I love Jerusalem but..... (Part I)

Jerusalem Cats Drive me CRAZY!!

This is what I see when I leave my house every morning. Ten to twenty cats sitting on a stoop, hissing at people, scurrying around owning the streets, picking fights with other neighborhood cats, waking you up in the morning with their meowing and fighting. Jumping out at you when you pass their dumpster. The situation is awful (trust me...), I think it might be worse than sitting through a production of CATS the musical.

The history behind Jerusalem's Cat Problem:
1. Jerusalem used to be over run by rats.
2. Jerusalem officials decided to release stray cats into the city to solve this problem.
3. Jerusalem has a MAJOR cat problem...

Thanks for listening to my rant... I feel better now.

On another note...
Below is a picture of the family that I stayed with last weekend at Kibbutz Yagur. Kibbutz Yagur is the largest Kibbutz in the world with the largest dance club in Israel too. The dance club holds over 3,000 people and during the day it turns into a playground/adventure park for kids from the Kibbutz. (I hope they clean up well from the night before). I left the club around 1 AM and people were just getting there... I think I'm getting a bit old.

The weekend up North was wonderful filled with a lot of relaxing, eating, and good conversation. One interesting note about my family is that the husband (Ronen) is Israeli and his wife (Marriana) is Brazilian but not Jewish. Interfaith marriage in Israel is extremely rare... and may cause some challenges in the future for their very cute one-year old, Ben. (Ben was also the name of my late cat-- I liked my cat and the one-year old a lot better than the Jerusalem cats... but that isn't too hard).

Ben (the kid, don't want to confuse you with my dead cat) is not considered Jewish as his mother is not Jewish. So Marianna is looking into converting, as she is very interested and knowledgeable about the Jewish faith. However, she has run into some problems and obstacles with the ultra-orthodox rabbis she has talked to about conversion. She is now thinking about meeting with a Reform rabbi in Haifa to see if she might begin the process with him. Yet, some in Israel would still not consider her Jewish if she does a Reform or Conservative conversion. Just another highlight of the tensions between Secular and Religious Jews of Israel.

So I got to run... I have to break up fight outside... Two cats are at again. But I'll try to blog later this week, updating you on my Hebrew skills and all that is good in Jerusalem.

PEACE,

ERBP