אוזני המן

i just made hamantaschen. my eyes are tired. first i cracked two eggs and added oil and sugar and powder and then tamara sifted* flour and added that and squeezed in two oranges. then i made strawberry jam. that took a while, but tamara and i ate vanilla ben & jerry's ice cream while doing so. then i put it all together and pinched.

ideas for themes for our purim meal?



*sift, not shift, as my 'elderly geezer' pointed out.

read all about it

articles:

a. "the jihad syndrome" as proposed in the media; fundamentalism as ignored/supported by the western media and academia.

At an "Israel Apartheid Week" event at City University of New York, after watching a propaganda film, 19-year old Binyamin Rister rose and politely asked the ISM presenters if they supported terrorism. When he received no reply he politely repeated the question. Rather than wait for an answer, CUNY security guards dragged Rister from the room and then repeatedly banged his head against the wall of an elevator and threw him head first down the stairs. Rister's injuries from the assault by campus security required him to be evacuated by ambulance in a neck brace to the hospital.

b. a druze MK serves as temporary president of the jewish state.



thoughts:
a. thought.
should be promoted more widely. logical thought. smart thought.
in the opinion of bill beattie, "the aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think -- rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men." so where has education failed?
it seems that the liberal western world i live in has become too PC, too fearful, too liberal, too stupid.
i have more to say on this, but it is late, and the day has been long. tbu.

b. an interesting development. the last paragraph especially.

c. this post is not very well thought-out or well written, and i know my father will send me an email telling me to fix it and stop being such a liberal academic. and then i will.

the rain in spain

it is wicked weather out. the sky is a dark purple haze, the sun has set, and the lids of the trash cans keep blowing open and shut, open and shut, the noise reverberating to my eight-floor bedroom window. my toes are wet and cold from the water puddles in the uneven stone pavement. the wind slashes at me, hitting me from all sides, first blowing on the side, tripping my feet, and then pushing me along so fast from the back that my skirt turns into a balloon and i loose my balance. the rain flows with the wind, thoroughly soaking my leather slippers and drenching my hair.



in other worlds, today was the first day of class. the first day of school is very exciting. i got dressed up (nicely, academically) and diligently took notes on every word. i feel like i am in elementary school again. very excited to begin the term and go to class and meet the professors and learn and take notes and do readings and write papers. muzar, lo?

a selection.

pictures from the 21st, in reverse order. start at the bottom.

(twas a fabulous day.)

back at the apartment. cake from mum and dad, love and surprises from the roommates.


at the birthday dinner at al dente (which i arrived 45 min late to- stuck in traffic coming back from tel aviv). philip entertaining (as per usual), hannah laughing.


this is my friend kate. she is sitting on a chair.

santa for sell.

sun setting behind the mosque.

kate and i on the beach, watching the sun set, at jaffa.



the new living room.

a chair on a table in front of a poster. all for sale.

store owner in shuk #1 who asked if i wanted to be set up on a shidduch date (he has people in mind). he also gives discounts to religious people. he said i was religious, obviously, because i was wearing a skirt and so was my friend.


kate and i went for the afternoon to the shuk in jaffa. if the mermaids' bottoms are fins, why do they have butts?


my coat. tamara and i had gotten two coats (well, my coat and her sweater-vest) drycleaned, and they came back still smelling like bar, so we left them in avi's room so we would remember to take them back to the cleaners. in the morning, when we were getting dressed, tamara returned it to me, saying that she was cleaning avi's room for when she gets back. i picked it up to put it in my closet and found birthday notes.

twenty-something

my birthday has begun. i had some pieces of elite chocolate*, read some maps, and am falling asleep. my roommates are planning something next door. i hear their murmurings. sometimes i wish i could write like amos oz.


*not because i was celebrating, but because i am addicted to chocolate and three hours had passed since i had eaten meat^.
^ethiopian food. it was good. i was the only one who liked the bread. my hands got greasy~.
~after ellen (the "new roommate"/eva's twin) and i saw an english-israeli musical, If I Could Rewrite the World.

grammatically correct

outside Mister Zol's, the neighborhood grocery store, there is a small video kiosk. it is labeled as to what is contains- "DVD v'veedeo" (dvd in english, video in hebrew).

thought that was interesting.


a few other points:
a. sheila isong is my valentine
b. i have a fabulous new IBM
c. i have uploaded 600+ pictures that will soon be on webshots
d. my toes are cold
e. the weather was fabulous out today. it stopped raining, max.
f. i think eva is in new zealand now. i miss her.
g. the only people who comment on my blog are the ones i see everyday. muzar, lo?
h. we have no food in our apartment
i. i am looking for a roommate for next year
j. matthew simon wants max's kumkum back. he will not get it.
k. happy birthday, mr lapushin.

tayn li hebuk/ give me a hug.

good hugs.

1. philip: long, tight, youareagreatpersonandiliketohug-hug.

2. moriah: long embrace, youarefabulousandihaven'tseenyouin4years-hug.

3. ay: slightlyawkwardhandshake-to-hugbutstillpleasant-hug.

4. rabbitz: short, pat, oldcampdirectorcoolpeople-hug.

5. cb: barely a hug, introductoryi'msortainlovewithyoubuthaven'tactuallymetyouofficallybeforethis-hug.

6. eb: short, pat on the back, wearen'treallybffffbutistilllikeyou-hug.

7. sarahhor: friendly, pat, iseeyoueverydaybutitisstillnice-hug.

8. bakria: tight, squeeze, ireallylikeyouandyoushouldknow-hug.

9. kate: around the back, nice, imissmemumbutilikeyoutoo-hug.

10. shira: awkward, not complete, arewedancingorhugging-hug.

11. favoriteblankey: tight, long, fell asleep, iloveyouforever-hug.

moses and solomon

Attended "A Celebration of Ethiopian Jewry" tonight at Beit Hillel.

Jews have lived in Ethiopia for thousands of years, some dating their roots back to the Queen of Sheba and believing themselves to be of the lost tribe of Dan. They follow Judaism as based on the laws of Torah, not Torah Ba'al Peh (Oral Law), and therefore not the Talmud, which came long after their existence in Ethiopia. Ethiopian Jewry was "found" in the 1950s, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin began efforts to bring the Beta Israel to the State of Israel in the 1970's when they began to be threatened by the communist government. The two most notable relocation operations were Operation Moses (November 18, 1984 - January 5, 1985--almost 8,000 Jews were rescued and brought to Israel) and Operation Solomon (1990/1). The journey from Ethiopia to Israel was tragic for many Jews. Integration into Israeli society has also been difficult for the Beta Israel, with most recent examples being Magen David Adom refusing Ethiopian blood donations.*

Danny, the Associate Director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews gave a small speech, discussing his personal history and the situation of Ethiopians in Israel.

"When my father told me that we were going to go to Jerusalem, it is like someone saying to you that you are going straight to heaven."

Casa, an Ethiopian Israeli I know from Ramah, spoke on a panel about Ethiopians in Israel.

"Before I came to Israel, I never knew there could be a white Jew."
"My parents used to tell me that in Jerusalem everything is made by G-d. The only G-d I see here is the G-d of the Muslims."

Danny spoke further on the reception of Ethiopians into Israeli society, discussing how other Israelis immediately view Ethiopian Jews as backwards and stupid, consistently expressing surprise when one speaks good Hebrew or knows English or is bright.

"Who is the primitive here?"

At the Hebrew University, there are over 24,000 students. Only 40 of them are Ethiopian.

*more sources on the history of Ethiopian Jewry:
Jewish Virtual Library
Wikipedia
Struggle to Save Ethiopian Jewry (Jews still in Ethiopia)
Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews

don't need to be coy, roy

it's cold outside.

just walked from here to ma'alot dafna, stopped by apartment 137-9 to drop off a havdalah candle, and then from there to geula/mea shearim. bought lunch, the new moshav band cd, the Metsudah Siddur for Shabbat and Holidays, the Artscroll Women's Siddur, and The Garden of Emuna: A practical Guide to Faith.

lazy sunday afternoon

it is a lazy sunday afternoon. quite fabulous, really. i recommend having one, if you have the opportunity.


you may say it began yesterday. being saturday, not sunday. we (the canadians and I) were in Be'er Sheva for shabbat. shabbat, being a day of rest. it was raining in be'er sheva, so we did not leave the apartment we were staying at the whole time. well, tamara and i left before shabbat started on a failed expedition to find spare mattresses, at which time we learned that the be'er sheva population is composed of university students and old sephardic men. and that there isn't much to do there. however, we found ourselves pleasantly occupied with young children, food, and sleep over the weekend. two of the canadians and i decided to return to the Eer HaKodesh, the Holy City, after shabbos, but one of them had an appointment with an old flame of hers that she deigned^ to keep. so we walked to the bus stop. except it wasn't so much walking as it was wading through mud while getting blown over by gale-force winds. and being splashed horrifically by passing cars.*

we got on the bus. meaning, avi got on the bus while tamara and i were waiting for the driver to open the compartment under the bus so we could throw our bags in and then tamara was throwing the bags under the bus while avi was on the bus and i was getting on and the driver was starting to pull away without her. but then he deigned to wait for tamara, and we all got on the bus~.

it was a ridiculously long bus ride. i didn't know there were two billion small villages separating be'er sheva from jerusalem, but our driver took us on a nice tour of them all*. thankfully, the suffering was mitigated by the presence of a rather good-looking hayal (soldier) with a kipah and gun.

we arrived back to jerusalem. life was beautiful. we waited outside the central bus station for a cab for like ten minutes before one came. when we got in, we were all shivering and soaking wet and very happy to be in a cab. the driver (oh what a clever man) asked us what was wrong- "mah, yored geshem?"- what, it's raining?
but then he took us home.
tamara and i had soup and watched Anna and the King. then bed.

which brings me to today. lazy sunday. i woke up a bit before eleven and lazed around a bit. all my roommates were still asleep. then kate and i went on a shopping expedition to mister zol's (the food store). their current promotion is for buying certain amounts of certain products and receiving dollars. like, american dollars. it confused me, and i am sure i missed something in the fine print (which i could not read/understand). but yes, ladies and gentlemen, go to an israeli food store, buy things, and get american money.

then i came home.
the canadians had woken up (it was past two already), so we all sat around and had soup/pizza/pickles/ and water. then i made cookies. they're good. you are welcome to come up and try some.

which brings me to now. lazing around, listening to old camp cds, and eating cookies.
a lazy sunday afternoon.




^this is not quite the proper verb to use, but i do like it and do not often get to use, az zuho. (so that's that.)
*I may be exaggerating a bit.
~we also all got seats on the bus, which was a big improvement over our ride down to be'er sheva$
$ when we had no seats.