Eshchar continued

I realize now that I left out some critical information from the last post! I wrote a great deal about the fact that Joel and I talked so much, but I didn’t say a lot about what we said. That actually is somewhat by design. First of all, it’s really hard to remember the details of something that we immersed in all day long. Second, a lot of it somewhat personal. 

That said, I do want to make something clear. One of the reasons it was really important for me to see Joel was to see somebody who is in love with Israel but who does not fit the mold for most people I know. Joel and I talked about what it means to be in Israel because they want to be on a kibbutz and what that means practically, politically and ideologically.  We talked about what it means to be in Israel because it means belonging to the community in a unique way as a Jew. We talked about how hard it is to learn Hebrew but how doing so makes the difference between transplanting American communities into Israel in a way that, frankly, looks kind of colonialist, versus actually working hard to use the language to become Israeli. We talked about how Joel found Israel to be an answer to a lot of questions DESPITE a lot of pro-Israel rhetoric that Joel was averse to. 

If you've read through my other posts through this trip, you'll know that I've really wanted to have a relationship with Israel, but that a lot of things have stood in my way: language, mis-guided PR, and more. I haven't even addressed directly the work I've been doing so long trying to lean into learning Palestinian narratives and history. But meeting with a friend who now lives in Israel and who thinks so radically out of the box has helped me start to open a path. 

Israel Part 10: Eshchar

(Apologies that this text is the wrong color. I'll take any advice on how to fix it.)

Sometimes I wonder if Joel Rothschild and I are cosmic cousins. Even before we ever met, we were breathing the same Pacific Northwest air. When I was a pre-teen getting my summer camp Jewish education at Camp Solomon Schechter, they were apparently living on the other side of those Olympia Washington woods. This wouldn’t matter a lot if not for the fact that I don’t know a single other person from Olympia.

Joel and I actually met at Oberlin and certainly were friends in the Kosher co-op, but I never expected it to be a continuing friendship. Nevertheless, our paths have crossed again and again, in Portland, for a full year on Vancouver, BC, in Englewood and in Washington DC. The last time I saw them was, I believe, an entire decade ago and then except as distant Facebook friends, we fell out of touch.

When my Facebook account was hacked and I started a second account, many people I re-friended reached out to me privately to see whether or not I was the real me. Joel was one of these people, on October 11, as a side communication we somehow mastered while the world was crashing down around each of us in our own ways.

It was in this exchange that I learned Joel had made Aliyah. What?!

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Israel Part 9: Rehovot

It says Rehovot. Trust me. 

(Apologies that the text in this post is black instead of white. I wrote it from my phone in transit and something got lost in translation. I'll accept advice on how to fix it.)

Rehovot was the centerpiece of my trip. It was also the starting place of my planning. A few months ago when I tentatively reached out to my friend there and asked what she thought about me coming, her response was that she was crying.

I knew the trip was blessed somehow because I looked at the nose of my plane when boarding at JFK. I didn’t know they named planes, but apparently they do. And as Ofra said later, it would make sense for them to name the planes after well known cities: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa. But no, my plane was named Rehovot.

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Now I’m a Tourist Attraction

Checking in at ElAl the guy behind the counter asked me if my name comes from Lord of the Rings. When I confirmed he geeked out for a few minutes, giving me his take on Tolkien’s genius and taking a picture of my boarding pass to show his brother.

It was weird. I wonder if this is how Israelis feel sometimes around Americans.

Israel Part 8: Mazkeret Batya

For a few years when N was little, the Lewis family, who are Israeli, lived in Englewood. Their son was a year younger than Naomi and the two of them were adorable together.

The last time we saw them was on our trip to Israel in 2015. We spent Shabbat together in Jerusalem with family of theirs and they housed us in their tiny and temporary apartment the night before our early flight back.

I wasn’t 100% sure I should tell them I was coming on this trip. With only a week there were so few people I had time to see. 

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Israel Part 7: Kikar Hachatufim (Hostage Square)

If you haven’t heard or read about Hostage Square, I urge your to start by reading this. 

The Altmans took me there on Sunday. In the process they also taught me how to use the trains. (This is coming in very handy at this very moment as I’m typing this while on a train traveling from Karmiel towards Yerushalayim, taking breaks to watch the surf break along the coast near Haifa.)

It was a challenging, painful and beautiful place to be. Most of pictures I’ll include here will speak for themselves.

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Israel Part 6: Shabbat in Modi'in

The truth is I don't have a great deal to share about Shabbat in Modi'in. It was a jet lag processing day. It was also a somewhat familiar feeling day, which is noteworthy on its own.

What made it so familiar was that I've actually been to this shul before. It's a small community that holds services in a gym of a school. The service is Partnership style (although I don't know if that's what they call it themselves.) As such, I was offered an aliyah. This time I had the courage to say, (in Hebrew) "Yes Please. I don't speak Hebrew" (in English) "but I'll see you at Chamishi!" You can tell this was a bit more familiar because I only teared up a little bit while saying the bracha rather than being as swept away as last time in 2015. 

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PSA: Things aren't always what they seem

This morning I woke up to a beautiful rainbow outside my window. Absolutely gorgeous. I took an excellent photograph of it and posted it on Facebook.

I did this even knowing that:

1. This came as a result of massive storm last night that woke me up with a terrifying crash.

2. And I've now learned that rain, while usually a massive blessing in Israel is a nightmare right now for our soldiers.

3. And also, that for some Jews rainbows are a terrible omen, a reminder of the potential for destruction (as in the flood that Noah survived).

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Israel Part 5: Friday in Modi'in

 I now have permission to use names of most of the people I'll reference on this trip. So...

In Israel: Part 1 I referenced BF whose actual name is Bat-Ami. Not that long after we graduated college she and her husband, Mike, made aliyah, ending up in Modi'in. 

Meanwhile, after spending a few years in Portland, U. and I eventually moved to Vancouver, B.C. for just a year. Another college friend of mine coincidentally was there too. His hame is Joel Rothschild and it was actually his suggestion that I begin this blog. Blogging was very popular in my friend group, including with Alissa Altman. 

How very strange, then, that Alissa and her husband, Morey (and their dog Maimo) would later make aliyah, move to Modi'in and become friends with Bat-Ami and Mike! 

(Stay tuned later for the surprise of much later me discovering Joel was now in Israel too!)

All five of these people are anchors for me of really smart, progressive and intentional Jews (a few of them even linking me back to the Pacific Northwest!) All of them are in Israel now.

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Israel Part 4: People

Enough of “concept," it's time for me to start telling you what I'm actually doing here.

When I first decided I would come on this trip, I wasn't exactly sure why I needed to or what I hoped to achieve. Should I volunteer? Should I offer moral support? I didn't want to join a mission. (I realize now that one reason for this was that I didn't want a repeat of what I talked about in Israel: Part 3. I didn't want PR. I didn't want someone else's agenda. 

This is the first Israel trip, and certainly the first international trip of any kind, that I've planned with the focus being entirely about reconnecting with people. I've needed to process the war, my relationship with Israel and my relationship with my now-changed-self. The itinerary of visiting and speaking with one old friend after another -- some from very different backgrounds and all of whom I trust and love -- has been my itinerary to do that. 

The next posts will focus on these visits and on what I did with these wonderful people. (Apologies to BF and MH whom I saw on Shabbat and couldn't - yet - get a picture!)

Israel Part 3: Leaning in

My second trip to Israel was on March of the Living in 1994. In this trip we spent the first week in Poland visiting Holocaust sites and concentration camps. The second half was in Israel. We were meant to see the juxtaposition of the two, the rising from a place of oppression to one of strength.

One night we visited an army base. They threw a giant, raucous party. I was not a person who goes to giant, raucous parties and I was not the kind of teen that wanted to influenced by someone who was trying to convince me of something by throwing a giant, raucous party. What I remember saying to my counselor at this time was that I was deeply inspired by the stories strength I had heard during the Poland portion of the trip, but that now that strength looked different. It didn't seem as beautiful to me and I didn't know what to make of it. 

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Israel Part 2: Arrival

Today I’m in Modi’in. I walked around town on a groggy and uncertain amount of airplane sleep. Flags were everywhere. I didn’t think at the time to photograph them so I’m just including this one pic from my host’s balcony.

My hostess, AA, whom I knew in Vancouver, told me that Modi’in has seen more than it’s fair share of fallen soldiers. Apparently many if the streets are being named after them. One of these ceremonies took place today, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get there.

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Israel Part 1: Departure

 

My relationship with Israel has always been a little tentative. 

(This has changed dramatically in the last few months, but I'll get there.) 

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The Dark Crystal

When U told me a few weeks ago that The Dark Crystal would be playing today at The Barrymore Film Center, I actually started crying.

It's been years since I've thought of that movie, but the memory of it shot me directly back into my childhood. Even the logo of the title that looks like it was hand-drawn feels incredibly familiar. 

An artistically intricate puppet show about good and evil -- incredibly simple and clearly influenced by Clash of the Titans, Star Wars and The Lord Of The Rings, this movie just strikes me as incredibly pure. The images in it have stuck with me since childhood and the storyline is so satisfying. U and I talked about whether or not we like movies about prophecies. In this case I consider it to be like a miniature train. The train has a clear track and you know exactly where it's going. You can marvel at the beauty and even enjoy the occasional car derailment because you still know you're going to get exactly where you need to go.

As a child we drove two hours to see the puppets on display at OMSI. I most remember seeing Augra up close and being mesmerized by the beauty of her realistically old and disturbing features. Today when we saw the movie again I had a flash of, "I've met her in person!"

It adds to the charm -- kind of -- of that movie had a tear in it while they were showing it to us and needed about 20 minutes to repair it.

It struck me painfully that if I show this movie to NDR, it's probably impossible for her to appreciate it the same why I do. There's something about experiencing something as a child that potentially can lace it with an extra layer of magic that can never be replicated by experiencing it later in life, but I still look forward to sharing this with her.