Being Jewish in Israel

March 9, 2009

I met with Amit, part owner with his wife, of a small marketing firm that had done some graphics for Sheatufim. The office is located at the beginning of Rothschild in one of the first office buildings constructed soon after the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909. He asked me if I had been on this part of Rothschild and then took me to the floor length window, opened it and asked if I knew the building across the street. He proudly told me that it was the first Knesset building, where David Ben-Gurion declared the founding of the state. “There were many people dancing in the street. It’s too bad,” he added,” that the building is not kept in better condition.”

I asked him his plans for Purim. He told me that he was going to pick up his 3 year old son, drive him to his grandmother’s house in Jerusalem and then come home to sleep, because the family is still adjusting to a new, two week old baby sister. “When I was without children,” he added, I would go to many parties on Purim. It’s good in Israel. You can be Jewish and not have to go to the synagogue.”

By today (with the Megillah reading tonight), the spirit is everywhere. Kids of all ages are dressed in every imaginable costume. In fact yesterday, Haaretz had a picture of a kid costumed as a terrorist, Ketushya rocket and all. Walking to the Azraeli station, located at the Azraeli Towers, one of the super modern commercial/business developments in this bustling city, I noticed many angels, devils, cowboys and cowgirls, but not too many Queen Esthers or Haman’s. We attended the Megillah reading at Beit Daniel. The social hall was packed with probably 200 people, from young teens to elderly, almost all in costume. The children’s reading had taken place an hour earlier. They were serving wine and cider, but it did not appear that at this early hour anybody had yet reached the point where they could not “tell the difference between cursing Haman and blessing Mordecai” (B.T. Megilla 7B). That is taking place on Rothschild, Rabin Square and other popular gathering places.