A view from Galil Mountain Winery, delicious world-class wine, June 2008
A photo I took this summer while on our trip in Israel. But the photo needs some explanation.
Unlike in the U.S. where we have friendly Canada to the north and Mexico in the south, Israel is surrounded by unfriendly neighbors. The Jordanian border on the east is the quietest, and some Israelis have even been traveling there. But what you see here is a Hizbullah flag (circled in purple), very close to an Israeli guard station (circled in orange). Just two years ago the North was the scene of an ugly war. My friend who lives in Ma’alot lived in a bomb shelter for a while, but then she and the younger members of her family went down to Beit Shemesh in the center of the country for the remainder of the war.
Now the war is in the South… Hamas, which was elected by the people of Gaza, has chosen to spend the millions it receives in aid to stock weapons and attack southern Israel. While Hizbullah was created by Iran, Hamas now receives much of its weaponry and funding from Iran.
This isn’t supposed to be a political blog, so I won’t be telling who to vote for in the next election. But as I can’t seem to concentrate on what I was thinking of writing about (I thought about writing about how to get my daughter to pick her jacket up from the floor, see what a contrast?).
So I leave you with some links:
War written by the Sandman, an anesthesiologist in Israel
Israeli News Ricki’s mom strays from her usual topic of her daughter Ricki, a spunky 14-year-old with Down Syndrome.
Conflict In Gaza: Primary Sources (Daniel Saunders quotes the Hamas Covenant, which makes it clear Hamas is against Jews, as opposed to saying ‘Zionists’)
Jack is continuing with his Gaza Round Up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (many, many more links…)
A view from Mitzpeh Netofa, Galil, Israel taken in June 2008
If you are a religious Jewish girl finishing high school and ready to spend a year in Israel, there is now a great option available to you. I got an email from my cousin who lives in Mitzpe Netofa about a new program called Midreshet Netofa.
Just so the rest of us can at least talk about our envy, here are some highlights of this program:
Learn by going on hikes and touring.
Explore creativity in art: light and form, perspective and composition, technique, elements of drawing, photography.
Meet with olive growers, wine makers and farmers as you learn about mitzvot associated with the land.
Learn about Kashrut in the classroom, in the kitchen, and out in the field.
Visit art museums, cultural centers, and performing art complexes.
Connect texts to Mitzvot between man and his fellow man.
Create your own family genealogy in the art studio.
Develop individual expression through dance, movement and music.
Study texts (such as Judges or the Book of Esther) with a focus on women.
Participate in events throughout the country for Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom HaAtzma’ut, and Yom Yerushalayim.
It’s still gray in New Jersey. I heard great news: it’s raining in Israel! As you will be able to see from my photos, Israel is a pretty dry country. It doesn’t rain all summer. Last June we drove down to the sea to go for a hike in Ein Gedi, a beautiful oasis near the Dead Sea. The above photo, taken from the car, shows the mountains on the right of the Dead Sea and some of the shrubbery by the sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on Earth.
In this photo you can see the sea. We stopped the car for a bit, and I took this photo.
Here is Ein Gedi. It’s a great place for hiking, nature viewing, taking a dip. There’s a short and a long hike; we took the short one, but to my daughter it felt like the longest hike of her life.
Please click on the photos to really get a good feel for the area.
Some of the waterfall areas were crowded with people enjoying the water, but this little area we had to ourselves.
On the way back my husband and boys took a quick dip in the Dead Sea. My daughter fell fast asleep in the car, so I waited with her. Even though this is my 5th trip to Israel, I still have yet to take a dip in that salty sea!
Meet some of the delightful critters we saw at Ein Gedi (hyrax, ibex and tristam grackle):
It’s cold and gray and *not* snowing (we got just a sprinkle) in New Jersey (I like snow, it makes me happy), so I am reaching into the archives and bringing you this tall, pretty flower (agapanthaceae or agapanthus, thank you to my brilliant European blogger friends, Ilana-Davita and Jientje) that I photographed last July in the City of David outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz, for this lovely and fun meme.
Sunday in New Jersey was bleary, gray and rainy. So instead of posting a new photo I went back in the photo files to early July, when we were about to explore the tunnels in the old, old City of David (learn how old by reading my previous post on our tour of the City of David). In this photo, my daughter is seeing how high the water might go up on her body when she travels in the wet part of the tunnel. In the end, my daughter and I went through the dry section of the tour, while my husband and two boys enjoyed fifteen minutes of sploshing around in the water to get to the other side.
Thank you to Mary for this meme where one can post any photo with a lot of red or a little red. Happy Ruby Tuesday!
Benji at What War Zone? is hosting Haveil Havalim 193, Not Your Father’s Edition. If you click on it, you will see a photo that I’m not too crazy about (and some may find offensive?). But earlier this week he was posting about a cat called Humusface. If you click on that one, you will get a much cuter photo, but you won’t get a blog carnival with the best of the Jewish blogosphere, including two of my posts.
Why are there so many stray cats in Israel? My husband told me the British brought them over in the 1920s and 1930s to combat the rodent problem. When I was first in Israel in 1980, my aunt admonished me not to pet the stray cats. They were pretty straggly looking. As the economy has gotten better in Israel over the last thirty years, the stray cats have started to look better, as you can see by the kitten I photographed in the Old City of Jerusalem last July.
I took this photo last July at the Jaffa Gate outside the Old City of Jerusalem. I’ve wanted to post it, but I needed to rework the face in Photoshop so her face is no longer recognizable.
Why is she looking up, but holding the prayer book in her hand? Is it a book of Tehillim (Psalms)? What is distracting her?
Riva Ben-Ezra started Dulce Catering as a means of serving the smaller events in people’s lives – Shabbat dinners, birthday parties, Sheva brachot*, and other small gatherings. Based in Hashmonaim, Israel, Dulce Catering makes mouth-watering meals for small groups, artistic dessert platters, and eye-catching birthday cakes for your special occasion. All food is strictly kosher. Dulce also packages gift baskets for Purim and all year round.
For the past year Riva has run the first and second grade Beit Yeladim on Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, cooking and baking with them as an extension of their informal education process. She believes that teaching children to cook gives them independence, self-satisfaction, and is an excellent way to express their creativity.
Before moving to Israel, Riva and her family lived in Highland Park, New Jersey.
How did you get started in catering? I love to cook, and especially to bake. Someone has to eat all that food! Seriously, after the birth of Renatya (my second child), I wanted to find a more flexible work schedule, something that would keep me at home more and would be the creative outlet I felt was lacking in my present profession (veterinarian).
What types of catering do you do? I am not interested in giant cookie cutter affairs (pardon the pun) – I like to see the expressions on people’s faces when they eat my food, and I like to give people the feeling of being spoiled by receiving a scrumptious meal as a gift. For that reason, I prefer to do family dinners, sheva brachot, and other parties of less than 50 people. I also make designer birthday cakes and Purim baskets customized to your theme. My newest venture is children’s baking workshops and birthday parties for lower-elementary-school-aged children. Those are a lot of fun. I sell homemade ricotta cheese as well.
Where would you like to see your business in five years? I would love to have my own kitchen storefront to sell takeout and baked goods and a web site where people can order meals for their friends and family overseas. I would also like to expand to personal chef work.
What would you recommend to someone interested in catering? It isn’t just making good food. You need a strong business sense, willingness to put in a lot of unpaid/unrecognized hours, and you have to be a real people person. You must also be a stickler for detail, and be an extremely organized person. As Ina Garten says, it doesn’t matter how good the cake is if they don’t have forks to eat it with.
Herb Garden Outside Kfar Blum Kibbutz Hotel Dining Hall, Israel
The best of the Jewish and Israeli Blogosphere:
Baila hosts Haveil Havalim #187.
And Eric hosted Haveil Havalim #186 (my apologies to Eric for getting the link up this late; it’s been a busy week).
Riva Ben-Ezra started Dulce Catering as a means of serving the smaller events in people’s lives – Shabbat dinners, birthday parties, Sheva brachot*, and other small gatherings. Based in Hashmonaim, Israel, Dulce Catering makes mouth-watering meals for small groups, artistic dessert platters, and eye-catching birthday cakes for your special occasion. All food is strictly kosher. Dulce also packages gift baskets for Purim and all year round.
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