Young and old in Ramat Gan

Haveil Havalim #181  is hosted at Tzipiyah. 
Now that my little one entered gan we are free on Fridays, the first day of the Israeli weekend. We decided to go out for breakfast, using the coupon my husband received as a birthday present from work. It’s not easy to get out of the house for a morning alone; his birthday is in May, and we used the coupon from 2007.
The list of participating restaurants included two in Ramat Gan. The first one, in the lobby of a mall, featured deafening music.  I snapped a few shots as we walked to the second one. 
The sign below reads that King David Park is named after David, King of Israel, father of the House of David dynasty, 1004-964 B.C.E. You can read the English graffiti yourself; I don’t sanitize this blog (much).
Ramat Gan has many elderly residents, but a complex of kindergartens neighbors the King David park. These ads were posted everywhere:
The formula companies have gotten creative, because they are not supposed to market formula to new mothers. So instead they sponsor “educational” events directed at parents of young children. This ad promotes a “babycollege” seminar at Tel Aviv University (!) about “aktiviut” (activeness? activity? exercise?) among young children, aged 0-3. If you want to learn how to raise a healthy child, don’t go to a formula company. 
We ate at “Hablintzes shel Shoshana.” (For those who care, it was a standard Israeli breakfast of rolls, eggs, cheese and salad.) According to the sign Uri, not Shoshana, manages the restaurant, which advertises itself as heimish (traditional Jewish). It was also quiet. We had a choice of tables on arrival but the restaurant quickly filled with secular, elderly customers. The couple nearest us spoke in Yiddish.
A sign in the restaurant informed customers that fish and dairy products are not cooked together. This is a chumrah (stringency) apparently based on an error–a mixup between the words “fat” and “milk” which are similar in Hebrew. Another sign at the kosher McDonald’s, located in the same complex, notes that the ice cream served at this counter is dairy. You have to order the ice-cream from the main counter, though. 
Our usual view of Ramat Gan comes from busy Jabotinsky Street, but this section was lovely. The shaded walks are set so far back from the street, we wondered where the residents parked.

Sderot Hayeled
Continuation of Elimelech St. (?)

I’m having trouble coming up with pithy post endings. That’s it.

Comments

  1. mother in israel says

    Yes, except that the eggs were a little greasy.

  2. was the food at least good?

  3. I loved your ending.

  4. Actually, I think the dairy/fish chumrah is sephardi (that could be based on that mixup, don’t know)
    Yes, Park Ranaana hosts “Materna B’Park” every summer. They take over the park and offer all of these activities, seminars, gymborees, etc. The iriya here also offeres “Universitaf” with similar stuff. One wonders how we all made it to adulhood without all of this enrichment.

  5. Yes, the dairy-fish chumra is sephardi. It was so hard to give up lox and cream cheese and tuna noodle casserole!
    I loved this post. It makes me miss Israel so much.

  6. Lion in Zion says

    the bet yosef forbids fish and חלב, but it accepted by many posekim that this is a textual corruption. i remember seeing this inside in the ערוך השולחן
    i have a sephardi friend in school who is a mohel. he is always bringing bagels and lox from his brises, but never with cream chease. i have no idea if this is universally accepted by sephardim

  7. Why can’t the formula companies advertise?
    “That’s it” is a great ending to a post. I’ll have to rememer it for the future.

  8. mother in israel says

    Baila, advertising formula is a violation of the World Health Organization’s Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes. Israel is a signatory. Unfortunately it’s not enforced very well, but the companies look bad if they violate it too blatantly.

  9. Fish and Milk restriction is kept by most safardis

  10. mother in israel says

    Oneg, I emailed you.

  11. I live in Ramat Gan, too. My cell no is 0526611534. I’d love to hear from you. I have 1 son living in Beit El.
    He is married to one of the Bnai Menashe. They have a 2 1/2 yr old daughter.
    Hoping for a reply

  12. Every time I hear of Ramat Gan I am reminded of my Jewish summer camp. One year we had a counselor from Israel named Roni or Ronnie or Rani 🙂 . I remember being maybe ten and it seemed like such a world away.
    Thanks for sharing pics.

  13. I cant believe that advertisement! I agree that you should not attend a seminar hosted by a formula company. We are trying here in NYC to get formula ads our of hospitals, but they are very sneaky.

  14. mominisrael says

    BP: Thanks for your visit. They are very sneaky! A reader told me he almost bought a can to get a deal on a children’s book, even though his kid is too big for formula.