I'm currently on a summer vacation in the United States, visiting family. I have some old video and photos that I have not yet posted to the site, but in general, I will not be updating this site much until I return to Israel in September.

In the meantime, enjoy your summer (or winter, if you happen to be in the southern hemisphere). I leave you with words from US Senator Bob Menendez (D, NJ) about the history of Israel and the relationship between Israel and the United States.

About this time in the US, stores and malls are full of Easter decorations and goodies. Here in Israel, the focus is Passover.

This is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the liberation of the Jews from Egypt in the time of Moses. On the first night of the holiday here in Israel, and the first and second nights outside of Israel, there is a special meal called the seder. The seder is a ritual meal during which the story of how the Israelites became slaves in Egypt and how they became free is told. There is a text which is read, called the Hagada (lit. the telling) in which the main story is interspersed with prayers and additional commentaries about the meaning of the holiday and how it applies to our identity, life and religious commitments as Jews today. There is also an order in which certain food are eaten and specific portions of the tale are told. It's that order that gives the meal it's name. Seder (סדר) means "order" in Hebrew.

In this video you can see signs in a store for a super sale on housewares, and examples of seder plates both in the store and at an independent booth in the walkway of the mall.

Last week I took a trip up to Metulla to meet with Carol Hasday, general secretary at the Israeli Ice Skating Federation, and find out information about local competitions, getting my students into clubs, and what is required so that I will be allowed to coach my students on the big ice up there from time to time and serve as their official coach at tests and competitions. Of course, while I was up there, I also enjoyed skating on the large ice surface and went swimming with my son in the deliciously heated pool at the Canada Center.

When you think of Israel, you probably don't imagine mountains and evergreen trees. For the people of the North, that's what Israel is like, though. I'm afraid that this video doesn't nearly do justice to the place. I need some sort of steady cam for my cell phone, I think. There are some still shots, too.

Of course, the reason I was there was for the ice, not the green. So, here's a video of the inside of the ice rink:

After I posted the last video with the ads from the national elections here in Israel, I got a mail from Joel Alan Katz of Religion and State in Israel saying that he and his wife had made a video of their voting experience this year. At the beginning of the video you see them each with their national ID cards and their voter registration cards. Then they go to the front desk where their names are checked off of the voter rolls. Each one takes their turn to go back behind the blind and then they come back out with their ballots in the little blue envelopes and put them in the ballot box.

Democracy in action, ladies and gentlemen.

For those of you tittering at how old fashioned this system is, I'd just like to point out that we have no questions as to whether or not the touch screens picked up the correct vote.

Thank you for sharing your video with us, Joel!

You can follow Joel on twitter @religion_state.
And be sure to read his weekly review of media coverage of all things Religion and State in Israel at http://religionandstateinisrael.blogspot.com/

This video is a bit old, since I took it on 11 Feb 2009, right after the national elections here. Still, I thought it might be interesting to some to see this busy intersection and highway entrance with its edge to edge political ads.

The white squares that look like pieces of paper with one, two or three letters on them are examples of what that party's ballot looks like. When you vote here, you walk behind a blinder (like a cardboard school diorama stand) where there is a box with square holes. Each hole holds a set of these white pieces of paper with one, two or three letters, representing a particular party. You pick the paper for your party and put it into the envelope that you were given at the sign in desk. You seal the envelope, and then put the envelope in the box back at the sign in desk.

My friend and colleague in the social media consulting and journalism scene here in Israel, Ezra Butler, made this really cute video on Purim. In it he explains why we dress up in costume on the holiday, and he shows his own transformation.

You can see more of Ezra at StartupLucky.com where he covers Israeli startups with great personal interviews and lots of humor.

Purim is the holiday that celebrates the story told in the book of Esther. We celebrate surviving an attempted annihilation of the entire Jewish people in one swipe, back in the days of king Ashuerus (aka Ahashverosh). Religious people go to the synagogue or to parties to hear the book of Esther chanted, and then everyone gets rip-roaringly drunk and has a marvelous time.

Yes, I said everyone gets drunk. This is a festival of drunken revelry and silliness. It's part Halloween (costumes), part April Fools (fake, silly news in the newspapers), and part Bacchanalia (that would be the drunken revelry). About 2000 years ago, when they were writing down the Talmud, the rabbis said that you should get so drunk on Purim that you don't know the difference between Haman (the bad guy) and Mordechai (the good guy).

For non-religious people, the holiday is pretty much the same, except without the reading the book part. Replace chanting with loud music at a Tel Avivi night club and stir.

This video was taken last Friday, a few days before Purim, but you can see toward the end of the video that someone was already wearing their devil horns.

This video was taken on Monday, Purim night, in a neighborhood in Tel Aviv where there are a lot of bars and dance clubs.

Today is national election day in Israel, and the weather for the day seems like something right out of a Hollywood movie. There must be some sort of meaning in this. If it were a book, these rain drops would be foreshadowing something. Before you jump to conclusions and assume that the foreshadowing would be something bad, though, remember that this is the rainy season in Israel, and Torah and Jewish tradition holds that rain during the right season is a huge blessing. So, Hollywood scary or Middle East folklore miracle? It's all a matter of personal interpretation.

In the world of politics in the here and now, it was an eventful day as well. The polls saw a very high turnout throughout the day, and the Likud and Kadima parties are racing neck and neck to the finish line.

At first glance it looks as if the people of Israel are battling between the Right Wing views of Bibi Netanyahu in Likud and the more Centrist views of Tzipi Livni and Kadima, but that only gives part of the picture. Many Israelis felt that none of the big three parties spoke for their interests and ideals, and so they voted for smaller parties that you won't hear about in the news. Some of those parties are ultra-Right Wing, but many are moderate and ultra-Left Wing parties. In all, total of 34 different parties submitted lists of candidates. Once the major parties' seats are decided, it will still be necessary to negotiate with the other parties, including the smallest parties who managed to get seats in the Knesset, in order to establish a government. In order to form a coalition the prospective Prime Minister will need 61 seats out of 120 to support him or her.

If this entire process seems a bit like voodoo to you, you are not alone. Many Israelis would like the system to be different, more transparent and more directly controlled by the voters themselves. Some Israelis point out that the State is young and we haven't quite got all the bugs worked out. Others point out that the process for electing the President in the US is at just as murky for the average voter.

Imagine a gray and windy day. It's not so much raining as misting, but it's a thick mist and cuts visibility down to a couple hundred meters (yards) or so. Now, give that a golden tint and make the mist super fine sand instead of tiny water drops. If you take a deep breath of the air, the smell reminds you of the underside of your bed when you went looking for something that got lost under there.

If you are asthmatic, the dust makes it very hard to breathe. You'll need your inhaler a lot, and you should cover your face with a scarf. Sure, you might look like a one of those religious fanatics, but everyone understands. If you really care about appearances, just use a knitted scarf that's obviously European.

The sand is really fine, so even though you have the windows closed, you won't be saved from it's effects. It seems to magically appear as a thin film on your floor -- more so than on regular days, and that says a lot.

That's a Tel Avivi sandstorm.

It's not dramatic like in the movies. No one goes running for cover. Life goes on as normal, but perhaps a bit muted, just like the color of the sky and landscape. You wish it were rain instead of sand. We really need the rain. A grayish day like this should really bring rain. But you have to admit, the golden color is kinda pretty.

Here's a cool video from some geeky guys with a camera and a bunch of balloons in Tel Aviv. This looks like a fun weekend project!