A joy of academic life is the sabbatical. Thanks to the faculty union at SF State, I am actually eligible to take a semester off every 3.5 years, rather than a full year after 7 years in the classroom. This semester marks the first leave since I was able to be in Israel during Rebecca’s (now Rivka’s) 8th grade class trip.
Since Shayna will be taking her 8th grade trip now, I’ve scheduled my own learning and touring trip to coincide with her time in the country.
The Dollinger family began its journey Friday afternoon, flying to Los Angeles for the bat mitzvah of my niece Alissa Wagner. She did a magnificent job leading prayer, chanting Hebrew, and bringing the entire extended family together for a joyous weekend.
At 4 am Sunday morning, I was out of the hotel to get to LAX for the 7 am flight to Tel Aviv, via Toronto. Marci and Rebecca took Shayna to meet her group as they landed from SFO and headed non-stop to Tel Aviv from LAX in the early afternoon. Thanks to yet another good credit card tip from Zvi Weiss, we abandoned our JetBlue AMEX in favor of a United Airlines Visa card. With that, we get admission to the airport lounges of United, and its partners….including Air France. Here's a free lunch :)
On a deeply sad note, I learned that one of my beloved rabbis, Ken Weiss, had suffered a major heart attack earlier in the week. I first met Kenny at Camp Swig when I was in my early 20s. He was the one I enjoyed staying up late, drinking Good Earth hot tea together, discussing the meaning of Jewish life.
Each summer, we both would return to camp and rekindle our friendship, his mentorship, and my own spiritual and intellectual Jewish journey. When it came time to get married, Rabbi Kenny Weiss was the one that I wanted to stand under the chuppah with Marci and me to offer his blessings and his thoughts. It was only sweeter that July 3, our marriage day, was also his anniversary with his wife Sue. With that connection, I always reflected and remembered him on my anniversary.
In the Toronto airport, I learned that he had just died. The tears just streamed as I sat waiting to board the flight to Israel. The idea that I would be heading towards Jerusalem at the moment of his passing seemed so fitting and aligned with our relationship, with all the gifts that he had given me over the years. Baruch Dayan Emet.
Since Shayna’s flight was scheduled to land just a few hours after mine, I set myself up in the arrivals hall to wait to see her, however briefly.
OK. Four hours later, she emerged from customs with 60 other 8th graders.
A quick hug (and a few shekels hand off) and she was on her way to the Negev desert in the South while I headed to Jerusalem.
I recommend a new hotel, the Arthur, which is built literally in the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem. It’s a small boutique hotel with a little porch that overlooks the nightlife of Jerusalem.
Time to sleep!
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