Last week was the Jewish New Year. The holiday begins sunset of Wednesday the 28th, through nightfall of September 30th. It is a family holiday as are many in the Jewish tradition, so if you are not with family, you're kind of a lost soul. Fortunately, a student who works in Lab for Climate and Environment with me invited me to his family's dinner at the kibbutz an hour or so north of here. Gad is doing his master's degree, also coaches football (soccer), teaches urban studies in a high school and a prison.
I first took the train from South Tel Aviv where I live to his neighborhood in Kfar Saba, a city about 40 minutes north. Because of the holiday schedule, the last train left around 3pm, much to early for dinner. With our spare couple hours, we watched Rambo. He had it downloaded on his hard drive as there is no such thing as intellectual property for movies and music here ('that dollar means a lot more to me than a large media corporation'). 
We picked up his mother from her house nearby. She is a petite and lovely woman of German/Polish descent with curly and strikingly golden hair. But she smokes like a chimney and it has taken its toll on the skin. She spoke English well and we had a nice conversation on the hour drive to the kibbutz.
The kibbutz no longer operates as it once did in its socialist heyday. It still has the communal dining room and such but all meals are not eaten together here. Children live at home with their parents now and high standard of living has made the socialist way of life less necessary than it was when the . The lack of fences between houses was one aspect that stood out though. There were neighbors wandering throughout as all open space is public. The kibbutz also has a plastics factory which employs many from the community.
We passed the guard at the front gate and drove around the circuitous road to the family's house. They had several tables set up around the yard with candles and other decorations. We opened a bottle of wine and made introductions. It was a good crowd--there were twin men in the 60's who were both excellent in the English language and very engaging. One was the owner of this house and a professor, the other a doctor. The wife of the professor had curly jet black hair and wore Aladdin pants and extravagant beads and looked like something out of a magazine as she pranced elegantly about the house. She later told the traditional story of prayer before we ate the meal. Another woman with two small children was a disaster planner for the government and we had some interesting conversations.
Now for the food. Among other things, we had apples and honey for a sweet new year, Challah bread, matzo ball soup, Gefilte fish balls with horseradish, a variety of beef dishes, chicken, a cabbage salad, a cous-cous salad, green salad, chocolate cake, and the honey cake Lekach. I was stuffed afterward and so happy with all the homemade deliciousness.
Next we went back to Gad's neighborhood and met his friends at a bar. The bartender was a jolly girl and talked to us as the night was young and the crowds not yet out in full force. The friend Omri just had his German girlfriend arrive for a visit and was all kinds of ecstatic. She commanded attention with her brightly colored hair and facial piercings, but then was polite, a bit reserved, and very congenial. Everyone was in good spirits and mine were most lifted when we walked outside, pint glass in hand, to enjoy the cool evening air and no one cared a bit if we took a beer out onto the sidewalk. That's one thing I like about this country. They are reasonable (in that sense, not all) with things like this, and the beaches don't close at night. The fresh air is really necessary also as people smoke in bars and restaurants, even though it is technically prohibited.
The next day we headed out to Caesaria, an ancient city on the sea. Most of its development is attributed to Herod the Great, but then had various periods of prosperity and decline, from Crusader fortress to Ottoman trade center to have for Bosnian immigrants. Now it is a tourist attraction and a very well-done one.
It has restaurants and art galleries and is a splendid place to spend an afternoon on the coast. All of the new construction is in keeping with the old while being classy, beautiful, and not at all cheesy. We watched a few of the documentary films in the visitor center and set out to explore the ruins. Here there are 'no entry' areas as with any well-managed archaeological site, but these rules are not well-respected by anyone except the foreign tourists and there seems to be no consequence for disregarding them, not even a guard to yell at you. It's too bad that it is less protected in this way, but swimming among the ruins that made for geometric pools and tidelands was pretty amazing, I have to say.
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