These pictures come from the Lunar Eclipse that occurred during the early morning on February 21st. I was excited to catch these shots, especially the moon turning red, because it was announced earlier that we were only going to be able to see the beginning of the eclipse from Israel.


The above picture is of the Earth's shadow slowly covering the moon. The below picture is the beginning of the moon entering into a full Lunar Eclipse.

An eerie addition to the mood set by the red moon: as soon as the moon turned red, Jose (who's in Jerusalem) heard the mosques morning call to prayer - it's the first time he's heard it from his apartment and it was a wailing distant garble because he's usually too far away to hear it.

I'm in a German Jewish Newspaper

So I went into the restauraunt Sushi-2-go and saw this lady taking pictures....

She happens to be a Publicist for a Jewish German Newspaper and was writing a story about the sushi crave in Tel Aviv. She interviewed me and I appeard in the "Jüdische Allgemeine" Newspaper on Thursday, February 14th, 2008.

Someone helped translate the article and this is their translation summary:

The article is stating that Tel Aviv has turned into a Mecca of Sushi and that since last week the 100th Sushi place opened it brought Tel Aviv to the third place in the worldwide rank of Sushi markets. It further describes the situation that on week-ends it is merely impossible to get a free seat and that every tenth citizen eats Sushi at least one a month. They talk about the variety of Sushi restaurants from Gourmet to Supermarket sold Sushi-boxes. Then the article talks about the fact that Sushi is not only available and popular in Tel Aviv but all over the country and that there are Kosher Sushi places which represent 20% of all Sushi restaurants. T
his includes Sushi2go of which one of the partners is Roi Goldstein. It says that Sushi2go has franchises in Tel Aviv and in Ramat Hasharon and that the Slogan: Just Come and Take suits the ambience of the restaurant. Light, happy colors, fishrolls as decoration on the walls, a few seats at the bar and on the street. In a special cooling tray different variations of Sushi is stored, ready for take-away. Of every box variety only two are lying in the cooler, because “Freshness is crucial” says Goldstein. The dishes are always freshly prepared and behind a window screen cuts, rolls and fills the Thai Sushi-Chef.
Why this boom? Goldstein thinks that it’s part of today’s modern life in Israel, “ The people here live fast and want to be on top of the game all the time. And Sushi fits perfectly with this attitude, because it is modern and light. The Japanese kitchen has almost no fat. And suits a healthy lifestyle.” In addition does the owner believe that Israeli’s love variety. Which makes Sushi perfect.
Yoschi Dember is just eating an entire plate with various rolls. “It’s delicious” he says and shows the chopsticks. The young man from Colorado is in a program in Israel for a year, that program prepares American jews for their immigration. “The quality is very good, most of the times everything is fresh and yummy.” In the States in general the Japanese kitchen is good as well, but it’s much cheaper here and in addition often also kosher. Dember has not yet made up his mind if he is actually going to immigrate. But Israel’s Sushi offer is definitely a big plus on his list.

Tsfat

I spent this Shabbat in Tsfad. A small spiritual artist town in Northern Israel. I was accompanied by Yohanatan from my program at Kfar Hayarok and we stayed by the Waldingers you just built a new home (click here to see pictures of their new home) just outside the Old City of Tsfat.

We had a wonderful meal at the Waldingers Friday night and it was a 30 minute walk to the Old City for lunch with the Yates where we were joined by Chana Besser and her friend Leah from Jerusalem. It was a wonderful meal.

I also learned about some amazing things regarding the shmeta year that I will hopefully be blogging about in the future... for now though - I've gotta go catch a bus!