Staying Busy in the Homeland

When I left you after my last blog I had just finished detailing my Wednesday Afternoon in Tel Aviv. So my group returned to Jerusalem and Ruben and I went out with our dear friends Karen (a fellow Rabbi) and her husband Scott who are also in Jerusalem for the conference. Karen, who is a rabbi in Dayton, and I have been friends since the first day I started Rabbinical School! The four of us first set out to Yad Lakashish-Lifeline for the Old. It's a fantastic store that sells all kinds of artwork produced by older Israelis. By shopping there, I truly feel like I'm doing a "mitzvah," as it's an opportunity for me to honor the older generation! You can check out Yad Lakashish at http://www.lifeline.org.il/


After our shopping (which someone called "economic Zionism" ) the four of us set out for dinner at a cute little place called "Little Italy." I have eaten there many times before and have always enjoyed their Onion Soup. Ruben- the tough critic- even said it was the best he ever had!

I had a delicious Eggplant parmesan for my main course which was also great! And for dessert we all shared "Ugot chocolat cham"- hot chocolate cake with ice cream! I also had a hot chocolate which isn't like anything you get in the states. It is warm milk with chunks of chocolate...AMAZING! Yummy!



From dinner, I headed off to the "Cinematheque" which is the premier movie house in Jerusalem. It is just outside the old city and a very "cool" place to be. They show all kinds of movie from classics to interesting film festivals to the hits of today. Our convention of rabbis was invited there for a screening of the movie "Zrubavel." This powerful movie, which showed at film festivals in America, deals with the inter-family relations within the Ethiopian-Israeli community. It was a fascinating movie on a subject about which I'm very passionate- the better integration of the Ethiopian Israelis into the general Israeli society. Following the movie we had a question and answer session with Shmuel Bero, the 33-year old writer and director of the film. He is an actor himself and quite the comedian! I wanted to hear more about his own personal life and journey from Ethiopia to Sudan and then on to Israel.

Me and Shmuel Bero...He's bound to become even more famous...just wait and see!

I know I'm a few days behind in my blogging but I'll do the best I can to catch up tomorrow. Just to update you quickly, Thursday we spent in Tel Aviv and I had one of the most POWERFUL and UNIQUE theater experiences EVER! I'll tell you more about it later. I also had a chance to tour the spice market, the Shuk and hear from the mayor of Tel Aviv.

Thursday night I spent with my friends Moss and Claudio. When I lived in Israel in 2001, Moss (who moved to Israel from Canada) was my downstairs neighbor. However, he was more like a big brother. He would drop me off at school since it was on his way to work and he would invite me for Shabbat meals and he even listened to me as I prepared my first sermon! It was great to catch up with him and we ate at a wonderful vegetarian Indian place and then went out for coffee!

I'll tell you more about the AMAZING theater and fill you in on my Shabbat experiences soon!

It's late here in Jerusalem and I have an early morning program...so Lila Tov-Good night!

Keep commenting and L'hitraot,

Rabbi Emily

Me at the Wailing Wall

More images from the buffet...

Jerusalem-Ir Hakodesh- The Holy City

Some of the most wonderful conversations I've had with Israelis were in the back of a Taxi. Yesterday was no exception as Ruben and I had a great cab ride from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Our driver pointed out various sites and we also had an opportunity to learn about his background, his children and his political views.

We arrived in Jerusalem and checked into the Dan Panorama0 hotel. I immediately starting seeing some dear friends who had arrived for the convention. I left Ruben and went off to the opening dinner where we were greeted with lots of live music and fabulous food. Of course the theme was traditional Israeli food so we had more falafel and hummus. Unbelievably, I'm still not sick of it! Aside from being with nearly 300 rabbis from around the world, one of the highlights of the dinner was hearing from the Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat. I even had a chance to shake his hand and say hello as he left. I was impressed with him and his goals for Jerusalem particularly that of trying to increase the number of tourists from 2 million a year to 10 million a year.

After dinner, I returned to the hotel and Ruben and I spent some time catching up with some of my colleagues from around the world including a friend who serves a congregation in Pretoria, South Africa!

Today- Wednesday February 25th 2009

From morning to evening, today was jam-packed. Ruben and I started the day quite early as we had breakfast around 7am. In case you were wondering, today's breakfast was just as great as the last few days.

Here are some pictures to show you how good it looked...

After breakfast, I went to the Old City to the Western Wall to join up with about 50 women who were participating in the monthly Rosh Chodesh (new month) service. As a rabbinical student during my year in Israel, I went to these monthly gatherings quite often and it was great to be back for this one. Of course, our being a large group of women singing at the wall (with some male colleagues behind us for support) was a very emotional experience for me, especially since this is the first time I've been back to Israel since being ordained as a rabbi. Just being at the wall is a holy experience for me as I think of how many generations had to "wail" at the wall. I was very happy to let my voice be heard as we welcomed in the month of Adar!

Following my stay in the Old City, I joined up with the rest of the conference for a meeting and then went with my subgroup to Jaffa for our day of Tikkun Olam- fixing the world. I had picked the group going to the "Reform Mechina" without knowing much about it. Mechina, which means preparation in Hebrew, is a gap-year program for teenagers in the year after they graduate high school before going into the army (as all Israelis are required to do). There are 35 mechina programs in the country- half of them are Orthodox and half of them are non-Religious with only 1 being Reform. These youngsters have a chance to spend the first half of the day studying Jewish texts and learning about leadership and then they spend the rest of the day volunteering throughout Jaffa. After a very moving text study with a few of the Mechina participants we had lunch and continued on to the Arab-Jewish Community Center in Jaffa. I had a great time learning with Mechina participants and interacting with some truly adorable kids at the community center!

We got back to Jerusalem and...

Stay tuned and I'll fill you in on all the great things I did tonight and how Ruben occupied his time while I was in Tel Aviv!

Also, feel free to pass this link on to those who might be interested and to post comments!

L'hitraot,

Rabbi Emily

The first part of dinner...doesn't it look GREAT!

Ruben and his new friend... :-)

View from the Hotel

Ruben at Dizengoff Center...Can you tell what's in the background?

We're in Israel!

After a rather long flight (about 11 hours) we arrived in Israel at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. One of the great things about flying with Israelis is that when the plane lands everyone applauds! It was so exciting to feel as if I had come home!

As we walked through security on our way to passport control I saw a colleague of mine, a rabbi from Nassau County and his wife who works at SAJES (a Jewish Educational resource center in Long Island). I had barely been in the country for 5 minutes and I already saw people I knew!

Next Ruben and I cleared customs, got our bags and went to the ATM. As we were withdrawing money and figuring out how to make our phones work, I all of a sudden felt someone put their hands over my eyes...it was my dear friend Daniela who was meeting us at the airport. Daniela and I have been friends for about 10 years since we met working at Camp Harlam in the Poconos. Before I could call her to tell her we'd arrived, she had found us! After some hugging and catching up we walked to the car. She arranged to take us for a real "Israeli Experience" for dinner. We ate at a little place in Tel Aviv. The restaurant specializes in hummus and believe me...it didn't disappoint us! Ruben, who is a tough food critic was immediately quite impressed and he's had a lot of hummus! After a truly "Tayim" (delicious) dinner, Daniela dropped us off at our hotel- a beautiful place right on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

This morning we woke up quite early (almost already accustomed to the time difference) and went downstairs for breakfast. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A TRUE ISRAELI BREAKFAST. I have to say, it was one of the most beautiful spreads I have EVER seen (and as you know, I've had my fair share of meals!). There was so much food and it was all delicious. Between Ruben and I, we ate eggs, pasta with mushrooms, all kinds of cheeses, yogurt, burekas, waffles, cakes, salads, fruit, juice, chocolate milk and more. I even said the "shehechiyanu" as I had a persimmon for the first time this year and maybe the first time ever! (At least I think it was a persimmon...).

During our meal we watched as the clouds deposited rain and then hail on the beach. Within a few minutes it all cleared up and it was a truly beautiful day. After our enormous meal (which served as breakfast and lunch) Ruben and I went exploring to Dizengoff Center- Tel Aviv's main mall. We did a little shopping, got some coffee and then headed back to the hotel. We spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing and warding off as much of the jetlag as possible.

Around 8pm Daniela and her husband Roy came to meet us at the hotel for dinner. (The last time I was in Israel was 2 1/2 years ago for their wedding). They took us to the old city of Jaffa (or Yafo as it is also known) for dinner. We strolled around a bit and then went to another cute, authentic restaurant for dinner. Again I had hummus and falafel and pita (I'm not sick of it yet) and Ruben had schwarma wrapped in a laffa (which is like a gyro wrapped in a giant pita). He says it was good (which again means a great deal coming from him). However, I think we may be on a search for him for even better schwarma. Maybe that's what he'll do to occupy the time while I'm at my meetings. We had a fantastic evening with our friends and now we're looking forward to tomorrow.

As of now, our plans for tomorrow are to enjoy our hotel breakfast (we'll try to take pictures) and then go to Nachla'ot Binyamin- a great artist market and then maybe do a bit of touring in Tel Aviv. By mid-afternoon we'll make our way to Jerusalem for the start of the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis) Conference.

L'hitraot,
Rabbi Emily

The Day Before...

Ok, so it's just about Shabbat and I'm getting REALLY excited to go to Israel! I'm also excited that this is my first time blogging!