Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Next Year in Jerusalem...This year in Singapore!

Matt and I went to see Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong tonight. An amazing woman, Rachel, formed a group that bridges (Gesher) the Orthodox community and the Reform community. She invited the Prime Minister to spend a night with the Jewish community to see who we are. It was super interesting. It was basically mingling for two hours. He mentioned Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and he said, "Next year in Jerusalem, but THIS year in Singapore." He got a few laughs. I forgot to bring a camera, or I would post a picture here, but I'll steal someone else's and post one soon.

In case any of you is interesting, you can check out the article in Sunday's Times about Singapore. It speaks a lot of PM Lee's father, Lee Kuan Yew and his ideas about modern Singapore. It's actually pretty good. He really brought Singapore out of the third world, and he is quite a hero here.

In addition to PM Lee, the night was a success. Matt and I even met a few young couples without kids! We met an Israeli couple that we liked a lot, and we met a few other couples - mostly someone went to INSEAD in each of the couples. I also met the head of the day school here. Everyone was really really nice (which was a good change for me).

So tired.

1 comment:

sarah said...

I read that article in the Times; he sounded like a generous king, or a kindly despot. Did good stuff, but did it his way.

Did you get your new yorker food issue yet? You're going to love the Calvin Trillin article about food in Singapore.