Israel Part 3: People Instead of Places

Our second week in Israel was about people more than places. We spent Shabbat with my best friend from growing up in Vancouver, Robbie Stocki and her husband Daniel and their kids. Robbie and I have spent time together in Vancouver and Toronto, but I had never seen her house in Modiin, or spent time with her kids. It's amazing to walk into someone's house that you know so well, but live so far apart from, and find out that you have the same cookbooks, wear the same outfits, and have the same gift for each other: a scarf. Our children also instantly started playing together despite not 'getting' each others names. We spent a relaxing Shabbat with the Stockis, and also Robbie's parents, Carol and Peter Oreck who were visiting from Vancouver. Other than my immediate family Carol and Peter have known me longer than anyone, except Robbie. Growing up I spent a lot of time at their house on 37th Avenue, and a trip to Vancouver isn't complete for me without a least a quick hello from Carol. On this visit Carol and Peter also enjoyed getting to know my kids a little better.

 When your kids crash your selfie.

  

Birthday scarves.

 

Yair, Makaio, Dassa and Eden

Leanne, Makaio, Robbie, Yair, Carol, Peter, Daniel and Caramel

The only downside to our Stocki visit is that once Dassa remembered that he could be playing with other kids rather than traveling with his parents, he lost most of his interest in going anywhere or exploring anything. This meant our visit to Tel Aviv had to be more child-friendly than some of our other travels, including lots of beach and park time. Despite this, we saw some lovely parts of Tel Aviv, including the Jaffa area and port, and the gentrifying area of Neve Tzedek. Our trusted guides and host were my cousin Michael Goldberg and his partner Ruth Ish-Horowicz. I hadn't seem Michael since I was last in Israel twenty years ago, but we had been in contact recently because Michael gives excellent

Michael, Ruth and I at Shuk Harcarmel

travel advice. He had suggestions about car rentals,
bus routes, tour sites and even booked our bus  tickets to Jerusalem for us. Ruth kept all entertained with her excellent sense of humour and informed of the royal birth of Archie. She also let Dassa and I play endless renditions of "Hallelujah" on her mother's piano.

In Jaffa with Michael

At Michael and Ruth's I was also able to visit with Michael's sister Karen and my cousin Gilad and his gifrfriend Brit. Michael also took us to visit my grandmother's cousin Libbie at her retirement home. Libbie is 106 years old and moved to Israel at age 99, because she was bored with her Montreal retirement home. (Also her nieces and nephews were

all in Israel). I hadn't seen Libbie since I was child (and I thought she was really old then) but I've been hearing about her for years through my mom and my Israeli cousins. She was thrilled that we came to visit and happily reminisced about my grandparents (who died more than 35 years ago). We also talked about my beloved Bubbie Sophie who  was so kind to me when I was at McGill, and who I used to later visit with my kids when she lived in Vancouver towards the end of her life. 

Now Libbie is mainly blind so she didn't see that Rob had brought his guitar on the off chance that she would like a concert, but other residents did, and they asked that Rob play in their common area. Rob played a few old songs for them, which the residents enjoyed. And Rob once again won the Best Husband Ever award. 


We were also in the Tel Aviv/Modiin area for Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha'atmaot (Israeli Indpendence Day). On Yom Hazikaron the country mourns all the Israeli soldiers who have died in the service of Israel. I watched the ceremony on TV and found it heartbreaking to the point where I had to turn away. However Dassa did offer a moment of levity (as he does) by popping out of his bedroom during one of the songs, and asking if we were watching the Eurovision contest. Israel is

Watching Indepence fireworks

hosting Eurovision this year and we've heard all about it, and how much everyone loves to hate it. Dassa did get his share of  Eurovision at the Independence Day celebration we went to in Rabin Square the next night in Tel Aviv. After a day of mourning, the country turns to celebration with concerts, fireworks,plastic toys and lots of bbq. We were treated to a program of dancing and Eurovision hits throughout the ages. Although my family didn't know most of the music (except for the one French song) it was fun to be surrounded by happy people singing along to Dana International and Netta, among others. 


Our final Shabbat was spent back with the Stockis, where we ate some more, walked the dog, and then ate some more. Actually we went on one tiul

Eating blue and white marshmallows

(field trip) with Robbie and her family to The Ayalon Institute, a munitions factory. That's right, a munitions factory. I was highly suspect of this idea at first, and wondered what the heck Robbie was thinking, but it turned out to be a fascinating piece of history. So, it's a museum where bullets were secretly produced during the period leading up to the War of Independence in 1948 when the Jews in British Palestine weren't allowed to manufacture weapons. I know a lot of you are thinking that this still doesn't sound like the kind of place I'd be into, but I was fascinated by the story of a group of young Zionists who were asked to put their lives on the line and secretly work in this cleverly engineered underground factory. This was shortly after the Holocaust, when Jews weren't welcome in many other countries. It's also before the Nakhba (what the Palestinians call the creation of the state of the Israel) and the complicated fallout of creating a Jewish state on a place that was also important to other cultural groups. Perhaps I'm being a bit romantic, but I was moved by these young idealists willing to put themselves in danger for their beliefs. 

In other news we are coming home soon: June 4th! How do we feel about this? Rob and Makaio would be happy to keep traveling forever, I'm looking forward to the final leg of our trip in France, but also to coming home. And Dassa, he was ready to go home about three weeks ago!