Coming Full Circle (Article #16) 8/17/2006

From Woodmere to Beit Shemesh

Status report: Our lift is finally somewhere in Israel (more on this next week). My boss is still in the North (in and out of Lebanon). The truce is hours old and has already been violated. We didn’t get our soldiers back. They can still shoot rockets at us. They aren’t totally crushed.

Shabbat two weeks ago was my birthday. Goldie decided to surprise me by arranging to have Amy Schneider (our buddy family) bake a really terrific birthday cake for me for dessert on Friday night. I knew something was strange when she allowed the kids to stay up late to play outside, but was totally surprised when the Schneiders and Airleys showed up with the cake.

Shabbat afternoon after the meal we made what has become a regular trip for us to see what our new home looks like. Our rental home in Ramat Beit Shemesh was under construction when we first saw it last April. Although it needed a serious amount of work, we were assured by the owners and the builder that it would be ready by August 1 and possibly earlier. With our space needs (having 6 kids) we took a gamble and agreed to rent it.

Of course, since we knew we were arriving on July 6th, we needed to make temporary arrangements for housing for our first 3 weeks. We initially found a rental in the Sheinfeld area of Beit Shemesh to rent, but when a home became available within blocks of our future home, we decided to take it since it would give us a chance to get used to a new neighborhood. Both houses were furnished homes, being offered as summer rentals by their owners who were to be vacationing in North America.

We also chose to rent the house for 6 weeks instead of the needed 3. We did this both to give us time to unpack our lift in the new home while still living comfortably in the summer rental and also just in case the house was not ready on time and we needed someplace to stay for an extra week or two.

In the ensuing months, we had gotten calls from various neighbors telling us that the project was moving forward with a lot of activity from the builders. We took this as a good sign (despite the various warnings by my siblings and other friends) that the house would not be ready on time.

Within days of our arrival we went to see the house which we assumed must surely have been close to ready, by the reports we had gotten. Apparently “ready” has many meanings. We had a hard time getting into the house itself since the exterior stairs leading to the front door were not installed and we had to climb a steep concrete ramp. When we finally got up the ramp we were treated to what looked like a massive garbage dump totally surrounding the house.

When we entered the house we saw that each room had walls, a floor and for the most part ceilings. There were no plumbing or electric fixtures anywhere in the house. The kitchen was totally bare. There were no doors installed. The interior staircase was another steep concrete ramp, with board nailed into it for the workers to use as stairs.

We were horrified. Here we were, three weeks away from “moving in” day and the house was nowhere near ready. Remembering that the rental market in the area was really very tight and that there was no way we were going to be able to move in on time, we began to panic. What would we do? We knew we only had a place to live for 6 weeks and then we were stuck, but even worse, all our furniture and belongings were due to arrive the first week in August – where were we going to put them?

We couldn’t even blame the owners. They live 6,000 miles away and rely upon reports by the builder and their decorator. They were repeatedly assured by the builder that August 1 was a realistic date and that the house would actually be ready earlier than then.

So we began to make a weekly trek to the house, checking on the progress. We even began to take other families with us, to see if their thinking matched ours. The unanimous opinion was that we needed to make alternate plans – and fast.

So we started to talk about various options. Some people offered to put us up in there basements. Others suggested that we look into a short term apartment rental. Yet, since our lift was full of our things, we needed to have somewhere to put our stuff, and those options wouldn’t work. We needed to find another home.

And we did.

We had talked about a home in the Sheinfeld area of Beit Shemesh in our pilot trip last April. However, when we talked to the landlord, we felt that the rental was out of reach for us. We explained our budget to the landlord, yet he felt that he could get more for the house so we both decided to move on.

Fortunately for us, as I suspected, the rental market in Beit Shemesh did not support the rental amount he had been looking for, and he did not find a tenant between May and July. This prompted a call to us, and we took a look at the house.

As we got closer and closer to August, we began to see progress in the Ramat Beit Shemesh house. We still didn’t think it would be ready, but it was tantalizingly close. On the other hand, we had originally intended to live in either the Sheinfeld or Aviv neighborhoods of Beit Shemesh and the second house fit the bill in that regard.

The decision became even tougher to make because we had begun to make friends in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Although we have only been here a month and a half, the kids have all begun to find a niche and it wasn’t easy to think of having to do the whole “getting to know the neighbors” thing again.

Goldie had spent a lot of her time making all the arrangements for schools, gan, doctors, etc., and we realized that all that effort would go to waste if we moved. In one way, the war delays worked slightly in our favor since we were able to postpone the decision because our lift was in Greece, so we did not need a place to deliver all of our stuff to.

As soon as we found the “backup plan” house, we contacted the owners of the RBS home, telling them that we had identified an alternate option and that while we would try to hold out as long as we could, that we needed to do what was best for our family and make sure that we had a place to live.

We kept on waiting for the house to be ready, but the first completion date and then the second completion date both came and went, with nothing more than assurances that FOR SURE we would be in within a few days. So we kept visiting the house and hoping we would see that things were finally ready.

I spent almost my entire work week trying to figure out what needed doing for the opening of school. Without my boss, we are really short handed. He has been the key operations person since we opened our doors, and is really the go to guy on all business matters. His absence has left a big void for us to deal with.

Had we had some warning or expectation that he would be gone, we could’ve handled it a lot better. Yet, there is no planning for a war and the need for him and the many other reservists to drop everything to be there to protect us all.

On Sunday night we went to dinner with my sister and brother in law in honor of my birthday. Goldie and I took the Bnei Brak bus bus to Tel Aviv. Halfway through the ride, Goldie looked around and realized that aside from us and another couple seated directly behind us, the rest of the bus was seated by gender. The men sat in the front and the women sat in the back with the two married couples seated as the buffer zone right in the middle.

On Monday I got a call from a car broker that he had found a used 8 seat van for us. We cannot buy a new car until we get our Israeli drivers licenses (at the earliest) and the lack of a car has been a tremendous inconvenience. Even though the taxis are plentiful and cheap, it is just not practical to take a taxi everywhere we go.

The “metzia” was a 14 year old minivan with 380,000 kilometers on it that I could get for the extremely low price of 30,000 shekels (a little under $7,000). This is actually a good price here, but it is still astonishing to think of paying that much for such an old car.

I arranged to have the car inspected by a mechanic on Tuesday to make sure that it was indeed in good working order. This was the best $150 that I have spent here, since the mechanic discovered problems with the oil system as well as the gear box that could have been costly to repair.

Goldie went with a girlfriend to the Beit Shemesh shuk that day. Apparently, Beit Shemesh has an outdoor shuk twice weekly and she was thrilled with it. The fruits and vegetables were cheaper than those in the supermarket (although you still have to check and make sure that Teruma and Maaser were taken) and many of the other items were also great bargains.

She was at one specific fruit vendor and had brought several items up to the counter to pay for them. While the vendor was weighing her choices, she turned to her friend to chat. When she turned back to pay the vendor, she discovered that he was busy adding some onions into her bag from the bin in front of him!

When she asked what he was doing, he said, “but the onions are so fresh and good, I was sure that you really needed more!” She made him put them back, but I don’t think he put back more than one or two since we still have a ton of onions in the house.

On Thursday night, Goldie prepared supper for some new Olim. Amy Shneider was coordinating meals for 3 new families who had moved in that day via Nefesh B’Nefesh. Many of the people in this area have gone on vacation, and there simply weren’t enough people for her to ask. When she told this to Goldie, Goldie immediately volunteered.

She was asked to cook for the family of Darren and Dina Shaw who had made Aliyah from England. When Dina discovered that we had ourselves made Aliyah only one month earlier, she was astounded that Goldie had volunteered to cook for her family.

Friday is my day off, so we had a ton of errands to attend to. Our first stop was the bank, to make deposits and see if we could finally order a credit card. The bank was very crowded, since many people have Friday off. The line for the teller was very long.

They have a really cool machine at the bank to make deposits. I signed the back of my check, and swiped my ATM card. Without filling out any deposit slip or envelope, I slid my check into the machine and a scan of the check appeared on the screen. I was asked to enter the amount of the check into the machine and then got a receipt for the deposit. Of course the charge for making the deposit was 15 cents.

We met with a bank officer and ordered a credit card. When we were done, we also asked her about the fees for using the ATM and the teller. She told us that we actually have 1 year’s worth of a 50% discount on all fees as Olim. She was astounded to hear that such things were free in the US.

We went from there to get haircuts for all the Katz men. Although there is no comparison to getting our hair cut by Sol on Central Avenue, I have to say it was a very interesting experience. The first hurdle was trying to explain how we wanted the hair to be cut in Hebrew. Take a minute and try to do it. Not easy.

We also felt bad for the barber (a nice young Israeli who looked like he had just walked out of the Beit Midrash with a white shirt, black pants and his Tzitzit hanging out). As a non English speaker, he has a tough time trying to explain to Moshe (18 months) and Mordechai (5 years) to sit still or look down so that he could cut their hair properly.

Perhaps the strangest thing of all was the atmosphere. The whole place was filled with religious people. While that is often the case in many 5 Towns haircutters as well, how many of them have the Kumzitz CD playing? When was the last time you were getting your hair cut and everyone in the store (including the person cutting your hair) was singing along with the Jewish Music playing on the stereo?

Our last stop was the new grocery store that opened up. The parent company of one of the major local supermarkets had taken over a chain of supermarkets, one of which was directly across the street from their RBS store. In order to protect against a monopoly, the 2 stores were forced to combine and allow a competitor to enter the market.

The newly combined supermarket opened this week (the competitor will open soon) and we went there to stock up, since their prices are much cheaper than the makolet we have 2 blocks away. It is astounding how much more the neighborhood makolet charges simply because they are convenient. It is almost like shopping for groceries at 7-11.

When we went to check out we picked a line at random. Our line seemed to be moving well, until the woman 2 people in front of us tried to pay for her groceries. It looked like she was trying to pay by check or cash, since she had both in her hands. She was actually trying to do both, making a cash payment for part and a check payment for the balance.

Unbelievably, the cash register in Israel could not process such a transaction. You either have to pay all in cash or all by check, not a combination. So she decided to pay by check. Two checks. One dated that day, and another a few weeks away.

Since “Tashlumin” (installment payments) are a normal part of the Israeli business world, the same cash register that could not accept a cash payment upfront with the balance paid by check had no problem processing two checks (one of them post dated) for the purchase.

We paid via debit card, since our credit cards will not be available until later this week. I cannot wait until we get the credit cards, if only for the opportunity to pay by tashlumin and get an interest free loan from the grocery store.

I got a call on Friday that Rav Benni Pflanzer, my boss who had been in the reserves and in and out of Lebanon for the prior two weeks had been given a Shabbat leave to spend with his family. I had the chance to speak with him for a few minutes and it was nice to know he had a chance to be home, if only for a day and a half.

I also got a call from my sister. She had been to Haifa that morning for the Brit Milah of a new nephew. She made every effort to attend the brit with all her kids, since this Simcha immediately followed the shiva for the Grandmother of the new baby (I went to Haifa the week before to be menachem avel for this family). The birth itself came during the shiva, with the new mother going straight from the shiva house to the delivery room.

While at the shul, there was an air raid alert followed by 2 large explosions that shook the entire shul. A few minutes later, there was another alert followed by 2 more explosions. In all, 4 Katyusha rockets landed just 3 blocks away from the shul where the Brit was being held.

She described how truly terrified she felt, since there was nowhere to hide in the building. She also told me how guilty she felt afterward for possibly exposing her children to such danger and how terrible she would have felt had something happened to them.

She mentioned that her husband actually thought that where the rockets landed was a miracle. Apparently, they landed in the highway just outside a high tech office building district, blowing out all the windows of the mostly glass buildings. It being Friday, all the offices were closed – so no one got hurt!

When she described the location to me, I mentioned that I thought I remembered the buildings from my drive out the week before. Her response? “You should – they landed right in the middle of the highway that you were on!”

We hosted Nesher and Chaia Broderick and their family for Shabbat lunch the next day. It was nice to spend time with “old friends” and hear all about their NBN experience and how it differed from ours. We had actually had a few minutes on Thursday night to visit with them and Shulie and Ronnie Baruch who had also come in that day, but it was nice to have a leisurely time to catch up with each other.

On Saturday night I got a ride to Chashmonaim with Dudy and Jenny Rokach who are here for a two week vacation. They were actually visiting some friends in Modiin, and were gracious enough to give me a ride so that I could pick up my brother’s van which I am using for 10 days. He had made arrangements to lend his van out to someone else before we decided to make Aliyah and the other family had returned to the US.

I cannot describe how much easier life is with a car. Mordechai and Batya (age 7) started a mini ulpan on Sunday. This ulpan is run so that the new olim can get a feel for the normal Israeli school day schedule/routine, before school actually starts. Goldie was able to drive them to and from the ulpan and take Aliza to the doctor (cold and congestion) as well as drop me off and pick me up from the train.

She went to the store to pick up school supplies for the kids and was able to offer a ride to other olim, who also had no car. Having the car is incredibly liberating.

The “truce” was ratified on Sunday as well. I will be the first to admit that I am not yet in tune with Israeli politics and Israeli thinking. However, I do know that (as I wrote in the first paragraph of this article) PM Olmert clearly stated that the government had 3 goals for the war. As I see it, none of them were accomplished (the worst being that we did not get our soldiers back).

Over 100 soldiers were killed and approximately half that many civilians were killed as well. The armed forces were completely handcuffed by the government and the medias ability to instantly “spin” every action, as well as our policy to warn terrorists (via leaflet) exactly where our forces will be in the next few days so that they could have time to set as tough a trap/ambush as they could. Twenty percent of the country either lived in their bomb shelters or as refugees in communities nationwide. To what end?

Yes, we destroyed thousands of rockets and killed hundreds if not thousands of terrorists. Yes, we advanced as far as the incredibly strategic Litani river. Yes, we showed the world that we can attack at will.

Yet, we did not achieve our stated goals. We failed in the mission that we set for ourselves. And the Prime Minister had the audacity to publicly state that he thinks the war will serve as a conduit for his plan to give away more land. I hope that we have time and the opportunity to make a change before that happens.

I think change is sometimes necessary. Not only on major issues but on minor ones as well. We took another look at the RBS house on Monday night. Although we had been told that we could move in on the day before, we found no faucets (and therefore running water) anywhere in the house, loose wires where many light fixtures/outlets were supposed to be, open 10 foot pits at the sides of the house and came to the general conclusion that it was not only impractical, but possibly also dangerous for us to occupy that house.

While we really did not want to do so, we will be notifying the owners of the house (whom we thankfully did not sign a lease with) that the house is still not ready and we cannot live in it. They have told us that they have a backup tenant in case we back out, so they can at least cover themselves.

Interestingly enough, we started the whole process of searching for a home in the Nofei Aviv and Sheinfeld areas of Beit Shemesh. We almost decided to go to Chashmonaim and actually did decide to go to Ramat Beit Shemesh.

As someone mentioned to me about the war as well, the plan is not one that you or I have seen. The war happened exactly as it was supposed to happen, according to the plan upstairs. The same thing applies to our house. All our plans were for naught; someone else’s plan took priority and we will be right where we were intended to be from the start.

Mazal Tov to Nesher and Chaia Broderick, Dov and Lauren Greenberg and Gary and Suzanne Wallin and their families upon their Aliyah last week with Nefesh B’nefesh!! May your Klitta be Neimah (May your absorption be pleasant)! Mazal Tov also to Ronnie and Shulie Baruch and their family who also moved to Israel last week (although not via NBN)! A special welcome to Benjamin Baruch who was the inspiration to his parents making the move and is a special friend who always finds a way to make my day!