Twenty-seven years ago was the last time I was in Israel. But this year, I was blessed to be able to visit my daughter at seminary, have my son look at yeshivot for the following year and have my youngest’s bat mitzvah. Any columns I write will not capture what it’s like walking the streets of Jerusalem, of course. But this is my attempt to provide some tech tips as a traveler in Israel.
The last time I was in Israel, cell phones were seldom seen. Maybe there was an older woman around selling from a bag, metal disks called asimonim; that was the telephone currency. Calling my mother was a costly ordeal. We opted to forego speaking too often to save the money.
To extend the miles my family has been saving for 18 years, we used Aeroflot, the national airline of Russia. I’m not promoting one airline over another, but the first item I look for is any tech in the airport and airplane. (Though if I can say one thing: I am an Orthodox Jew, and it’s very important to practice one’s religion but I still feel there are a proper time and place to pray if it’s waking the whole plane or when the plane is about to land or take off. Please let’s think about the passengers around us.)
Flights are booked online, the boarding passes are booked and printed, and can be emailed. Or one can use the smartphone so losing tickets is a thing of the past. All of this can be done at the airline kiosks. Neat. I learned something interesting after the Snowden Russia ordeal; Americans can’t leave the airport even to get some air. Israelis can get a quick visa and visit Russia for the day.
Again, this is my 27 years away from visiting Israel speaking, so I’m totally taken back by all this technology Israel has. I feel technology has truly changed Israel from what I saw 27 years ago. Everyone has a smartphone; it seems Israelis from all facets and cultures highly rely on internet-enabled smartphones. It’s the first thing that hits you is when you take the bus or the light rail: Everyone is on the phone. Americans frown on someone talking on the phone on a quiet bus, whereas Israelis find the trip a 15-minute excuse to talk to a friend or family member.
Whatsapp is a must-have. Israelis use this app as extensively as I have. Making calls to people over Whatsapp is very important. This way you don’t have to know their number. Sending pictures, videos and recordings is easy, though I found myself always looking for Wifi (which there is plenty of).
Some of the apps Americans use every day just aren’t as updated or working perfectly in Israel, though Waze is still the way to go on directions with a car. Nevertheless, it’s good to ask a local which streets and neighborhoods to watch out for. Google Maps was good but for walking and bus directions an app call “Moovit” is amazing. Moovit has real-time updates on which busses to take, when and where. If you think “Oh me, I’m renting a car or cabbing it,” think again! The new light rail and extensive Eged bus lines may be the only way to go in certain areas. Some areas in Israel may not have any parking at all or just aren’t worth the honking, traffic and stress. Moovit will tell you which bus lines to take. Then you can hit live directions and the app will tell you when to get off. Moovit will also tell you how long your bus/train ride will take.
There is even an option for cabs. To my surprise, there is no Uber in Israel. I am not sure exactly why. I heard it might be a security risk. The alternative is called GetTaxi, which allows you to get the many cabbies around Israel. GetTaxi will tell you the driver’s name, the last four digits of the license plate and when they are arriving in real time. Only in Israel would an app have the option to order a Mehadrin driver. Meaning one can even order a cabbie by his religious beliefs.
To be honest, I am not a fan of getting into a cab in Israel and being at the mercy of someone who may change the rates midway to a higher rate or he will say he meant $40 instead of 40 NIS. GetTaxi is paid by credit card, and the rate and tip are paid in advance, with no haggling. I can’t tell you how handy this GetTaxi was in our time of need in Israel.
There are so many apps that one can read with restaurants and kosher reviews everywhere. What was a culture shock was going to the malls. Malls in Israel? I think there was one mall I went to in my whole two years there long ago. Now the malls are full of stores that sell electronics and American clothes.
The movie theater is something to see. Though I wished the instructions and the people who work there spoke better English. Wait! I am in Israel, I should know better. Cinema City is something to see besides all the frum people in the mall on a Saturday night. The movies were all current, and the theater was state of the art. I am not sure if this option is kosher, but there is a VIP section where there is a buffet; you get your own seats and blankets. When is this coming to the US?
My wife became the captain of our family ship, purchasing RavKav cards. These are bus and light rail cards that can be purchased at the light rail stops. Though I would add more of those machines. Nothing like talking English, trying to figure out how to purchase and how many trips we need, with Israelis behind you huffing. The Rav Cards can be purchased in one-ride, two-way or two-week denominations. Because you are a tourist and your family is taking the bus together doesn’t mean you can use one card five times. We learned the hard way you need to buy a separate card for every family member. The cards can be refilled by a Smartphone NFC method. Though if you have a case that can’t be removed like my wife does, that’s not going to work.
Credit cards are widely accepted, which can help trying to figure out the exchange rate. It seems when one wants to use the credit the most, they only accept shekels.
About smartphones: I have never seen so many smartphone stores all in the same place as I have in Israel. I have Sprint, and the newer Samsung Note 4 has SIM cards that are good for travel. You can call Sprint and have them unlock the phone for international calling. Though when I got a Partner SIM card (one of Israel’s carriers), no one could figure out why my phone would not work. I could get the texts but no calls or web, after trying everything under the sun to get the SIM card to work. It seems in Israel Sprint needs a hard code setting called an MPN that points to the Partner SIM carrier. To be honest, I found the salespeople in the cell stores to be super knowledgeable, especially the three stores on Ben Yehuda I checked out. They know their smartphones!
The hotels have Satellite TV and Wifi. Though this Wifi is SDSL, which is slower. One can browse, check Facebook and email. If you are trying to work remotely as I was, it was not happening. I am sure Israel is going to fix that issue and quick. But be aware of this slow internet if you are going to try to work remotely. The TV where the commercials were saying Chag Samayach or showing special kids shows in honor of Sukkot was cool. There are some Charedi channels, which struck me as odd as they are anti-internet and TV. There were Israeli cooking shows that were not Falafel and shwarma recipes. There were even reality shows that were based in Israel.
For changing money, there are stores all over. No more black market or high rate for banks. You take your smartphone, check the dollar-to-shekel rate and go to any of those stores to see what they are offering you.
Renting a car was a harrowing experience — no, not the roads or the traffic. Getting the car from one rental company that shares the one parking lot with five other rental car services was very hard. The rental company will not rent on the fly, you need a reservation. There are many travel service people I met in Israel. They do all the work for you: hotel, air and rental. Remember to bring your Knisah card. That’s the blue card when you enter Israel. I didn’t know what that was and brought my passport and ID. It seems the Israeli car rentals will not rent unless you can prove you are a recent tourist. This happened to me. Bring that Knisah card with you.
Some items I forgot and wish I had brought: It seems one can never have enough international chargers. We purchased a surge protector as well. Bring the MicroSD chargers, plenty of them. It seems we kept losing them. After all that we needed a USB car adapter and brought a smartphone car kit to suspend from your windshield. I didn’t have both, and it was tough.
At the end of the day with all of the technology Israel has, it’s still great to go to the Kotel. Eat all that great food, visit all the great sites and see everything Israel has to offer.
Seeing my daughter taking the bus on her own late at night was something new for me. She is already a local; she is happy, and that makes us happy. Celebrating a Bat Mitzvah in Israel is a once-in-a-lifetime memory. So many things I would have done differently like learning what 10 hours in a Moscow airport is really about. Some of the fun of Israel is just taking a bus or light rail and seeing the local sites with no plans.
With all of the construction going on it seems Israel will have its own cityscape views soon. I drove to Netanya and saw Cisco, WeWorks, Microsoft and other tech companies. Israel is a force to be reckoned with. There are some great startups like the maker of a small Droid device called a “Pressy.” The device goes in your headset jack. You can program the Pressy to launch your Camera, Flashlight and many other activities all by pressing this little button once or twice. It’s very cheap and a must-have. And Israeli-made.
What struck me like lightning was when I was there last I was between 17 and 18 and saw the soldiers as older people. This time, my own children were close to the ages of the soldiers. All I could think about is at the Jerusalem Techanah Central station when my family was eating out and all the tourists are milling around. There were all these young men and women going from their homes to the appropriate army bases.
I hope one day like all Jews to retire to Israel. I hope my technology career will be put to use to help the IDF. It’s a dream I pray will come to reality.
For all the vendors we used, I secured discounts. For more on this, join the Ungarbled-Tech mailing list at [email protected].
By Shneur Garb
Shneur Garb is the CEO of The Garb IT Consulting Group. Shneur also gives seminars on internet safety and Chromebooks technology. Comments can be sent to [email protected].
