Mazkeret Batya

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The cast: Eli (49), Miri (49), Adar (20), Ophir (18), Aviv (12).

The home: A two-story, detached, red-roofed, white stucco-covered house of 190 square meters, located on three dunams (3/4 acre). There are trimmed ficus trees in the front, mowed grass along the sidewalk, plastic chairs on the front porch and a bucket of olives on the back porch ("We picked them ourselves").

Backdating: The family moved here in 1995 (see the small photo), paying $220,000 ("Today it's worth $350,000-400,000"), taking a 20-year mortgage of $100,000 (and repaying NIS 3,000 a month).

Entering: Next to the front door, around a round area (like a Japanese garden in Kyoto) are planted 12 Singer sewing machines. This alludes to the owners' business in the past. On the ground floor there is a living room with blue sofas ("still from the first apartment") and statuettes from the East (alluding to their present business). Adjacent is a well-equipped kitchen (brown-white color scheme) alongside a reinforced room (packed with books and files) and a staircase that leads to the second floor. Before going up we have a look at the family's roots.

The roots: On the wall is a group of black-and-white portraits of the family's forebears, all of them from Romania. Opposite the small pictures is a large one of a girl in a light-colored silk dress and dancing shoes. This is Miri's grandmother, who was photographed in Timisoara at the end of the 19th century.

W Going up: The second floor contains the children's and parents' bedrooms. Miri thinks (for some reason) that she has to apologize for the order. Really. In Adar's room are posters of works by Magritte and Dali, surrealist painters that he likes. We glance out the window toward the west. Beyond the bed of Hulda Creek (now destroyed) drowses Tel Nof airbase. There was a lot of action here in the war, they say. We go back down to hear about the plans.

The plans: Miri is planning a major overhaul in the living room, with Natucci sofas (or "Chinese rosewood"). IKEA? "Heaven forbid."

Livelihoods and occupations: Miri is an English teacher and 10th-grade homeroom teacher in an Ashdod comprehensive high school. She works a five-day week and gets to work and back in her car (a second-hand 2000 Daewoo Nubira - "I'm selling it"). Even though she has worked in education for 20 years, she is not complaining about attrition. During her last sabbatical she took courses in teaching children with learning disabilities (at a branch of the ORT vocational schools network) and in "improving speech fluency" (at the British Council).

Eli's livelihood: Owner of an Israeli-Chinese import firm, which makes purchases for Israeli companies interested in importing or manufacturing Chinese textiles or household goods. He works in two offices in parallel (in Or Yehuda and Shanghai). His company - a family business - used to make baby clothes, hence the sewing machines in the garden.

China: 10-12 trips a year ("for a week or two"). The Chinese, he says, are efficient to the point of being illogical. A good day at work? "When the Chinese understand what it is I want from them."

Adar: A sergeant in the army, she will complete her service next month. She was a teacher noncom at Givat Haviva, where preparatory courses are given for soldiers who want to complete their matriculation exams before the end of their service (in combat units). She assists with the drills in the afternoon and is also in charge of enforcing military discipline. The courses (in English, mathematics and other subjects) last eight to 10 weeks and are funded by the Libi Fund for soldiers.

The war: "We were in a state of suspended animation." She relates that the soldiers who returned to studies from their units seemed "a bit more free." Romantic ties? "All after the course."

Ophir: Completed high school in Mazkeret Batya this year, did matriculation (five units - the highest level - in English, chemistry and physics) and will be drafted next March ("probably to a computer unit"). Meanwhile he is looking for work - he wants to teach mathematics ("NIS 30 an hour") and Photoshop - and hanging out.

Aviv: Seventh-grader in the local junior high, bicycling to school. Next month he will start a robotics course at the nearby Weizmann Institute of Science. His braces will come off in 10th grade, according to the plan.

Eli's bio: Born in Ramat Gan (1957) to Romanian-born parents from the Orthodox Hapoel Hamizrahi movement ("liberal"). His father arrived before the war, his mother afterward, and they worked in the south Tel Aviv family business that made baby clothes. Eli attended a high-school yeshiva in Netanya for two years, before transferring to a religious high school in Bnei Brak ("with a separation between boys and girls"). He removed his skullcap when he was drafted. It was, he says, a dramatic moment ("I felt that the sky was falling").

IDF: Served in the Signal Corps and took part ("a small part") in the Entebbe operation of 1976 ("I was stationed in an airborne relay station above the Mediterranean"). After the army he worked in the family business for a year, studied textile engineering for four years at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, in Ramat Gan, developed a method to prevent the spread of moths on cotton leaves ("which slows the production process"), studied in England and Japan, also worked in Nigeria, later became a manufacturer himself, then an importer, and four years ago opened his current business.

Miri's bio: An only child, born in 1957 in Romania and immigrated to Israel in 1963 ("on the day of the Kennedy assassination"). Lived with her parents in a Holon housing project; her father was an accountant, her mother a dental technician. After high school she did her army service at the headquarters of the chief infantry officer (Ramle), then studied art history (Tel Aviv University), obtained a teaching certificate (Jerusalem) and went on to study English instruction (Levinsky Teachers College, Tel Aviv). She began teaching in 1986. She first met Eli in 1981, for one evening, but it wasn't until two years later that she met him again, and was able to proceed to the wedding canopy.

First meeting: At a cousin's wedding at the Engineers' House in Tel Aviv. Her parents were abroad at the time and she filled in for them at the family event ("I had no choice but to go"). Eli was there, too. Someone introduced them, and even though they danced the whole evening ("to ABBA songs"), she thought he was too serious for her and the relationship went no further. Two years later, after she had gone to the United States and returned, he called, and she thought: Really, why not?

The wedding: Again, at the Engineers' House ("All the guests were Romanians"). They discovered that they had a common ancestor five generations back.

Daily routine: Miri gets up first ("at 6 A.M."), has a cup of instant coffee with two sweeteners, adds a Yoplait yogurt ("I am on an everlasting diet"), prepares herself a box of fruit and vegetables for work, dresses, puts on makeup, wakes up everyone else, makes a sandwich for Aviv, and leaves (at 7:10). Eli and Aviv get up before she leaves. Aviv has a bowl of cornflakes and leaves at 7:40. Eli has a cup of instant coffee with one sugar, sometimes also nibbling a slice of bread, and leaves at 8. In the meantime, Ophir is still asleep (until March), while Adar makes toast with cottage cheese on her base.

Lunch: Miri will eat from the plastic box in the teachers' room, Eli will make himself something in the office's mini-kitchen with Devora (his sister and business partner) and the two secretaries. Aviv will get home and warm up schnitzel. Ophir will thaw out something. Adar will choose from the rich menu at Givat Haviva ("Schnitzel, fish, hamburger, goulash - something different every day"). Miri gets home at 3 P.M. and Eli between 5 and 10 P.M. ("It depends"). Sometimes he will roam the roads as a volunteer in the National Traffic Police.

Evening: To each his own. The only joint family meal of the week is Shabbat lunch.

Shabbat lunch: Eli prepares a stew in a cast-iron pot, with beef, root vegetables and a lot of garlic and onion ("a dream"). For this purpose he has installed a special brick oven in the yard ("The fire reaches an intensity that a regular oven can never give").

Television: The only family member who seriously watches it is Ophir. He also has a blog on Israblog ("mefomolph, 72849") in which he writes about religion and philosophy ("I have five responses a day").

Music: Eli - Sinatra, Satchmo, big bands; Miri - Madonna, Backstreet Boys; Adar - Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday; Ophir - world music; Aviv - Green Day.

Housecleaning: Miri and a cleaning lady (from Rehovot, once a week, NIS 35 an hour plus travel expenses).

Shopping: Bilu Junction.

God: Eli thinks there is a God, but there is no reward and punishment. Miri ("I'm secular") believes that there is a supreme force that directs things and she also goes to the Western Wall to request things from that force ("It works"). Adar believes and she also gets to the Western Wall with groups of soldiers ("I touch it with my forehead and two hands"). Ophir: "I don't believe in the entity, but in the concept." Aviv thinks God once existed.

Dreams: To replace the furniture and travel to Tuscany - Miri; a cruise to the South China Sea - Eli (he has a boat); to be a National Geographic photographer - Adar; to have a house in Ireland - Ophir; to get a new Xbox console - Aviv.

Quarrels: "Five minutes, tops" (Miri). Lengthy silences? "Don't make us laugh."

The war: "We hosted a family from Kiryat Bialik" (Miri). "Heads have to roll," Eli says, "and I would start with the army, but not with the chief of staff." Adar - "I lost two good friends." She tells about Rafanael Muskal, from Mazkeret Batya ("All the girls were in love with him"), who worked with her as a waiter in Yarok Alhamayim, a nearby banquet hall, and about Michael Levine, whom she met at an army Passover seder at Olga. "He was a lone soldier."

Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): Ophir - 9; Aviv - 8; Miri and Adar - 8.5; Eli - 9 in Israel and 5 in China.