Israel Exchange Part 2 Things you may or may not know about Israel and Jerusalem

This is part two of the letter we sent for the kids Cultural Exchange -Israel. You can read about the cultural exchange and part one of our letter here.

Israeli mailboxes picture from Israel cultural exchange via birkat chaverim
Israeli mailboxes. Do your local mailboxes look like this?

Things you may or may not know about Israel and Jerusalem:

  • Both national languages, Hebrew and Arabic, are read right to left not left to right.Israeli children play a game called chamesh avanim (5 stones) which is a variation of jacks. It was originally
  • played with stones and now with 5 square metal pieces.
  • Sirens are sounded for Memorial day and Holocaust remembrance day. When they sound, all traffic stops. Everything stops.
  • Water- people in Israel are careful about water use due to several years of drought. Most children will remind you to turn off water because “there is not enough water in the Kinneret” (a lake and water source for the country.) Jerusalemites are more particular about water conservation as parents who remember water rationing in the city ingrained it in their children. People tend to get happy when its raining rather than annoyed (watching the water levels in the Kinneret is a national “sport.”)
  • Street names- we have alot of street names related to history and flowers and the like but we also have biblical names.
  • Stone- Most buildings are facaded with Jerusalem stone (in Jerusalem.)
  • View of the old city via birkat chaverim copyright Birkat ChaverimThings to do- as its not a large country it isn’t so far to go and do a wide variety of activity types such as going to the beach, farms, factories, horseback riding, vineyards or historical sites. People in Israel tend to like to hike. There always seems to be some sort of festival going on (the picture to the left is from an outdoor performance in the center of town.) For kid friendly activities in Jerusalem in English as well as information about local sites you can look at the website FunInJerusalem.com.
  • Volunteerism- In our neighbourhood most people that we know are involved in some way or another in helping others either formally (many non-profit employees) or on a volunteer basis. There are many many small organizations too small to be a formal non-profit that offer free services to the needy as well as your average citizen.These services could range from collecting clothing and toys for the needy to supplying things like tablecloths and hot water urns to families celebrating life cycle milestones, providing temporary cell phones to travellers or as a temporary replacement, to wigs to cancer patients or even lending toys and costumes to children. These organizations are called Gmilut Chasadim organizations (Loving Kindness.)
  • Safety- Every country has its own safety and security concerns and emergency preparations. Elsewhere they could be hurricanes or typhoons. We don’t worry about that here but all new buildings have designated “sealed” rooms, and there are bomb shelters either in buildings or within walking distance of your home. The one closest to us is actually also a slide. All citizens are issued gas masks and several times a year there are country-wide system tests. In addition, all public buildings, malls have guards who check bags on entry. We also think about earthquakes here and the municipality is working to help ensure that buildings built before the current standards get up to current earthquake codes.
  • A little about Hebrew- Hebrew has a few sounds that are missing in English and French. In particular the letter het has a gutteral sound, sort of like you are clearing the back of your throat. The reish letter is pronounced more like r in French than in English but also a bit more from the back of the throat. There are no Hebrew letter vowels. Rather, vowels are marks that appear below and inside the letters. Like French, Hebrew requires thinking about gender for people and objects.

Next part…food

 

Israeli bottle recycle bin via birkat chaverim
Bottle recycle bin

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