Read Hebrew blogs (or write one... please participate!)

First, I want to direct everyone to the excellent new edition of Haveil Havalim over at another one of my favorite blogs, Shetl Fabulous. Shetl Fab isn't Israeli, but her humorous perspective on Judaism would make her right at home here, I think! Shtetl Fab, thanks SO much for including this blog twice!

If you're up for a Hebrew challenge, I highly recommend my husband's blog, israbloph: israbloph.blogspot.com I have to admit that his posts are sometimes way beyond my Hebrew level. My husband was born in Israel and moved to America as a teenager. I'm extremely jealous of his true bilingualism. :)

This brings me to the real point, though-- Muse gave me a great idea in her response to my long post about my first year in Israel. She suggested that I read Hebrew newspaper articles and write letters to the editor about them. This made me think about reading Hebrew newspapers and writing blog posts (in Hebrew! *gulp*) about them, which gave me the idea of a new blog: olimomrim.blogspot.com Olim Omrim... will be a blog challenging a few of us olim (immigrants to Israel) to write entries entirely in Hebrew.

I'm looking for about five or six olim (vatikim or chadashim) who will commit to writing a post entirely in Hebrew on one specific day of the week. I already have one or two Brazilian friends who would like to participate, meaning that this really will be a coming together of not-just-Anglo olim! Your posts can be short or long, edited or barely readable, in basic Ulpan phrases (I am Maya. I like cats) or "ivrit gavoha." You can write about newspaper articles, your daily lives, your cats, the weather, politics, or whatever. The strict rules: posts must be written entirely in Hebrew (characters, not transliteration) and must go up on the blog on your day of the week almost every week. We'll encourage each other and celebrate the guts it takes to put our work up in a foreign language.

You can see my introductory post (which my husband helped make grammatical... you'll see my true colors soon :) on the blog already. If you would like to participate, please leave a comment in response to this message (and give me a way to get in touch with you)!

Even if you don't want to join in, please read our blog and cheer us on. (You can leave comments in any language.) I'll post about it again when it really gets off the ground. I think I'll appreciate reading the easy Hebrew that my fellow participants post! Who knows, we might develop a following of olim wishing to read easy Hebrew (and Israelis entertained by our attempt). This endeavor scares me, but I make a point of never avoiding anything just because of that. There's no shame in making mistakes-- only in being afraid to make them!