After 4 years of marriage, my wife (Ali-pic below) and I decided to make the most ridiculous and insane decision to leave our comfortable and happy lives in Montreal, Canada:
to the Holy Land, aka The Aretz.
We landed at Ben Gurion Airport greeted by almost 50 people, who specifically came to greet us, with dancing, singing, hugging and wishing us a mazal tov on this significant move. After 30 minutes of partying we had to rush to catch the last free cab to Jerusalem to start our new lives in this special country.
Let me summarize our feelings when we arrived in Jerusalem to you with this picture:
Now this girl may be the most beautiful thing on earth, but does this look like the face that represents the immense joy of being in the land which our people have been praying about for the past 3000 years?
Now we were fortunate that Ali's parents were in Israel for a wedding when we arrived. You think that would make the transition into Israel a little easier. And although we got to take a nap in a nice hotel, went out to some good restaurants, and spent a great last shabbat with them in Efrat, it ultimately resulted in this...
Which then brings us back to this...
Now I am not going to get into the details of the hardships of this aliya and living in Israel, because that is really not the purpose of this blog. But hopefully if I keep up writing then you will get to hear some amazingly funny stories about the aliya process that I hope to be able to look back on at laugh at rather than cry :)
The Aliya process though wasn't all that terrible. We at least had the wine festival in Jerusalem:
And have seen some pretty awesome and very practical innovations like this:
And was able to hang out with one of my best friends:
And experienced my first meaningful and engaging slichot (yes it is possible):
But all in all, this blog has nothing to do about my good times or bad times in Israel, I just thought this would be a fun way to begin.
This blog (at least for now) is going to be strictly a description of what it is like teaching in an Israeli school and in general what it is like to be a Jewish educator in the Holy Land. Why would you want to read this? Why do you care about the Israeli school system? The answer is simple: It is going to be hilarious.
I was very fortunate to have found a job teaching in an Israeli school. It is not full time, but it puts me through the door of Israeli schools to see what they are like and where I can be of use. And without being to egotistical...I really can be of use everywhere. Not for my teaching capabilities or ability to manage a class, but specifically so that little Israeli children can make themselves feel better by putting me down by making fun of my hebrew. I am what people would deem the perverbial punching bag of Israeli education (aka Friar). And being that this is the situation currently, there are many funny stories to be told.
All jokes aside, Israel is an amazing place to visit.. I mean to live, and I can't wait to see what this year in Israel brings Ali and myself. I feel very blessed to live in Jerusalem, and hopefully I can keep you all posted about life in the Holy Land.
Shana Tova and Gmar Chatima Tova,
זקארי איסקוב
p.s. At least nobody is making fun of my last name anymore
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