We decided to do something a little crazy this year…take a
holiday in October! There are some practical reasons, really, such as Barbara
is teaching starting in November, and we had the great pleasure of sharing the
recent Jewish Holidays with our children and grandchildren in Montreal. That,
and the fact we had not been back to Israel since Monty’s graduation in June. The summer was
great with our kids relocating. Monty is now in Buffalo, NY doing a pediatric
residency at Buffalo Women’s and Children’s and he, Daniella and Tali have
settled in very well, in spite of a very busy work schedule. Elan is in Toronto
as a Shaliach of the Israeli government, that is an educational emissary representing
Israel. He is teaching at Yeshivat Or Chayim, a boy’s high school and at
Ulpana, a girl’s school. So far it’s going very well, and Nomi, Shoshana and
Shlomo have also acclimatized to the new surroundings. Nomi, being from
Toronto, knows the lay of the land pretty well, her father works there
(commuting from Israel!) and 3 of her grandparents are also there. So far so
good for everyone. Ariel and Gila visited us for the month of September and
spent most of the holidays with us. So, that leads us to the present and the
current trip…
We left Montreal last Thursday night, and arrived in Zurich
at 6:15 AM. Not having much sleep, we stumbled around and found our train to
Luzern, where we would be spending Shabbat. We have to thank Raffi Faust for
this idea; he really mapped out this trip for us. Luzern is a beautiful, small
city on the banks of Lake Luzern. The city is very compact; no important point
is more than 15-20 minutes from the city center, and the city is built on both
sides of the Reusse River. We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel, which was two blocks
from the train station and city center and 5-7 minute walk to the synagogue in
Luzern. After a bit of a nap (having not gotten much sleep on the plane) we
wandered around the old town, saw the famous Lion monument carved out of a
mountainside, crossed the Kapelbruche or Chapel Bridge, a covered bridge across
the river which dates back to the 14th century (1333) and still has
some of the original paintings that decorate the cross beams. Many paintings unfortunately
were destroyed in a fire in 1993. The city also has a fortified wall with
towers that you can walk along, and of course many ubiquitous shops and even 2
Starbucks! I noticed that even in Switzerland, Starbucks stores say “Starbucks
Coffee”. We also learned that Schmuck (see picture) means decoration or jewelry
in German and Swiss-German. That was a relief….so many stores were selling
schmucks it got us worried….
Shabbat was really lovely. The Jewish community in
Switzerland is under 20,000, with the majority in larger cities such as Zurich
and Geneva. The community in Luzern was once several thousand, and in 1912 they
built a beautiful 3 story synagogue with a large sanctuary, ornate painted
walls and a balcony. At one time, it was difficult to find a seat on Saturday
in the synagogue. Unfortunately the community is now very small, and there are
usually not more than a handful of people attending services. There was a
celebration this past weekend, a young man from Luzern was getting married
(this week here in Israel) and his family celebrated his “Aufruf”. Even with
that there were only 16 men in shul and about a dozen women. However, they were
extremely spirited and vibrant and very friendly. Several people asked if we
had meals (thanks to Avi Brook, we certainly did!) and one family told me on
Shabbat Morning “We’ve set places for you for lunch.” Everyone was extremely kind
and I would recommend anyone who would like a very nice place in Switzerland to
visit to check out Luzern. (Ask for Ruben Ehrlangen or Rabbi Rabinovich).
The highlight of being in Switzerland of course is the Alps.
Luzern is right in the foothills of the mountains, very close to several very
high peaks, including Mount Rigi and Mount Pilatus. We chose to visit Mount
Pilatus, being the highest peak in the area. The mountain gets its name from Pontius
Pilate, who legend has it was buried in the lake near the mountain. Must have
taken a bit of time to get there from Jerusalem in those days. The Swiss 
have,
typically, a super organized schedule that allows one to see the mountain in a
compact package that takes 4-5 hours! We took a boat from Luzern to the base of
Pilatus (you can also take a train) and then we took the world’s steepest
cogwheel railway up the mountain at a 48% angle much of the way! We then hiked
around the top with breaks in the hotel built on top, seeing a couple of the
steeper peaks. Although it was 15 degrees in Luzern that day, it was -4 on top
with snow and ice. Good thing we were bringing Ariel’s winter coat to Israel
for him. After the hiking and the amazing scenery of snow-capped mountains, green
valleys and lakes we took two cable cars down to the village of Kriens, and
then a bus (perfectly timed, of course and fastidiously mapped out) back to
Luzern. After a quick trip to the Impressionist museum and a special Picasso
exhibit across the street from our hotel, we took a train back to Zurich for
our late night flight to Israel. 
We arrived here early Monday AM, and honestly, we are still
in a time warp! However, the jet-lag was not enough to keep us from some great
walks on the beach here in Netanya, a real nice dinner with Ariel and Gila, and
of course some shopping. As fall moves on slowly in Canada (the great stretch
of weather from Mid-September has continued) we are enjoying sunny skies, 28
degrees and minimal chance of rain. A great setting for a holiday. We will be
in Jerusalem on Friday, hopefully to see Orly and Bilha Fruchter and Chai, and then on
Shabbat we will be in Efrat at the home of Carol and David Novoseller, ex of Montreal.
The next week promises to be one where we will visit with other friends and do
a bit more travelling than usual, so stay tuned!
We wish everyone a spectacular Shabbat Shalom!
We wish our daughter in law Nomi a very Happy Birthday!
We wish our sister in law Mara a very Happy Birthday!
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