July 26, 2006: Alexandria & Washington DC

This morning, Debbie and Danny walked Elisheva and Akiva to their synagogue, Agudas Achim Congregation, where Elisheva works as the cantor or hazzan. It’s just a few blocks from their home. She sings in the sanctuary in front of the Ark of the Covenant.

Akiva, on the left, is in daycare, and his sister Margolit is at summer camp.





A bit later, we had an adventure (really just a long detour) in the process of driving south to visit my friend Ruth and her charming husband Jerry. At the onramp to I-395, I was presented with a fork in the road and two signs: North and South. I chose the south fork. I immediately ran into another fork and two more signs: South and Express Lanes, without any further clarification. Since we were going a fairly long way, and since traffic was hindering me from changing lanes, I took the express entrance. Big mistake: it was the entrance to the northbound lanes!

We were now on a course for Washington. I took the first exit available, the Pentagon’s north parking lot, and went under the freeway to reverse course. This dumped us back on the northbound lanes, however. The next exit, Arlington, plopped us into a sea of construction work and detour signs. We ended up crossing the Potomac, circling the Lincoln Memorial, and heading north past the Watergate Hotel. Your tax dollars at work! At this point we gave up trying to navigate on our own and called Ruth, who gave us to Jerry, who stayed on the phone until he had guided out of the morass and back onto the southbound freeway.

I met Ruth five years ago at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the DC Mall. She’s a voluble, motherly woman who quickly discovered that we shared interests in cultures, languages, history, politics, and a variety of other subjects. We exchanged e-mail addresses, and began a correspondence that continues today. Born in Germany, Ruth witnessed the rise of the Nazi party and the destruction of her nation, an experience that engendered an enduring suspicion of authority, an antipathy toward militarism, and a highly progressive political viewpoint.

Ruth met Jerry, an Air Force lawyer, while she was working as a court reporter in Tripoli, Libya. After she came to the US, she started teaching yoga, a devotion she's continued for upwards of 40 years. About 30 years ago, she and Jerry settled on an acre of woodland roughly 20 miles south of Washington on the Occoquan River, a tribuary of the Potomac.

Over a delicious lunch on their deck, we talked at length about the Middle East, immigration, religion, and local wildlife: raccoons, hummingbirds, hornets, toads, and more. Afterwards, Ruth showed us a cabin with a sauna and loft they had had constructed as well as the large garden where she grew most of the vegetables she used to prepare our meal. We heard about the dreadful neighbor with whom she's been feuding and then walked with her down to the river, looking for edible mushrooms. Ruth’s quite the amateur mycologist (in the European tradition).

What is an American summer without baseball? In the evening, the boys and I went with Tobias on the Metro to see the Washington Nationals play the San Francisco Giants. Meanwhile, Debbie went with Elisheva and her girls to the Strathmore Music Center in Maryland. As the sun went down, they picnicked on the grass and listened to an outdoor family concert by a group called Trout Fishing in America.

The Nats-Giants game took place at the run-down RFK Stadium, soon to be replaced elsewhere in Washington by a shiny new facility. Despite living in the DC area and sporting DC garb, Tobias is a Bay Area boy by birth, so he could root for either side. Egged on by his father, Danny helped Tobias by razzing alternate teams with endless cries of “Pitcher’s got a rubber arm!” and “Hey, batter, batter!”

I shouted “Go, Nats!” several times before deciding it didn’t sound quite right.

Barry Bonds, embroiled in a steroid scandal, received no end of boos and abuse; the most popular was a call of “Juice!”

A Nats fan decorated a beach ball with a commentary on the controversy.








In the bottom of the ninth inning, San Francisco was ahead 3-2. Washington loaded the bases, got a hit, scored two runs, and won the game. It was a very satisfying conclusion, and there were high-fives all around our seats near the left field foul line. This makes five wins in a row for the Nationals, though they’re still in the cellar of the National League. But it’s a familiar feeling: Seattle has been bumping along at or near the bottom of the American League standings.