Citizens? Tourists? A little bit of both! (Article #13) 7/27/2006

One week following our Aliyah, Goldie’s brother David joined us for a six day visit. Arriving on Shiv’a Assur B’Tamuz, he came straight to our (temporary) home just in time to break his fast with us. Of course, since he had been traveling against the sun, his whole fast lasted only six hours!

Since I work a five day week, Sunday through Thursday, we had made plans to go to Chevron and get a private tour of the city and the Meorat Hamachpela. We were at that time just a few days into the Lebanon “hostilities”, and we were initially concerned about traveling into such a hot zone, even though we had arranged to travel via armored car. One of our neighbors reassured us by mentioning that if there was ever a time that the army was on high alert to watch out for us, this was the time.

We headed off with the kids and slowly wound our way through the beautiful hills of Yehuda. It was truly amazing to see the wide open areas and realize that if only we had the strength of conviction, that we could settle hundreds of thousands of our people in this literally empty area.

In Chevron, Simcha Hochbaum, an Oleh from the Lower East Side many years ago, took us through various neighborhoods of Chevron, showing us the original Beit Hadassah building and the caravans where the first Chevron returnees had lived, a special Beit Knesset with a 500+ year old torah, a cheder where children from around the region learn every single day of the year with the exception of Tisha B’av and finally the Meorah itself.

Unfortunately for him, we travel with a variety of kids, and the preschoolers just didn’t get into the tour, making it difficult for him to engage the rest of us. They would have played at every playground and park we passed, instead of hear another story about who did what and where. Things were further complicated when Mordechai, our five year old, heard that he and I (as Kohanim) were staying outside.

My father is mentally berating me as he reads this, since there are many authorities to rely upon that allow Kohanim to enter the building that covers the cave of Meorat Hamachpela. However, our Rosh Yeshiva at Eretz Hatzvi, Rav Yehuda Susman who is himself a Kohen made a very good point to me. Avoiding a burial ground is a D’Oraisah obligation (from the Torah), while praying at the grave of a Tzaddik is a D’rabonan at best (Rabbinically ordained). Do I want to risk potentially transgressing a violation of the Torah in order to get the zchus of davening inside the building?

Mordechai and I had the opportunity to discuss the reason he was being left behind, in between the various times he made me chase him down as he tried to get away from me and into the building. Now he walks around talking about how he is going to work in the Beit Hamikdosh with Abba, Chaim, Moshe……….and NOT HIS SISTERS!!!

While we waited for the rest of the family to rejoin us, we heard a series of loud bangs. Initially I was alarmed, but the soldiers didn’t even flinch, so I assumed that everything was OK. Later, I found out that it was the sound of fireworks being set off to celebrate the great “victory” their brothers had won over our forces by kidnapping two of our soldiers.

After we left Chevron, we set off for Kever Rachel in Beit Lechem. Unfortunately, the Kever “closes” on Fridays at 2 and we only arrived at 2:45, so we had to turn back and go home. Although my brother in law questioned our need to get a bulletproof vehicle for our trip, since we really did not even get a nasty glance, I must admit that we felt more comfortable having the vehicle.

The prior Friday night, as we walked to our hosts for the Seudah, I was stopped by a woman standing outside her home.

“Are you from Hewlett?” she asked.

“Close,” I replied, “I am from Woodmere – right next door.”

“I think I know you,” she said, “my name is Elisheva Shulman and my husband is Yossi.”

Of course, we have known the Shulman family since we moved to Woodmere eight years ago. Yossi’s parents lived five blocks from us and his brother and sister and their families all davened with us in the Young Israel of Hewlett.

The Shulman’s (of Ramat Beit Shemesh) made Aliyah last year, and that chance meeting resulted in a quick dinner invitation for the upcoming week. We really appreciated their invitation, the delicious meal and most importantly the conversation and advice – here was a family that had come from the same neighborhood we had and really could relate to where we were holding, and had the experience of a year behind them.

They had so much to tell us about how the kids really do adjust differently and reinforced our notion that you never can predict which kids will do what. They also reflected an attitude that we have seen a lot of here, basically not to sweat the small OR big stuff.

Things happen. Our house still is not ready and we need to move in soon because the people whose house we have been living in are coming home (more on this next week). Our shipping container filled with our belongings may end up in Cyprus or Greece because the companies cannot have their boats in port for two weeks in a war zone (next week also). We have no car, our internet outgoing line won’t be working till we move, we still own a home in the US, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. My country is at war and its soldiers are being killed and kidnapped by terrorists.

Yet, they aren’t bombing Beit Shemesh. My kids are all fed. I have a job when many Olim do not. My family is (thankfully) healthy. My kids are mostly happy. So are their parents. I don’t have it bad really, and the things that are going wrong are more inconveniences than important stuff (well OK, war is more than an inconvenience and I really will be upset if our stuff gets sent to Greece or Cyprus).

The next morning we davened by the Merkazi shul in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The Merkazi shul is very Israeli. Even the Americans there have all been in Israel for many years and have really acclimated to Israeli society. It was a nice quiet davening with a very simple atmosphere. I really enjoyed it.

After shul, we went for the seudah to some old friends from Chicago, Moshe and Ronna Teren. Ironically, they hosted us for lunch when we were newlyweds and had just finished Sheva Brachos. We haven’t seen them in years, yet Moshe recognized me right away the previous Motzei Shabbat at Maariv and Ronna was quick to call with an invitation during the week.

Our kids really enjoyed meeting people who knew us way back when, and I have known them both since elementary school. I have noticed that each time we reconnect with an old friend here, the shared experience of Aliyah naturally makes for further common ground and renewed friendships. Also, people here are naturally inclined to be friendly and welcoming since they remember what it was like to be new olim. Imagine how much more so the feeling is when you already have a bond to the people.

Moshe is one of the Gabbaim of the Merkazi shul and their family has really acclimated to Israeli life. We got a totally different look at things from them since they had a much longer look down the road than anyone else we knew or had met and made Aliyah long before there was a Nefesh B’nefesh around to smooth the way.

On Shabbat afternoon some new friends who had made Aliyah on our flight, Donny and Tzippy Lieberman of Elizabeth, NJ stopped by with their kids for a visit. During the course of their visit we were discussing something about the paper and these articles when Donny suddenly exclaimed, “Wait a second! That is you?”

It seems his mother gets the 5 Towns Jewish Times in Brooklyn and has been reading them excerpts of different articles to compare notes with them. While each Oleh has their own story to tell, the Lieberman’s, like us, have not yet sold their house, were looking for a community where they could have a soft landing to acclimate and adjust in. However, Donny has to travel 3-5 weeks at a time for work and I cannot imagine how tough that will be on Tzippy.

On Sunday, I attended a conference at Beit Hatfutzoth for an organization called MASA. MASA did not exist when you or I attended Yeshiva/Seminary in Israel. It is a relatively new undertaking by a partnership of the Jewish Agency (the folks who try to promote Aliyah worldwide) and the State of Israel (I guess they do too).

MASA is dedicated to increasing the number of youths attending one year study/experience programs here in Israel. It does not affiliate itself with any one religious camp, it solely focuses on whether the program is and teaches a philosophy that is pro Zionism and the State of Israel.

MASA not only promotes these programs worldwide, but it also provides financial assistance to students who may otherwise not be able to afford to pay for this wonderful experience.

Of course, as any other agency, we mostly heard about what a wonderful job MASA does at the beginning of the program with advice for us coming at the end.

This conference was a wonderful way to network within the Yeshiva community as the total attendance was about 60% religious people. It also was a great time to meet some old friends.

At lunch, a Rabbi asked us if our table had an available seat and introduced himself as Rabbi Chaim Pollack of Michlalah. When I took a second look, I realized that he was my old Principal from Skokie Yeshiva and in fact, my graduating class was his last class before he made Aliyah with his family.

When I introduced myself, he amazed me by remembering that he had also taught both my older sister and one of my brothers. When I mentioned that he had also taught my wife Goldie in Michlalah, he said, “Goldie with the red hair?” whom he clearly remembered as well.

One of the treats of the conference was that I was able to take the train straight to Tel Aviv University’s campus. The train is really wonderful. While its benefits to Yerushalayim are still limited since it only travels as far as the Malcha mall, the central/north of the country can be reached very easily by the trains that leave Beit Shemesh.

This is no commuter train like we are used to in the USA. The cars are all carpeted and the seats are like airplane seats covered with fabric. Each section of four seats (two sets of two seats facing each other) has a table in their center, providing for a laptop, newspaper, sandwich or whatever you may need. I have found that I am able to work almost the entire ride, so my hour plus commute each way becomes work time.

On Monday, Batya (age 7) came home from camp having learned a new cheer. Of course, since the camp is conducted in Hebrew, the cheer was in Hebrew as well and Batya has no understanding of what she was saying. What we found fascinating was the way that she had already learned how to mimic the Israeli Raish (rrrrrrrrrrr) sound.

On Tuesday afternoon Goldie (and her brother) pulled the kids out of camp early so that we could meet in the old city and take a tour of the Kotel tunnel excavations. The last time I went on a Kotel excavation tour (1982), we toured a newly opened archeological dig at the southern corner of the Kotel immediately to the right of the Kotel plaza. This tour covered the area to the left of the Kotel plaza where moving northward. We were all fascinated to see the size of the original stones of the Beit Hamikdosh walls as well as the amazing stonemasonry and engineering that was used to put it together.

An especially moving moment was passing the one spot where the Kotel stands directly opposite the location of the Kodesh Hakedoshim. This is the closest spot that Jews can get to site of the holiest of holy places in our religion and we took a moment to stop and daven there. It was an emotionally moving moment, especially considering not only the current world climate, but the fact that we are in the three week period in which we heighten our mourning for the destruction of the Beit Hamikdosh.

On Wednesday, I got a frantic call from Chaya (age 13) that Eema cut her finger and cannot talk. After trying to calm Chaya down I got her to tell me that they had been making salad when Goldie accidentally cut the tip of her thumb which was bleeding profusely.

Goldie refused to go to the doctor or have any neighbor come and pick her up and insisted that I not rush home but that I should stop and pick her up a cellphone as I had planned. So I agreed.

Here is another maddening thing about Israel. The banking system is totally different. Take the ATM system. On Wednesday morning I went to a branch of our bank (Hapoalim) in Yerushalayim to take out money. The ATM machine informed me that if I withdrew the money from the machine I would be charged a 60 Agurot ($.14) processing fee.

That made no sense to me since I was a costumer of that bank, so I went inside to ask about it. I was told that it did indeed cost money to use the ATM. So I decided to use the teller instead. Guess what? To use the teller costs 4 Shekel ($.90). Then they told me that of course all bank fees are only charged to our account at the end of the month (???).

When I asked about these fees they told me I should simply use my debit card since there is no charge for using a debit card at all!

Credit cards are issued by banks based not on filling out a form, but by their long term relationship with each customer. Credit cards also work differently. Essentially, a credit card is just a different kind of debit card. All your purchases are charged to the card and at a specific time of the month the funds are automatically deducted from your bank account.

As a new Oleh without any kind of relationship with my bank I could not get a credit card so all I have is a debit card that I use to pay for as many things as I can since there is no charge to use it and taking out cash to pay for things would cost me money.

Then there are Tashlumin (installment payments). Buying a ream of paper at Office Depot on the credit card? The checkout person asks you how many monthly payments you want them to split your charge over. Groceries? Pay by installments. Of course, since I don’t have a credit card I cannot use tashlumin to pay for things and must pay up front.

I had tried to get a cellphone for Goldie (mine is provided by the Yeshiva) the week before. Since I didn’t have a payment card, they told me that I could not get a phone. When I returned with my debit card, I learned that without a credit card on which to make the installment payments for the purchase of the phone, I could not sign up for a cellphone without paying several hundred dollars for the purchase of the phone upfront.

Since we are trying to keep to a budget on our Shekel expenses against our income here, this was out of the question. So we ended up getting phones from Talk N’ Save, who were able to charge the costs to my American credit card.

Wednesday night, Goldie and I went to the emergency clinic of our Kupat Cholim in the very chareidi Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet neighborhood. This was my first exposure to the Israeli medical system and I was floored.

When we entered, the receptionist asked Goldie for her Israeli identity number, entered that into the computer and directed us to room number one to see the doctor. No forms, no triage, no anything. Just go see the doctor.

We get to the room and the doctor is sitting at his desk reading a book. He put down his book and took about fifteen seconds to decide that she needed stitches, so he led us to the nurses room (I don’t know why they call it that – we didn’t see any nurses the entire time we were there). He proceeded to clean, stitch and dress the wound and then we were done.

The total time for this was approximately 10 minutes from the time we walked in to the time we walked out. In America, we would still have been filling out forms, much less waiting to be seen by the doctor.

With her thumb stitched up, Goldie prepared for our third Shabbat here in Israel, but the first Friday night meal to be eaten at home. We were kind of tired of eating out so much and the kids especially complained about not having Eema’s food. So we decided to stay home and just have a quiet meal to ourselves.

This allowed us also to get to sleep early for a change and prepare for the coming day and week a little more refreshed.

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Mazal Tov to Robert and Jennifer Airley of Cedarhurst and to Zvi and Shari Gherman and their families upon their Aliyah last week with Nefesh B’nefesh!! May your Klitta be Neimah! (May your absorption be pleasant)