And the rockets continue to come.......... and, for most of us, life continues to go on. But please continue to think of those in Sderot and the other Negev communities that live with this daily. We have not been there, but we did visit the Golan Heights recently. And the guide stopped at a point that used to house Syrian bunkers to let us look out at the kibbutzim that lived under this threat for the first 19 years of our existence. So excuse us if we're not in a hurry to let that happen to more of our citizens!

This is very interesting to watch the U.S. Presidential campaign from this vantage point. In some ways, it's not that different from watching American Idol (which I do religiously!). It is so hard to tell what the American public is thinking. And it is interesting that the same issues have a very different impact here. While the dollar's value going down may make it harder for you to buy things, it means that the shekels we are earning here have more value in the U.S. But of course, it also means that dollars we still have in the U.S. are of less use here!

Our first Pesach in Haifa was wonderful in many ways. It was different from what we would have had in DuPage county as we were visited by Seth Hurwitz, Rachael Markwell, Ben Miller, Hannah Friedman and Malia Silvert. They were all spending the semester studying in NFTY's EIE program outside of Jerusalem. And we were lucky enough to be able to share our first Seder here with them. Along with 2 other friends of ours, we had a wonderful seder in our apartment so we all experienced an American seder in Israel rather than a truly Israeli seder. It gave us a sense of connection which was very touching. This was a wonderful group of young people, very pleasant and considerate. Their biggest desire for their time in Haifa................ Let's go to the beach! So, while Bobbie finished preparing Seder, we dunked ourselves in the Mediterranean in the Bat Galim neighborhood. For variety, we went to the beach at Hof HaCarmel the next day!!

And going back one more holiday, we also had our first Purim here. Interesting to me was that we had a Cardiology department employee party at a nice restaurant. It was quite an event, with a DJ and costumes. My boss, Dr. Yoram Agmon, won the costume contest........... he was dressed as a geisha girl! Look out Rabbi Bob. I felt somewhat different and proud, having a department party to celebrate a Jewish holiday. None of that feeling of being partially an outsider at a holiday party.......... other than not knowing most of our rather large department.

One day I was wondering, as I walked around Haifa looking at all of the stone buildings, whether we really had a fire department and, if so, why. It is hard to imagine that stone and plaster would burn. And yet, later that week, Bobbie called to tell me that there was a fire going about a block from us. As it turned out, it was actually the stuff that had been stored on the building's roof that was burning. At one point, there was a man out on a ledge (about 4 stories up) trying to escape the smoke. But the fire department did respond and put it out. When we look at the building now, it is hard to see any signs of damage.

So a new word that we have learned here is 'Protekzia.' Every time I hear it, I picture someone approaching a Mafia boss for help safeguarding his family from someone evil. Or getting immunity from police intervention. Not at all what it means here. Here it is something like having 'friends in high places.' It seems to apply to anyone who can help you accomplish what you want to accomplish. For instance, my job at Rambam was made easy by a friend I worked with at the University of Rochester Medical Center 20 years ago. The Protekzia doesn't guarantee me any security, it just gets me in the door. And Bobbie now has a job via the same basic method. This time it is an Etz Chaim connection. She ran into Ronen Mir (former member and director of Aurora's Science Museum) at the post office a few months ago and in the course of conversation mentioned that she was not yet working. When they finished at the post office, he told her to come back to the Science Museum (called Madatech) with him to see what could be done. So she now works 20 hours per week at Madatech as .............. a translator! No, not as a guide translating for people. She is working on their computerized catalog of everything that the museum owns in terms of exhibits. Someone had started to translate them to English, but it was done more as a dictionary would translate than as an explanation in English. So her first project was to go back through those translations and turn them into real English. Now she is working on her own translations, which require that she figure out what the Hebrew says and then phrase it so it makes sense in English.

We are working on the last major changeover that we knew we would have to do when we came here---drivers' licenses. Our U.S. licenses allow us to drive for one year after arrival. For up to three years, they enable us to get an Israeli license without taking the written test. The catch is that we do have to take the driving test. It didn't used to be a requirement, but in some of the large waves of immigration many people arrived with forged licenses and turned out to know nothing about how to drive. So the rules got tighter. We are required to take at least one driving lesson before we use the teacher's car for the driving test. We took one but didn't really like the teacher, so we'll take another to see how much of what she told us seems to be real. Something in my medical history has also triggered some further inquiry, so I have extra steps to take. And, if you want to drive a car with a manual transmission, you have to take the test on one and have that indicated on your license. So another two hour project takes 2 months instead!

On a regular basis, people we meet ask us to explain why we are here. It seems like a question we should have no trouble answering, yet it is my impression that answering has gotten harder than when we first came. It seems so natural to be here, it is just our everyday life. It's like being asked why you follow the same path to work or school. Maybe it's the shortest, fastest, most scenic or safest, but whatever it is it is just your normal day that you do without thinking. I have had to sit and think carefully of how to answer the question so that I don't sound lame when I do it. We often have visiting groups at the synagogue and that is often the forum for the question. People who came for economic reasons, like the Russians in our neighborhood, can't seem to comprehend why we would leave our economic advantages they think we have in the U.S. They don't understand that the U.S. is not economically easy for everybody. But the bottom line goes back to my 'aha' moment on the 2003 temple trip, the moment when I looked from the King David Hotel at the Old City of Jerusalem and understood that we must always have this place and have the freedom to be who and where we want in Israel. And for North American Olim (immigrants) by Choice in particular, it’s important that the people who don’t have to come, come, so that the people who do have to come can come. Think about it.

We've also had the experience of celebrating our first Yom HaZicharon (Memorial Day) and Yom HaAtzma-ut (Independence Day) here. It is an incredible experience. Yom HaZicharon is a very important holiday as most people have sacrificed directly (either personally or through relatives) in Israel's wars. The day is very somber and at one point in the day a siren blows throughout the country and everybody stops what they are doing to honor and remember those we have lost. Even for those of us who did not have direct losses, we understand what these people did for us so recently. It is like a movie where everyone is suddenly frozen in time.

Yom HaAtzma-ut immediately follows Yom HaZicharon (both begin in the evening like all Jewish holidays) and is an incredible contrast. It begins with a fireworks display which we went to see with our friends, Shimon and Rachel Reisner. Rachel loves to watch fireworks from directly underneath so we kept walking until we realized we were standing in front of the launchers. Then somebody made us back up about 50 feet. And there we stood craning our necks back to watch the show. It was not as spectacular as the ones you watch but it was gorgeous because of where we were, whom we were with and what it meant. Then we went back to the Reisner's apartment and visited with some friends of theirs, doing our best to follow the Hebrew conversation and occasionally reverting to some English.

So another strange thing we have been doing since we got here and not talking about is signing forms. You want a bank account? Sign these forms that you can't read yourself. You want an apartment? The lawyer says that this what the lease says, so sign it. Not so bad. You want a job? Sign here and here and here and here and here. Good. You want to rent a car? Sign here....... awww nobody reads those things anyway. Basically, we've done this entire thing on a great deal of faith. Are people sometimes taking advantage of us? Probably. But overall, things have gone well in spite of it all. Just something we have to do until our Hebrew gets much better and faster.

Now another wonderful thing has begun. Bobbie has her first two art pieces in a show here in Haifa. It is a mall which is centered around artists which she was told about by the teacher in her drawing class. He is apparently well connected to the Israeli art community and will hopefully be able to give her some guidance and direction. It will be wonderful if she can make a career with her artwork here. It would be one more dream come true!

I've been thinking lately about another of the biggest changes in our lives from making Aliyah. That is the wonderful time that Bobbie and I have spent together and the challenges and problem-solving we've worked on together. This has been incredible. In our lives in recent years we have spent an incredible amount of time driving to our jobs, being distracted by what we shop for, what we do to or for our homes, and many other things that did not really contribute to our life together. Here, everything contributes to our life together. That is not specific to being in Israel, but it is specific to doing something with our life that is important to both of us. For the first 5 1/2 months here, we went to Ulpan (Hebrew lessons) every day together. We went food shopping, we went to government offices, we met with people at support agencies, we visited friends and did some sightseeing. Together. Then we got into the working world which split our time some. And yet, the non-working time is still intensely shared. It is teamwork in the place that we want to be, supporting the country and the cause that is so important to us.

So on July 10th, we celebrate the anniversary of the day that we arrived last year. What should we do that day? Nefesh b'Nefesh is the organization that helped make our Aliyah so smooth, taking care of and guiding us through the bureaucracy. Their fourth flight of the summer season will arrive on that date this year. And we will be there with the greeters to welcome them. It seems like a great way to share the joy of the day. As it is one of the charter flights, there should be over 200 Olim arriving. It is a once in a lifetime event for them. What a great way to celebrate our joy. That weekend, we'll also spend time with Shimon and Rachel who have been instrumental in making this transition easier and for welcoming us to Haifa. At the same time, we'll remember all of you whom we left behind. We hope to see you on next year's Social Action and Family trips from Etz Chaim, or on whatever personal trips you make.

Take care and update us on what is happening in your lives.
Gershom and Bobbie Lichtenberg
http://gershomsl@gmail.com
Haifa, Israel