L’hitra’ot

July 21, 2009

We weighed and re-weighed our luggage to get under the 23 kg threshold. On Sunday, before Linda’s midnight flight, we made a frantic visit to our local post office, frantic because the office closes for a break at 3 pm. We took the shortest taxi ride on record—two blocks--to transport our large, over-stuffed box. It was so over-stuffed that the scale would not register a weight because it stops at 20 kg. Glancing at the clock, it was 2:50), I dashed back to our toy store and the supermarket to scavenge some smaller boxes, while Linda opened our big box to begin transferring to a box from the post office. Sweating, I really was expecting the door to be locked, but the two clerks and Linda were sorting and rearranging until we ended up with two boxes of 12 and 10 kg at 3:15. Let’s hope that the remaining links in the postal chain show the same dedication as our two clerks. So that our boxes make it by surface mail back to North Carolina.

Our visit began seven months ago with long and exasperating encounters over telecommunications and electricity. Today, Aliza, Alberto and Nitzan arrived shortly after 10 and did not leave until 11:40, still much faster than the installation that seemed to require weeks. After Alberto was finished talking to the internet service provider, he put me on the line, because no “deal” in Israel ever really ends. Even though I was stopping the service, I could offer to a family member or friend, a one year contract for 20 NIS per month. Was I interested? Reluctantly, I said “no,” even though it was a great deal. Finally, after seven months, I was delighted to learn the Hebrew expression for the “underscore” (kav tachtone) used in my UNC email address! Let the record show that Aliza was pleased with my final cleaning of the apartment.

Tammy Ringel-Kulka and her family are visiting from Chapel Hill as they do each summer, so we met at the Tel Aviv port for a drink last night. The coincidence of the timing of her visit was another of these magical moments that have populated this adventure. Tammy was there at the beginning; I remember sitting with Tammy last fall in Chapel Hill, reviewing real estate website listings in Tel Aviv, leading to our wonderful Bavli apartment. Her husband, Udi, happened to be visiting Israel when we first arrived last January, so he took us—still jet-lagged-- on a quick driving tour, pointing out landmarks that have now become our landmarks and our stories.

Three impressions from a cascade of “most important” or “best” impressions are with me before I close the computer for now. First, this experience living and working with Israelis has shown me that there is an energetic, creative, bright, (and at my age, I can add "young") cohort of Israelis, committed to justice and righteousness in order to make Israel and the world a better place. Do they agree on everything or indeed on anything? What a silly question to ask of Israelis! But they know the value of struggle, of engaging with each other and attacking the problems that need to be addressed. Second, for all of its social and security challenges, Israel is a country of immense resources—human and economic. We in the U.S. need to look at Israel through the lens of partner with tremendous assets, much more than the historical and traditional lens of dependent relative with deficits to which Jews from abroad must respond. My third impression is a Zionist or maybe post-Zionist question more than an impression. What does it mean for a country to be Jewish? Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people. How will the Jewish people continue to nurture and relate to this young country? During the past few weeks, I have been doing an interesting exercise, a kind of thought experiment in which I put aside the Jewish dimension of Israel. This country is an amazing place culturally, socially, economically, geographically or by any dimension of interest. Now add to that the historical role of Judaism and the struggle with what it means to be Jewish in Israel and it brings into focus this question. Israel is the search for the answer.