Immigration

September 8, 2017 / IlanaB / 2 Comments

After the US president’s announcement that he was rescinding the DACA program, I was reminded that Israel has faced very similar issues recently and just a few days ago Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that Israel could not forcibly deport illegal migrants. Specifically related to DACA is the situation of children born in Israel to foreign workers. They are not citizens of Israel, but they feel no connection to their parents’ homeland. Yet some of these kids – under the age of 12 – may face deportation. (I don’t know if the decision of the court affects them.)

Let’s start with some definitions. There are two ways people gain citizenship in a country: jus soli and jus sanguinis. Jus soli is a Latin phrase meaning the “right of soil.” That means that if you are born within the borders of a country, you are a citizen of it. Jus sanguinis is Latin for “right of blood” meaning that the right of citizenship is passed down from one’s parents. The US and Israel have a mixture of both.

There is no way that a short little blog post will completely explain immigration issues in a US or Israeli context. But I wanted to point out that Israel is also facing challenges with immigration and we all could probably learn from each other.

Israel’s biggest challenge is that it doesn’t actually have an immigration policy per se. Yes, there is the Law of Return that applies to Jews who wish to come to live in Israel. But the founders didn’t really imagine that anyone other than Jews would want to live in a postage stamp-sized Jewish country. For decades this was generally fine. There were some general rules, but no real policy and anomalies could be handled on a case by case basis. After 1967, Palestinians started to work in Israel. Then there was an influx of foreign workers and later non-Jewish refugees from Ethiopia and Sudan found their way to Israel and hoped for a better life. These people were not necessarily looking for citizenship, but a policy would have to address their rights and status.

Then the situation started to get complex. What do you do with children of non-Jewish foreign workers – either legal or illegal – who were born in Israel, only speak Hebrew, and have built a life in Israel? What about children of refugees born in Israel who may or may not have gotten asylum in Israel? What about the Israeli citizens who live in south Tel Aviv and now live in a de facto refugee center because the majority of Ethiopian and Sudanese refugees live there?

Israel chose compassion first to deal with the situation of human beings in Israel, so many of the children were granted residency status, but still some were left out due to technicalities. The issue of refugees and asylum seekers was a bit more clear cut. If asylum or refugee status was granted then they stayed; if not, they were deported (not always to the country they fled from).

And yet, Israel still doesn’t have a formal immigration policy except for the Law of Return. I imagine that if you want to have a Jewish and democratic state and you don’t have total agreement on who is a Jew and you haven’t decided how to deal with the question of immigration of non-Jews, having a formal policy would be nearly impossible.

So while US immigration policies may be headline news around the world, the US is by no means the only country dealing with huge questions of who can come into their country and how those decisions reflect the values of that country and its people.

The in-between time

May 5, 2017 / IlanaB / 2 Comments

How do you go from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness in five minutes? Is it a form of manic-depressive disorder? Is there a switch that they install in your brain when you make aliyah?

Back in the early days of living in Israel, my emotions and grief on Soldiers and Victims of Terror Remembrance Day were dialed way past 11. On my first Remembrance Day during my kibbutz experience, I cried all day – after having cried the whole day on Holocaust Remembrance Day the week before. In fact, my Hebrew teacher asked me to leave class because my outpouring of unfiltered emotion was just too much for her to bear. Later in the evening, we were all supposed to gather at the main field of the kibbutz to have a closing ceremony for this sad day. More tears and choking back sobs. Honestly, my love for Israel was quite dehydrating. And then everyone was waiting, murmuring to each other in quiet conversation, but just standing there.

Five minutes passed.

And then the fireworks began and everyone was laughing and cheering and they headed off to the biggest, wildest party of the year for Independence Day.

What the hell!?!?!

Today, the switch is working better. I get it. Soldiers who fought to protect us and this land died so that we could live. We honor them and then we not only should, but we are obligated to live and celebrate life. And this week, I stood for the sirens and enjoyed the fireworks.

Fireworks 2017 – it’s really hard to catch fireworks well with a phone camera

But what about those five minutes? As I was thinking about it this week, it seems to me that we are always in those five minutes. We just don’t notice because we are not switching between the depths of despair and the heights of happiness. It’s pretty exhausting to be at either extreme, but day-to-day life in Israel is that in-between time.

When an Israeli athlete wins a medal and you hear HaTikvah, there’s a swell of emotion – and we are in those five minutes.

When the internet company representative works on your internet just before a holiday and says the Shechechiyanu prayer of thanksgiving (in a Russian accent) when it works – we are in those five minutes.

When you take pride in Israelis helping wounded Syrians or building mobile hospitals in Haiti – we are in those five minutes.

When the insurance representative says “Tfu, tfu, tfu, that you should always be healthy” – we are in those five minutes.

When you hear Hebrew in unexpected places around the world, and you feel suddenly at home – we are in those five minutes.

When the veterinarian who made a house call for your cat takes a few minutes to say afternoon prayers in your living room – we are in those five minutes.

There are no substitutes for Remembrance Days and Independence Day and they’re important, but we ought to remember to declare our Zionism and love of Israel in those in-between times. We don’t need grand gestures and emotional extremes every day; it’s those ordinary everyday minutes that are the most special if we just take a moment to pay attention.

Spring in the North

March 19, 2017 / IlanaB / Leave a comment

On Friday, I missed the Jerusalem Marathon – on of my favorite days of the year – because I was travelling in the north of Israel. Now I’m back and happy to share with you the glory of spring in the north.

One hill, many blooms

Atlit Detention Camp, carving in one of the huts – When Jews were trying to enter Israel illegally before Israel was a state, the British arrested them and put them in a detention camp just south of Haifa. Even though it was a camp, which had scary connotations for many, the people were just so happy to finally be out of Europe and in Israel. I have to say, my aliyah was a lot easier.

Haifa from my hotel

Bet She’arim – details from sarcophagi dating from the first to the fourth century CE. The fourth picture is a detail of the evidence of how they must have shaped the burial caves.

And everywhere you look, flowers!

Baha’i Gardens, Haifa – springtime with the Baha’is in the upper garden (accessible only with a guide!) From the top to the middle where the shrine is, it’s about 700 steps.

Aliyah-versary

February 10, 2017 / IlanaB / 4 Comments

On the day I arrived in Israel 15 years ago, February 8, 2002, I planted an almond tree in my aunt’s garden.

There were some hard days for that tree and it seemed like it died. But it didn’t. It was busy digging into the land and strengthening its root system.

It rejuvenated itself, grew again, and began to thrive.

And now this tall, strong tree bears delicious fruit.

*This story is brought to you by Metaphors-R-Us.

Aharei ha’chagim / After the holidays

September 2, 2016September 3, 2016 / IlanaB / 2 Comments

Parents all over Israel breathed a collective sigh of relief as they sent their kids to school on Thursday, September 1.

Another phenomenon that began on approximately the same day was the throwing around of the phrase “aharei ha’chagim” (after the holidays). The “holidays,” starting this year on October 2, are: Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year; Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; and Sukkot, an 8-day festival that includes building temporary shelters outside. Jewish holidays are national holidays so in this 3-week period there are a lot of days off, children are home from school, and it’s hard to get anything done.

One of the rhythms of life in Israel is for people to put off new projects until after the holidays, but this national procrastination often starts about a month before the holidays actually begin. This can sometimes delay projects for up to two months! The holidays are usually in September, so after the slow-down of August, people are busy trying to catch up at work. They don’t want to start anything new. So it’s a pretty common conversation among workers to discuss some new project in September and the agreed-upon start date is “aharei ha’chagim.”

The only comparable scenario that I can think of in the US is if you have an idea for something new on December 20, it’s pretty easy to say that you’ll discuss it after the first of the year because you have to get through Christmas and New Year’s. It’s a slight exaggeration, but imagine the slow-down if any project you pitched in November was delayed until after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.

Aharei ha’chagim can also be used sarcastically at other times of the year. If someone is constantly delaying a project, it would be perfectly appropriate to ask, “Oh, and when will you be getting started on that? Aharei ha’chagim?” I imagine that it could be used by a parent to their teenager, “When did you plan to clean your room? Aharei ha’chagim?”

Aharei ha’chagim is most often used around the holidays in September, but it is also used before the Passover holiday in the spring. Passover is 8 days long and about 2 weeks before people might start delaying projects to aharei ha’chagim.

Stepping back to look at the big picture, I see aharei ha’chagim as part of the intensity of life in Israel, not a lazy delaying tactic. In Israel, you work hard during the week and during the year and then rest completely and unplug from the world during Shabbat and holidays. You finish everything you have on your list before the holidays, rest and rejuvenate during the holidays, and then give 100% effort to something new aharei ha’chagim.

Toilet tanks of Memory Lane

August 5, 2016 / IlanaB / 4 Comments

This week I got a new toilet tank. I know. That doesn’t sound so earth-shattering or life-changing. And it isn’t. But this toilet tank triggered a few memories and those are usually worth writing about. It’s especially well-timed because this is the first post in the second year of my blog (hooray!) and the toilet tank reminded me of how I got to Israel in the first place.

Back in February 2001, I began kibbutz ulpan on Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael. Half the day I would study Hebrew and half the day I would work somewhere on the kibbutz. I began my kibbutz life in the kitchen and I was put in charge of the dairy cart – cottage cheese, soft white cheese (like sour cream), sliced cheese, and whatever other dairy products were available. Needless to say, I couldn’t even look at dairy products after a while, much less eat them. This was a great weight loss plan!

Ma’agan Michael is a rich kibbutz with multiple income streams including tropical fish, edible fish, bananas, cactus fruits, and a few other small industries. But their big moneymaker is Plasson. They make plastic plumbing parts and ship them all over Israel and internationally.

After my stint in the kitchen and noticeable weight loss, I begged to be outside, so I transferred to the banana fields. I knew how to drive a manual transmission so I was an asset as a tractor driver. But when it was too hot, we weren’t allowed to work outside and I spent one, possibly two, days at the Plasson factory. We were put to work putting plastic rings (washers) of different shapes and sizes into a plastic bag. We did it BY HAND!!! Seriously, it was the longest day of my life. I’m not really cut out for factory work. But I did my job and I have a memory tucked away of once having worked at Plasson. So every time I see a Plasson toilet tank, I think of my time on the kibbutz.

The truck and one of the tractors that I drove.

Tying bunches of bananas.

Looking back now, I can see that the 5 months on the kibbutz was a transitional time for me. Life was not really moving forward the way I had envisioned. Taking a time-out on the kibbutz gave me the opportunity to truly see it. Moreover, I unexpectedly felt very drawn and connected to Israel and my Jewish heritage. I had been to Israel many times before, but I never felt like this.

I went back to the US that July and had a difficult summer trying to figure out what I was going to do. And then 9/11 happened. Watching the chaos and trying to comprehend the tragedies unfolding on my television screen made me realize that life is short and I would not accept a “life of quiet desperation.”

For my 29^th birthday the year before, I jumped out of an airplane – freefall for 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), parachute for 5,000 feet. For my 30^th birthday a few weeks after 9/11, I jumped out of a life that no longer made me happy. Life in Israel was my parachute.

Some of the best sunsets in the world are at Ma’agan Michael!

***

Environmental side note:

In Israel – and probably a lot of other places – we have two flushing options. The small button is for small flushes and the big button is for when you need a big flush.

How History will remember

July 15, 2016 / IlanaB / 6 Comments

There’s a theory that the same amount of bad things are happening in the world as there ever were, but now that we live in a global village and the media coverage is instantaneous, we simply hear about it sooner and more often. I’m not sure that is true, but I do wish that we would demand that the media stop functioning on a 24-hour news cycle that drops stories as soon as something bloodier comes along. The terror attack in Nice is today’s top story, but how quickly will we move to the next thing? France plans to mourn for 3 days. Will we? Or will something else catch our attention?

Headline scanning means that we’ll only catch the big stories and so seemingly little stories get swept aside. I imagine that very few people know that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, this week.

I am not an expert on the workings of UNESCO and this is not meant to be deep research. I just want to point out a few facts and try to put them into context. I’ve provided links at the end of the post.

UNESCO – United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization – was on the news radar in Israel in April because of a draft resolution that subtly denied Jewish connections to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The headlines were pretty bold, but when I went to the document itself (which no news site linked to) it refers to Israel as “Israel, the Occupying Power,” does not once use the term “Temple Mount” but only “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif,” and mentions the “Buraq Plaza ‘Western Wall Plaza’.” This draft didn’t pass – of 58 votes, 33 were for, 17 abstentions, 6 against (the other 2 were not in attendance). Another draft related to the Old City and its Walls uses the same terminology, except refers to “Buraq Plaza (Western Wall Plaza).”

At the conference this week the item was pulled off the agenda at the last minute because of the uncertainty of the votes and it’s pretty unlikely that the resolutions will pass. So, no big deal, right? Well, I’m not so sure about that.

The present is the future’s past

As a historian, I’m thinking about researchers going through documents at some unspecified time in the future. Let’s say, at least 150 years from now. UNESCO doesn’t decide what history is, but as the arbiter of World Heritage Sites and a name that suggests global neutrality, how will historians see these documents in the future?

First of all, if you go through the documents, you will find references to Jerusalem in the “Arab States” section of the agenda. Other geographical designations are Europe and North America, Latin America and Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Pacific.

As an academic editor, I know that quotation marks are used for quotations, of course, but they are also used as a substitute for the words so-called, which suggest a distance from the term. Above, I’m using quotation marks because I’m quoting the text. Within the resolution, the only reason to use quotation marks (also known as scare quotes, I don’t know why) is to say the so-called Western Wall Plaza. If you say the words so-called in front of anything, your voice naturally picks up a sarcastic tone. It’s even more sarcastic if you make air quotes with your fingers. So here we have a UNESCO draft resolution that gives Arabic names with capital letters, but Jewish names with quotation marks or in parentheses.

How we got from there to here

There may be those that say, “Well, you know, that big golden dome is up there now and possession is 9/10ths of the law.” Since the Jordanian Waqf administers the site and forbids Jews to pray there, I think that point is moot. Even subtly rejecting any Jewish connection is simply changing history. Before Islam, there were two Jewish Temples that stood on that site. Without the Temple, Jesus would have had no place to overturn the tables and attack the money lenders. Titus’ Arch in Rome would have no story to tell. Millions of Jews coming to Israel to visit a bunch of stones, a retaining wall actually, would also seem a bit weird if they lack a connection.

The point I want to make is that it matters now and today how we respond. US Jews were very happy to have a mixed-gender prayer site created at the Western Wall, but in the big picture isn’t it a more important issue if UNESCO votes to effectively erase the Jewish connection to any part of the area? Can UNESCO be allowed to vote on the narrative of history? If we decide to lay out narratives next to each other, we can say that there is indeed a Muslim connection to the site (third holiest site), but we must say that there is a Jewish (most important site) and Christian (Jesus’ final days) connection to the site.

What will our researcher find 150 years in the future when looking through the UNESCO documents? I hope she finds a multi-colored patchwork of truth and not obvious propaganda.

Epilogue: The UNESCO response to Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) bombing parts of Palmyra, a World Heritage Site in Syria, was that the head of UNESCO did declare the acts war crimes, but after UNESCO experts went in, their preliminary finding was that it wasn’t as bad as they thought. A language comparison of the two resolutions is enlightening. Daesh is just Daesh, not an Occupying Power or anything else. Their actions are condemned, but Israel’s actions are strongly condemned, firmly deplored, deeply decried, and disapproved.

Draft resolution on the Al-Haram Al-Sharif and its surroundings.

Decision on Jerusalem and its Walls from 2015.

Report on the vote in April.

Possible revision to the drafts.

An in-depth review of the issue.

Draft resolution on Palmyra.

Press release on Palmyra.

Tai Chi in Israel

July 2, 2016July 3, 2016 / IlanaB / 4 Comments

While the world raged around us, about 200 people met in a high school gymnasium in Ramat Gan that served as an oasis of calm. This week I attended Gashko, the national meeting of all the practitioners of Cheng Ming style Tai Chi. In June every year, the main teacher of this style comes from Taiwan to work with all of us to help perfect our form.

To me, Tai Chi is a form of moving meditation. The movements are slow, deliberate, and precise. There are many styles of Tai Chi and it is considered a martial art. The movements do have real world applications, but the purpose of the practice is not to spar or compete with your fellow practitioners. Rather it is to learn and practice the principles and implement them in your own life.

I haven’t been to a Gashko for a long time, but since I had just finished learning the 100-movement form, I was prepared to work on minor adjustments and corrections of my form.

Pass me a big slice of Humble Pie! Yum!

On the first day, I started practicing with everyone and I quickly came to the realization that while I thought I knew the form, it turns out that every single movement could use some adjustments. Now under normal circumstances, when you find out that you actually don’t know nearly as much as you thought you did, you might face some embarrassment, frustration, or any of a variety of negative emotions. No so at Gashko.

One of the principles is to be both self-confident and humble – not an easy task. So I was confident in knowing the order of the movements, but I humbly looked for correction. I heard one person say, “I’ve been practicing for 25 years and I learned something new today!” Well, I’ve been practicing for 2.5 years and I learned so much my brain got overloaded!

The nicest people in Israel

If everyone in Israel practiced Tai Chi, Israel would become the nicest country in the world. Really!

The teachers are so kind and supportive and meet you wherever you are in your life and in your practice. While they are teaching you the movements of the form, they are somehow also uplifting you to be a better, stronger person without actually saying a word. Honestly, it can’t be described; it can only be experienced.

Cheng Ming in Israel

One of the hallmarks of this style of Tai Chi in Israel is that it is gender separated. While I’m not a fan of gender separation in most things, I do appreciate it in sports. Also, when you practice martial arts with only women, the energy is quite different.

Apparently, the founder of this style in Israel, who learned from the master in Taiwan, returned to Israel and became religious. So in Israel this style of Tai Chi is, for the general classes, philosophically neutral, gender separated, and at Gashko we have a men’s side and a women’s side of the gym. Many practitioners are clearly religious and very comfortable with this style of Tai Chi. The more advanced classes, though, are not gender separated. (In other countries where this style is practiced, there is no gender separation, as far as I know.)

The slower the better

One of the most amazing experiences for me at Gashko was the hour-long form. When I practice at home or in class, the form takes about 20–25 minutes. So just imagine about 200 people in a gym moving at a third of the speed that they normally do, all of us totally focused on the form, filled with self-confidence and humility, and radiating with calm, soothing energy.

Even if you don’t know Tai Chi, do something at a third of the normal speed – wash dishes, walk down your hallway, drink tea, whatever. Then you truly get a taste of what “being in the moment” actually feels like.

Working with the master

In working on some real-world applications of Tai Chi, we were doing pair work and I had a few questions. Just at that moment Master Wang appeared and showed me and my partner how to do an arm twist to the back followed by a knee to the butt. It was a little unusual for him to be working with the women – he did bring a woman Master with him as well. But here we were, Master Wang twisted my arm and kneed me in the butt. Twice! Quite an honor, I must say! (Interestingly, I did go flying, but it didn’t hurt at all.)

Master Wang

Tired. Not tired.

After the first day of about six hours of Tai Chi and a four-hour commute, I collapsed at home. How on earth I would get through two more days? But the next morning I woke up and I felt . . . good. So I did it again. Less collapsing on the evening of the second day. And the morning of the third day, I still felt . . . good. I have no soreness at all and physically, I feel sort of energized. My brain, on the other hand, is massively overloaded with new things, corrections to the form, and memories of an amazing experience called Gashko.

(If you’re curious to learn more, here’s a link to the US site: http://www.chengmingusa.com/home. The Israeli site is in Hebrew: http://www.taichi.co.il/.)

A few blurry images from the closing ceremony

Legends of the Ari: Truth and faith

May 27, 2016 / IlanaB / Leave a comment

This story has many versions, but the basic outline is generally the same.

There once was a rabbi in Tzfat (Safed) who gave a sermon about the loaves of bread in the tabernacle. A baker was so inspired by this that he went home and baked additional loaves of Shabbat challah and put them in the Aron Kodesh (the cupboard where the Torah scrolls are kept) as a gift to God.

A poor man who helped clean the synagogue came to sweep after prayers and stood before the Aron Kodesh and prayed to God for help to feed his family for Shabbat. He opened the Aron Kodesh and found the bread inside. It was a miracle!

The next morning when the Aron Kodesh was opened at services, the baker saw that the loaves had been taken and he was overjoyed. God accepted his gift!

This went on week after week for many years.

Finally, the rabbi saw the baker put the loaves in the Aron Kodesh and shouted at him: “Why are you putting bread in there?” The baker answered, “I’ve been doing this for many years and God accepts my gift every week.” “You’re an idiot! Do you think God eats challah?” The baker was embarrassed, but they decided to hide and see what happened.

The poor man came to clean and then stood before the Aron Kodesh praying. He opened it and took the loaves. The rabbi popped out and said, “Aha! What are you doing?” The poor man said, “I’m taking the challah that God has provided for me.” “You’re an idiot! Do you think God bakes?”

The Ari heard the story and gave his ruling: The rabbi was in the wrong. The two men did what they did with pure and loving faith and the rabbi destroyed it. He asked the two men to continue the tradition – the baker would provide the bread to honor God and the poor man would accept it with gratitude to God. The rabbi had been ill at the time of his original sermon, but had been given a reprieve because he had inspired such faith in the two men. Now that he had broken their faith, his illness was returned to him.

Usually this story is told to inspire faith, to suggest divine intervention, and to reveal the wisdom of the Ari. I’m going to turn that interpretation sideways to link this story with last week’s post.

We need to have facts and objective truths (the rabbi), otherwise “history” becomes story, legend, or myth (the two men’s narratives of weekly miracles). External recorded facts (the bread was provided by the baker and taken by the poor man) provide the framework to question or confirm our narratives and this eventually brings us to a deeper and more profound understanding (our paths cross for a reason and we should continue to do good even if the reason is human and not divine). Then we can truly learn from history and will not be doomed to repeat it.

Why bring up the Ari this week?

This week we celebrated Lag B’Omer. Most Israelis don’t really know the history of the holiday, but what they do know is that one of the traditions is to light bonfires and celebrate into the night.

Hundreds of thousands of people travel to Mt. Meron near Tzfat to participate in a huge bonfire at the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar. The Zohar is the primary text for the study of the Kabbalah. The Ari (the Lion) is the nickname for Rabbi Isaac Luria, one of the greatest Kabbalist scholars of all time.

Holocaust Remembrance Day (5 May 2016) – Yom HaShoah

May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 / IlanaB / 5 Comments

Every year we stop everything and stand for two-minute national siren to remember six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. For 24 hours television stations broadcast Holocaust stories and interviews. Radio stations play somber music. Restaurants and entertainment venues are closed. During the siren, drivers pull over to the side of the road and get out of their cars. Busses stop and often passengers get off to stand for the siren. Walkers stop in the street. It is a national pause to take the time to remember.

A video from this year taken on Highway 1 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In Israel, national and religious holidays start at sunset the evening before. On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, I witnessed an incredible sunset. It was so stunning not only for the colors in the sky, but it seemed to change the quality of the air. The air seemed to be infused with pink and gold and so full of magic that you might even be able to scoop some into a jar to save for later.

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In all the years I’ve been in Israel, I’ve never had the chance to be in a public street for the siren. The siren is at 10am and usually people are at work. If no official ceremony is held, people will stand up at their desks. Places where there are official gatherings, people will stand together and often will have a short remembrance ceremony. I’ve experienced both. But this year, I happened to be out in the street. I didn’t take a video or photos because I wanted to participate, not observe from behind the safety of a lens.

Still, I saw some things:

A few minutes before 10am, I could feel people start to slow down and start to gather in the square. They knew what was coming.
A woman brought her own package of Kleenex and was prepared for her emotional response. She shared her Kleenex afterwards with someone who hadn’t expected to have such an emotional reaction.
Of the 50–60 people that I could see in the square, everyone stopped what they were doing and stood, except 3 people who continued walking. Two were a Muslim couple and what I guess to be an Arab man.
Several Muslim women (marked by their headcoverings) stopped and stood solemnly with everyone else.
Time stands still. And then when the siren ends, the world starts moving again as if released from a pause.

What I notice in myself is that at first the two-minute siren seems so incredibly long. And then if I think about it in depth, how could it possibly be long enough?

I feel mixed emotions. First, I’m sad because this is a remembrance for the light of six million human beings snuffed out due to hatred, along with millions of others who were also crushed under the wave of fear, ignorance, and hatred. But then, incongruously, I’m happy. All of us in this square, and actually the whole country, are standing together on this day to honor the memory of the fallen. “Never Forget!” is not just a phrase, but is an active choice made by every person who stops, stands, and remembers. I remember not only for myself, but for the people standing next to me, and they remember not only for themselves, but also for me and their neighbors. During this powerful two minutes, Israel stands together. Not just in theory or with words, but with an active choice to pause and stand together.

***

There are those who say that Israel exists because of guilt over the Holocaust. The UN vote on 29 November 1947 was a short two years after the end of the World War II, so there may be some truth to that. Whatever guilt there may have been, it still required a lot of political campaigning to get the votes. The result was not a foregone conclusion.

But can we or should we say that Israel has to exist so that a Holocaust will never happen again? A Jewish homeland has to exist so that if Jews are suddenly unsafe or expelled, they will at least have a place to go? There is, of course, a grain of truth to that. The flip side of that logic is that if Jews are safe in the world, then there is no need for Israel to exist.

Rather than focus on the Holocaust as the reason for Israel to exist, which leads to a victim mentality, it is far more positive and a source of strength to say that Israel exists due to an historic connection to the land itself, the place in the world where the Jews as a nation trace their history. The Holocaust must always be remembered, but it should not be the defining point of Jewish history or Israeli history. The memory of the victims must always be honored, but it was the survivors who built the modern state of Israel.

From Passover, we move to Holocaust Remembrance Day, then we will go to Soldier’s Remembrance Day, and then Independence Day. It is a symbolic journey from slavery, to near annihilation, to fighting for the land, and finally to freedom.

The Write Place (for me)

All the writings, all right here

Israel