The Newlyweds do Israel

The Gaza War

2009-01-19T06:01:00.001-08:00

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The war in Gaza started three weeks ago and ended two days ago, and I've finally figured out what I think about it. So here is my opinion, in the detail and length it has to be to do justice to the all-important nuances.

My main approach to evaluating the war is through international law. Especially since the accusations being thrown around - true and false - use terminology like "proportionality," "war crime," and "excessive force," it's important to understand what those terms actually mean and what their technical application is. The emotional nature of the conflict is making people a little crazy and preventing them from thinking clearly about the issues. That's why I find the law to be such a useful instrument; it's very clear and impartial. In particular, the important documents are the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention on the laws of war. There are many treaties that comprise international humanitarian law, and they're all available here if you're interested.

If you read nothing else, read ACRI's official position paper, which was released with a bunch of other human rights NGOs. It's a bit out of date since the cease-fire, but it lays out the general issues. It also might be useful if you're trying to get a pulse on the Israeli left. The right has been pretty outspoken, but Western newspapers have a tendency to miss what the left is saying, and this is the combined opinion of several of the most prominent human rights organizations that work in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Ok, here's what I personally think about the war. I wasn't opposed to the idea of Israel launching some sort of military response in general. International law doesn't prohibit waging war in general, and Israel did wait until the previous cease-fire expired before launching an attack. Hamas broke the cease-fire by launching rockets into Israel, so Israel actually would have been within its rights to attack Gaza even before the cease-fire was up. So in terms of the law, the attack itself was completely above-board. Also, for the first few days of the war, the IDF was doing very well about hitting only military targets and avoiding civilian casualties. They even dropped leaflets warning civilians to evacuate areas they planned to bomb, so according to international law, Israel was doing everything right.

Where I started having problems with the war was when, a few days in, the IDF ran out of clear military targets and started attacking borderline targets and mounting up the civilian casualties. International law is both very specific and very vague on the legitimacy of targets for military operations. It's not true - as some people seem to assume - that civilian structures like houses, mosques, and schools are totally off limits all the time. If you have reasonable grounds to think that these structures are being used for military purposes, they become legitimate targets. The vagueness, as you might have guessed, comes in with the "reasonable grounds." The same goes for civilian casualties; they are to be avoided as much as possible, not always and at all costs. If a civilian is being used as a human shield, or happens to be unlucky enough to be so close to a legitimate military target that destroying the target will kill the civilian, you are allowed to kill the civilian - on certain grounds. Basically, if the military advantage you will gain from destroying the legitimate target outweighs the loss of civilian life, and you have tried all reasonable alternative measures that don't involve killing civilians, international law allows you to go ahead and kill the civilian. So you can't kill a hundred civilians who stand in the way of destroying a single rocket launcher when you could easily go around the other side of the hill and destroy it with no civilian casualties. But you can kill two civilians standing between you and the bunker where the entire enemy command center is located. You see where I'm going with this? But just like the legitimacy of targets, the necessity of killing civilians has to do with specific facts on the ground - facts we can't know at this point. So we can't know whether the targets the IDF has been bombing are legitimate targets, or whether all the civilian deaths were necessary until the war is over and there's an inquiry into the methods used during the fighting. (I do support such an inquiry, by the way.)

But even though we can't know for sure whether the IDF was attacking illegitimate targets and unnecessarily killing civilians until there's an inquiry, we can make some educated guesses. Given the absolute and relative numbers of Gazan versus Israeli casualties, it seems that the IDF is doing everything it can to protect its own people, but not enough to avoid civilian casualties or destruction of civilian infrastructure. Basically, the IDF was probably using the safest possible methods in terms of avoiding casualties on their own part, and that meant a lack of reasonable precautions. If there was a good chance a mosque was being used to store weapons or a school was housing combatants, they went ahead and attacked it, even though a good chance is not the reasonable grounds required by international law. Similarly, they probably tried some alternative tactics to avoid civilian casualties, but not the alternative methods that would have placed Israeli troops in more danger than the commanders were willing to risk. If those things are true, then they are violations of international law. But I want to stress again that the mere fact of civilian casualties does not automatically mean Israel violated international law. Everything depends on the situation on the ground at the time, and what measures the IDF took to avoid killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.

Another often-discussed claim is that Israel’s attack on Gaza was “disproportionate.” There has been some confusion on this point, which I would really love to clear up. Proportionality has nothing to do with the relative magnitudes of respective military action. The word “disproportionate” has been used to mean something like, “Oh come on, it was only a couple of rockets. Don’t you think a full-scale invasion is a bit much as a response?” And that may well have some truth to it. But in international law, proportionality is about something else altogether. The principle of proportionality is what I talked about at length with regard to civilian casualties. An attack creates disproportionate loss of civilian life if and only if it is launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage. So like I said, it may be true that Israel has violated the principle of proportionality. But it has nothing at all to do with the relative sizes of Hamas’s and Israel’s military operations.

So with regard to civilian losses in Gaza, it's certainly possible – even likely – that Israel violated international law. And if it did, it should probably bear some responsibility for rebuilding Gaza. On the other hand, in the frenzy to find out whether Israel violated international law, a lot of people seem to be forgetting that Hamas definitely did so. Launching rockets at population centers with the stated goal of killing civilians is obviously a war crime, as is storing weapons in and launching military operations from civilian population centers. I am not saying - as some IDF spokespeople have - that Hamas is solely responsible for the civilian deaths in Gaza. But by using civilian infrastructure to store, manufacture, and launch weapons, Hamas illegally put its own population in danger. It is unfair and irresponsible of the international community to condemn actions on Israel's part that it allows on Hamas's. But more than that, such a double standard is racist.

I’m not saying that criticism of Israel is disguised anti-Semitism. Quite the opposite; I think it is racism AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS that makes the international community hold Israel to a higher legal and moral standard than Hamas. By ignoring Hamas’s breaches of international law while condemning Israel’s, the international community is making a statement that it is only to be expected that Hamas will misbehave, while Israel ought to know better. This is a form of the old “noble savage” brand of racism. We (the American and European left) feel sorry for the plight of the Palestinians and outraged at the injustices committed against them, as we should. But by holding them to a lower moral standard than we hold Western nations, we demonstrate that while we pity them, we do not truly respect them. Standing by while Hamas does things like target civilians and use human shields without condemning such actions or demanding that they stop is tantamount to assuming that the Palestinians and their leadership are less civilized than we are. Such an assumption is unacceptable. If we are to take seriously our own claim that all people are equally worthy of respect and self-determination, then we must hold all people equally morally accountable. War crimes are war crimes, whether it is Hamas or Israel that commits them.

To summarize, I think the war itself is morally and legally neutral. I think there ought to be an investigation into the methods employed by both sides, and if either side is found to have violated international law by targeting civilians or causing disproportionate loss of civilian life and destruction to civilian infrastructure, they should be held accountable. Hamas has definitely violated international law in these ways, and Israel probably has as well. But neither side’s violations justify retaliation in kind.

At this point, it seems to me that the absolute priority should be humanitarian relief to Gaza, and an immediate start to rebuilding infrastructure. Saudi Arabia has already offered $1 billion for reconstruction, and other countries should follow suit. Israel must allow in all humanitarian aid, and consider bringing the most seriously wounded into Israel for treatment. Rebuilding is strategically important, as well as morally. If Israel – or the US and Europe, for that matter – have any hope of Hamas’s rule in Gaza weakening, they must step up and provide necessary humanitarian aid and civilian infrastructure. France has agreed to help patrol the border, but it goes without saying that both sides should respect the cease-fire and refrain from resuming hostilities. Ultimately, Israel and Hamas should do their best to come to an agreement about a truce in their talks in Egypt. This war has helped no one, and it is in everyone’s interests to make sure it doesn’t resume.

Well, I think that’s about all I have to say right now. The situation is both tense and fluid, and it’s taken me a long time to decide where I stand on all of this. And who knows; I may change my mind again in light of further information. Looks like we live in interesting times, doesn’t it?

Publication

2008-12-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

We're published!! We're guest bloggers on Eboo Patel's section of the Washington Post / Newsweek "On Faith" blog.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2008/12/the_israeli-palestinian_confli.html

Human Rights Weeks PSAs

2008-12-04T02:58:00.000-08:00

What I've been doing for the past month: three public service announcements for human rights week. Enjoy!

This one is called "Open Your Eyes." It's one minute long, and it's about the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This is the first of the "Shining the Light" series.

And this is the second "Shining the Light" PSA.

Trying to work as a photographer

2008-11-02T04:51:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to find work as a photographer in Jerusalem this year. I advertised on Janglo, and I made myself a website (MirahCurzerPhotography.blogspot.com). We'll see how this thing goes. Hopefully people will respond to my Janglo ad, but if they don't I think I'll just ask friends to pay me like 20 sheks to do portraits of them. That way I get to build my portfolio and get people to recommend me and stuff. Who knows, this may all flop terribly, but I figure it's worth a try, right?

Egypt, etc

2008-10-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been an obscenely long time since I've bothered to post. Bad, bad Mirah! In my defense though, it's been a busy month. I started my job at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which has been great so far. I'm writing the Annual Report, starting a corporate sponsorship program, writing grant proposals and reports, and putting together lectures and talking points for our Human Rights Day lecture series. And I'm the photographer for the organization. I've taken photos at the Supreme Court, in East Jerusalem, at protests, etc. And next Wednesday I'm going across the Separation Barrier in East Jerusalem to photograph.... something. They haven't told me what yet. And in a week they're sending me to a three-week workshop in Tel Aviv where I'm going to learn how to make public service announcements. So I'd say the job is going well.

Over Sukkot, Josh and I went to Cairo with Jason and Faryn (HUC people). It was kind of crazy. Pollution so bad everything was black, serious poverty, galloping through the desert to get to the Pyramids - well, better to just show you.

People in a cafe in the quasi-slum we walked through:

Tiny little man running across the courtyard of the Al-Azar Mosque, as seen from the dizzying heights of the minaret:

Self-explanatory:

Me on a horse:

We rented horses and rode out to the pyramids through the desert. It was AWESOME! I had slightly more experience than the others, so they gave me the younger horse. He was all jumpy and I couldn't quite control him, so the guide was like, "We need to tire him out. Hey, wanna gallop?" So he takes the reins and we go literally galloping through the desert. It was the most exhilarating thing ever, until I lost a stirrup and thought I was going to fall and my life flashed before my eyes. But still, very cool. So much better than arriving at the pyramids by taxi.

Josh kept threatening his horse it would end up like this if it didn't behave. Honestly, the dead horses were all over the desert, and I don't really know how they got there.

I just like this picture. It's a random girl at the Mosque of Muhammad Ali.

Obligatory camel picture:

Look, widdle pywamids!

Ok, that's all for now. I have to go get more work done so I can be all work-free for the HUC Halloween party tonight! Josh and I are going goth; pictures to come.

Photo Published!

2008-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

I got a photo published on a widely-read blog, Religion and State in Israel. Check it out!

Arts Festival

2008-08-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

Last night Josh and I had Jaclyn and Adam over for dinner and then we met up with some more people at this international arts festival. I didn't buy anything, though I might go back tonight, but we did see a concert and this weird circus thing. And since I don't have a lot of time, all I really want to do is show my cool pictures of the circus. Here's a juggler, with assorted circus people in the background:

And here's a trapeze artist slash arial dancer. Very cool.

Masada Concert

2008-08-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

Last night was one of those incredibly surreal experiences that can't even be embellished because it's so out there already. First was the Shabbat cookout, which involved us gleefully grilling cheeseburgers on Shabbat and smiling at the disapproving Haredi people who walked by. And some people were being VERY goofy. Exhibit 1A:

After the cookout and a nap, eleven of us met up on the steps of HUC at 1:00AM to go to the David Broza dawn concert at Masada. Very cool. But then there were unplanned adventured. To begin with, we sat on the steps for an hour while our driver got pulled over, arrested, and sent to jail. Then they sent us a new driver, who arrived at 2:15. So we got in the bus and he took us through the West Bank to Masada. But when we arrive, we're told we're at the wrong entrance, and we have to drive another hour around the mountain to get to where to concert is. By that time, of course, we've missed half an hour of the concert. Also, our driver was kind of a madman. We were going up the tiny little winding mountain roads on the way up to Masada, and he was going WAY too fast. I was seriously afraid we were going to go over the side of the mountain and never be heard from again. Not to mention the queasy factor. But the bright side is that his maniacal driving got us to the concert in time to catch three-quarters of the concert. And the concert was awesome!

I had never even heard of David Broza before someone suggested this concert, but now I'm officially a fan. He sings in Hebrew, Spanish, and English (with occasional Ladino), and he plays beautiful classical Spanish guitar. The music was very beautiful and haunting. Also, it was just so cool to be at Masada at dawn. I haven't been to Masada since I was in Israel with my parents in 1997, and I've certainly never been there at such a beautiful time of day. There must have been 5,000 people on a hillside watching a concert as the sun rose. Very cool. And they were doing a light show against the wall of Masada during the concert.

And of course there were the tiny little insignificant people climbing Masada at dawn while we were at the concert. Ok, time to sleep some more.

Old City Photo Safari

2008-08-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finally made it to the Old City to take pictures. Josh and I went to Lina for lunch, and man was that a great lunch. Seriously, Lina's hummus is worth traveling around the world for, and it was just a 15 minute walk from our house. I love this city. (Well, except when I get dirty looks for walking down the street in tight pants, but that's another story.)

Anyway, I stayed down in the Old City for three hours after lunch, and I would have stayed longer if I hadn't filled my CF card. That's 447 photos, FYI. So here's a few. I started in the Arab quarter, where Lina is, and worked my way back through the Jewish quarter to end up at the kotel.

The people who control the kotel looking down at it:

Serious-looking Haredi boys:

Two Israeli soldiers: one Orthodox, one Ethiopian.

The women behind the mehitzah.

A tourist sitting next to the prayer books in the women's section:

Wow, she's really praying:

... so is she. I really like the rays of light in this picture.

And look, so is she:

Haredi men are always so happy. Why is that? Oh wait, it's because they sit at home and study while their wives both work to support them and take care of the children.

Sorry. If it seems like I have strong views about the way women are treated by the Haredi... well, that's because I do!

Crazy Jerusalem Pharmacies

2008-07-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot of time, so there's just one hilarious story I want to recount. Today Josh and I went to the pharmacy, and I just happened to be wearing an outfit that could pass for Orthodox (skirt past my knees, long-sleeve shirt), while Josh was wearing a kippah. So I ask the pharmacist for Sudafed, and she gives it to me and starts telling me about side effects. Keeps you awake, don't take it with alcohol, etc. Then she says, "Is the Sudafed for you?" And I say yes. And then she says, "You know, I'm not sure if you can take this while you're pregnant." And I'm like, oh my God, have I gotten so fat that this lady thinks I'm pregnant?! And then I realized that Josh and I looked like an Orthodox couple, so it made sense for her to assume that we were trying to have kids, and that I might be pregnant at any moment. It's really a different world here.

Ok, now for the pictures. Here's some Haredi people at the Kotel:

Here's Josh in the process of making something very yummy, as usual:

I almost feel bad about exploiting this feeble old lady for my photography. Almost, because this is such a cool shot.

Aaaaand, more Haredi people at the Kotel. There's a lot of them, ya know?

Bulldozer Deja Vu

2008-07-22T05:24:00.001-07:00

Backstory:
Three weeks ago (when we first arrived) there was an Israeli Arab construction worker who ran his bulldozer into a bunch of cars and buses on Jaffo street. Killed some people, hurt some people, scared everyone. It was also a big deal because he was an Israeli citizen, and there was a huge controversy about whether or not to demolish his house. And it was the second time an Israeli citizen perpetrated an attack in Jerusalem. (The first was the attack on the yeshiva in May.) So enough backstory.

Today (an hour and a half ago) there was a copycat attack. It was really close to HUC - on the same street, about a block away, in front of the King David Hotel, where Obama is going to be staying tonight. Anyway, so Josh and I get these texts asking us to confirm that we're ok, and we start hearing sirens. Of course, that's because we can actually see the King David Hotel from our kitchen window. Like so:

So that's a little scary, but seriously cool. We've been hearing sirens ever since, and now there are helicopters circling our neighborhood looking for the two suspects. Observe the helicopter directly overhead, as seen from our kitchen window:
So you might say life is interesting here. Of course, everyone adapts differently to living in a stressful environment. Not that it's that stressful; it's just high energy. But anyway, my adaptation mechanism is to think of living in Jerusalem as an adventure and get all excited about it. So I do things like run to the window to get photos of the helicopter. I think that's pretty functional, don't you?

Party Time in Jerusalem!

2008-07-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

Though there have definitely been some early mornings over here, Mirah and I have certainly found time to go out and enjoy the nightlife of Jerusalem. Aside from some great house parties thrown by other students at HUC, the best night out was clearly the one we spent at the Jerusalem Wine Festival. Held in a garden at the Israel Museum, it must have featured wine from over 50 vineyards. Thankfully, Israeli wine has improved substantially since the days that Yarden and a few other labels ruled the scene. Even the Kosher wine – notorious for its mandatory boiling process – was actually kind to our taste buds. With a live band in the background, a cool night out, and a great view of the city below, it was something else.After a couple of hours sampling the best wines in the country, we headed back to the center of town for some coffee and a light meal to wash down the wine. The only hysterical part was that, en route to the coffee shop, someone demonstrated a major point from our Student Health Educator (SHE) skits from Amherst: do not tell embarrassing stories about yourself in a party situation, since you may not be able to gauge how embarrassing the story really is until it’s too late. Thankfully, that person was neither Mirah nor myself. However, we look forward to cracking the periodic joke – hopefully just between the two of us, to be nice – since the legend of “Pampers” from the SHE skits lives on.

Wedding Photos Up!

2008-07-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

We got an email from our wedding photographer saying that our photos are up in an online album. They're so gorgeous! Check 'em out:

The website is www.pictage.com/510402, and you have to sign in with the event key mj061508.

Real Life, Day 1

2008-07-16T01:50:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of HUC orientation, which means that this was the first - but not the last - day we had to get up at 7:30. Ugh. And to make it worse, I barely slept last night. It felt like I'd had too much caffeine, but I hadn't had any at all. Weird. Oh well, hopefully tonight I'll sleep. I just feel bad because I kept Josh up too. Well, let's hope I can still think by the time I go to my ulpan class tonight. Yeah, it started on Monday. I should be in aleph plus (between aleph and bet), but there weren't enough students for an aleph plus class. So they gave me a choice between retaking aleph and jumping up to bet. I just couldn't bear learning the alphabet again, so I took bet. It's hard, but not impossible. I feel like I did the first few weeks in my advanced French class in Strasbourg. I'm behind (I don't know past tense), but I'm not the bottom of the class, and I know I can pick up languages pretty well. So it's going to be a tough few weeks, but that's a good thing. I'd rather be challenged than bored, especially because I'm not doing much else this summer.

So this morning (actual morning, for once) I went to the shuk. Today I made it through the whole trip without anyone realizing I wasn't Israeli and flipping into English. Given, all I was saying was "how much?" "thank you," "please," and "excuse me." But hey, it's a start. It also means I was understanding the grocers when they told me prices. The shuk is great for learning numbers. Anyway, I also took a bunch of pictures. People looked at me funny though. Oh well, I guess that always happens to photographers. But here are some pics:

These are the distinctive spice sacks. Though I can't yet buy them because they're all labelled in Hebrew. I'm working up to it.

The fish market, where I don't shop because I don't know how to gut and cook a whole fish. I love this picture because of the guys' faces. The one on the right is giving me "sexy eyes." It just cracks me up that I caught him on camera flirting with me from behind a smelly fish counter.

And here is a close-up of the yummiest thing in the world: rugelach!

And this is just cool. Check out the hanging grapes.

Ok, now that I've reported on my day so far, I have to do my obligatory musing on something irrelevant. And today it's superheroes, or more precisely super-heroines. Why is it that the men get the aggressive powers and the women get the defensive ones? I mean, men get to have super strength and fire and cool stuff like that, and women get to be mind-readers and invisible and shape-shifters and stuff. I mean, look at X-Men. Wolverine has the badass claws and Cyclops gets to shoot fire out of his eyes and Magneto can shoot bullets with his mind. Then look at the women. Rogue's power is totally derivative, Mystique can change her appearance, and Storm is totally helpless unless she's outside. And in The Incredibles (which is really just an amalgam of a bunch of different superhero shows) the male-female division in the family is pretty obvious. Mr. Incredible is strong, Dash is fast, and Jack-Jack has the whole demon baby thing going on. And the women? Elastigirl's power is literally being flexible, and Violet can be invisible or make force fields - totally defensive powers. Now how is that fair?

~Mirah

French Toast of Massive Proportions

2008-07-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

First, as promised, some pictures of our apartment.

Here's our marvelous, big, light-filled kitchen.

And here's our bedroom, complete with an email-checking Josh. The bed is really two mattresses on a really creaky frame, but we're working on the creaking part. Josh has this whole plan to prop up the middle of the bed so it doesn't sag... I hope it works, because it's really freakin' annoying.

Next, observe Josh demonstrating that we do, in fact, eat real meals. That is, non-instant food that we cook ourselves and eat sitting down at the table on real china. This one is an Indian eggplant dish from a recipe we found online. It's a pretty awesome website, actually. It's called Ashbury's Aubergines, and it's got about a million and a half eggplant recipes, organized by ingredients and cuisines. Check it out!

The really cool thing that we did today was have ten people over for brunch. We had a whole loaf of challah and three dozen eggs (I kid you not) so we decided we needed to do French toast. So last night after services we invited over a bunch of people for French toast brunch. We didn't get to invite everyone we wanted to, and as it was we ran out of chairs, but it was still really really fun. It was also a momentous occasion, because it was the first time Josh and I really entertained as a married couple. I mean, we had someone over for pita and hummus lunch, but that doesn't really count.

Anyway, so we extended the dining room table and put out extra chairs last night, and then this morning all we had to do was cook. I made a fruit salad and Josh made home fries, and then we waited for everyone to get here and started French toasting! By the end, people were refusing more food, which means we succeeded in feeding them enough. You know, it's bad when guests go home hungry. Anyway, I think everyone had fun. Yay!

Last night we had Shabbat evening services at HUC, out on the lawn overlooking the Old City. It was a pretty fabulous place for services. I got there late, but Josh had saved me a seat and I didn't miss much. It was a very beautiful service, and it was sort of overwhelming to have it there. Much more moving than actually being at the Kotel. When we went with the HUC tour earlier this week, it was very discouraging. I apparently didn't cover my shoulders enough, and I got scolded by the mean Orthodox lady who made me wear one of those stupid shawls. (Given, it was my fault because I should have brought something more modest to wear. But still.) And then I went with Lisa and Leslie to get a red string with a hamsa, and ended up getting cursed at by the lady I gave a shekel to. Ugh. I just really hate going to someplace that should be holy and moving, and getting reminded of everything bad abut religion when I was looking for the good parts.

On that note, during services last night I was thinking about the phrase we say immediately before the Amidah: "Adonai, open my lips that my mouth may declare your glory." And it occurred to me that it bears a huge resemblance to the opening phrase of the Odyssey: "Sing in me, O muse, and through me tell the story..." Like the invocation to the muse, that phrase is a request for the inspiration to create the art or perform the great deeds that will bring beauty into the world. Because, when you take a less literal interpretation of what God is, bringing glory to God can easily be seen as simply enhancing the good in the world. So when we say that phrase, what we are doing is asking for the ability to do things that will make the world a better place.

I should really go through and try to do this with other prayers. I'm always pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to interpret the entire Jewish liturgy as a quasi-humanist celebration of the human potential for good and a charge to do more of it.

Anyway, I'm out of time.

Peace,

Mirah

Jerusalem

2008-07-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates for a while. It appears that the Venetians, while some of the wealthiest people in the world, have yet to understand the concept of wireless internet. They jet around in their billion-dollar yachts, and yet there is not a wireless hotspot in all of Venice. Grrr.

Anyway, I’ll put up some pictures from Venice later. It’s somewhat frustrating to upload to both here and facebook with stolen intermittent wireless from the old orthodox people next door. We’re going to get our own ethernet and then use the wireless router we already have, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet.

We arrived on Sunday and moved into our apartment immediately. Our landlady is this adorable old French woman, very much like my host mom in Strasbourg. We arrived early in the morning (like 6:00) and we didn’t want to wake her, so we hung around the little convenience store in the building for an hour. Meanwhile, the guy who runs the store gave us coffee and little cakes while we were waiting. Then we went up to Mme Cohen’s apartment, where she promptly scolded us for not coming up sooner and made us breakfast. We were speaking to her only in French, which considering we hadn’t slept in 36 hours was pretty damn good. We were both relieved that our French was still good enough to converse like that.

Then Mme Cohen took us up to our apartment, and it’s gorgeous! Everything’s very modern, with marble countertops in the kitchen and pretty tile in all the rooms. The only drawback is that the kitchen is kosher, and the milk side is much smaller than the meat side. Apparently, vegetarianism isn’t too big in Israel. But we went out and bought some more pots and pans for the milk side, so we should be fine on the cooking front. The other thing about the apartment that wasn’t great is that the previous tenants had a cat, so everything was coated in a fine layer of cat hair. I mean, even the coffee table had little kitty footprints on it. Since I’m allergic to cats, that equals not breathing for me. So we spent the whole first morning moving furniture around and cleaning the place. But as we’re slowly washing everything in here, my allergies are getting better and better.

The other problem we’ve been having is also animal-related: mosquitoes. We left our windows open at night to keep cool, and now I have about forty bug bites all over my body. I actually look like I have chicken pox. (I wonder if I should offer to play with people’s kids for a hundred shekels an hour. Now there’s an interesting plan…) Anyway, we got one of those things that you plug into the wall and it emits some sort of bug repellent, so we should be better for the future. But ick!

Anyway, we love our apartment. It’s big and light and pretty, and it’s ours. It’s just so exciting to finally have our own home. After four years of dorms, it’s really nice to be able to live in an actual apartment. And after living in separate dorm rooms, it’s wonderful to be living together. And it turns out that we really do live together well. We split up the housework so incredibly naturally, I wouldn’t have believed it. And we’ve been having so much fun cooking together. So far we’ve done: pasta with Josh’s homemade sauce, goat cheese omelettes, and French toast. The breakfast-for-dinner thing was Josh’s idea, and I think it’s really great. Breakfast food is some of my favorite, but we never have time to actually make it in the morning. Speaking of breakfast, though, we’ve been sitting down to eat breakfast every day, which I think is really important and awesome.

We’re also slowly figuring out other things about the city, like where to go grocery shopping. We went to the shouk today with another HUC student to get fruit and vegetables and stuff. It’s a lot like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, only smaller, and they sell food instead of carpets and stuff. But the produce is so much fresher there than at the supermarket, and it’s an adventure to shop there. The only drawback is that it’s a fifteen or twenty minute walk, which can get old after a while. But right now we’re not busy, and it’s so much fun it doesn’t matter.

After we went to the shouk, we invited Josh (Josh Knoble, the other student we went with) over for lunch. It was the first time we’ve entertained in our new home, so that was a lot of fun. Also, Josh K is a really interesting person. He’s becoming a rabbi after going to West Point and serving seven years in the army. So we were listening to him talk about his time in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was fascinating. He’s obviously really smart, and he’s got a unique outlook on a lot of things. I’m sure we’ll hang out with him more over this year.

Anyway, time to go… ha! There’s nothing I have to do! It’s a cool feeling, for right now anyway. Pretty soon I’m going to start getting antsy, but then I’ll just write and take photos and enroll in cool classes. But right now, it feels great to just be able to chill and enjoy being a newlywed in our new home.

Kisses,

Mirah

More Dublin

2008-06-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday was another awesome day in Dublin – a good finale to this leg of the vacation, prior to setting off for Venice. Aside from clubbing, which was going to be a must, we didn’t have anything fixed and just set out wandering around the city. A few blocks into our stroll, we decided it would be nice to do a tour of the cathedrals, both Christ Church and St. Patrick’s. So off we went, thankful it wasn’t too windy and only drizzling lightly.

We finally made it to Christ Church Cathedral (the closer of the two and just 5 minutes walk from St. Patrick’s), bought tickets to go inside, and ventured in. It was very nice – no St. Peters – but very nice, with lovely glazed tile floors. As cathedrals go it was rather petit, but nonetheless very much worth the trip. But as we wended our way along the first long side (like all cathedrals, it’s shaped like a cross), we heard yelling, clapping, and the steady thump of a base drum. The noise got louder and louder, making us wonder what might be upon us. Giving each other the “oh, what the hell” look, we booked it for the doors to go and see what all the commotion was. And what a sight indeed!

As it turned out, we had stumbled upon Dublin’s Gay Pride Parade, ironically from inside a Cathedral. There was float after float of people, from sports teams to drag queens, couples getting married (or civil unions?) later that day. Even Google and a number of other companies sponsored floats. While standing and watching float after float pass, we turned to see two priests standing by the gates of Christ Church with one of their parishioners. “There’s trouble to be had,” we thought, wondering how the priests were going to handle the situation. But instead of frowning upon the event – much less heckling the parade’s participants, they stood smiling as the masses of floats and people passed. Some of the people walking (or dancing) in the parade even approached and handed them rainbow bookmarks and other multicolored items. The priests accepted the tokens with a great deal of gratitude apparent. And the next thing we knew, they were waving to those who passed – stopping short of cheering or clapping, we should add.

Mirah and I grinned at each other, thinking, “If this is possible…” and then “Can they get fired for this?” It was not our place to judge, but like the priests’, certainly ours to smile and wave. Ireland, or at least Dublin, was quite a progressive place and a really neat spot to spend a few days.

Some photos of our honeymoon. First, here's me looking contemplative in our "newlywed" shirts.

And Mirah all dressed up for clubbing (and showing off her new haircut):

And, of course, Guinness as usual:

Catch you later from Venice!

Josh

Honeymoon, Day 4

2008-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

To make a long story short, we’ve decided to start a blog. Many reasons: leaving Amherst, our first year of marriage, being abroad. In general, it’s time to join the blogosphere. So we’re going to update as often as we can, and I think it’s pretty awesome of us to start on our honeymoon. (wink wink)

Ok, some wedding pictures, to tantalize the imagination for more to come. (oops, did that come out wrong?) Anyway, these are from our wonderful friends who put up pics on facebook, so don't go thinking we get any credit for these.

Our first dance:

What's black and white and red all over? Josh and Mirah's wedding guests having a drink!

Mirah and her bridesmaids being ridiculously silly:

Anyway. Back to the present. We’re in Dublin now, which is the first leg of our honeymoon. After this we’re going to Venice; think of it as the drinking/eating honeymoon. The plan is to arrive in Jerusalem, in Josh’s words, “fat dumb and happy.” So far, so good. Josh’s family put us on first class on the plane over here, so we actually did touch down in Dublin a bit tipsy. Did you know they serve you champagne before you even lift off? And there’s a four-course meal complete with helpful flight attendants with trays of canape’s? We just kept looking at each other and bursting into incredulous laughter. Like, seriously, people live like this? We never would have bought first class tickets ourselves, but it was really fun. So thank you Tom and Marty and Benj.

When we arrived, we checked into our hotel, the Westin Dublin. The deal was that since we had our wedding at the Westin in DC, we accumulated the Westin equivalent of frequent flyer miles. So we were supposed to be able to stay there for free for our honeymoon. Of course, it turns out we had many fewer points than we had thought, and we ended up having to move to another hotel after three nights. Though we’re in another five-star hotel now, thanks to last-minute travelocity deals.

We’ve done a lot of exploring Dublin on foot, but we haven’t been doing the usual high-paced vacation thing. Since it’s our honeymoon, we’ve been taking it easy. Like, really easy. Last night we curled up in our room, took a bubble bath, and read until it was time to go to sleep. Then we slept until 2:00. We must have been sooo tired! I don’t think Josh has slept that much in his entire life. Then today we walked all over the city. We must have walked 10 miles today, which would explain my sore feet and happiness. Also, I got my hair cut yesterday. I was waiting to cut my hair really short until after the wedding, so I really wanted to get it cut on our honeymoon. It’s REALLY short now! Well, not really short, but short in comparison with the way it was before. Also, to my annoyance, the lady who was cutting my hair kind of misunderstood what I was asking and gave me these funky bang-like things. I was really freaking out about it for a while, but I guess I’m ok with it now. My new haircut makes me look much older, which takes some getting used to, but ought to be a good thing for my job, so people take me more seriously. I don’t want to be in the West Bank and have people now talk to me because they think of me as a child. But the stupid bang things keep getting in my eyes. Argh.

Love and kisses,
Mirah