A narrow strip of the Mediterranean coast - that is how this small state, inhabited by proud and fearless people, appears on the map. After the war of independence in 1948, gunfire has never ceased here, bombs explode time and again, and on this land the blood of two peoples, pitted against each other by former colonizers - Jews and Arabs - is shed. And since war in Israel is a familiar and everyday matter, the attitude towards military service here is quite casual, although very respectful. If the soldiers want ice cream for dessert at breakfast, then it should be given to them, because in an hour they may have to become a living shield between a handful of Jewish settlers and a crowd of Arabs, who are quite sane individually, but once they gather in a crowd, their wild and destructive energy can sweep away everything in its path.
Israel is a young state. And like any recently created country, it cherishes and nurtures its history. In kibbutzim and moshavim (in our terms, collective farms and farmsteads) there are necessarily museums where agricultural tools from the beginning of the century, household utensils, and hand weapons of the most incredible models are carefully collected. Settlers from Europe had to defend with arms in hand their right to work the land and turn the desert into a blooming garden.
By the way, to this day it is very easy to determine where in Israel Jews live and where Arabs live. It is enough to go up in a plane and look at the green strip stretching along the coast. These are Jewish cities and settlements. The Arab part is almost everywhere brown-desert in color. For some reason, Arabs do not plant trees and shrubs in such quantities as Jewish Israelis do.
Water is carefully supplied to every tree, to every bush, flowing or dripping from a plastic tube. In front of every house - whether it is an elegant, bride-like villa or a multi-apartment panel-concrete monster - the maximum allowed number of trees for that area certainly grows, and a narrow asphalt path to the front entrance stretches between carefully trimmed lawns.
The first thing that strikes a newcomer to Israel is the incredible similarity between our and their "sleeping" areas built in the 70s. From the outside, the "khrushchevkas" are one and the same. Inside, Israeli five-story buildings look a bit better; besides, the first floor is non-residential - there they store strollers and grow a couple of ficuses in tubs. But the apartment layouts are almost identical. No, of course, there are differences. For example, due to the much hotter climate (ten times as hot), in the largest room the windows are sliding and occupy almost the entire facade. And otherwise... There is nothing to be surprised about - the same architects who came up with "khrushchevkas" in the Union, after repatriation, out of old memory, began to design the same "golda-meirovkas".
Housing in the Holy Land is expensive; only a few can afford to buy it without installment payments. For a three-room apartment in not the best area and in not a new building, you will have to pay at least $120,000. Accordingly, renting is also expensive. Sometimes you have to give up to half your salary for it.
A working Israeli or a legal guest worker receives at least $1,000 per month in shekel equivalent. That is - someone who works normally and sets himself the goal of earning money, and not just spending meaningful time in an air-conditioned room or in the fresh air. Wherever you get a job, for the first six months they will closely watch you and load you beyond measure. If you pass the test of the boss, colleagues, and the work itself, then it will be easier. Or it won't, but it will become a habit.
Salaries are usually paid once a month. Advances are not practiced. Therefore, even if you have a contract, if the amounts are good, take care in advance of what money you will use to rent housing and eat while waiting for the coveted first paycheck. Your earnings will be given to you by a personal check or transferred to an account. The latter can be opened without difficulty and with minimal time expenditure (up to half an hour) in any bank, of which there are plenty.
I recommend opening an account at the branch that is located near your home or work. The fact is that if you lose your ATM card or checkbook, you will have to contact exactly the branch where you opened the account. Among banks, you should choose the one whose sign seems most attractive to you, since there are no particular differences between the list of services, money circulation rules, and transaction fees. The largest banks are "Apoalim", "Leumi", "Discount", "Mizrahi".
Our former compatriots who came to Israel did not particularly rush to learn Hebrew; instead, they began to create a Russian Israel - shops, libraries, video libraries. The banking sector reacted, albeit with a delay, but vigorously. ATMs of most banks have an option for conducting transactions in Russian, large banks certainly have a Russian-language website, and advertising brochures are produced in at least three languages - Hebrew, English, and Russian.
After receiving your salary, everyone will want to at least partially compensate for the sweat shed and calluses rubbed by having a blast of a rest. Here a mass of opportunities opens: from banal drinking of strong drinks to visiting restaurants, nightclubs and discos. With one "but". From Friday evening to Saturday evening, most of Israel does not work. Because of this very Saturday-Sabbath. The exception is cities populated not only by Jews but also by Muslim and Christian Arabs. Somewhere in Kfar Saba, you won't even be able to buy a pack of cigarettes. But in Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, Haifa - please. But not everywhere. You'll have to get to the place of cultural rest - the city limits - by taxi or on foot. There is also somewhere to "let loose" in the Arab quarters of Jerusalem, but - the intifada. This is when out of five hundred completely peaceful and relatively good-natured Arabs, there will certainly be one "nationally conscious" Hamas member or some other basmach, who will not fail to test the sharpening of his knife on your ribs. He won't be interested in your actual nationality - if you're white, that means you're a Jew.
Surely you won't refuse a tour of "Russian" stores. There your eyes truly widen at the sight of food familiar to the point of gastritis and native to the point of ulcers. If you are a fan of homemade cottage cheese and sour cream in which a spoon stands, then this is the place for you. For salted and smoked fish, too. Native Israelis know and eat only three kinds of fish: salted fish, stuffed fish, and tuna. This is connected with religious prohibitions - most varieties of fish and seafood do not meet the concepts of kosher (some have scales, some eat their own kind, etc.).
Kashrut (dietary taboos and permissions) is a separate topic. According to biblical commandments, which received their development in the interpretations of Jewish sages, one cannot eat blood and mix dairy and meat dishes. Therefore, blood from slaughtered poultry or cattle is carefully drained, after which the meat is often additionally salted to get rid of the remaining blood. The meat turns out kosher and tasteless.
The ban on eating pork has long become a proverb. Interestingly, in Hebrew there is a euphemism for pork - "white meat" - so as not to defile one's lips by pronouncing the name of an indecent animal. And calling a Jew, even a nasty one, a pig - I strongly advise against it; it is an insult of the deadly kind. They probably won't kill you, but they will definitely ruin your face.
Most non-religious Israelis are very skeptical about the rules of kashrut, and its observance is rather a tribute to tradition and is connected with the fact that kosher food is prepared in all kindergartens, schools, and kashrut is followed in the Israel Defense Forces. From what has been said, it does not follow that you must necessarily try, at the first opportunity, to offer your Israeli colleague a sandwich with a pork chop and recommend washing it all down with kefir. But you can mention, if the occasion arises, that you do not observe kashrut. Sometimes this even brings people closer.
The manner of dressing among Israelis also differs from what we are used to. Religious Jews - the so-called "Haredim" - wear shoes and black suits with an invariably fully buttoned white shirt. And black hats. This is a kind of uniform. By the cut of the clothing, one can determine which particular trend in Judaism this individual belongs to. Religious Zionists look like completely secular citizens; their only difference is the obligatory knitted kippah (in our terms, yarmulke). They also observe the Sabbath and adhere to the corresponding dietary restrictions. But without excessive fanaticism and ostentation. And if most of the black-clad Orthodox Jews devote their lives to the study of the Torah (the Old Testament), then religious Zionists work, serve in the army, and are no different from other Israelis. Very conditionally and with a stretch, the Orthodox can be characterized as a kind of monasticism in Judaism.
From time to time, there is a confrontation between the religious and the secular, associated with the fact that the Orthodox are for some reason considered parasites living off taxes collected from the secular part of Israelis. In fact, this is not so - many Orthodox also serve in the army and work. They simply serve - in separate units, and work - in establishments and organizations where their colleagues are those who exclusively share their way of existence and attitude to the world and God. And with the end of the election campaign, this confrontation fades into nothing, because it was brought into the rather monotonous Israeli life by zealous propagandists and agitators.
The Israelis themselves are a people not simply southern, but southern with all the additions that come with this definition. If suddenly wild screams are heard under your window, do not rush to grab the phone and call the police. It's just two Jews who haven't seen each other for a long time met and are quietly talking. For six hours straight, if not seven. And when at the market you are grabbed by both arms, both legs, and other parts of the body, this is not happening for the purpose of making anthropometric measurements or sexually molesting you - in this way they are trying to persuade you to buy a kilogram of vegetables.
I would never have thought that there could be such big differences between Arabs and Bedouins. By the way, even visual ones. They have very characteristic facial features; with slanted eyes and wide cheekbones, Bedouins for some reason remind me of medieval Chinese warriors: under the tan ingrained in their skin, a slight yellowness is visible. Bedouins somewhat remind me of our highlanders. Maybe it's a matter of heightened perception of everything related to questions of honor and duty. If a Bedouin is your friend, you have a real Friend. If he is an enemy, you can be proud of such an enemy. Bedouins serve in the Israeli army and are considered the best trackers. By the way, it is interesting that the royal family of Jordan is also representatives of this people, and King Abdullah looks extremely similar to my friend Muhammad from the suburb of Petah Tikva.
Suspicion and trustfulness go hand in hand in Israel. If your appearance differs from that of the people around you, sooner or later you will inevitably be stopped by soldiers or police officers who will ask to see your documents. At the same time, without much effort and without showing any documents, you can get onto the territory of a military base located in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. It is there - to put it in our terms - that the country's main military conscription office is located. Many former recruits have told me - and there is no reason not to believe them - that in the questionnaires that a candidate for the army must fill out first of all, there are questions whose affirmative answer almost automatically makes you uninteresting to the army and results in getting their “white ticket”. For example, they ask whether you suffer from fits of unexplained aggression, how often you drink (more than 200 grams of vodka a week (!) for them is already alcoholism), whether you have ever had the desire to pick up a weapon, and whether you like to look at fire. Your answers are believed. So who is the psycho after that?
Overall, the percentage of “refuseniks” and “draft dodgers” in Israel is extremely low. This is due not only to the humane conditions for the defenders of the fatherland and the high motivation to defend that fatherland. Those who serve properly and return can count on an advantage when hiring and when entering higher education institutions. Many repatriates built successful careers in Israel precisely thanks to the connections acquired during service in combat units. And the last three prime ministers - Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon - have a direct connection to the General Staff special forces, the most elite unit of the Israeli army. As is well known, singing battle marches together brings people closer.
By the way, about songs. It is extremely difficult to hear the Yiddish “Tum Balalaika” or “Seven Forty” in Israel. Different climate - different songs. The local pop music, listening to which can drive even the most patient and God-fearing European Jew into an acute attack of anti-Semitism, is the “Mizrahi” style (literally “Eastern”). The melodies of the songs are drawn-out and doleful, like the howling of a mangy stray dog thoroughly tormented by lice; the lyrics are something like “yo-oy-oy, I loved him, what should I do, hang myself or shoot myself with a howitzer, tell me, stars in the sky, Aunt Nechama and Rabbi Solomon Moiseevich...”. It is customary to play the music very loudly, so that those around you can appreciate your taste and the quality of your acoustic system. Fighting with those who break the silence is useless, and for murder you can get life imprisonment. So - be patient and enjoy. If you can.
The theme of the differences between “them” and “us” is as endless as the Universe. The main thing is not to try to remake something or someone in your own image. Going into someone else's monastery with your own rulebook is somehow not done. Act “from the task”. If you came to earn a little money, take as much as possible and leave. And when you return home, grumble and complain as much as your soul desires. If your task is to stay in Israel, accept the rules of the game. My Israeli friends claim that in their country it is difficult in every respect only for the first five years. “And then it gets easier?” I asked. “No. Then you get used to it,” they answered me. God grant you good earnings and great patience.