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 28th for Bruce,
and on December 16th 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment