English as Israelis

The mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, recently launched his war on English.  Increased use of English, in advertisements, slang and even everyday language is the trend here in Israel.  However, I think it's important to break these categories down and try to understand why this is happening.  

1. Technology.  As technology develops at a rapid pace, Hebrew words are not keeping up.  An iPhone is called an iPhone whether you live in NYC or Tel Aviv.  I mean, let's be honest, the Hebrew word for telephone is general, is טלפון, telephone, and the verb to call someone on the telephone is לטלפן, l'talphen, (to telephone).  There are a lot of Hebrew words, liketelephone, derived from English, but there are also many words that have a legitimate Hebrew version, yet the English is equally (or more so) heard.  You can walk into a cafe with your computer and ask if they have מרשתת אלחוטית, mirshetet alhuti, but the barista (in Hebrew: בריסטה, barista) will look at you either like you fell off the moon or like you're trying to be snooty.  You're better off asking if they have ואי פי or Wi-Fi.  

2. English is cool.  Why use a Hebrew word when you can use an English word and seem infinitely cooler.  In fact, the popular word used to describe someone as cool in Hebrew is cooli (coolit for a girl, coolim for multiple cool people).  When my mom was visiting a friend of hers this past week, her friend's grandson repeatedly called my mom acoolit for being able to "find Waldo" and keep up with Dance Dance Revolution.  Newspapers also think English is cool.  Headlines will often choose a transliterated "exotic" English word over the, oh so common, Hebrew option.  Way to pack a punch, Hebrew newspapers.  Lastly, English is cool on your clothing.  I'm pretty sure this phenomenon exists in all countries that don't speak English, not just Israel, but it can be found here too.  The problem with English on your clothing is when the words don't actually make sense.  It's like when Americans get Chinese character tattoos and *think* they know what it says ("my tatoo means 'peace and tranquility'." "Umm... I'm pretty sure it says 'wanton soup'...").  Here's this guy's cool jacket I saw on the bus:

                                                       

(It reads: "M.S.T.R. original.  The best fashion sports wear best this into store to carve best classic")

3. English makes you seem International.  From clothing stores (GOLF, FOX) to tv cable companies (HOT, YES) you're just as likely to see storefront signs or company letterhead with English letters as Hebrew.  The trend now is to even write Hebrew words in English characters, très internationale.   Take the Haifa hairdresser Oudi BenHarush for example, whose very Hebrew name, is written is very English letters...

                                                               

The big mall in our area, the Grand Canyon, has succumbed to the lure of English as well.  While the name is particularly witty (canyon means mall in Hebrew and the mall happens to be built into an actual canyon), which I very much appreciate, that doesn't negate the clear English influence.  Someone once even felt the need to translate the mall's name for me: "you know the Grand Canyon, the Great Mall." (I didn't tell her that "grand" is already an English word...)

                                                       

4. Sometimes English is a necessity.  Tourism is one of Israel's biggest industries.  Part of welcoming tourists to your country is making sure that said tourists can successfully travel around the country.  This is one of the reasons why most street signs in Israel are tri-lingual.  Hebrew and Arabic, because they are the two official languages of Israel, and English, because it is the international language.  Sometimes, however, the city fails to hire an English editor and then you end up with signs like this in your neighborhood: 

                                                          

These, among others, are the reasons English is and is becoming more prevalent around these parts and Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav doesn't want any of it.  The free daily newspaper that we read everyday in my Ulpan class, reported that the mayor has already succeeded in eliminating English from municipal documents and is now trying to figure out if it is legal to require businesses to include Hebrew lettering on shop signs.  Nothing in the article was said, however, about the prevalence of Russian in Haifa, which I hear and see used much much more than English.  At least once a week an old man approaches me and says something in Russian and I have to sadly gesture that I have no idea what he is saying... 

You can find the full (poorly translated) article here: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6835 and the original Hebrew article here: http://www.israelhayom.co.il/site/newsletter_article.php?id=24971&hp=1&newsletter=25.12.2012 .

While my Zionistic leanings make me want to agree that Hebrew should ultimately be the dominant language in all of Israel... stop hating on my native English, Yona Yahav!

We hope you all had a Shabbat of Peace and a great weekend,

Stef and Matt

Rain as Israelis (Haifans to be specific)

Rain.  To say it rains a lot in Haifa (at least this year...) is the understatement of the century.  We have never experienced so much and such heavy rain in our lives.   Because of Israel's unique location, it's particular distance from the equator, the country experiences only winter rains (says Matt after his lecture at Haifa University on climate).  That means from spring (around Pesach) to early fall (around Sukkot), the country is dry dry dry.  Come the rainy season, Jews around the world begin to add prayers for rain into their daily benedictions.  This only really makes sense here in Israel, as most other places where there are Jews (which is actually most places) the rainy season and the prayer "schedule" don't quite line up.  Now, that we are in the midst of winter, we are seeing the work of our prayers full force.

The rain here in Haifa (I can't speak for the rest of the country, plus I'm sure it is different) is plentiful and strong.  We are not talking tropical rains where there are a few minutes of sun-showers and then beautiful skies.  We are also not talking your average thunderstorm.  What we have been experiencing here are "super-can't sleep through the night because of the loud noises and bright lights-can't go outside even with an umbrella-wait! that's not rain it's hail-thunderstorms". Your feet will get wet, even in rainboots (which apparently no Israelis own and look at my hunter green rubber rainboots like I have aliens on my feet), your umbrella will get eaten by the winds, and you will surely get drenched by the cars and buses driving by making tsunami sized waves from the puddles on the road.  I don't want to complain because this country desperately needs as much rain as she can get (droughts are bad), but at the same time, unless you really like being holed up in the house watching movies (actually that doesn't sound too bad...), it is not fun to venture out anywhere since you know you will then be wet and uncomfortable for the rest of the day.  

Some of you may think that Matt's studies - middle bronze age Canaanite religious and cult practices - are not so relevant to today's world.  That is, until you experience the wrath of Ba'al yourself.  Ba'al, the Canaanite storm-god, specializes in rain, thunder, agriculture and fertility.  In the Tanakh/Bible, (I Kings 18), the prophet Elijah summons 450 Ba'al prophets to the Carmel mountain (where Haifa is located) for a God vs. god duel.  After the failure of the Ba'al prophets to summon Ba'al to consume their offering, Elijah calls out God, fire shoots out of the sky, swallows up the offering and the winner is crowed (then Elijah slaughters all the Ba'al prophets).  Needless to say, there were those who once believed that the rains in the Carmel were the doings of Ba'al.  

During one of this winter's torrential downpours, we jumped into a cab to escape the weather.  The friendly cab driver welcomed us in and sympathized with us as we rung out our sopping wet clothes into his car.  As we began to drive, Matt turned to the driver and joked: "Wow, look at these rains.  Ba'al must be really pissed today!"  Not quite sure how to respond, the driver looked away and didn't say another word to Matt.  I later informed Matt the "Ba'al jokes" should be reserved for those who will have any clue about what he is insinuating... you have to know your audience.  

Stay dry out there, Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend,

Stef and Matt

Hiking Haifa and Roaming Tel Aviv as Israelis

This weeks update comes to you by way of pictures.  The week of Chanukah brought us on a number of mini-adventures.  The first was a hike down the Carmel mountain.  One of the great things about Haifa is that the city is built on a mountain and at certain points you can just walk of the edge of the city and find yourself in a luscious green valley...   

with some remnants of the city still to be found.  

We swung on swings...

discovered some ruins...   

and found a horse in a stone stable...  

all without leaving the city limits of Haifa.  

Our second adventure took us to the streets of Tel Aviv.  The morning began with some sun-showers and a stunning rainbow. 

After breakfast with one friend and lunch immediately after with another, we walked through the city back to train station.  On the way we found ourselves in the "mannequin district"... 

To be honest, I never really had such an appreciation for Tel Aviv in the past.  However, through the guidance of a number of Tel Avivian friends, I am beginning to find the beauty in the small interesting things you can only find in this city.  

"modesty"

"MAIL"

"enough Holocaust denial"

The day in Tel Aviv ended with a train ride to the airport to meet my (Stef's) mom who arrived for a three week visit.  We're looking forward to some more fun adventures while she's here!

HAPPY CHANUKAH!!!

Being American as Israelis

In response to last week's email, many people asked for a "turducken" photo.  Unfortunately, since we were not part of the actual tri-bird assembly team, we have no pictures.  However, here is a picture of our Thanksgiving contribution: a turkey challah.  

Being an immigrant is a funny thing.  Much of daily life becomes an attempt at integrating your old self (read: American) with your new environment (Israeli).  Never in all our years living in the US did we attend four, yes four, full Thanksgiving meals like we did this year. In a way it seems like an overcompensation.  On the other hand, it is a perfect example of our fellow olim (immigrants) trying to preserve an aspect of their/our identity, even if the majority of our T-day meals did not take place on actual T-day (or with only Americans).  

While searching for a bus stop the other day to take a bus I had never taken before, I wandered into Wadi Nisnas, an Arab Christian-Muslim neighborhood.  Suddenly, for the first time this season, I saw Christmas!  Little Santa costumes, Christmas trees and ornaments.  Candy canes, stockings and lights.  The American in me got all excited and I took a few pictures. Then it dawned on me, I would have never taken pictures of random Christmas decorations at a store in the States.  But now that we live in Israel, Christmas does not exist in the majority of the places we go and (for whatever this might mean) Christmas is conflated with American in my emotional memory.

This week also brought me to another place in Israel that feels like America (or anywhere in the world, for that matter), IKEA.  A family friend picked me up at the train station in Netanya and we headed over to Ikea.  The store here looks exactly like every Ikea store in the world, and walking through the store, you could imagine you were somewhere else.  That is, until you notice that all the signs are in Hebrew, the prices are in shekel and the food in the cafeteria is kosher.  The purpose of the trip was to buy some cabinets for the kitchen and some other odds and ends around the house.  The trip was successful, all intended purchases were made and I also left with a bamboo plant, the same exact bamboo plant, in the same exact vase, that we bought at the Ikea in Chicago (which was graciously adopted by a friend when we moved).  In its own way, Ikea has made the world a much smaller place.  

Maybe the most poignant moment of our American/Israeli integration happened this morning, at breakfast.  Friday mornings in Israel are (sort of) like Sunday mornings in America.  No work, sleep in late, make a fun breakfast... so, on this morning's menu: left-over challah french toast.  Everything about our french toast was as it should be, except that we realized we had no maple syrup.  We looked through our pantry to see what we could use as a substitute and we found it: silan (date honey), a middle-eastern staple.  As we dipped our french toast in the silan, we reflected to ourselves: as Israeli as we might become, we'll always be Americans too (but don't worry, my mom is bringing us real maple syrup was when she comes to visit next week).  

Chaunkah is almost here (first candle, Saturday night) and this week in my Ulpan class I got to give a presentation about the holiday.  I taught a short section of Talmud about lighting candles, a lesson I used to teach my students in Chicago.  When the presentation ended, my teacher told me: "wow, that was great! You should be a teacher."  I told her: "I am a teacher."  Made me miss my colleagues and students at CJHS.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom, Happy Chanukah and a great weekend, 

Stef and Matt