A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

It was so uncanny.

We were sitting in a restaurant in Manchester just hours after our mother’s stone-setting and a few hours before returning to our homes around the world. We had decided to eat out as it had been an exhausting day, physically and emotionally and none of us could think of cooking for twelve.

That week had been the first time we four sisters had been together since our mother’s death, 6 months earlier, when we sat shiva together in Manchester before three of us returned to our respective homes in Jerusalem and Teaneck.

Was it appropriate, we wondered, to eat out at a restaurant only hours after the unveiling of our mother’s memorial stone. But we remembered that one of Mum’s greatest pleasures had been to see us all together enjoying ourselves in each other’s company, catching up on family news and having a good laugh , as inevitably happened when we four got together.

We sifted through the long menu not knowing what to order. I hadn’t eaten out for many months and found the choices overwhelming . My mind was still on the day’s events.

We hadn’t only had the unveiling of the memorial stone but had also taken the opportunity to visit all the old familiar places of our childhood.

We hadn’t been back to our hometown, Leicester, for about 30 years, except for our mother’s funeral that frozen, snowy day during last Chanukah. So we decided to drive round and visit our old childhood homes, and schools and visit the old neighborhoods. The changes were incredible. Most of the population was now non-white, non-British and mainly Muslim or Seikh..

The shul where I had married, remained the same beautiful building, both inside and out but it was now surrounded by an almost totally Muslim population. Few Jews lived within easy walking distance as we had done in our childhood.

Our parents had settled in Leicester during the war. Refugees from Germany were glad to find a haven in which to settle and finding a job which allowed my father not to work on Shabbat was a priority. We had enjoyed an untroubled, happy childhood. Despite the lack of any Jewish schools in the town and with very few religious families, our parents’ wonderful example of religious strength, coupled with friendship and a warm tolerance to all our fellow Jews had been enough to ensure that we four had grown up to build our own homes on the same strong Jewish foundations . Only now as parents and grandparents did we realize just how difficult it must have been for them bringing up a family under such circumstances.

Knowing that we would not find a suitable partner in our hometown, and that our future didn’t  lie there, we had all left Leicester when we graduated school and moved to Jewish centers in England and Israel.

Before our parents had had a chance to join us , our father died suddenly and was buried in our hometown. Mum, who had later moved to London to be nearer her children, had retained her burial plot  next to his in the Leicester cemetery, frequently reminding us that when the day came, we should remember where she wanted to be buried.

And it was to there that we brought her on her final journey six months previously, and where we returned today to unveil her stone which seemed to look comfortable next to our father’s.

With three of us living abroad and only one still in England we had had no opportunity  until now to go through Mum’s possessions together, seeing family photographs and documents, many dating back to pre war Germany . So we had spent the last week together reading, trying to understand , attempting to identify people in old family photos and reminiscing about our childhood and what our parents had been though before we were born.

                          ………………………………….

And then suddenly we heard it.

As we were sitting in the restaurant ,drained after a long emotional day, the background music suddenly changed. Instead of the typical piped ‘invisible’ music , it suddenly changed to the strong tempo of Motzart’s  ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ ( A little Night Music) .

We four sisters looked at each other in amazement. We hadn’t heard this in many years. It was our mother’s favorite piece of music which she used to hum happily all the time at home when we were growing up . Maybe it was connected with the time she and Daddy had met, I don’t remember, but it’s association with our parents was 100%.

To us, on that emotion laden day it’s message was loud and clear, It was as though together our parents were looking down on us from their place in the World of Truth and sending a message that we would clearly understand was from them. We felt their presence as though they were sitting with us and we sensed their contentment at being together again.

With tears in our eyes, and a sense of warmth in our hearts we ordered our meals.

Israel’s negotiating problem

 

 

The below article , by Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann, explains so clearly and simply why Israel always loses out at the negotiating table.

http://www.aish.com/jw/me/97755479.html

If only our politicians from the P.M. down were to read it and absorb its message.

IT’S GOOD TO BE HOME

No matter where I’ve been it’s always  good to be back home again.

Even the weather reminded me of home. It hasn’t been as hot as this in Manchester for 30 years. My sweaters and  rain jackets stayed in my suitcase.

This tram also  made me think - Will the Jerusalem light rail  really one day  traverse the city as smoothly and unobtrusively as it does in Manchester UK – still seems difficult to imagine looking at the ongoing  balagan downtown.

Already on the flight  home you begin to feel ‘Israeli’ once again. The pilot apologized  for the delay in take off as most of the passengers had far too much carry-on luggage with them  ( sound familiar??)

Just seeing the stewards and stewardesses helpless faces on Jet2 as they tried in vain to seat the passengers who insisted on chatting with long lost friends from the minute we took off, brought  a smile to my face.

Yes I know the behavior  isn’t helpful but it just made me feel that I’m already home again.

THE DEAD SEA – ALIVE AND THRIVING

   Every time I drive down to the Dead Sea I find it   difficult to believe that just half an hours  drive from  Jerusalem  the scenery and climate  change so drastically.

But the heat, although overpowering sometimes, is still more bearable to me than the  humid climate of the Mediterranean coast.

The sun here, at the lowest  point in the world, has its harmful rays filtered out and sunbathing  is  beneficial  to many skin complaints.

 

Sunset over the Dead Sea

 

patches of  dried salt 

 

If you’re visiting the area for health reasons then check out how much your hotel offers free of extra charge. You should be able to get the use of  the hotel’s beach, indoor Dead-Sea –water pool, Jacuzzi and solarium  without having to pay anything extra. Maybe also the use of sulphur  pools and sauna.

Remember if you have any scratches, open wounds  etc the salt water will be painful  so stick to clear water pools. If you suffer from high blood pressure or heart problems or are pregnant  then be guided by the notices which give the maximum amount of time that should be spent in the various treatment pools.

 

                                       All that sea and sun and so healthy too

 

This is the best place to stock up on  Dead Sea skin products and often the hotel shops have excellent prices, but take a trip to the mini-malls in the shopping area by the hotels as they have  very good package deal prices – shop around.

If you found the treatments beneficial then take some mud and sea crystals back home and continue the treatment there.

You don’t have to stay in a hotel  to get the benefits of  the Dead Sea. There are several  day spas and, as the distance from the main towns is relatively short , you can get a lot of sunbathing / treatments  without having to stay overnight.

People fly in from all over the globe to  benefit from the Dead Sea water, mud and sun. Those of us living here are fortunate that it is so much easier ( and cheaper)  for us.

EFL LEARNING A LANGUAGE OR A CULTURE?

 

You’d imagine that teaching English as a foreign language here in Israel is enough of a challenge on its own.

But when your students come from backgrounds as varied as Ethiopia, Russia and Europe as well as Israel and amongst those from each country are several ultra-orthodox students who do not watch television, use the internet, read regular daily newspapers nor popular literature, and you realize that we’re talking about major cultural differences as well.

This was first brought home to me when doing practice exam papers.

During the year I can more or less choose the material I use, but the students have to get used to the type of exam they’re going to have to take, so towards the end of the year we do old exam papers …..and what a problem they are.

“Teacher who or what is Harry Potter? A person? The writer? The passage here talks about him as if I’m supposed to know. And there are other words here that aren’t in the dictionary at all” ( could she mean muggles?)

“Teacher, what is The Olympic Games? Is it a children’s game? Why are there dates for the game can’t you play it when you want?”

“ What is a website teacher?”

“ What is the greenhouse effect? I looked it up in the dictionary but then I didn’t understand the definition it gave?”

One part of me enjoys teaching my students about daily things we take for granted, modern ecological and environmental issues and advances in hi-tech.

But another part feels it’s unfair that even if their grasp of the English language is good and they are working very hard, they could fail their exams simply because the topic in their comprehension paper ( which is the main section of the exam) is one about which they know nothing and this inevitably hinders their understanding of the text.

I have spoken to the powers-that-be who write the exam papers asking for more general topics, but they claimed that if we stick to totally neutral topics such as family, food or education it is simply too limiting ( not to mention boring).

So if anyone out there wants to send me a short definition/ synopsis of some recent trends or moderns issues, in relatively simple English, I shall be happy to use them in my future lessons.

Sir Ken Robinson – well worth listening to

“ One of the world’s greatest thinkers” has never been a title that impressed me because I always associated it with unintelligible, philosophical utterances.

But Sir Ken Robinson is so not like that. Every sentence he says contains  such gems of truth , such clear obvious statements that we all ”know” but just don’t  think about, express them and act on them as he does. And he has such a great sense of humor as well.

Watch, listen and enjoy

 

CATS

I put the below notice on our local email list as a last resort – it’s pretty self-explanatory

A couple of months ago a cat had four kittens in our garden. We weren't thrilled but it didn't bother us too much.

Now things have become unpleasant. The mother cat is aggressive to the point of being dangerous. She's a good mother and brings fish heads / meat/ etc from the nearby shop's garbage can to feed them and sees any humans as a threat.

She sits by our back door and snarls and gets ready to pounce on anyone trying to get out.

I have called the municipality and they came immediately but they said it's illegal to remove a cat from her outdoor home. If she had come inside our house then he would have picked her up and removed her ..... to the garden or outside out front door - no further.

Without going into boring detail it's impossible to stop the cats from getting in and out of the garden. Does anyone know of an organisation that will come and remove the cats and take them far away. I don't wish any harm on them but if it's a choice of them or my grandchildren's safety and welfare - they have to go.

Thanks

So far I have had no replies – I wait in hope.

Today we  bought a long water hose to squirt  at them when they start devouring their fish heads on my back porch. They hate water so they run away – but they return.

When we were infested with mice two years when building work was started on a new ( totally unwanted and unnecessary) local mall we caught almost a hundred before the plague died down – and that took almost a year.

I hope we find an amicable solution  to our cat problem  quicker than that.

All hints and tips welcome.