After four days of sleeping, being sore and generally recuperating from our hike, we had the lucky occassion to go out for Shabbas. Some of Rafi's parents' friends, Pamela and Werner (Rafi also plays Scrabble with Pamela at the Jerusalem Scrabble Club), invited us both to their shul followed by Shabbat dinner at their residence. The synagogue, Har El, is a reform shul that we later learned was began by Werner. Before services we stopped by the home of some of Rafi's family friends, Beth Huppin and David Bennett. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with some Seattle folk here in Jerusalem. It is a magical experience! We schmoozed for a while until Rafi and I had to leave to locate the synagogue.We actually took quite a while trying to find the right place. First of all, we forgot the name of the place. We knew the general area that it was supposed to be, but could not locate it. After roaming the streets for a while, we encountered a young man pushing an elderly woman's wheelchair. We asked him where the Reform synagogue was and he asked if we meant "Har El." Yes! We recognized the name immediately! He told us that he was headed there as well.
After following the man to the proper place, we entered and found Werner and our saved seats. It was a nice Reform service, complete with guitars and plenty of singing. It did seem as though there were more older attendants than young. The shul itself is located in an old Arab house, complete with the beautiful round ceilings and neat architecture.
After services ended, we followed Werner out to his car and he drove to his house for dinner. When we arrived at their home, we met Pamela and their grandchildren at the dinner table set up for them in the cafeteria. Pamela looked strikingly lovely as usual. Her three grandchildren present were very amiable and chatted with us through dinner. After the tasty meal, we retired to Pamela and Werner's apartment where we had desserts and tea/coffee. It was wonderful to be among friendly company in a warm room. Our apartment in Kiryat HaYovel is freezing cold!
Werner showed us his book that he wrote. It is a memoir about his life and that of his parents. It encompasses so much history of Europe, World War II and the Holocaust, Israel, etc... It is a wonderfully created book full of information, stories, pictures, and primary sources. I think that it is great for a personal read, and also as a textbook assigned in classes pertaining to the subjects I listed. The book is definitely textbook sized, but very easily read and digested. It is called We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century by Werner Loval. He paged through it with us and told us stories that are found it the book. It was a very interesting and entertaining night for all of us. Werner also gave us a copy of the book to take home to Rafi's dad. I have looked through it more since bringing it back to our apartment and very much enjoy it.
The night came to an end and the eldest granddaughter drove Rafi and I back to our refrigerator abode.
No comments:
Post a Comment