MARRIAGE IN ISRAEL BY JONA TAYLOR

My common law husband David and I had the crazy idea we would get married in Israel. We forgot the fact that Israeli marriage laws are different than in the United States. In America practically anybody can get married to whoever they want if they are of age. Most states still don’t allow gay marriage, and no state that I know of would let you marry your dog or cat; However, Interracial and interfaith marriages are allowed in all states, even Alabama.

David and I can’t get married in Israel because civil marriage is not allowed. Basically, only Orthodox religious marriages are permitted. Christians may marry other Christians, Muslims may only marry Muslims, and Jews may only marry Jews. Oh, but there’s more, certain ultra-orthodox Jewish sects allow marriage not only between cousins, but even nieces.  Since 1953 the rabbinate has only approved marriages between Jews in Israel conducted in accordance with the Orthodox interpretation of halakha. Therefore for converts to marry in Israel they must have met strict Orthodox guidelines for conversion. That eliminates many Jewish couples especially from America and Russia.

Not to worry, love conquers all. Israel will accept marriages that were performed in other countries. Therefore, although David and I can’t get married in Israel, if we married before coming here, or take a trip abroad to elope, the marriage would be accepted. I was told by my gay friend that Israel accepts his marriage which was performed in a country that allows gay marriage.

So many Israelis go abroad to get married. How ironic is that? A lot of this comes from the old Ottoman Empire, and many of the surrounding countries — aka enemies calling for the complete and total destruction of Israel — have similar laws and customs.

Cyprus is the country of choice where most Israelis travel to marry. In fact, there is the Cyprus wedding cruise ship that leaves port about once a week during wedding season and once a month during the slow season. I’ve never been to Cyprus, so I can’t tell you what it’s like, but obviously they allow civil marriages and are profiting from the archaic Israeli marriage laws. There are couples in the US that refuse to marry until gays can marry. As a matter of principle, David and I should not get married until Israelis born in their own native land are allowed to marry their person of choice in a civil ceremony. 


Jona Taylor is a semi-retired massage therapist and a freelance writer living in Haifa, Israel. To read more about her adventures in Israel go to http://bumblingthruisrael.wordpress.com

ANEMONIES BY ZELDA DVORETZKY

In Vermont, people go “leaf peeping” in the Fall, driving through chilly October

days to watch the trees turn from green to glorious red, gold, ocher and every

shade and color in between. In Texas, people flock to the Hill Country in the

spring to rejoice in the riot of Bluebonnets - wildflowers that carpet the slopes

with a gentian blue so vivid it rivals the skies. Wordsworth’s “host of golden

daffodils” grace England’s hills and dales as well as anthologies of beloved poems.

 
 
Many places on earth display nature’s bounty of beauty. 

In Israel, we have  Anemonies, called here, Calaniot. 




The number of varieties of wildflowers in this small country is too great to count, but the

Calaniot,  in their season,  overwhelm the senses with their profusion of deep red petals.


They are particularly vivid this year, thanks to an unusually wet winter. It is against the law to

pick them; Israel’s self-renewing wildflowers are a national treasure to be cherished and

preserved.

Zelda Dvoretzky was born in New Jersey and grew up in New York. She earned degrees from City College of New York and the University of Michigan, after which she wrote copy for the electronic and print media, and worked in public relations, editing and teaching. She retired to Haifa in 1997, is a member of Haifa Writers, Israel, an organization of writers of poetry in English, and the Haifa Chamber Choir. Zelda stays busy learning Hebrew, teaching English, and keeping in touch with grandchildren, family and friends in Texas, California, and, of course, Haifa. zeldahaifa@gmail.com

TOUR OF JERUSALEM BY EARL J. SHUGERMAN

I just completed a wonderful visit to Jerusalem for the Hanukkah holiday. It is still a thrill each time that I tour the holiest and most fascinating city on earth. My home is in Haifa, but the City of Gold is just a two hour bus ride from my front door.

 
This is a glimpse of the Kotel or Western Wall from my friend Tim in 2009. He was a Southern Baptist envoy to Haifa.

My favorite trip in this glorious nation is to Israel's capital. I always visit the Tower of David, where King David composed the 23rd psalm. The Tower of David (Hebrew: מגדל דוד‎, Migdal David, Arabic: برج داود‎, Burj Daud) is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem.

Built to strengthen a strategically weak point in the Old City's defenses, the citadel that stands today has ancient foundations and was constructed during the 2nd century BC and subsequently destroyed and rebuilt by, in succession, the Christian, Muslim, Mamluk, and Ottoman conquerors of Jerusalem. It contains important archaeological finds dating back 2,700 years, and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances. The name "Tower of David" is due to Byzantine Christians who believed the site to be the palace of King David.[1] They borrowed the name "Tower of David" from the Song of Songs, attributed to Solomon, King David's son, who wrote: "Thy neck is like the Tower of David built with turrets, whereon there hang a thousand shields, all the armor of the mighty men." (Song of Songs, 4:4)



This week's visit was joyous. The museum was filled with visitors from all over the world. Christians from Belgium, Muslims from Haifa, and Jews from Israel and abroad shared the almost mystic spirit of the shrine and the holiday atmosphere of Hanukkah. The area of the holy sites has upscale shopping, cafes, educational campuses and spiritual centers. It was Hanukkah and therefore Sufganiot or donuts were everywhere. Fried foods are a holiday tradition, a reference to the oil that miraculously burned for eight days.

I dined at a beloved Arab restaurant, and enjoyed the cuisine of traditional Arab cooking accompanied by a Miller Light. Then, I crossed the street towards The Tomb of Jesus, where I am always inspired by the visit. It still amazes me that the distance between The Tower of David, my favorite restaurant and the Tomb of Jesus is just a few minutes walk. The Western Wall,or Kotel was the highlight of the tour. It is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard, and is one of the most sacred sites in Judaism outside of the Temple Mount itself. According to the Tanakh, Solomon's Temple was built atop the Temple Mount in the 10th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was completed and dedicated in 516 BCE. Two thousand years ago Jews were expected to pray in The Temple. According to classical Jewish belief, the Temple acted as the figurative "footstool" of God's presence and a Third Temple will be built there in the future.

My first trip to Jerusalem was seven years ago. I was accompanied by my cousin Chaya, which is the Hebrew female name for life. Life has very special meaning to the people of Israel. We must never forget the Holocaust. Six million lost souls who died for the "crime" of praying in a Synagogue. Twenty thousand souls have perished defending this small and brave nation. Israel is a nation of only seven million citizens.

Chaya is Jewish Orthodox and by the age of thirty had six wonderful children. She is also an American Olah or immigrant to Israel. Her family immigrated to Israel two decades ago. Their intention was to be in the holiest city in the holiest nation on earth. My pride and joy is her now eight year old son, Elchanan. He is a handsome, brilliant, and very precocious young man with dark hair, brown eyes, and a very enchanting but somewhat sly smile. His mom refers to him as a walking Chamsin (turbulent storm), and his proud grandma jokes that he is Israel’s greatest threat to stability!

Chaya, like most residents of the holy city takes great pride in giving guided tours of her beloved metropolis.

During my visit, we enjoyed touring the city on Israel’s double decker bus 99. El Chanon managed to get into everything and talk to everyone to the merriment of all, including our bus driver Haim. He has been a resident of the city for forty years. Chaim told us in great detail about his recently born and first grandson. We were enthralled to hear a Druze visitor from the North tell us about his families support of the Jewish Yishuv during Israel's War of Independence in 1948. We chatted with a group of Christian pilgrims from Belgium. They were seeing Jerusalem and neighboring Bethlehem for the first time.

The 99 bus navigates a route of both scenic and cultural interest. Mount Scopes boasts a visage encompassing the Old City, the Temple Mount and Bethlehem. As the Old City passes into the remote distance, the New City boasts iconographic sites. The Knesset houses Israel’s parliament. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial remembers all those that were the victims of history’s most insidious crime. The Israel Museum is a testimony to Jewish endurance and continuity of their presence in the Land of Canaan (between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea). It is also the home to one of the most impressive and famous discoveries dating back more than two thousand years. The Dead Sea Scrolls written by a group called “The Esseim” describes life in this region in the era of The Second Jewish Temple.

Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE. It has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness. Jews have studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish Temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs. The 23rd Psalm is my most revered. Traditionally, Jerusalem has been the focus of longing for Diaspora Jews who were forced from their land and the Temple of their God. Psalm 137 is the well-known lament of the Babylonian Jews who wept "by the rivers of Babylon" and declared, "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither."

For Christians, Jerusalem's place in the life of Jesus gives it great importance. Jerusalem is considered a sacred site. The city is holy in both Sunni and Sunnite Islamic tradition, along with Mecca and Medina. Islamic tradition holds that previous prophets were associated with Jerusalem, and that the Islamic prophet Muhammad visited the city on a nocturnal journey.

The Holy City is one of the most studied and most controversial in the world. Jerusalem has great spiritual value to both Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It is a political arena as well. Should Jerusalem be the capital of the Jewish homeland, Palestinian homeland, or both? The Jewish people was denied the right to pray at our spiritual center openly and freely for two thousand years. The 1947 United Nations Mandate for Palestine made East Jerusalem an international city with guaranteed access for all. We were denied that access by Jordan until 1967. Israel is both the homeland of The Jewish people but also of Judaism. The City of Gold is its heart.We must never be denied our heritage again.

 



Earl Shugerman, a sixty four year old Oleh Hadash, immigrated to Haifa, Israel from Western Colorado in the United States. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of New Mexico. Prior to moving to Israel, Earl worked in the State Government of Colorado and for other government agencies promoting employment services for people with disabilities. He is now retired and loves his new home of five years in Haifa where promoting dialogue between faiths and cultures as well as writing are his great passions. Many of E.J.'s stories about life in Haifa as a new immigrant have been published worldwide by well known websites. Earl received the AACI North Volunteer of 2013 award, which has been announced at the National AACI Annual General Meeting on June 2013.

WATER OUT OF A STONE BY DANA KEREN

I told you before, Ms. Kinengeser, that one of the "spatial privileges" phoned me yesterday and confirmed that I am entitled to health insurance doled out by the governmental Health Insurance Company for the Sick and the Desperate. They followed it up by sending me an e-mail detailing each step that I should undertake. And so, after choosing the paint for my apartment, I went home and phoned the misken (unfortunate) insurance company Maccabi in order to remove from their coffers all the enormous sums of money that I have paid them. To my chagrin they had already removed it from my account instead of waiting till the Dec. 1st date, as they were expected to do. Mrs. Olga was on vacation, but Mrs. Malka instructed me to bring a copy of the email from the lady of the "spatials" and a letter from me in which I should declare that I know that I will not be covered until I will be covered (no kidding!!!) My printer is still on its Atlantic Ocean cruise so Rysis had to be summoned. He printed my letter from the "spatials" and that suggested that I write my letter in English, expecting the Maccabi Company to be more favorably impressed.
 

The entrance 'gates' to the building of the Ministry for Internal Affairs, Haifa

After many adventures, I arrived for my meeting with Malka exactly at 9:00 feeling distraught over the letters. Malka takes one look at my beautiful letter in perfect English which cites with impeccable logic, on two pages in large font, all the events that contributed to the present tragic situation - trying at the same time not to offend anyone. At the very end I declared officially that I recognized that I will not be insured until I will be insured. After taking one look at my masterpiece, Malka says: what is this jabber? Write something in Hebrew and sign it. I say: “please dictate, seeing that neither my computer nor I can write in Hebrew”. I am in kita alef (grade one). She starts dictating and decides that I am definitely not in grade one! In point of fact, I only asked her about every seventh letter and not every 2nd. The letter mercifully consisted of three sentences. Signature,

Thus end of discussion. I will be in touch with you during the day, says Malka.





I am on my way to tick off the first thing on my list: going to the Ministry for Internal Affairs in order to update my Identity Document. By now I learned already to ask whether the bus will go where I want to get to, otherwise - disaster will strike me for sure. I get on the bus, the driver smiles and says: boker tov! (good morning!). I ask him whether he is going to the Ministry for Internal Affairs. He says: I sure hope so! I was just about to say that hope deludes the fools but instead I told him that hope is a wonderful thing. To the young man next to me I said how nice it was to have drivers with a sense of humor. And, of course, just as we were leaving the next stop, some old lady, just a bit late for the bus but intent on getting in, started waving her cane around and said cane actually hit the bus! The driver stopped the bus, let her on, smiled and said: it's a good thing you didn't hit me with that cane. My chum sitting next to me and we looked at each other and burst out laughing.

I don't know if you all noticed this but in each bus, on the plastic partition behind the bus driver there is a sign saying: "Ve-ahavta et-nahagkha ka-mokha" which means "love thy driver as would love yourself". Well, I am only asking you guys! 


The 'rocket' building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Haifa

So my chum and I started talking and saying how terrific those bus drivers were and I told him that I collect such stories. So of course he got curious and started asking me questions. And he asked me where my accent is from. I told him. Then I asked him where his accent was from - Arabic. We discussed the differences in Arabic accents in Haifa and in Jerusalem, the matter of his cousin in Norway who doesn't like living there at all. He asked me why I was collecting those stories. I answered. It came out that I am writing two separate collections of memoirs. During the conversation the story about my Haifa grandmother came out, about my Haifa cousin who was killed in the War of Independence and what motivated me to start writing the story (the remark. I once overheard my Poor Boy make to his friend) and so the story about my being in Jerusalem during the Six-Day War also came out. My chum's name is Eham, he is 20 years old, born in Haifa. He said he had never in his life met such an interesting person as me. He must be leading some kind of a boring life, right?

I went to the Ministry for Internal Affairs, where the security people check my bags and packages and I tell them that I am here in order to update... Go to the first floor! - says the security guy. I stood there dumbfounded. How do you know? Well, you said you were going to update - so it's your identity card. Counter number 11 or 12. Behind counter no. 12 there was an old guy filling out his sudoku. So I went to counter no. 11 where within 15 seconds I acquired an updated identity document, complete with a postal code. That's when I found out that every citizen is supposed to go to the Ministry for Internal Affairs and update their identity documents every time they move. Go figure! And right after that Malka from the Insurance Company for the Sick, the Unhappy and the Desperate phoned and confirmed that Tel-Aviv promised that my hard spent monies would be returned to my account on Dec. 5th.
 


Tomorrow I will phone Rachel from the Absorption of Returning Citizens in order to give her a chance to meet me in person this time, as per instructions from Tel-Aviv. Did the capital of Israel move to Tel-Aviv while I was away?

Dana Keren

 



Born in Post-war Poland, made aliyah in 1964, studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, moved to Canada in 1974. Retired from the University of Toronto Library and returned to Israel in 2010. Lives in Haifa.