Trip to Berlin

My good friend and roommate Sam Kessler Gilbride, known to many as Tall Sam due to his towering stature, signed up for NYU’s pilot study abroad program in Tel Aviv this fall semester. In the second week of January, his program was cancelled due to security issues and, I believe, low enrollment. As a result, Sam headed to Berlin for the semester. As a result of this, I was able to make an unplanned visit to Germany.

My flight from Florence was quite a cool adventure. I had an hour-long layover in Frankfurt before my second flight to Berlin on Lufthansa Airlines. Air travel from Florence doesn’t exactly operate on schedule when the threat of rain exists, so my flight (which roommate David Zandi, on his way to Prague, happened to be on as well), was delayed by forty minutes. To this point, I hadn’t yet experienced paper-thin layover times, and therefore was somewhat worried about making my connecting flight. Fortunately, employees of the Frankfurt airport picked me and several other passengers up on a shuttle bus to take us to our next flights. I ran into the gate for a second and showed my boarding pass before boarding the plane, which promptly took off. I was delighted to be ferried so officially, and all the Germans along the way were quite friendly.

I arrived at about 11pm, and took a bus and a cab to Sam’s address, where, despite some cell phone connection issues, I met up with him. He lives in a nice apartment building on Adalbertstrasse (unpronounceable by me) with a roommate. On Friday morning, we got up and spent the day walking around Berlin. I snapped a number of photos, and I’ve collected about 35 of them and posted them below. Among the sights I saw were the Reichstag, the Brandenburg gate, and the Holocaust memorial for the Jews who were killed. The weather was nice, and it was cool to see the city. Sam is quite interested in history and made for a terrific tour guide, telling me all about what we were seeing and pointing out the remnants of the Berlin Wall. That evening, we went to a synagogue where I got my first taste of Jewish life in Berlin. The services were slightly more energetic than in Italy, though the tunes were similarly hard to sing along to. We dined that evening at Sam’s friend Yehoshua’s apartment. He was quite hospitable and the food and environment were great. He’s fluent in German, English, and French, and works as a doctor. We had many interesting conversations, and finished off the meal with lots of singing with interesting German tunes. As I might have assumed, I was offered alcohol at the end of the meal, and elected to have something light and sweet. My drink was a blueberry liqueur which I found fairly strong, Sam’s was a Scotch of some sort, and Yehoshua had an “advanced drink,” which was a pepper Vodka. We stayed pretty late, and returned to Sam’s apartment to head right to sleep before getting up the next morning for services. At the synagogue, one of the members came over and attempted to speak to me in German. I requested an English speaker and was asked by someone else to lead Shir HaKavod, also known as Anim Zemirot. I accepted, and was surprised to find laughter emanating from the congregation when they were responding during the prayer. Apparently in Germany they sing very slowly and melodically, and my joyful, exuberant singing was interpreted as American rushing. My aliyah to the Torah was also deemed quite speedy. The services were followed by a terrific Kiddush with lox (!), and we proceeded back to Yehoshua’s apartment for lunch, and remained for a while reading some of his books that afternoon. Later on, we hung out with Sam’s roommates until Shabbat ended, at which point we found a pleasant Mexican restaurant with a British waiter and some delicious food. Sunday morning, prior to my departure, we took the Berlin subway to the bus station, where I ate a great omelet. My time in Berlin was well spent, and I hadn’t even planed on going before the semester, therefore I consider it all a great bonus. I’m happy to share all these pictures below, so please enjoy them! Coming up next, I’ll be blogging about my final trip from Florence, to the Amalfi Coast! Check back later this week for that!

Passover in Israel

Back in February, I decided that I wanted to go to Israel for Passover, regardless of what my plans there might end up being. Less than a week before my trip, everything came together. I flew with Alana, Ilana, and Leora, and we luckily went for a last-minute flight change to avoid unbearably long layovers in both directions in Athens. We decided instead to fly direct on El-Al from Rome to Tel Aviv. Getting there was quite a lengthy process, which began with a train ride from Florence to Rome, and then the Leonardo Express direct train to the airport. Once we arrived, we had to head to a special terminal (Terminal 5) where the airlines that fly to Israel operate a very intimidating security check far from the rest of the airport. It was very much like a warehouse, and we arrived about forty-five minutes before we could check in. Once check-in started, we were each questioned extensively about our motivations for going to Israel and tested on our ability to answer questions quickly without seeming suspicious. Our bags were also dusted and tested for bomb residue. Once we checked our bags and made it through security, we entered into a bleak waiting area which we thought we would have to occupy until the departure of our flight. Fortunately, we were mistaken, and soon boarded a shuttle bus to the main terminal to be mixed back in with the general populace. Our flight was delayed about an hour to somewhere like 10:45pm. Boarding the plane, I noticed a sign that said “this aircraft has been Kashered for Passover,” which I thought was really cool. On the flight, they served us surprisingly decent food (beef or chicken, I clearly chose beef) and offered the option of matzah on the side if anyone wanted it. We landed in Tel Aviv at around 2:30am, and after passing through customs, I found a comfortable spot in the airport and forced the wrong adapter into the wall plug in order to watch TV on my iPod for the next few hours. Once the sun came up around 7am, I set out for my destination.

I found the first of two buses I needed to talk to get to the nearby town of Hod-Hasharon, and waited outside Tel Aviv for about 45 minutes for my next bus. The drivers in Israel are evidently crazy, but I still wasn’t prepared for the bus drivers who sell people tickets while they’re zipping down the road instead of giving them their change before they start driving again. The bus ride was fine, but I tragically missed my stop in the center of Hod-Hasharon and ended up at the bottom of a big hill that I walked back up while communicating with my hosts the Shilors, who are relatives of Rabbi Liben, the Rabbi at my home synagogue, Temple Israel of Natick. Soon enough, they found me, and we stopped to pick up some delicious-looking strawberries before returning to their home, where I promptly took a nap. When I woke up, I snapped some pictures of the incredible view from their porch:






In the afternoon, I went out with the two Shilor daughters, Inbal and Michal, to a restaurant where I ordered my last pasta dish before Passover, which had a nice rose sauce that isn’t very common in Florence, as well as a delicious glass of chocolate milk, which is something I haven’t had in a while. I aided in the setup of the seder table, and spent time speaking to some of the arriving guests, including Jonah, the Rabbi’s son who is my age and is spending his semester at Ben-Gurion University. Also attending the seder was Jonah’s grandmother and the family of the Rabbi’s oldest son, Micah. Micah is in Israel for the year studying at rabbinical school with his wife Deborah and their newborn son, Dov (equipped with a bib that said "My First Passover"). Deborah’s parents were visiting them, so they were present too. The seder itself, which began at about 6:30pm or 7pm, was really great. I have been home in Holliston every single year of my life for Passover up until now, and usually we go to the Libens’ home for the first seder. This year, their group was actually quite small, composed of almost as many members of my family (my parents, sister, and grandparents) as of the Liben family themselves. Almost everyone at the Shilors’ seder, with few exceptions including newborn Dov, was at the Libens’ seder last year. Therefore, this seder was very similar in tone, feeling, and energy, which I really enjoyed. Micah led the seder, and the usually lengthy Maggid section wasn’t nearly as long as it typically is, so it was a fairly quick (approximately five hours) seder which was enjoyable and full of lots of singing. This was also a vegetarian seder, a fact which had me slightly worried, but everything turned out to be perfectly delicious. The food was totally and completely excellent.









The following morning was immensely relaxed, filled with a casual brunch, outdoor afternoon meal, cards, Scrabble, and Connect Four. In the evening, I left with Jonah and Michal to head to the bus station to meet up with lifelong friend Elyse, who’s studying for the semester in Haifa and was at a seder in the neighboring town of Kfar Saba. We took a bus to Jerusalem and a subsequent cab to Hebrew University, where similarly lifelong friend Miriam welcomed us to her dorm room. Miriam made some scrumptious matzah pizza for us, and it was pretty late by that point, so we took advantage of the late hour to Skype into our respective seders back home. I was able to lead Kiddush for the attendees of the seder at my house, and then Miriam’s parents got very excited by the fact that they could communicate with this seder two towns over via Jerusalem. The connection was lost shortly after that, but here’s a fun photo courtesy of my family:


The next morning, we left Miriam’s room to head into Jerusalem. Miriam went to Poland for the latter half of Passover, and she was headed to Netanya beforehand to meet up with fellow travelers. Before she departed, we went to a Kosher for Passover restaurant called Joy on Emek Refaim. This was my first time going to a restaurant during Passover, and it was a really cool experience. They served matzah on the tables instead of bread, and had a full menu. I ordered the special of the day, a T-bone which proved to be incredibly expensive but well worth it in terms of deliciousness. We parted ways with Miriam and found our way to the home of Ken and Paula Arbit, who are cousins of friends from our synagogue. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Emek Refaim and finding Kosher for Passover gelato from Max Brenner ad Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We even found the Mount Zion Hotel where we stayed the previous time Elyse and I were in Jerusalem, as well as Shira Hadasha, one of the synagogues we went to and liked.














We returned to the Arbits’ home before Shabbat. They brought us to their synagogue, Yedidya, for Friday evening services. We returned back to their home for a very pleasant meal, which was also vegetarian but equally terrific. The Arbits were very wonderful and hospitable. The next morning, Elyse and I decided to walk to the Kotel (Western Wall). It was nice to be there on a Saturday morning, even if all the various services were at different points and it wasn’t quite so easy to join in with any one minyan, but I did manage to intersect with one of them during Hallel, which was very nice. Walking back to Emek Refaim, we spent the rest of the morning at Shira Hadasha, which was really great. I even ran into Rabbi Dan Smokler, who works at the Bronfman Center at NYU. We had a great lunch at the Arbits’, and a relaxing afternoon followed by afternoon and evening services at the nearby Nitzanim synagogue. After Shabbat ended, the Arbits were kind enough to drive us to the bus station so that we could hop on a bus back to Haifa and make it there before midnight. On Sunday morning, Elyse, her friend Debby, and I went into Haifa to head to the beach, which was incredibly nice and relaxing. We made a stop at Burger Ranch, where I enjoyed a delicious hamburger and fries. An interesting stop along our way was the supermarket, where aisles with hametz (non-Kosher-for-Passover items) are covered up. It’s quite a sight. A few pictures of the day, followed by a few shots of Haifa in the early evening from near the University campus:









I had a flight extremely early the next morning, so after a quick nap, Elyse and I had some salmon and matzah pizza. I took a cab to the airport and jumped on a train to the airport, where I spent about four hours hanging out before my flight back to Rome. While I was waiting, I got another hamburger and fries from the Kosher McDonald’s in the airport, which was great. I didn’t spend too much time in Israel, but I’m happy that I made it to Hod Hasharon, Jerusalem, and Haifa all in one trip and got to see a decent amount of each of them. I had originally planned to study abroad in Jerusalem this semester, so I’m glad that even though I was elsewhere, I got a chance to visit anyway. I’m sure I’ll go back sometime soon.

My time left in Florence is extremely limited at this point, but I still have tales of Berlin and the Amalfi Coast to recount! Keep on checking back this week for more tales and pictures!