Scenes from the Apartment (Dramatization)

Idit stockpiles food, there is no other way to describe it. Her stuff takes up 2/3 of the kitchen she shares with her two roommates, I among them. In her pantry drawer there are exactly 8 cans of corn, 2 cans of pickles, 3 jars of jam in different flavors, spices with backup bottles and 11 cans of tuna fish despite her professed dislike of the stuff.

In her fruit basket there are never fewer than 4 oranges, 2 lemons, and a few apples. And then, of course, there is the stuff she uses frequently. As a health conscious cook who learned to eat in Paris, she favors garlics, quality butter, a variety of oils and indeed even the off specialty extract, either vanilla or pomegranate.

Not only does she keep this stock in the apartment we share, but she replenishes it weekly without ever seeming to dent it. The entire stash just seems to grow.

After watching this phenomenon for a few weeks, I grew concerned. Was there something wrong with this girl that I didn't understand? Did she have some sort of OCD? Or was this the way Israelis regularly outfitted their kitchens? Was I the one with the strange habits for only possessing one bottle of tehina at a time and never buying my veggies more than a few days ahead of their planned consumption.

So one day I asked my other Israeli roommate what was going on. He answered bluntly, "Don't you understand? Her parents are survivors." And he walked out of the kitchen.