Hello friends and neighbors. I know it's been a while since the last blog, written from Basel. Now it's time to bring you up to date. We have been in Israel for a week so far; we visited our old stomping grounds in Herzliya, then drove southward towards the warmth of the spring sun, to the Negev, the Arava, and Eilat. We’ll be here two more weeks, mostly in Jerusalem (next blog) Everybody has a preconceived notion of what Israel is about, but nobody can put their finger on one description. It’s a land of extremes: inhabitants from a hundred countries, Jews of Ashkenazi and Sephardi and Mizrachi and Asian background. Habits, traditions, and customs go back hundreds of years. There’s not one Israeli-Jewish-looking visage. There are blacks and blondes and dark and light faces. Big
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