This Year in Tel Aviv/My Faces of Israel

It's my final day and I'm packing up my apartment, re-reading my journal, putting things aside to give to my niece, Dani, and itching to go for a final walk on the beach. These 6 weeks were beyond what I expected. I knew I wanted to "just be here". To live, work remotely, continue studying Hebrew, and see friends, and make new friends. Many of my friends became day to day friends and I saw or spoke to them many times while I was here. My Hebrew went further than I thought- the last 4 mornings I've woken up and realized that I'm thinking in Hebrew! I've already booked my apartment again for next year for 8 weeks and can't wait to get back. My final "My Faces of Israel" is about my friend Benzi Lederfein. He's one of my favorite people that I've met here in Israel in the last 5 years. Benzi was the tour guide assigned to my family of origin when my Dad and Deborah took us to Israel and Petra in November of 2018. He navigated our family ...

Dvir Musai is a friend I met in 2016 when I was part of a 2-year Hadassah Leadership Fellowship. We were a group of #lucky16 women from around the country becoming more engaged in Hadassah as leaders. (By the way there's a new Fellowship for women 45 and under, you can find more information and apply here .) As part of our fellowship, we traveled to Poland for a "March of the Living" program visiting Auschwitz and Krakow, the place where Kristallnacht happened. We came to Israel to learn more about the creation of the state post WWII and met so many interesting people. One of them was Dvir. Dvir is a poised young man who sits holding his cane. He shares his nightmare story in a well-practiced tone that draws the listener in while knowing that he is re-telling a story he's told many times. He starts out by saying, "Hadassah women, I loved you before I ever met you".  On June 11, 2002, at age 13, he was on a field trip from school and along with his friends he...

I've been utterly distracted by my husband's visit these last 10 days. Mike and I have visited old haunts, seen friends, and discovered new favorite places. He quickly got into a routine of walking the tayelet (beach promenade) for 11-13 miles and then walked another 5-6 a day with me exploring Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Zichron Yaacov. We had Shabbat with friends, visited the Perez Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa , and watched many beautiful sunsets over the Mediterranean. He left Monday night after the Megillah reading (Purim begins tonight) and I have another 5 days before I too head home. The past 10 days have been a taste of what our future times here will be like. We've already booked for 2 months next year (February & March) and I hope he'll be able to join me for longer. One of the first days here he walked me on a surprise birthday mission (he came a week after my birthday). We walked a couple of miles and got to a shop where a young man was outside ...

 I've been so busy with visiting friends that I've fallen behind on my writing. I had an amazing visit with Tina and Jeff. After they toured the south they came back to meet me in Tel Aviv at the Palmach Museum . The Palmach was a secret Israeli army pre-state that was made up of new immigrants from all over the world. Some had escaped the Holocaust, some came from Arab countries, some from the US, South Africa, etc all with the same goal, to fight against the British occupation and create a Jewish state. After the museum, we headed north to Afula to visit the high school where Tina spent a year in the 80's before we met in 1989 at Haifa University. We spent the night in an adorable cabin in Yavne'el with a view of the mountains near the Sea of Galilee. The following day we walked the ancient streets of Tsfat and greatly expanded Haifa University where we rode the new cable car down and then up the mountain. Our friendship is intense. Jeff and Tina lost their 14 year ol...