Winter Wonderland (Article #35) 1/4/2007

With Channuka vacation over (except for Chaim), we were all excited to get back to work and school. After Succot, we had issues with the kids going back to school. They had been fresh off their first month of school, didn’t know the language, hadn’t started ulpan and were dreading having to go back into such a confusing maelstrom. It didn’t help that they had been away for two weeks and had an opportunity to let their worries stew in their minds.

This time was totally different. They have acclimated themselves socially to their classes. Their Hebrew (all of them) is vastly improved from where they were and even though they are still weak in Hebrew, they can all see a time where their Hebrew will improve.

They are having fun.

Attitude makes a big difference in life. With a positive outlook and much less fear associated with going to school, they were motivated to go back after vacation and looking forward to seeing their friends and telling them about their vacation.

Back in mid-November, I had gone to renew Chaim’s visa. He had been in the country for three months and his visa was due to expire. I had all of the details in order and went to Misrad Hapnim (the Interior Ministry who handles these things) to get things taken care of. Foolish me.

Apparently, although there is no way to know it in advance, you need to make an appointment by telephone in order to renew a visa. With his visa expiring in a few days, I was worried about him being in the country illegally. I went to the head of the Yerushalayim Misrad Hapnim office to try to get an appointment for that day and her words were, “Who cares? As long as he doesn’t try to leave the country it isn’t a problem.”

I couldn’t believe that the government officials were willing to say that, but hey – who was I to tell them? I left my name for an appointment and within a day I had an appointment scheduled for late December, six weeks later.

On Tuesday I returned to the Misrad Hapnim for my scheduled appointment. I had been warned in advance to bring a long book with me to keep me occupied, that I should be prepared mentally to have a big fight with them about some silly point and not get the visa that morning.

However, the reality was so different from what I was warned to expect. Although there were some other people there whose visa “agent” had not shown up that day, forcing them to wait for any available time with the agents who were there, my agent was there and got me into her office early. She had all of our documentation with her, processed the visa without a single problem and I was out of the office with the visa in less than fifteen minutes. So much for the difficult beaurocracy.

There is a section in the paper’s weekend edition where they profile new olim. About a month ago there was a profile of a Chazzan from Toledo, Ohio who had been the Chazzan in Toledo for many years who had made Aliyah. My grandfather (Rabbi Nechemia Katz A”H) had been the Rav in Toledo and my brother had seen the profile and called the paper to find out more about this man and how to reach him.

In his discussion with the editor of that section, he mentioned that he had a brother who had recently made Aliyah who they might be interested in talking to. One thing led to another and on Wednesday afternoon Goldie joined me in Yerushalayim for an interview with a writer for the Jerusalem Post.

The entire week, the city of Yerushalayim had busied themselves with a panic about the possibility of a snowstorm. We had definitely seen a noticeable cool down in the weather from around Channuka. The nights are much colder and even the days that are warm still require jackets or sweaters, especially around Yerushalayim. Rain has also (finally) begun to appear a bit more normally for this season.

Each day of the week, the forecast had called for a possibility of snow, but by Wednesday they had decided it was a certainty for at least one to two inches that afternoon.

The writer called us asking if we wanted to reschedule since the storm was coming. Confused, I responded that Goldie was already on her way and that we would show up.

As we left Yerushalayim, we found about an inch and a half of accumulated snow on the ground amid a heavy snowfall. Initially we were not much concerned with driving since there was not so much snow on the ground. We quickly learned why people get so nervous.

Snow is so unusual that nobody knows how to drive in the snow. Cars were slipping and sliding all over and every driver either assumed that the more gas you give the engine the better the traction or were so afraid of skidding that they drove two miles an hour and there were a ton of accidents.

It took us fifteen minutes to go the first mile of our trip until the turn off to a back road and then only thirty five minutes or so to make the trip home (normal travel time is about 40 minutes maximum) once we were on the back roads and away from the city traffic. It was also amazing to see how the snow turned to rain as we exited Yerushalayim and made our way to lower elevations in the outskirts.

We had dinner that evening with some local friends (all olim who we knew in America) and Eric Zaiman, a friend from Far Rockaway (who I have personally known since college) who was visiting from the USA for a family simcha. Eric had a hard time getting to Beit Shemesh, since all the city bus lines in Yerushalayim as well as to/from Yerushalayim had been totally shut down due to the snow.

The snow was basically cleared from the streets by the next morning (although I heard that there were no taxis willing to venture into the streets until well into the morning). I will say that the next few days I took tremendous enjoyment in driving to Yerushalayim via Beitar and the Gilo tunnel because the snow stayed on the ground in the mountains around Beitar and they were absolutely beautiful.

On Friday morning Aliza took an entrance exam at Ulpanat Chorev in Yerushalayim, yet another option for us (if she is accepted) in our quest to find a middle/high school for her. Being in Yerushalayim gave her the opportunity to see the snow and even to touch it, a fact which she made sure to point out to her siblings.

I personally fail to see why she was so excited about the snow, I would prefer to say that we finally spent a year of our lives not having seen snow at all.

We were told that the test would take her at least ninety minutes, so I took the opportunity to go to Machane Yehuda and get (among other things) some baked goods from the Marzipan bakery there.

I love Machane Yehuda. The open market style of shopping is so exciting. The sounds, smells and sights can be overwhelming at times, but it is truly a unique experience. I wish that Goldie had more time on Thursdays, I think we would both enjoy shopping in Machane Yehuda for Shabbat each week.

We spent Shabbat with our niece Tova who had just a week and a half left before returning to America at the end of her six month Shana Bet program at Shalavim’s girls program. She was very sad to be leaving. We definitely see her making Aliyah eventually and wish she could have stayed longer, since she was an enormous asset to us (especially when one of us was overseas or Goldie was feeling sick and we needed help).

Next year we hope to have another niece joining us for (at least) the year after she graduates High School and the nieces and nephews will (hopefully) keep on coming for many more years.