Shabbat stories three days late

These thoughts are not in sequential order but i'm doing my best to keep this thing semi up-to-date. it ain't easy. Friday night was Shabbat and I was pretty surprised to see things shutting down around 2pm. The whole Jewish State concept is still mystifying. We had a coffee with my favorite Ben, Ben Lehrer (I really do know quite few Bens…) and he took us around his neighborhood (Bakah), exhibited his very hip apartment + patio, and updated mami and I on the latest and greatest. Quite a bit going on for Ben these days. He took us to the local florist in order to buy our Shabbat hosts (the Assifs) a plant. Another time when I wish I knew Hebrew (this feeling happened just about every ten minutes during the trip).

As Ben walked to his car to take us back to the hotel, he explained the ribbon tied around his antenna. One color symbolized support for the Gaza pullout while the other color opposed it. From this moment on, my eyes would immediately check out antennas and then quickly flash to examine the corresponding driver.

A few hours later we are picked up by Ben and Ronen Assif (Judith Meissner Assif’s son, Ronit Meissner Naor’s nephew). Ronen has this very calm air about him. Everyone seems to feel it but I cannot begin to explain it. He is involved in some serious army intelligence operations and sadly we will never know exactly what he does. His interest in my work was a surprise as I never thought that young people associated with the community would take any interest. I stammered when telling him what I was up to...surprise got my tongue.

My project likes/dislikes even surprise my closest friends. "Don't you get tired of listening all the time?" Unlike most young people, I absolutely love old people. I spent hours with my Oma, listening to her stories.... One of my favorite things to do in NYC is visit my cousins in Rockville Centre, Long Island. My roomates in college knew about this ritual and thought it was weird that my cousins lived out on the island.

"Do they work out there or something?"

Little did they know....Anna and Harry Milner are in their seventies.

After graduation, some of them visited the Milners for the very first time. Their mouths must of dropped when they saw the Milners and one of my girlfriends even says she'll never forget that moment....learning that I had spent most of my Sundays in college with two senior citizens. ;)

Anyway, about Ronen. He picked us up and drove straight to his parent’s home in Mevasseret, a nice suburb right outside Jerusalem. On the way we started talking about Ethiopian Jews and he told us that quite a few families lived in his neighborhood.

“You want to see where they live?” he asked.

How could we say no?