The Krembo Experience

Well, I’m all moved into my new apartment in Jerusalem! Feel free to check out my post at the St. Louis OTZMA blog for a recap of how incredible our new apartment is and what I’ll be doing for the remaining few months of the trip.

Before we moved in, all of OTZMA participated in a 5-day seminar called “Link to the Future”, where we discussed various issues surrounding the North American Jewish world. A lot of it was very interesting to me, but something one of the speakers said really stuck in my mind. Lee Perlman, who works in the Israel office of the Jewish Federations, spoke about what he referred to as “the Krembo experience”. For those of you who have never been lucky enough to enjoy some Kremboey goodness, a Krembo is a popular Israeli snack that consists of a graham cracker with a mound of basically whipped cream, covered in a chocolate shell. (Sidebar: Krembos have quickly become Allie’s favorite treat here – she even named her pet fish in Netivot Krembo, and when it died after 2 days, she named the new fish Kremlobo [without cream]. Luckily, Kremlobo remains with us today.) Krembos are amazing, but as Perlman said, how do you describe it to someone back home? How do you explain the best way to eat one, or how tasty the filling is, or how you savor those last few bites? In other words, how do you explain those everyday events that happen over here in Israel?

Kremboee goodness.

This has been one of my biggest challenges when it comes to writing this blog. There have been quirky little “only in Israel” moments just about every day, but how do I relate them all to my audience back in America? Well, I’m going to give it a shot. I’m going to start a new ongoing series of posts called “The Krembo Experiences”, which will be very short posts every few days relating one of those moments back to you all. In a way, this is also for myself – those Krembo experiences come and go very quickly, and I would hate to forget many of the moments that have made being in Israel so incredible. Obviously the bigger moments will still merit their own, longer posts, but hopefully this will give me an outlet to relay the little stuff, like shopping in a shuk, or dealing with an Israeli maintenance guy, or any of the other funny little moments in my life. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy them as well.