Pessach Trips

Netanya

B"H

So, how is Pessach ?

Busy and I have done quite a few trips so far. Feeling like a human being without being at the bakery all the time. However, the bakery has contacted me on Facebook and there is just no escape.:-)

I went to the Chabad (Meshichistim) Seder (in Ramat Aviv) but it was extremely nice. The next day, the first holiday, I spent at the beach in Tel Aviv. Yesterday I had my cultural tour through the "Eretz Israel Museum" as well as through the nearby "Diaspora Museum - Beit HaTefuzot", both in Ramat Aviv.

I wouldn't recommend the "Eretz Israel Museum" too much but what I liked was the temporary exhibition about the "suffering" or "hard times" of Tel Aviv. Arab pogroms and suicide bombers throughout the 20th century.

Almost next to the "Eretz Israel Museum" is the "Palmach Museum" but I am not too much a Haganah - Palmach type but rather more with "Lechi", "Etzel" or the "Irgun". This is why I skipped the Palmach and went to the "Diaspora Museum" where it was packed with Bnei Brak Haredim.

The most amazing exhibition is the one showing the miniature Synagogues of former Eastern Europe such as the one of the Vilna Gaon or the Great Synagogue of Warsaw. Both buildings were destroyed by the Nazis.

Furthermore the museum exhibits Synagogue models of the Altneushul in Prague (from the Maharal) and the Rashi Synagogue in Germany. A very surprising custom I didn't know about was that Jews in the Caribbean used to built a sand floor into their Synagogues; representing the Israelites marching through the desert as well as the destruction of the Temple.

The "Diaspora Museum" is running various temporary exhibitions at the moment and I am going to write about the Israeli artists Mika Drimer and the Spanish diplomats in the Holocaust separately.

Today I went to the "Tel Aviv Art Museum" and I realized that there was too much art for me. I may be interested in writing but cannot paint or build installations. I do like art installations but drawings … I think that I don't have any imagination to figure out what Picasso or Rubens intend with their pictures. Rubens may be more logical than Picasso though. All those different kinds of paintings drove me nuts and I didn't feel like interpreting confused artist minds.

I decided to take the bus to Netanya and lay at the beach. As a matter of fact, there is more kosher food for Pessach in Netanya than in Tel Aviv. However, not at Mac Donald's at the Central Bus Station. They offered kosher food for Pessach and I walked in, ordered and ate a burger with chips. Later I found out that the place is kosher for Pessach but not kosher at all, as they serve meat and milk together. Meaning that I had a kosher burger for Pessach but I could have ordered a coffee with milk too. A kosher burger with milk.

Surprise, surprise !

Netanya is nice but a little boring. Nevertheless, I had a good time at the beach. Plenty of haredi families were around and the languages I heard was Russian, some English but mainly French. The entire square before the beach area seems to be French. French bistros and estate agents.

When I went back to Tel Aviv I felt like looking for a kosher for Pessach Aroma coffee and ended up inside the Azrieli Tower where is was completely packed. I didn't even get to the Aroma counter and thus didn't see if the branch was kasher le'Pessach.

The Swedish clothing chain H & M just opened its doors recently and Israelis still keep on storming in. H & M in Azrieli had a line up of 50 - 60 people. The store looks too posh and the private guards reminded me a bit of the SS. With their dark uniforms and their looks in their eyes. As if anyone was an enemy to shoot.

Tomorrow I am going back to Jerusalem for Shabbat. There, at least, I am getting a kosher Aroma coffee !