Sunday, July 29, 2007

The united nations of Israel

We spent this weekend celebrating the bar mitzvah (http://www.jewfaq.org/barmitz.htm) of twins of friends of ours at a village some 20 miles east of Haifa. Since there were no hotels in the village, all the guests were accomodated in various homes in the village.

In the first of many coincidences, our hostess turned out to be the daughter of friends of ours here in Haifa. But the coincidences didn't finish there. As the sabbath of celebrations went on, we met a family from New Zealand, visiting specifically for this event who knew friends of ours living there.

Another family had connections to the town in the UK where we first settled after our marriage. Yet another family, the husband from Finland and the wife from the UK lived in the same community as our our son and daughter in law. And so the weekend went on; this one studied with one of our in laws, another knew friends in the UK and so on.

The united nations of Israel amply demonstrated its versatility with perfomances by the guests of the traditional New Zealand dance, the HAKA http://www.newzealand.com/travel/about-nz/features/haka-feature/haka.cfm , Irish songs, hebrew verse, exhibition of juggling by the twins etc., etc.

The proceedings finished with an inspired demonstration of fire twirling by one of the younger guests and everyone returned home with a great feeling of having taken part in something special.

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