March Madness

I just worked for close to an hour on a blog post--these pictures take a while to upload--and it's all gone. Deleted. So don't go into this recreation of a posting with high blog expectations. The energy it will take to recreate it is heroic.

Hello! Salaam and good evening to you. Please, come in, come in. Closer, closer. Oh. A little too close. A little too close.

Here are several life-changing fact for you: Hummus Ben Sira is open till 2 am every night. There is a 24-hour supermarket on Ben Yehuda. There's a wise female figure in the Talmud who speaks occasionally named Ima Shalom (Mother of Peace). He who controls the Golan controls the Kineret, the fresh-water source in the region. That's why Syria won't be getting it back any time soon.

Subliminal concert sponsored by Masa in TA. Pure fun. Pure joy. Loud Israeli hip hop. Catchiest of lyrics.



The concert was held on the namal, the dock. They had portable toilets. Dafna totally used one.


Sarah Lauing had a swanky birthday party at the Mamilla Hotel's Mirrors Bar last week. So fancy and famous. Cool bathrooms.


Went on a Golan Tiyul with a Pardes group. Our Israeli guides said it's the best time of year to visit the Golan because it's so green and most trees and flowers are in bloom. We went hiking and hung around some waterfalls. I liked interacting with the Israeli and American school groups. I even bumped into a group from Gideon Hausner Day School from Palo Alto, CA!







Saw some ruins of old synagogues and Talmudic villages (400 CE). People were shrieking on the bus: "YAYEEEEEE!" so excited were they for a Talmudic village. Lots of young families moving to the Golan and starting farming communities. Careful of the jackals and mines. But in all seriousness, it's unbelievable beautiful there. Who wants to run away with me and join a moshav?



Wine tasting, Golan. Got a free bottle opener. Delicious.


Saw a huge praying mantis at the winery. Davening jokes were made.


I have to mention that I bumped into some awesome Avodahniks last Friday night. They are on NFTY's Eisendrath International Exchange program. I can't wait to see them again.

A word about hummus: While I'm still super eager to try new hummus places, I have learned that the best hummus comes few and far between. When I get a hankering for hummus sometimes I just feel like relying on the old favorites rather than trying something new, even when it comes with a recommendation. Usually that recommendation is wrong. So be careful. It's serious business. Anything less than incredible is disgusting.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach Sameach!

How about a nice little drash I recently heard?
Your Pesach seder should be filled with questions and conversations regarding the going out of Egypt and the laws surrounding the holiday. Use your "Pe" (mouth) to make some "Sach" (conversation).

Yes, we're still here

Hi guys. It's me again. (I know, I know. Cue the sustained, audible sigh: Dafna writing again? Why??)

Well, I'll tell you why. Thanks to the upswing of blog-related work at Omanoot, I'm learning a bit about the ways to successfully keep a blog audience. One of those ways is posting more than once a month, as you might imagine. Rachel leads a waaaay busier life than I do, but soon she'll show her face around these parts. I promise. Until then, you can just ignore my posts or be so bored at work/school/on your iPhone while driving that you read them.

Anyhow, speaking of Omanoot, here's the new website: www.omanoot.org. Generally, when a post isn't attributed specifically to someone, that's me blogging! It's pretty fun, and I'm learning a lot about computer things, art things, and even computer-art things.



Can I digress for a bit? If you don't live under a rock/in this country, you know that MARCH MADNESS is upon us. This year my beloved UConn Huskies didn't make the tournament (after going to the Final Four last year...) but I realized that's okay. Why is it okay? Because I can't seem to get any of the games here, so I couldn't watch them anyway.

That was really anti-feminist of me, because as it happens, the Women's team has been undefeated the last 73 games, ranked #1 in the country the entire season, and have won every game by double digits. Statistics like that are absurd, but boring to most people because they are girls. Which is unfortunate. Winning the tournament is sort of a sure thing, but what a crazy upset if they lose.

Okay that's it. This weekend I'm interviewing Mercedes Band and Mosh ben Ari. Mosh is probably #2 on my list of Israeli musicians, so it's safe to say that I am very excited.

Shalom!

Mishe mishe mishe mishe..

Howdy ya'll. I've got a confession to make. I did a terrible job visually documenting Purim in the Jeru. (Was it Jeru or J-ru that I was trying to make happen? Now I'm confused. Can someone remind me?)

I also didn't wear a costume. I dressed like myself, and when people asked I said I was going as someone who didn't dress up for Purim. That seemed to satisfy the majority of inquiries. Rachel, on the other hand, was a cowgirl. Or cowlady. Cowwoman? Let's go with cowgirl. Sunday night we searched for the party and ended up at Hummus Ben Sira, quite literally one of the only places open. Nothing like a bowl of hummus and cauliflower at 1:30AM.

Monday morning we hopped on over to hear the Women of the Wall read the Megillah! Sarah Lauing, my favorite HUC student-who-is-also-Rachel's-friend-but-not-her-roommate (don't want to offend anyone here), was there too!

The cow girl/lady/woman and Minnie!


I really am beating myself up for not taking more pictures, because Monday Jeru/J-ru was teeming with people in at times elaborate, at times hilarious and at times horrifying costumes. We stopped in at Mamilla to see what was up and found a lot of kids and circus-y things. I took some great video but can't seem to quite upload it. Let's just say there was juggling, plate-spinning and tic-tac-toe. There was also a trip to the Gap, expensive but a little slice of home. There was also this:

Monday night, Rachel's friend Fievel was kind enough to host a Purim Seudah, the highlight being the British man dressed as Santa Claus offering up the following pearl of wisdom: A Hassid is someone who does not puke on the porch. As Santa opened the porch door. In the spirit of Purim, there was much drunkeness, merriment and meat.

Anyway, I leave you with one conclusion: the Mishloach Manot, in sheer variety, quality and availability, truly put to shame any ideas I had about giving gift baskets on Purim.

Some day I'll get the video to work, and you can enjoy some footage of Megillah reading/circus training. Until then, so long from Tel Aviv!

WAIT. I think I promised you all video of my brother on the Martha Show. Here it is, and it is glorious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1H6axYaIIU

(I know, three blog posts in a row from me. What do we think? Should Rachel grace these pages with her presence?)

A Week in Pictures

I met up with Matan, one of the Shlichim Tze'irim who was at Ezra with me! We lunched mul ha yam. aka by the beach. I swear he doesn't usually look 12 years old.

Walking home on Dizengoff. All too loud for this little apartment, I think.


My Bloody Valentine, Jerusalem


The lamp store, right near Ben-Gurion Street. Sort of reminds me of that scene with all the jelly fish in Finding Nemo.

Have you ever seen a mannequin in this position??

Just plain weird

THREE Laskins??

Dear Faithful Companions,

While Rachel and I work on our mind-blowingly fantastic Women of the Wall entry, I wanted to do my own little thang. (Remember ain ba'ad mah? ain't no thang? have you guys been paying attention?... is this thing on?)

I would be so insanely remiss if I didn't devote a post to my dear brother Eliad and sister-in-law Katie! They were just here for about a week, and went on a rampage of tourism throughout the country. It was great to hang out with some Laskins, get some presents from home and eat a lot of salads.

Boy where they excited to be here!


We went to Nazareth and the Galilee and saw many churches! Who knew Jesus did so much here? The Church of Multiplication involved no math, but there were candles and mosaics:

Then we were off to the mighty Jordan! Katie and I bottled Holy Water. Eliad's soul is apparently less clean:

I really liked this watch at the gift shop. The time, you ask? Why surely. It's Virgin o'Clock:

See those hills in the distance? Beyond them, in a little village somewhere, Leah Maloney resides. (If you're new to my life via this blog, Leah is my very good friend from home who is currently in Jordan with the Peace Corps. One day, Leah. One day. But only if you come here.)

The next day we dragged it to the Jeru, and saw many sights, including the grand ol' Kotel. The lovely couple in a photo op:

Later we had dinner at Luciana's and agreed that Israel has made great strides in the availability of good Italian food, and met up with Rachel for some ice cream. In case this post felt one-sided and you were missing her, here she is before going to Peace Players, this fun volunteer thing she does that I'm sure she'll describe in more detail eventually:

What's that? You missed me too? Okay. Here I am on the shores of the Galilee. Where Jesus walked. Take that, Kanye.

And here's the breakfast I made yesterday morning. Delicious if you're into that sort of thing.

That's all folks! Now it's back to work. Check out the Omanoot blog (www.omanoot.tumblr.com), follow us on twitter (twitter.com/omanoot), and check out the Martha blog (www.themarthablog.com) for my brother's guest post from the Holy Land!

So much to say

Happy Adar. That's not a suggestion; that's an order. You have to increase your happiness level immediately and continue doing so for the next few weeks.

Let's begin with cholent. On Friday I went with a group of Pardes students to help out at a soup kitchen/food bank called Hazon Yeshaya--it's in Mekor HaBracha, a small, charedi-type neighborhood by the shuk. The man who runs the kitchen yelled out orders to us to skin potatoes, chop vegetables, and arrange Shabbat food baskets for families. He runs a very efficient kitchen. After preparing the food, he assigned us different jobs. Taking one look at me, he pointed to a massive, boiling hot pot of cholent. I served so much burning hot, meaty, meaty, meaty cholent.

Yad LaKashish (Lifeline of the Old), the greatest organization of elderly craftspeople:


Can't let this photo go undisplayed. Dafna, lead singer of a sculpture in Yemin Moshe. Walls of the Old City behind her:


Today Pardes held its annual Yom Iyun Shel Chesed in which students and faculty leave the beit midrash and participate in different service projects. I went with Leket, an anti-hunger organization, to pick oranges in a field near Rehovot. It was so nice and hot and humid today. Super beautiful. I got a ton of scratches too. It looks like I've been hanging out with a pack of cats.

At the end of the day I went to ulpan. At the beginning of the day, I went to the Kotel with Women of the Wall, Nashot HaKotel. I have so many thoughts and feelings on this day. Dafna and I are going to devote a very special blog post to this experience.

And now, for the big news you've been waiting for..

I suppose it's safe to let the cat out of the bag (which, judging by the sheer volume of stray cats in this country, seems to be a popular activity) and inform you all that I have a new internship!

Beit Hatfutsot was nice and all, but I wanted something a little more up my alleycat (they really are everywhere!!) and am now the Social Media Editor at omanoot.com, which is a pretty neat website devoted to Israeli culture through art. I'm still not really sure exactly what I've gotten into, but it's something to the tune of blogging, twittering and Facebooking. If you know my brother, you may find this quite coincidental. Also, check out the Martha Stewart Show tomorrow (Wednesday) to see my brother discuss all the cool tech stuff he saw at CES in Vegas. And eyes peeled for my sister in the audience. And on the subject of siblings, I dedicate this sentence to Betsy for caring about my internship.

(Edit: The Martha episode is taping Wednesday, but not sure when it's airing. Stay tuned.)

Blogging, twittering, Facebooking and meowing about what, you may ask? Music, art, movies, literature, etc. I'm pretty sure this will be a great way to get a little more exposure to arts here and dig my...claws...paws...kitten mittens...into journalistic things. I know. Cats on the brain. Sidenote, Rachel had a recent staredown with a cat climbing on the windowsill of her room. It was both terrifying and comical.

OK. Time to go be a social media editor.