January 17-23

I was trying to describe what a country of physical contrasts Israel is to one of my students, who hails from China. The first major contrast is its size. In a world where Israel is on the front pages of national papers on a regular basis, people who have never been there think that it must be at least the size of India or even Egypt, with millions of people. Learning that you can drive from west to east in a little over an hour, and from top to bottom in under 6 hours, and that Israel is only a little larger than New Jersey about a quarter of the size of Maine makes people really wonder how such a small place can have such impact. The second major disconnect is the diverse geography. Fit into this tiny land is a warm and exciting Mediterranean coast, a green and fertile northern portion, home to fine wines;   the cool, hilly spiritual capital of Jerusalem, and a vast arid dessert, full of canyons and rock formations. In one holiday driving less than a 250 km radius we experienced balmy temperatures, wind and sand storms, driving rains, and beautiful snowflakes, all in the same 5 day period.  Not easy to duplicate anywhere else, that’s for sure.

We left off as we were heading for Shabbat in Netanya with Gila, Ariel and Elisha. This was a time to wind down, relax and marvel at how quickly babies change and develop. Elisha has progressed to crawling, standing up, cruising and climbing on all kinds of things in a short period of time. We had fun playing with Elisha and I think he enjoyed not having to share attention with the other kids (but we definitely missed them).

Sunday was Bruce’s last full day in Israel. We spent the day in the sunshine, taking walks and enjoying a visit from Carol and David Novoseller, who escaped from Efrat to enjoy some coastal sun and great views of the sea. It was terrific to catch up with them. That evening was a real treat as well. We went to “Sorcerer’s Night” at a dinner theatre called “Punchline” in Tel Aviv. This evening of magic included visits from several magicians to each table for some close-up card tricks and other sleight of hand, followed by a one hour+ show which included some amazing memory tricks (Matan Rosenberg reciting the names of all 150 people in the audiences after talking to them while showing off his cards) and an ESP demonstration (including having a sealed envelope with 7 random numbers that matched the numbers chosen by 7 random people!). It was a great show, all in English, and definitely worth the price of admission! I think they do weddings and bar mitzvah’s as well…

Monday was a day of tidying up and closing down the apartment, and one more family dinner at Ariel and Gila’s house before Bruce would be off to the airport and Barbara would go to Jerusalem for a conference. Here was another “only in Israel” moment. We did take-out dinner to let Elisha go to sleep at his normal time. Where did we go? To “Hello Teyman (Yemen)” a popular Shawarma place that is located “in the gas station on the exit for Coca-Cola Junction (direct translation)“.  Who eats at a gas station? Well, in Israel, you find good fast food in all kinds of weird places (and let me assure you, the shawarma is first class there). And what is Coca Cola Junction? The highway exit that leads to the towns of Givat Shmuel where Gila and Ariel live, and adjoining city of Bnei Brak has the country’s Coca-Cola Plant and Distribution center. So the exit is named for this famous bastion of “healthy” beverages!

The meeting in Jerusalem is the 4th International Conference on Pediatric Diseases Disability and Human Development.  There are major Canadian Connections at this conference. First, it is sponsored by Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman of the Onex investment firm and the Chapter’s/Indigo Bookstore chain. Secondly, there is a large Montreal contingent presenting at the meeting, including Barbara, Debbie Feldman, Neomi Dahan, and Dana Anaby representing both McGill and Université du Montreal. Thirdly, Israel is a country that has some tremendous resources for the handicapped, and one story I will relate had a surprise Canadian and family connection.

When we spent Shabbat at Barbara’s cousin Linda and Allen’s home 2 weeks ago, they told us a story that happened some 40+ years ago. It seems that an 18 year old student from Vancouver, the son of close family friends, was going to spend some time in Israel before going to an exchange program in Paris and then off to University, ultimately to study law. So Linda invited Carey Samuels to spend Shabbat with them. As luck would have it, Carey sat next to a Rabbi on the bus who asked what his plans were. When he was told that Carey was going to study French culture for a few months, he responded that he should really spend the time learning about his own culture. The Rabbi gave Carey his card and invited him for Shabbat the following week. He took up the offer, and slowly became greatly enamored with studying Judaism. He was a superb student and progressed rapidly in his new found field. This led to his giving up his plans of law school, immersing in Jewish study and marrying at a young age. 
However, the couple’s first child Yossi had a severe reaction to a badly prepared lot of vaccine, and became quite handicapped. Carey and his wife put tremendous efforts into giving their child all they needed. After several years and contact with many other families with special needs children, they realized that there was a tremendous need for programming and respite for families with special-needs children. So, they began an organization.  What began on a small scale has grown into Shalva, with state of the art facilities and highly innovative programs for handicapped kids. Today Carey Samuels, now known as Kalman and his wife Malki are the guiding forces behind this amazing organization. In fact Kalman spoke at the conference, and told his inspiring story. And to think it all happened because of a bus ride to Linda and Allen’s house!

Check out their website, http://www.shalva.org/ and see what else is going on, especially the link to the new Shalva center to open in August of this year! Also, check out this video of the Shalva Kids Choir doing Leonard Cohen!!

Barbara’s presentation was on Thursday and was extremely well received. She then enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner at the home of newlyweds Bilha and Chai. The conference will be wrapping up Friday and then she’ll be back to Ariel ad Gila’s house for Shabbat and the flight back to Montreal (via Toronto) on Saturday night.  It’s been quite a ride over the last few weeks!

Best wishes for good health and speedy recoveries (Refuah Shelema) to

Zysel bat Bella

HaRav Chaim Yechiel ben Malka

Raizy Perton

Mazel Tov to Avi and Nancy Hazan on the birth of a baby boy. Mazel to  proud grandparents Rochelle and Jeff Rein (as well as Jackie and Pascal Hazan and Nancy’s parents, who I don’t think will see this unless someone sends them the link!)

A very happy birthday with extra hugs to the most amazing person in my life, Barbara. You make every day special!  

January 9-16th

As people working in a largely scientific field, it is not very often when we really take a hard look and try to appreciate the more artsy side of life. These areas may seem in fact dichotomous, but in truth, it is more like a left brain-right brain thing; both are available to you but it depends on how developed one side is over the other. Certain people have the amazing ability to excel at both (like Prof Ronnie Gehr, a frequent commentator on this blog), while others dabble at one and work hard at the other. This was certainly a week where we experienced and really appreciated the arts and music side of Israeli life.

This really starts with Shabbat last week at Barbara’s cousin’s, the Zysblatt’s. Linda and Allen (AKA Zysh) made Aliyah from Vancouver in the early 70’s and have been French Hill residents for 38 years. We have enjoyed visiting them many times and have shared simchas and watched their children grow to be successful adults. Both Linda and Zysh are retired Hebrew University professors, Linda in English and Allen in the Faculty of Law. Well, Friday night was spent with them and 4 close friends from French Hill, all but one who emigrated to Israel from Western Canada in the 60’s or 70’s! It was very cool to meet them, and since they had been in the country through many of its formative years, we heard stories about interaction with politicians and historical figures in the life of Israel.  Among the highlights of the weekend were some incredibly delicious and artfully presented dishes that were served by Linda. These were actually her daughter Nomi’s recipes, part of her catering repertoire.

Now the arts part. The Zysblatt kids are all adults now and extremely successful in their own right. There are no lawyers; rather, Elana is a sculptor, married to an artist who works as a home designer and builder, living in Vancouver; Daniel is an award winning journalist and film maker, based in Indonesia; and Nomi is a musician, who has developed her culinary skills and runs a successful business making designer frozen treats called Paletas as well as being a successful caterer (as noted above).

On Sunday night we had the pleasure of attending one of Nomi Zysblatt’s concerts, at Café Bialik in Tel Aviv. Nomi composed almost all the music played and does her own arranging. She sings beautifully, and her songs are primarily ballads with recurrent nature imagery: light and dark, rain and water, the seasons, fields and other descriptors of beauty.  She performed with a group of friends that included a classical violist, guitar, flute, bass and piano. She herself plays piano and guitar (at least) as well as terrific vocal. There is a link to a sample You-tube below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdxnwx8DuXU

To continue the theme, we jump to Wednesday, when we visited Ein Hod. This is an artist colony, nestled in the hills just south of Haifa. The town was founded in the 50’s and many of the artists live there and have their wares displayed in stores and galleries. We visited a shop where the artist dyed silk and other cloths and then printed on them with gold foil. She also made gold and silver clasps for scarves, and her husband built furniture, and photographed Israeli cloudscapes. Another shop was the home of the Magal family, the second generation of ceramic makers who paint with glaze, which leads to a spectacular effect in color once the glaze is heated to nearly 2000F. The shopkeepers were identical twin sisters who learned this remarkable technique from their mother and whose father was a painter who had come to Israel in the 30’s. Now the third generation, one of the twin’s sons, are also accomplished artists. Quite amazing; makes you want to get in touch with your more artistic side!

The week clearly went by very quickly, with some other terrific highlights. We visited with Ann and Jonathan  Homa and Bilha and Orly Fruchter on Saturday night, visiting the newly renovated “Old train Station” in Jerusalem. They all were doing really well. Since that was so much fun, we went to the old Train station in Tel Aviv the next evening, prior to Nomi’s concert. Monday was Ariel’s birthday, so we celebrated that evening at a new Grill Restaurant in Tel Aviv called Rafael. Highly recommended.

On Tuesday we got really spontaneous and invited old friends, the Selah’s and the Maliach’s, for a late dinner at our home. They both lived in Montreal at the same time (1999-2001) so it was a fun reunion. This was after some beautiful long walks along the boardwalk in Netanya, taking advantage of the two sunny days we have had in the midst of several days of rain. Since rain is good for the country, no complaints…

We are winding down to Shabbat, and Gila, Ariel and Elisha have joined us. It promises to be really nice and lots of fun.  However, we would like to share that we visited Rav Chaim (Howie) Rothman yesterday at the Bet Levenstein Rehablitation center in Raanana. Howie was a victim of the horrible attack on Har Nof and unfortunately is still in a coma. We visited with his family and sat at his bedside, hopefully to give some strength toward recovery.  At the exit to the center, there is a sign on the wall that translates to “A place of  hope”. I think that’s a poignant message after that visit and no less in the aftermath of the attacks in France and the turmoil going on around us in the world.

We wish everyone a meaningful and warm Shabbat Shalom

Refuah Shelema to Zeisyl bat Bella

Refuah Shelema to Rav Chaim Yechiel ben Malca

Happy Anniversary to Roanne and David Wiesz!

Happy Birthday to Zev Kessler!

December 29-January 9, 2015

We woke up this morning, looked out the window and we were treated to a beautiful display of light, fluffy snowflakes. It was about 2C, the snow was melting upon contact, and the air was fresh and crisp. Sounds like a winter wonderland, say, in Canada? If you guessed that, you would be wrong. I am describing the scene this morning in Jerusalem!

Now, snow in Jerusalem is not common, although this is the third year in a row that the city has been hit by a snow storm. In fact, the last 2 years, there was actually significant accumulation, and last year there were people stranded on the roads for days as the concept of winter tires, salt on the roads, or even snow plows is as foreign as, let’s say, pork (actually, there is more pork in Israel than winter tires). This year, to anticipate the worst, elementary and high schools were cancelled on Tuesday for both Wednesday and Thursday, and Hebrew University also cancelled classes till Sunday. Both major highways into Jerusalem were closed to traffic on Wednesday. Fortunately, no snow stayed on the ground, and we drove here yesterday in chilly rainy conditions, but no worse for the wear. The whole Middle East is being hit by unusually cold weather. Turkey, Iran and Lebanon have had significant snow accumulation, as has Northern Israel. Just to get an idea how unusual this weather it, this morning’s radio weather report had the weather announcer say to the Newscaster, “You will never believe the low for tonight…brace yourself…-3!” which caused the newsman to reply “Unbelievable” or some such exclamation! (thanks to Zeish for that anecdote!). Not too impressive for those back home in Montreal with a low of -38, I guess.

So, how did we get here? Well, this trip started way back on December 28^th for Bruce, and on December 16^th for Barbara. In the interim, there have been 3 weddings, lots of trips from Netanya to Givat Shmuel, time with children and grandchildren, and even a trip to the desert. Usually I would have broken this up into two installments, but last week flew by, so I apologize, but here come the highlights!

Three weddings in 10 days is pretty intense, and Barbara got to experience them all (and Bruce only the third). Gila’s sister Pnina married Rafi from England just outside of Beit Shemesh, Tali Faust married Gal in the vineyard of Caesarea, and Marnina Hermann from Toronto was married in Neve Ilan to Yehonatan. Israeli weddings are always great fun, with the ceremony being informal and people singing and dancing throughout the proceedings. All were beautiful smachot (celebrations) with great food, great music, spirited dancing and of course friends and relatives to see and catch up on all the news.

Most of the last week of 2014 was spent with our kids, as Elan, Nomi, Shoshana, Shlomo and Nadav had come from Toronto to vacation and see Nomi’s family in Modi’in. They moved into our Natanya apartment to spend a few days with us before they returned to Canada. We actually got to go to the (fairly deserted) beach one afternoon (23C, but we are Canadians after all) and built sandcastles and played in the surf which was a blast for kids and adults alike. However, the temperature dropped the next day, the winds started to pick up, and our outdoor activities were reduced to visits to the park, and some trips to malls. Gila and Elisha joined us on Thursday, and Ariel came the next day. We had a great Shabbat together, with lots of family time and play time. The cousins really get along, and it’s really cute to see Nadav and Elisha, who are ten days apart in age, play together (only occasionally trying to kill each other over the same toy…)

OK, as we are in Israel, we need to talk politics. An election was called a few weeks ago, and the different parties are scrambling to develop their electoral lists. In Israel, as opposed to our system or the US system, voters vote for a party, and the Members of the Knesset are chosen based on the percentage of the vote the party gets and where the candidate is on the party’s priority list. The Leader is number 1, then others are ranked in order of preference from other party members. Then parties also add slots to make sure they have female representation, religious representation, non-religious representation, animal representation, what have you.  This can lead to some crazy situations, and lots of jostling, arguing, back-stabbing…and that is within a single party, before the mudslinging to the other parties. In fact, there are not a lot of new faces in this election, but what happens in Israel is that if you aren’t happy, you change parties, you merge parties, or you start a new one! So the electorate is generally completely confused, and all governments are based on minority coalition agreements. One player gets upset, changes direction, drops out…call a new election! So the circus starts all over again. Maybe next week we can deal with some of the more interesting characters involved.

Tuesday we headed south to the Negev Desert, to the town of Mitzpe Ramon, home of a giant crater/canyon. We decided to take a desert holiday, at the Beresheit Spa Hotel. The setting was awe-inspiring; desert canyons, sand and rock formations; we were surrounded by desolate beauty. The hotel itself was great, with all rooms being in small buildings with 4 rooms, including sitting areas, and some with private pools. The only slight downside was the weather; around 4-6C with winds of 70-80km/hr. There was a sandstorm and some real huge gusts of winds that could knock you over. In spite of that, we had an amazing time and would definitely recommend the hotel to whoever wants a real special get-away.

Leaving the south on Thursday we drove to Barbara’s cousins Linda and Alan Zysblatt, where we will be spending Shabbat on French Hill, near Mount Scopus.

As the snow continues to blanket Jerusalem, we wish everyone a warm and meaningful Shabbat Shalom!

A special Hello To Daniella, Monty, Tali and the Wagner’s, who are “toughing it out” in Florida, first at Disney and now in Miami (Baubiami?)!

We wish Refuah Shlema to Zysel bat Bella

We wish Refuah Shlema to HaRav Chaim Yechiel ben Malca

We wish very Happy Birthday to Ariel!

We wish a very Happy Special Birthday to Sylvia!

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Uncle Paul!

We wish to express condolences to those affected by the horrible terrorist attack in Paris. May good always prevail over evil.

Shabbat Shalom!