To English Gan... or Hebrew Gan? THAT! is the question

I'll get to Gans in a minute, but 1st some other news. 

This past week we have heard some Helicopters during the day and some planes at night. We think it was after America Bombed Syria. The IDF is probably just making sure everything in Israel is Secure and safe. Although all of our protection comes from Hashem it's nice to know Israel has thousands of Jews actively protecting it every day. We should never take this for Granted. 

This week we had 2 Bar Mitzvahs. 

On Sunday one for Elkies cousin Glatt at Reishit in Beit Shemesh, we saw 2 friends of my in-laws from Oceanside there, Glatts and Fischberger. David Fischberger was our Boss in Camp Lavi, It was nice to see them in Israel.

 

On Wed. another Bar Mitzvah this time at the Kotel for Seth and Rachael Keller's son. Elkie knows Rachel Keller/Kasden from Oceanside forever, they invited us and a small group of people to the Bar Mitzva at the Kotel and Breakfest at a restaurant Between the Arches located at the Back of the Kotel entrance. Amazing food! We really felt like part of their family. It's nice to share in Smachot with people from the Alter Land. Ariella came along and had her special time with us at the Kotel. The kids always like special time with them alone, like going for Pizza or Ice cream, but going to the Kotel and eating in a great restaurant is hard to beat. We hope we can do it more often

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Going... Going.... Gan!!! 

Were going or have Gan Gan Gan Crazy! When we were still deliberating Aliya and if so when??? we started researching schools. B"H after a lot of phone calls and emails we felt like we got ALL the kids in the best places for each one. Gan really came last as there are Many choices and lots of people like to see the Gan before hand. The 1st thing you need to decide in Israel is, if you want a English or Hebrew speaking Gan. Well we picked an English Gan 2 doors away with a neighbor. We heard nice things about her Gan. The week we got here she had a baby B"H and it seemes like people must have known, so she only got 4 kids in the Gan out of 13. Before Gan started Yehuda kept saying "I go gan" after he started Every morning he kept saying "No go Gan" what a wimp! After a few weeks he kind of got used to it and is ok. But 4 kids is really not much of a Gan. Two of the kids who are brothers in the Gan just got pulled out by the parents to go elsewhere, so basically that Gan is over tomorrow. We have been looking for another Gan for a week now and all the English Gans are booked, except one, GREAT! Elkie spoke to the Ganenet, she seemed very nice, Elkie spoke to a parent who seemed happy, so we were just about ready to send Yehuda there. 

We knew our neighbor sent to that Gan last year and were waiting to here from her. She went to the Dead Sea for 2 days (tough life). When she got back Elkie spoke to her and apparently this Ganenet is VERY nice but runs the place like a Hefker Velt. Kids are flying all over the place, dirty diapers, lice, No Good. Our neighbor said We can NOT send Yehuda there, she even offered to quit her job and stay home with Yehuda so he doesn't have to go there.:( sounds pretty bad! As it happens we get eggs from a guy up the block for 22NIS vs 30NIS they come from local Moshavim. When I went to get some eggs I saw a small gan at dismissal, I spoke to the Ganenet she was very nice but it was a Hebrew speaking Gan, I went into the Gan to check it out, It is in her apartment very small but she is very clean organized and warm. Plus she has a Mirpeset WOW! We want Yehuda to speak English well that's why we wanted the English Gan. But since they are all booked we are now looking into Hebrew Ganim. Most people say if we ALL speak english at home and in the Street, Yehuda  will be completely bilingual and speak English perfectly fine. Plus the Hebrew speaking Ganim are less expensive. We just need to find the right one and go for it. B"H it will all work out.

Tomorrow our cousins the Thees get together at my Grandmother Omas Kever for her Yortzeit for a few minutes, we  hope to join them B"H.

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Thanks and stay tuned.

Shabbat Shalom!

After Chag Update

Hello all!!!

Now that the kids are back at school and we don't have ulpan today(yeah!!!) i decided to tell you all about our first yom tovim here in Israel.

rosh hashana was very nice. we davened by our neighbors across the street. they have a shul in their basement and it was really convenient. we shared a meal with 2 of our neighbors and we ate outside in our garage it's really a 2 car garage with plenty of room and it doesn't have any doors on it so it opens up to the street and since the kids would be outside playing anyway, we figured we might as well eat there. all the passers-by stopped by for a glance at our meal and some even had a piece of cake!!

Yom Kippur was a meaningful day. i finally got a chance to go to Kol Nidre which i haven't done in about 13 yrs! again, we davened by neighbors and the kids played outside. Shira sat in shul the entire time and really davened nicely. i sat upstairs in the living room with some neighbors and our little kids so they would not disrupt the davening. at some point during the day i went home with Yehuda to give him lunch and then he took a nap with me. by the time we woke up it was almost time for Ne'ela. the fast ended VERY early here since we changed the clocks. we broke our fast and then got started on our sukkah. well, 

Shloimie got started on the sukkah a lot earlier so that he could build our Pergola. for those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a permanent awning on our porch that pple keep all yr to keep the hot sun out. we bought at Home Depot (in USA) all the wood and

 stuff needed to build this.

      

Shloimie had all the measurements so he knew exactly what to buy and we sent it 

all on our lift. Shira, Ariella and many of their friends helped paint it white 

which was a lot of fun for them all.

 

it took about 2 weeks to completely build the pergola. the reason why it took so long was bec. you can't go out on the porch until about

 4pm bec. it's so hot and then you only have until around 8pm to drill, bang, hammer.... bec. 

then all the kids go to sleep so it didn't give us that much time t

o do it but it got done and then all we needed to do was put a canvas around the whole thing and then we had ourselves a beautiful sukkah, thanks to Shloimie an kids!!! we bought a really pretty canvas with paintings of Jerusalem on the canvas and we had windows and decorations that the kids made. the day after sukkas when i was cleaning out the porch i found a box and what was in it?? well, the sukkah decorations that we were looking for and couldn't find!!! so now we will have some new decorations for next yr!

During chol Hamoed and we went on a trip with dovid and chavie Thee, cousins of Shloimie who live in Israel. we went on a hike with them, 

which is a very popular past time in this country. Everyone is always hiking here. it's a good thing i listened to my Mother and got good leather sneakers!! thanks

Mom! so we went on this hike and ended up in a bat cave. there were millions of bats flying around!! they obviously don't like light so of course everyone was flashing their flashlights on them and they were squeaking like crazy. it was fun. then we continued on to a natural slide made out of rocks. the kids had fun sliding down.

After the caves they came back to our house where we ordered pizza.

The next day we went on a nefesh b'nefesh trip up to Jordan. we traveled up north to 2 shomer shabbat kibbutzim, it was very nice. one of them manufactures their own spices which are exported to different places. i also met my friend's brother who lives on one of the kibbutzim.

then we went farther up north to Jordan. it was a little strange. we didn't need our passports bec., we were only allowed in the part that is still under Israel protection. the jordanian soldiers were quite scary looking. they didn't look like they wanted to be our friends but B'H we made it there and back safely. we didn't really even get off the busses bec. it was getting late but at least we can say that we've been to Jordan.

Frimi and Yitzchak and kids came for Shabbos and we really had a nice time with them. the 2 Yehuda's played very nicely together talking to each other in their own language but we were clearly able to hear them say "MINE" when they were playing (?) with the toys. chana was also very cute trying to get the toys from them but she stopped when they bopped her over the head!

Yitzchak did a good job "squeegee-ing" the floors before shabbos. we don't just allow guests here. they have to work for their food and he certainly earned a piece of cake for that!

On Sunday of chol Hamoed Shloimie got up early (yes, you all heard/read it correctly, SHLOIMIE GOT UP EARLY!!!) and went with our neighbor, daniel Michael to the Har Habayit. i guess he can tell you all about it but he really enjoyed it. he went with Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett and about 100 other pple and it was very inspiring.

I met Shloimie at the Kotel later on with Lea Michael (Daniel's wife) and all our kids. the Kotel was totally packed with tourists! it was amazing to see so many people there. we stayed for a short time bec. there were just too many people there for me and we went to Ir David, which is right outside the walls of the old City. it's where King David lived and we toured his castle, whatever was left of it. 

Then we went to ben yehuda. how can you go to Yerushalayim and NOT go to ben yehuda?!!! so we took a cab there and walked around for a while. we didn't see anybody that we knew except for our neighbors but it was still so crowded. we bought a bunch of gifts that we needed for upcoming simchas.

The next day was hoshana rabba and erev yom tov so we stayed local. 

the second day(s) of simchas torah was very leibidig. we again went to our neighbors for hakafot the first night. we ended 7:30 pm which we never ended so early in America but it was nice and then on  Simchas Torah day we went to Aish Kodesh which is where Shloimie usually davens. that davening was VERY long. it felt like an American Simcahs torah. we finished Shul at around 3pm.

so yom tov was really very nice and was enjoyed by us all. we really missed all of you guys and were thinking about you all the time,.

A funny story happened the other day. 

i was standing outside waiting to take Yehuda to gan, (which is 2 doors away) and i saw a neighbor of mine standing outside. she said to me that if i had 2 minutes i should go around the corner. why? i asked her. so she said that there were 2 donkeys walking down the street,. a mommy and her baby were taking a walk in ramat beit shemesh just looking at the scenery. so Yehuda and i ( & yosef was with us) went around the corner and saw them. they were being followed by a police car to make sure they stay safe. and of course Yehuda only wanted to go on a donkey ride so we quickly left to get him to Gan before he went donkey back riding!!...only in Israel!

Shloimie and i went to efrat the other night for a friend's daughter's bat mitzvah. it was very nice. that same night ariella had a friend/classmate/neighbor's bat mitzvah in beit Shemesh. she also had a fun time. 

tonight we are going to David Glatt's son's bar mitzvah in Beit Shemesh and tomorrow our neighbors from across the street are making a bat mitzvah in their house and they are using our garage to do the project with the girls, since our garage is big enough for a lot of people. then Wednesday morning we are going to the Kotel. My very best friend, Rachel Keller came from Woodmere on friday for her son's Bar Mitzvah so we will join them at the Kotel and breakfast. we are very excited to see her and some familiar faces.

Anyway, i did a lot of laundry today and i moppped the floors already ( and i got bleach on my skirt when i was mopping which i really annoying) and i folded a bunch of clothing and i took a break to fill you in on our lives until now.

i have to get back to my laundry so i hope to hear from all you soon. we miss you all like crazy and we can't wait to seen Grandma very soon and then Savta shortly after. anyone else who wants to come is more than welcome to visit us!!

Hope you all had nice yom tovim and please send our love to all of your families!!

Love, hugs and kisses from the holy Land,

Elkie

Welcome to the Walfish Aliya Blog

Hello and welcome to the Walfish RBS Aliya Blog,

We were thinking of making an Blog to post short updates every now and then about our experiences in Israel as Olim. B"H we have been so busy that we did not have the time to set one up and get it going yet. Now that the Chagim are over in Israel things are a bit more calm and we will do our best to post updates every now and then, and will try to add some pictures too. If you subscribe you will get an email telling you when we post something. Feel free to comment.