Lew Shaw’s Blog from Haifa

When I first arrived in Israel in 1968, I enrolled in a program at Tel Aviv University and stayed there only for a month or two before dropping out.  My dorm roommate was Jonathan Katz, a nice Jewish boy from Long Island.  Jon met an Israeli woman a few years older than him named Tsvia Gottesdiner who worked at a downtown shop selling posters and records and who soon became his girlfriend.  When Jon finished his year abroad in Israel and returned to college in the US, Tsvia and I become close friends.  First, while I attended an ulpan at Kibbutz Ein Shemer (near Hadera), I would take a bus to Tel Aviv to visit her and stay at her roof-top apartment on Hamelech George St.  Tsvia was and is politically very much to the left (even by Israeli standards) and a member of the Israeli communist party.  Her political activism and a very early marriage kept her from military service.  She would take me to parties with her hip, leftist friends and I made some great connections through her.  Then when I moved to Kibbutz Gezer, Tsvia would come to the kibbutz hear Ramle to spend Shabbats.  While at Gezer, I met Liza, whom I eventually married.  We moved to Jerusalem, where I worked as a clerk then manager in the main branch of Bank Leumi.  I pretty much lost contact with Tsvia by then.  And I certainly didn’t keep up contact with Jon Katz.

However, about fifteen years ago while swimming at an outdoor pool in Newton, a man about my age recognized me from his past.  Jon had since gotten a doctorate at Brandeis, married, and was settled in Newton.  We renewed our friendship.  When I knew I was going to be spending time in Israel, I asked Jon to get me Tsvia’s contact information.  She has marrried and was still living in Tel Aviv.  During my first week here, I called her (quite a surprise to her!) and arranged to meet her in Tel Aviv yesterday.

Getting from my home in Mercaz HaCarmel to Tel Aviv couldn’t be easier.  I drove down the mountain to the new Hof HaCarmel bus and train station, parked the car in the lot, and bought a round trip rail ticket to Tel Aviv (about $13).  The train is modern, air conditioned, and sleek.  The trip to Tel Aviv along with a lot of commuters and soldiers (traveling for free) took less than one hour.  Since I arrived very early, I decided to walk (and walk and walk).  I headed down Kaplan St. to the center of the city.  At Diezengoff I turned left down Hamelech George, part of the oldest section of this huge, cosmopolitan city.  To me it looked very much the same as it did 35 years ago.  At the end of Hamelech George is the Carmel Market.  Although once devoted to fruits and vegetables, this crowded, bustling market now also sells everything from foods to clothes to arts and crafts.  Some of the stalls are even staffed by Africans (generally either Ethiopian Israelis or Sudanese refugees allowed to enter Israel).  I then headed up Allenby to Ben Gurion to Diezengoff (once the most trendy street in the city but now a bit worn) to meet Tsvia as she finished her haircut on upper Diezengoff. 

Other than looking a bit older, Tsvia hadn’t changed a bit!  It was great to see her and to hear about her life.  She had married Merek, a new immigrant (family originally Polish/German who had fled to China during WWII) who is a  French trained gynecologist and now a high-level manager of a multi-hospital department.  They have three daughters, two married, and two grandchildren.  Despite living at the top of Israeli economic and social levels, she and her husband maintain their political leanings and are active in many initiatives, including illegal immigration, bedouin and Palestinian rights, etc. 

She took me to a new section of the city along the northern waterfront that is being developed with high-end restaurants and coffee shops, boutiques, and a beautiful boardwalk that will eventually extent all the way to Herzliya.  We had lunch at a fancy place serving traditional Arabic food with a flair (and price tag to match).  We sat for several hours eating slowly, catching up on our lives, discussing politics (local and global), and my getting her take on today’s Israel.  It was great.  We then wandered some more, bought some delicious sorbet (it seems like everyone in Israel enjoys sitting outdoors eating, drinking coffee, and talking), and then I headed back to the train station to catch the express train back to Haifa. 

Despite it being what I have since found out was the hottest day of the year and the fact that I walked many miles in that heat, I had a delightful, moving, stimulating day, doing something I really hoped would happen during this sabbatical – renewing friendships and learning intimately about life here.