May 7, 2008 | Issue 23
Shalom,
It’s a tricky thing to write the Israel Thing on the same day we celebrate Israel’s sixtieth anniversary. Every Jewish organization in the country has celebrated Israel’s independence, and is having special programs and events all year long, particularly today and tomorrow.
What can I add to that? It’s a good question. I am certainly celebrating, no doubt, but I am also filled with questions and thoughts for this day, the Yom Zikaron, Memorial Day that precedes it, and these celebrations. And why is that? I just got back from Israel on Monday morning and came back more excited then ever about the mission that I believe I am doing here, and that we are doing here together.
I landed on Thursday, and went straight to surprise my parents who were vacationing at the Dead Sea. I spent two days there with my family, celebrated my dad’s 60th birthday (he always takes pride in the fact that he was born in “Palestine,” helped build the state, and got it ready for my already “Israeli-born” mom, who was born in July, and will also celebrate her 60th soon…), then met for a day with friends in Haifa, and for a day with friends in Jerusalem. After that I took part in the Jewish Agency training seminar for the summer Shlichim that will be joining us in all of our URJ camps this summer as Israeli staff. This was a week of total “Israeliness,” and a lot of time to reflect on the country that I am here serving, the mission that I believe that I am doing, and my own personal life, a few short months before I return there.
What did I see there? What is the Israel that I am returning to after being away from it for two years? That’s a very good question. Our Prime Minister is under investigation, and it seems like this might be, though I’m not taking any guesses, what will make him lose his position. It won’t be because of the war two summers ago, or the situation in southern Israel, or the social issues, so who knows, right? But you know what’s funny about this answer? It’s that I could have given you the exact same answer from here, from checking the news headlines as I do every day, a few times a day. I noticed something peculiar while I was visiting home. A whole week passed before I checked the news for the first time. I just did not care. Here, I get into my office every day, log on to the Haaretz online edition, Ynet, and a few other Israeli media outlets, and continuously hit refresh a throughout the day. Not an hour goes by without me knowing exactly what happened, where, why, and by whom. I am an Israeli news junkie. While being in Israel, it just did not seem as important. The Israel I saw in this quick week-long visit was not the one I read about every day on the news, rather, it was almost everything I love, and everything that gives me hope about Israel; I saw the people.
Yes, sounds corny and tacky, I know. “Come on, Dotan,” you may say, “we expected more from you!” What is more? Every week for the past few months I have been writing here about things that are happening in Israel. I wrote about corruption, I wrote about the attacks on the south, I wrote about settlers, I wrote about all those things that can make you feel that Israel, as much as we love it, is going down the hill. True, I also wrote about the fantastic music, and about the ducks in Tel-Aviv, but you can’t deny that the spirit of these news reviews was not a good one. News, by nature, does not look good. That is why it was so good to not watch, read, or hear the news for a week, but rather just to BE in the place. I hiked with my brother in Ein Bokek (a short hike, right off of the hotels on the Dead Sea shore). It was early in the morning, no one else was there, and I got myself a little piece of the Judean desert and a little piece of my brother. In Jerusalem, I met with friends from previous years’ Mishlachat members to my camp, in Zion square, and had a divine salad in Tmol Shlishom. I then met with some friends who go to HUC and walked down the street to get a few CD’s in HaTav Hashmini, an extraordinary music store in downtown Jerusalem. I got a couple of new Israeli CD’s, bumped into some more people I know on the street, and went to a few other meetings with friends. In Haifa I had a pretty similar day: Friends, good Hummus, but with an added bonus of a truly amazing sunset on Israel’s prettiest beach. The following day I joined the JAFI seminar.
Every summer, the Jewish Agency for Israel sends over a thousand young Israelis to serve as Israeli staff members in Jewish summer camps all around the world. Most of them get placed here in North America. Over 250 of them were trained last weekend to attend URJ camps. To me, as someone who began as a summer Shaliach six years ago, this was a phenomenal experience.
I have grown a lot, as an individual, as an Israeli, as a Jew, and as a Shaliach since I was released from the army in 2001 and began this process. The five days I spent sharing what I know, helping to educate a new generation of Israelis who are about to experience a life changing summer with many of you in camps, were amazing. Yes, it brought up a lot of frustrations that I sometimes have with the institutions we belong to, but it also reassured me with the great hope I have for this Cross-Atlantic Jewish partnership. For many Israelis attending this seminar, this was the first time they saw a form of Judaism that assumes things such as total equality between women and men. For many of them, this summer is going to be the first time they are going to feel “OK” saying they are Jewish, and also be able to back that up, and say why and how they are Jewish. To be able to share that experience with them for the first time is a truly unique experience.
For many of the American staff that these Israelis are about to share the summer with, this will be a first true encounter with Israel. I’m sure for many of you Israel is the Israelis you know. When you think of Israel, you don’t think of Olmert, Ben-Gurion, or the Kotel. Yes, all of those are important, but more important are the actual people you know and the actual experiences you have with them. Allow me to assure you something: if you are about to spend the summer in camp, you are about to meet some of the most excellent people you have met.
Eating the good food, listening to the good music, talking to my friends and family, and attending this truly ideologically challenging seminar for five days, is what gives me pride and hope today.
There are many things that happened this week in Israel. I could have written about the news (of which there was plenty of, both good and bad), I could have given you recommendations on how to celebrate Israel today, or a review of the wonderful things we have done in the past 60 years. But you can do all of that – just for this week – on your own. To me, all these “Israel at 60” celebrations are more than just a celebration, they are a time to reflect and think about what is still to be achieved, and what there still is for us to fix.
Israelis everything but perfect. There is an ongoing war, there is poverty, there is ignorance, and there are many other things to be ashamed of. But do you know of a place that is perfect? Do you know of a place that you take nothing but pride in? Do you know of a place you that you do not have any criticism of?
So why do we celebrate? What do we celebrate? I celebrate the ability to talk about all of this. I celebrate the opportunities that I believe still exist for us in Israel. I celebrate our ever-evolving heritage and the way we have changed in the past sixty years. I celebrate where I hope we can get to - if we play our cards right - in the next years to come. I think about where we came from, I think, greatly, about what we have done and I think about where I want us to be in the future.
So no news reviews today. Do me a favor: as you go on with your daily lives, or as you celebrate, take sixty seconds, think about what connects you to Israel, what excites you about Israel, what annoys you about Israel, think about Israelis you know, and then take a few more seconds to think where Israel can or should be sixty years from now. I hope that the past few months reading It’s an Israel Thing may have helped you reach some kind of an answer to that question, and as always, I would love to hear any of those thoughts.
Happy Birthday Israel, May the next sixty years be years of fulfillment and joy for all of us how love, share, and care for you!
Yom Atzmaut Sameach,
Dotan
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