Tuesday, November 12: Mission Accomplished

Tuesday, November 12.  The Real Mission of This Trip Accomplished and Tel Aviv Redux

My paternal grandfather died in 1965 and was buried somewhere outside Tel Aviv. My parents found his grave when they went to Israel for the first time in 1980. When I was last in Israel in 2003, I thought about visiting his grave just a little too late – that and I realized I really needed a car and someone with me who can read and speak Hebrew. Therefore, no one had been to visit in over 30 years.

So, months ago I had asked our friend Reuven if he could possibly help – since he of course knows Hebrew and has a car. And of course he said he would.

Well, today was the day. I had brought with me a copy of my grandfather’s death certificate with my father’s notes written on it. A five minute conversation on the phone with the cemetery and all the information was confirmed, and off we went.

Unlike the cemeteries I was used to in the New York area (which don’t exactly follow the grid pattern alluded to on the cemetery maps and are overgrown with trees and bushes and the like), this cemetery was barren of green and as organized as a sheet of graph paper. We found the grave within 5 minutes.

The inscription reads something to the affect “Here lies Harry, who had a hard life, was ill and suffered a long time.” No clue who wrote that, but it’s not exactly “Beloved Father and Grandfather.”

The Jewish custom is to leave a rock or a pebble on the grave when you visit (don't ask me why, 'cause I dunno). There was one rock already there – of course no way to know one way or the other, but I’d like to think that it was my dad who put that rock there in 1980.

Mission accomplished.

Since we were close to Bat Yam, we stopped off to see the community center where Reuven works with Russian immigrants on our way to the train station.

We’ve got the hang of this train thing. No problemo! On our way to Tel Aviv Mercaz (central) station.

Once back in Tel Aviv, we walk to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA). The last time we were in this museum in 1981, it wasn’t much of anything. It has certainly grown in the last 30 years. A very diverse collection, this… thing…(fabric art? Textile art?) was my favorite – pieces of it are all over the museum.

It’s already dark when we’re done with the museum and we walk the 30 minutes back to the Tel Aviv Mercaz station and take the next available train back to Modi’in.

We really have this train thing down. Piece of cake!

Tomorrow: Um. We’ll figure that out in the morning.