On the eve of the celebration of the 67th birthday of the Jewish State, we have collected 10 little-known facts from its complex history.

1. El Al Airlines had flights to Tehran


Relations between Iran and Israel generally developed quite warmly until the Islamic Revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in ​​1979. In 1950, Iran became the second Muslim country after Turkey to recognize Israel. Iran supplied oil to Israel during the OPEC oil embargo, and Israel sold it weapons. At that time, there was active trade between the countries, and civil planes regularly flew from capital to capital. A week after the Shah was removed from power, Iran cut off all ties with Israel, and an office of the Palestine Liberation Organization opened on the site of the Israeli embassy in Tehran. Today, even after 35 years of hostility, Iranians have less negativity toward Jews than other Muslim peoples in the Middle East. In 2014, an international survey on anti-Semitism conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that 56% of Iranians held anti-Jewish views, compared with 80% of Moroccans and 93% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The 2014 documentary “Before the Revolution” talks about the relationship between Israel and Iran.

2. Descendants of Nazis moved to Israel


At least 400 descendants of the Nazis converted to the Jewish faith and moved to Israel - the creators of the film, published in 2013, are sure of this documentary film. Many former Nazis also became Jews or married Israelis, but do not live in Israel. For example, the great-niece of Heinrich Himmler, who married an Israeli Jew and now lives on another continent. In the early years of Israel, there were heated discussions about whether to accept German reparations for the Holocaust or not (in the end, they were accepted). And Germany itself, like everything connected with it, remained an extremely controversial topic for a long time - from 1956 to 1967, films made in Germany were banned in Israel.

3. Ben-Gurion invented couscous


Tiny flour balls of Israeli couscous - ptitim - appeared in the 50s. Then Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion turned to food manufacturer Osem with a request to develop a local wheat product as an alternative to rice, which does not grow in the country and for which the country simply did not have the money to purchase in conditions of austerity. Ptitim, which was called “Ben-Gurion’s rice,” immediately won the love of the population.

4. There was no television in Israel until the late 60s


This 1958 photograph of a family sitting in front of a television could not have been taken in Israel because there was no television there until 1966

The first Israeli television appeared in 1966, primarily as an additional educational tool for schools. Regular public broadcasting began on Israel's Independence Day in 1968. For the next two decades, Israel had only one channel, and broadcasting was limited to a few hours a day. The second channel appeared in 1986, and cable television came to the country in 1990. Today, Israeli TV is a real source of inspiration for Hollywood. The series “Homeland” (Showtime), “Patients” (HBO), “Your Family or Mine” (TBS), “Devotion” (NBC), “Tyrant” and “Boom” (Showtime) are all remakes of Israeli projects.

5. Elizabeth II's mother-in-law was buried in Jerusalem


Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born in 1885. The girl was born with a diagnosis of deafness, however, she learned English and German in the language of the deaf and mute and even married the Greek and Danish Prince Andrew. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Alice hid a Jewish woman and children, for which Yad Vashem recognized her as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations,” and the British government as a “Hero of the Holocaust.” In 1967, she moved to London and lived at Buckingham Palace with her son and his wife, Queen Elizabeth II. Two years later, the princess died and her body was placed in a burial vault at Windsor Castle. In 1988, her remains were transported to the monastery at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives - before her death, she expressed a desire to be buried there. One of the oldest existing cemeteries is located on this mountain.

6. Alaska Airlines flew thousands of Jewish Yemenis to Israel


After Israel's victory in the War of Independence in 1948, anti-Semitic riots broke out in Yemen, and local Jews decided to move en masse to the historical lands. James Wooten, president of Alaska Airlines, was imbued with their difficult situation and ordered the organization of flights for repatriates. Between June 1949 and September 1950, as part of Alaska Airlines' secret Operation Magic Carpet, twin-engine C-46s and four-engine DC-4s flew approximately 430 flights, transporting approximately 50,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel. The pilots had to overcome many difficulties: lack of fuel, sand storms, enemy shelling, one of the planes even barely landed due to the loss of an engine. Despite all the difficulties of the flight, all passengers were safely transported to Israel.

7. Golda Meir was the world's third woman to serve as prime minister.


Meir (née Meerson) became Prime Minister of Israel in 1969. Before this, two women had already held such a high position in world history - Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka (1960-65) and Indira Gandhi (1966-77) in India. Meir was born in Kyiv, grew up in Milwaukee and after her marriage moved to Mandatory Palestine. She and her husband settled on a kibbutz, and Golda almost immediately began to be active in the Federation of Workers. Despite Meir's enormous popularity among American Jews, her policies are still heavily criticized in Israel - primarily because of the obvious mistakes they made during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Meir decided not to launch a preemptive attack on Arab forces on the Israeli border with Syria.

And although the state investigative “Agranat Commission” established that Meir was not directly responsible for what happened, she very soon left her post. She was replaced in 1974 by Yitzhak Rabin, who held the position until 1977. He was appointed prime minister again in 1992.

8. According to Israeli law of 1980, all new houses must have solar water heaters installed.


The law was adopted as a measure to combat the energy crisis of the late 70s - thanks to it, Israel became the first country in the world in terms of the use of solar energy per capita. According to official estimates, today 85% of homes use solar energy to heat water - that's 3% of electricity consumption in the entire country. But today, Israel lags behind other countries in the use of solar energy for other purposes, and more and more developers and homeowners are using loopholes in the law to circumvent the need to install just such a boiler system.

9. Jerusalem's Mount Scopus is not actually part of the West Bank of the Jordan River


Despite the fact that Mount Scopus is located in east Jerusalem, where the Hebrew University campus and the Hadassah Medical Center stand, it has been Israeli since the founding of the state. After the end of the War of Independence in 1949, the hill was controlled by Israeli troops, although it was located in Jordanian east Jerusalem. Every two weeks, under the protection of the UN, Israel transported military forces and supplies to this enclave. The convoy often came under fire from Arab forces, and in 1958 it was attacked, resulting in the deaths of 4 Israeli soldiers and one UN soldier. Mount Scopus became part of the Jewish territory of Jerusalem as a result of the Six-Day War in 1967.

10. Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel


Einstein received this proposal from David Ben-Gurion in November 1952, a few days after the death of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Ebman wrote to the brilliant scholar that the prime minister's offer was "a gesture of the greatest respect that only the Jewish people can have for any of their sons." Enstien responded that he was "deeply touched by the offer of the State of Israel, but with regret and regret must reject it." Einstein did not accept the post, but did not stop worrying about the country. “My connection with the Jewish people has become my strongest human connection since I began to fully understand our dangerous position among the peoples of the world,” he admitted. It is noteworthy that Ben-Gurion officially denied press reports that it was he who offered Einstein such a post. Three years later the scientist died.

And learn a lot of interesting things!

We have collected 30 amazing facts about the small but very strong and interesting state of Israel. After this article, you will rethink everything you knew about this country before, and you will probably want to visit there!

Israel ranks third in the world in terms of business expansion

It also has the world's highest rates of entrepreneurship among women and people over 55

Israel was the first country to ban underweight models

Israeli banknotes are marked in Braille

Israelis rank third in the world in consumption of vegetables and sweets

The largest known dog cemetery of the ancient world has been discovered in the coastal city of Ashkelon.

Out Magazine names Israel the gay capital of the Middle East

Israel has 137 official beaches along 273 km of coastline

Israel has the most colleges relative to population

The same goes for museums

...and also startups!

Voicemail technology was developed in Israel

The first antivirus software for computers was created in Israel in 1979

Israel has two official languages: Hebrew and Arabic

The city of Beersheba (bib. Bathsheba) has the largest number of chess grandmasters per capita in the world

The Israeli city of Haifa has one of the smallest subways in the world, with tracks only 1.8 km long.

Israel is one of only three democracies in the world without a codified constitution. The other two are New Zealand and the UK

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth

The Dead Sea is very easy to swim in due to the high concentration of salt. It's almost impossible to drown here

Israel is the only country to revive a dead language and make it its official language

Israel's national airline El Al sets a world record for the number of passengers on commercial flights

The largest pepper was grown in Israel and was included in the Guinness Book of Records in 2013

Life expectancy at birth in Israel is 82 years

The national bird of Israel is the hoopoe

Cooking fats developed in Israel are capable of destroying cholesterol and other fats in the blood.

An Israeli company has developed the world's first jellyfish repellent device.

Israeli scientists have discovered the cause of chronic bad breath and developed an easy way to fix it.

More than 44% of all lawyers registered in Israel are women

Israel ranks second in the world in the number of new books per capita

Last Valentine's Day, Israel sent 60 million flowers to Europe for sale.

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My name is Anna. I am a student and have been living in Israel for 7 months. I discovered a different side to the country when I first took part in a colorful masquerade and finally got used to greeting everyone with the question “How are you?” I often notice something unexpected and unusual for people of another culture. These are the things I will talk about in this article.

Especially for website I've collected the weirdest, funniest, and most amazing observations about Israel. Some of the notes are more impressions than facts, since I am not involved in religious culture.

Both women and men serve in Israel, and those who have not served find it difficult to find work

Every citizen serves in Israel. From the age of 18, young people are drafted into the army. Men serve for 3 years, and women for 2. After this, an Israeli can look for himself and a profession, and decide on his future. I'm 24 years old, but by local standards I'm a child.

Those who have not served here find it difficult to find work later. Both men and women, including religious ones, serve here. Now in the government the religious party is asking for the release of believers from the army, but so far such a law has not been adopted.

Local residents love promotions and discounts

Israelis don't like it when things go to waste. Therefore, on Friday, all vegetables in the markets fall in price by 2-3 times, especially just before closing.

Also, every Friday, Tel Aviv residents remove unnecessary items from their homes. I live in a room with 5 students, where 50% of the furniture and equipment are found on the street. They don’t disdain this here; on the contrary, it is considered absolutely normal.

Israelis are very fond of promotions and discounts. When you walk down the street, every shop calls: “Take 5 chocolates for the price of one!” And sellers are very surprised if you don’t take advantage of such a great offer.

Traditions and holidays make up a large part of the life of every citizen

In Israel, religious holidays and Jewish traditions occupy a large part of every citizen's life. This has a special charm. Plus it's an extra weekend. I arrived almost 7 months ago, during which time we celebrated here:

• Yom Kippur(Judgment Day). It lasts for a day. At this time everything overlaps car roads and flights are cancelled. That's why secular Israelis use bicycles.
• Rosh Hashanah(Head of the Year) - Jewish New Year. According to the Jewish calendar it is now 5578. I liked the tradition according to which it is customary to eat apples in honey - it is believed that this will make the year sweet.
• Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles. It is celebrated for several days, during which small huts for meals are built with thatched roofs or roofs made of palm leaves, which are decorated with various toys made of colored paper.
• Hanukkah- the most fabulous holiday. 8 days pass. At this time, everyone eats donuts, Hanukkah lamps are lit on the windows of houses and on the streets. One new candle is added every day.
• Purim. Three-day spring masquerade. This is a day off only for schoolchildren, but in Tel Aviv people even come to work in suits. This is a city procession where everyone dresses up: children, adults, religious and secular.
• Passover. The only tradition that was familiar to me as a child. One of the brightest holidays of the year. Regular bread on the shelves of the city is replaced by matzo.

There is a strong rip current in Tel Aviv

There is a very strong rip current in the sea in Tel Aviv, because of this, almost all beaches have breakwaters, and where there are none, swimming is prohibited. However, lifeguards only work until 16:00! At 16:00 the locker rooms also close, so everyone goes to the toilets to change, which is very inconvenient.

Israel is a country of cats and dogs, and all animals are vaccinated

Tel Aviv is a city of dogs. There is even a special beach for them. It is located right between the gay beach and the datiim (closed beach for religious people) - such an unusual neighborhood. In Israel there is a certain tax on keeping a dog, depending on its original cost. Thus, it is more profitable to take home a mongrel. All animals in the country are chipped. City cats are also marked and vaccinated.

In Israel, when greeting, they say not “Hello!”, but “How are you?”

At work I was very surprised that when greeting me they asked: “How are you?" But this is a question that does not require a specific answer. It is answered with the same question. The form of decency adopted here is difficult for foreigners to understand. And the word for "have fun" in Hebrew is "osim haim", which literally means "to do life".

Being a meat and fish lover is difficult and very expensive

Winter here lasts about 2 months a year. At this time, everyone at home is insulated in three layers of clothing, sleeping in socks and dressing gowns under electric blankets. The fact is that the houses do not have central heating.

In summer, the water is heated thanks to solar panels installed on the houses. And in winter, all hot water is heated by electricity. Here no one stands in the shower for a long time, or washes dishes for a long time, because water is a very expensive resource. But despite this, in the summer, when the heat is insane, in every establishment you can ask for plain water absolutely free. There are drinking fountains everywhere, and particularly in parks.

Living in Tel Aviv as a vegetarian is a real pleasure. When I first visited a cafe here and ordered a fruit shake, the waiter surprised me with the question: “Milk, soy milk, water or juice?” This is the absolute norm for any establishment here. In each area you can find several "green" stores with special products.

A country created for cyclists and lovers of electric scooters and electric skateboards

Now I'm interning at an office in Tel Aviv, and I live in Ramat Gan, which, by the standards of a Tel Avivite, is about the same as living in Brooklyn for a person working in Manhattan. Therefore, for me, the only way to get to the beach and the city on Shabbat is by bicycle, which almost every resident uses.

1. On May 14, David Ben-Gurion announced the creation of the State of Israel, and the members of the Provisional State Council present were invited to sign the declaration read out by Ben-Gurion. But here’s the problem: since everything was prepared in a hurry, the organizers did not have time to put the text of the Declaration of Independence on a specially prepared scroll, which was supposed to be signed by the 37 most important representatives of the Jewish population of Eretz Israel. I had to improvise - the council members signed... a completely empty scroll, and only a few days later the text was drawn up on it.

2. Immediately after the declaration of independence, the Jewish state was attacked by the armies of neighboring Arab countries. On May 15, Egyptian aircraft bombed Tel Aviv, and Israeli air defense chalked up its first success: one Egyptian plane was shot down, and its pilot ejected and landed on a citrus plantation near the town of Ness Ziona. He will go down in history as the first enemy soldier captured by the Israeli army, and - to his great surprise - he was captured by two female soldiers who were the first to arrive at the scene.

3. By the way, on the wreckage of the Egyptian pilot’s plane there were emblems of the British Air Force - it was one of the planes transferred by the British to Egypt. This was not the end of Great Britain’s hidden (and sometimes open) assistance to Israel’s enemies. Few people know that on January 7, 1949, Israeli pilots had to engage twice in battle with British Air Force planes that invaded air space Israel. As a result, five British planes were shot down, and this taught the United Kingdom a new reality: the Jewish state is not to be trifled with.

4. David Ben-Gurion seriously considered the possibility of initiating a mass conversion of Bedouins to Judaism, since he believed that they had virtually no connection with Islam. With the creation of the state, representatives of the Bedouin tribes El-Heib and Huzeil voluntarily joined the ranks of the Israeli army, but it never came to conversion - a full-fledged accession to the Jewish people.

5. During the War of Independence and in the first years after it, Israel lived modestly and even poorly. Many products were sold on ration cards, and sometimes there were not enough of them. Here, for example, are the increased monthly norms per person, established in the second half of 1952, when food became more abundant: 150 grams of vegetable oil, 100 grams of tomato paste, 450 grams of jam, 56 grams of chocolate, 1 kg of sugar. A child under 12 years old was also given 250 grams of rice.

6. At this time, only a few could afford large purchases. It was believed that such wealthy citizens should help those who are poorer through taxes. For example, in 1953, the government decided to impose a special “luxury tax” on shoes, refrigerators, nylon stockings and... playing cards.

7. It is all the more surprising that automobile production was established in Israel during these years. In the early 1950s, a plant arose near Haifa, where cars of various brands were assembled - Studebakers, Willys, Kaiser-Frasers, Renault and Hino. In just 18 years, approximately 56 thousand cars were produced with the proud inscription Made in Israel, a third of which were even exported to European countries.

8. In 1956, two Arab terrorists who entered Israel from Egypt and killed several civilians were sentenced to death by hanging by a military court. However, the sentence was never carried out. The fact is that there was no hangman in Israel.

9. In 1961, the Jewish state faced another shortage. After Israeli intelligence agents discovered fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and kidnapped him for trial in Israel, it turned out that the country did not have armored glass from which to construct a cage to hold the accused in a courtroom. There was a serious fear that someone would simply kill the organizer of the Holocaust right during the process, and therefore they had to urgently order such glass from Belgium, and then test it with machine-gun fire. The court sentenced Eichmann to death, and this time, fortunately, the hanged man was found.

10. Even before the creation of the state, the Zionist movement made the greening of Eretz Israel a national task affecting everyone. After 1948, 240 million trees were planted in the small country! As a result, Israel is the only territory in the world where over the last century the number of forests has not only not decreased, but, on the contrary, increased.

11. The dream again, as in ancient times, of making the country prosperous, also captured foreigners. Who received the honor of planting a tree in the Land of Israel? Here is just a short list of world celebrities who decided to take a direct part in greening the Holy Land: Albert Einstein and Frank Sinatra, Jacqueline Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk and Michael Douglas, Brooke Shields and Sharon Stone. Elizabeth Taylor didn't limit herself to just trees. At the height of the Yom Kippur War, when Israeli soldiers heroically held off the onslaught of the advancing Arab armies, she went on a tour of European capitals to collect donations for the rehabilitation of wounded IDF soldiers.

12. Ben-Gurion was not only the country's first prime minister, but also its symbol. If in those years the media were as indifferent to privacy as they are today, then his wife Paula would probably have become a symbol. She herself prepared food for him for the whole day, and then invariably came to the prime minister's office or to parliament to make sure that this food was served to her husband exactly at the hour she had appointed, and that he ate it completely, leaving nothing behind.

13. In the early years of Israel, it was accepted that a person holding a high government position should change his foreign-language surname to a Hebrew one. So, Shkolnik turned into Eshkol, and Chertenko - into Tsur. Some willingly obeyed this unspoken rule, while others tried to evade it. Isidor Roth showed the greatest ingenuity: when appointed to the post of head of Shabak, the Israeli Security Service, he changed both his first and last name and declared that he was now Izi Dorot. Thus, the rule of Hebrewization was observed, but the sound did not change at all.

14. The ninth celebration of Israeli independence was marked by a football match between the IDF team and the French army team. The Israelis' victory with a score of 3:1 was witnessed by 38 thousand spectators, among whom was David Ben Gurion (this, by the way, was the first time he came to football). However, the ingenuity characteristic of the Israeli army could not be avoided: the IDF team actually consisted of players from the national team, who were called up for urgent army training before the fight with the French military.

15. A year later, in April 1958, France sent a completely different delegation to Israel - fireworks experts. The fact is that I wanted to celebrate the decade of independence on a grand scale, but there were no real experts in pyrotechnics in the country. This problem was solved with the help of 12 specialists from the French "Ruggieri" - the oldest and largest pyrotechnic company in Europe, dating back to 1739. It is they who, distributed over different cities Israel, presented the grateful spectators with world-class fireworks and managed to paint the blue and white coat of arms of the state in the night sky. But by the next holiday, Israeli specialists had already mastered the art of fireworks, and the country became independent even in pyrotechnics.

16. In 1959, Israel acquired its first underground transport: Carmelit began operating in Haifa. It is interesting that the initiators of this idea borrowed the idea from Herzl’s futuristic-prophetic book “Altneuland” - among other future achievements of the Jewish state, the founder of political Zionism described in it the Haifa “suspended electric train that will connect the port with residential areas on the Carmel Ridge.” Contrary to popular belief, Carmelit is not a metro, but a funicular, which is also considered the shortest underground railway system in the world. public transport.

17. In the summer of 1961, Israel entered into an agreement with the Netherlands to supply 80 thousand Israeli Uzi assault rifles there. The deal, modest by monetary standards, was a real breakthrough: before this, the Jewish state itself was looking for where to buy weapons, and now it was on its feet and could already think about military assistance to other countries.

18. On January 2, 1963, the Israeli parliament decided to increase the salary of the country's president from 540 to 1,500 liras per month. President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi categorically opposed this step, and when parliamentarians did not listen to him, he decided to donate half of his salary to the scientific Foundation for the Study of Eretz Israel.

19. In 1960, two retired American military men began searching for the remains of the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by the Almighty almost four millennia earlier. These attempts never brought success. The Americans were sure that the goal of their search was at the bottom Dead Sea, but quickly became convinced that diving to depths in salt water was impossible.

20. In November 1987, another colorful American, Sylvester Stallone, arrived in Israel to film the third film in the Rambo epic. As befits a superstar, he demanded an armored car and was quite surprised to learn that there were none in Israel. In response, Stallone (an ardent supporter of the already mentioned Uzi machine gun) stated that he was ready to rent the world's best Israeli Merkava tank for his movements, but even this request was politely refused.

Hello everyone, my dear viewers!

I am very glad to welcome you to my channel, in this video I want to talk about 10 things that can surprise a Russian person in Israel. If you are interested, stay with me. I would like to immediately note that everything I will talk about today is exclusively my experience, my observations and my opinion, and completely different things may be unusual for you. Be sure to write in the comments what surprises you in Israel, I will be very interested to read your opinion on this matter.

So, let's begin, the first thing that may surprise a Russian person in Israel is that in Israel there are a lot of people with machine guns: on the street, in a store, in a shopping center, in a cafe - everywhere you can meet people with machine guns. When you come to Israel for the first time, it can be a little shocking that there are people with machine guns everywhere around you: soldiers, people in civilian clothes, fragile girls with machine guns. And when you’ve been living here for some time, it becomes so ordinary, so commonplace that you stop paying attention to it.

The second thing that may be very surprising to a Russian person in Israel is that most Israelis consider military service not some kind of obligation that they do not want to fulfill; for most Israelis, military service is an honor. And for me, as a Russian girl who lived almost her entire adult life in Russia, it was very surprising for me to hear at first that people happily give several years of their lives to the army, to serving their homeland, and that they remember this time as best time in their lives, that they are proud of it and happy that they served in the army, of course, for me this was very unusual and surprising. Of course, there are exceptions, and there are people in Israel who want to avoid military service and try to do this by hook or by crook, but this is very, very rare, and other people consider it a real shame, “and how is it possible for a person to doesn’t want to serve the army, doesn’t want to repay his debt to his homeland, this is shameful.” And such a person will definitely not be respected. Of course, in Russia, I am sure that there are people who are not trying to avoid the army, and are ready to give their duty to their homeland, are ready to serve in the army with joy, but the majority of young people are trying in every possible, impossible way to avoid the army.

The third thing that can really surprise a Russian person in Israel is sometimes some religious traditions, prohibitions, and so on that reach the point of absurdity. Let me give you an example. Surely you all know what Shabbat is. This is Saturday, this is the last day of the week in Israel, and on Saturday a believing Jew should only rest, he should not do any work. This does not mean that a believing Jew should not just not work on Saturday, it means that a believing Jew should not use any electrical appliances, he should not start a car, he should not cook, he should not light a fire... Sometimes, under these religious prohibitions, traditions should be adapted by non-religious people who, in general, have only an indirect relation to religion. Let me give you a specific example: we have an elevator in our house; to call the elevator you need to press a button, but a believer, a religious Jew should under no circumstances press the button on Saturday. And that’s why our elevator runs in “Shabbat” mode all Saturday. What does it mean? This means that our elevator travels to all floors, stops on all floors, stands on each floor for some time, about a minute, and moves on, and so it goes up and down, up and down. But the fact is that while it goes through all the floors and stops at each floor, it takes a lot of time, sometimes you have to wait for the elevator for a very long time - five minutes, ten, and sometimes even longer. Yes, you, of course, can say that you can go down the stairs on foot, you can go up the stairs on foot. Yes, in principle, it’s possible, we live on the fourth floor, but the thing is that we have a child, and, therefore, a stroller, and somehow with a stroller it’s not very convenient to constantly go up and down to the fourth floor. stairs, so we have to wait.

The fourth thing that may seem very unusual to a Russian person in Israel is, let’s say, the style of the average Israeli. As a rule, Israelis don’t care what they wear or what they look like, and people around them don’t care what you look like either. You can often find them on the street, in cafes, restaurants, shopping centers people in sweatpants with pulled knees, a torn T-shirt, and no one will look at this person condemningly, no one will think that he is homeless or a drunkard, he was the one who got into a fight, his T-shirt was torn... For Israel this is absolutely normal, and if in this form go to a restaurant, for example, no one will tell you that there is dress control and you can’t come in dressed like that. You can enter almost any restaurant in any form. Of course, there are exceptions, for example, you can’t work in a bank dressed like this, the bank has some kind of dress code. But basically people don’t care how they dress, the main thing is that it’s comfortable, that it’s all ventilated, that everything is cool. This also includes the fact that Israeli girls very rarely wear heels. Of course, you can see girls in heels on the streets of Israel, especially in the centers major cities, but this is very rare. And mostly girls wear high-heeled shoes only to some events. When compared with Russia, the vast majority of girls wear heels, even judging by myself. When I lived in Russia, I constantly wore shoes with heels: I went to work in heels, I rode the subway in heels, went shopping in heels... But when I came here, I realized that there was no such thing here, and this such a relaxing atmosphere, the atmosphere of dressing in something more comfortable, let's just say, it is, of course, very contagious, and I took off my heels, and now I only wear high-heeled shoes for some events.

Another interesting thing about the style of the average Israeli-Russian person may be surprised that at 20 degrees Celsius you can meet people on the streets in down jackets, boots, boots. For example, in 20 degrees Celsius I put on a T-shirt, a skirt and open shoes, and very, very dressed people can walk around me. For me, dressing like this is only suitable for zero degrees, for minus five degrees, but in Israel, apparently, Israelis are 20 degrees of heat is cold, and therefore they are insulated, this, of course, still amazes me very much and very, very surprised. And very often you can see situations where a guy is standing in flip-flops, shorts and a T-shirt, and next to him is a guy in a hat, down jacket, warm pants and some kind of winter boots.

The fifth thing that can really surprise a Russian person in Israel is that, as a rule, a car in Israel is exclusively a means of transportation. If in Russia, for example, very often a car is a means of prestige, and a person may not have an apartment, but, having saved a certain amount of money, buys himself a car, then in Israel this will not happen. And very often you can come across a situation where there is some very expensive mansion, a house in some very prestigious area of ​​Israel, and next to it there is a very, very simple car, from some shaggy era. Sometimes you even come across very broken-down cars, with the headlight stuck on with tape, and the door, you already think, is going to fall off. Both a person with average income and a very, very rich person can drive the same brand of car. You can never tell, either by car or by appearance, how much money a person has. And that’s why there are very few expensive cars in Israel, such as Mercedes and BMW. Of course, they do occur, but if you look at them as a percentage of Russia, there are much fewer of them. As for some very expensive sports cars, for example, Ferrari, Maserati, Bugatti, in the three years of my life in Israel I have never seen such cars. Of course, I’m sure there are such cars in Israel, but I think they can be counted on one hand. Although here everything is conducive to the fact that, if you have a lot of money, buy yourself such a car and enjoy driving around good roads, because in Israel, in fact, the roads are very good.

The sixth unusual fact that may surprise a Russian person is that there are very, very many stray cats in Israel. This is due to the fact that cats live very, very well in Israel: they know that no one will touch them, they are fed, it’s warm and good here, they sunbathe here in the sun and enjoy life. Of course, the state of Israel is trying to fight the breeding of cats, but somehow it’s not very successful. The state catches cats, castrates them at its own expense and releases them back, but cats tend to multiply exponentially, of course, this method does not really work, which is why there are very, very many cats in Israel. By the way, a very interesting fact is that when a street cat is neutered, a small piece of his or her ear is cut off so that people know whether this cat or cat is neutered or not.