Sacrifices

I'm catching up on researching aliyah, being a lawyer, etc. in Israel. I have a lot of it in my email accounts, but I guess it didn't hit me until I printed it all out.

I know that I will be sacrificing a lot by going to school in and living in Israel instead of in America. There are more years to study (though the work is less rigorous), there might be a job to have, I might make much less money than a lawyer in America, and I am not sure who is going to pay for all of this.

The question is what is on the other side of the balance. I've been thinking about what I want in life in terms of my environment, because I don't know what law school will be like and I don't know what it's really like to be a lawyer beyond the little interning that I've done (good thing that I did!). I know that Hebrew makes me happy. I know that bits of Israeli culture make me happy; I especially like that they help teach me Hebrew, so that it's more intellectually stimulating and therefore rewarding. At times, however, this does not feel like a solid enough reason to go. Are these the things that will fill out my life? At the end of the day, will I feel like I'm working to live, and not living to work?

I don't know what will make me happy, and I'm not sure how to move on from here. I want to mark this point of hesitation as I try to figure out what I want in life in a shorter time than I should be. I know I will be figuring this out as I live in Israel, but I still feel like I should be making steps in a direction I am more confident about.

Arguments Against Death

I really have no idea how to handle "You could get killed!" arguments from my parents. Pointing to the fact that I could get run over by a car tomorrow here, in the United States, or that people live in Israel, every day, or...and it could go on.

Nothing seems to work. I don't know what to do. It's their ultimate argument against me traveling there, even. Their answer is a categorical no, and I am stuck at home.

A Changing American Dream?

I might be pushing this with an article from a website as esteemed as Yahoo, but I have no doubts that the wars we've been having have at least done some damage to our economy (If you are having trouble understanding what I am saying, then you have missed the tone here).

Perhaps it's not so much important that America's standard of living is not going to do well, but that countries around the world are evening out with it. This is a good sign. It's no argument to convince a co-immigrant mother who seems to have unshakable faith in the American dream (money!), but it's something to keep in mind, at the very least.

"Worst Is Yet to Come:" Americans' Standard of Living Permanently Changed

Posted Feb 17, 2009 12:53pm EST by Aaron Task in Investing, Recession

Related: WMT, WFMI, FDO, ^GSPC, ^DJI, RTH, TGT

There's no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment.

But "the worst is yet to come," according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, who believes American's standard of living is undergoing a "permanent change" - and not for the better as a result of:

• An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
• A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
• A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid "exploding unemployment", leading to "exploding bankruptcies."

"The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car," Davidowitz says. "A lot of that is gone."

Going forward, the veteran retail industry consultant foresees higher savings rate and people trading down in both the goods and services they buy - as well as their aspirations.

The end of rampant consumerism is ultimately a good thing, he says, but the unraveling of an economy built on debt-fueled spending will be painful for years to come.

Source: Yahoo News.

Link (unstable)

Hebrew (Musings)

So. I decided to expose myself to a lot of Hebrew these past few days. It was exhausting. It made me think my Hebrew absolutely, well, sucks (not as much as some other people's, but definitely not as little as I think it should).

It makes me wonder whether I will be able to handle hearing Hebrew 24/7. It's not as though I don't know I will hear other languages in Israel, but the language I will need to use will be Hebrew. I would feel weird taking a job that has me speak more in English than in Hebrew. Hebrew (and Arabic) are the official languages. It's more than just a label. It is the essence of the country, at least to me, anyway.

I don't know whether it is a bad or a good thing that I am dissatisfied with my Hebrew. I don't know where I'm supposed to be, level-wise. How much will my Hebrew improve in a year? How much will it improve if I live in Israel? Of course, it will improve more, and faster--but not exponentially--but how will I feel in the end? Will Hebrew become something so natural and second-nature, or such a chore in the beginning, that it will seem like an odd reason to make aliyah in the first place? I just don't know.

Universities

About universities. I am considering studying law in Israel and becoming a lawyer. It looks like litigation, one of the areas (I thought) I was most interested in, isn't as popular in Israel as is corporate law. But I have decided not to worry about that now. I want to apply to several graduate schools (law schools), hopefully with the possibility of doing a combined LLB/LLM program (it still bugs me that I will have a BA).

These are the ones I will need to consider:

• Bar-Ilan U.
  
• Tel-Aviv U.
• U. of Haifa
  
• U. of J'lem

In case you have nodded off at this point, feel free to vote in my poll, "Would you attend law school in Israel?" I'd love to hear comments, especially to those of you who pick "no." Why not go to law school there?

Other ones (that I'd never heard of, probably because they are schools of law at other colleges. Thank you, Wikipedia) include:

• Academic Center of Law & Business, Ramat Gan
• College of Management, Rishon Lezion
• Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya
• Netanya Academic College, Netanya
• Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono
• Sha'arei Mishpat, Hod HaSharon

I will definitely focus on the big guys...or might this chart below (from Wikipedia) suggest otherwise? I need to look at the details, because numbers alone do not tell a good (in any sense of the word) story! I think this chart is unlikely to be useful by itself.

Law school	Num. licensed
College of Management	275
Shaarey Mishpat	240
Academic Center of Law & Business in Ramat Gan	213
Tel-Aviv University (TAU)	188
Netanya Academic College Law School	184
Hebrew University (HUJI)	162
Ono Academic College Faculty of Law	154
Haifa University (HAI)	128
Bar Ilan University (BIU)	117
Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya	109
(abroad)	°45
(misc.)	°°2

I haven't posted here in forever. That's because I was not on top of things last semester.

That's going to change. This blog will store useful information I find online, all relevant to becoming a graduate student in and moving to Israel.

A Good International Trend?

..From The New York Times:

Much overseas expansion has occurred in the past five years, and even more recently than that for the Middle East and Asia, according to statistics compiled by the National Law Journal, a trade publication.

Link to Article

Business

Lawyers Wanted: Abroad, That Is

By JOHN BRINGARDNER

Published: November 23, 2008

As the economic downturn continues, a growing number of lawyers are starting to look overseas for work.

Reason to Move #33

School has been and continues to keep me very, very busy.

I do have another reason to move to Israel: all the random festivals.

There's Festigal and Festival haPsanter, which takes place this year from the 12th to the 15th of November.

There's an entire Wikipedia page on all of the festivals:

• פסטיבל אבו גוש
• פסטיבל אקטיביזם
• פסטיבל בשקל
• פסטיבל הג'אז בנמל קיסריה
• פסטיבל הג'אז הבינלאומי אילת
• פסטיבל הזמר המזרחי
• פסטיבל הזמר והפזמון
• חגיגות הזמר העברי בערד
• פסטיבל ישראל
• פסטיבל מחול כרמיאל
• הפסטיבל הבינלאומי למוזיקה קאמרית בירושלים
• פסטיבל סולם יעקב
• סמול במה (small במה)
• פסטיבל הסרטים הבינלאומי חיפה
• פסטיבל עכו
• פסטיבל העוד
• פסטיבל הקולנוע ההומו-לסבי הבינלאומי בתל-אביב
• פסטיבל הקולנוע ירושלים
• פסטיבל קולנוע דרום

And those are just the listed ones!

Now, it's not like we don't have festivals in America. There's the Jewish Film Festival. There are Rhubarb Festivals. There are random Vegetarian Festivals...but with the size of the country, it's hard to hear of them and/or go to them. I've been to very few, if any. If I were to live in Israel, I would get much more involved with these awesome events.

Reason to Move #32

I can't believe I, with my great interest in and love for Israeli music, forgot to mention one more thing that makes me want to move to Israel: Galgalatz, the main radio station. I got hooked up through the Yahoo Widget IL Radio, but there are also ways of doing so online.

Galgalatz is just an awesome radio station. The 'טכנאים, מפיקים, שדרן וכו play American and Israeli music, so I won't get miss American music too much (not that I love it, but anyway). They play oldies and new music. They play absolutely random stuff that is just plain fun to listen to. Some announcers' translations of song titles from English to Hebrew are hilarious ("I just got what it means! [proceeds to translate]." True story. Or "Beloved" (נאהבת) for "She Will be Loved"). I love the news on the hour. I swear I heard a weatherman once with an American accent; I heard another accent another day, too (it sounded like Russian to me). Then there's the driving commercials. What isn't there?

Galgalatz is a reason to go. There's Reshet Gimmel, too, which I like, but it does not reach the hilarity level of Gal-gal-gal-galatz.

Aliyah Resources From the Horse's Mouth

I found this link earlier, but I didn't mention it until I started printed out all the awesome information it has. Where does this link lead? Why, the Ministry of Absorption, of course!

Here is what it has:

Education
Information Booklet for Immigrant Students
Housing
Military Service
The National Insurance Institute
Guide to Services for the Disabled
Transportation Services in Israel
First Steps
Financial Assistance-Absorption Basket
A Guide to Ulpan Study
Employment Guidance Centers
Guarding Your Health
The Life Cycle
Pensioners
Registration in a Health Fund
Where to Turn
Information on Conversion

This is amazing, even if you could ask for more. In fact, you can: at the end of the booklets, there are forms to request more information. The booklets themselves are in at least two languages, sometimes even more (four or five, even. Any polyglots in the area?)

The Music That Makes Me Want to Go

(1) Aviv Geffen
(2) Shalom Hanoch

Definitely my top artists. It annoys me that I either cannot get them in the US or I can get them for a very high price (with the exception of Yael Naim, whose album I could get).

Other artists whose work I wish I could easily obtain include:

1. Arik Einstein,
2. Beit haBubot,
3. Ehud Banai,
4. Boaz Banai,
5. Erez Lev Ari,
6. Gali Atari,
7. Kaveret,
8. Mosh ben Ari,
9. Muki,
10. Shabak Sameh,
11. Shay Gabso (yeah, I know...),
12. Shlomi Shaban (no, not Shlomi Shabat. Not Shlomi Saranga),
13. Yehuda Poliker,
14. Yehudit Ravitz,
15. and Monica Sex.

I listen to more artists, but those are my top favorites.


That's at least 17 more reasons to go to Israel.

Deppressed and Miserable?

Sometimes Israel makes me depressed. Sometimes the music is too depressing, even though I like it. עד שבאת by בית הבובות makes me feel that way (I'm not one hundred percent sure why). It's the way Yehuda Poliker's music makes me feel. It might just be life in general, or the different kind of high-pressure life I might lead in Israel.

Even more than the depression (which suits me...it's better than the nothing I see here), it's the miserableness. It's what I see in old movies, in buildings that are neglected and in dust. It's what I see sometimes when I look at photographs. I can't think of anything specific, but how I feel is important, too. I like it better than what we have here, but I am not sure I like it.

What will solve this problem is obviously going to Israel (which I will take care of sometime this year)...but I wanted to note that it's not all positive.

I Don't Know How I Will Deal with This:

15 Hurt in Vehicle Attack in Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A driver plowed a BMW into a group of soldiers at a busy intersection near Jerusalem's Old City late Monday, injuring 13 of them before he was shot to death, Israeli police and the rescue service said.

Jerusalem police commander Ilan Franco said a soldier in the group killed the driver.

The driver was not immediately identified, but Franco said he was a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who apparently acted alone. Israel TV said the car was registered to a resident of Jabel Mukaber, an Arab village inside the city limits.

It was the third incident in Jerusalem in which vehicles apparently have been used as weapons in recent months. In July, two Palestinians living in Jerusalem carried out separate attacks using heavy construction machinery that killed three people and injured several others. Both attackers were fatally shot by police and soldiers.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak released a statement demanding a speedup of procedures to allow the destruction of homes of Palestinian attackers ''to contribute to deterring potential terrorists.'' Several years ago, an Israeli Supreme Court justice ruled that destroying houses does not deter attackers and the practice was halted.

Ambulances and police units raced to the scene Monday night after the crash about 11 p.m. and quickly carried away the injured.

Police said two of the 13 injured were in serious condition while the others suffered light wounds. Doctors at the hospitals said all were conscious and were being treated.

Israel Radio said the soldiers, from the Artillery Corps, were on a tour of Jerusalem ahead of the Jewish New Year holiday next week.

An Israel Radio reporter described a large group of Jews, most of them ultra-Orthodox, chasing an Arab into the nearby Old City after the incident.

Police said the car rammed into the soldiers waiting at the intersection. Witnesses said the car ended up on the sidewalk near the intersection, which lies along the line between the Jewish and Arab sections of Jerusalem.

Since Israel captured the Arab section of the city in 1967, there are no barriers between the two sides.

Palestinians demand the Arab portion as the capital of the independent state they want to create.

Israel united the city under its rule weeks after the 1967 war, but in recent years some officials have shown a willingness to cede Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinians. However, sharing the city and its holy sites remains one of the toughest issues in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

This sucks. This is the third type of incident I read about this summer. I don't think destroying houses will help. I wish there were a good solution that would make people happy. Even that is not quite right. There's always going to be that minority....

It's not as though I'm not aware that these kinds of things happen. In fact, it's probably going to be one of my parents' biggest worries: the old terrorist attack argument. I am worried about the psychological toll this will have on me. It's not exactly something you "get used to" in the normal sense of the phrase, I think. I don't know what to do about it.

Hmmm....

Will going to Israel make me like being American more? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Cravings

I was biting a piece of chocolate* when I realized it wasn't what I wanted. What I crave is something puffy. What I crave is another reason to make aliyah. What I crave is:

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.

I found Bamba (written in English, but with the picture of the baby) at Star Market a few weeks ago, but I don't this to be some specialty item. I want easy access to it and its peanut buttery goodness.

It's funny how that seems to be a reason for aliyah: easy access to music , to concerts I'm actually interested in going to, and to food that we don't have in easy supply over here. I'm sure it will go the other way (that I will miss what we had in the US when I am in Israel), but I like these products better! If I go, I'll even get the chance to try new flavors of Bamba.

I'm filing this under "why move?" instead of "why move?: other reasons" because I consider this and that big baby a cultural product.

*Normally, I try to eat healthier. I am going to eat a salad tomorrow!

Hebrew

Since no one reads this, no one remembers this post. As I continue to find more and more negative information about life in Israel (the crazy rush in the supermarket, the antiquated -- from an American's perspective -- shopping system (I personally find this nice. I want to go back in time a little), the strange bank hours and so on and so forth), I find it more and more comforting that I what I like rises above all that. Hebrew will be spoken in Israel, even if English and other languages creep into it (לקונדל, used in a comment by Joe Schmoe Ha'Aretz Commenter #42 and reported on by NPR).

It's something constant, but it seems to be hard to explain to other people. Yehonatan Geffen likes it enough to stay in Israel. I like it enough to go, yet when I tell some people about my idea of moving to Israel, I get "Are you Jewish?" Hebrew just isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

The fact that Israel is a Jewish state -- a reason for people to move -- is nice, will make some things nicer for me (and other things worse, or at least from an American perspective...maybe it won't matter in a few years), and has influence, I think, on the language and behavior of Israelis (that latter is a hypothesis; the former is a fact), but I like language from the secular perspective (this is "secular" aliyah, even though I might be more observant than Jane Schmoe Jew....it's all relative): the way the language works, the fact that few people speak it (well, like Israelis; globally), the connection between Biblical and Modern Hebrew (as an interesting fact), its attempt to adjust to modernity and current events, its ease of being spoken in more quickly than English, its ability to fool naive non-native speakers, and so on.

Doesn't anyone else want to move to Israel mainly for the Hebrew and the culture? If I move, they will definitely tell me I am crazy.

Another Reason To Move

Hanoch back in the day...(Photo Credit to Ynet)

...is Shalom Hanoch! I absolutely love this guy's music, and I wish it were both more accessible and cheaper (in the US, it can cost around $23 to $25 dollars). He's also great live and I would love to go to his concerts in Israel as often as I want.

Blogs

I've stumbled upon on so many useful blogs these past few days. I've read so much negative information about the decision to make aliyah, the move, and the life in Israel, but it's been useful. I am especially looking forward to reading The Aliyah Survival Blog, which I've added to my blog list!

I have also been looking at Oleh Girl; My Aliyah Experience; What War Zone; Israelity; Israeli by Day, American by Night; and The Aliyah Connection (an NBN blog with useful resources, it looks like). Sure, most of these are not news to people in the know, but some are new to me and therefore important! I'm looking forward to reading more!

Striking Similarities

This will be the beginning of the "striking similarities" series. I was watching YouTube videos in Hebrew when I chanced upon a show called עד כאן עם אורי גוטליב . Uri Gottlieb is so similar to John Stewart in acting style, it's scary! Even the kinds of comments he makes are similar. I'm practically watching "The Daily Show"!

Head over to this user's YouTube channel and check out the grey-haired actor! I recommend the Ahmadinejad bit!

Photo credit to: www.allmarketing.co.il

So this means if I move to Israel, "The Daily Show" will not be something I miss. Practically speaking, it says that at least some American culture is "successfully" transported to Israel, therefore making it something I will not miss.

Speaking of Differences...

Hm...I thought that Israel and America were also different in terms of store size (overall. FYI: I would prefer smaller stores). It seems like there is a new trend developing: smaller stores in America! Will it continue?

The New York Times reports:

September 10, 2008

Miles of Aisles for a Gallon of Milk? Not Here

By ANDREW MARTIN

HARMAR TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Like cars and homes, grocery stores are beginning to shrink.

After years of building bigger stores — many larger than a football field and carrying 60,000 items — retailers are experimenting with radically smaller grocery stores that emphasize prepared meals, fresh produce and grab-and-go drinks.

The idea is to lure time-starved shoppers who want to pick up a few items or a fast meal without wandering long grocery aisles or paying restaurant prices.

Safeway has opened a smaller-format store in Southern California, and Jewel-Osco is building one in Chicago. Wal-Mart plans to open four “Marketside” stores in the Phoenix area this fall, and Whole Foods Market is considering opening smaller stores.

And here in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, the grocery chain Giant Eagle opened a Giant Eagle Express last year that is about one-sixth the size of its regular stores. It has gas pumps, wireless Internet and flat-screen televisions in a small cafe, a drive-through pharmacy and an expansive delicatessen that offers sushi, rotisserie chickens and ready-to-heat dinners.

“It’s perfect,” said Dusty McDonald, a 29-year-old bank teller who was buying breakfast sandwiches recently for her co-workers at the Giant Eagle Express. “It’s on my way to work. It only takes me 10 minutes to get in and out.”

The opening of smaller stores upends a long-running trend in the grocery business: building ever-larger stores in the belief that consumers want choice above all. While the largest traditional grocery stores tend to be about 85,000 square feet, some cavernous warehouse-style stores and supercenters are two or three times that size.

Statistics compiled by the Food Marketing Institute show that the average size of a grocery store dipped slightly in 2007 — to a median of 47,500 square feet — after 20 years of steady growth.

The biggest push in such stores is coming from the British retailer Tesco, which made a splashy entry into the United States last fall, opening a 10,000-square-foot Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Las Vegas.

Since then, Tesco has opened 72 stores in Nevada, Arizona and Southern California.

Gary Smith, founder of Encore Associates, which advises the food and consumer goods industry, said the smaller stores opened by other chains were “a loud message to Tesco that they are not going to be able to walk in and grab market share.”

Mr. Smith added: “It’s also a way for them to do some testing for if and when Tesco comes to their market. They are better able to counter it.”

Besides Tesco, grocery retailers face competition on multiple fronts. Chains ranging from Target to CVS to dollar stores are selling more groceries, and some small convenience stores — long the domain of warmed-over hot dogs and microwave burritos — are offering higher-quality food.

The big grocery chains are not thinking about closing their larger stores, which have been a success. But they hope to capture new business with the smaller stores, appealing to consumers on days when they do not have time for a long shopping trip.

“The average person goes shopping for 22 minutes,” said Phil Lempert, who edits Supermarketguru.com, a Web site that tracks retail trends. “You can’t see 30,000 or 40,000 products. We are moving into an era when people want less assortment.”

Jim Hertel, managing partner at the firm Willard Bishop, which advises supermarkets, added, “If you’ve got 50 feet of ketchup and what you want is Hunt’s 64-ounce and you can’t find it, people get overwhelmed.”

Of course, small grocery stores have been around forever, and some old-time neighborhood markets still exist. Meanwhile, a handful of specialty retailers have proved that shoppers will flock to smaller stores if they are offered a novel experience.

Trader Joe’s, for one, has thrived by offering a limited selection of high-quality, relatively inexpensive products in quirky stores that are 15,000 square feet or less. Aldi and Save-A-Lot are drawing customers in droves by selling a limited assortment of aggressively discounted products.

What distinguishes the new stores is that they are being built by more traditional retailers, and they emphasize fresh, prepared foods for busy consumers.

Kevin Srigley, a senior vice president at Giant Eagle, whose stores are spread across western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, said the express store seeks to provide customers with a “smart stop to save you time on the things you need most,” in addition to offering fresh foods.

He said the idea for the express store came from Tesco stores in Europe — his company has a longstanding relationship with the British retailer — and from research that detailed the varying needs of consumers.

Mr. Srigley said he was pleased with many aspects of the company’s first Giant Eagle Express store, in Harmar Township, like customer reaction to the prepared foods and baked goods. But since the store was meant as a laboratory, he said, Giant Eagle may tweak the concept before opening more of them.

Will customers come to the smaller stores? Analysts said that Tesco’s initial sales fell short of expectations and the company stopped opening new ones for several months this year to assess customer feedback and make adjustments.

Still, a Tesco spokesman, Brendan Wonnacott, said that the company was pleased with the stores’ results and that the number of customers and sales were increasing.

“This is a format we are excited about, that our customers are excited about,” he said.

The Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Laguna Hills, Calif., offers row after row of bagged produce and its own line of prepared meals that are either chilled or frozen. Customers shopping there recently said they liked the store, though several said they wished that Tesco carried more British specialties.

“They have the best frozen food I’ve ever tasted,” said Nathan Cromeenes, 35, who lives nearby and longed for English shortbread.

He said he liked not having to choose among 50 varieties of spaghetti sauce. “They just have one, and it’s really good.”

Dana Gurr, a 49-year-old saleswoman in Laguna Hills, was less enthusiastic. She said the store was sterile and the vegetables went bad quickly. “It’s not that fresh, but it is easy,” she said.

The reviews were similarly mixed, though mostly positive, at the Giant Eagle Express outside Pittsburgh.

Peter and Kim Maguire stopped by the store for some last-minute items en route to a camping trip. They ended up buying chips, strawberries, blueberries and hummus.

“We pop in here for little things we forget,” said Ms. Maguire, 39. Her husband, 38, added that the store has “great lunches,” including sushi and burritos.

RoseAnn Zanoli, 68, said the express store was “good when you need them.” While she found some eggs, she said she came up empty when looking for a card for her 50th wedding anniversary. “They don’t carry everything that you need,” she said.

Will Carless contributed reporting from Laguna Hills, Calif.

Permalink

Business

Miles of Aisles for a Gallon of Milk? Not Here

By ANDREW MARTIN

Published: September 10, 2008

After years of building bigger stores, retailers are experimenting with radically smaller grocery stores.