Last night David and I went to our first Kabbalah Shabbat service in Israel -- it was almost all in Hebrew. The Rabbi is from Argentina and he speaks Spanish, Hebrew, and English fluently. He sang and played the guitar, and it was a nice service: different than what I am familiar with but still quite nice. A lot of ex-pats go to that synagogue.
There was a youth group from Florida attending from one of the synagogues that helps support the temple. The State of Israel supports well over a 1000 orthodox synagogues, but Reform synagogues don't receive any state support and are dependent upon the goodwill of synagogues in the US and Europe for help. I looked to see if Temple Emanuel in Denver was one of the supporters, and it was not. Most of the support came from Massachusetts and Florida.
We had spent the day with Gershwin (not his real name) who was from the US and had been in Israel for five years. We walked around the neighborhood where he lived -- it seems like an up and coming area with a lot of activity and vibrancy. The neighborhood is centrally located and I wouldn't mind living there. It is considered one of the "rougher" neighborhoods in Haifa, which means there's more trash on the sidewalks and some bars get rowdy late at night. But it is still safe to walk the streets alone at night -- or so I've been told.
Gerswin answered a lot of our questions, but he put kind of a downer spin on everything. He sounded shocked when he found out Nefesh/JAFI approved our aliyah without us ever having visited Israel beforehand. He made it sound like in order to rent an apartment you need six months rent payable in advance. What we have heard is that you give the landlord twelve months of post-dated checks as guaranty for the rent plus a deposit. He did stress that going to ulpan (the school where they teach Hebrew) is our job for the next five months. David and I are both looking forward to the ulpan.
We found a little cafe to sit and talk. It was an Arab-run establishment that allowed smoking indoors even though it is illegal to smoke in all restaurants in Israel. David noticed a couple of signs posted. One said: Have a Merry Fucking Christmas. The other said: Welcome to Isra-Hell. All Stars of David were crossed out. Although David didn't have a problem with the first sign, he took issue with the anti-Israeli sentiment. David wondered why Gershwin would patronize a place like that. I looked all over for the the signs David was talking about and didn't see them, maybe Gershwin didn't see them either. Or maybe Gershwin doesn't care. We didn't ask.
Whenever we walk, whether its two miles, two blocks or around the corner of the building, we come upon cats -- as in cats plural. As in there are cats everywhere in Haifa. They all look well-fed -- which may be reflective of a strong economy in Israel -- but at the same time seem half feral. As usual, while we walked with Gershwin, we came upon cats and cats and cats. I love cats, but it just seems like there are too many cats running around neighborhoods. I've seen the documentary, The Secret Lives of Cats, and outdoor cats can be very hard on the environment. Plus, I remember Bob Barker on the Price is Right telling everyone how important it is to spay or neuter your cat. Yeah, there's a cat population explosion in Haifa.
I asked Gershwin about the cats, and he shrugged it off: "In American we have squirrels, in Israel we have cats." He told us about a vet who will capture the cats and "fix" them, but that takes money, and to fix all the cats in Haifa would probably match the US budget for defense. Well, maybe not that much money, but you get the point.
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