4 Comments

One Cannot Ban to Live Beautifully or What is the Price of Bagels?

Jerusalem imageHaim: Have you been to Israel lately?

Nahum:Last summer.

Haim: What is the price of bagels now in Israel?

Nahum: 3 shekels.

Haim: That’s a life!

Nahum: What’s happened?

Haim: Here, in Canada, one cannot find them anywhere, and if you find them, they are overpriced.

Nahum: Really?                                                                                                                                Jerusalem_menora

Haim: In Carrage House Inn lunches were for 10 dollars, and now – for $ 25. What a miserable life it is?!

We are sitting at the same Carrage House Inn for lunch and talking about life. Only our counterparts engaged in the conversation are Lyudmila and Mark Luria but not Haim and Nahum.

1. In fact, what is the price of bagels in Israel?

2: Lyudmila: 2,5 shekels or 70 cents.fourofusinCarrageHouse

1. Jews are mercantile  people, they always know what is the price, where, and how to make money, don’t they?

2.Sure. Who is nowadays not mercantile? Definitely, they know the situation and all whereabouts.

1.By the way, how many years ago you and your family emigrated to Israel and where from?

2. 20 years ago, from Donetsk.

1. Do you miss Ukraine? What can you say about Israel?

2. Not at all, neither my family. Speaking about Israel, one cannot say that it is a homogeneous community. Israel consists of repatriates and old-timers, those who came from eastern and western countries, religious and secular and many other divisions of the people of Israel. They feel united as a nation in the threat of the outside enemy.

To the right and to the left you can see the photos of Israel.

Listen:Yerushalaim shel Zahav-Luisa Lubell, age 13

1.Where is the life better: in Israel or in Ukraine?

2.In Israel, of course. People are good-hearted, the laws are working to protect you. This is a prime example: when I worked as an interpreter after the graduation of the University, I used to have the salary, as I clearly remember 113 roubles and 50 kopeks after deductions. After my divorce when I was left with a small child, what could I afford? Really, nothing- just food for survival. I could not rent a separate apartment, I had to stay with my parents who helped me a lot to raise my child. When I came to Israel, I started to work immediately, not by my profession, but fulfilling a simple job, working hard I could manage to buy an apartment in Jerusalem, pay for the education at the private school for my son and live a decent life. I did not feel degraded financially.

1. How are your parents doing?

2.My mother died when she was 82 y.o. After that my father Oleg Shevchenko was put into the nursing home. I recollect an interesting case when I was called in 2006 to see my father before the gallbladder surgery to be performed on him. He was 90 y.o., put in Sharey Tzedek (Jerusalem) Hospital. I and my husband Mark were surprised with what honor and respect he was being prepared for the operation, how many questions were asked exactly for 3 days prior the surgery. The hospital staff treated him as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The operation went well. He lived after for 4 years more, enjoyed life to the fullest but in 2010 he died at age of 95. What a wonderful person he was! Eternal memory to him.

Watch slide show :”Jerusalem”

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1.We know that in Israel many people practice Judaism. Do you believe in God, Lyuda?

2.Yes. I believe that there exists the Highest Spirit beyond us. But follow the rituals fanatically is not for me. I do not have time for that. Yes, I light the candles but to do more it is difficult for me.

Listen to the song:Linda Ballova a Pressburger Klezmer Band

1.Is it safe to travel in Israel?

2.There is no place in the world where one can feel safe. Maybe, in Canada?

1.How is life in  Israel?

2.Culture in Israel is very interesting, Mediterranean. If there is the Lord you fell that it is here, nearby. The old, ancient walls, 8 climatic zones, different kinds of landscapes are there. All trees are planted by hand, you don’t need to go far to see  the desert, it’s close. The impression of Dead Sea is really fabulous, reminds me the lunar surface, as we saw on the pictures.

1. Are there any differences in the life style in Israel and in Calgary?

2.Big. In Israel people live openly, visiting each other’s homes, talking loud, joking and life is passing more gay. In Calgary, people live more closed life, after the certain time people do not go to the streets, socializing mainly in the public places. Different, really different style of life!

1.What about you, Lyuda, where you like better, in Israel or in Canada?

2 It is difficult to answer. For quiet without problems life it is better in Canada . Nobody can ban to live beautifully, is it the truth?

1 Oh, yes. Everywhere you want. And what about the bagels?

2.To everybody is his own.

1.Thanks, Lyuda, for the interview.

2.You bet.

Listen to the old Jewish song:Old Klezmer Band Tune: Bublitschki-Ziggy Elman’s Orch., 1938

4 Comments

  1. Валечка, спасибо за интервью. Конечно в нескольких словах не расскажешь об этой удивительной, ни на какую другую не похожей стране.С уважением, Людмила

  2. Дорогая Людочка, Рада, что тебе понравился мой пост. Спасибо за комментарий.
    Валентина

  3. Dear Mark, I am glad that you like my job. Thanks a lot for appreciation.
    Respectfully yours,
    Valentina

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