Image by rahuldlucca via Flickr According to Ynet, Israel is distributing gas masks to protect the population against atomic, chemical and biological weapons. It seems like just last year, they were collecting our old ones. Wait, it was. Anyway, 60% of the population is expected to collect the … [Read more...]
Preparing for the Israeli Earthquake
January 28, 2010 by
Image by Getty Images via Daylife In the wake of the Haiti earthquake the Israeli press has been writing about the possibility of a major earthquake along Israel's faultlines. But experts don't consider it a possibility. It's a certainty, the only question is when. During a discussion at the … [Read more...]
The Government Helps the Little Guy (Me)
January 21, 2010 by
Image by the tartanpodcast via Flickr I've been given the run-around for several months by the internet service provider (ISP) Netvision. In Israel, you pay two fees for ADSL: one fee to the national phone company Bezeq or cable network service for the ADSL infrastructure, and a second fee to … [Read more...]
Hijacking Victim Recalls: I Wanted to Go to Entebbe
December 1, 2009 by
Last night I heard a talk by a woman named Tricia Martel. Martel was living in Petach Tikva when her mother died suddenly in Manchester on a Thursday afternoon in 1976. She couldn't get a seat to London during the vacation season. Finally a travel agent suggested she fly to Paris on Air France, … [Read more...]
Ultimate Guide to Getting Rid of Lice
November 5, 2009 by
(Bonus Below: A Mother in Israel's Ultimate Guide to Lice Removal) "Are you going to post about the lice?," asked my teenage daughter the other night. I had noticed my 1st-grader scratching her head, and even though it's been a few years we located a louse right away. Since the best method … [Read more...]
Going From Summer to Winter in One Day
November 1, 2009 by
Despite what kids learn in school, there is no fall in Israel. The word stav, used to mean fall in modern Hebrew, means winter in Biblical Hebrew. As it says in Song of Songs 2:11: "Ki hineh hastav avar, hageshem chalaf halach lo," "Behold the stav has passed, the rain has dispersed and gone on its … [Read more...]
Fleas Are Worse than Bombs
June 11, 2009 by
The city assigns each street a designated day for leaving out large items for pickup. Yesterday, I put out a stroller, in the hope that someone would find it and use it. When a friend emailed that she wanted it, I went down to retrieve it. While there, I met a neighbor from across the street. … [Read more...]
The State of the Shelter
June 2, 2009 by
This morning Israel held an emergency drill. Air-raid sirens (up-and-down) were sounded for two minutes. Schoolchildren and workers were expected to go to their safe areas, while those at home were to go into shelters or safe rooms. People traveling or outside were supposed to ignore it. I was … [Read more...]
Carnivals, and Revisiting Nursing in the Synagogue
April 26, 2009 by
A revised version of my post, Nursing in the Ezrat Nashim, is up on DovBear. Update: Be sure to check out the comments. And you can find Haveil Havalim, the Jewish and Israel blog carnival, at The Rebbetzin's Husband. … [Read more...]
IBA Tax Authority Takes Totalitarian Approach
April 18, 2009 by
Maya left the following comment on my post about the television tax: My husband had a similar experience and ended up paying the huge tax. We couldn’t get around it. He had a television for about a year and didn’t use it thereafter (either it broke or he moved and didn’t take it with him). Four … [Read more...]
Recent Comments