Update from Jerusalem: Safe

Hi everyone,

This isn't a normal blog post but we wanted to write a quick note to let you know that we are fine.

Yesterday, after shabbat had started an alarm was sounded in Jerusalem. Soon after, two rockets fell not in Jerusalem itself, but near Gush Etzion (where Gavi's family lives), about 8.5 miles from the city. No one was hurt.

We're fine. We happened to be away for shabbat near the Kineret on a trip with the Conservative Yeshiva. We returned back to Jerusalem tonight, spooked, but happy to be home.

We've spoken to our parents, they know we are safe. And after shabbat we got a call from Gavi's cousin who lives in Jerusalem to check in. We're having dinner with him tomorrow and he said he'll walk us through what Israeli's do in times like these. Where to go if another siren goes off... etcetera.

The truth is, we don't know what happens next. We pray the situation calms down, we pray for peace, but we also pray for calm in the face of scary situations and circumstances and reactions we can not foresee.

For me (Gavi), this changes things a bit. Last week I was reading about sirens in towns closer to Gaza in my ulpan (hebrew intensive) class. We talked about the towns where they only had 15-30 seconds to find shelter after a siren went off before a rocket was expected to land in the area. They were told to at all times be at most 15 seconds away from shelter; school was canceled and daily life disturbed to the core. Someone asked if the rockets could reach Jerusalem. We looked at the map together and discussed in broken hebrew that it was highly unlikely. We continued to discussed that this problem was a serious one for our neighbors and our country, for our friends and family in the army, for am yisrael, but not one for our day-to-day lives in Jerusalem. We were wrong.

I spoke to my Israeli aunt before shabbat. She asked how Jason and I were handeling the news from the south. I told her that I was realizing that despite threats of danger in this country, life goes on. She responded "You noticed?"

So life goes on. We wish we could tell you more. But that seems to be all there is for now.

We want to sincerely thank all of you how have sent emails, facebook messages, and tweets to inquire how we are. It was very nice to feel your love and support during a strange and difficult time. Both of our programs are staying current with all of the security information and are in regular contact with us about what is going on and how it will affect our daily lives here in Jerusalem. We have been very appreciative of HUC's outreach as many professors and administrators have sent kind notes of support, context, and comfort. At the bottom is a note that our Year-in-Israel Director wrote to a student to share with family. He then passed it along to the rest of the class us to share with family and friends who were concerned.

"I can appreciate that from afar and with the news as seen from overseas, the situation might cause some worry. The current situation in this part of the country, whilst of concern does not in our opinion call for any dramatic decisions. The college continues to monitor the situation and is in contact with the Situation Room of the Jewish Agency which receives regular updates from the military and other security services. We are in consultation with them about our upcoming field trip and we will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds. We have no ability to predict what will happen in the coming days; for example although reservists have been called up and many of them are making their way down to the Gaza region this does not mean that there will be a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. This may just be a tactic applying pressure on Hamas. 

So, in the meantime, there are no changes in our programming plans but of course will keep abreast of developments and take all the security service recommendations into consideration. 

Your welfare and those of all students remains our key concern at this time. I am confident that you are letting her know that we are doing everything we can to keep you safe and secure."

We hope you will stay up to date with the news (be sure to read stories from multiple outlets) and we will do our best to keep you posted on life here.

We hope this is the only post of this nature that we have to write. In the meantime, we will continue our prayers for peace:

עושה שלום במרומיו הוא יעשה שלום עלינו ועל כל ישראל ואמרו אמן

Chag-tober Fest Part II

Keep reading! There are dragons in this post!

Aaaaand we're back!

In case you missed the first post, it's been a near-eternity since our last post, so there's lots and lots to catch you up on. In the first post, I recapped our experience for the holidays and a little shpiel on school and expressed my feelings about life here while Gavi is in America (in short, it sucks).

So, while Gavi is on the plane flying back to Israel, I have free license to rant and ramble about what's been going on here and share all of the lame puns that I can come up with! (In theory, this would good be a good place for one such pun, but I've got punner's block...hopefully I'll redeem myself later). In this post my plan is to talk about some of the interesting things from Jerusalem over the last few weeks and, as per the custom of the Fenster blog, tell you about some of the key delicious things from the past month.

Chag-tober Fest!

Our wedding pictures are up on FlickR!

Holy moly! It's been a near eternity since our last blog post. Since you last read, the rest of the chagim have come and gone, we did a little traveling around the country, took care of lots of post-wedding tasks (thank you notes are written and pictures are up!), visited some new minyanim, and, of course, ate lots of delicious things (some made by us and some by others). A day-by-day breakdown may be a little much at this point, and since I (Jason) am writing this on my own, I'm going to go wild and change the format and instead am going break things into a few themes: Holidays are Awesome, School is busy, Jerusalem is...Jerusalem, and Food is Delicious. So let's get to it! Oh, but before we do that, you should be warned. This is a Jason post, so there isn't anyone to edit out my lame jokes. Readers beware.

Shana Tova! Our September Update

Wishing you all shana tova amd gmar tov!

Shana tova from the Holy Land!

We can't believe that so much has happened in the time since Fall classes and the high holidays began. There is a phrase we have heard a lot in our three months in Israel: "אחרי החגים" or "After the holidays." Time in this country ticks around major Jewish holidays, and while the academic year starts at the end of August/early September, it seems nothing really starts until after Sukkot.

So, we've been up to a lot, settling into life of the Fall semester, but just enough so that we can change from school to holiday mode in not much time.

Pan y Miel: Our European Honeymoon!

Happy September friends and family!

Curious where we've been the last few weeks? Desparate for details on our super awesome honeymoon vacation? Just looking to stalk some photos of your favorite Fensters in the Holy Land? Well, then this is the post for you! Enjoy!

August 20: Gavi spent most of the day at her friend's house in the German Colony, she brought over Aroma coffee which comes with little chocolates. Israel is magical. After exploring Ben-Yehudah street  on a search for super cool travel money belts (those fanny-packs that go under your clothes). We ate Korean dinner and reminced about our favorite place to catch dinner in DC (Mandu). It is funny that BimBimBop should taste like home, but the dish contains happy memories of long dinners with good friends in the city where were first built a life together.

Gaining New Perspectives

We're on a roof! You'll have to read to August 15th to learn why.

Warning...very long post! Plan to read in two parts if necessary.

Shavua Tov from Jerusalem! A whole 13 days have passed since our last post and many exciting plans have developed since then! We left off when Jason was in the kitchen making super good smelling chili. That leads us to...

August 7: After school we attended a beit cafe (coffee house) at HUC. It was a really amazing evening organized by the students to raise money for Yad Sarah, a great organization that provides free and reduced rate services for those who are sick, disabled, or elderly and for their families. All the students participated by bringing a Tex-Mex dish (our "Fenster Five Alarm Chili" happened to be very popular, no leftovers!) and many offered services that were auctioned off in a silent auction. Some of the items included "45 minute massage," "a guitar lesson," "personalized poem," and "shave my beard in design of your choice" (the last made for some particularly competitive bidding). We auctioned off a chance to come on a "Not-a-third-wheel date" with the two of us, and Jason additionally offered a "day of self-affirmation" to the highest bidder (Jason will follow you around and tell you how great you are all day). While at the auction we did a little bidding of our own and won a dinner with one of Jason's professors and "baked good of the month" from the best baker in the class (don't worry we're sharing that prize with another couple).

Look at Us! We're Social!

We're typing the blog together!

Time is flying...August 3rd marked two months of being married! It's hard to believe time has gone by so quickly. But, in the meantime, SO MUCH has happened. With classes in full swing, we are starting to really see what our life will be like for the next year. We will be busy, but there will be lots of fun to be had, lots of learning to do, and lots of new experiences to partake in. With that in mind, here is an update on the last two weeks!

July 25: After spending a week and a half learning new words, a lot of grammar, and all of the nitty-gritty details of verb conjugation, it was time for Jason's first Ulpan test (and first test for a grade since college!). Thankfully, fire and brimstone did not reign down from the sky, and he survived the examination in one piece. After classes ended, Jason met up with the BYOT (Bring Your Own Torah) group and studied the weekly parsha. Meanwhile, Gavi went on a tour of the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem with CY as part of her "walking tours" class.