Since the main goal of this blog is to offer a view of the reality of daily life here., I am adding a new weekly feature - hopefully every Sunday - reviewing some of the highlights of our life last week in Israel.
Sukkot
Starting last Monday evening, the 8 day celebration of the Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday began. This is one of the three major pilgrimage religious holidays in the Jewish Calendar. However, other than among the religously observant, it is not widely observed outside of Israel.
Here everybody celebrates - both religous and secular though in different forms. An interesting phenomena is to see how many secular build a traditional Sukka.
For the religous it is a great opportunity to make their personal pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Hundreds gather at the Western Wall (the Kotel) every day of Sukkot waving their bunched 4 Species as commanded in the Bible.
The first day, last Tuesday, was observed by the religous as a sabbath holy day as is the last day, this coming Tuesday. Other than those days one sees the religous and secular freely mingling as they participate in the many group activities around the country.
It's a time of cultural events - film , music festivals and local street fairs abound. Museums put on special exhibits while the Army and Police bands put on annual performances
Here in Raanana last Thursday evening our main street had several different stages for music from around the world. Klezmer, Jazz, Latin, Pop - all were featured. Other days had different events with emphasis on entertainment for the whole family. As I write a Latin American Fair with music, arts and crafts and speciality foods is in progress in our beautiful park.
On Thursday we went on a organized 12km hike in the Galillee. From the number of tour buses on the roads, ours was just one of the many other groups doing the same. The area we were walked has many picnic areas - all full with small and large groups enjoying the outdoors.
The Financial Crisis
Israel hasn't escaped the global crisis. However it is playing out differently here. The banks in general had relatively little exposure to the toxic waste that caught the larger world banks. However the pundits seem to be very concerned with the global recession that's on the way. The expectation is for serious growth in unemployment i 2009.
Israeli companies have been big players in real estate development in Europe. Many of them are concerned with the freezing up of the credit markets while hi-tech worries about cut-backs in orders from abroad.
However it would be hard to tell that there is a problem from the crowds in the shopping malls. No signs of stores closing as reported in the USA media. No one seems to be cutting back on travel yet.
Entertainment/Nightlife
As I mentioned in previous post, nightlife abounds in Israel. We celebrated my birthday, courtesy of my children, at a real Jazz club (Shablul) - small, intimate with an educated audience that listened with appreciation to excellent performers.
Here too the place was packed as was the lovely Italian restaurant (Ernesto in Tel Aviv) where we enjoyed a superb Tuscan meal and bottle of wine before the performance.
Quote of the Week
This hit my funny bone even though it was not from a Israeli paper and appeared October 8.
Paul Kennedy in an Op-ed in the International Herald Tribune commenting on the financial crisis writes "One can only admire John McCain and Barrack Obama for their courage (or worry about their lack of imagination) for actively desiring to get into a White House so full of broken china".
Enjoy your week.
Comments