Avi Rockoff, at The Blogs

Apr 9, 2025, 2:54 PM

To get anywhere, you need a destination, tickets, and insurance. We learned that our kuppah, health plan, offers travel insurance. This made sense, since they have all our medical records. Or maybe not. The health plan outsources travel insurance to...

Mar 11, 2025, 4:26 PM

On a Ghost Bus to Nowhere

The bus ride home should have been what it always is: brief and boring. We boarded bus 666. (Not its real number, for bus privacy). A few minutes later we were almost home, just two left turns to go. But...

Jan 29, 2025, 9:11 PM

I Will Always Dream in Fahrenheit

New places bring surprises. When the new place reads from right to left, there is more to get used to than reading Hebrew. Using the metric system instead of miles and ounces, for instance. Or inverting polarity. That’s a...

Jan 13, 2025, 12:31 PM

Pontsher!

Po Ba’aretz—Mamshichim! Here in Israel, We Proceed! A lesson in Israeli resilience from the man who fixed my flat. We don't have a car, but my wife and I have Israeli licenses. To attend a family brit milah in Bet Shemesh,...

Dec 24, 2024, 1:19 PM

Ordinary Life in a Time of War

Weekdays I get up early. After davening I make breakfast: oatmeal, orange juice and coffee. Now that I am retired, I do chores: make the beds, do the laundry, shop at a super close by. Sometimes I get together with a friend...

Dec 3, 2024, 5:59 AM

It dices! It slices! It induces!

Adventures in Aliyah Kilometerstone 21: It dices! It slices! It induces! Modern Jerusalem kitchen technology meets the Veg-a-Matic People who grew up in the US from my generation, sure to be older than your generation, remember the Veg-a-Matic. (Pronounced VEJ-a-MATic.) This was...

Nov 13, 2024, 10:32 AM

Al Targiz et Hakupa’it–Don’t Poke the Cashier!

Adventures in Aliyah Kilometerstone 16b: The Unplanned Grocery Delivery— THE BACKGROUND I had shopped 2-3 times a week for two years at my supermarket. The staff treated me normally: no one looked at me or acted as if they had ever seen...

Sep 29, 2024, 9:10 AM

Near a Tzaddik

The organization he works with goes by a name familiar from tefilla, suggesting that the group’s aim is to care for the needy, imitating God. Sagi was our contact. He agreed to come on a Tuesday to pick up a...

Sep 16, 2024, 9:53 AM

Adventures in aliyah! The grocery delivery, part I

Aliyah is a journey. Getting to Israel is just a step. After that step come many more steps. These steps take months, years, decades, generations. Each step is the dawn of a start of a beginning to getting to...

Aug 28, 2024, 10:02 AM

Ragil

The lift arrived from storage in Ashdod. Our new home was ready to receive it. Three men came to deliver its contents. They drove up from Ashkelon. “Near the beach,” said Oleg, their leader. “I love it there.” Oleg spoke to...

About Me

Avi Rockoff came on aliyah with his wife Shuli in March 2022. They live in Jerusalem. His new book, This Year in Jerusalem: Aliyah Dispatches, has been recently published by Shikey Press.

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