A while back I had a thread on popular Israeli baby names for boys. Jon just left following comment:
My wife and I need some help finding a suitable boy’s name. We want to name after my grandfather, Herschl Tzvi (Harry) z”l who passed away last year.
I’ve been reading Free-Range Kids at the recommendation of Sylvia-Rachel. Author Lenore Askenazy, head of the Free Range movement, is one of the Forward 50 Influential Jews of 2009 and was interviewed this week by both Time Magazine and CNN.
Announcement for Israeli bloggers: Mimi and I are planning another Blogger’s Evening for Saturday evening, December 26, to be hosted by Foodbridge in Nes Tziona. We’ll be posing more details soon.
A number of years ago Emunah, a women’s organization with charitable projects including a chain of daycare centers, offered an 8-session course in child safety to its employees and volunteers. Since I had small children and worked with new mothers, I decided to try it out.
This Sunday I’ll be hosting the 244th edition of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish-Israeli blog carnival. You can find this week’s edition over at Ima on the Bimah.
A new blogger wrote me, begging me to include her blog. She even referred me to her friend, a well-known personality in the Jewish blogosphere.
Read more on Upcoming Haveil Havalim: No Protekzia Necessary…
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson is a sequel to The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. When someone from the book club asked my opinion I described it as a poorly translated, stilted, violent, adventure story with wildly improbably plot turns. But one of the women in my book club loved it. She says that that is just how the Swedish write. So I decided to try the sequel. One of the early scenes describe a shopping trip to Ikea in three page, including the color of each item purchased for outfitting her new apartment. But I stuck with it, and by the time I was a third of the way through I was hooked.
Hayim Ozer Street, Petach Tikva
Like Ilana-Davita, I copped out of NaBloPoMo. By the time I got home from a meeting last night, getting into bed took higher priority.
In the older, Blogger version of this blog, I listed popular posts in the sidebar. I’d appreciate input to do the same here. What do you think I should include? It can be a post with a memorable discussion or useful information, or perhaps (I hope) one that touched you in some way.
No, not that soldier’s mother.
Don’t expect much blogging on the subject, but one of my sons is preparing for his mandatory three-year army service.
A commander from my son’s future division came to the house to answer our questions. The commander wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, as pre-army home visits didn’t exist when he enlisted. The program, about a year old, is intended to increase motivation among combat soldiers. We found out where my son would be training, how often he would come home (two weekends out of three, at first) and the different units within the division. I asked what my son should bring with him and he said, “Clothes.”
We had guests over on Shabbat. When I introduced them to the kids, I mentioned that my two youngest are in first and third grade.
The littlest one spoke up. “I’m in third grade, and he’s in first grade, pointing to her brother.” The guests smiled in amusement.
My post, What Defines Israeli Parenting?, generated a lively discussion. Lack of manners among Israeli children came up again and again.
Yesterday someone named named Trudy left the following comment:
We spent our sabbatical year in Israel in 07-08. It was a fabulous experience. I agree with most of the observations/comments above. For me, the most striking thing was the bad behaviour of the children AND the adults who had obviously been parented in a similar manner. Don’t get me wrong. My children also misbehave, but the difference is that, when they do, I notice, I care and I act. Many Israeli parents do not notice, care or act. They are raising another generation of rude, spoiled children. I had visited Israel 3 times before our sabbatical year and, of course, I noticed and experienced the rude behaviour of both adults and children. However, over the course of the year, this aspect of Israeli culture REALLY began to wear on me. It was embarrassing, as a Jew, to imagine what non-Jewish tourists thought of “us” as Jews. They are not just seeing rude Israelis, they are seeing rude Jews. Many of the Israelis that I spent time with while in Israel were also embarrassed by the behaviour of their fellow Israelis and their children. The difference, in almost every case, was that the people I spent time with – family and friends – had themselves lived in Canada or the US.
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