Good day and good November everyone. Welcome to the newcomers of the list.
I hope you all enjoy these emails. If anyone has any recommendations for
my observations feel free!
I have now been in Israel for a little under two months. And what a two
months it has been!!
Getting here right before the holidays I was pretty involved in the affairs
that come with that.
But now Israel is back to a normal working routine. Even the
Histadrut (National Union) is prohibited from striking by the Labor Courts (go
courts!). And so I am in a daily routine of Ulpan in the morning and
various activities in the afternoon.
I am now living with a new gentleman who I have been blessed to live with!
His name is Carlos/Levi, and he is originally from Cuba. He has told me a
story or two of him trying to escape Cuba on a boat and we laugh as he tells
it. He came to the states during the Reagan era. He like myself, enjoy
healthy foods, and our kitchen is now stuffed with an array of fruits and
vegetables, whole wheat pita, and other various good eats! He can dance a
Carlebach like no other!
My friend Yankee Twerski has also returned to Israel with his wife and two
kids and I was very joyous to have seen him, as he is one of my oldest
friends, as we had grown up together on the west side of Milwaukee!
My Hebrew is coming along quite well, though I am still have difficulties
with past present and future. You see, Hebrew is a much more developed
language than, oh say English. So you can take a word SPEAK, add to it a
prefix of suffix and then you change the tense. My friend who speaks Arabic
says that one word in the language can mean a whole sentence. And so I am
trying to think and only speak in Hebrew. But this is not an easy task for
one who has spoken English for the last 24 years. Well no one said it was
going to be easy!
It has been relatively calm here safety and security wise. As far as I know
there has been no civilian terrorist attack since Maxim's which was at the
end of September. There has been of course many attempts and I thank the
Israeli Defense Force for doing their best and protecting the lives of
Israeli citizens.
I saw something last night I wanted to share with you. Some injustice that
I felt but is probably common practice. As I went to the central bus
station to take a bus to Beit Shemesh for the weekend, Ammnon (my friend at
Beit Canada, who speaks Arabic) and I got in line to be searched to get into
the station. In Israel it is the norm for your bag to be checked and
yourself as they take security very seriously here. I completely respect
this fact and have no qualms with it. But two people in front of me was an
Israeli Arab who was being treated quite wrongly by the security person. He
made her open her backpack (a large one) even though all bags still have to
go through an x-ray machine. The line started to grow and I looked at
Ammnon and felt bad for this woman. As I told my host of this occurrence he
said he would not have even noticed this. But I did. Now let me
say that I believe in other countries, event he great USA there is
injustices towards "minorities" but here in Israel you are either Jewish,
Non-Jewish or an Arab (some people will call these people Palestinians, but I
do not consider these people that. This is a completely separate subject).
Now here is the thing. As Jews of the World and living in the HOLY LAND,
shouldn't we raise our standards and be more compassionate and better
people? We can answer this ourselves. But what I realized is it does
not matter how observant of a Jew you are, but how good of a PERSON you
are.
I am sorry if I have offended anyone. This was on my mind and I wanted to
share it with you all. Sort of some words of Torah/Wisdom for the week!
I have started a backgammon tourney with a friend and we are playing to 100
points. I am currently winning by a slight margin but this will be a long
tourney. I have stated to run every day here in Jerusalem with Ammnon.
Ammnon went to Brandeis University and was on the track and field team. So usually I have lost him after the first 1 or 2 kilometers. But hey, it
ain't easy in Israel with all these rolling hills, so I am patting myself
on the back! I hope you all have a good weekend and if I do not email by
Thanksgiving a great one.
That is one holiday I will definitely miss, as Thanksgiving is a big holiday
in my eyes. I am going to really miss your party Aunt Deb, and Doc. Please
have me in mind in your celebrations!! PEACE and be well you all!
Strength & Blessing
Yaakov S. Y. Cohen