A New Year, a new trip, and of course, a new blog! It’s so good to be able to chat with everyone again (don’t ask why we don’t do this more regularly!) and to share the fun and excitement of our first week back here in Israel. Of course, no first week would be complete without an almost hair-raising travel story! This one is not quite as crazy as some of our escapes from COVID, but it did take some foresight and advance planning! We had booked flights from Montreal to Israel via Toronto to depart on December 29th, this past Monday. Right after Shabbat last week, the first story on our news feed was that there was an “Orange Weather Alert”! Environment (and Climate Change) Canada has recently changed their alert system to colors. For example, there is a Yellow Snow Alert! You know what that means, don’t you? Don’t eat the yellow snow! OK seriously, as silly as it seems, the color system is supposed to tell us about the “severity” of the weather patterns. The Orange is moderate to severe weather; there was to be an Ice Storm on the aforementioned December 29th, with freezing rain, broken branches, falling power lines, slippery streets, and all that goes along with these lovely events. Seeing this, we decided to try to leave on the 28th if possible. So, we sprung into action and called Air Canada, only to be told that they were unaware that the weather was coming to Montreal, and that the Ice Storm Alert they had was only for Ottawa. They could not extrapolate with Ottawa being just west on Montreal, that we would be having the same weather….OK, call number 1. 90 minutes later, the Air Canada website acknowledged that we Montrealers were in the path of the Ice Storm, so we called back (I will spare you how long we were on hold or on the better “automatic call back option”) and got an agent willing to move our trip from the 29th to the 28th. Except just as he was about to confirm, the line went dead (must have been the weather). Again, back on the phone, back on hold, and finally, an agent who we could talk to and who moved us from the 29th to the 28th. However, did you ever try to get two seats together on a flight to Israel less than 24 hours in advance? By a stroke of luck and Barbara’s keen eye we found the one last pair of seats with a window and middle that were open! After a few more technical glitches and another call to good old AC, we were checked in and ready to scurry and finish packing, not to mention finish the dresses Barbara had been working on for Ora and Adi!
The next day we made our way to the airport, and the trip got into gear. Again, with a last-minute change, we had no guarantee of Kosher food on the flight, so Andy and Mara were kind enough to meet us during our 4+ hour layover with some greatly appreciated sandwiches and snacks. The flight to Israel was otherwise uneventful, with the usual crying babies, people behind us kicking our seats and a lady sitting next to Barbara trying to sleep with a big white blanket over her head which was quite a sight! Had we decided to try to leave on the original flight, we would have made it, but would have suffered through a 3-hour delay on the flight from Montreal to Toronto, and a 4-hour delay for the departure to Israel. You get to pick your poison….!
This week has been short (we arrived Monday) with no major events yet, but still very fun. Monday evening, we were greeted with a visit from Lori and Alvan Small who, as in past years, will be spending a good chunk of the winter down the block from us. Tuesday afternoon (which was when we started our day, thanks to jetlag) we went to Efrat to visit Nomi and Elan’s family and have dinner with them. They all look great and everyone is doing fun things; Shoshana is a senior in high school and just got her driver’s license; Shlomo is dorming-in at the high school he started in September; Nadav is very busy at school, with extra-curricular activities and does horse riding and grooming every Sunday; Aryeh is a soccer wizard and greeted us in his bright orange uniform; and Eitan is 4 and thus the cute little one of the family! We will be spending Shabbat with them as well.
Wednesday led to a visit with Gila and Ariel and their family which again was fun and an adventure in catching up in person! Elisha, now in 6th grade, is preparing to go to high school next year and is super busy with drama, basketball and other activities; Ora is in 3rd grade and gymnastics (and proudly just got new glasses!); and Adi is a first grader also busy in gymnastics! We had dinner at the new local Café Calma, a two-minute walk from their house, set in a garden with fruit trees. It’s really pretty and the food was excellent.
It's winter in Israel, which means cooler temperatures (between 10 and 20 in Netanya) and, in good years, quite a bit of rain. Not fun for tourists, but good for the country and it’s agrarian economy. Thursday was predicted to have an 85% chance of rain in Netanya, which appears to have been very accurate. Lots of rain, thunder, lightning and mini-floods. The drainage system in Israel is set up for a country that gets very little rain, so it’s easily overwhelmed by a significant downpour. I am not really sure why; if the Roman’s figured out how to build aqueducts in Caesarea 2000 years ago, why can’t anyone build a modern sewer system to accommodate heavy rains? Come to think of it, it’s a problem in Montreal too, isn’t it?
The solid dose of rain meant that we did mostly errands at home today, but we did get out to have dinner with Gail who was in Netanya. We tried one restaurant which was having a very big, noisy party, so we left after a few minutes of tympanic membrane shattering music and singing. We ended up in a quieter place, in the Piano Shopping Centre in the Southern part of Netanya known as Ir Yamim. This is a new hot spot, particularly in nice weather when its terraces are full of people. Sadly, that was not the case tonight due to the steady drizzle followed by intermittent thunderstorms! However, dinner was great, and the music was a just the right decibel level so we could converse without shouting (I was going to write “without turning up our hearings aids” but fortunately, none of us have those yet…).
Now, everyone is asking, of course, how are things in Israel overall? For one, the country is a lot quieter, no ongoing war, no major protests, and of course the newspapers are filled with commentary criticizing everything! Bibi Netanyahu has been making the news hanging out with POTUS Trump, and we can only guess what really takes place in those conversations. Not all is quiet, of course, as the Lebanese border continues to be a challenge due to Hezbollah, and with major protests going on in Iran, the mullahs may want to create a distraction. Let’s hope things will not escalate from there.
One observation was that there were a lot of people arriving at the airport when we got there. The passport control line was very long and lots of people were in the baggage areas. When Lori and Alvan arrived, they also were pleasantly surprised to see a large number of people in the airport as well. This is supported by the latest tourism statistics that shows that 2025 was much better than the turbulent 2024 year and in particular, since the October cease fire, more tourists have been coming to visit Israel. I think we have a long way to go, sadly, but it definitely looks better than the last couple of years. May 2026 be a year of healing and more stability!
We are in Efrat for Shabbat at Nomi and Elan’s with temperatures going down to 3-4C at night, which is not quite -22 (predicted for Montreal) but still a might chilly for Israel! More about Shabbat and all upcoming events next week!
We wish you a wonderful Shabbat Shalom and best wishes for a year of peace and sanity in 2026!
Barbara and Bruce
Happy Birthday to Alvan!
Happy Birthday to Sheila!
Happy Birthday to Gail!
Happy Birthday to Debbie!
Refuah Shelema-we wish Shmuel Yosef ben Alexandra Ariella a speedy recovery
Refuah Shelema-we wish Avraham Ephraim ben Kayla Shoshana a speedy recovery
