The National Bicycle Day: Yom Kippur in Israel

Going back to Israel after spending many years in the US, we were quite surprised to discover many new customs in a country which we had thought we knew really well. Recently I wrote  a post about the secular ritual of the Friday night dinner ("TGIF ISraeli Style"), and the new practice of observing  Yom Kippur is another one.

In the first year in Tel Aviv our daughters told us that they had to have bicycles for Yom Kippur, all their friends had them. That  is how we first found out that Yom Kippur has become the National Bicycle Day

Imagine a big city where on a regular day the streets are packed with noisy cars and buses, and then all of a sudden, as though by magic -- everything stops and there is silence.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-national-bicycle-day-yom-kippur-in-israel/

TGIF Israeli Style

Teaching reading I am always  looking for articles which could engage my students and convince them to speak in English and to write. I was surprised how much they liked an opinion article about the significance of eating dinner together, especially with the family.  In that article the writer, C. J. Moore,  claims that “eating together is one of the most civilizing social events in life. It follows that eating with children should bring a socializing influence to their lives, too.”

I  had been familiar with this approach, when we lived in the US we were told that having dinner together as a family would contribute to the  emotional well-being of our children and improve their social skills.

Please keep reading 

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/tgif-israeli-style/