2004 not 1994

First steps in the Holy Land!
First meeting with a tefilin at the Western Wall.

Western Wall, men section, 2004, ©emmarubinstein

I jumped on a chair to look at the men section.
If i have been alone, i would stay hours. :-)
And i will be alone this time, and will do what i want, as usual.
I watched the documentary Odessa, Odessa, and it's about Jewish Russians. The ones who have immigrated in Israel said: "Here (in Israel), you are not Jewish, you are Russian, American, French…"

Whatever your religion or non religion, you can't be hermetic to the Holy Land.
I stayed in the cousin's place of my friend. After 20 years that he was living in Yerushalayim, he said that he still had the impression that he will see a man on a horse riding in the old streets of the city.
Once you have been there, you never came back the same.

I found a room not too far where he lived. It was not deliberately. I wanted to have on my way to the center the Cinémathèque. The view i had for my first dinner there was so delightful. The sound of the city was very particular.

View on the 7 hills of Yerushalayim. In the background: the wall of separation,
Judea desert, West Bank. 2004, ©emmarubinstein

What is it better to listen to Shlomo Carlbach, when i have a look at my photos of 1994?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebM60X5QkTo
"They came to the Holy Land
We built the Holy Temple
To sing the songs of Shabbos…
Back to Yerushalayim
To sing the songs of Shabbos…"

My mom will ask me for bringing her back something: sand of Israel. :-)

On my way to the Dead Sea, through the Western Bank,
written in French s'il vous plaît !
2004, ©emmarubinstein

It's Friday and it's Leonard Freed's photos

That's a long time that i didn't post photos by him.
I am organizing my spiritual journey in the Holy Land, looking for non touristic things to do.
I will spend a few days with my best friend of my last year in high school.
We haven't seen each other since our 19 years old. I can't wait to see her.
She is Sephardic, and we laughed a lot during classes.
We were always at the back of the classroom.
The teacher of maths liked me a lot, wishing that i will be an engineer. He disliked my friend a lot.
I used to chew gums a lot. Once, he asked me to resolve a maths problem on the blackboard.
He wanted me to toss my chewing-gum, i refused. He insisted a lot, i refused.
So the deal was : either i toss it, either i get out of the class.
What did i choose? :-)
I got out of the class.
My friend told me that he was stunned, and sat a few seconds on his chair. :-)
I had no shame. :-)
I forgot his name, but he was a very good teacher.
I offered to my friend to resolve a math problem, only to laugh.
She lives in Haifa.
Before, i will spend a few days in the kibbutz, and i will work a little.
I never did it, it should be great!
And i will meet up my first Jewish boyfriend that i haven't seen since we were 5 years old. :-)
First, i will spend a week in Yerushalayim. I will wonder in the streets like a bohemian, and probably be in dangerous areas not deliberately. And Mea Sharim! :-)

GEORGIA 1973 . Russian immigrant Jews from Georgia.
© Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos From the book - Another life

Israel 1973 , A 'machine shop' instruction class for students from Russia, Jerusalem.
© Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos

ISRAEL , Haifa 1967 . © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos 

ISRAEL , Jerusalem, 1960's .Hassidic boy is carrying bread home,
in the streets of the old quarter of Mea Shearim.
© Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos 

ISRAEL Nergev Desert 1967, a bedouin boy with his sister,
© Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos

ISRAEL. A druze home in the Galilee.1967. © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos

I would like to meet some Druzes. My mom, in 1967, couldn't access to them. Things have probably change. Their story is very interesting.
They live in different countries and they are very well integrated.

ISRAEL. Jerusalem. 1967. Arab children sell fish tins at the Damascus Gate.
© Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos

ISRAEL. Jerusalem. 1967. Before the Six Day War, Jews live in an ancient building
in front of the Old Wall of Jerusalem. © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos.jpg

ISRAEL. Jerusalem. 1967. Before the Six Day War, Jews live on a street in front of
the Old Wall of Jerusalem. On the other side of the wall is
No Man's Land and Old Jerusalem. © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos

ISRAEL. Jerusalem. 1967. Crossing the former No Man's Land between
Israel and Jordan after the Six Day War. © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos 

ISRAEL. Sefat. 1967. Hasidic Jews. © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos
From the book - Another life

ISRAEL. The Purim Festival. 1967. © Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos

USA. New York. 1954. Brooklyn, in a synagogue .
© Leonard Freed/Magnum Photo

Have a good Shabbos!

World War III

I am totally traumatized by what happened two days ago in Yerushalayim.
The unexpected images of the massacre came to my eyes, and since that, the first night, i couldn't sleep, last night, i had a nightmare.
Red is my favorite color, but blood is not.

B110, bus from Williamsburg to Boro Park, September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

I can't stand guns.
Don't invite me if you have guns, big knives, snakes in your place, i will be the most horrible host. I will scream at night, thinking that there are snakes in my bed…

I was invited for a private show of a new movie. I didn't know what the movie was about.
But i guessed it when i had to walk to the theater. The path for handicaps to come inside the theater had a large blood trail.
I chose the stairs. And when i was walking, i understood that during the show, the audience might be killed.
What made me wake up was the real pain in my legs when something freaks me out during nightmares.

This morning, i read this article in The Times of Israel. I am not the only one to be emotionally moved by these events.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/viral-images-of-murdered-jews/
I don't understand what kind of pleasure, people took to post these images.
To do it, feeds the joy of terrorists.
And also, that's totally disrespectful for the families.
Can you imagine if it arrives to someone from your family. Do you want to see images of them like that?
That makes me sick!

Joie de vivre in Crown Heights, September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

Yesterday, i had a conversation with my mom.
She said that many French think that there will be a third World War. It will come from the Middle-East.
I heard from some French Jewish friends that they want to get rid of the terrorists as we did of the Nazis.

It is how it started: 1929 financial crisis in the worldwide. Then, the war.
My mom said that we are too many on earth.
But we have enough food to feed everyone, so i don't think that this is the main problem.

I could not imagine Paris, once again, attacked.

But i imagined what will be this new war: USA against Russia.
The reason: the pursuit of the black gold where these two countries don't care of the civilians by targeting them insanely.
Even if the Cold War is ended in the history books, it's not the end in reality.
The next American President will be probably a Republican, and he will love to go to war.

Who sell guns mainly? USA and Russia.
Behind all those wars, we know pretty well who are the governors.
Those countries like terrorism, and use it to be elected.

Rosh Hashanah 5775 in Williamsburg, September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

Afghanistan in the 90s: USA sold weapons to the Taliban to fight against the Russians.
Then, September 2001: USA fought against the Taliban, and sold weapons to their opponents.

What about now?
Afghanistan: not done
Irak: worse and worse
Syria: USA blamed Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria. Now, they fight with him against ISIS. This man is a criminal.

My mom said that it has to explode, to find back the serenity of the after WWII.
She wondered how she was still alive with all the bombs around her.
When they heard the alarm bell, she was running in the trench lines with her cat in her arms.

But the danger will come from Iran: they have the nuclear bomb.

Which places will be safe in the next future?
South America, Hong Kong…?

Can we define the priorities of living in a quiet country?
Vegetius said: "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum*", translated in other Latin words by: "Si vis pacem, para bellum.*" ("If you want peace, prepare for war").

We have all the weapons to destroy the entire earth, where is the peace?

My mom imagined people fighting in the streets of Paris: who with who? The French against the immigrants?

You, who read this blog, and live around the globe, how do you feel this current world?
Do you see a solution to calm the things down?
Do you feel a WWIII coming soon?

In the 80s, when Paris was under fire with terrorists attacks in the subway and the street, the French used to say that there won't be a new war, but the new war was the terrorism.
Here we are, more than ever.

I don't feel the anti-Jews in Paris. I don't wear my Magen David.
My peaceful moments with my brothers, sorry my sisters, are during the Hebrew classes and the following classes where we study the Torah by understanding the meaning of the Hebrew in the text.
I like the teacher a lot, a woman, Ashkenazi. Most of the students are Sephardic.
What i love the most is her huge knowledge of Judaism and the different sects. She explained us the candles for Shabbos.
She said a story: if you are lost somewhere and you can't see the 3 stars to start Shabbos, that will be fine: you count till 7, and at 7 it will be Shabbos.
Hashem gave us this world, and now it's our turn to do something with it. It's like a recipe, we have all the ingredients, and we have to follow the recipe.

Shabbos became a verb, an action: we say "to make Shabbos" like "to break Shabbos".
In the Torah, Shabbos is conjugated.
In the Lubaba sect, they add candles for the children. I saw that, but my little knowledge of the different sects made me confused.

In two months, i will be in Israel for a month, and i am a little scared.
NY made me paranoid for some reasons. That's better since i am back to my roots.
I can't wait for meeting my friends in the kibbutz to have great intellectual conversations. They are intellectual hippies. She is a sort of hoarder. Her shelves are full of books and many things that she kept.

Prescriptio_n in Williamsburg, September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

Fargo

Have you seen Fargo by the Coen Brothers? Not yet?
Watch it! It's in my top list of my favorite movies.

I am watching the series where the Coen brothers are executive producers.
Guess what?

The Mitzvah Tank is more than an extra.
One of the neighbor is a Lubaba wearing no kippah, married to a sexy, provocative and immodest wife.
Intrigued?

The series is amazing.
The light given by the snow is always something particular and beautiful.
The cinematography is awesome.
It's on streaming on the French Netflix.

The screenshots of the Mitzvah Tank are posted below.

©Fargo, 2014 

©Fargo, 2014

©Fargo, 2014

©Fargo, 2014

Tender is the Hasidic night

Voilà !
I wanted to create something like a homage to this community living in NY.
They didn't change my life, but they helped me to accept who i was since my childhood.
A poor little girl, hiding the religious identity of her father, reading a lot about the Shoah, and trying to find an answer to: "Why the Jews?".

By the way, for those who have a very short memory, the masterpiece of Claude Lanzman, Shoah, is available for streaming online:
http://tabletmag.com/scroll/186916/lanzmanns-shoah-now-streaming-online
10 hours…

You can also read this piece, like a thriller, in the Village Voice, about the Satmar community in Kyrias Joel.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/11/kiryas_joel_new_york.php
In the comments, some accused this article full of lies. Ver veys!
That seems well-documented with videos, and beautiful photos.
Make your own opinion!
Joel Teitelbaum is not shown like a friendly man. I can accept that he is anti-zionist, but to say: "Zionism was the cause of the holocaust." is totally insane and unthoughtful. He should have read Mein Kampf to understand why Hitler did that.
The saying: "behind each great man, there is a great woman.", Faiga seemed to be the Woman to be around.
This piece is absolutely not flattering for the community. There is no separation of the state and the shul. Kyrias Joel is like Vatican, a new state, except that it depends of the USA financially.
All the battles, wars between people from the same community are horrible. I can't understand that kind of war, coming from survivors of the WWII.
It shows that religion is one thing, but to be a human being leads to a lot of struggles for selfishness, interest and power. Who is the stupid person who invented money?

If you like this artwork and if you want the same coat, i will sew one for you (my king?). :-)
I like sewing without a machine. I already sewed a flowery hippie pants when i was at the University, that was not a real success. :-)
A coat will be easier to sew.
And you can listen the French Jazz band, Saint-Germain, known for this acid-jazz song, Rose Rouge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRpKKBmeqV4&index=2&list=RDzMM044eL56c
But i recommend you Sure Thing, featuring John Lee Hooker, the bluesman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMM044eL56c

Tender is the Hasidic night, Movember 2014, ©emmarubinstein

Hebrew classes

That was my first class yesterday evening.
I enjoyed learning a new language.
I knew it a little by starting Yiddish by my own.

I found these classes by the rabbi i met at the Jewish Consistory last week.
The Jewish Agency advised us to start Hebrew before living there.

I called other schools but their price are too expensive for one hour and half weekly!
What i like with this class is that we will learn Hebrew: to write it and to read it, but once we know our alphabet and some words, we will read some extracts of the chumash.
The teacher is a rabbi.

room of the shul, Paris, November 2014, ©emmarubinstein 

But yesterday, we were 3 new students. The classes started three weeks ago.
We were three generations around the table in a beautiful room of the shul.
We had to make up the delay.
The rabbi was not available, her wife was the teacher.
She is Sephardic, wearing a hat. A student was not sure to have recognized her.
She said very naturally: "Last time, i was wearing a wig." :-)

We started with the vowels. We don't have the same in Yiddish.
We read a lot, and learned new words.

This woman was amazing, and so helpful.
She gave us one hour more, to be at the same level than the other students.
Next Monday, we are going to get into the classes with the other students.
Her husband that we met yesterday, and her won't be in Paris the next three weeks.
But she offered us to help us when she is back in town if we have difficulties to follow the class.
The other teacher is a woman and she said that she was very pedagogue.

What i appreciated the most is that she did it with her heart not with her wallet.
She wanted us to be comfortable with the other students next Monday.

Now we have lot of homework to do. I will take one hour or two daily to read it and remember the letters we already learned.

If we are good students, we might be joined the group of Oulpan level 1.

room of the shul, Paris, November 2014, ©emmarubinstein

Meeting for Alyah and Consistory

The meeting was in a shul of a Jewish school, in the area where i used to live before going to NY.
I didn't feel to go there, but i had a very good reason to be there: my future with my brothers and sisters, all together.
A French young man introduced the program of the Alyah.
In 2011, about 1500 French Jews made their Alyah. End of 2014, 6500 will make it.
The majority of Jews in the shul were Sephardic, and came to have more information.
We were a few who wanted to leave our country next year.

Shul for the meeting of Alyah, Paris 19ème,  September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

The first condition to make the Alyah: to be Jewish.
What is it to be Jewish?
Where is my place?
We were in that shul because we were Jewish, except…

The man who informed us made me laugh many times.
The first impression that the new 'immigrant' can have: Israeli people are crazy!
Because they wear socks in their Crocs.
After 4 years wandering in Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, that fashion of Crocs is so natural for me.

He talked about the education which is totally different from France.
Apparently, the French are the worst students for the Oulpan. :-)
In Israel, there is more freedom. You need the pass mark for all the subjects to pass your high school diploma.
In France, we count all the subjects to obtain a general note on 20.
If you have 5/20 in maths, and 18/20 in biology, your pass mark is 11.5/20, you pass it.
In Israel, you can take the time that you need to pass your subject.
Not in France.

The other point very interesting in the education is that the teachers support you to be more confident.
Maybe, that's one of the explanation of their rude behavior.
That's not the first time that i heard about the confidence of the Israelis.
The teachers teach you how to be an adult. That will be very interesting for me once again.
I will wear my helmet of anthropologist.

The other thing that i will like in this country is the meeting of different cultures. There are Jews from everywhere. How do they live their Judaism through the music, literature, food…?
I am a little lost with the French language. That happened the other day when i read something about the hallot. What was that? With the context, i understood that they were talking about my beloved challah!

Israel seems to be an upward country with many start-ups…
May positive points which don't seem obvious in a hot country.
I need positive energy and sun after the American laziness.

Crown Heights, September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

The day after i met up a Facebook 'friend', R.. We have friends in common.
He is muslim, Kabyle, not religious at all.
His best friend is a Jew, but he waited 5 years to tell him that he was Jewish.
He thought that the Jews have hang-ups, but after telling him shortly my experiences with the Hasidic community, he thought that it might be the fear.

He is well-integrated in the French culture. He likes France.
He made the statement that there is a failure of the European politics of integration.
In USA, there is no integration. You can follow the rules, but you can live how you want.
I mean that the American definition of integration is different from the European definition.
The French don't understand why they have to cover their head if they travel in a Muslim country like Iran. Because in France the Muslims don't want to accept the secular culture.
The respect of the culture of the others is complicated in my country.
R. was very shocked during the summer war in Israel when he saw his brothers from the third generation, asking for the death of the Jews on the French streets.

I summarized my story, and he didn't want to believe that i was not a Jew at 100%. That was funny to convince it that i still have a long road to walk. "You have a Jewish face from Eastern Europe!"
He was persistent, i gave up. And i was happy! :-)

After the meeting of the Alyah, they send you an email and you can start the process.
I wanted to go to the Consistory before sending them back my replies.

That was for today, and that was another delightful moment.
The building is like a fortress. You have to explain why you are here. Summarize my life is a good exercise. I passed the test, and the third door was opened for me.
I met a man who was waiting for me to give me advices about the recognition of my Jewishness.
I thought that he was Sephardic. He had a black feet accent. He looked like Ashkenazic nevertheless.
He talked to me as if i was a kid: the use of familiar 'tu' form (the first 'you' in English). I kept on the use of the 'vous' form, the polite form when i talked with him.
I told him my huge desire of a conversion, and he said that it will be better to do it in Israel: 7 months, instead of 2 years and half in France.
He was caring with me: "'Tu' need to find a job there…"
That was my turn of questions, because i felt very comfortable with him. I was back in Crown Heights in my mind!
He is the rabbi of the most famous shul in Paris. I googled it when i went back home.
He is not a French Sephardic indeed. I was wrong about his accent: that was an Israeli accent. Apparently, the French is not his mother's tongue, that might explain the use of the 'tu' form. The conjugation is easier with the 'tu' than the 'vous'.
I actually appreciated that he took the time to give me information about my Jewish status, Torah and Hebrew classes. He is a very busy rabbi, but he was there for me, and we had a great connection.

I had a short conversation with two Sephardic ladies. One of them has friends in Crown Heights. She likes the 770 and all the area. They were listening my story told to the rabbi, and pushed me to do everything to become Jewish at 100%.

Waiting, Boro Park, September 2014, ©emmarubinstein

I live like a schizophrenic in Paris: i used to live in one world, and since NY, i added a second world: the Jewish people. I can share it with my friends, Jewish or not, but i feel the gap between us.
There are things difficult to understand if you don't live them.
I was thinking of going to London for a few days, in the district of Stamford Hill to see my Hasidic peyos boys. Before or after Israel?