Oh What a Crazy Life it is!

As many of you may have noticed Nate and I have not been posting very much lately. We apologize for this, but we promise we have a pretty good excuse. It all started about three weeks before Passover when we realized we had no idea what we were doing next year, had no where to live, and no income coming in, and we had to figure it out ASAP. As many of you know in about two weeks we managed to get answers to all those questions: we got a job at Yeshivat Shvilei Hatorah, a post high school seminary for boys. We are now the new dorm parents for the school, our title being Av and Em Bayit (father and mother of the house). This job involves living in the dorm building the boys live in and being an emergency resource for them after hours, when the Yeshiva is closed, creating a positive environment in the building for the boys, and being the boys parents in their home away from home. The job also involves some teaching, Nate will be running what is called a Chaburah (a study group of 6-8 guys) for an hour and a half a day four days a week and he will be helping to coordinate the evening classes. Further on Thursday nights from 7:30-12:15 Nate will be helping to coordinate learning programs and one night a week Nate and I will have a few boys at a time over for dinner where I will lead a Torah (Bible) based discussion. I will also be the one who brings little treats, such as brownies and cookies, to the study hall for the boys to have a snack with, and I will be making sure, along with Nate, that at the Thursday night learning sessions they have a kiddush (large snack) prepared for them.
This job obviously provides us with an apartment to live in in the boys dorms, we get a salary, and it involves moving to Jerusalem to what is called the Goldstein Youth Village, a very quaint little village for youth programs.

In addition to this Nate and I, as many of you know, are making Aliyah (becoming citizens of Israel). Getting the paperwork together for this took a large amount of time, and we are just now finishing up on getting it all together so come August 26th when we land, we will officially be Israeli. Further I applied, was accepted, and am now in the process of accepting the invitation, to attend Hebrew University, Rothberg International School, for the next two years. I will be studying to get my masters in Community Leadership and Philanthropy Studies.

In addition to all of this Nate and I have had the amazing pleasure of having both sets of our parents, and my brother and grandfather, here to visit us. Nate's parents came first over Passover which was absolutely delightful. We had Passover Sedar to which I contributed a bit with my cooking, with the Fein Family's very very close friends, the Ben-Or's. It was very interesting for me to be at a seder other then that of my parents since I had not ever been to another, for as long as I can remember at least. Of course with this came the sadness of missing my own parents seder, but at the same time I very much enjoyed being where I was. We also did some traveling to Herzaliah, where I had never been before, to go boating and meet some of the Israeli scouts Mom and Dad know, and up north to visit the cousins. It was very nice and we were very happy to get to see everyone. Our favorite part though, we have to admit, was to have Mom and Dad Fein here in our home for the last day of the holiday, to give them a bit of insight as to how we live our lives. We know that they come often to Israel, but where we live and how we lives is very different then what they usually see when they are here, so we really appreciated them allowing us to share it with them. We really hope they enjoyed their stay as much as we enjoyed having them.

Exactly 44 days after Mom and Dad Fein left, during which time we were still finalizing details for next year, my Parents, Brother and Grandfather came for a visit. I have to say that as much as I enjoyed and loved having Mom and Dad Fein, having my Dad, brother and especially Grandfather here was the most absolutely amazing experience in Israel yet for me. This was their first time ever coming to Israel. (My mom, who I of course also had missed very much, had been to Israel previously) To watch the excitement in my dad's eyes as he just absorbed everything he saw, to see the amazement my grandfather expressed at the beauty of everything around him was truly a gift I felt G-d had made just for me. I loved showing them everything I could, although it was not nearly as much as I would have liked to show them due to the constraints of time, and I loved how after seeing each thing they would spend hours talking about after. After living here for a year I have started to take on the Israeli mentality of loving where I live, knowing I am surrounded by amazing things, but becoming numb to it; for these past two weeks, that was 100% impossible. I know they are all planning to return which makes me so much happier because I can not wait to show them more of the country.

I also saw a new side to my dad that I really loved, while he was here. My dad has always been the one who brings the discussion of Torah to the table, he is the one who starts it and the one who proctors the debates. I also always knew he went to the classes at their synagogue, but I never went with him to know how important these classes truly were to him. While he was here, I saw my dad stay up for a full night just learning Torah at Nate's school, I sat with my dad as he had discussions with people learning to be Rabbis and truly challenging them to think, and I really got to see the passion my dad has for Judaism and learning that I am sure deep down I knew existed, but until now would not have characterized him as. My dad tells many people that the reason he learns Torah and the reason he is so passionate about Judaism is because of me and my brother, but Dad, now it has become the reverse, I learned over these past two weeks a new level of passion for Judaism and Torah from you! Thank you for that!

Yesterday my parents left for America, which is why today I can sit down to right this post. I hope that you all accept my excuse for not writing for so long, and understand that our lives have been a bit overwhelming lately. We will try and be more on top of it now, but who knows what direction life will take us. We hope all of you are well and we hope to see many of you soon when we return for a visit to the states in three weeks.

Be Well!

Syrian-Israeli Peace?

Recently it was announced that Israel and Syria have been having diplomatic relations through our mutual friends Turkey. Most of the world hailed the developments has a break through, clearing the way for peace in the Middle East. I, however, am a little more pessimistic.

There a a few things that I'd like to show why I'm pessimistic.
1. What would we gain? The status quo with Syria is peace. We don't fear Syrian attacks like we do from Hezbollah or Hamas. At best this treaty would give us another number to chalk up on the board of countries with diplomatic relations although I do have to admit there is a possibility that Hezboallah/Hamas would lose Syrian support, but that isn't good enough to give up the Golan.

2. The Golan. While people like ex-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz say that we could live without the Golan Heights, since artillery is not as important as it once was (the threat coming more from rockets than anything else). It is abundantly clear to me that high ground is just as important as it once was and will continue to be. In the event that there is a war or terrorist bombardment from the Golan it would allow them to easily hit cities like Tiberias, Sfat, Afula, etc.

3. All this is a facade to remove the discussion of the indictment of our dear Prime Minister due to bribery and fraudulent election donations.

4. The Syrians said that Israel offered them the Golan in return for peace. The problem is is that most Israelis have actually been to the Golan (unlike Gush Katif) and like it. I can't imagine that the Israeli public would support giving up the Golan for relatively little in tangible results (see #1).

5. I find it interesting that the country that is moderating these peace discussions is Turkey. If we remember, back in September it came out that Israel bombed the Syrian nuclear reactor, the country to spill the beans was ... Turkey. Israel flew through Lebanon into Syria and out through Turkey without tripping any alarms and what happens? The spent fuel tanks land in Turkey and that's how the world found out. To me it seems that these two events are connected.

The Jerusalem Post recently reported "The diplomats said Syrian atomic energy chief Ibrahim Othman told the Arab delegates his country could not open secret military sites to outside perusal as long as Syria and Israel remained technically in a state of war." The IAEA wants to go into Syria to inspect, but now that Syria is limiting the inspections the world will start putting even more pressure on Israel to accept Syrian terms (give up the Golan so we can go check out more nuclear sites).

Guess we'll have to see how this plays out, but for all these reasons I really don't think that now it an appropriate time to make peace with Syria.

Our Plans for Next Year

Most of the plans for next year have been finalized, so I thought that I'd catch you all up on them.

We've decided, I suspect a lot of you know by now, to make aliyah. We're becoming Israeli citizens on August 25th when we return from the US to Israel. It's a big decision that we've made, one that will allow us to financially support ourselves while we're here in Israel and that binds us with the future of the State. Come what may, we're now (or will be) Israeli.

Secondly, I've taken a job - that will require both of us to function - as dorm parents to a post-high school Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Shvilei HaTorah. The Yeshiva is walking distance to Nishmat (Naomi's school this year) and Emek Refaim (where I lived when I was on Nativ 7 years ago) - which means that it'll be very different from where we live now. The Yeshiva has asked me to teach a little in the afternoons which will be great experience for the future.

Naomi has been accepted to a Masters program at Hebrew University in Community Development and Philanthropy Studies. Currently she's deciding between starting school or pushing it off another year so she can take time and work first.

Naomi's parents are arriving Monday night, and it's Yom Yerushalayim, the day when Jerusalem was recaptured (reunified) by Israeli forces during the 6 Day War - 41 years ago. It's another big holiday in the Israeli year so it should be pretty cool.

Due to the imminent arrival of the Oppenheim's I hope to fulfill my promise of Passover-Fein Family pictures very shortly.

Oh the Places You'll Go

I don't have that much time right now, soon I'll post some pictures from Mom and Dad's visit during Passover, but for right now I wanted to tell you all our travel plans for the summer.

On July 8th we're flying to the US, we'll be there until August 3rd. Outside of a trip to Cincinnati at the end of July we are splitting the rest of our time between DC and Philly.

On August 3rd we're flying to Australia, spending a week in Melbourne, then three days in Sydney, and then five(?) days in Canberra to see Grandpa Sam.

We come back to the US on the 19th of August so we'll have a week before we fly back to Israel.

There's a lot more to talk about, Passover, Our Plans for Next Year, and that today is Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Independence Day), but those are posts that are coming. Stay tuned.

Trip to Hebron (lots of pictures)

Back in August, Naomi and I took a trip to Hebron in the middle of the night. It was awful for pictures, so when my school (finally) took a trip there I went wild with pictures.

This is my favorite:

It says "Hebron City of the Fathers". This is the city where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah are buried as well as the first place that King David was King over. It's a water tower though you can see an Arab neighborhood on the right hand side.

Hebron as a city has a mixed history, and we were able to tour parts of it. The city is divided greatly since the Oslo accords, Jews are only allowed in about 3% of the total city, which is strange due to that 80 years ago 10% of the population of the city was Jewish. In 1929 there were infamous and deadly Arab riots and due to them the British government forcibly removed all Jews from Hebron (60 people were killed in Hebron alone), and until 1967 no Jew lived there.

Now there is a growing community outside Hebron called Kiryat Arba (which is a name that comes directly from the Torah) and a very small community within Hebron itself. Kiryat Arba is a thriving city built on desolate mountain tops 30 years ago and now has about 6,000 residents.

Next to Kiryat Arba is the "Beit HaShalom" (House of Peace) which is a new Jewish apartment building in Hebron. The Beit HaShalom is very different from the beautiful houses within Kiryat Arba; as you can see from the pictures below it's a house that is still in the building stages, yet people are still living there.

We met with the mother (originally from Baltimore) of one of my Rabbis who actually lives there. She showed us around the apartment building.

Yes that is their stair-well (it's a work-in-progress).

We also toured other areas of Hebron, the Jewish community is spread out between four smaller communities. The areas we were in are old communities, most of which were hundreds of years old but had been destroyed in 1929 and were re-established in the 70's and 80's.

These are Torah Scrolls that are hundreds of years old, the one on the left being 500-years old rescued from Spain from the Inquisition, and were also rescued from the 1929 riots and are now replaced in the synagoge in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.

It was a great trip, Hebron is a very interesting place, at points it can feel like a whole other world. Due to the close proximity of the Jews and Arabs they live with this tangible fear of renewed violence, yet at the same time there are good relations between the communities. I guess it really depends who you're talking about. Hebron, unlike Gaza, is normally a relatively calm place despite the tension it is very rare that there is any serious activity.

Happy Purim!!

Well Purim is here, the first holiday since Chanukah and and we wanted to share something with you.

Among the many traditions that are celebrated for the holiday, the custom of dressing up is taken to a whole other level in Israel. It seems that every Halloween store in the US sends extra stock in March to Israel, it's very strange watching Haredim in Mea Shearim shop for costumes for their children with Scream masks in the background.

Tonight was the first Magillah reading (the book of Ester), with a Purim shpeil to go with it prepared by the students of my Yeshiva. It was a riot, one of the students in my class is a budding-film maker and showed some of his films (His big film can be seen here http://hamansong.com/).

The three other major traditions of the holiday are:
1. Matanot L'evyonim (money/food for the poor)
2. Mishloach Manot (sending food to your friends for them to use in their Purim meal)
3. The Purim Seudah (festive meal, much like the other festival meals, but with Hamentashen)
Basically the idea is to remember other people while we are enjoying the holiday. That and the Megillah itself mentions these concepts.

Tomorrow morning is another recitation of the Megillah and then we are off to Ramat Beit Shemesh for the weekend. On Sunday, Jerusalem celebrates Purim, Shushan Purim, (actually it's all weekend long) so we are going to one of Naomi's Rabbi's house, to celebrate with his family. Jerusalem does it on the day after the rest of the world because it was/is a walled city.

It's a pretty special time in Israel, the whole country has been eagerly anticipating the holiday. I'm sure during our previous descriptions of the holidays, you've understood that there really is nothing like holidays in Israel, and Purim might be the most radically different of them all. It's a holiday that reaches across religious boundaries, it doesn't matter how observant one is, it seems that the whole country is celebrating together.

On an unfortunately sad note, today Naomi's great-uncle Billy (grandpa Julie's brother) passed away. Uncle Billy was a very special man to the entire Oppenheim family, having never married or had children, his nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews were a huge part of who he was. I (Naomi) have great memories of him laughing and making fun with us during all sorts of occasions. It seems very appropriate for Uncle Billy to pass away near Purim, despite that he was not religious, because Purim is a time of making fun and "turning things upside down" and in all my memories of him that is what he did. He always had the funniest smile on his face and always made what seemed straight, sound hysterically crooked. Uncle Billy was also a decorated WWII veteran who had lost much of his hearing as a result of an explosion going off too close to him, sometimes making conversations with him even funnier- and I promise you he would not have had it any other way. Uncle Billy we love you very much and we will miss you greatly. (His funeral will be this coming Monday in Virginia in our family plots.) Baruch Dayan Emet.

I hope to post again on Sunday catching up a few posts I've been meaning to write with some pictures of our adventures in the past month of so.
So till then, Purim Sameach (Happy Purim)!

A Great Israel site

I recently found a wonderful website that really shows some of the picturesque sights we see when touring the country.

http://israelthebeautiful.blogspot.com


Maybe I'll eventually learn how to take pictures like these: