D’var Israel – December 17 2016

Some of you may know and some of you might not, we are soon going back to Israel for two weeks to visit during winter break. This is our last Dvar Israel before the visit and because of that we decided to talk about something that we’ve been thinking of lately and that is- ‘What will we tell our friends about Toronto???” so we made a little list to share with you today:

We’ll tell them that the most common sentence here is “Just you wait for the winter”

We’ll tell them that it’s finally winter

We will also tell them that even though it’s finally winter, it’s business as usual

We’ll tell them that we have a friend that’s a Rabbi

We’ll tell them that it’s pronounced “Torono” and not “Toronto”

We’ll explain to them that if you have sweats they have to be from “Roots”

We’ll show them a picture of Holy Blossom and try to explain that it’s a Shul and not a church

We’ll tell them that everyone here knows Yiddish and expects you to know Yiddish- cause how can you not if your Israeli?

We hope that we will be able to explain how real a host family feels like.

We will then explain to our family that they are still the real family.

We’ll try to explain to our friends what it’s like to come home once a year when they come home almost every weekend

We’ll explain that when people say salad here they actually mean just lettuce and dressing

We’ll tell them that in Canada, even if someone pushed you- you both need to say sorry

We’ll tell them that we put Cipa’s on every Friday at school,

that we spent every Saturday morning at Shul

And that we can sing the ברכת המזון but only with an american accent

We’ll explain to them what it means to be a minority instead of the majority in the country,

What it means to be a minority among other minorities

And what it means to be Jewish and not in the Jewish state.

We’ll tell them of the Israeli flag flying beside the Canadian flag in every Jewish institution

And about the Tikvah that we sing every morning at Leo Baeck

We’ll also tell them about several stereotypes we heard from the kids and shattered, like:

1. “What- isn’t everyone in Israel religious???”
2. “What you don’t go to pray at the western wall every saturday???”
3. “Wait, wasn’t the holocaust in Canada????” (סתומה בלומה)

We’ll tell them that a “zamboni” is a truck and not a kind of an animal

We’ll tell them that scheduling half a year in advance is not enough.

We’ll try to explain how come Israeli products sell the most during an attempted boycott

We’ll also try to explain the love and support Israel receives despite all the difficulties

We’ll explain what it’s like to miss Israel so much and yet to look forward to coming back here!

And finally- we’ll tell them that it’s only the beginning and that we still have a long way ahead of us!!

[green_message] For the full archive of our Shinshinim D’var Israel postings, please click here.[/green_message]