My heart is in Jerusalem, but my hairgel is in America

by: Rebecca

It’s so awesome when parents come to visit for the holidays, bringing with them hugs, delicious meals, and the inevitable requests from America. Oh America, the land of toiletrees from Target and Costco. I think it was David Kilimnick, a Jerusalem comedian, who said something like,”We may have made aliyah, but we’re the only Israelis that live in this country and use toiletrees from another.” Touche.

Here I am, three years into living in Israel, but my superficiality refuses to let me use anything other than Crest with Scope toothpaste, Fructis hair gel, Ziploc bags, and the list goes on. Then there’s books, which are just so much cheaper coming from online sites like half.com. I’m psyched to start reading Bringing Down the House and Business2.0. And finally- clothes. I’ve tried the Israeli malls, but unfortunately, clothing in Israel falls into two tragic categories: the scandalous or the bag. Half the clothes are too skimpy to even figure out how to wear them, while the other half are so modest that I’ve lost any femininity I may have possessed. So, for the first time, I ordered clothes online and they came out pretty good.

As it happens, today I was in Super Moshava, the so-expensive-it’s-silly supermarket on Emek Refaim, which has a huge American-goods selection but for double the price. They’re stocking some new items which caught my eye: Hefty ziploc bags (a whopping 25 shekels for 18 bags), Axe deodorant (20 shek on sale this week, a decent buy), and whole-berried cranberry sauce for cranberry crunch, (gasp 15 shekels).

I know I should get over it, and use local goods, but there always seems to be another person coming to visit and another suitcase that needs help being filled.

September 21, 2007 | Trying to fit in | Comments

Want some humus with that? Sign up to receive The Big Felafel updates by RSS or by Email via the form on the right.

4 Responses to “My heart is in Jerusalem, but my hairgel is in America”

  1. Posted by: joan prager - 09/23/2007

    last time i looked the cranberry sauce was not ocean spray. with the substituted brand, i’ts better not to eat cranberry sauce, whole berry or the other kind.

  2. Posted by: Rebecca - 09/23/2007

    I think it was ShopRite brand at some point too, which was really weird for me. Why shouldn’t we eat cranberry sauce?

  3. Posted by: gloria - 10/13/2007

    I know it’s hard to believe, but eventually, you will wean yourself of American products but never American clothes. And you’ll still ask people to bring things that are not available here, like Splenda or peppermint flavoring (the Isrsaeli brand tastes like toothpaste). Last time I brought almost no toiletries but a lot of clothes for me, my kids and grandkids. After 31 years here, the temptation is still there but not nearly as strong as it once was. In 1976, we couldnt’ get chocolate chips or head letuce, so it’s progressive!

  4. Posted by: Rebecca - 10/17/2007

    Yeah! I noticed that the clothes here fall in the frumpy and skanky categories but not so much in between! And they don’t seem as well made here either! what’s up with that?

Leave a Reply of Your Own