Shalom. This is the first word I want to use in this blog. Shalom is universal. It sounds like its Arab counterpart. It is how you greet someone in Israel when you meet him or her. Sometimes we, Israelis, use it also to say goodbye.

And, of course, Shalom in Hebrew means peace. So what we have here is the most commonand used  word in the Israeli language, which also define a situation that we will never attain. In other words, it’s a cynical irony, just like “sun” would be the most common and used word in Berlin in Febraury.

I think that this is what this blog will try to show. The cynical Irony of living in Berlin (and Germany) as an outsider. This is not a philosophical blog, rather it is a blog that will collect daily stories from the street, snippets of daily life, with the hope that they could reflect on the bigger picture.

I will write here about moving to Berlin, living here with my family, raising my kids here. I will write about Israel and the decision to leave the country despite my unlimited love to it (or maybe because of this love), I will write about political stuff in Israel and about “the situation”. I will write about life as a Jew in diaspora, especially in Germany, especially in Berlin. I will write about being a dark Jew of orient roots, that the local mistaken for an Arab, but the local Arabs know exactly where you are coming from. Did I mention cynical Irony?

I will write about being a Jew ad an Israeli and how and if these two identities can co-exist.

I will take you on a tour with me to the supermarket, the DMV, the tram, the custom office, my language classes, the spielplatz. I hope that it will be funny and sometimes sad, that it will clear some of the steam of the window through which the German society is looking at auslander. Most of all I pray that it will be thought provoking, that it will manage to take its readers out of their thought patterns, and that it will assist in a better and more civilized discussions over the issues I will be covering here.

A few notes: any one who wants to comment, contact, complain, suggest or otherwise, please do so to zeevny@hotmail.com. I will be writing this blog in English which is not my native speaking language, so I apologize ahead  for any grammer mistakes and hope that at some point I will be able to write posts in Deutsch.

In the meantime, thanks for being here. Shalom.