Who we see on the street

One of the weirdest things about being in Israel is that my husband and I keep seeing doppelgangers of people we know from home.

Our first day here we saw the Chassidic version of our friend,know to our kids as Michael Eyeballs. Earlier today my husband and I each saw a young woman at Bina the secular yeshiva who looked just like my niece.

At Shuk ha Carmel my husband was mistaken for a woman's B'nai Akiva buddy. A little while later we saw a man with a striking resemblance to both Tanta Marcia's husband and to Bill Shulevitz.

We saw Paley at the winery. We saw doppelgangers of Anny and Joanie in the old train station in Jerusalem. Both sets of Anny and Joanie, the ones we know from home as well as their doppelgangers are good friends.

To make all of these doppelganger sightings more confusing we also unexpectedly run into people we actually do know. Friday night we walked into services and a woman we didn't recognize said hello to us. It was a woman I knew from camp. She had had an almost relationship with my husband before we had ever met. And to make this all a bit weirder, I had an almost relationship with her brother during that long ago time.

Seeing Faye eating Shabbat lunch at our hotel seemed like a nearly expected thing despite having seen her perhaps three times since 1977.

Our host at Bina had taught two of our kids Hebrew when they were in Highschool.

So that is our time in Israel seeing friends and their doppelgangers.