Molly and Bess are still in Petra! Here is their Top 5 of the Day:

1. Eating breakfast with our good friends, Thomas and Annette. 

2. Climbing to the monastery (800 steps) with Andrew and Hannah…and finding the location where they filmed Transformers!

3. Popeye’s Biscuits and Quizno’s in Aqaba!

4. Mexican Layered-Dip Pringles! The “Restaurant Cravers” line of Pringles has changed our lives forever. Who needs to go to a restaurant when you can get mozzarella sticks and marinara in a can?

5. Getting pulled over by the “Jordanian Police” for speeding. We’re still not sure if they were actually the police (see sketchy photo above), but the guy had a gun, and that’s all that mattered. 

This weekend Molly and Bess decided on a whim to go to Petra, Jordan. Here is their Top 5 of Traveling to Jordan:

1. Sharing a cab to Petra with Jodie’s fiancé’s great-uncle’s tenant, Thomas, and his wife Annette. The connection is so close, we might as well be related. 

2. Welcome to Jordan, the friendliest place on earth! We’ve never been through a more pleasant customs experience. 

3. Our free tour guide, who learned English from watching Dr. Phil. 

4. Running into our classmates, Andrew and Hannah in Petra!

5. Spending $1.80 an hour for a night’s sleep at the Peace Way Hotel. Worth every dinar, and nothing more…

Molly and Bess are still on break for Passover, so today Molly, Dave, and Jonah went to the Biblical Zoo! They’re not exactly sure what makes the zoo “biblical” other than the gift shop shaped like Noah’s ark (see photo above) and a few signs around the park with biblical verses. Either way, they had a great day in the sun! 

Here is Molly’s Top 5 of the Biblical Zoo:

1. We were about to go to the “3-D Experience” when Dave pointed out that the entire zoo is a 3-D experience. 

2. Jonah trying to commercialize the mini-giraffe concept.

3. It’s really unfortunate when you’re forced to eat ice cream because it’s the only thing for sale…

4. I love that there is a cockroach exhibit, and that it is setup to look like a refrigerator infested by cockroaches. 

5. No peacock encounters!

Molly and Dave headed back to Minsk for their last day in Belarus! Here is Molly’s Top 5 of the last day:

1. We arrived back at the office in Minsk for….another seder!!! Just one more for good measure, I guess. It was a lot of fun to be reunited with the other groups traveling in Belarus and share stories!

2. Jewish tour of Minsk with Rabbi Grisha and Mischa. We saw a lot of WWII memorials and the buildings that used to be the Minsk Yeshiva and Dance Hall for Girls. They are located right next to each other, and I’m pretty sure their main function was a match-making service. 

3. Since it was April Fools, Rabbi Grisha was trying to make jokes all day, but begrudgingly agreed that it wouldn’t be appropriate to make a Holocaust joke while at the WWII memorial. Good call, Rabbi!

4. Our lovely Passover Picnic at the airport, where we dumped all our leftover Kosher for Passover food on the table and went to town! The most satisfying meal I had in four days. 

5. We shared flights in and out of Tel Aviv with our orthodox equivalents, so it was fun to run into them at the Belarus airport and swap stories about our experiences. It was a nice bonding moment to realize that even though we are so ideologically different, we were all there for the same shared purpose.

Molly and Dave’s first day of no travel! Here is Molly’s Top 5 of the Second Day in Mogilev:

1. Seder at the kindergarten! The kids sang songs for us and told the Exodus story. If nothing else, Belarus certainly has adolescent discipline down, but there’s always one terror in the class and this one’s name was Max (who also happened to be the only boy…coincidence?)!

2. Jewish tour of Mogilev with kids (middle-school age) from the Alef-Bet school. Basically, we saw a lot of buildings that used to be synagogues and are now sports centers or swimming pools. 

3. In the evening we met with Mila and Anatoliy, the leaders of the Reform Jewish community in Mogilev. Anatoliy had some amazing personal stories to share about Passover in his family. Mila is the super-woman of the community - her energy and enthusiasm is remarkable! Anatoliy also gave us some fresh birch tree juice he had just collected, which basically tasted like flavored water and apparently has lots of good minerals.

4. Espresso! My first coffee since Sunday…

5. We played a disturbing amount of Spit to keep ourselves entertained during our down-time. 

After a 90 minute bus ride from Simferopol, Bess and Jeremy arrived in Yevpatoria.  Here is our Top 5: 

1.  Breakfast Entertainment - We arrived as usual and ordered the Passover Special: Breakfast #2. To our surprise, we quickly realized we were in fact watching the verbatim Ukrainian analog of hit 90’s television show, “Married with Children.” Except in this version, everyone is much more attractive, ESPECIALLY Marcy D’Arcy. Our translator Tonya explained that in the Ukraine it is known as “Happy Together.”  And yes, Al still sells shoes. 

2. If you’re wondering who the Karaites are, look no further. Yevpatoria hosts one of the largest Karaite communities. The Karaite religion broke off from Judaism a long, long time ago.  While in Yevpatoria we visited a restored Karaite Kenasa (think 1800s Jewish Community Center complete with dining hall where you can get a delicious lunch to this very day).

3. Tour of Yevpatoria - some of the highlights include a former synagogue that was transformed into an Electrical Substation during the Soviet years (the facade of the building was recently renovated with Jerusalem stone to show the building used to be a synagogue despite its current use), a mosque, a Russian Orthodox church, and the Karaite Kenasa within a 10 minute walking distance from each other.  From here we had our first glimpse of the Black Sea.  Note: although the Black Sea is called a warm water port, warm seems to be a relative term in these parts of the world.

4. Hope you brought your coat!  The gorgeous and newly refurbished synagogue that is missing only one thing - heat.  Luckily, the warmth of the community warms the place right up (if you are wearing a coat…).  Our adoptive Bubbes were constantly worried if we were warm enough throughout the seder.  As we assured them we were fine and very comfortable we noticed you could see your breath… Also a highlight of this seder were the three enthusiastic singers who repeated nearly ever Hebrew song we sang in Russian.  Adorable.

5. One 21-year-old we met at the seder joined us for dinner with Rabbi Kapustin and Toyna and introduced us to Russian/Ukrainian rap.  Luckily for us, he showed us his very own music video part of which was filmed in the synagogue office.  If we can find the youtube link we’ll post it immediately.

Another great day in another great Crimean town.

Another morning of travel for Molly and Dave! They left Bobruisk and arrived in Mogilev in the afternoon. Here is Molly’s Top 5 of Mogilev:

1. Disco Seder! As you can see from the photos above, our second night seder was held in a disco club. 

2. During the day we met with Sasha and Dasha, twin sisters who run the Netzer program in Mogilev, as well as a few of the Netzer participants. It was interesting to hear about their plans for college and post-college. A lot of them are planning to make aliyah (become citizens of Israel), which probably makes sense for their futures, but is sad for the future of the progressive movement in Belarus.

3. We learned that in Mogilev there are only two synagogues and they are both orthodox. It’s amazing to see how a few incredible individuals have created an active and energetic Reform community without having the most basic services like a synagogue or a rabbi. I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this idea that these kids are growing up with a Reform Jewish identity that has absolutely no connection to a synagogue.

4. The skit/concert/karaoke session that took place during the meal at our seder. 

5. Alice, one of the Netzer participants who is an art student, made some paper cut art for us as a thank you! 

Molly and Dave arrived in Belarus at 4:30 am, spent a few hours in Minsk and then arrived in Bobruisk by mid-afternoon for our first Passover seder.

Here is Molly’s Top 5 of being in Bobruisk:

1. This well-dressed beaver seems to be the symbol of the city, and we saw statues of him all over. I know one former girl scout leader that would fit right in here!

2. Almost all of the restaurants we ate at were themed, so I started to wonder if maybe I was just lost in Epcot Center. 

3. Our first seder was quite the experience! The highlight was that they served the meal at the beginning of the seder, so people tended to be more focused on their food than on the actual seder. 

4. We gave postcards of Israel to the kids at the seder, which led to an impromptu autograph session when they all asked us to sign the postcards. 

5. Help. Go. Caterpillar. - the three English words the kids knew. They’ll be set if they are ever in a situation where a caterpillar has an emergency and they need to send someone for help. 

Bess and Jeremy’s Top 5 of their last day of bread and first day of seder:

1. Simferopol City Tour - highlights include Soviet tanks, a Lenin statue, a former synagogue that was turned into a Soviet office building - if you look closely at the picture you can see the outline of a Star of David under the Soviet star, and a mall where we saw the latest in Ukrainian fashion. 

2. Good-bye to Chametz - our tour ended at a Ukrainian Pizza shop as we eat our last meal with Chametz.  The pizza was surprisingly delicious.  Topping choices included: corn, pickles, assorted meats, and imitation crab.  And of course, they had vodka.

3. Making Charoset for 85 - At a generous sized work station of 2.5 feet Bess, Jeremy, and Tonya were hard at work grating apples, chopping walnuts, and adding the secret ingredient…VANILLA SUGAR!  Note: Bess managed to grate 50+ apples without removing flesh from her hand. Kol HaKavod!

4. Seder time! - Our first of many encounters with boiled potato as Karpas and with chicken leg (that was to be eaten) as Zeroa.  At this seder of 85+ the only criticism we received at the end was that there was not enough dancing.  

5. Meeting two Israelis who moved to Simferopol - Luckily they have cousins in LA that will welcome us with open arms…if we call them.

Romantic Getaway for Five - Day 2

It’s true, we almost went hiking in Mitspe Ramon (again). But guess what? It started raining (again).

Therefore, here is our Top 5 List of Things We ALMOST Did on Saturday:

1. We almost went to the Alpaca Farm and the Sculpture Garden in Mitspe Ramon.

2. We almost visited the Israeli Air Force Museum in Be’er Sheva.

3. We almost saw a movie at the nicest movie theatre in Israel.

4. We almost got a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s Factory, but had to settle for McFlurry’s at McDonalds.

5. Jeremy almost bought a fax machine at Office Depot.

Special Offer: We anticipate that many of our readers will be dying to recreate this romantic getaway with their significant others! Now you can purchase an official laminated copy of this highly desired two-day itinerary for the low cost of 50 agurot. Buy today and we’ll throw in six hours of music to keep you entertained while you circle the roundabouts of Be’er Sheva!

Romantic Getaway for Five!

Molly, Bess, Jeremy, Sarah, and Jonah decided to get out of Jerusalem for the weekend. The plan was to do some hiking and mainly play the weekend by ear. We ALMOST went hiking in Mitspe Ramon…and then it rained! We are going to blame the unexpected rain for the events that did or did not take place over the course of the weekend.

Here is our Top 5 List of Things We ALMOST Did on Friday:

1. Jonah almost mastered driving a manual car.

2. We almost went to David Ben-Gurion’s home in Sde Boker.

3. We tasted almost good wine at the Sde Boker Winery.

4. We almost understood the informational video at the Mitspe Ramon Visitor’s Center.

5. We almost figured out what the corn casserole was made from…

*What we actually did - enjoyed a lovely Shabbat at Kibbutz Lotan