Thursday: The Wedding!

I got up at 05:30 again and Heidi slept in.  I made breakfast (cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice, fruit).  When Heidi got up we went to eat “the best Hummus in the world” at Abu Hassan’s (the Ali Karavan restaurant).  It is not as good as the “best Hummus in the world” in Akko but it is better than anything else.

Then we went to the Yafo museums and antique shops.

We ran errands and hit the beach on our way to the “big event” near Rishon L'tzion.  The weather is hazy and warm.

The Event

I was completely blown away by the wedding. It was more powerful than any concert or theatre performance or other entertainment / party I have ever attended. There were about 400 people there. With two exceptions, all 51 of my cousins were there.  The event was “opulent.”  I want my kids to get married here (seriously).

Everything about the production was as good or sometimes better than a Cirque du Soleil play – A Cirque show is the only thing I have experienced that could compare to it.  The pre-production including music mixes, music video productions, place settings, flowers, props, choreography, lighting, logistics, torch-lit promenade, stage, Hupa, and food were all superb, polished, and extraordinary.

More importantly, the guests, their mood, actions, emotions, and interactions were also unbelievable: these people are direct, warm, loving, joyful and genuine.  They want to dance and to celebrate this important life event and share in the love and joy.  They are very open and emotional – everyone!  They sighed, cheered, applauded and participated in the ceremony.  They danced spontaneously. Their core values and principles hold marriage to be vital, fundamental, and most important.  I was crying (I never cry at weddings). I am very happy I came.

Part of the Jerusalem contingent.

400 guests at the garden reception.  A torch-lit red-carpeted promenade lead to a large garden. First stop was the gift box (a large safe with envelope slot for cards and a big basket for gifts.  In the large garden were 8 horsd’hoevres tables and three wet bars.  There was seating strategically placed.  On one end of the garden was the dance hall where the sit-down dinner was served (11 courses with dancing before each course).  At the other end was the Hupa (covered stage) under which the ceremony took place. A white, raised promenade led to the Hupa.  The natural and artificial outdoor lighting was carefully arranged to create a perfect contrast with filler at a midrange temperature.  The technical details are astounding.  Two sound engineers with a professional mixing board and high-end Bose speakers everywhere coordinated the sound from a prepared track that included remixes of pop songs that were mostly Israeli and US with some French, Spanish, and two Italian.

The bride and groom marched down the promenade after their parents.

The ceremony under the Hupa was carefully delivered.

After the couple accepted congratulations from every guest (again), we went into the dining/dance hall.  It had interesting (Cirque-like) lighting for dancing. 

the Food

My cousins are farmers and I did not know what to expect.  I sincerely thought that the food served before the ceremony in the garden was all we would get.  It included Mexican burritos and quesadillas, Thai chicken strips, mini-pizzas, Chinese noodles, Chinese vegetables, three kinds of sausages, burgers, and salads with spreads and dips.

After the ceremony and reception we went inside.  The tables were decked with expensive wines, juices, sodas (in elegant bottles) and we had to order water.  The first course was salads and spreads including smoked/marinated vegetables, eggplant, tambuli, hummus, cheeses, cabbage, green salads, carrots, and warm bread.  Again: I thought this course was the entire meal.  Then came casserole, then came spicy Moroccan lamb in a bread covering, then came chicken with rice and vegetables, then came steak (NY Strip) with potatoes, vegetables, noodles.  The courses were served family style.  Then came four different courses of desserts including mousse aux chocolat, tiramisu, fruits in a cream sauce, cake, and a course of fried Yemenite pastry. There may have been more food served after midnight when we left.  They continued dancing until 2am.

Between courses (I forget which 2) they showed a professionally-produced music video.  It was mixed together from clips of each family member singing separately, sometimes singing together (staged) and other times just dancing to choreographed moves.  They had the typical childhood slides of the bride and groom mixed in as well.  It was so much better than the amateur productions I have created and seen that I was blown away.

The make-up and formal photos are also better than I have seen before.

On the dance floor they passed out silly hats and flashing LEDs.

		Ela/Oded Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

We came to see a quaint, informal wedding and were overwhelmed. All of our cousins came from all over Israel; we got to see them and catch up with them all at one event.  I saw cousins from Nahalal I had not seen since 1981.

Next

Today (Friday May 6), I dropped my sister off at the airport for her flight home.  I fly out tomorrow.  We were up most of the night trying to understand the tainted jet fuel situation.  It appears all of the diesel and jet fuel in Israel has been tainted with an agent that clogs filters and prevents flow into motors.  The military released fuel to run the country from their reserves.  All of the flights are landing in Athens or Cyprus to take on fuel.  20% of El Al flights were canceled.

Gil called and wants to take me to “his” Tel Aviv to show me secret sights the tourists don’t know about.  I can’t wait!

Wednesday in Ber Sheva, Gan Omer, and Bat Yam

Eventually we packed up and went to Gan Omer where Natan and Dvorah live.  Tzafrir came with us.  Ofra was there when we arrived.  Later, Rotem came to visit with Daniel.  We had lunch in the cafeteria.  The schnitzel was not bad but everything else was terrible.  There were many complaints about the food; Tzafrir and Heidi did not eat.

After lunch, Zafrir and I went shopping in the big shopping center in  Ber Sheva which is almost 3 Km away and to which Natan still scooters once in a while.  I bought Heidi two of those “flat to round” power adapters for NIS 80, or $20.  You can get these adapters online with free shipping for $0.87 but I have only one of them here with us. After a long odyssey of visiting many stores, I finally got an Orange SIM card that works.  My local phone number is +972-54-971-1458, or, in Israel 0549711458.  The Orange network has good coverage in Israel but we should still see if Cellcom or Pelephone has better rates when we come back next month.

Left to Right: Ophra, Daniel, Rotem.

 

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Mitch, Ofra, Dvorah, Heidi, Natan

 

 

Zafrir, Mitch, Ofra, Dvorah, Natan

 

Natan is in good health.  Dvorah is a little confused.  Ofra and Michal will probably get them live-in help soon.  Daniel’s visit does them more good than weeks of therapy.  Dvorah, Natan, and Daniel sing nursery school songs.  The vocabulary of a 3-year old is exactly my language level.

Interesting polyglot note:  At lunch the Israelis all forgot the word in English for אפונה as in מרק אפונה  . Nathan knew the word in German: “Erbsen,” so I could tell Heidi the soup of the day is “pea soup.”  Each time I come to Israel I learn a new word or two.

Eventually Heidi and I headed to our apartment in Bat Yam.  We called the property manager from the road and met him at 6:00pm.  He is a wonderful former-Egyptian, religious guy who prefers Arabic and French so Heidi and I got to practice our High School French again.  The apartment is awesome.  It has 4 bedrooms, three baths, a big, well-appointed kitchen, laundry, fast Internet, balcony, etc.  We are quite thrilled.

Our car is the second-from-the-top parked car.  the flat comes with a parking spot.

 

Windows Live Photo Gallery has a cool “panorama stitcher” that glues several pictures together to make a panorama.  Click above to see the original very-large, high resolution image or click here). It is the view from our balcony here in Bat Yam.  The beach is 3 blocks down to the left. All the grocery stores and shopping are straight ahead behind the building in the middle.  It’s a 1-block walk to the store where we got coffee, fruit, vegetables.

Zohar (Ofra’s youngest boy) was able to get off-base to have dinner with us. Zohar’s wife Michal, Zohar’s oldest sister  Rotem, and her oldest son Itay came with us.  Zohar and Michal have a hobby “fine dining” blog on he Internet so we asked them to choose a Tel Aviv restaurant.  The place was very nice.  We started outside but it was too loud so we retreated indoors.  The food was fantastic and it was great to catch up on the family. Then we came back to the apartment, read some email and went to sleep.

Zohar has decided to retire early (after 15 years) from the military to pursue his entrepreneurial interests and will release another product this summer.  I predict it will be an instant success.  Zohar is extremely talented in many areas including creativity, vision, and business execution.  I wish we had cash to invest in his mezzanine funding round.

Michal (Zohar’s wife) is completing an accounting internship after which she will go into “audit” (accounting) but wants to pursue financial planning and analysis.  Keren was promoted (again) and now leads the entire Fraud detection group at Israel National bank.  Itay, who is 15 years old, Rotem’s oldest son will attend University in the Fall because the public schools ran out of courses for him; he will join a bunch of other kids like him to pursue his interests in Math.

Keren continues to teach third grade and do technology for the school district.  Her second husband Schlomi is still at Teva.  Her oldest daughter is volunteering at the local absorption center and her oldest son is on a bar mitzvaah trip to Jerusalem with his father, Keren’s first husband.  Keren and Daniel did not sleep Tuesday night and were both groggy.

The entire family thus far has been extremely kind, caring, thoughtful, friendly, helpful, and loving.  They are all very interested in us, concerned about us (calling if we got home safely), and wonderful.  In addition, everyone is very comfortable, open, and genuine with everyone else.  There are no masks, postures, barriers, or blocks.  Heidi asks everyone frank questions about the local politics and they are genuine, forthcoming, and honest.

Points of View about Politics

 

Michal and Yoram, along with most of their children and families simply refuse to be terrorized.  They continue their daily lives, creating wealth from dirty water and desert sand.  When it is raining rockets they are slightly inconvenienced because they must be close to bomb shelters for a while but then they go back out to work the farm.  They vote but are otherwise not strongly involved in National politics.  Their Moshav seems to be politically Zionist but not religious Zionist.

Zohar has spent about 15 years thinking hard and planning local contingencies to defend the citizens and nation from the military implications of the National politics.  He created some maps on the restaurant table with napkins and silverware, explaining which sections of the Israeli population are threatened by the surrounding armies and Iranian proxy terror forces.  He said, “Everyone here wants peace.  The political leaders are searching for partners in peace.  The current Arab leadership with whom they had been trying to negotiate appear more interested in Israel’s destruction.  The Israeli leadership cannot yet determine if the Hamas / Fatah unity will mean that Hamas will become more peaceful or if Fatah will [Mitch’s addition: drop more of its pretenses and] become more outwardly hostile.”  Zohar says it appears the latter is closer to reality.

Keren is more worried about the Nation state actors including Egypt and Iran and believes the local Arabs (the so-called “Palestinians”) are a distraction.  I pointed out that the Egyptian government has not really changed since 1952 when Nasser took power in a military coup.  The Egyptian military has ruled Egypt since then though the leadership has changed a few times.  Rotem countered that the US has changed its relationship to the ruling Egyptian military.  The US has linked its foreign aid to Egypt (which is Egypt’s largest gross domestic product) to policy change.  This change has caused more trouble for Israel.  She also said that Obama is seen by most Israelis as a leader who is unwittingly or otherwise assisting in the continued attempts to destroy Israel and that his policy is unpredictable and bad.  Keren did not offer opinions about the Hamas / Fatah unity.

Rotem is quite worried about the rockets being fired at Ber Sheva.  She was close to the last barrage of Grad Rockets that hit Ber Sheva  on March 21, 2011. (I sometimes wonder why no US media picks up the rocket rain from Gaza at Israel.)  She is worried about security and the safety of her family.

I am glad Heidi and I are having time together to talk.  She was very upset that the prime minister of Israel called Judea and Samaria by their neutral geographic names instead of “occupied West bank” as the Arabs call it and she blamed him (Bibi) for exacerbating the situation with Israel’s neighbors and with the local Arabs.  I was a little surprised to see how far towards the views of those intent on destroying Israel Heidi has come over the decades.  She was a Zionist when we were younger.  She called Bibi names and said he should have surrendered more land and made more political concessions to the terrorists instead of having Israel suffer the castigation of the International “community” when the UN declares the creation of another Arab state in September.   I tried to remind her of the demographics, history, and other inconvenient facts.  I made some headway when she thought about Jewish property rights in their nation’s capital.  I am very pleased with my progress!

Heidi noted that our family mirrors the major waves of Zionism from the 1920’s and the Holocaust and did not remember that there were 19th century waves of Zionism long before our family was established in Israel.  The inconvenient truths of local demographics and history have been washed away by the “New York times,” al-BBC, and “The Economist.”  She realized how biased the media are, and I am very happy I was able to get some information past the rhetoric that has brain washed her into another Arab apologist.  But if even Heidi can be pushed into helping destroy Israel, it will be much harder to defend Israel politically.  I think I shall send her this article to see if it rekindles her Zionism.

Next

This morning (Thursday) I woke up at 05:25 local time, made myself breakfast and wrote up this note.  When Heidi gets up we’ll continue the adventure before preparing for Ela’s wedding tonight.