Your “what I love about Israel” thoughts keep pouring in. Here are two more, the second one a poem:
I’ve only been to Israel once. I went on a solidarity mission with my Rabbi and a couple of other guys from my shul during the Gulf War. The cabbies wouldn’t take money from us. Half of an IDF platoon ran around the Kotel looking for a band-aid for one of our group after he fell and hurt his knee (once they figured out what we meant by “band-aid”). I planted a tree with my bare hands. We visited an orientation camp for newly arrived Ethiopian Jews. We saw Ethiopian Jews in IDF uniforms. My Rabbi talked us onto a Patriot missile base. I visited cousins in Tel Aviv. We visited the mayor in Tel Aviv. I had to give back my gas mask when we left.
Martin, USA
An unforgettable place.
Sun emblazes wall and dome
brushes hills into gold.
From a bench
in Jerusalem Square,
sipping Turkish coffee,
I watch men, women
walk the cobblestones.
One might be a cousin -
a death camp survivor.
Merging cultures
thicken the air.
Stuffed cabbages, falafel,
honey and pine nuts.
For a moment I forget
stones are being thrown
a kilometre away.
But I breathe a feeling,
is it freedom
out of ashes?
Selma, Walnut Creek, CA
More of the tiny things you love about Israel, beginning with this one about Tel Aviv:
I love the shuk / artists market on Dizengoff Street. My daughter and I could not leave. My youngest daughter who was studying at Tel Aviv University (whom were were visiting), demanded that we go home after 6 hours or she was going to have us committed.
Janet, FL
Actually I love almost everything about Israel starting with the balmy air that enveloped us when we arrived at Tel Aviv in the middle of the night when we visited recently. The taxi ride to our hotel in Jerusalem was with a driver whom we never met before but he acted as a family member, pointing out historic places as we drove by in the night. At the hotel, the Har Zion, Mt.. Zion, we were accompanied to our room by a bellman and noticed a Mezuzah on each hotel room door.. We touched ours and felt we were finally at home. We slept well that night. The next morning we awoke to the panorama of the ancient city of Jerusalem. We were at home.
Agnes, San Francisco
Went to Israel for the first time in the mid-1980′s. After travelling half way around the world, I took a walk in Tel Aviv as soon as we got there and much to my shock all the men on the street looked like my father.
Mort, USA
Here are more of your responses to my question, “What are the little things you love about Israel?” I first asked this question in my article, published on the JTA site, Loving Israel is in the Details.
I love that it’s the only place I travel to where I hear “Welcome home” on both ends of the flight.
Judy K., Suffern, NY
The weekend newspaper- it’s a bigger addition (because on SHABBAT no newspaper) and it’s “an issue” – very very popular.
Marsha, San Francisco, CA
I have to go to the States to join my husband but I’m in tears as I leave because I’ve just heard that my son is in Lebanon in the field and I can’t reach him. It’s the first Lebanon war. My neighbour is a prominent general in the Israeli army. He stops as he passes to go upstairs and I explain why I’m upset. He tells me not to worry. He leaves messages for my son all over the route and the message finally reaches him but he’s frantic thinking something terrible has happened at home. Aftre all, it’s wartime and the General takes the time to contact him !!. Finally, my son gets through to central headquarters from a field telephone. “Could it be that General X wanted to speak to Sargent S. ? The telephonist is thrilled to greet him and transfers him immediately.. “Something is wrong at home?” “No, not at all. I just wanted to know that everything is alright with you.”. Where else but in Israel? An army of beating hearts, of fathers and sons.
Lee S.
Last week, I wrote an Op Ed called “Loving Israel is in the Details” for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. You can read the article here: Chasnoff JTA Op Ed.
At the end of my piece, I asked readers to email me all the tiny things they love about Israel. Your response has been overwhelming. Many of you made me laugh, and some of you made me cry. Please continue to send your reasons, and pictures as well.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll post your responses right here on my blog. Here’s the first batch:
Rabbi J. writes:
Every Israeli no matter the age, will sing as a group in public… The shared cultural heritage is very strong in such a young country.
From Steven W:
What do I love about Israel? Standing on the Tayelet in Talpoit, Jerusalem and realizing that in order to fully appreciate the view of the Old City and its surroundings before me I need to have a pretty good handle on all of modern human history of the last 4000 years.
Here’s a touching note from Carole L:
One of my favorites is how you will never find a locked door or at least in the areas where I lived (Beer Sheva, Yamit – which I miss very much) and Netanya. I can only imagine what most Americans (especially New Yorkers) would think of that. Or stories of bus riders who will get off the bus at your stop so they can help you find your way (that actually happened to me once!), taxi drivers who will invite you to their home for lunch, the way Israelis will always give you advice (whether you ask for it not!) and on and on. Thanks for reminding me!
Lori B composed her own Top Ten List:
1) Salad for breakfast, chocolate-filled pastries, and ice-kaffeh at every meal and snack!
2) Even the graffiti is spiritual — “Na Nachma Nachman Me’uman” is scrawled everywhere you go!!
3) Floating in the Dead Sea
4) Shopping for fruits, spices, nuts, and pastries at Machane Yehuda on a Friday
5) The ascent into Jerusalem
6) Browsing for arts, crafts, and other ‘chachkes’ outside the walls of the Old City
7) The serenity of spending Shabbat in Yerushalayim
The funky, charming alleyways and courtyards tucked away into side streets
9) Driving/riding along randomly when suddenly the Old City pops into view from Haas Promenade
10) And finally: You don’t have to worry about which direction to face when davening b/c you are STANDING AT THE KOTEL!!
Last week, I taught a workshop entitled “Israel in the Mirror” at the Central Conference of American Rabbis in San Francisco. My goal: to convey how Israelis view themselves, based on the movies they’re watching and the books they enjoy. I chose what I consider three of the most groundbreaking pieces to come out of Israel in recent years – the movie “Bufort”, based on Ron Leshem’s Sapir Prize winning novel Eem Yesh Gan Eden; Eytan Fox’s short film Yossi and Jagger; and the story “Shoes” from Etgar Keret’s collection The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God.
The session was incredible. Jews tend to ask challenging questions, but these rabbis didn’t let up for a minute. In a sense, it was an easy class to teach – I simply introduced the material and let the rabbis do the talking.
Our conclusion – if there was one – is that Israel is a country wrestling with its identity, and that the major challenge to the state is not Iran, or the Palestinians, but ourselves.