David's Israel Adventure

This blog will chronicle the adventures of me, David Weinfeld, as an Otzma fellow in Israel, from August 21st, 2005 to May 29th, 2006. I hope this is as exciting for you as it is for me (though that would be a tad bizarre, now wouldn't it?).

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Another Mexican Factory and The Food Room

Last week, and again today, I volunteered with Lev Hash, Haifa's version of Koach Latet, which was Beersheva's version of the Salvation Army. Last week, we folded colthes, and I felt, again, like a Mexican factory worker.

Today, however, we were in the food room. Naomi, the women who worked there, asked me to taste their cookies. This I could handle. I wasn't sure if I was tasting them to see if they were spoiled or not, but they tasted ok to me (though they were not great, as they were not chocolate). Then, Brian and I placed containers of chocolate nutella like spread into boxes. So yes, quite literally, we were fudge-packers.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

More on Arabs and a political snippet

There are Arabs eveywhere. In the poor neighbourhoods, on trendy Ben Gurion street, in the malls, everywhere. In Dunk Pub, (I had the goose/pork burger, absolutely incredible) Josh and I met two students at the Technion. One was born in East Jerusalem to an Arab father and "Russian" mother (I'm assuming he meant ethnically Jewish). He didn't serve in the army, "they didn't want him and he didn't want them." The other guy was a Catholic Arab. According to him, of Israel's million Arabs, 150,000 are Christian and 100,000 of those are Catholic. The number could be way off, but it is interesting. The Arabs I meet are pork-eating Christians, that's for sure.

They were nice guys, recommending all the best Schwarma places (apparently some place called Emile is the best) but we had a brief political moment when Josh said he thought the IDF was man for man stronger than the US military. These guys clearly had no love for the IDF, but it was the Jewish bartender, Alex, who piped in with "The problem with he IDF is that is kills people that it shouldn't." To which I responded, "Can you name an army that doesn't do that?" He said, "You're right." Then he thought some more and said, "Armies who aren't at war." I didn't bother responding, as our conversation continued amicably on a different topic.

Also, at the bar I heaerd a Dubliners version of "I'm A Rover." I have a Great Big Sea version. I told them I would bring them some Great Big Sea to play in the bar. That can be my contribution to Israel.

The Ethiopian Candyshop and Volunteering with Arab kids

Last week, I played with and taught some English to a group of Ethiopian kids at a local community center in Hadar, the poorer neighbourhood. The kids fell in love with me instantly, smiling and slapping me five. When I sat down with a group of boys, aged maybe 8-10, literally the first question they asked me was: "Do you know 50 Cent?" The second question: "Do you know DMX?" The third question: "Do you know Tupac?" They then proceeded to write the words 50 Cent on a piece of paper, asking me if it was correct (it was). They did this from memory, they did not really know the letters. They also had no real understanding of who 50 Cent is. The asked me to sign one of his songs, I mumbled: "Take me to the Candyshop. Na Na Na Na Candyshop." I didn't know the words. They didn't care. "Sing it again!"

It has been otld to us that many Ethiopians adopt the oppositional culture of African-American hip hop or of Rastafarian Redepmtion, because they are aware of their status at the bottom of Israel's socio-economic ladder. Even though they are happy to be in Israel, light year better off than in Ethiopia, there is still a lot of tension.

Every Tuesday the kids get to see a live animal in class. This week, some woman brought in a Tarantula. This reminded of the exhibit of the world's most dangerous spiders and scorpions that I visited in Prague in the summer of 2001. I didn't get to hold teh Tarantula, only to touch its legs and torso, because it still had poison in it. Ah Israel. Safety is so over-rated.

The kids were good kids. A bit rowdy but nice and fun and easy to get along with. I taught some of the older boys some English words, then played basketball with them and some kids from the Arab school next door. Apparently, the Ethiopian teachers fear that the Arab kids are violent. I'm not sure if this is the case, but my experience earlier this week at the Achva center was markedly different.

The Arab kids, mostly Christian, I assume, took a while longer to warm to me, though did eventually, begging me for piggy-back rides. Like with the Ethiopians, I spoke to them in Hebrew. They were very rowdy, didn't really listen to me and they picked up broken glass on the basketball court and refused to pick it up. They really liked dancing though, the boys and the girls, which was fun. I had tried to teach some of them chess, but to no avail.

Working with these kids, Ethiopians and Arabs, is rewarding but really tough, hard to get through to them. I sometimes feel I'm better off with older kids, even though young kids do seem to like me. We'll see how it all goes.

Brief Political Update

As you probably know, Ariel Sharon has left the Likud party to form a new party, the National Responsibility Party known as Kadima (Forward). How do I feel this? Well, I wouldn't vote for them I'd vote Labor, for Peretz. As I understand it, it's a brilliant move, leftists and rightists are converging on the view in favor of a two-state solution, though I'm not sure it's the best version of this, I'm not sure how much will actually be granted to the Palestinians and how unilateral action will be in this regard.

People are saying that the Labor party is now left of Meretz, that even Meretz might join a coalition with Kadima, and Shimon Peres thinking about joining as well. I kind of think that Labor, under Amir Peretz, has the right idea: If we end the conflict, then Israel will have more money to spend on education and social services, narrowing the growing gap between rich and poor (currently second worse in the world after the USA, not something to be proud of). I really believe that Israel has the potential to be super-functioning social democracy like a Scandinavian country, even more impressive, in fact, because of its high achieving high tech industry. But ending the conflict is necessary to achieve that dream of a more egalitarian Israel.

What do Israelis think? We spoke to one cab driver in Haifa who likes Peretz because he "cares about the little guy." An Arab English student at Haifa U hates Sharon and Peretz, thinks Yossi Beilin is ok and Shimon Peres is tolerable. Otherwise I don't really know. I'm kind of removed from it all.

Oh, apparently the Canadian government fell yesterday. Woohoo.

There Are Cats in Israel and the Streets are paved with Hummus

A strange thing we noticed in Beersheva was the number of stray cats roaming around. In Haifa, that number has seemingly quadrupled. Indeed, they run through the hallways of our Abba Hushi dorms all the time. If we leave our doors open they can easily come into our rooms. Aparently, Israel imported cats to deal with the rodent problem. Or so the rumor goes. Maybe it's payback for shouldering the blame for the Bubonic Plague. Of course, that was the fleas fault, not the rats, and so we would be killing the messenger, so to speak. Then again, the sins of the father shouldn't translate onto the sins of the son. Didn't we learn anything at Vatican II?

Flag down another pair of Schwarma

Had two more schwarmas since I've been in Haifa. One was in an Arab neighbourhood, only 1o shekels for a pita! The portion was a bit small, true, but it tasted great, a mixture of keves and hodu. Yum! The second schwarma was at Jibli, a kosher place. I had a laffa. Also very very good. That's 25* on the trip so far.

Bedouin Disco and Masada

Last Thursday evening, our Boston federation organized a trip to Masada with 1000 immigrant/students, again mostly Ethiopian and Russian though a bunch of Frenchmen, Americans, Latin Americans and others. The first stop was a Bedouin tent near Masada. This was perhaps the most inauthentic Bedouin experience yet. They hired a DJ and had a big dance party, which was totally awesome. It was amazing how quickly the Ethiopians have adopted elements of African-American hip-hop culture, in their dress, in their dance, etc. After the Disco, at around 2 am, we reboarded the bus to head to hike up Masada. After a really long, dull light show that told us the history of Masada in Hebrew we could barely understand (this is also a story we already knew) we hiked up the hill, only half-conscious, to see the sunrise. By the time we made it to the top, we could barely keep our eyes open and saw the sunrise briefly before passing out. We also listened to a few actors pretend to be locals of Masada during the time of the rebellion. I don't know how much they pay these people but I feel sorry for them. Even more interesting were the Russian JRR Tolkien fans who brought their own fake swords which they desgined and planned on doing some kind of re-enactment of Masada meets The Hobbit up-top, though I was too sleepy to actually look for them when we on top of Masada. After an hour or so, we headed down the hill and back home later that morning.

Catch Up Blogging

Here's a bunch of posts on what has been happening lately. Trying to get us up to speed.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

The Arabs of Haifa

Are everywhere. It kind of caught me off guard. Haifa really is like no other city in Israel and exemplifies a degree of Arab-Jewish coexistence that probably has no occurred at any other time in history and certainly does not exist in the world anywhere else today. Let me explain.

Our residence, Abba Hushi, is right near an Arab neighbourhood, called Hadar, I believe. Arabic is the prominent language on the store signs. The area is a bit run down, but not a slum. Arabic is the language your hear most people speaking. Yet there are also Jews milling about. Turn the corner, and their will be a Hebrew establishment. This degree of mixing is fascinating. Also, it should be noted that of Haifa's 24,000, the majority (I've heard between 60 to 70%) are Christian, a big difference from the rest of Israel and especially the West Bank (I would say occupied territories, but I keep forgetting, we're out of Gaza). Indeed, you will see many male Arabs walking around with crosses around their necks. I've been asking myself this interesting sociological question: Are these believing Christians, or do they simply want to identify themselves as Christians, because Jews may have a more positive disposition to them rather than Muslims? I don't know the answer yet.

I do know that Arab neighbourhoods means non-kosher food, and stuff open on Shabbat. Of course, Haifa is so wonderfully secular that many Jewish establishments are open on Shabbos and also feature non-kosher food (see Dunk Pub). But still this is good. People say the area can be dangerous, but I never felt unsafe. It is certainly less dangerous than any innercity neighbourhood in the United States.

This is not to say that there is no segregation in Haifa. Up the hill, where the middle and upper middle class people live (including my host family) and where Haifa University and the Technion (Israel's MIT) are located, is an almost entirely Jewish area. The bottom of the hill is where the Arabs lived, but there are more than enough Jews, including recent immigrants, so that Arabs and Jews must live together, side by side.

Another interesting socio-economic reality is that the Jews that most Arabs in Haifa seem to encounter are not the wealthy Ashkenazi Sabras but the recent immigrants, Ethiopians, Russians and Mizrachi. I wonder if this is sort of like the way the Blacks and the Irish interacted in early 20th century Boston. Do the immigrants feel like the only people they can look down upon are the Arabs? Do they resent the fact that though their Jewishness grants them certain privileges, they are not as established as Arabs who have lived here for generations? Do the Arabs resent the privileges granted to these recent immigrants? Or do the two groups find an affinity in their situation towards the bottom of Israel's socio-economic ladder?

I also like the fact that I can speak Hebrew to Arabs rather than English. Here's an interesting little story: I went to get myself a haircut in the local square, which has stores that are, as I can tell, Jewish owned (including one kosher restaurant which are hard to come by here and many Russian establishments). The barber (or hairdresser?) was a Jewish Israeli, possibly homosexual (I really only like to get my hair cut by fat, bald, elderly, heterosexual, Italian or otherwise mediterannean men, or by younger homosexuals). He had lived in Toronto for 12 years and insisted in speaking to me in English. While waiting, I chatted with three cute girls sitting on the couch. We spoke in Hebrew, I asked them how old they were. They were 18, a bit young, but legal. "Oh, so you're going to the army next year?" I asked. "No," they replied. "We're Christian." I had been flirting with Arabs. There's nothing wrong with this, of course, and it just goes to show how similar the two populations are and how intermingled they are in Haifa.

Haifa, a decidely unkosher place

Last week, we also went to Dunk Pub, a local bar near Abba Hushi. Let me begin by saying this is one of the greatest places on Earth. Happy hour from Sunday to Thursday is from 6-9. Select beers are half price, we're talking delicious beers from Czech Republic, Ireland and Germany, not Goldstar. In addition, you get a free beer if you order a meal during happy hour. What's on the menu? Well last time Brian, Josh and I ordered Pork Chops and Argentine Blood Sausages (also made with pork). Next time we intend to order a pork burger topped with goose flesh. The potatoes are also really good. On Fridays, happy hour is from noon to nine. We hope to pull the nine hour happy hour one Friday. It's important to have goals.

A Delightful Schwarma at Fattoush

I ate my 23rd* schwarma at Fattoush, a Lebanese restaurant on Ben Gurion street. Fattoush is not to be confused with Fattouch, also known as "Fat Touch," the fast-fod schwarma palce on St. Laurent street in Montreal where the vendor has a direct link to Hezbollah. This place was very different.

For starters, This was easily the best schwarma I had in Israel. Of course, this isn't exactly fair, because Fattoush is a sit-down place. They serve me the schwarma on top of a pita, with tons of delicious spices and the hummus and tehina sank in to the pita at the bottom. Oh wow. I've already eaten at Fattoush three times. The last time I had a chichen dish which was great but not stratospheric. The middle time, however, I had the Siniya, or Chinese plate. This was not Chinese at all. It was minced meat swimming in sauce which included tehina. It was unquestionably the best dish I had in Israel. Wow.

I'm not sure if this meat has been beef or keves (lamb) or hodu (turkey). But it doesn't matter. It's not kosher, and it's wonderful.

Where to begin? With Ping Pong

In Haifa, I am living in the Abba Hushi dorm/absorption center. I say dorm/absorption center because it is an absorption center for immigrant students. The palce is awesome. It is filled with young people, mostly Ethiopians and Russians, though some immigrants from Latin America and France and elswhere and a handful of immigrant students and volunteers from North America.

The Ethiopians living here do not appear to be impoverished or destitute or hopeless, the people of the periphery we were supposed to be helping. Rather, they are well-dressed, speak excellent Hebrew and seem delighted to be going about their business. There is a Ping Pong table in the building's common room and the Ethiopians congregate around it at all hours of the night. They are very good, I lost decisively, 21-10, in my only game. Josh however had a table at his house and has notched several victories.

We haven't fully figured out what rooms we are living in and to quote Equalizer, we are still "living on a suitcase." But the location of the dorm is great, though it appears to be in a crummy neighbourhood, there is a nice shopping area right nearby, and in the other direction, Ben Gurion street, with tons of restaurants and cafes facing the stunning Bahai Gardens.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Haifa, the greatest city ever, and great Schwarma

Haifa is awesome. I have so much to write about it but I'm a little tired right now. Let me just say that the Abba Hushi absorption center is great. That is where we are living now. Why is it great? I'll tell you tomorrow when I have more energy.

But I had my 23rd* schwarma here. I will tell you all about that, and more tomorrow. I know you can't wait.

Jerusalem summary, including Schwarma 22*

I spent the weekend in Jerusalem, which I will summarize briefly:

I first visited the Central Zionist Archives, with Josh. We met up there with Professor Haiim Avni, who taught my father at Hebrew U 34 years ago. It was very nice. The building was beautiful, the only building built specifically as an archive in Israel. We saw really cool old socialist Zionist posters, and most impressively, the Herzl room, an unmarked room that had original letters and other documents that Herzl wrote. Very exciting.

In Jerusalem, I stayed with my friends Nathan and Ari, Harvard alum who live right by Emek Rephaim, a central street in J-town. When you step out of their apartment, you hear only English; it's all frummy Americans around there. This is a bit annoying. I had some schwarma there, my 22nd*, it was Hodu, but not bad. Irin came over on Friday night to stay with us, we had a little Harvard reunion, it being Harvard-Yale weekend and all. That was fun.

Other than that, we had fun, went out a bit, chilled and got ready for track 2 in Haifa.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Leaving Beersheva

We are leaving Beersheva tomorrow. I will be in Jerusalem for the next few days and then I move to Haifa next week. Beersheva has been fun, but it's too bad that University started so late, cuz we didn't really get to hang with students too much. I think I could probably get to like Beersheva more if I lived here longer. But I'm super excited for Haifa, and for letting loose in J-town this weekend.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Tack on Two More Schwarmas

I've had two more schwarmas, both at Falafel HaGesher, leaving the total at 21*. Pretty solid.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Rabin Rally

A bunch of us went to the Yitzhak Rabin memorial rally held in Tel Aviv tonight, in Rabin Square, the site of his assasination 10 years ago. We arrived at 7 pm, an hour and a half before the rally began. It was supposed to be a memorial, but of course, it was very political. The banners were motly either Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) or this other group that supports Yossi Beilin's Geneva Accords, or simply for Avodah, the Labor party. It being Tel Aviv and a Rabin memorial, it was a decidedly leftist event, and this was reflected in the speakers.

The speakers spoke in Hebrew, but I understood decent chunks of what was being said. The earlier speakers were decent, said some nice things about Rabin. Things got more interesting when Amir Peretz, the new leader of the Labor party, spoke. His speech was the most political, and he specifically said that Oslo was not dead, that we must continue the path of Oslo, started by Rabin, which is the path to peace. He talked about how he first moved to Israel when he was 4, from Morocco, and lived in Sderot, and had to deal with Qassam fire. He then borrowed almost directly from MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech," saying that he had a dream that one day you will be able to travel all the way from Sderot to Beit Hanoun and little Israeli kids and Palestinian kids will play together. I guess in Israel they are not as familliar with I have a dream. Anyways, it was ok. He wasn't a great speaker.

Interesting was this woman from the Likud party, I forget her name, I believe she is justice minister. The first thing she said was that this is not a political event. She said that even though she disagreed with him on many issues, she was hurt when Rabn was killed, because he was the Prime Minister of her country, and an attack on him is an attack on all of us.

Rabin's grandson was moving, btalking about how Rabin's death affected all Israelis, left and right, secular and religious. But even more impressive was Shimon Peres. I've heard Peres speak in English, and he's totally an Israeli Grandfather: "Em, Eh, Em, Eh, Rabin wants piss in the middle isst." But in Hebrew he was incredible: fiery and dynamic. He spoke movingly to the young people in the audience, to get invovled in politics, to make peace a reality. He talked about how Rabin was ready to make peace even when the nation wasn't ready. He said that anyone who calls Rabin a traitor is committing treason against Israel and the peace process. He was really great.

Between each speaker, there were singers. David Broza was awesome, he sang "Yeheyeh Tov" (It will be alright). This was incredible, except some woman in the crowd passed out right next to us, so we were distracted by the security and paramedics who strapped her to a chair and carried her away. This was also bizarre because this was the second woman that passed out literally 4 feet away from away. I hope it wasn't cuz of some smell emanating from my body.

Aviv Geffen also sang, which was awesome. He's got the metrosexual thing down pat.

The last speaker was Bill Clinton. They pushed the memorial back one week so he could attend. I saw him speak freshman year at Harvard, and was amazed: shortly after 9/11, he talked about his dear friend Yitzhak Rabin who died for peace, and I cried. But here, he spoke slowly and without his usual drawl, perhaps catering to the Hebrew-speaking audience. He looked thin and not particularly healthy or lively. An d his comments were trite: pick up where Rabin left off. When he said that not a week goes by where he doesn't think of his dear friend Yitzhak Rabin, I could not take him seriously. Even when he's at the top of his game, he is not genuine. The man was a terrible Democrat, he moved the party to the right fiscally and instituted Don't Ask Don't Tell. But he's a great politician. Unfortunately, he didn't have it tonight, and even though Hillary and Chelsea were with him, I couldn't help but think that he was probably looking around for his next Jewish Clintern, maybe this time of the more slender, Sephardic variety. He was supposed to lead the penultimate song, "Sheer LeShalom" (song of peace) but he didn't seem to into it. He did seem to know a few words to HaTikvah, which was cool.

Overall, the rally was a great experience. Peretz was saavy to jump on the Rabin bandwagon. Hopefully, it will help him. He may not be the most charismatic, but I like his views and I think he will be good for Israel. Still, he's no Rabin. Yitzhak Rabin, Oleh B'Shalom.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Rabin, Peretz and Education Day

Today's education day was about Zionism and Post-Zionism. We visited Har Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel's military cemetery which is also the burial site of Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol and other political figures. Har Herzl is absolutely beautiful. Apart from the political graves, they make a point of making all the gravestones similar, rich soldiers and poor soldiers alike. A throwback to a more egalitarian Zionism. Famously, though we didn't see it, there is a random soldier's grave next to Yoni Netanyahu's which in turn is next the guy who was Commander in Chief during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Yoni Netanyahu, for those of you who don't know, is one of the greatest heroes that ever lived. The older brother ex-PM Bibi, Yoni was a math and philosophy grad student at Harvard who dropped out and returned to Israel to defend the state and continue to serve in an elite military unit. He led the raid on Entebbe, when Israel rescued those hostages miracuously from Uganda, and he was the only casualty. Anyways, the place is inredible and brings tears to my eyes. It also overlooks the city beautifully.

Rabin's grave especially brings tears to my eyes. Rabin has to some degree been Martin Luther Kingized in Israel, a martyr for peace who cannot be defamed. This isn't entirely true, cuz people on the right are happy to blame him for Oslo's failures, saying he got suckered by Arafat, led Israel down the wrong path, etc. I think that is nonsense, personally. As my old Harvard professor Eva Beilin said, Oslo put the two-state solution on the ideological map, and it hasn't been removed, even through the intifadah. Rabin, a warrior, was able to make an overture for peace and recognize the PA, even if an evil sleaze like Arafat was in charge. Rabin has been famously quoted as saying that "You don't make peace with your friends" and Arafat clearly was not a friend. But Rabin tried, and a Jew gunned him down for it. Who knows what would have happened had he lived?

Guy Grossman, a leader of the recent refusenik movement (refusing to serve in the territories) spoke at Harvard a few years ago. I remember he said that even though Barak was willing to offer more far-reaching compromises, he knew Barak could never make peace. Why? Because, according to him, Barak thought negotiations were a game. "Give me 10 minutes with Arafat and we will have peace," he said. He thought that as long as he made the right moves he would win. But Rabin understood, according to Grossman, that you really had to make sacrifices, you had to understand that you were giving something to your partner, because you had wronged them, because they deserved it, legitimately. Who knows if this is true. But I would like to remember Rabin this way.

Amir Peretz just won the leadership of the Labor party, defeating the the loser Shimon Peres. I must say I'm delighted. I love Peres but he is too old and cannot win. Peretz, on the other hand, is socialist. He wants Labor to leave the coalition right now. He is going to run on economic issues, and with the growing gap between rich and poor that might make Labor a player again. Still, security is always the biggest issue, and he supports negotiations, big time. Can he rival Sharon? It's unlikely. But I hope so. And hopefully the election will be soon. If I were a citizen, I'd vote for Peretz.

An Israeli Wedding and another Schwarma controversy

I had the good fortune of being invited to my friend Irin's brother's wedding, which took place last night in Beit Hanan, a small area near Rehovot. The wedding of Itai and Shirli was held in the Achuza, an absolutely gorgeous building. This was the most lavish wedding I have ever been to, anywhere. It was wonderful. The food was outstanding. The hors d'oeuvres were exquisite. They had samosas with sauce, Chinese style chicken, fried potato wedges with mayonnaise, all sorts of other stuff I can't name but trust me it was delicious. They also had a couple of stations were food was made for you. One was a Chinese style noodle dish along with chicken and a peanut sauce. Now the other appeared to be a sort of Mexican station, as meat was being wrapped in tortillas. However, as it was soon pointed out to me, this was supposedly a variation on the schwarma. Now, it was probably half the size of an actual schwarma, and on tortilla. So does this count? If yes, I'm at 19*, but the asterisk becomes even more significant.

The main course was some kind of roast beef thing (you know where they slice the meat for you) and salmon with a nice glaze and duck, of the most magnificent duck. It absolutely melted in your mouth. Then someone told me it was goose. I'm not sure. But it was outstanding. The desert table was average, they had this chocolate and cream dish that came in individual cups but the portions were so small I had to have about 5 of them.

The wedding itself was very nice. Irin has a huge family, so there were tons of people. And I lvoe weddings, and the couple looked very happy. When the groom, who is in his late 30s, put on a yarmulke, it looked as if he hadn't worn one since his Bar Mitvzah. The bride was absolutely gorgeous, she looked like a blond Liv Tyler. And the groom was smoking a cigar while he was dancing with her, and then she had a cigarette. I love Israel.

The Chess Capitol of Israel

On Thursday, I had the rare opportunity to attend part of the World Team Chess Championships, which are being held here in Beersheva. The place was hilarious. Russian was the most common language spoke there: of the nine teams, all had Russians except the Chinese men, the Chinese women (the only women's team present) and the Cubans. We arrived a bit late so only caught the tail end of two matches: we watched a Ukrainian guy, apparently ranked fifth in the world, take out a young Cuban guy, and an Armenian guy draw a Chinese woman. The American and Israeli teams were mostly Russian, though USA got smoked by China in that round and Israel lost to Georgia. The commentary room was fun, as they played out different scenarios of the games on a big screen, as some guy spoke in Hebrew and Russian. It's pretty incredible that such a small country as Israel can be in the top 8 in chess in the world, but that's what happens when a million Russians immigrate to your country.

A Whole Lot of Blogging Going On... and Schwarma 18*

Alright, sorry I haven't been good blogging of late. But I have a lot of things to report now. To begin, I had another Schwarma, a legitimate schwarma at Falafel HaGesher. So that's 18*. Now I've been picking up a bunch of schwarma's recently, but don't let me give you the impression that that is all I've been doing. Well it sort of is. But now there's going to be a bunch of posts about more.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Schwarma 17*

At Falafel HaGesher. With hamba. Solid.