בנשמה

Yesterday we drove to downtown Boston where a shaliach (messenger) from the Jewish Agency in NYC came to Boston's CJP building. We had wondered for some time what this meeting would entail and heard from others who had to schelp to NYC that the Agency isn't always very helpful. Waiting for our turn to be called, I was particularly intrigued looking at the donor wall of the newly remodeled CJP Kraft building and looking more closely, realizing it was to mirror an effect/resemblance of the Western Wall. The receptionist answered every call with "Shalom."  In between nose sniffles and 38 weeks pregnant, I don't have any further insight about this. Going up the elevators, to the meeting room, we were introduced by what I'd call "an American tzuzik." The agent, more or less our age, was very proud of his Bronx roots and when we asked why he works for the Agency, he stated he's Zionistic. I believe I wrote a post earlier about the struggle Americans

Not everything goes exactly as planned. While we were hoping to sign on the July 1st townhouse on Gad street, we found out that the owner identified another tenant (regardless of the current mess -- interesting). And while we considered shifting our dates around to move to the August 1st rental, we were side tracked by the following requierments: 1. Signing a two year lease (which ultimately didn't seem like a total deal breaker for us). 2. Agreeing to a contract stating 4,800 shekel/mo in rent with 1,000 extra under the table to avoid tax (** evasion alert **). 3. A three-month bank security deposit in advance which would be returned upon arrival. Very sketchy and disappointing. Hopefully this will be the only challenge, and with more time to go, something else will pan out.