Shalom le kulam!

Can you believe that this is our 30th blog post? I can’t. Time flies. Those of you who have been following the International news these last few weeks will know that we are reaching a critical time here in Israel. In 6 days’ time the UN will be debating and voting on the declaration of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. There are numerous European countries that have indicated that they will abstain from voting which means that the vote could go either way. In the mean-time all we can do is to wait and pray. The situation doesn’t look much better in Turkey either, with the Israeli Embassy being broken in to in Egypt prior to the Turkish Prime Minister’s visit. Many Israeli’s have travelled to Turkey in recent times for a holiday, although in the current climate Israeli tourism to Turkey has plummeted. Here in Ulpan thankfully things are looking much brighter, with Efrat our new teacher arriving at the end of her training before moving up north for the autumn to teach children on one of our projects, (more about that in Saray’s blog). We are pleased to have her on our staff team and wish her every success. In the count-down to Rosh HaShana, I am currently working on a new advertising campaign that will run for 6 weeks in the Jerusalem post among other places. Don’t forget to watch out for it (and to sign up for Hebrew lessons here at Ulpan Aviv to learn or improve your Hebrew as part of your New Year’s resolutions!!) On a personal note; my little daughter is feeling much better and is back to normal again after her 2nd bout of dehydration. Thanks to those who have been asking about her. Well I wish you all Shabbat Shalom. Until next week….. Gil Pentzak Ulpan Aviv- Director