Petach Tikva: Election Issues

In light of my previous post, Lion of Zion asked about the issues in the upcoming municipal elections.

We will cast two ballots this Tuesday, one for the local council (27 seats) and another for mayor. This year 159,000 residents have voting rights, beginning at age 17. The incumbent mayor, Itzik Ohayon, has overseen tremendous development in the city, but the other four candidates claim his candidacy has been a bastion of corruption and cronyism. When a mayor is involved in so many decisions about building, transportation, and development, there are going to be a lot of complaints, and worse.

According to Wikipedia, Petach Tikva's population grows at an annual rate of 2.4%.

One supporter advising a storekeeper to vote for O'Hayon told me to vote for him too. "But of course you will," he added, when he noticed my religious dress. It's true that the National Religious Party (NRP or Mafdal in Hebrew) and Aguduah (Ashkenazi haredim) are supporting O'Hayon, who has close ties with the religious community.

Campaign "Ushpizin" sign for the Sukkah

When the NRP's long-time leader resigned in a surprise move, "outsider" Moti Zaft was appointed to take over. This breathed new life into the campaign, leading most of the community's rabbis, along with school principals from both the public and private religious schools, to support the party. However, a letter in our mailbox signed by "private school parents" objected to Zaft's appointment.

The NRP's main competition comes from a private individual who ran five years ago and got one seat. The NRP protested when representatives of this party known "Anachnu Maaminim bePetach Tikva" (We Believe in Petach Tikva) kept their positions in the governing body of the local NRP, despite campaigning against the party. Zaft said in an interview in the local religious paper that because of this he refused to sign a vote-exchange agreement (in which loose votes from both parties can be combined to give one of the parties an extra seat). But my son said that other parties also chose not to sign such agreements, because experts consider it poor strategy.

Every Friday and erev chag since Sukkot, cars blasted up and down the streets playing the theme song to the tune of "Anachnu maaminim bnei maaminim." My seven-year-old received the above poster outside his school, and the NRP distributed Simchat Torah flags in synagogues. At a public religious school function the head of the parents' committee reminded everyone to cast a ballot for the NRP.

A couple we know had agreed to support the leader of Anachnu Maaminim until learning that Moti Zaft, a close friend, would be running with the NRP. They found themselves in an uncomfortable position and unable to campaign for either party.

In national elections, the National Religious Party gets more votes from Petach Tikva than from any other city except for Jerusalem. The city has large secular and haredi populations as well.

As in the national political scene, the NRP has lost some power in Petach tikva. Despite the chain of daycare centers run by its women's branch Emunah, young couples did not flock to the ballot boxes in the last election. At least they didn't vote for the NRP, which received only three seats instead of the customary five. But a strong NRP is the only way to guarantee continuing support for religious Zionist education in the city.

Below are random snippets from the campaign.

• Shas is expected to do well.
• One of the liberal candidates said he would work to change the "status quo" regarding Shabbat observance. A representative of one of the religious parties responded that this was just a way to stir up trouble, as there is not enough secular power to make changes.
  
• Meretz party put up posters including a quote from a haredi newspaper, bragging that "Petach Tikva will become Bnei Brak."
• One of the five mayoral candidates is the head of the local branch of Zehavi, an organization that works to get benefits for large families. Coincidentally, his last name is Zehavi. He was active in the new law guaranteeing free library cards for all.
• One issue mentioned by several campaigns is lack of space for synagogues.
• The city lacks a religious boys' high school, as opposted to more expensive and exclusive Talmud-oriented yeshiva high schools. Many boys travel out of the city. Unfortunately a "plain" religious boys' school can quickly become a receptacle for anyone having problems in the yeshiva high schools.
• Environmental issues are getting a lot of press.
  
• Smaller parties include a women's rights party, an anti-haredi green party, a party to represent weaker neighborhoods, and one whose motto is simply to provide a "maaneh," or response, for all residents, on every subject and with every problem.

Well, you asked.

A High School in Israel

[Haveil Havalim is up at Shiloh Musings.]

My daughter entered ninth grade this year. This year she has "the best teacher and the best class." She was able to request a number of friends, and they'll be together for the next four years.

Her school has six grades, each with about eight classes of thirty girls. The six grades are divided into three batim (lit. houses), each with its own building, vice-principal, secretary, advisor, and two teachers who serve as grade-level coordinators.

The school operates several large volunteer projects:

1. All ninth graders volunteer in a public gan (kindergarten) once a week. My daughter catches a van from school at 7:30 to take her across town, where she assists the teacher for two hours. Girls coming from out of town, like the ones in my younger daughter's gan, volunteer close to the school so they don't have to commute twice. They gave the girls (unfortunately bright green) t-shirts so they will be recognized. Good marketing, so long as I don't have to wear that color.
   
2. The school runs a country-wide organization to collect used appliances and furniture and redistribute them to the needy. Seventh-graders work in the warehouse; during the summer my daughter took a few shifts answering the phone to schedule pickups.
3. Students volunteer in the special-education gan right on school premises. My daughter hasn't worked there yet, but girls in her class have.
   

The school is handicapped accessible, has an ethnically heterogeneous population (Jewishly speaking), and boasts the third highest bagrut (matriculation exam) scores in the country, after two secular schools in Haifa. It discourages graduates from enlisting in the army but many still do (my daughter isn't interested).

When my kids were younger someone told me that I would be happier with the girls' schools in Israel than the boys'. The girls don't have the pressure of gemara (Talmud), leaving little time for anything except the bagrut requirements.

[I tried to stay positive all the way through.]

Jet lag and secondary jet lag

I handle jet lag well upon arrival in the US. We function during the day, despite waking up at 3 am for several days. By the second morning the kids already woke at 7:30. The return is different. Typically we are all awake at night the first week, then I suffer for an additional week. It's not just the jetlag; it's having to jump back into the summer "routine." I find myself not remembering things that happened during that first week at home. And my husband complains about "secondary jet lag" from everyone else's night-wakings.

We arrived yesterday afternoon. My 7yo then slept all night, getting up in time for my husband to take him to camp. Go figure. My 4yo slept for a while then lay quietly with her head on my lap during the wee hours, and then slept again from 4am to 1:00 PM. I slept only from 6:30 to 10:30 am.

I am determined to beat the jet lag this time. I have to order school books, prepare sheva brachot, and plan a vacation, while keeping the house running with everyone home all day. I read that when fatigue hits, one should drink coffee and take a nap until the caffeine kicks in. I plan to try this approach, but am open to other suggestions.

Things I might be posting about, if I felt like blogging

Our cooperative summer camp adventure continues. Based on past experience (read: lots of fighting), we split the boys and girls. We have five boys aged 5-8, with two 12- and 13-year-olds serving as counselors. I hosted them last Friday while my 12-year-old A ran the whole program. The girls' group consists of 4 preschoolers and 7 elementary-school-age girls. They exempted me from hosting the girls, since my 14-year-old (DiI) helps out several days a week. The other two days she has a regular babysitting job for two little boys who adore her. I have been getting positive feedback from the mothers about my kids. I needed it.

Some of the camp mothers live about a mile away, but my four-year-old walks back and forth with a minimum of complaint. When we met to make up a schedule, we asked not to give out junk food. Some mothers complained, "What will we give them if not Bamba?" We suggested melon. The children bring sandwiches; surely that's enough food for four hours. The junk-food rule hasn't been strictly enforced, but who can say what would have happened otherwise.

A disadvantage of segregating by sex is that activities tend to fall along gender lines. Yesterday the boys made models of an army camp and the girls baked cookies with red jelly. Today both groups went to the zoo and my junior counselors stayed up till all hours preparing games and crafts.

We are leaving on our annual trip to the US next week; camp may or may not be active when we return. My 4yo loved our visit last year, but now she doesn't want to miss camp. She said I should go without her and bring back special (flavored) yogurt, a treat we rarely buy. I'm taking her, DiI, and my 7-year-old.

Last night we went to a memorial service for a convert to Judaism who had made aliyah and died eight months later after collapsing in the street from a blood clot. The body sat for a month while her fate was decided; eventually her mother insisted on a Christian burial in the US. I had only spoken to her once on the phone, but we wanted to show support, and we met a family from Maale Adumim who had been exceptionally close to her. The family described how every Shabbat between her death and burial, mysterious things happened in their house: Crockery fell off shelves, and candles fell down, for no apparent reason.

I met with two bloggers in one day. I sat with RivkA for a Coffee and Chemo date, and while in Jerusalem I hopped over to Leora's hotel to say hello. We have several mutual friends and I am sure I have met her, but it was my first time seeing her adorable children. By then I was already anxious to get home, because the bus in the morning had taken me three hours. When we were renting our first apartment in Israel, I asked my husband how far we would be from the bus to Jerusalem and he said five minutes. He must have misheard me. It's a twenty-minute ride, and the inter-city bus took forever to arrive. It was too crowded so I waited a short time for the next one. Then we ran into traffic, and the bus to the hospital also took ages. Then I ran around the hospital looking for RivkA, because the oncology ward told me she was in the ER. I eventually found her back in oncology. Even though she was having a long, hard day she was in good spirits and we had fun catching up. She even came up with some shidduch suggestions.

Speaking of sponja: One evening I noticed a puddle, which turned out to be coming from under my neighbors' door. The neighbors are out of the country and their army-aged son was in Jerusalem, but a neighbor had a key so after turning off the water and closing off the source of the leak, we used several squeejees to sweep all of the water into the shower drain--in our apartment. It was a family effort. Their water purifier had cracked open, but the neighbor was still sure it must be the ozeret's fault. The son told me that the only damage was to their rug. If this had happened in the middle of the night, we might have been the ones with the serious damage.

We are going to a bar mitzvah for Shabbat, and staying in my single brother-in-law's apartment. When I heard his voicemail message asking to tell him some good news, I informed him of our upcoming visit. He took it in stride, or at least he had recovered by the time he called us back. Two of the kids chose not to go, but my oldest son feels close enough to the family to drag himself away from yeshiva for two weeks in a row.

My seven-year-old inserted our rechargeable camera battery backwards. It slid in easily, but wouldn't come out. The repairman removed it without taking the whole thing apart, after giving me a lecture about letting my kid play with it. I didn't tell him about the movie that could only have been filmed from a few inches outside of my sixth-story window; my seven-year-old was three or four at the time. Instead I told him that it wasn't nice to lecture customers. He didn't charge and even advised me on how to fix a different problem with the camera.

Things I Hate About School

This is another guest post of Daughter In Israel, special for the end of the school year. [MiI: You can find the first one here.] If you are a teacher, please do not be offended, but see this post as advice for things you shouldn't be doing in the coming school year and may be the reason students don't like you. [ProfK mistakenly thought that I wrote the previous sentence; DiI did.]

So here are most of the reasons I don't like school:

• Teachers who make you feel guilty for pointing out their mistakes/giving a right answer. (Did you hear what DII said? She said that....It's very important, right, DII?)
• Teachers that say the misbehaving class isn't acting its age. (I feel like I'm in...elementary school teachers:gan/ganon /first grade. high school teachers:elementary school)
• Teachers that don't turn a ninety-nine into a hundred.
• Teachers that threaten to take off points if you won't do your homework and don't even bother checking it.
• Teachers that think they're funny also when they tell the same "joke" for the tenth time.
• Teachers that get insulted if you don't treat them as friends.
  
• Ending school at 4:00 p.m. almost every day.
  

School challenges and culture clashes

I've lived here seventeen years, but some situations still make me feel like I just stepped off the plane.

Commenter Regular Anonymous asked me to post about dealing with difficult school personnel. I am not the person to ask, because I have problems dealing even with non-difficult school personnel. It's a combination of the language (even though I have fluent Hebrew), the culture, and the fact that I am a nice, quiet American. I can overcome the feeling of intimidation in short bursts, but then I retreat. This causes me no end of difficulty, and not just with schools.

I have a friend whose son's teacher was picking on him. They couldn't accuse the teacher because that would make the situation worse. So they asked an Israeli what to do (you've noticed that native Israelis are experts at getting things to happen in schools). He told them to tell the teacher the following: "We are concerned about our son. He is convinced that you are picking on him, but we are sure that can't possibly be true." It worked like a charm.

If you don't have anyone to advise you, or the problem is complex, consider hiring someone to serve as your advocate and mediate between you and the school. There are social workers and psychologists who will work with the school to solve a child's problem. Sometimes switching schools is the best solution, especially in a private school that may not have interest in, or resources for, expending extra effort.