Binyamina
Israel

22 November 2009
 
Dear Family and Friends,

The town of Binyamina is the final destination of my trip to the Middle East.  After five weeks of intense travel in Egypt, Turkey, Rhodes and Turkey again, I am trying to relax with my cousins Miryam and Moshe Lauer.

Miryam is a marvelous cook.  Even after a minor surgery on her eyelids yesterday, she is back in the kitchen today preparing all my favorite German-Jewish dishes.  So I am relaxing and eating too much.  But Moshe!  No relaxing with Moshe.  Moshe, 81, is an energetic and irrepressible tour guide.
 
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Location

Bangkok Friday
April 18, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

As the poet said,

"Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans."

To keep a short story short, I flew to Israel and along the way I picked up some sort of "bug." I struggled to maintain my strength but after almost two weeks of feeling weak and tired, I decided to return to Bangkok. I saw a doctor here and nothing seems abnormal. At the moment I am slowly recovering. I will go for more tests in a day or two if I don't feel 100%.

Naturally I am disappointed. I expected to do some traveling in Israel. I was also considering a side trip to Cyprus. The biggest disappointment is that I will not be with my Israeli family for the Passover Festival.

My Israeli family has adopted me as their new son, welcome cousin and close friend. Even though we only met for the first time last June, I am now a member of a generous and energetic family. At its head are Miryam and Moshe Lauer who emigrated from Germany as very young children more than seventy years ago. They have three adult children and eight teenage-young adult grandchildren. *

Miryam and Moshe prepared my comfortable room in their large home in Binyamina, a town halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Miryam's delicious German/Israeli style cooking added at least three centimeters to my waistline. And despite my illness, we managed to see several sights in northern Israel.

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Location

Binyamina
Israel
June 21, 2007

Erev tov,

"It's coffee time," Moshe announces with a smile. I know what's coming. I smile too.

Every afternoon at exactly 5:00 pm, Moshe and I sit at the kitchen table. Miryam serves a tall glass of iced coffee. The dark coffee is topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

"Coffee time" is our time to relax and chat and to reminisce and compare notes about our family.

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Location

Tel Aviv
Israel

June 13, 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
Boker tov. Good morning.

I just finished a tasty Israeli salad and a satisfactory cup of coffee at an outdoor café on the campus of Tel Aviv University.

The University sits on a hillside, and from the cafe I have a fine sunny view of the suburbs. In the distance I count at least four tall construction booms swaying back and forth over this busy city that seems to be growing in all directions.

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Location

Jerusalem
Israel
June 13, 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

The highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem passes through the Palestinian Territories of the West Bank. Towns and villages, farms and mosques are clearly visible on the rocky hillsides. And to my right is a series of tall, tan concrete walls. "The Wall."

Here is one description:

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Location

Bangkok, Thailand

May 19, 2007
1 Sivan 5767

"What!! You've never been to Israel??" scolded the Israeli man next to me on a flight in Thailand. "Shame on you."

"Jan, your travels are incomplete" said a friend to me just recently.

"I am hoping to read your Travel Letters from Israel " said Jeff in Bangkok.

"It's always a good time to go to Israel" said a fellow congregant at the Beth Elisheva Synagogue here.

Well, my friends, now is the time. Finally, I am taking my first trip to The Middle East.

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Location