The Daily Grind

It's been ages since we've written (by we: anyone who know us well will be able to tell which half of we is writing this blog!). Life has been very busy and fulfilling lately. We just returned from our 2nd HUC tiyul (trip) where we went up north to Caesaria (site of old Roman ruins), Zipporia (another site of ruins, where the Mishna was written) to Tzfat (very cool hippie-Jewish town and center of Kabbalah) and Haifa. We learned a lot and had some good times. The North of Israel is so different from the rest of the country and met with some really interesting people doing good things in the world of Jewish education, at a school in Haifa.

But enough about our trip- I wanted to give you some info about our daily existence in this amazing country. Both Evan and Jenny are very busy, another big surprise! Evan is playing on the HUC flag football team and has games every Tuesday night. A few weeks ago, Jenny, along with about 25 other HUC students and partners, came to the Homecoming game. Dedicated fans we were, standing there in the pouring rain! Evan loves playing on the team and is quite the athlete as well!

The two of us volunteer every week in Mevasseret Tzion, a suburb of Jerusalem, about 20 minutes away, in an Ethiopian absorption center. We work with a family (picture forthcoming): with Sanay (the dad), Tababu (his son, around 10 years old) and Haftami, his other son who is 6 and the cutest thing ever. The first few weeks were somewhat awkward- they speak better Hebrew than we do, but their first language is Amharic and have only been in Israel for 1.5 years. They are new immigrants and it is funny watching the 5 of us struggling to speak in Hebrew! We play games with them, including Memory and kador regel (Hebrew for soccer). We have developed a very nice relationship with the family and it's a really nice part of our week, getting out of Jerusalem and being in a totally different world. About 2,000 Ethiopians live in the absorption center and life is not so easy for them in Israel- learning to adjust to a very difficult culture, learning a new language, taking conversion classes- the politics of Judaism in Israel...The Ethiopians must take a conversion class here , but that's for another story about the power of the rabbinate in Israel.

Other daily things: Jenny takes ulpan on Monday and Wednesday nights and lyat, lyat her Hebrew is slowly improving! My ulpan class is a wonderful mix that represents Israel- we have people who made aliyah here (from France and the US), students who are Palestinian Christian, Evangelical Christians from Brazil, Czech Republic and Germany, a few people like myself who are here for 1 year, a Catholic woman from Ireland and even a priest who is Palestinian! Many people in my class have lived in Israel for several years too - what a crazy and interesting country this is! One woman has been here for 29 years and is still struggling to learn this crazy language. The take-away from that is not that this woman is not smart, but rather, that there are so many English speakers in Jerusalem that it is possible to get by on English.

Evan just finished his midterms at HUC and is still very much enjoying school. His favorite days is Wednesday, when he has his Israel Seminar and has the opportunity to learn from many diverse characters in Israeli life, including the Israeli "Mr. Television" (everyone called him the Walter Cronkite of Israel), authors, rabbis, settlers, peaceniks and economists.

We promise to write more soon! We're getting ready for Becca and Charlie's visit...YAY! We are going to Petra, Jordan with them and then later on, Molly comes, as does Jodie. It is the beginning of a month full of guests and friends visiting. We're having our annual Hanukkah party this year on Thursday night. Happy Hanukkah!