Aliyah Diary 17: Jewish Identity and Outlook

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Aliyah Diary

01. Aug 19, 2024: Preparation In America
02. Aug 25, 2024: First Few Days
03. Aug 29, 2024: Moving In
04. Sept 4, 2024: First Day of School
05. Sept 8, 2024: Two Weeks In . . .
06. Sept 16, 2024: Getting Comfortable
07. Sept 22, 2024: Ready for Yom Tov
08. Sept 25, 2024: Jerusalem Concert
09. Sept 30, 2024: Nasrallahed on the Floor
10. Oct 8, 2024: Driver’s License
11. Oct 13, 2024: Packages. (חבילות.)

12. Oct 25, 2024: October Sun and the Jew
13. Oct 30, 2024: Bureaucracies and Stories
14. Nov 2, 2024: The Kindness of Strangers
15. Nov 10, 2024: Safety Fourth
16. Nov 17, 2024: Where People Look Like Us
17. Nov 19, 2024: Jewish Identity and Outlook
18. Nov 24, 2024: Learning Language – l’at, ‘lat
19. Nov 28, 2024: Taxation for Americans
20. Dec 5, 2024: Tel Aviv Art Museum
21. Dec 11, 2024: Let Freedom Ring

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WARNING: This post includes politics. You might want to skip it!
WARNING 2: This post contains personal views which might change repeatedly.

Living “Over the Green Line”

There’s also another reason it would never work – the next mountain after mine has 100,000 Jews with an average age of 10 and a growth rate of 9%. If you want to ensure an area will be Jewish, give housing to 10 Charedi Jews and wait 30 years.

Trying to define borders based on those of 3/4 century ago with huge population shifts since that time is nothing more than a nice talking point for politicians in Western countries at this point. Not for any ideological reason, my house is over the “green line” – the armistice line between Israel and Jordan from 75 years ago. I live in a nice community, it’s contiguous with the rest of Israel proper, and if it were going to be part of a Palestinian state, the non-Israeli Arabs had a chance to accept it for themselves in 1948, 1967, and again in 1997. In 2024 Bill Clinton spoke to a group of Arabs angry at Biden over the latest war in Israel – he spoke truth about the attempt at peace in 1997:

Watch Bill Clinton’s Speech

Arafat was given everything he said he wanted – control over borders, all 1948 armistice line land with a 4% swap of his choice … and then he led a suicide and bus bombing campaign.

The Mistake of Liberalism

I long for the day when one can be a liberal and a realist at the same time.

When I say “liberalism” here, I’m not referring to John Stewart Mills classical liberalism – I refer to modern liberalism which tends to err on the side of being authoritarian. Liberals believe that everyone should think like they do to make the world a better place.

The biggest mistake in the Israeli-Arab conflict is ascribing your views to others. Merav Michaeli, a former leftist politician in Israel makes this point clearly – when they say they want to destroy you, quit saying, “oh they don’t mean it – let’s give them land and they’ll like us.”

Watch an interview with Merav Michaeli

What we don’t understand about each other

For more on opinions “on the street” rather than in the news, I highly recommend Corey Gil Shsuter’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coreygilshuster. He travels around Israel and the Palestinian Territories and asks everyone and anyone questions about the situation over here. It is eye-opening.

Jews often think, “if I just give them land to live on in peace, they will.” The non-Israeli Arabs, in a large majority, don’t see a difference between Israel being on this or that side of a line that they consider more imaginary than I do. All things being equal, I’d have moved to “Israel proper” out of ingrained liberal guilt though I don’t see a reason why I should “ideologically” insist on living only in “Israel proper” when the only people who really care about it live 2000+ miles from here and my life is happiest right here.

This mistake goes in many ways – Yahya Sinwar, yemach shemo, the now deceased head of Hamas who planned and led the massacre of 1,200 Jews thought he saw the opportunity because Jews were fighting amongst ourselves with massive protests over the power of the judiciary branch and the threats by many not to serve in the army. What he didn’t understand is that arguments between political factions in the Arab world (e.g. Syria) lead to bloody civil wars. “Civil wars” between Jews are mostly on paper. Nothing brings Jews together like an outside force oppressing us. It’s literally a main reason or -the- reason for the State of Israel for an overwhelming majority of Jews.

The challenge and weakness of Jews is coming together in times of peace and plenty. Our enemies are powerless when we come together. Amalek only attacks when he sees an opening.

Israel is one of the Happiest Countries on Earth

This seems like a paradox, yet it is not. I would also argue that if the surrounding Arabs had accepted the Jews in Israel wholeheartedly, the Jews would not have the social cohesion and happiness that we do:

Watch a video on why Israel is the 5th happiest country on Earth

Summary of the video:

• a) social cohesion,
• b) sense of purpose,
• c) free and open society,
• d) sense of unity,
• e) optimism, resilience, and hope

Judaism is built on these traits – our purpose is to bring G_d into the world and make the world a better place. Judaism is especially built on optimism, resilience, and hope. Jews never said, “they killed us and we’re going to take revenge.” No! We are going to perfect ourselves and perfect the world!

“They killed us so I’m sending my son to medical school to have a meaningful and good life” is more like it. The best revenge on someone who hurts you is to move on and life your life to the fullest while they wallow.

The October 7th massacre changed my perspective quite a bit

There’s a saying – learn Torah with the Charedi / Ultra-Orthdox, party with the Chassidim, and do business with the Modern Orthodox.

I went to yeshiva with the Charedim and had my fill of “we are saving Judaism and the secular Israelis have pulled us away from the Torah and G_d.” The rest of Israel is largely upset that the Charedim don’t serve in the army.

Personally, until October 7th, I was into, “everyone should just leave everyone alone” – the army has enough people anyway. Then after October 7th there was a huge shortage of manpower and I do not believe the Jewish identity fights of 1948 are those of today. I don’t have the answer on how to make the societal change though from what I’ve read, the army is making a lot of new Charedi-friendly units and options and starting with a relatively small number of Charedi Jews.

Jewish identity is Religion or Nation

Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky, a charedi American Rabbi, likes to tell the story of a question and answer with a secular army officer who was asked what right we have to the land if he doesn’t believe the Torah is true. Israel belongs to the Jews because G_d gave it to us – yet the officer answered that it’s a good question, and has no answer.

Today, the identity of a Jew in America under about 60 years old is defined by religiosity. A South African Rabbi who taught Torah to secular Jews such as myself lamented that Jews in America think and act like non-Jews. There isn’t a “Jewish way of thinking” amongst secular Jews in America.

Now that I am here and living in a not-Charedi world an interact with all kinds of Jews, the concept of “Jewish identity” has become more complex. Yes, I think we’re Jews because we have a Torah from G_d though I’m starting to understand the secular mentality – it isn’t so much about religion for them as it is about being a nation – the Torah, for many secular Jews, is mainly a historical narrative. We are a distinct people with a shared language, history, destiny, and way of thinking.

Six days a week I learn Hebrew with a secular Israeli and these issues come up from time to time. We both agree the columnists in the Haaretz newspaper are nuts. Then we were talking about the entomology of a town in Israel. I said, “oh, it looks like it came from the name of an Arab village.” (Which had about 6 people in it pre-1948) She immediately said, “it’s ours – the name is in the Talmud.”

She also learned the Bible, including the Chumush (5 books of Moshes) and Tanach (the rest of the written Torah) in school. Secular Jews here learn Torah in school! A secular high school student was transferring to a science and technology school and said to me, “I bet you’re appalled that I’ll only be learning Tanach for two hours a day and that’s it for Torah learning.” Quite the opposite! Secular Jews in Israel know their history, have a Jewish identity, and know who they are.

The same cannot be said about secular Jews in America.

The Israeli identity for Israel-Arabs

I’m still working on this one and have not had a chance yet to have any meaningful interactions with Israeli-Arabs beyond basic, “I want to buy humus” and that sort of thing in stores. We both like humus, right?

The best I have for now is an interview with Lucy Aharish, an Israeli Arab news anchor on Israeli TV:

Interview with Lucy Arish, Israeli Arab news anchor

She survived a suicide bombing in Aza [Gaza] back when Jews and Arabs could travel freely between “Israeli Proper” and Aza. She hated Arabs after that. She believes that Jews should be in Israel for safety after the holocaust … not my reason for existing, though it is fascinating to hear her perspectives in Israel.

I would love if someone would introduce me to Israeli Arabs for some in depth conversations.

Can’t We all Just Get Along?

I am an idealist in the long run, a realist in the short term. I am a Jew.

We’re not going to change the world, we’re not going to change our country, we’re not going to change our city, we’re not going to change our street – we can only change ourselves. Once we change ourselves, we can effect the world. Some famous Rabbis said that – I’m just paraphrasing it.

As children say, and adults on Facebook write, “I mock this Jewish group who is different than me because of my inferiority complex.” Now I think to myself, “would that person have written that on October 8th, 2023?” If they would, they’re a sociopath. If they wouldn’t, they shouldn’t write it now either. On October 7th we were attacked and on October 8th we were as unified as the day Haman was hanged.

You’re allowed to have a difference in opinion – you’re not allowed to be a jerk about it.

When I hear a child or someone on Facebook criticize a Charedi Jews as a whole, my response is something like, “they include the greatest Torah scholars of our generation and the nicest, kindest, and most helpful Israelis I have dealt with are in Kiryat Sefer” the mountain with 100,000 Charedi Jews and 9% growth rate. When I was looking for “Good Optic” and found a residential building, the stranger I flagged down who couldn’t help, then flagged down another stranger and together they figured it what I was looking for like solving a mystery of a difficult sugya in Gemora. The first time I ever heard the phrase, selach li, forgive me, outside of a machzor [prayer book] on Yom Kippur was from a 13 year old at a bar mitzvah.

Living a Charedi life, despite the years of trying, is not for me – and I have to catch myself sometimes thinking resentful thoughts. Then I think about October 8th.