A wonderful brit in Zikhron Ya'akov

Today, I went to my first ever brit milah in Zikhron Ya'akov. Since I am the youngest in my family, I had never been to a brit milah before. Any ways, it was really special. My husband's cousin Sima had just had a baby boy who was absolutely the most adorable that one can imagine. His hands were so tiny. Any ways, while brit milahs generally are not as big ceremony-wise as weddings and bar mitzvahs, they are still nevertheless nice celebrations. Just like in the bar mitzvah party of last week, there was an appetizer part where people got to dine on various types of snack foods like ciggars and cous cous. Then, there were the various types of salads. I had corn salad, Israeli salad, hommus with bread, and these green hot spicy peppers that made even my mouth explode, despite the fact that I usually really love spicy food. Every one was laughing at my reaction to the peppers by calling desperately for water, but that was part of the fun I suppose. Then, we had our first course, where I chose to eat boreikhas. After that, there was the brit ceremony. All of these Iraqi Jewish women were calling out coo-dooo-doo, throwing candle in the air, and dancing, as the foreskin was removed from the baby boy. Then, we all ate the last course, where I ate chicken with Arabic rice with raisons and potatoes. And to end it all, there was Mizrachi dancing, where I got to dance with Shachar's aunts Shoshana and Carmella, and also with the brit baby's older brother, who shied away when I started to belly dance with him. In sum, it was a great ceremony!

Roi's Bar Mitzvah Party

Last night, I literally went to the best bar mtizvah party that I have ever been to. The bar mitzvah boy, Roi, is a cousin of my husband Shachar. He is half Morrocan and half Yemenite, and the liveliness of his bar mitzvah party illustrate this point. In fact, it was so lively, it could have been a wedding. This party, which took place in Nahariyya near the Lebanon border, started out with lots of appetizers. I remember snacking on cous cous, raviolli, Arabic bread, cigars, eggrolls, chicken with peppers, etc. Then, after the appetizers, every one sat down as Roi's mom, Sylvia, Roi's father Raffi, and Roi's sisters Shany and Sivan walked towards the front in the most beautiful outfits. Then, Roi was brought in on a special chair carrying a torah schroll, as a series of special effects went into place, with Mizrachi music in the background. After that, they lit some candles in Roi's honor, they did a l'chaim to him and then there was dancing. After a bunch of dancing, we sat down and had the first course of the meal, where I ate some fish. Then, there was more dancing, where I even got to do Yemenite traditional dancing, before we sat down again to have a second course, where I ate chicken shnitzel with salad and Arabian rice. And after that, we concluded with a henna ceremony. Every one changed into Morrocan costumes. I got to dance in with Morrocan candies, along with Shachar, Leah (my mother-in-law), Sylvia, and a bunch of other people. Shachar's Aunt Funny got to dance in with the henna lit by a candle. Roi came in a special chair. Then, there was a special ceremony to put henna on the hands of Roi, and then every one else. I also got to put henna on my hand, it was so fun. We danced all the while and snacked on traditional Morrocan pastries. And that was the bar mitzvah party. Not this weekend, but the weekend after, I will return to Nahariyya to go to the actual bar mitzvah of Roi and the shabbat qatan-like ceremony afterwards. Roi plans on reading from the Torah with a Yemenite accent. I am so excited to hear him.

Differences between celebrating Chanukkah in Israel versus the United States

When I grew up as a child in the US, I remember that Chanukkah was a big deal. My mom would decorate the entire house for Chanukkah with dreidal lights, Happy Chanukkah banners, and Israeli flags. We would eat latkes with applesauce almost every night made by my Uncle Harold who would come down from Pittsburgh just for the holiday. We would sing songs together and I would play dreidal with him. Uncle Harold would always let me win, so that I would get to eat all of the gelt myself. I remember as a child I used to be jealous of the Christian kids and their santa clause, so my dad created a fictatious charactor called Grandpa Chanukkah that would give eight Chanukkah presents to all of the Jewish kids, one for each night of Chanukkah. He would give them eight times as many presents as the Christian kids to compensate for Jewish children being a minority. I would believe in Grandpa Chanukkah until the fourth grade, when I found out from other kids in Hebrew School that they never received presents from such a magical creature. Although Chanukkah was never as commercialized as Christmas, given the situation in the US, the American Jews made Chanukkah more commercialized than it was any where else in the world. Whole sections of stores contained Chanukkah decorations, Chanukkah cards, etc., and there were even big Chanukkiahs beside Christmas trees in some public buildings. Sometimes, my parents would take me downtown to see the National Chanukkah Menorah Lighting, which took place adjacent to the National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, DC. And starting in college, I made an annual tradition out of watching the movie Hebrew Hammer for Chanukkah, which I find to be the most hysterical movie ever. It was loads of fun, celebrating Chanukkah in the US.

Here in Israel, however, Chanukkah is celebrated very differently from the way that it is in the US. Firstly, it is not commercialized like it is in the US. You won't see people giving out Chanukkah cards and decorating their houses for Chanukkah. My Mizrachi family does not even eat latkes, but svinge, a Mizrachi pastry that is made especially for Chanukkah, served with sugar, nuttella, honey, or homemade jam. Sometimes the Mizrachim will eat sufganiyot since they came to Israel and adopted it from the Ashkenazi here, but the whole latkes thing is still not a part of their tradition. In fact, when I made latkes for my Mizrachi husband, he responded by eating it with schoog (red Morrocan hot chilly peppers), not the traditional applesauce. While people still sing some songs for Chanukkah, they usually don't sing as many as in the US. While people still light the Chanukkiah, Mizrachim don't give out presents for Chanukkah, but for Purim. My husband claims that there is a chanukkah menorah lighting in each Israeli city, but I seriously doubt that they make as big of deal out of it as the US Jews make a big deal out of the US National Chanukkah Menorah Lighting. However, Israeli television does broadcast Hebrew Hammer and children do get off school for Chanukkah, even though the universities and the work places don't close down. Indeed, to celebrate Chanukkah in Israel is very different from celebrating Chanukkah in the US.