{"id":2801,"date":"2012-11-07T14:44:28","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T12:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2012-11-07T14:46:39","modified_gmt":"2012-11-07T12:46:39","slug":"bagels-politics-and-personal-ownership-here-and-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2012\/11\/bagels-politics-and-personal-ownership-here-and-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Bagels, Politics and Personal Ownership, Here and There"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>While all eyes today have understandably been focused on the U.S. elections, sometimes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the little things that are elevated to true\u00c2\u00a0shmooze<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0status. And for fast foodies in Jerusalem last week, it was the closing of Tal Bagels on Emek Refaim.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it, no matter who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s president, you still have to eat bagels\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6at least a couple of times a year. And Tal was the best in town. The product was tasty, the facility spacious, the\u00c2\u00a0shmears\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>shmeary. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had many a meeting there over the years. So why did they suddenly shut down?<\/p>\n

No one knows for sure although a Facebook discussion on the subject (yes, people will speculate about just about anything on social media) suggested that Tal Bagels had lots its\u00c2\u00a0mojo<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0a while back and was no longer\u00c2\u00a0the<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0place to be and be seen.<\/p>\n

Tal Bagels in Jerusalem was the only kosher branch of a national Israeli chain. The owner of the local franchise also owns the adjoining Aldo Ice Cream and the former yogurt shop. Those two are doing fine.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry too much for us poor Jerusalemites\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be bagel-less. Holy Bagels is still open a couple of stores down on the same block. And, not too far away in Baka, Bagel Bite is going strong after many years. Other bagel establishments exist downtown \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Nina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s are two \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak for their tastiness; I just know I liked Tal the best.<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something a little deeper in my mini-obsession over the local bagel scene. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that sense of personal ownership those of us in Israel can feel over the smallest things, a feeling that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very different than in the old country. I remember when they put in a new McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s near where we lived in Berkeley. Big deal. Or when they erected a new stop sign. Yawn.<\/p>\n

But here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6every little jot and tittle on the ground is a big deal. A new flower arrangement on the roundabout \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hey, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0my<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0traffic circle! Aroma now makes a Chai latte with soymilk \u00e2\u20ac\u201c woo hoo!<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that Jerusalem is a small town compared with Berkeley \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the opposite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but rather this is\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>town,\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>country,\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>future. We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just move to another state in the U.S. We made a statement of connection, of belonging, of peoplehood. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reflected in everything we do here, including the seemingly insignificant, like fretting over which bagel restaurant is down the street.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday they were carting off the furniture at Tal and taking down the sign. By Friday, there was a new sign up. Coming soon: Bagel Caf\u00c3\u00a9. You can take the Tal out of the bagels, I guess, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take the bagels out of the hood. Bring on the\u00c2\u00a0shmears<\/em>, round two. And yalla<\/em>, \u00c2\u00a0it’s on to the Israeli elections, onion and garlic in hand.<\/p>\n

I bid farewell to Tal Bagels yesterday on Israelity<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While all eyes today have understandably been focused on the U.S. elections, sometimes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the little things that are elevated to true\u00c2\u00a0shmooze\u00c2\u00a0status. And for fast foodies in Jerusalem last week, it was the closing of Tal Bagels on Emek Refaim. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it, no matter who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s president, you still have to eat bagels\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6at least a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,9,4,46],"tags":[102,32,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2804,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions\/2804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}