This Year in Tel Aviv/My Faces of Israel

 I've been living by myself for a little over 2 weeks in this beautiful apartment in an amazing neighborhood. On Thursday my dear friend, Tina, and her husband Jeff, came from Colorado. Tina has been my friend since 1989 when we met at Haifa University. We spent 5 weeks backpacking through Europe together that summer and had there been blogging and tik-tok and snapchat and Be Real- we probably would have been the queens of all of it. Instead we quietly wrote in our journals every night about our adventures. We took pictures with real film that we developed when we got home. When you hear the song, "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay",  by Otis Redding, picture two un-showered girls with raggedy clothes and wearing socks with sandals (not slides, leather greek sandals stained brown from the rain). We're riding in a stifling hot Greek train, teeth stained red from cheap wine, singing this song along with our Sony Walkman, changing the lyrics to "Sitting in the Back of ...

One week down, five to go- can't believe I will be here in Israel for such a long time. This first week was spent settling into my apartment which is located in Nachalat Binyamin, a pedestrian street right next to Shuk HaCarmel, the open-air market in Tel Aviv. I've spent some days touring and have seen lots of friends during this first week. Before I came to Israel, I thought I needed a project while I'm here so I decided to revive this blog and share about "My Faces of Israel", tell you a little bit about the people I know here. Everyone I meet has a different story about how they came to be in this small and fearless country. Some came on their own, some with a spouse and children, some were born here, some were born to Israeli parents overseas and came back, etc. etc. I have permission from everyone I write about to share their story. I didn't interview them for the blog, I'm sharing from conversations I've had through the years. I can't sing o...

This blog post is dedicated to Steven Fox Z''L, may his memory always be a blessing. Particularly when we are thinking about this summer- the best of our lives. (cue up Bryan Adams- It was the Summer of '69) Let me tell you a secret: I've been having a love affair with Israel since I was 17 years old. I realized after I wrote yesterday's blog that I set out to describe why I was in Israel for 6 weeks and felt I needed to explain my love story with my husband and how that "kept" me from moving here in 1993. In that writing I realized I've been having an affair with Israel this whole time. Sorry Mike! I grew up in Marblehead, MA and we had an Israel trip in the summer that everyone went on. We had our own Israeli Shaliach (emissary from Israel), Nadav Bartura, and he organized Israel programming in our community.  It won't surprise most of you that I actually loved Hebrew school. Mostly because I got to spend time with friends who lived in the town n...

I Believe in Destiny In the summer of 1992, I found myself near (the former) Camp Naomi in Raymond, Maine. Driving home from my self-tour of the place that had lived in my dreams for the previous 8 years, I was flooded with memories. Six months later, in February 1993, I planned a camp reunion with a friend (David Krivelow). We photocopied my memories at his office in Cambridge and using my "Hello Kitty" address book, sent the invitation to everyone's parents' house. No RSVP required. Over 70 people showed up to Matt Garrett's in Brookline, MA and we had an amazing evening reminiscing and telling stories. The next day I left for a 10-day business trip in Israel. I was working in the Jewish community promoting Israel programs to young adults. I had been dreaming about living in Israel since my first trip at age 17 during a 7-week summer tour when I fell in love with the Kibbutz, the people, and the feeling that I was home. The love continued on my Jr semester abroa...