Game time!

Yisroel is in France, on a fundraising trip. I'm plenty busy, with 2 kids, and lots of community responsibilities.

Here's a game to keep you busy, though:
Yisroel has a (basically) empty suitcase that he can fill with 20 kilos of stuff to bring back with him. What should I ask for?

Here are the rules:
a. The lighter the better (for example, cans of pie filling, while very yummy, are not worth the weight)
b. Things that can be stretched are higher on the priority list. (For example, potato chips are great, but a whole bag is finished in one sitting. Balsamic vinegar, on the other hand, goes on, and on, and on)
c. Some things aren't bound by the above rules. If they are REALLY yummy, like candy for me, or REALLY important, like some milchigs for shavuos, or REALLY useful, like chocolate chips so I can make cake, the above rules are overridden.
d. Items other than food can be on the list too.

I'll start!

1. maple syrup
2. mustard
3. sesame oil
4. chocolate chips
5. havdallah candle
6. neironim candles for shabbos candlestick
7. yartzeit licht

Your turn!

We don't; have much time, because Yisroel leaves France Wednesday morning.

Winner gets, um, some chocolate chip cake shipped to them? A thank you note sent in the real mail on our community stationary? Their name engrave for posterity on the wall of our synagogue?

We'll think of something. Thanks for your help!

Highlights

Gosh! I haven't written a post in so long, that I have tons to write about, but no time, so we'll make do with highlights.

Highlight #1: I taught my first class without a translator. My translator didn't show up to my class on Sunday, and it went fine, but I'm glad I had lots of hand's on things prepared to keep the class moving when we got stuck on incomprehensible items.

Highlight #2: We had a Lag B'omer BBQ on Sunday. (I know, Lag B'omer was Friday, but it gets dark way too late for us too do it Thurday night, and Friday people work until too close to Shabbos. So we did it on Sunday.) I was great, and the cool thing about doing BBQs with these Russians - they really are prepared for everything. Last time we had a BBQ with some friends of ours, we needed some wood to get the fire going, so one fellow took out his trusty axe from his trunk, and chopped up branches. (Russian's survival kit: Items to keep in your trunk: 1. Axe) Anyway, it started raining in the middle, so one participant, who came with a camping trailer, pulled out a heavy piece of plastic and tied it to some trees, so we all stayed dry.

Highlight #3: I went to the paper goods store again. This time, I had to make my order 3 times, because each time, just as it was done, they realized that they made a mistake. Efficient.

Highlight #4: We held a women's club gathering. I prepared a really neat program. We were supposed to learn about refining your personality, as we work on throughout sefira. I prepared a crash course in kabbalah, a game, and brought a graphologist to speak. We made phone calls early, and lots of women were interested.

6 women showed up, all over 60. The graphologist went over his 40 minutes and ended up speaking for an hour and a half. by that point, no one had more interest to learn about kabbalah. So we ate our refreshments, and called it a day. On the good side, I now have a class on kabbalah, all prepared and translated.

Highlight #5: We found kosher ice cream in the supermarket. Unfortunately, it is OU - D, so we can't eat it, but neat nonetheless. We also found kosher grapeseed oil. Useful, huh?

These cold summer days

I knew I should have taken a shower Sunday night. That was my last chance for a hot shower for the next long while.

The water in Vladivostok – and probably the same goes for the entire Russia – is heated by the city. As an aside, many homeless people therefore sleep underground, near the pipe system, where the hot water running through the pipes keeps them warm all winter.

The city has deemed it proper – and cheap – to turn off the hot water for the summer months.

But that’s not why our water was turned off on Monday. On Monday the hot water was turned off for a week or two, while repairs are made on the decrepit pipes. At the beginning of June, the hot water will be turned off for the duration of the summer. You do the math.

When we first moved to Vladivostok, we arrived on a Thursday afternoon, exhausted after 24 hours of traveling and 6 hours of desperate searching for a place to live. When we finally got settled, I tried to take a shower. The water wasn’t just not hot. It was frigid. Like ice. We thought that maybe the hot water was turned off at night. So I waited until morning, but the water wasn’t any warmer then. We spent a few weeks of ice-cold showers, boiling water for Mendel’s bath, - a few hour procedure, until enough water is boiled to fill the bath - until the owner of the apartment finally installed a small water tank.

Our new apartment does not have a water heater. The only piece of equipment that came with the apartment was the kitchen sink. No counters, no refrigerator, no oven, no light fixtures. We are trying to have the owner of the apartment install a water heater. I am not too hopeful.

the quickest, most delicious dessert

I make these bars just about every week, and sometimes more than once. They are like delicious chewy chocolate chip cookies, but way easier. They take me exactly 10 minutes to mix and place in the pan, and 22 minutes to bake. I’ve been making them for a lot of weeks – I have this down to a science. We don’t always have all the ingredients here, so I’ve tried all sorts of omissions, additions, and variations. Basically, the recipe always works out. I never bother with a mixer – I just mix with a fork and my hand. They

I will shamelessly admit that I lifted the recipe from the chocolate chip bag. This one is the Bloom’s version, with just a few minor changes.

1 C oil (or margarine, if you prefer the hydrogenated fat)

1 C sugar (you need 1 ½ C sugar all together – you can change the proportions of white and brown)

½ C brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla (can be skipped)

2 eggs

1 1/3 C flour (you can double the flour and skip the oats, if you prefer)

1 tsp baking powder (or baking soda – just mix well if you use baking soda)

1 tsp salt

2 C oats (quick or otherwise)

Chocolate chips (the package calls for 10 oz.; I use about 3)

Preheat oven to 350⁰. I have no idea how to make a degrees sign. That little thing is my substitute. Hey, just like my recipe, the substitute even better than the real thing. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.

Mix eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and oats. Place dough in pan, patting down and filling the corners. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges just start to brown. Bake longer if you prefer crispy cookies.

Cut into bars (sometimes I do 24, sometimes 48, and sometimes triangles), preferably while still warm, but can do while cool or even hot.

Enjoy!

Last June, I attended a conference in Moscow. This was a special conference for all the Russian shluchos. (Shliach is a Hebrew word, meaning emissary. Shliach is the masculine, shlucha the feminine. Shluchos is feminine plural. We are so called because we are emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, sent all over the world to bring Judasim to anywhere Jews are found) The conference was a blast. I roomed with 2 other English speaking shluchos, and we talked late into the night. The program was packed with workshops, classes, and great food that I didn’t have to make. In between, we hung out together, traded from-scratch recipes, traded ideas of how to run our center, and traded contact info.

On the last night of the convention, there was a banquet, at which I spoke. I love public speaking, so that was really fun. The only down side to it was that while putting the finishing touches to my speech, I missed the group picture. I almost missed the soup, too, but they were kind enough to bring me a new portion.

I was scheduled to, officially, give ‘greetings from the non-close East’. Okay, that sounds better in Hebrew, but that was my topic. I also wanted to thank Mr. George Rohr.

A word about the Rohrs. George Rohr, and his father Sami Rohr, are philanthropists that give a huge amount of money to charitable causes. They have helped to fund many Chabad houses, brought out rabbis to college campuses, and most significantly for us, they help support rabbis in Russia. So this speech was really addressed to George Rohr, who flew in from New York for the event.

Most of the conference was in Hebrew, as most shluchos in Russia are Israeli. I stood up on stage and delivered my speech in English nonetheless, not sure if anyone could understand. That was fun too.

Close to 10 months ago, my husband, baby son, and I, moved on Shlichus to Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.

One day, some time after we arrived, a man walked into our shul to meet with my husband, explaining that he was interested in learning more about his Jewish heritage. He then related the amazing story of how he became involved.

Dima, our new friend, was visiting Petersburg, and while there, spontaneously entered a book shop. He asked the proprietor for a Jewish book. After searching for a while, the shopkeeper found a dusty book with Hebrew letters in some forgotten corner. Dima happily bought the book, and went home to study it. His new book was a Russian translation of Tanya, and it would change his life.

To me, this story is so representative of our shlichus, and the hard reaching effects of our work, so much of which we may never hear about.

A Tanya is printed, and it somehow reaches an out-of-the-way book shop. A random person walks in, buys it, and starts learning. And who would ever have imagined that this Tanya would reach this Jew who so desperately needed it!

Note: I wanted there to be a space between these 2 paragraphs. Somehow I got this thick ugly line, and I can't get rid of it. So feel free to ignore the thickness and the ugliness of the life, and pretend it is some cute squigglies.~~ Thanks!

I grew up in Morristown, a pleasant New Jersey suburb just an hour and a half from New York City. We’d go into New York every week or so, where all the kosher food and supplies you could ever imagine was available. I lived around the corner from the yeshiva, and would often lay awake in bed listening to the sounds of niggunim during a spirited farbrengen.

Living in Vladivostok, life is a little bit different. It is far from being a suburb, and is definitely not New Jersey! It takes 18 hours to fly to New York, and 9 hours just to get to Moscow. As Vladivostok is located directly east of here, the time difference to New York is 15 hours, to Moscow, 7. A friend recently asked me if I ‘still’ prepare all my food from scratch. “Well”, I answered her, “We have not yet opened our Kosher store”

However, the Rebbe insisted on calling the area of the world in which I live ‘the East which is not close’ rather than the ‘Far East’. For how can you say that another Jew is far?

And truly, I may not live nearby, but I also don’t live very far.

When I see Dima, who now puts on Tefillin every day, and won’t drive on Shabbos, coming to my house each week for a Tanya shiur, I know I don’t live far. Dima has since undergone a bris milah – at 37 years old! – and now goes by Dovid.

When I watch our Hebrew school students proudly saying Brochos, I know I don’t live far.

Far from what? We are I”YH, with lots of brochos translation: blessings and kochos translation: strength from the Rebbe, becoming a center of Yiddishkeit.

When I have a dilemma, and I call a fellow shlucha, who patiently guides and advises me, I know I don’t live far.

When I send our semi-annual report to someone in New York who read every word, and thinks about what I wrote, I know I don’t live far.

When I write a letter to the Rebbe, and get the clearest answer one could possible imagine, I know I don’t live far.

Far from what? I have the strongest support system in the world.

Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu. Translation: how lucky we are, how good is our lot. How lucky we are to be shluchim, helping to bring every Jew that much closer to Yiddishkeit.

Thank you, Mr Rohr, for making all of this possible. The amazing places your efforts reach to, you may never even know. One more Jew was miraculously touched by your Tanya, The Rohrs sponsored the printing of a Russian translation of the Tanya, among other books. and countless, countless others continue to be touched by the shluchim you so generously support. Thank you!

Politics, politics, politics

Yesterday Yisroel met with the governor. They’ve been planning this meeting for a while, but it took over a year to actualize. Once our (former) secretary scheduled the meeting for yom tov, so that wasn’t doable, then the governor was out of town for a few weeks, and so it went.

So they had their meeting.

On the agenda: the synagogue, a school building, and a cemetery, all of which we need (well, we have the synagogue, but it needs restoration).

The governor promised to help with the synagogue, whatever that means.

He promised to help us a school building – guess we better be ready for a school real fast.

And he promised us help with the cemetery. Vladivostok used to have a Jewish cemetery, but at one point it was torn up and was built over. Now, really the cemetery is under the jurisdiction of the city, not the state. Unfortunately, the mayor of Vladivostok is in prison, so hopefully, the state will help us out with that.

Our cleaning lady was frustrated at having to iron shirts before the meeting – she was worried that she wasn’t doing a perfect enough job. Today she was very excited to tell me that she saw the Rabbi on TV. She worked extra well today too ;-). That may have been the best thing that came out of the meeting.

A fun shopping experience

Before Mendel's party, I went shopping for paper goods.

I always forget what the paper goods store is like here. It is a phenomenon that must be unique to Russia, and must be seen to be believed.

In sharp contradistinction with shopping for paper goods in America – Party city, or Wal Mart, or Amazing Savings - paper goods is a high-ticket item here. This is because paper goods are to be used only once. My cleaning lady always asks me if she should wash out the disposable cups and plates. When I’m not around to ask, she washes them regardless, and I find them in the drainer drying. A women who works in the kitchen in the synagogue, once came to show me her new purchase excitedly – aluminum pans, the kind that you buy 5 for a dollar. And look, she told me excitedly – they are reusable, over, and over.

So the paper goods store has a sample of each item locked in glass case, reminiscent of a jewelery store. Each display case is carefully locked, and you can wander around the store, looked intently as you try to decide which toilet paper you want – but you may not touch. If you’re lucky, one of the employees in the store will come to help you. She walks around with you and writes down everything you want. #52465. Toilet paper, 6 rolls. Green. #43441. Plastic forks, 20 pcs. White.
Now comes the real Soviet part. I’m not sure why the paper goods stores are still run in the soviet method, but they are. You have to go to a desk, where they can type up your list of what you would like to buy. Two copies are printed out, one for you, and one to give to the next desk. Then you go to the kassa, the cashier, and pay for your items. Now you have to get your purchases. So you go to a third desk, give them the list, and they fill up a bag of your items.

And if the store is busy, you get to wait on each line for each desk separately. Now you know why people went crazy shopping in the Soviet Union.

Of course, this system is not the most economical of ideas. In addition to the supplies – the fancy glass cases and the high quality floors, lighting and furnishings – all to make you feel that you are part of a high class experience. Add to that the cost of all the extra employees. Today, I was the only customer in the store – yet there were at least 6 employees on the floor, 3 to man the desks, one to help me, and the usual 2 to stand and look busy. So the cost of paper goods is indeed prohibitive.

However, the up side of all this as that it is a (usually) pleasant experience, as opposed to shopping in the market, where that is not always the case.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

It's been a while since I wrote, but that's only because we have no internet at home and it's been a while since I made it out of the house. We are babysitterless at the moment, so I tried to come to the synagogue last week with the kids. Well. Let's just say that between getting on and off the bus with a heavy stroller, and hanging out with to kvetchy kids in the cold synagogue, it's no wonder I wasn't able to focus enough to write a blog post.

So life here is great, and full of exciting things as usual. We met another Jewish American here. He's been living here for about a year, and is living here just because he likes Vladivostok. We had him, and a Jewish man who works in the U.S. consulate over for lunch of Shabbos. There is something very exciting about speaking English to someone with an American accent.

Mendel turned two, much to our excitement, and his (mostly) indifferance. We are having a party for him on Monday, the point being to try to get to know other preschool age children. Russians consider a birthday a big holiday, so we have a nice group coming. Mendel may be the youngest one there, but we are happy to have kids coming out of the woodwork.

I have a women's program coming up soon. We are wrapping up this year for women's programs, and then we will form an official club. Russians love official stuff.

We are slowly, slowly getting our house in order. We moved to a new apartment recently, and between Purim, Pesach, and our trip to Japan, organzing and settign up the apartment was pushed to the last burner.

And last, but definietly not least, I made the most delicious birthday cake for Mendel on Friday. I wish I took a picture of it, because it was pretty too. I did, however, learn my lesson about converting ingredients in a recipe. The recipe called for 24 ounces of chocolate. I know that you can susitute cocoa and oil for chocolate - but forgot about the sugar. I also forgot that if you are mixing oil, cocoa, and sugar, it should equal up to 24 ounces all together, and 24 ounces of cocoa is a bit much. It did work out eventually- 2 tries and 18 eggs later.