Gila entertains with a new edition of Haveil Havalim over at My Shrapnel.

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At the NBN Bloggers Convention, we heard Bibi Netanyahu speak on the influence of bloggers.

Still, I suspect that Stephen from WebAds was surprised to receive a request from Netananyahu’s staff to invite a small number of Israeli bloggers to Bibi’s press conference this Sunday. In case you were worried, I’m not venturing into politics; the subject of the press conference is right on topic for this blog.

So look for my report (probably not live) from Likud Headquarters on Sunday.

Read more on In which I get invited to a press conference…

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I have never felt completely comfortable in our synagogue. We fall within the norm for age and religious level, and even our large family is not unusual. But we are the only native English speakers, and most families send to a different elementary school. Sometimes I speak to a few of the women after shul, but I have virtually nothing to do with them otherwise.

There is one group of women who attend shul regularly and have children close in age to my younger ones. One or two are friendly to me, another one or two acknowledge my existence, but there is one who ignores me. If I catch her eye after shul, she averts her eyes. Sometimes, to make a point, I “get in her face” and wish her Shabbat Shalom. She replies and even smiles a bit. But she never greets me first.

I’m convinced that she holds no grudge against me, nor is she a snob. I am just not on her radar screen. She has her own friends, and I don’t fit into her picture of her social circle. If she ever thought about me, which I doubt, she would figure I had my own friends to greet. Why would I need her?

One year we had children in the same gan. When I saw her, she treated me the same way she did in shul. Then one day we both arrived a few minutes early. Several of her friends from shul had children in the same gan, but they weren’t there that day. She came over, sat down next to me, and struck up a conversation.

This year she again has a child in gan with mine, but her friends’ children have all graduated. I wonder what will happen.

Read more on The Woman Who Never Says Hello…

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in an unfortunate accident, but we managed to reconstruct it. We’re six people with too many bags to count, containing food for two days and camping gear. Good thing there’s no weight check involved this time. I expect to be back to blogging next week after school starts–if it starts.

Read more on The kids burned my camping list. . ….

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After Pesach I bought some fresh yeast and made a starter out of it. When you are ready to bake (or the day before), you feed the starter by adding flour and water and letting it ferment. You take what you need and save the rest for next time. It’s a different way of baking and my success has varied (which is why I haven’t written about it). So I called “Mimi” for help. In addition to baking, Mimi makes homemade soaps, wines, and mead, and is an expert gardener. She is a great resource for someone like me who dabbles occasionally in those types of crafts.

Mimi’s new blog, Israeli Kitchen, focuses mainly on food, with a large dose of Israeli living thrown in. So if you like reading about food, Israel, and Israeli food, go on over and visit.

And I think my challah will come out better next time.

Read more on New Blog about Israeli Cooking and Living…

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Much has been written about the various panels and speakers; for reports check the Israeli bloggers on my sidebar.

Zavi Apfelbaum of the Israeli foreign ministry mentioned Ireland as a country that had recently invested in a “brand.” The Orthodox wedding I attended last week featured Irish music and most everyone (except me of course) knew how to dance to it. Coincidence?

What I have been thinking about since the conference is the relationship between Israeli and non-Israeli bloggers. Those of us who live here can present an insider’s perspective on Israeli life. Whether we promote aliyah, defend Israel’s policies or discuss our day-to-day lives, we know that because of our language and background our main audience will always be American (until NBN becomes even more successful, or mashiach comes, or both). We cater to that audience, or at the very least keep it in mind. Much of our feedback is from the Americans. So I enjoyed hanging out with Israeli bloggers for a while. We tend to forget how much we have in common.

For next year, I suggest small groups and perhaps one keynote address. This will allow bloggers to choose topics that interest them and give everyone a chance to talk. And we all know bloggers like to talk. Sitting in the back I became a passive spectator — and I use the word spectator loosely; you had a better view from the webcast. But I did hear every creak of that annoying door.

Read more on NBN and Irish music…

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Thanks to Rafi for sending me this blurb from 24 Dakot, a local offshoot of Yediot.

The sensationalist headline reads:

Today: The Children against “Mother Taliban”

Four of 12 children of the Beit Shemesh woman nicknamed “Mother Taliban” are expected to testify today at the trial in which she is accused of serial abuse and neglect of her children. The letter of indictment states that for nine years, the parents beat their children and whipped them with belts and cords. They even locked the children out of the house when they did not act according to their wishes. In one case detailed in the indictment, the mother extinguished a match on her son’s chest.

If you are new to this story, start here.

Read more on Update on Keren case: Children to testify today…

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A new carnival called Parents Helping Parents is being hosted at Modern Parent.

Don’t have time for the soccer game or to explain the facts of life? Help is available. “You worry about yourselves, we’ll worry about your kids.”Kidsourcing. (Hebrew)
Hat tip: Gila
Update: This morning, when you click on the video a message appears:

Read more on Updated: Links on Tzniut, Parenting…

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[General impressions on the NBN Convention will have to wait for another post.]

Rachel Yechezkel and I had planned to travel together, then agreed to try and meet at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. Despite my bus running 45 minutes late and “resting” on the side of the highway a few times, Rachel had stuck around and we went on to NBN together. I realized we had met before, when I picked her up off the street and brought her to our book club. (I do this regularly.) Later she moved to a different town.

I noticed the nursing mother as soon as I walked in. This just had to be someone I knew. . . . Sure enough, it was Abbi. (For the record, she was nursing discreetly.) The baby fussed and made it difficult for Abbi to enjoy the panels, which in my opinion held little interest for non-bloggers (and for at least some bloggers, apparently). I mentioned both Abbi and Klara, another participating commenter, in my half-minute of fame on the webcast. (You didn’t miss anything, unless you are curious about what I look like. What the heck, you can look here. I’m on the right next to Rachel; Safranit is on the other side. Notice what she’s doing?)

Frum Satire and I met at the refreshment table. I’ve read his kiddush posts so I was sure to position myself well.

Yael, a podcast blogger, is a fan of this blog. (I had no idea.) Yael has young children and especially likes my posts on breastfeeding. She notes that I have a “lot of good stuff” in the older part of my blog.

I was disappointed to speak to Baila only briefly.

Carl and my husband go way back. According to him, his wife doesn’t believe anyone reads his blog. He was afraid to tell her that he was spending half a day at NBN a week before their son’s wedding.

Chana (Jenny) Weisberg admires this blog.

Rafi shared details of his camping trip–see his post for more.

Jameel made a DVD containing current episodes of Srugim, because he felt sorry for my TV-less status.

Gila now has a car and promised to visit and tour my beautiful town.

Yael (Oleh Girl) and I spoke about the next flu epidemic, which is scary stuff. I’ve read both John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza on the 1917 pandemic, and an historical novel based on that book called The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen. It’s about a town that tried to isolate itself to prevent infection. Yael’s comment: “It didn’t work, right?”

Back in November, Yaakov Kirschen of the Dry Bones Blog, competed with me, Treppenwitz, and seven others in the 2007 Weblog Awards–Africa and the Middle East. It turns out he never even knew he was a finalist . . .

I introduced myself to Seraphic Secret, an American blogger flown in by NBN, and asked him why he wasn’t on a panel. He replied that he doesn’t think about marketing or traffic (the only panel relevant for non-Isrealis). “They tell me I have a large readership,” he said. When I thanked him for linking to me, he said it was his pleasure and that I have a very nice blog. That pleased me enormously.

Doubletapper asked me to inform my readers that he is not an action figure. His gun looked real.

Israellycool’s wife is a good friend of mine (I think that’s me he’s talking about here.) But after Frum Satire’s comments I know better than to ask Dave to put me on his blogroll.

I met many other bloggers, but could not find Miriam or Elisheba.

Rachel, Lisha and I took a taxi back to the bus station. Lisha mentioned that Israelis find her “videos of the ordinary” boring, but non-Israelis love them. We noticed someone with an NBN tag, who turned out to be an oleh chadash named Gavi. Gavi thinks that running errands in Beit Shemesh is more interesting than his conversation with me, and that’s his prerogative. (He may be right in this case.)

Read more on Selected Conversations from the NBN Conference…

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. . . over at The Rebbetzin’s Husband.

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