Adding a Chat Feature to our Blog

We recently added a chat feature on our blog and it's quite an amazing experience. Have you noticed it? Have a question, do be in touch. It's quick, it's easy and we love to chat to those who wish to make their home in Israel.

Not much time elapsed after we added the feature before we had our first visitor wanting to ask a question. The first question related to learning Hebrew from outside of Israel. To answer the question:

Yes, there is a certain amount we, at Chessed Ve'Emet, can teach online.

At this stage our online learning is via Skype with webcam. 

We are happy to assist with basics, learning the aleph bet, learning to read, basic writing, understanding what you read etc.

For those interested, we also teach reading of Chumash and other Torah related topics and Seforim (books)

Yes, there is a fee for the tuition. 

If you are interested, do be in touch for further information or to sign up to learn. 

The next question was to do with the rights of renters. The reader to our blog wanted to know if there was any progress in a bill being passed in Kneset to improve renters rights.

Did you know that there is a housing crisis in Israel? The sad reality is that conditions of many apartments are in a very sorry state and there are landlords who take advantage of their tenants on every level. For a number of years there has been talk that the housing crisis is a bubble that has to burst. There has to be change, in a positive direction of course.

In 2011 there were a number of protests related to the problems with housing in Israel. There has been talk for some years now to pass a bill in Knesset (parliament) in order to improve the rights of renters. You can read more about these developments in a recent article that came out in the Jerusalem Post. This article talks about the rights of renters to have repairs carried out to apartments. Something that most landlords avoid with all kinds of crazy excuses as to why they feel they do not have to repair.

Of course the issues for renters go beyond repairs. The rate of rent increases is a major problem. 

What are your experiences in renting in Israel? What laws would you like to see happening? If we receive enough attention to the problem of housing and problems for renters, perhaps change will be possible. Why not be a part of increasing attention to this problem. 

This post is prepared for you by Shoshanah Shear, occupational therapist, healing facilitator, certified infant massage instructor, freelance writer, author of "Healing Your Life Through Activity - An Occupational Therapist's Story" and co-author of "Tuvia Finds His Freedom".