Steph in Israel. Day 3. Today in the Hod.

Goooood morning, or evening, or whenever it is! Last night there was maybe the loudest thunderstorm I’ve ever heard. For a solid hour and a half, maybe from 10:30-12:00, there was pouring rain, thunder, and lightning. Hallie would probably sing “Thunder” (by Imagine Dragons) and then be afraid. It was so crazy and scary and there was water coming in the space on the bottom of my door! You know, if terrorists were ever looking for a time to start things up, a thunderstorm would be a good time. At least it stopped and there were no students running around yelling. Also, good news, the kids in the building I’m staying in won’t be back until after I leave! BARUCH HASHEM for quiet nights!

Today I wasn’t scheduled for anything until 9:30, so I didn’t wake up until 8. At 8:15 one of the staff members texted me asking if I wanted a tour of campus and I was like, “uhhhh give me a few minutes.” Breakfast ends around 8 so there was none of that, which was fine. I got ready to go and walked to the administrative building where I met Mindy, assistant to Leor (one of the CEO’s). Mindy showed me around the building, introduced me to some people, and took me around campus. The classrooms are what I expected; the only way to describe it really is to say “it’s Israel.” There’s a music room as well as a recording studio type room where kids can record a podcast. She told me that while there is a gym, they don’t have access to it anymore; they stopped paying for it because no one was using it and it was a waste to keep it open. That was a bummer, but I guess the kids are really so busy and don’t have time for extra things. After my tour she took me down the road to see the stores that are around, or what the kids call “the Hod” (as the school is located in Hod Hasharon). There are a bunch of local stores, shops, and restaurants so we stopped at a bakery where I bought a pastry and then got slushy iced coffee. Nothing like starting your day with a nice dose of sugar.

there was a pomegranate in the roundabout

My first meeting of the day was with David Mitchell, who some of you might remember from Pesach 2017 (because you obviously read these VERY closely). David is Dean of Israel Studies here, meaning he is in charge of the entire Israel/Judaic studies course. He led a mission that my parents went on 3 years ago, and, on Pesach 2017, took us on a VERY detailed tour of Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem. Anyway, we spoke a little about what he does, but he mainly discussed how kids today are overly coddled by their parents and don’t know how to do anything on their own. I know I’m guilty of this because I’m already worried that the JCC isn’t academic enough for Hallie. He’s right, but to a certain degree it’s just our culture now. Anyway, somehow from there we got to talking Trump, and then he told me about how he’s taking a tour guide course. It was a productive meeting. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years I’m writing about the extremely detailed tours of David Mitchell. He can be the new Tzvikah (old tour guide who we loved but now can’t afford).

This is David Mitchell giving us a tour of the Jerusalem botanical garden in April 2017:

and here we all are with David and his wife at the botanical garden:

After David, I met with Rachelle, the Dean of General Studies. This woman has a JOB. She’s in charge of making sure all the kids are up to date with their general studies, not failing, and being in touch with all of the schools, teachers, parents, and guidance counselors. NOT easy. After her, I met a few of the people in the finance/logistics department, and then hung around a bit before lunch.

I was scheduled to eat lunch in the dining room, but then Leor, the co-CEO, suggested we do lunch, so we did. As we pulled out of campus, Leor mentioned the mental institution right next door to the school. He says that sometimes the patients escape and they have to go find them (they being the mental institution, not the school - it’s not a student activity). This is not something the school advertises. We drove first to a Café Café, but it was closed. Eventually we ended up and the same chain I ate at yesterday, which was fine with me. We started with fried cauliflower in a tahini sauce. It was delicious. Israeli’s know how to fry cauliflower much better than Americans, and I don’t understand why. Maybe one day, when JNF opens their culinary center in the North, they will train the incompetent American chefs to fry cauliflower, or make anything as good as it is here. (I’m joking; the American chefs are lovely, maybe). Lunch was great, and Leor is really amazing. He said he originally went to school for theater, which makes so much sense because that man is a performer. He spends a lot of his time traveling talking about and raising money for AMHSI. I learned a lot, and will hopefully learn a lot from him in the future. It really is crazy how you only really understand what happens here by being here at AMHSI. It will definitely help with recruitment, but also for setting expectations of the kids coming.

After lunch I came back and met with Elana, who deals with the fellowships that students come on, as well as some other alumni projects, etc. She was very sweet. After her, I was done for the day. It was early, around 330, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I tried to make plans, but Josh, Abby’s cousin, actually moved to Tel Aviv today, but he was too crazy to do anything. I got back to my room and answered a few emails, and then got a call from Elana (who I had just left) asking if I wanted to get dinner with her later. Perfect. So, it was about this time that I glanced at my email and saw an email from Debbie Freedman, head of JNF’s Human Resources. They couldn’t fire me WHILE I’m traveling for them, right? That would just be in poor taste. Ends up, I sent this blog to her instead of Daniel Friedman (a colleague/FRIEND in our LA office)! So, thanks Debbie for being so cool and I hope you enjoy the rest of this J. After that brief heart attack, I made some calls, did a few minutes of exercise (ha), and got ready to go out. Oh, it also poured again. SO much rain. I know it’s great for the country, but hopefully no more storms tonight. During this time Hallie woke up and was still coughing, so Tzvi and Sherry brought her to Dr. Sicklik. (Sherry arrived yesterday.) Dr. Sicklik basically said it’s still just a cough and we should ride it out. Hopefully it’ll go away in Florida next week.

For dinner we went to this Italian place called Nono (or something). The décor was really nice and the food was good. Unfortunately they didn’t have salmon, so I had to have pasta. I had some veggie fusilli with vegetables, which the waitress almost explicitly didn’t recommend, but everything else had cheese. It was pretty good. Oh, I also got a cocktail, because it’s about time. I had a “gingo” which had gin, mango jam, apricot jam, lime and ginger. It was delicious. For dessert I had something called “jandoya” which had pastry, hazelnuts, chocolate crème and chocolate milk Chantilly, and chocolate ice cream. It was delicious. It was really nice to be out with Elana. She made Aliyah and worked in Tel Aviv at a reform shul before starting at AMHSI. I told her I didn’t know Israel had reform shuls, and they basically don’t recognize any other parts of the Jewish religion aside from the Orthodox.

After dinner she drove me back to campus and here I am. I should probably answer some emails, but also watch some Designated Survivor. It’s so good. You should watch it.