Written January 24, 2013

 

My dearest family, children and grandchildren, friends and neighbors.  Shalom from the land of miracles, amazing people, sunshine after rain storms.

I am fine, it seems time goes by, faster here. I guess I am having a good time.

I left the USA for Israel, after a "stormy" period.  Presidential election and a hurricane  in the name of Sandy.

I came to Israel  in time for the 19th government election and a week full of rain storm all over Israel.

miracle of miracles, no one I heard complaining about the "Water from Heaven". The Sea of Galilee (The Kineret, in Hebrew) reached, almost, the upper red line. The Dead sea added another 12 cm  of water to its drying condition. The mountains were covered with snow, and Jerusalem had a Snow party...her citizens spent two snow days outdoors. no one complained. Water is needed in Israel. And as all knows, the sunshine did not fail to come with a temp in the 70+ F in Tel-Aviv. 

The rain could not stop the thirty six (36) parties running in the election. The Israeli Parliament, (The Knesset) has 120 members (K.M.). I knew I had to learn fast, the political make up, ideology, goals,  platform and most important the candidate, of at least the major parties, for this was the first time I was voting in a Israel Election.  NO PROBLEM, every morning, between 8:00 and 9:00, on the national radio broadcast Channel 2, the candidates of each party, spoke, sang. jingled, promise, badmouth other parties, blast, etc. courtesy of the state of Israel. While getting closer to the election, I was contemplating, the best advertisement, the one that made me laugh the most will get my vote.

At the end, in this election the highest percentile of voters, ever, used their citizen rights. Also, the Arab Israelis, encouraged by their leaders, reached over 40% of voters. (Arab parties totaled 4 or 5 , I think 3 were able to pass the required voters for entry into the Knesset).

And while all this was going on, all the newspaper wrote about the thirty six (36) languages spoken in Israel. The country with 7.5 mil population, about 1.5 mil speaking Arabic and 1.2 mil. speaking Russian. Noted also the fact, that 2nd & 3rd generation continue to master their origin language. However, Hebrew is the official language, with Arabic & English. 

Now that the election are over, my radio is silent. The topic of Bibi Nethanyahu forming a coalition government of at least 61 votes is on the agenda. There are no songs or jingles, I am not interested.

TU Bishvat, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat is on Saturday. A holiday we celebrate the New Year for the trees. This is the season for the specialty dried fruit & nuts store to prosper. I never knew there more then 2 kind of raisins. I counted, in one place, 7 kinds of dates, 3 kinds of figs, 4 kinds of cranberries, and a variety of dried fruits of all color and shape.

Only in Israel.  

With best wishes, I miss you all, I love you,  Ima, Savta, The Shvig, Estherika, Ludmilla, me, Esther.