Family Affair / Yair and Liat By Avner Avrahami and Reli Avrahami Jerusalem The cast: Yair Mau (24) and Liat Carmi (25). The home: Tenement in the Katamon Vav neighborhood, third floor, 48 stairs (washed), 68 square meters, with living room, two other rooms, kitchen, washroom and two balconies. They are renting ("For the past year and a half") for NIS 2,500 a month. The owner is an evacuee of the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip ("young, our age"). Advertisement Contents: The living room, which is also a dining area, has blue curtains, two blue sofas and a bluish armchair ("We're agreed on the color blue") facing a bureau on which stands a television set. There is also a narrow refrigerator (new) and a table (covered with transparent plastic), which was purchased via the Internet ("NIS 500 with the chairs"). We are served cookies with laughing faces on them, and we look around. On the walls there are dried leaves in frames ("from Montreal"), Chagall and Rubin reproductions and a picture of Homer Simpson in the pose of Munch's "The Scream" (from a happening at Jerusalem's Malha mall). On the heating pipe is a Brazilian flag, whose import will be revealed later; in the meantime we go on a tour. The tour: In general, the apartment flanks the living room from the right. At first there is a kitchen with a small balcony, into which gas burners have been crammed, after that is a room with a computer and a youth bed (from which they watch movies downloaded from the Internet), then a corridor with a toilet, shower, Botero paintings of plump people (Liat likes them) and finally a blue bedroom with a blue double bed, blue curtains and blue slippers. Back to the living room. From the balcony the view is of more tenement buildings. We turn to the story. The story: Yair and Liat are new immigrants from Brazil who have been in the country for two years. For the first five months they lived and learned Hebrew and more at Ulpan Etzion in the city's Baka neighborhood. They plan to get married, though no date has yet been set. Livelihoods and occupations: Yair is a physics student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ("I liked mathematics from childhood"). He's doing a master's degree and is specializing in nonlinear physics. Nonlinear physics: "Systems that develop according to well-defined rules, but without our being able to predict their long-term behavior." For example, "the weather, or the double pendulum, which has two joints." Yair's occupations (cont.): He attends classes four days a week on the Givat Ram campus, coming and going with the No. 24 bus. He is pleased with his teachers and has two courses left to complete the degree, after which he plans to do a Ph.D. If he gets a high enough grade ("above 85"), this may be in the U. S. though he is certain he will return to Israel. He doesn't think much of Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking: "He doesn't really explain things," says Yair. "I, who more or less understand, don't understand. A regular reader, even if he thinks he understands something, doesn't have a clue." Admired physicist: Johannes Kepler. Yair admires the German astronomer not only because he discovered the eliptical orbit of the planets, but also because of his biography: "He came from a solid family and had about 100 siblings, but nevertheless he did it, and all by himself." Liat's livelihood: She is currently a social staff member with the Taglit birthright israel project, working with groups of young people who come to Israel from South America. Her usual job is with the Israeli Experience, a Jewish Agency organization that provides "educational tourism" for all age groups, from five ("for example, children from the Sao Paulo Jewish community, who have arrived with their parents") to 80 ("WIZO women with hair that's purple, blue or any other color"). The work is irregular, but happily, she says, over the past eight months she has had a great many groups in succession. In birthright, she says, each group of Jewish young people is brought, all expenses paid, for a 10-day visit, during which she works from 7 A.M. until 2 A.M. ("I am glued to them"). It's exhausting work, she says, but very satisfying. She thinks it would be a good idea if Israeli youth also went on a similar program. Liat's bio: Born in January 1982 in Ashkelon. Her parents, now divorced, live in Sao Paulo, where they moved when Liat was 13. Her father, Israeli born and a former officer in the career army ("in the Paratroops, I think"), established a security systems company in Brazil; her mother, who is Brazilian born, manages a guidance center for pregnant women. Liat attended school in Ramat Gan until sixth grade and then attended a Jewish school in Sao Paulo until 11th grade. At the age of 17 she came to Israel for a "preparatory year" through the South American Youth Front movement ("which isn't part of any stream in Israel"), living in Jerusalem and on Kibbutz Revivim, south of Be'er Sheva ("I cleaned the Golda [Meir] Museum there"). She then returned to Brazil, completed high school, obtained a matriculation certificate and studied graphic design. She immigrated to Israel in 2005. She has known Yair since seventh grade ("but we were just friends"). Yair's bio: Born in 1982 in Israel to parents who were born in Sao Paulo - the children of refugees who reached Brazil before and after World War II. In the mid-1970s his parents immigrated to Israel and settled in Kibbutz Bror Hayil. They returned to Brazil in 1987 ("I guess they didn't have it good here"). Both of them now live in Canada. His father, an electrical engineer, works for a computer company, and his mother, who has a degree in biology, works for Danona in Montreal. Yair's bio (cont.): The kibbutz-born Yair arrived in Brazil at age 5. He remembers that in the seventh grade, a redhead from Israel arrived and he connected with her. He visited Israel when he was 18 during a "training year for counselors," spending three months on Kibbutz Ramat Rahel (in Jerusalem) and relearning Hebrew ("That year was good for me"). He then returned to Brazil, studied physics, obtained an undergraduate degree and in 2005 immigrated to Israel - with Liat. She was a really good friend. The meeting: 1995. She was a new student in Grade 7D, sat in the last row, never opened her mouth and no one talked to her other than Yair, who knew a little Hebrew. One day he took the initiative, moved to the seat next to hers and taught her a game with squares and then a little Portuguese, too. Together they went to the youth movement, together they immigrated to Israel, together they studied Hebrew in the ulpan, always as "friends." Until February 24, 2005. February 24, 2005: On the way back from an outing to the Negev, as they sat together on the bus, he suddenly kissed her. "It was a surprise," Yair says, "and two days after the kiss we were involved in a very deep relationship." From friendship to relationship: "It was a bit strange at first." Wedding: "No date has been set," Yair says. "A date has been set," Liat says, "when we settle down." The wedding will not be held in Israel. They don't like the Israeli formula "outside in some banquet garden." Liat: "Five minutes of hoopla - both the ceremony and the party - and that's it." In Brazil, she says, it lasts until morning, "with breakfast," and always in a hall, because it rains and it costs a lot less. "You have to win the lottery to get married in Israel," Yair says. In any event, Liat sees herself in a white gown, 15 kilos lighter, with Yair in a black suit and tie ("the whole outfit"). Ring: Yair is already making preparations. For her birthday he bought her a necklace at Malha mall. "I was thrilled," Liat reveals, "especially because he managed to buy it alone." Daily routine: They get up at 7. Yair has a cup of coffee and rushes to get the bus. Liat drinks water and stays home if there are no groups for her to work with (if there are, she's not home). They have lunch at home together ("We both cook"). Yair makes rice and beans, Liat does chicken, pasta, vegetable pies (broccoli, mushrooms) and sweets such as cookies made with cream cookies and sweetened milk, which are kept in the freezer). They both also clean house together ("We wash the floors every three weeks"). Their evening fare is sandwiches (with tuna, eggplant salad, or hummus). They watch the current events program of London & Kirschenbaum ("I'm wild about them" - Yair), and after that (usually) a movie they have downloaded from the Internet. They are not crazy about the satirical program "A Wonderful Country." Liat: "We laughed at first, but they repeat themselves." Music: Liat - Aya Korem ("Keren Peles, less"), Gidi Gov, Arik Einstein; Yair - Credence Clearwater Revival, Hadag Nahash and the whole Bach discography. Brazilian music: "Not what's familiar in Israel," Yair says. Not bossa nova, not samba, not Dorival Caymmi. He prefers the rock of Skunk (a band) and of Marisa Monte (a singer). Soccer: They are both fans of Corinthians (a Sao Paulo team). "We didn't get into it in Israel," they say. Yair went to a game in which Betar Jerusalem played Hapoel Tel Aviv ("a nightmare"). God: "I am an atheist," Yair says, adding, "the whole story that physicists are starting to believe in God is religious propaganda." Jerusalem: "The Sabbaths are hard," Liat says. "We don't have a car." "It's a village," Yair says. "I go into the street and there are no stores." In the future they will live in metropolitan Tel Aviv and will have three children. Security concerns: "I never felt safe in Brazil," Liat says. She relates that a girl in the youth movement was murdered with a boyfriend while camping out. Yair: "There's no place there from which to start organizing things." Israel: "We didn't expect a land of milk and honey." Dreams: "Professor of physics" (Yair); "a family" (Liat). Loneliness: "So-so" (Liat: "To call it loneliness is too sad," Yair says. "We are starting to make friends." Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): Yair - 9, Liat - 8.

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