Letter from Haifa: Ulpan, Kinim, Yom haMishpacha, and other adventures

A highlight since the last post is Shana. It was so exciting to pick Shana up at the airport, and we so loved having her here.

After a few days of wandering, playing games and hanging out in Cafes, I went to Jerusalem for Ulpan, and Shana started her program in Nes Tziyona.

So, last week I spent at Ulpan Or, in Jerusalem, having Hebrew therapy. Ulpan Or is a unique ulpan in that it teaches Hebrew on a one-on-one basis. There are several programs and I chose the intensive one-week program. Let me tell you, it was intensive and intense. The first three hours every day you meet with the same teacher, alternating ½ hours between listening to your fully loaded MP3 player, and reading (self study) and talking to the teacher and translating English into Hebrew. Then there is a short break and you spend the next two hours with another teacher on a tiyul – a little trip – in Jerusalem. You prepare for these with little booklets in English and Hebrew about the site. Then YOU are the tour guide, b’Ivrit, in Hebrew. Each tiyul ends with in a café with coffee and chatting (b’Ivrit!). So its 5 hours of Hebrew, and then homework. It was exhausting, but great.

And it was Hebrew therapy because, for me, it addressed my fears. First of all, the teachers are incredibly supportive and encouraging. They expressed great surprise and pleasure at how good my Hebrew is. It was as if no one has ever entered their offices with such good Hebrew. It is a big confidence booster. Second, I had time to think about what holds me back, and I think it is the feeling of being judged. I realize I am more afraid to speak Hebrew in front of American Hebrew speakers than Israelis. Most of all, those closest to me!

Also, my new motto is, I’m almost 50, so who _____ cares?! It is helpful for me to feel that way with Hebrew.

Here I am at graduation with my teacher:

In Jerusalem, I stayed with Connie (Kestenbaum) and David Green and Ithai, their 17 year old son, which was great, and I felt completely at home (maybe that’s because the Kestenbaum home was my second home growing up, and my first home for watching TV). There was a lot of eating and catching up to do, so between that and homework, I never slept. But I put my bags in Avishai’s room. Avishai is in the army, but he was home for the first day. Sadly, my great photo of Connie and Avishai in uniform is stuck in a camera from which I can't download . . . Having little American girls, it is hard for me to imagine having a hulking young man for a child, let alone a soldier. Amazing.

Now, for you Jewish, non-Hebrew speakers, does the word kinim sound familiar. If you meditate on it, do you sort of hear it in a sing-song way? Perhaps you want to dip your pinky in a glass of wine? Exactly!! It is a plague, from the Passover Haggadah. Well, Halleli had it and it is called lice. Here she is receiving her treatment while eating edamame:

We got a call from school, and when Andy went to pick her up, he asked a friend of Hallel’s whether she’d ever had lice. She said, “oh about a million times. In fact, I think I have them now . . .” Well, lice are just a fact of life in Israel, and they don’t even require you to take your kids home, so they just hop from head to head.

Yom ha Mishpacha – Family Day – at the Leo Baeck School was amazing for one reason, especially: my daughter, Raizi, performed in 4 pieces, one of which she choreographed with 5 friends and no teacher, and in another of which she sang a solo line. We were awestruck. Sadly, the videos are stuck in my little Flip camera that won't download!

The performances took place in the auditorium, in between about 1000 poems and songs that were projected onto a screen and read or sung by individuals or the whole crowd. There was also family Israeli dancing (seems Raizi is too shy to do that) and yummy parent-prepared food in each classroom. It was a warm, happy time.

Now for the critique: Most of us (liberal Americans, that is) would have freaked at the auditorium presentation in general. The poems were about how ima (mom) met abba (dad), or, “when I was in Ima’s tummy” or other politically incorrect characterizations of the family. Finally there was a long poem about different kinds of famiies – with one parent, or with a grandparent, or whatever – and at the end it said, “but what connects us all is blood.” Oy! I can just picture the stampede into the principal’s office if this had happened at home.

What else? Andy and I went with a wonderful guide to Tzipoori and Beit Shearim on Tuesday, both archeological sites. Tzipoori has beautiful ancient mosaics and was a city shared by Jews and Romans from around the year 0.

Of course, the history is complicated with various wars, revolts, earthquakes and fires, but suffice it to say that it sits on a hilltop in a valley – a gorgeous setting – and is where Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi compiled the Mishna.

Beit Shearim was also a Jewish city and is now known for its amazing necropolis – a whole network of burial caves with sarcophaguses all over. It was apparently THE place to be buried.

Another lovely thing about the tiyul was that things are starting to bloom all over. Apparently, it is very late for all this blooming because of the lack of rain earlier in the winter and last year. One of my favorites is the wild rosemary.

Andy is now in Bethlehem on a program for Jewish leaders called Encounter, meeting with Palestinians and generally experiencing the Palestinian West Bank. We go to Jerusalem to meet him and spend Shabbat at the Perlmans.

Oh, I forgot to mention last Shabbat. Oh never mind -- here are some pictures: