We Lived In Israel For Almost Two Years

There’s been a lot of talk in the media recently, though its nothing new, about antizionism and antisemitism – is the entire concept of a state which privileges one religion or ethnicity over others even ethical at all, etc. (The short answer is of course it is assuming that all individuals are guaranteed the same…

The first time rockets fall in your city and you’re not there because you’ve left but all your friends and their children are running to bomb shelters, and the kids, who finally got back to school in person as the COVID situation stabilized but are now home on zoom once again because school was called…

I’m able to listen to my favorite Israeli radio station, galgalatz, in the car from here in Phoenix, AZ using their app.  I was listening this past friday morning as I was running a few errands. What was interesting about it was the fact that it was Friday evening in Israel. I would normally not…

My last post showed some of the road signs while I was driving through the shomron, the northern west bank.  The pictures sort of highlighted the conflict and emphasized the separation between Arabs and Israelis. But you should know that there is a lot of cooperation between Arabs and Israelis as well. One area is…

I finished the three month observation period working at Sheba Hospital this past Monday. I said goodbye to the staff there and it was all very nice, hugs, well wishes, etc. I should receive my official recognition as a cardiologist from the Israeli Medical Association soon, and then they will also add me as a…

These are just some random signs and bumper stickers I’ve seen around town: I was in the car today and I heard this on the radio, the (secular) pop station I usually listen to. The DJ introduced the next song by saying: “Today is zayin b’adar (ז באדר) which is the date that Moses passed…

Normally I would spend Friday night together with my family celebrating shabbat. However the past few weeks I have been here in Israel alone while the rest of my family is back in the US. So last Friday night after eating and then reading for as long as I could, I got antsy and decided…

I went jogging this past shabbat, late in the afternoon.  I jogged past a street minyan (prayer group) at one of the intersections and was able to hear them reading the Torah from a Torah scroll on a small table on the street corner.  The participants were not ultra orthodox, they were just random people,…

Yes, I am still here in Israel.  My work at the hospital is going well.  With the intensified lockdowns, the little shul in the synagogue has been closed, but they’ve still been davening mincha (afternoon prayer service) in the hospital lobby.   Another interesting thing I’ve noticed is the cath lab staff lounge.  Every hospital…

You may not have heard, but the chief rabbi of Israel declared a fast day today, Thursday, January 21 2021, for the COVID pandemic. I don’t know if many people knew about it or heard about it. I found out from an article in one of the online English Israeli papers I read.  I was…

It’s been all over the news how good Israel has been doing with its vaccination program.  And the effort can even be seen among the haredi (ultra-orthodox) sector.  I was in a haredi hospital last week (for work 😀) and i noticed this magazine they had printed.  The title is a play on the Hebrew…

It’s time for another song.   This is one I just heard on the radio yesterday.  It’s called Halevai – הלוואי .  A direct translation is difficult for this word.  It’s sort of an exclamation that means “I wish”  or “I wish it were so”  or “if only it were so.”   The song is a series…

OK, here goes…  Val and the kids are back in the US now.  They arrived yesterday.  We decided to return to the US for the sake of the girls education, as they will be starting high school next year.  We initially moved to Israel (and formally make Aliyah) a year and a half ago with…

This past week I took the boys to Bet El for a tour of the tefillin factory there and to get tefillin for their bar-mitzvahs (which will be בעזרת ה, in a little over a year.) A pair of tefillin takes a long time to make so we arranged it ahead of time that we…

The kids had dentist appointments this evening.  The office is located right above the main Ra’anana shopping mall (which just opened back up two days ago from the lock-down here) and the kids love the kosher food court in the mall so we let them have smoothies and Chinese food for dinner.  When we went…