costume parade.

The Family Visit clock
It was great to host our uncle the last couple of weekends, very nice hosting our friends from Pittsburgh last week and this upcoming weekend, I’m resetting the clock for my grandmother’s visit. It’s wonderful to keep on resetting it all the time…Keep it going for us.

Blogging like a Pro - Visitors are Welcome

2009-03-03T23:14:00.006+02:00

Blogging like a pro
I’ve been wanting to write about this very interesting meeting I had at work.
You think blogging is interesting or fun? How about profitable? How about making a living out of it? (don’t worry, I will not get to levels that anyone would want to advertise here or pay me to blog).
My meeting was with 2 people representing their interactive internet company and a 19 year old kid. It turns out that this 19 year old has one of the highest blog following among teens in Israel. I felt like a little boy in front of this professional blogger. He did some activities for us and earned some good money to do what he knows how to do best. So here I am, just a modest blogger.
See the video below, I know it’s cheesy…It’s supposed to be cheesy.

Some interesting facts about the video, is that it talks about life before Sipahh: war & no water in the Kineret (Sea of Galilee) and life after Sipahh: Peace and lots of water in the Kineret. The other things are teenage inside jokes about a rock group.
Well, as per war, I guess we are not officially at war anymore (if you don’t count the more than 100 rockets that have been launched from Gaza to Israeli civilians since the “ceasefire”).
As per water, last weekend it rained and it rained and it rained. The Kineret did see a big improvement (22 centimeters) however it’s still more than 5 meters below the mark. It’s definetly good to see all that rain it isn’t that exciting when a lot of that water makes its way into your house as it happened on Sunday when we woke up to wet floors and waterfalls from our walls, but all that has been taken care of now.
It was interesting meeting this 19 year old blog genius. It has been also interesting going through a war as well as living with a big dependance on rain water.

Visitors are welcome
The surprise visitor arrived last Friday. It is great hosting our uncle who made a surprise visit to our cousin that’s here for a year. It’s always great to see family. They both spent last weekend with us.
And now I’m setting the “next family visit” clock to our good friends from Pittsburgh that are visiting this Thursday. We are eager to see you all. Very soon we will also see my grandma and later my parents. You are all welcome to visit at anytime!

I’m very excited about the upcoming holiday of Purim and will probably be sharing a lot of pictures and experiences soon, so keep an eye on the blog and don’t forget to post a comment so that I know that I’m not writing to myself.

Sabra Album - Machane Yehuda Edition

2009-02-23T21:54:00.003+02:00

You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 , Take 2 and Take 3 if you missed them.Continuing to post pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I’m calling them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra).
This time I will include pictures of our most recent visit to Jerusalem’s famous marketplace Machane Yehuda on the busiest day of the week (Friday).
It was a great blend of sounds, sights, smells, tastes & conversations.

History Museum
You can’t miss this store. At first it looks like the museum of modern Israeli history because of the pictures of all the prime ministers, politicians and even rabbis. However once inside you’ll see it’s really an underwear store, yeah that’s right, what better place to hang a picture of a former prime minister but on top of a rack of tighty-whities. We chatted for several minutes with the store owner (on picture) who had very strong opinions about every single one of the personalities on the pictures that by the way he said he has met most of them.

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Healthy Food?!
The sign in the front of the Falafel stand reads “Falafel - Calorie Free”. Yeah right…..
I did not try the Falafel given the time of the morning however we did buy some delicious fresh goods from one of the many bakeries. That smell of freshly made pastry is just irresistible.

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Location, Location, Location.
The sign reads “For Sale”. If you are interested in this property please talk to me before, there are some things you need to be aware of regarding the location. :)

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Urban Frescos
Isn’t it beautiful and original? These are all paintings on walls and on the phone company boxes.

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Strolling around the marketplace. (Click to look at all photos)

Lessons on Memulim sourcing.
Lesson #1: Definition: Memulim = Stuffed food
Lesson# 2: Price: Memulim le 40 shekel, as repeated over and over and over again by one of the sellers trying to attract people (just like us) and distributing the plastic plates to fill up

Lesson #2: Grab plate and identify target (if opponents allow you to do so)

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Lesson #3: Very important: If next to the stand and with tongs on hand, DO NOT LEAVE THE STAND regardless of the pressure of the opponents

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Lesson #4: For beginners, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Once the stand is empty you can proceed to collect your food

From Machane Yehuda Jan 2009

Lesson #5: Enjoy….. They were actually very good.

The Elections, Tu b'Shvat, How about visiting Jerusalem?

2009-02-14T21:52:00.014+02:00

The Election
It was a great experience to be able to exercise my right and obligation as an Israeli citizen to vote last week.
It was an interesting experience as well being part of the democratic process. There were 33 political parties to choose from, yes 33 and there was a 34th card in case you want to add yours (or vote for no one). Why so many political parties? Israelis all have very strong opinions and they each have their own interests that they want to put forward in a political party.

Let’s take for example the green leaf party (not to be confused with the environmental Green party), it’s not a joke but this party is concerned only with legalizing marihuana (see picture below), what about peace? The economy? Iran? Palestine? Education? If you don’t think it’s ridiculous already add to this that since they are so small they decided to bring in another small party: The holocaust survivors… I have respect for everyone but sometimes can’t understand this system. Don’t worry the green leaf party did not get any seats.

From Sabra Album

The TV commercials for the political parties were very interesting and sometimes even funny. There’s for example one of the Arab parties TV ad from which I could not understand anything (it was all in Arabic) but you could see the party leader and then lots of music and videos of soccer players, I’m not sure what their interests are, but it’s important to note that in this democracy 2 different Arab parties got in total 7 seats in the parliament.
We don’t have a clear elected prime minister yet given the small gap between to two leading parties and the unknown coalitions that need to be formed.
By the way it was great to have the entire day off for the 10 minutes (or less) that took to vote. Se below some pictures of our activities during the voting day. After voting we went for a quick hike (quick because it was cold and muddy).

Tu B'Shvat
The new year for the Trees (Tu B'Shvat) was celebrated last week. Below are some photos of a trip the kids did with Liora to an ecological farm in Modiin where they planted a tree together with other new olim (new immigrants) in the presense of our city mayor. There are also some other pictures from home. Below that is a video of the kids singing (and the mother) a Tu B'Shvat song next to a Shkedia (almond tree).

How about visiting Jerusalem?
Continuing our Friday 3 hours without kids activities we were trying to figure out on Thursday night what to do the next morning. Isn't it great to just wake up and say: How about visiting Jerusalem? So we did. We drove to Jerusalem started with a "walking" breakfast with out of the oven borekas, juice and cofee, we then took a walk through the old city walls and made it to the Kotel (western Wall) we walked back to the car through the Jewish Quarter where we bought fresh Chalot (shabbat bread) and made it still in time to pick up the kids. After that to give Liora some time without the kids at home and prepare for our 10 lunch guests, I took the kids for a hike to a mountain nearby with people from our synagogue. See some pictures below.

מ.ג (XLIII) is in our hands

2009-02-04T18:16:00.002+02:00

מ.ג (XLIII) is in our hands
I might not be the most devoted fan, but to follow steelers-ball on a weekly basis at odd midnight hours is certainly something. The challenging part is not staying awake until 5am watching a game, the challenge is the day after. I was lucky enough to have Liora by my side enjoying the 1st half, but then the boss (Bruce Springsteen) put us both to sleep at halftime. I woke up again to watch the rollercoasting 2nd half. What I’m sure about that I’m the strongest Mex-American Israeli from Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
I wish I was downtown at da’burgh when the team will parade victorious as Cessar returning from war. I was there in 2006 welcoming them back home.
Lets enjoy our victory, 1 year of being the champions & hope for a great next season with more 1pm games (for the sake of all of the fans watching the games 7 hours ahead).

Family Visits
As always we are lucky enough to have more family visiting. Welcome to Tia (aunt) Bashe. She was ones my Hebrew teacher…
I guess Israel, although further from family and friends, is more of a destination point than Pittsburgh. I will reset the “family visit countdown clock” as soon as I confirm of a surprise visit that’s in the works, don’t worry, I don’t think the one to be surprised reads the blog.
We are also very excited to host for Purim our Pittsburgh friends and kids, we are looking forward to your visit. You are all welcome to visit, it’s our honor to host you and show you our beautiful country.

The most honorable Aliyah – Part II
I posted last time about The most honorable Aliyah where it was the most meaningful and honorable Aliyah (called to a blessing of the Torah) I’ve ever not gotten. (If you didn’t read it I recommend you do on the link above).
Well in the end it has a happy ending since I was called up for an Aliyah last Shabbat to cover for the Aliyah I did not get. The End.

Honeymoon is Over - The most honorable Aliyah

2009-01-24T21:13:00.006+02:00

Paul, Art and Jerusalem
What do the three have in common?
Last Saturday night we celebrated the birthday of our Mexican friend that lives in Raanana. The Bibles Land museum in Jerusalem had an event of Wine & Cheese followed by a concert by two guys that imitate Simon & Garfunkel. The wine was dry (I’m not a big wine connoisseur) and the Cheese was…was no there by the time we arrived. The concert was very nice but we had to keep quiet because of the grumpy old woman in front of us that kept on looking back at us. Overall it was very nice.

Honeymoon is over
I can’t believe last week we celebrated 6 months since we arrived in Israel. Looking back I think there has been certainly more good moments that difficult ones. The first months it was all new, it was all living the dream, learning new things, of course going through all the bureaucratic government and other paperwork, school registration, job search. All the visits to the doctor specially by the kids was not one of the highlights of this 6 months. Meeting new people, finding ourselves in this new society with a different culture, language, food, etc. Hey we even went through a War, we’ll just leave the water, flashlight and battery radio in our safe room (yes we have a shelter at home just like anyone else). As per working on Sundays, it will take more than 6 months (probably 6 years) to get used to. Watching Steelers football live after midnight will be another tough one to get used to
Half year after things are not so new anymore, however Israel still surprises me at times. It is still great been able to be part of the Jewish state.
Although routine tries to take over we try to break it sometimes, especially on Fridays while the kids are in school and there’s no work.
The kids are doing very well at school, learning Hebrew and speaking it with a RRReish accent. Making new friends.
Liora is almost done with Ulpan (Hebrew classes) and is already an expert. She has made great friends from Ulpan too. Taking care of the children while they are sick has been a challenge.
I’m thank G’d employed in a very rough time for the economy. Learning a lot about marketing in Israel, learning about Ketchup, Oatmeal and chocolate drinks, working in an Israeli company and with Israelis (that’s the toughest one), working all in Hebrew except for all outside contacts. I admit I’m still writing in English, typing is extremely difficult for me in Hebrew, however all or most of the emails I get back are in Hebrew.
Life here is very different in all aspects, and it’s good.
I’m thankful to G’d for showing us the way to get here and for giving us a happy life here and strength to overcome any difficulty.

The most honorable Aliyah
Every year when my Bar Mitzvah’s parsha (Torah’s weekly section) is read I try to get an Aliyah (called to a blessing of the Torah). Last year I was lucky enough to be in Israel visiting to check things out and be in Jerusalem. On Saturday morning I went a year ago to the Kotel (Western Wall) and got an Aliyah on my Bar Mitzvah’s reading, it was a unique moment given the place, moment and time in my life, I got an Aliyah at the Kotel on that special Torah portion while all that was going through my mind was Aliyah (literally: ascending- moving to Israel), well as you can see G’d answered to my prayers.
This Saturday my Bar Mitzvah parsha was read, I was hoping I could get an Aliyah given that it’s the first time I would do the blessing living in Israel on my Bar Mitzvah parsha. It would certainly be a special moment. But instead of getting an Aliyah I got something even greater… Nothing. How can nothing be greater? I will explain. The Gabay (prayer planner :) ) approached to me early in the prayers and said: “I know it’s your Bar Mitzva parsha and I will try to get you an Aliyah, however I’m trying to get all the returning soldiers one as well”. It’s true, I noticed suddenly that there were many faces I haven’t seen for the last three Shabbats at the synagogue, they were all defending our country.
It was the greatest, most meaningful and honorable Aliyah I’ve ever not gotten.

Batya’s Ballet
Last week Batya had a Ballet presentation. She enjoys it so much. Below are some pictures and a video. Enjoy.

Solidarity on War, discord on elections
Is good to see our soldiers back home. I don’t think peace is closer now, but what is clear is that terrorist activity will be halted for a while (lets hope).
So what’s on the news this days? Obama is on the spotlight. Also Israeli elections are happening in a couple of weeks. It’s interesting to see how war united most Jews in Israel and the world in solidarity and we will now see how politics and elections will divide us.

Next blog hear about our Friday experience at Machane Yehudah (Popular Jerusalem market).

Thank you soldiers; Rakefet, Rakefet...

2009-01-16T15:57:00.003+02:00

Thank you Soldiers
The fight in the South is in everyone’s minds at all times. Yesterday the news got actually distracted for a little while because of the plane accident in the Hudson River, but after that right back to the war in the South. This week we got a little worried when rockets fell also in the North but apparently it was a onetime thing (for the second time!) apparently Lebanon is not really wanting to engage in War nor the terrorists among them from Hezbola. At work there are people that were called to war as well as at our Synagogue.
At the gan the kids write letters and send gifts to soldiers.
Below a video of what the kids wrote and sent to the soldiers. Batya’s letter reads in Hebrew “Thank you for guarding the land of Israel, Batya”.

Rakefet, Rakefet… (Cylcamen, Cyclamen..) :)
Last week we took our Friday tour right in the center of our city in Modiin. There is a place called Givat Hatitura (Titura Hill) that has many archeological sites from different time periods, a very nice view of Modiin and a path called shvil haprachim (Flower path). We had a very nice hike. Flowers are just starting to grow but were very nice. There were mainly two kind of flowers Rakefet (Cyclamen) and Kalaniot (anemone) apparently the unofficial flower of Israel. For all our family and friends in the North East of US, Yes I’m wearing a long sleeve T-shirt mid January.
There is a very famous folk song for the Rakefet. Below is a video of the song, and the two flowers (one is the Kalania and the other is the singer). Please be advised that I received full permission to post this video. Next time we’ll also look for the Kalaniot song…

Below are some pictures of our hike through Givat Hatitura

Paul, Art and Jerusalem.
What do the 3 have in common? Submit your guess in the comments and find out in the next Blog post. Hint- Is the silence a sound?

Shabbat Shalom.

Meet our new pet + Sabra Album

2009-01-12T00:14:00.012+02:00

Meet our new pet

Just a quick blog to share a photo of our new pet.
Yes we have a pet, it’s a Praying Mantis that has been standing in the outside of our mosquito net to our backyard. It has been there for 2 weeks or more and it does move.
A silly thought…are praying mantis in Israel praying in Hebrew? :)

From Sabra Album

Sabra Album - Take 3:
You can also visit Sabra Album Take 1 and Take 2 if you missed them.
Continuing to post pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I would like to call them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra).

Sign reads “Parking Prohibited” (ok this is not unique to Israel, but we have it too)

From Sabra Album

Chanukiyah made out of Heineken beer bottles in the mystical city of Safed

From Sabra Album

Sign reads: “Because of the fire, Safed candles open two doors down” The candle store did burn down.

From Sabra Album

And now back to the Steelers playoff game...

A Blessing - Parshat Vayehi

2009-01-09T13:33:00.002+02:00

Every Friday at Batya’s gan (kindergarten) one of the 20 girls gets to be Ima Shabbat (Sabath mother) and they need to bring candies and a story about that week’s torah portion, they also take stage in a Shabbat table in front of the class.
When we picked her up today from gan her teacher said that she did it so nicely that she (the teacher) felt like crying. She described the faces of Batya’s Israeli friends who were amazed to hear her speak so nicely in Hebrew for so long. Batya came back from gan so happy and we are so proud of her. Now that’s a blessing.
The Torah portion apart from talking about the death of Yaakov (Jacob) and Yosef (Joseph) it talks about, the blessing Jacob gave to Joseph's children Menashe & Ephraim (Genesis 48:16), Hamalach Hagoel that was posted on a previous blog called “The Blessings”.
See Batya practicing at home:

Ilan also wanted to take place on this.

May we all be blessed with good children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. May the Angel that redeemed Yaakov from all evil bless our people, our southern citizens and heroic soldiers and redeem us all from all evil.

Shabbat Shalom to all.

2009-01-07T22:59:00.005+02:00

Praying towards the South
Last week we took a trip with our visiting family to the North. As I explained on “Praying towards the West” we always pray towards Jerusalem which means that I have almost always have prayed towards the East. If you travel to the North of Israel you pray towards the center (Jerusalem) which is South. Prayers to the south have a special meaning these days where our brothers are living in fear as terrorists shoot tens of rockets to their cities and our heroic soldiers are fighting for peace and an end to terrorist attacks, so my prayers were towards Jerusalem in the South and beyond to the south of Israel.

From Trip to North Dec. 2008

What does it feel like to live in a country at war? We are a little scared. Although Modiin is still far from Gaza (60km – yes, that is considered far in this small country) see link below, so far the furthest rockets have landed is Beer Sheva (40km).

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gnm2C1B8vbI/SV3k_Ravb1I/AAAAAAAACZQ/_ugZKCLvfCU/s1600-h/map.JPG

Driving through Arab villages in the north was a little more scary that the last time a month or so ago. On route 6, there was a military police on every bridge making sure there are no rock throwers and in every intersection through the Arab villages we drove there were several military police getting ready for potential demonstrations. On the streets and cars there are more people dressed in their soldier uniform, I feel like telling every single one of them “Thank you”.

No water in the north (fire in the south)
Israel is a very dry land and depends every year on the winter rains especially in the north where water accumulates in the Kineret (Sea of Galilee). See Batya and Ilan by the Kineret below.

By the way tonight it’s raining. It feels like a relief to see rain knowing how vital it is.
Our trip to the north was beautiful. It was nice to get out of work and take some fresh air. We visited Safed (a holy and mystical city), we saw the snowy Hermon from far, we visited our grandma’s friend in Kibutz Ein Gev, saw the cows, horses, eat a delicious fresh fish restaurant. It was very nice to see both grandma’s that were old friends in Mexico see each other and ride what we called the Doramovile, the dates and bananas from the Kibutz were also delicious. We slept at the Kibutz hotel/inn right next to the Kineret (sea of Galile). The day after on our way back we visitied Gan-Guru, an Australian zoo in the north of Israel where we fed Kangaroos and so many other animals. Enjoy the pictures below.

It’s sadly quiet at home
This morning we said goodbye to our visiting family. It was great having you and we thank you for your visit. I understand Israel is a couple of miles and dollars (flight) away from Pittsburgh, so thanks for coming and having such a great time with us. We had 2 great Shabbats together, a great party, a couple of visits to the Mall, the nice trip to the North, I even enjoyed watching news together every night as we all fell asleep by the Sofa (Rajel’s bed). Thanks too for all the goodies from Mexico and presents you bought for us here too. Just like we received 5 visits from my father in Law to Pittsburgh completing the 5 books of the Torah (a book per visit), I just started my Talmud collection with your first visit to us in Israel and your present and as you said there are fifty some books for that Talmud, so we are looking forward to collecting them all soon… Please come back soon.
The clock is ticking (on the right of the blog) and we are waiting for our aunt to come.

Chanukah is Over...War is not.

2008-12-31T21:51:00.003+02:00

War continues
There is nothing else on people’s mind but the war situation. TV constantly showing on the news, radio updating every significant event (in addition to the regular every hour update), newspapers & people at work talking about it. It is a true concern for the entire country and very scary for all those in the south.
Let’s hope for a quick resolution and end to terrorism.
Thanks for all your emails and thinking about us here.

Chanukah is over with full strength
The last day of Chanukah is the brightest of all with all 8 candles lit. It was also bright at home since we had many people to celebrate my mother in law’s birthday as well as Chanukah. We had a great time, it was great meeting many of my in-laws friends. We ordered also a giant pizza just like in Batya’s birthday but this time we asked for a Chanukiya on the Pizza. I could see how happy my mother in law was and that made us happy too.
We also had Ilan gan’s (kinder) Chanukah party. Nothing as elaborate as Batya’s but it was very nice to see Ilan singing in Hebrew.
It has been very nice to have all this company at home. The kids are also happy to see them all. They have been touring around many sights, museums, meeting friends, etc. We are all traveling tomorrow and Friday to the north (not the south), we are staying at a Kibbutz were Grandma’s friend lives. I’m really looking forward to a couple of days far from work.
This was a very significant Chanukah for me, throughout the day I was reminded of the holiday, I ate in average probably 2 sufganiot daily (Chanukah Doughnuts), several parties, the kids celebrating it beautifully at school, wishing everyone at work daily happy hanukah, and being in Modiin the same place were the Maccabim (Chanukah hereos) lived.

See below the many pictures from last week. Also to the right look for the latest Youtube videos to see Ilan’s Chanukah party and the birthday/Chanukah party.

I’ve got to show off some of my work at work :) It’s all in Hebrew but it still looks cool.

Take a look at our product’s renewed website www.sipahh.co.il

Oh yeah… Happy new Year. 2009……

War in the South - The Modern Maccabeam

2008-12-29T21:10:00.003+02:00

Not to worry we are all doing fine. We are with the good guys. :)

Although we are far from the Gaza strip I must admit that I do feel a little nervous. The truth is that nothing is really far from anything in this Eretz Haktana (little land) especially when you live right in the middle of the country.

In addition to the attacks in the Gaza strip in response to rocket attacks to Israeli civilians in the South, there has been a lot of smaller incidents all around the country from which 2 of them hitting very close to Modiin. A stabbing Arab worker in Modiin-Ilit in the town of Kiryat Sefer (about 15 minutes from here) and stone throwing on route 443 (road from Modiin to Jerusalem).

We are all trying to be careful but exactly how? People continue to live their own lives as usual, except for those in the south that are really affected by the latest rocket attacks in their cities.

Yesterday 6,500 reservists were approved to be called to duty. We saw many more people wearing their uniforms on the streets and in their cars going to their military bases.

I recently came across an interesting blog following the war live http://muqata.blogspot.com/ (now that's a Blog)
Thanks Steff for the site and the heads up on route 443 (actually all the family took that road today to get to and from Jerusalem).

The last day of Chanukah was celebrated last night and today. We celebrated our freedom as the Maccabeam fought for the freedom of our religion, culture and land. Today my heart and prayers are with our modern day Maccabeam who under the Israeli army are fighting against terror to keep our cities safe and bring peace to our region.

Keep tuned for a post on yesterdays Chanukah/mother in law birthday party.

Stay safe and may all your prayers help bring peace to the land of Israel and all its surroundings.

Happy Holidays - Work on Dec. 25

2008-12-26T10:10:00.008+02:00

Happy holidays to everyone.

Our Chanuka has been wonderful. Everything is so festive, there are chanukiot everywhere. We have family visiting and thank G’d a full house with my inlaws, sister in law, grandma & cousin, it’s great seeing them all and celebrating chanuka together. We are all looking forward to having a great time together. As you can see I have reset the countdown for the next family visit end of January, we are very excited to have Bashe coming.

We have had several chanuka parties including the one on Batyas gan (kinder), today we have Ilan’s, we had one in Raanana at our Mexican friend’s, we are doing one to celebrate also my mother in law’s birthday, had one yesterday in Jerusalem where we were “honored” among others by World Bnei Akiva (youth organization) for making Aliyah (moving to Israel).

I did not realize until the end of the day but it’s the first time in my professional life that I work on a December 25. It will also be the first time I work on a January 1 not to mention the Sundays that I’m still not used to them being a work day, however I must admit that a no work Friday is very very very nice (but not as nice as a Sunday).

Talking about Sundays, we are very proud of our Black & Gold (Steelers) and have been following them every week. I’m glad the last two games are 1pm (8 pm Israel), because the 4pm (11pm Israel) was making me just a little bit tiered the morning after. I’m still not sure how we will manage to watch the Superbowl at 3am Israel time.

Enjoy this great season: Chanukah, Christmas, New year, Kwanza, Shabat Shalom.

Some pictures below:

Also to add to my Sabra Album:

Below photos of a chanukia right next to a Sukah (hey at least they are doing it all). I took this yesterday at Jerusalem.

From Chanuka II 5769

Chanuka Sameach 5769

2008-12-20T23:15:00.009+02:00

Dear Family and Friends,

חנוכה שמח

From Modiin the land of the Makabim we send you our wishes for a joyous Chanuka full of light and miracles.

It is a true miracle to be able to light Chanuka candles exactly where the Makabim lived and see how our people, religion, culture and land illuminate the world stronger than ever.

Enjoy the video card from the kids below.

Difference between פּ (Pei) and שׁ (Shin)

Last Thursday we had Batya’s Chanuka party at her Gan (Kindergarten). I must say it gave so much meaning to our Aliyah (move to Israel).

Apart from being impressed by how the teacher was able to coordinate 30 children into doing such a fantastic spectacle for close to 1 hour, I was mesmerized by experiencing every single aspect of this party that go deeper to the wonderful show of light effects, songs, poetry, prayers, music and dance the kids put together. It is beyond words to describe the feeling but just watching Batya perform songs of Chanukah all in Hebrew around children from which more than half arrived in Israel in the last 2 years, in the land of the Makabim who fought and miraculously won and achieved our cultural and religious independence made it very special. The evening also included poetry and prayers around Chanuka as well as our land and soldiers. It is truly a miracle to see all these happen in front of my eyes from the national & religious level as well as the personal level where I can see Batya growing up and being educated in this environment. It brought a lot of meaning to our Aliyah.

The difference between פּ (Pei) and שׁ (Shin) cannot be measured. פּ (Pei) stands for Po (Here) and שׁ (Shin) stands for Sham (There). The theme of Chanuka repeats “Nes gadol Haya Po/Sham” (Big Miracle Happened Here/There) depending on your location. For the first time we are celebrating Chanuka Po (here) where the miracle happened and where miracles are still happening, and if you don’t believe me, come and see it for yourself.
Below are pictures of the party. Enjoy.

Videos of the party (all 13 of them) can be watched on the links below or by going to http://www.youtube.com/iweisser :

#1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWx8iNh4K_o
#2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxfPuMYAthM
#3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iQAiR_4FaQ
#4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGpLIQj9tOU
#5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsF-GRiOfV8
#6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjOStQLy2vw
#7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3vZtnhuXyo
#8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjOStQLy2vw
#9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWU3xtQRPK8
#10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAFKJojbIP4
#11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hab9MzXVpZs
#12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc5ZcCbSJtI
#13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8mvxOxWCuw

Next Family visit
I have just added a countdown clock to the blog on the right so that I can count together with you the next family visit. We are anxious to have you all here.

Oh yeah...My Birthday
Nothing too fancy. I just spent a long day at work and then got my cake at home with the sweetest people in my life. See some pics. below.

December in Tel Aviv - Sabra Album

2008-12-07T21:13:00.016+02:00

December in Tel Aviv
Last Friday we were able to visit Tel Aviv for the 2 and a half hours until we have to return for the kids at School.
Modiin is exactly in between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv so it gives flexibility to be within 30 minutes on any of these major cities.
It was amazing how last Friday December 5, already winter time, the temperature in Tel Aviv got to 81 F. It was relaxing to walk through the Tayelet (Boardwalk) and feeling the Mediterranean breeze. Finding a kosher restaurant was again a challenge especially in such a premium real estate where people visit during Friday nights and Saturdays. It was nice walking through the artist market Nachalat Binyamin and then the marketplace Shuk Carmel.

Sabra Album
I would like to start posting pictures that talk about how Israel is such a special and interesting place. These pictures are so unique to Israel that I would like to call them “Sabra Album” (Click here for definition of Sabra).

Graffiti

Herzl, the father of Modern Zionism said: "If you will, it is no legend" speaking of course of a Jewish State. This politically charged graffiti reads "Don't want, don't need to..."

Herzl on top of a water tank in Herzliya.

"Am Israel Chai", "The people of Israel are alive"

In contrast to the Herzl graffiti.

" No right turn on Saturdays & Holidays"

Kosher McDonalds with separate Meat and Dairy

Preparing the Eruv next to Tel Aviv beach

Shabbat Dinner at "Ach Hagadol" (Big Brother)

2008-11-30T22:28:00.002+02:00

TGIT
Thanks G’d it’s Thursday?
As you have read from my blog. Our weekends really start on Thursday nights. Is this the night to go out? Not for us. We have tried to prepare ourselves for Shabbat on Thursday night, that way since I don’t work on Fridays and there is no Ulpan for Liora (Hebrew classes) then we can take early the kids to school and go out until 12:30pm to pick them up.
It’s a swap of “Family Sunday” to “Marriage Friday morning” .
Two weeks ago we were able to go to Jerusalem visit the Menachem Begin museum (Begin Center) which I highly recommend. I asked my father the other day to recount my encounter with this great leader of Israel and Nobel prize winner, it goes something like this: We came to Israel to celebrate my brother’s Bar Mitzvah in the early 80’s, it was my first trip to Israel and during my first visit to the Kotel (Western Wall) as we were going down the steps a “big guy” stepped on my tiny sandaled foot. I started to cry as my father tried to confront him but noticed there were several of them with Prime Minister Begin in between them. As they passed us, Begin saw me crying, reached out to me and patted my head. That’s it… It was not really something to include in his museum, but it definitely deserves a place in my museum (aka Blog). It’s amazing how something so insignificant for a big leader can be so big for a regular person. After the museum we still had some time to visit the Western Wall. Isn’t it amazing we are 30 minutes away from the Kotel?
Last Friday we were also able to take the morning out and visited the Palmach museum in Tel Aviv, also highly recommended. Our morning started as we parked in the museum an hour before the museum reservation started and looked for a place for a nice sit down breakfast. Unfortunately we got hit by Tel Aviv’s reality… The first place we stopped by…Not Kosher, the second one…Lo Kasher, Third one…Niet. It just hit me that it’s actually hard to find a Kosher place in Tel Aviv, or at least in that area. In the end we got into a mini-market bought yogurt, juice and a sandwich and ate it on a table outside. Back to the museum, it is so well done. I have never seen a museum like that were they make you part of it and play with all your senses. They make you feel part of this elite early Israeli army division and from my point of view in the end they show the miraculous war victory and foundation of the Jewish State.
I’m liking these Fridays, however I still miss Sundays.

We are Family
Since we moved here I have been able to meet family that I haven’t seen for a while or have never met in the past. It is great to be able to live closer to family. Last week for Shabbat we were able to host 2 second cousins with their respective families. It was great hosting them for lunch and getting to know their children. Also last week I was able to see a lot of my immediate family at my first cousin’s engagement party in Jerusalem. It was nice seeing them, celebrating this great event and a very interesting experience in the center of the ultra-orthodox society.
It has also being great meeting other distant family members from my Father’s mother side, from my mother’s father side who is also related to Liora’s family in an even more distant way, Liora’s distant relative (Krova) and soon we will be meeting even more. What better place to reunite families?
We are counting the days to see our parents and family coming in a month from Liora’s side, and then later for Passover from my side. We are also looking forward to my nieces visit soon.

Slow November
I just noticed that November has been the slowest month in terms of Blogs. I have been coming back late from work and with not much energy left to sit in front of the computer.
Below are some pictures of the kids at a Pirates party, our last visit to Jerusalem and other for your enjoyment.