In addition to the Army Stress

Last week was quite the emotional week. As Nate mentioned we spent the entire week waiting to hear about the army (although he did not mention how each day we would get an answer but they were each different answers, which only confused us more), I had a lot of highs.

It all started off when on Monday I was speaking with a professor of mine concerning a research paper I am doing, which I hope to title "New Jewish Philanthropy: is the Social Media Market the new tool for making an impact and raising funds for Jewish organizations?" The professor is very excited I am researching and writing about this topic, as am I (I hope to turn it into my master thesis one day), and because of his excitement has decided when I am done to submit it to a pretty famous Jewish philanthropy journal to be published. In order to add credibility to it, he will submit it (with my name on it of course), which will further my chances. This means, I could be a published writer by next year.

Then, later that day, I left school, taking the bus home as usual, and about four stops away from school, about 3 miles away from home, traffic came to a standstill. As many of you may know, last week we had the "pleasure" of having the Pope come and visit us here in Israel. This had quite the impact on me, and my days, since he was staying on my University campus, and therefore every day was quite the hassle to figure out how to get onto campus and how to avoid the traffic to do so. Well, Monday night was my first hassle to face. I finish classes at 6pm, it was 6:30 when I found myself stuck in traffic, and I had exactly 1.5 hours to get home, cook dinner, eat dinner, and start working for my Secretary in Israel client. SO, I decided to walk. Yep, that's right, I walked the entire way home. Oh, yes, and I should mention, last week began our first heat wave of the year.

On my walk home I was stopped by a police officer (I was about half way home at this point) who told me to freeze and started guarding me so I could not move. My first thought was, "Oh crap, he must have seen me J-walking back at the last corner and is giving me a ticket. That stinks!" After about a minute of him just staring at me and listening to his ear piece, I said (in hebrew of course), "Um, excuse me officer, can I help you? Do you need something from me?" He replied, "Yes, I need you to just not move." Okay this was very weird, and very annoying, I really had to get home. After standing still for about 5 minutes (I even tried to put my bag down and was told to stop moving) I heard sirens. As I looked to the direction from where they were coming I saw, guess who? The Pope! He and his entourage were coming down the street, and I was not allowed to move, in order to ensure their security.

As soon as they passed by, I was told I could go on my way, but I had to walk in the opposite direction to where the Pope was headed. Not a problem, that is only 15 more minutes out of my way.

As I continued to walk, my phone rang, and it was my boss from Secretary in Israel. All I could think was, oh, no I am late. Nope, she was calling to ask me if I would do her a favor and let someone doing some research on outsourcing to call me and interview me. Sure, why not, afterall I am not so busy (I am only doing full-time grad school, intensive hebrew classes daily, and working 25 hours a week for one company, and another 10 for another). Well it turned out this interview was with Israel's channel 2 TV station (equivilent to CBS in the U.S.) and they wanted to come to my house and video me working for my clients in the US (I am being outsourced, right here in Israel) and ask me a few questions. After a long struggle of figuring out when to do it, since the community we live in was celebrating their 60th anniversary last week, and there were lots of parties going on, we finally found a quiet hour on Wednesday evening. Here it is!

Then on Wednesday night, I received a phone call from someone in the office of the One Family Fund in NJ. She called to inform me that I had been selected as the summer fundraising intern, and my job would be to create a new fundraising program for the organization. This was awsome, I would get school credit, great experience, in the state Nate and I would be moving to in about a year, and some extra cash.

So between the army, school, the pope, and me becoming a TV star, and finalizing my summer plans, this was quite the week. Oh yeah, I also had two midterms to take during all of it!

My Army Experience (long)

I've been meaning to write this post for a while - almost a month - but I didn't want to do so until I had a definite answer. Reading this post will hopefully not only take you through what I've gone through recently, but also an insight into the Israeli bureaucracy.

As most of you know, the Sunday after Passover, April 19th I was scheduled to have my tzav rishon (first notice) and appear at the lishkat giyus (recruitment office) in Jerusalem. It's actually located near the tachana merkazit (Central Bus Station) but if you didn't know where it was you'd never run across it. My appointment was at 7:30am, and I arrived a few minutes early so I waited outside while all the soldiers who man the lishka showed up for morning roll call (this is the army after all) and with a few other guys (my age, looking American too) showed up all waiting, not only to go in, but apparently also for that elusive "moment of truth" - would we really be going into the army?

As I headed in, I met the receptionist who took my teudat zehut (ID card) and handed me a plastic swipe card and told me to head up to the blue computer upstairs. Thankfully my friend Avi went through this six-months before so I knew what to expect, though it didn't really prepare me. On the third floor was a hallway with people sitting on benches, and two computer terminals. At each of these terminals, you swipe your card which puts you into that area's system in the order that you swipe. Only this one didn't work. So after 10 minutes of waiting with the number of people in the hallway building (everyone looking older than 17, making them immigrants of some sort - not just Americans), the soldiers (all female in this particular office) come out asking for our ID's. The find our file inside then ask us one-by-one to come inside for our interview.

The room felt like a scene from a generic movie with an office - think the Daily Planet in Superman or The Office - lots of cubicles next to each other. I found my spot and the soldier began asking me questions; my history, family background, etc. Normal stuff, except they wanted to know random info: "what Elementary School did you go to"?. A friend of mine came in after me, and within 30 minutes left. Still I answered questions. All the while the soldier was asking her peers what to do. Great a newbie. Then came the psych eval; "do you feel the need to hurt people"? Well that depends, does a 30 minute interview take 3 hours or not? Finally I finished, with them requesting that I fax them a copy of my University diploma - strange, but whatever.

From there I moved onto the medical exam - "Go see the purple computer on the second floor". Height, weight, a quick drug test, eye exam, etc. Great no problem. Except no doctor for the eye exam, no biggie right? Went into the physician, asked my about my medical health. I was warned "Tell them everything, they'll find it out anyway". I wasn't really sure how they'd do that, but I wasn't going to check to see how true that statement was. After I finished with the doc, which is the last step in the tzav rishon you're supposed to get your profile number. "You don't have a profile". "Why not?" "The eye doctor isn't in." "Right, so when will he be in?" "I have no idea, you have to come back." "Come back?" "Yup." So I left, realizing that this soldier wasn't going to be of any help.

A few days later a friend of mine got his taarich giyus - date of enlistment. Well, I guess it's time for me to get this eye exam done. But how? Well I called up the lishka, no answer. Great. I'll send them an e-mail - still no answer. Hmm... I asked the Business Director of the Yeshiva, Avinoam, if he could help (he's a Colonel or something like that in the reserves) to no avail. So I called up the central office a day later, and asked how do I make this appointment.
"You have an appointment."
"Really?"
"Yeah, this coming Sunday at 9:30."
"Fantastic. Oh one more thing, how am I supposed to know about this appointment?"
"I just told you."
"No, I mean if I didn't call"
"Well, I guess we're supposed to send you something."
"Right."

Right then and there, I said to a friend of mine: "Watch, I'll get it after my appointment's already over".

I showed up, now two weeks after the original tzav, back to the lishka for the eye exam. Handed the receptionist my ID, got my card, and headed upstairs. This time, instead of 20 something immigrants, I found 17 year old Israelis everywhere, and they were mostly female. The lishka took on an entirely new atmosphere. Already a pro at this, found my terminal, swiped the card and waited. A minute later I was called in, and after 5 minutes I was done.

"So when will I know about my giyus?"
"You'll get your draft notice in the mail"
"How long will that take?"
"Eh, about a week."

More waiting. Only this time, the patience of the Yeshiva I work for is understandably wearing thin. Avinoam, the business manager, wants me to go back and break down doors to find out. Everyone else, is telling me to wait. So I waited. And as I got impatient I decided to call Nefesh B'Nefesh (the people we made aaliya with) to see if they could help. Their contact with the army said that I might not have to go in. Okay, but that doesn't really help.

More waiting...

We spent Shabbat in Chevron (Hebron), at which point Naomi and I were basically feeling that I might have to go serve. And if I did it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I've always wanted to, but despite the fact that I would loose my job and our housing, we could do this for a year - and it would help my Hebrew a lot, which would be a big benefit in the future. Okay, so if I get drafted I'll go, if not then I wont.

We left it up to the army.

Well, Nefesh B'Nefesh just called and told me that I've received a medical profile too low to be drafted at my age - if I was 18 I'd still go - but not now. Instead of receiving an full fledged exemption, I'm in what we call maagar (reserve list); meaning that if needed, I can be called up for a short service, in war time, etc. Okay. So now I can go on with my life now, keep my job, and our housing - yet at the same time there is this twinge of regret. Oh well, next time I guess - right.

We have bought tickets

Just after I posted the last blog post Nate and I found a great deal on tickets. We come in on June 24th and will be living in Teaneck, NJ, by my cousins the Goldfishers, until August 24th. Nate will be working at Camp Shalom in Passaic, NJ, as a summer camp counselor and a learning Rebbi, and my plans...well are still in the planning stages. BUT, hopefully they will be in the confirmations stage by the end of this week.

Army service: As we explained before Nate went in to the army office for his first meeting, which was inconclusive. He has a second meeting scheduled for this upcoming Sunday. We are hoping to get him excused, but we have started to formulate a backup plan if we cannot, the details of which I do not want to share quite yet, for the sake of the people involved (don't worry it is legal).

Moving back the U.S.: Nate and I have a meeting today at Nefesh B'Nefesh to discuss what will happen if we move back, in terms of finances, since they helped us move here officially. They have the right to require we pay back every bit of assistance they provided, since the contract we signed when they gave us the assistance states that if we move back to the U.S. within three years of our making aliyah (not of our moving here) we may be required to pay back the grant, unless we can prove there is a need to move back. Today, we hope to prove that need.

Life in Israel: Over the past week we have had the opportunity to celebrate Yom HaZikaron and Yom Haatzmaut in Israel. These "holidays" (I use quotation marks for Yom HaZikaron, because it is a memorial day, and not for Yom Haatzmaut) are an entirely different experience here then they have ever been in America. They hold so much meening, and pride among the Jewish people here. I can only hope that after moving back to the U.S. Nate and I will find a way to continue to make them meeningful in our lives, and G-d willing one day, in the lives of the children that we will hopefully have. Yom HaZikaron, or Memorial Day, is not just another day for sales and BBQ's. It is actually a day to remember those who lost their lives in service of their country. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in this country, makes their way to the cemetaries. Streets are closed, and vendors are selling flowers on the streets. Nate and I did the same, both as part of a trip with the boys from the Yeshiva, and as a personal visit. We went to Har Herzl, the national IDF cemetary. We listened to the speaches by the prime minister and by other dignitaries and we cried with the kaddish of a father whose son died in the most recent war in Gaza. Afterwards Nate and I made our way to visit the grave of Mike Levin as we have done so many times before. We had a special treet in that Mike's mom was in visiting and we were able to spend some time with her.

The switch from this day to Yom Haatzmaut, Independence Day, which takes place roughly around 7pm, is almost magical. You go from a country in complete mourning to a country in complete celebration. The official sign in Israel of the begining of Yom Hazikaron is a siren to cause people to stop and take a minute to remember. The sign, however, for the the begining of Yom Haatzmaut is fireworks. Every city has a huge party sponsored by the city counsel. And there is a joke that the Rabbis have made a decree that you must have a BBQ on Yom Haaztmaut. The truth is most people take that "decree" pretty seriously. No stores are open on Yom Haaztmaut, and I mean no stores- not even the grocery store. The day is filled with celebrations and people doing hikes and just enjoying being in Israel. Also, on this day, is the official Tanach Bee- that is right. Every year on Yom Haaztmaut, Israel sponsors a world-wide Tanach bee (like a speling bee but with Bible). It was quite amazing, and I was quite impressed with the American who came in third place. A bit different then your 4th of July (not that America is not special in its own way).

We look forward to a very joyful Lag Ba'omer next week, and of course my, not so celebrated, midterms. Hope all are well!

Our Trip

So I finally am taking the time to post pictures of our trip. These are mostly of our time in Amsterdam, but a few are of America too.

Enjoy!

What's up Next

After returning from a much needed visit to the states, Nate and I are trying to organize our new plans for our future. As my mom reminded me our plans change quite often, but as usual we hope this one will be more of a permanent plan. Let's hope for the best.

As Nate said he applied to Yeshiva University's Azrielli Graduate School Program, and we will hear within the next few weeks if he got in. He applied for their summer program which Nate no longer has as much of an interest in as he did before, due to their cancellation of the ability to do student teaching in Israel, and the deans suggestions that it was not their "greatest" program. We are hoping if Nate gets in that we can defer the acceptance to the following year (2010) to do the full two year program in the U.S. That's right in the U.S. Nate and I now have plans to move back right after I graduate from Hebrew U. These plans are exciting yet daunting. We will finally be able to be around more family, which we have truly missed, yet I will have to get a "real" job, full time, and enough to support us, while Nate will be in school. Nate hopes to do both graduate school for his Masters in Education and Smicha at Yeshiva University at the same time. The grad program is two years and the smicha is four. He is hoping to travel to the U.S. in November to attend his old roommates wedding (yay for Yoni) and have the necessary interviews with YU for smicha. Wish us luck!

I will be coming in later in the year, with hopes to have interviews set up for jobs (all suggestions welcome) and to find us a place to live. Our goal is to live in the Northern NJ area (Nate is not all that excited about this prospect) in order to be close to NY for Nate's schooling, but not actually in NY for my sanity. Hopefully I will be quite marketable having just finished an MA in nonprofit management and fundraising, in a time where hopefully things will be turning around.

Until we move back, however, we have a lot to deal with. First on the agenda is Nate's army service. He went in for what is called his "tzav rishon" his first call up meeting with army, where they did a number of psychological tests, physical-health tests, and he had a long interview, so the army could determine how healthy he is and ready for the army. As it turns out, he could not finish the appointment because the eye doctor was not in to do an eye test, so hence we do not have any answers yet. It was told to Nate by the physician, however, that he doubted Nate would be a combat soldier because of his ankles. As sad as it is, because we wish he could serve, we are actually hoping for Nate to get an exemption. We believe it is every Israeli's obligationt to serve int he army, and we plan to encourage our sons to serve in the army and our daughters to take part in what is called "Sheirut Le'umi," "national service," yet we now have a very real understanding of why most people who serve begin when they are 18 or 19. Nate is trying to move on with his professional career, and this would be quite problematic for that. Not to mention we are not sure how we financially would survive it. All these things, though, are supposed to be taken into consideration by the army when determining Nate's elligibility to serve.

After we figure out the army we are moving onto figuring out this summer. We both received camp counselor position offers for the summer, and they are in the U.S. My cousins, the Goldfishers, have kindly offered to let us house sit for them while they are away for the summer, in Teaneck, NJ. The camp we are leaning towards working at, Camp Shalom, is in Passaic, but they offer transportation to counselors from the Teaneck area, so it should not be too difficult. I, however, have a job, as many of you know, as a virtual assistant, and am nervous I would lose my clients due to my inability to work for them during day time hours (when they need me most) because I would be working for the camp. I am giving myelf a few weeks to figure out what to do, including trying to see if I can get enough work, and so too enough pay, as a virtual assistant to not work at the camp, and just continue as I am doing. Nate is also looking into getting work as a Mashgiach for the summer, since the pay is much better. At the same time, we are checking daily for tickets to fly into the U.S. which are not very cheap right now. Hopefully this part of our life will figure itself out soon too!

Lastly, we have started to try and figure out the lagistics of what it means to have just made aliyah and need to move back to the U.S. We have every intention of coming back to live here on a permanent basis. We love Israel, although it has proven to be difficult to live here, but we do believe ultimately this is our home. We very much hope that some family members will consider making aliyah (don't worry some already are) as well, so when we return we will not feel as alone. However, this does not exclude the fact that we did make aliyah already, received grants and assistance from the government and Nefeshe B'Nefesh, on the condition we were to stay, and now are returning to the U.S. We have already started to contact the necessary people and look forward to working this out.

Anyway, there is your update for now. Sorry, when we were in the U.S. for pesach we did not see many of you, but we truly just needed some family time with our immediate family, and since it was a short visit, that was our priority. Hopefully we will have a chance to see you all this summer.

Be well!

p.s. Pictures of our trip will be posted soon!

It's Been a Long Time Coming

So it’s been a long time since we’ve updated the blog, and I’d like to catch you all up on the past month or so.

I’ve taken my GRE’s so that I can apply to grad school in the states - I’m particularly interested in the Azrieli School of Education at Yeshiva University in New York. It offers a Masters in Jewish Education that I can do during the summers and student teach here in Israel during the year. I’m currently working on the last part of my application which I hope to submit soon.

Apparently I did well on the test, which is a good sign for my application, but the whole experience was interesting. Since we’re not in the US you can’t just take them whenever you want, so I registered to take them in Tel Aviv. I had to leave home around 9am so that I could take a bus to Tel Aviv and walk from the bus station to the building that has the office I needed. (Strangely the Canadian Embassy is housed in the same building).

Naomi and I also participated in one of the greatest events ever. We voted. While that’s not so cool to most of us, it was an enthralling experience here in Israel. Firstly, it seems sometimes that in Israel if it should take 10 minutes to do X and it could take an hour, it’ll end up taking three hours. Yet, voting was a cinch. The decision process, however, not so much. I’ll leave that out, but once we decided who we’d vote for - you go it, show your ID to the election monitors - and then choose one slip of paper with the party on it, place it in an envelope, and place it in the blue box. That’s it. Simple, basic, and very low tech.

Check out these pictures:

You get these envelopes, signed by both of the election monitors that are present.


Each card is a vote, you choose the card with the letter(s) of the party you want to vote for.


Place the party you picked (not our pictures, we voted for someone else) into the envelope

Place the envelope into the ballot box (made out of cardboard) and then you're done. Like I said, low tech and easy.
Naomi's started her second semester of Grad School at Hebrew University. She's done pretyt well so far, and the second semester is continuing in that manner. She's also been busy with some work she's picked up as well; she's taken on a few clients working online for people in the states, and though it's only party time it helps out a lot financially.
Purim happened here at the Yeshiva, which was great fun, though trying to keep track of the 44 kids was tough. But we dressed up and had a good time nonetheless.

Spring time in Israel is beautiful, not only the desert, but the whole country starts to bloom. We went up north with the Yeshiva recently, for shabbbat in Tzfat. It was beautiful and from Har Meron you can see Har Hermon (still white capped with snow).





We're getting ready to head back to the US for Passover, with a brief stopover in Amsterdam each way. We're hoping to take a few of the sights in our 24 hours there (total). We're planning to see the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, the Flower Market, etc. I've been there before four years ago, but I still never got to see all of the things that I wanted to. Anyway, we'll be in Philly for a week and DC for a few days including the Seder. We're hoping to see a bunch of people while we're around and the cherry-blossoms which are blooming this time of the year in DC.

Hopefully the next update will take place sooner since we're on break for the moment.

A True Act of Kindness

This past Sunday, the Yeshiva that I work at was host to one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. You all know I've traveled the world, I've seen a lot, and I'm very grateful for the opportunities that I've had, yet with all the beautiful cities and amazing experiences I've had, I've never quite had one as truly awe inspiring as this carnival.

Around 300 children from Ashkelon (one of the major cities living within range of the rockets from Gaza) came to the Yeshiva, so that we could give them a day off – just a day to be a kid again – due to the incessant rain of rockets they've experienced over the past year they've rarely had time to just enjoy themselves without that feeling that at any time a missile could strike. An anonymous donor paid for the entire event, from busing the children to Jerusalem, the rides,
our Staff t-shirts, and the food; what a way to truly make an impact.

We set up and manned a dozen different rides and games for the kids, moon bounces, motorcycle races, basketball games, slides, etc. We each had a role to play in the event, some of us were running the booths and playing with the kids, some of us were serving them cotton candy and popcorn, and some of us worked the DJ booth. The most impressive part of this whole event – was not that it was set up within three days – but the faces the kids had on the entire time. Kids go nuts for these carnivals all over the world, but when they live in mortal
danger day in and day out, and then they have this event – it brings the idea of charity to a whole other level.

Take a look at these pictures, you'll see just how great this event was.