Israel in the Mirror

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.

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