'happy yom kippur!'

I overheard the others saying it when leaving Silja's new daycare center yesterday and when the receptionist at the front desk answered the phone, and so we also left the place wishing the staff Happy Yom Kippur. Last week the daycare was closed two days for Rosh Hashanah -- the Jewish new year. Besides a lot of Boston College students our new neighborhood is influenced by a large Jewish community. The local supermarket has in addition to an extremely large selection of hummus and pickles, a section with Shabbat candles, gefilte fish, matzo bread, and so on. Some of it gives me flashback to the time I spent in Israel working in a kibbutz way back.

On Saturdays the streets are busy with families rushing to and from the many synagogues in the area.  Men in black suits and black hats, little boys in black suits, women in long skirts and girls in dresses.

The anthropologists in me can't help of taking mental notes of what I observe, and it really makes me want to understand the religion and the culture is encompasses it in much more detail. 

I had to go back to Cambridge tonight for a meeting, and when going back there I instantly miss it. It's just so nice, and I guess it still feels much like home compared to this place, but the Jewish trait that characterizes our new area, is a definitely on the plus side. I'm ready to learn more. 

Shalom and l'chaim (the kibbutz volunteer vocabulary...)

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