Brrrrrrrrrrr (Article# 73) 2/14/08

It seems like the bad weather comes to meet me every time I come to the USA. Last time it was an ice storm that cancelled my connecting flight and then nine inches of snow in Chicago. This time we were lucky to have an arctic cold front move in. The same day I was shivering in gloves and a ski cap in NY, my kids went to school without jackets.

To be fair, we had bad weather in Israel too. Yerushalayim even had two straight days of snow (which is very unusual). The temperature was so cold that even in Beit Shemesh we had exposed water pipes (from the solar water heaters) bursting and leaking. So we did have some winter weather.

Israel is the most panic struck place when the winter weather rolls in. None of the cars have anything remotely near “all weather” tires, so there are accidents and skids all over the place. Schools close early so that the kids can be home. Even the Beit Shemesh schools considered closing; there was no snow by us, but the teachers from the Gush area had to dig themselves out to get to school.

Thankfully, we only had Aliza home for the school days. Since I work in Yerushalayim and the roads were all closed, I also stayed home for a couple of days. I have friends who work out of the house – I have no idea how they do it. I had so many distractions it was almost impossible to get anything done.

The night I left for the USA, Mordechai had his Kitta Aleph (First Grade) Siddur presentation. The kids from both first grade classes put on a show, and their Rebbi was terrific as he took the roles of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov as the originators of our davening three times each day. Then the Rabbi of the entire community personally presented each kid with his own siddur. Mordechai was so proud.

Having seen many friends in NY I think some of you may be getting the wrong impression about what is going on in our neighborhood. There are certainly tensions between us and our ultra orthodox neighbors. But, it isn’t like they are lurking in the bushes waiting to throw a rock at us as we pass by. Most weeks nothing happens. However, we are trying to work for a time when I can leave off the words “most weeks”.

Last week saw another success at camaraderie. We had a mini crisis (details not important), and instead of throwing stones, writing threatening letters, rioting or some other such actions – they called us. Our Rav got involved and worked out a reasonable solution to the issue and all sides walked away happy – which is the goal, isn’t it?

We are working towards a joint community Melava Malka, a joint women’s tehillim group and other events designed to encourage achdut (unity) in Beit Shemesh. So we have some good progress on this front.

Although Goldie did call me from Israel to tell me that the spray painter was at it again. This time he painted his “modest dress only” message in 3 places. Goldie wasn’t sure who to talk to, but the neighbors did and by the time I called the guys responsible for clean up I found out that the job had already been done. So once again the mess was cleaned up within hours and we hope that this will discourage the guy from coming back, since nobody sees his work anyway.

Our kids got their report cards over the last couple of weeks. We were pretty pleased with the results. Even though they did not know much Hebrew (in most cases – NO Hebrew), they are doing very well academically. Despite the fact that their parents have a hard time helping with some of the homework.

Vocabulary is a major concern. We are an English speaking family. Goldie and I try to speak Hebrew at times, just to keep our skills sharp (and also to get a little nachas in hearing the kids respond in Hebrew). Yet, we have very basic vocabularies and don’t know (or speak) many of the words that Israeli kids hear in their homes as a matter of course. So their vocabularies are not at the same level as their peers.

Looking back, I really don’t know what we expected to see from them as they adjusted. We knew that people have had so many problems coming with older kids on Aliyah. Yet we continued to insist to everyone that there had to be successes as well as failures and were confidently optimistic that our kids would be successful.

Give the kids all the credit though, since it is their hard work that made things happen. Chaya, who is such a different person since we moved, clearly knows more Hebrew than she admits to. Even without bonus points that are awarded to new Olim for the first 10 years they live here – she is well above the passing level in all her courses. Assuming she continues to work hard (ok – and gets the extra help we need to get her because of the language barrier).

We sometimes forget how difficult the past year was for her and the other kids. Ten days ago, I got a call from one of Chaya’s friends at school that Chaya was in the midst of a terrible anxiety attack. A classmate’s father had passed away that morning from lung cancer. When another girl made a comment about the mortality rate of lung cancer Chaya got very distraught.

Although we have been very open with the kids and have encouraged them to ask questions and understand everything that we have faced, you can never tell when something will trigger a memory or concern. Thankfully, we were tipped off by that concerned friend. I was able to go meet Chaya at school to talk with her and comfort her.

I had written a few weeks ago that we knew a family making Aliyah this summer, but that the news of their Aliyah was not yet public. I can now share with you the terrific news that my youngest brother and his family will be joining us in Israel as Israelis. Although things are still up in the air, it even looks like they will start off living in Beit Shemesh.

They had originally been considering other communities, but we know so much about Beit Shemesh and its preschools and services, etc., that we were able to hook them up with most of what they needed in schools and it makes for a much softer landing this way. Also, who wouldn’t want to move somewhere that there will be built in babysitting for your kids.

Our kids were brimming with excitement when they heard the news. These are an uncle and aunt that they have known all their lives, but cousins that they really do not know much, never having lived in the same community. The older kids are excited to have some cousins to help take care of (my brother has one boy and twin girls) and the younger ones have some cousins to play with.

As the last Katz to move to Israel, Ozer’s Aliyah also completes an astounding feat. Had anyone told me ten years ago that my entire family would be living in Israel I would have laughed aloud. Now, it is about to be reality. I think it is time for Religious Zionists of Chicago to honor my parents as Zionists of the Year or something like that!

Strangely, his wife Jenny is also the final one of her sisters to make Aliyah as well. So they really complete the family on both sides. I guess her parents (the Benn’s) should have a similar honor in the Silver Spring community as well.

Of course, since their oldest child is entering Pre1a (or Kindergarten, whatever you call the year before Grade 1), they are making Aliyah in a totally different stage of life than we are in. He will probably even have to do some form of military service in the reserves, most likely as a driver or some other support staff. So it will be interesting to see what they go through and contrast it to our experience in making Aliyah.

Hopefully when he comes to us in March on his pilot trip it won’t be nearly as cold as my visit to him this week (12 degrees in Chicago – not celcius).