Israeli Urban Legends...and then some.

Blog Friend AirTime is in Ulpan these days improving his Hebrew, getting ready for his big move to Israel.

He just had a posting about the "Ani Iparon" Israeli Urban Legend (ii, iii, iv) ...and I was sure I had heard this story first person from someone in the 80's. Guess not.

So, here are a few more (and 2 true stories too)

1. Oleh is driving over the speed limit on the Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv highway when he gets pulled over by a cop. The Oleh thinks to himself, "I'll show him"...and when the policeman asks to see the speeder's driver's license, the Oleh pulls out his New York City Public Library card. The policeman looks at it, turns it over a few times, and says the to the Oleh in perfect American English, "You're the first person ever to try this on me and use a Libray Card as a license!"...and bursts out laughing.

Legend has it, the cop let him go with a warning.

2. This appears on Snopes, but I remember reading it in a US newspaper attributed to a real story from Israel. What the US forgot is that until the 90's, Israel used to have April Fool's articles in its newspapers, and the AP wire service that picked it up thought it was real. Heh, I just found it on urbanlegends.com that even quotes it happening in Israel...

An Israeli housewife found a roach in the house. She very carefully deposited it in the toilet and tried to drown it. Since it swam rather well, she ran to the kitchen and returned with the bug spray. She sprayed until the roach stopped swimming. Exhausted from her ordeal she left the bathroom to rest. Her husband came home and following his regular routine, went to the throne to read his paper and have a smoke. When he was done he tossed the cigarette beneath him. When the paramedics arrived they asked him how he got his injuries and started laughing so hard they dropped him, breaking both his legs.

Two True Stories:

1. My sister in law was driving a Skoda on the Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv highway. When the Skoda first came to Israel in the early 90's, it was ridiculed as a hunk of junk. A cop stopped her for speeding in her Skoda...when she asked him why he stopped her and he told her, "for speeding", she burst out laughing in his face, saying that the Skoda wasn't capabale of going more than 90 kilomters/hour and she kept laughing at him till the cop walked off.

2. My Israeli roommate from yeshiva in Israel was driving some friends back home from a wedding, and he packed the car with as many friends as possible. Driving around Jerusalem, he was stopped by a cop -- "for having too many people in the car." My roommate asked the cop if he would forget about the ticket, if he saw something really funny. The cop scratched his head, and my roommate took him to the trunk of the car, opened it up, and there were 2 more wedding guests in the trunk. Cop let him off with a warning.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael