Every Erev Yom Kippur, while we were bringing up young children, I'd make sure the radio was on for the 2pm news so we could all hear the announcement that Israel's National Airport, Ben Gurion Airport (that functions 24/7) was closing down until after Yom Kippur (around 30 hours later) and then that all the radio stations were ceasing their broadcasts until
Summer tourism and aliyah season is almost here, and whether it’s your first trip to Israel or your eightieth, don’t you wish you could have a list of all the little things everybody else wishes they’d thought of?
This comprehensive travel guide was written by Debra Nussbaum Stepen. She’s a Licensed Tour Guide in Israel (no mean feat, as it takes years of study and deep historical and geographical knowledge!) and you can find out more about her and her services at debratours.com.
1. Do not throw out the little slip of paper that they give you at the airport. This is your entry visa and entitles you to exemption of the 17% VAT tax on
There's so much I love about the period between Pesach and Shavuos here in Israel. But there's one thing that absolutely disgusts me. I'll tell you in a minute and see if you feel the same.
When we lived in Canada, this time of year was pretty dull and featureless. There's Pesach... Yom HaAtzmaut, if we remembered it... Lag Baomer, if we got our act together to get to a bonfire... and then Shavuos.
It was okay, but nothing special.
Here in Israel, it's a VERY special time of year, especially if you measure by how many days the kids have to wear white shirts to school. In many religious schools, often kids are supposed to wear white shirts for Rosh Chodesh and any other special occasion... and these seven weeks give us PLENTY of those.
My son's school also has them wear white shirts on Fridays, bringing the white-shirt days up to an uncountably high number: two days for Rosh Chodesh Iyar, Yom Hashoah, a couple of Fridays, Yom Hazikaron, and more that I'm probably not remembering. Some chains actually have sales on white t-shirts with school logos just to help parents stock up.
I love all these special days, especially Yom Haatzmaut, which comes smack-dab in the middle of the solemn sefirah period and means we can celebrate Israel's birth with music, which we don't normally listen to during this period (I'm aware that different people observe this different, halachically -- consult your rav for details if you're not sure).
But here's what I don't love.
What I hate, if you'll allow me to use a strong word. What disgusts me.
Lag Baomer
One of my children will sometimes say, "You hate Nefesh b'Nefesh." But nothing could be further from the truth. Really.
So let's just say it straight out before I start here -- I love Nefesh b'Nefesh. Adore them.
We have met and been helped by so many great people through Nefesh b'Nefesh (NbN). I don't know what the aliyah process would have been like without them, but I'm sure it would have been quite a bit harder.
So that's the first thing.
The second thing, though, is that olim sometimes arrive with unrealistic expectations about what NbN is going to do for them.
At this point, I’ve met quite a few of these olim, and some, I’ll admit, actually do hate NbN.
If you grew up outside of Israel, you may think you know what a youth group is--but you probably don't, at least not until you've experienced the Israeli variety.
And if you’re too old to experience it yourself, maybe it’s something you can look forward to for your kids.
(For those of us too old to be part of a youth group ourselves, I’ve put together a list of vocabulary below that you might find helpful – if anything’s missing there, let me know and I’ll add it in!)
I personally was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide, which is the Canadian version of Girl Scouts, with all the same ideas, mainly that it’s kind of military group of kids who are corralled and brought places and taught principles of healthy living and woodsmanship by adults. Hmm… now that I put it like that, it really doesn’t sound much fun at all.
This is literally what we had to wear to do these activities:
(except I didn’t have nearly so many badges!)
Our weekly meetings were held at a set day and time, following an agenda set by our adult leaders, who in Guides were known as Tawny Owl and Snowy Owl, for whatever reason – again, the woodsy theme, even though we were all actually sitting in my junior high school cafeteria.
During the summer, I went to Girl Guide camp, which was basically like one long Girl Guide meeting, with an emphasis on woodsmanship and a little more singing. Oh, and we got to wear the “camp uniform,” which was slightly more casual.
So what do kids do in Israel? And how is it different from what I grew up with?
Here, there have what are called תנועות נוער / tenuot noar, which literally means meaning youth
Dude = דוּד / dude = boiler, pot, kettle, tank, vat…In other words, what many people in North America at least refer to redundantly as a “hot-water heater.”
