As I look at myself writing I become more conscious of the mission I’m on. What started as a collection of observations about my recent trip to Israel has morphed into a place where I record my thoughts, impressions, and feelings about the events that have unfurled since October 7. Things seem to have moved very fast, almost explosively. With the focus on Israel and the many challenges I suddenly find myself facing as a Jew in the United States, this is a chance to document a momentous time in history. I may have my hopes and wishes but deep down I know I can’t tell where anything is heading. As I’ve stated before every person on the planet is playing some role in this portentous moment in acts large and small.
Today I report on something very small. Though perhaps tiny in scale it represents a wealth of experience that we can barely grasp. How are children, and especially Israeli children experiencing this time?
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Every Sunday Sam teaches English via ZOOM to kids from our Hadera-Eiron Partnership Region through the Jewish Agency P2G (“Partnership 2-gether) program. He spends about 45 minutes with each kid talking about everything imaginable (from the silly to the profound) as the kids learn and practice conversational English. It frequently is a family event with parents and siblings joining in on the conversation. Listening from the other room I am delighted to hear what a high point this is in Sam’s week. The animation in his voice, the laughter, the chatter. Sam peppers the conversations with just the right amount of Hebrew and as the minutes tick by, he and his students come to know and understand each other better. The kids have critiqued Sam’s Ulpan learned Hebrew (from 1974!) and say it sounds a bit old fashioned to their younger ears. It’s so great that they can keep Sam on his toes. Somebody has to!
It is Sunday late afternoon in Israel after a long day at school but they still have enthusiasm to talk about most anything. They talk about their day at school, their weekend activities, games, fashion, even philosophy (I once heard Sam asking one of them, “what does it mean to be human?” Quite a challenge for an 13 year old!) Over the course of their conversations they talk about anything. Sam pulls out their thoughts and follows up on them, definitely without an agenda of his own. Just to get them to communicate. So, they talk about anything. Anything at all. But not the war. Anything….. but not politics.
These are not taboo subjects. It’s just Sam chooses to lead the conversation in other directions as he is sensitive to the needs of these young people who are living in extraordinary times.
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This past Sunday I was eavesdropping on the ZOOM merriment and caught a glimpse of Sam in action. He was asking Nimrod what are his favorite animals. They kind of struggled through the names of the different animals. Nimrod first talked about iguanas and he said some other animals. But it is hard to mentally scroll through ones personal list of favorites. And a little cumbersome to be looking them up on google translate. Then Nimrod found the word….. OWL.
Well it turns out Sam also loves owls We have many in our neighborhood. There is a nest with great horned owls just down the block from our home. We hear screech owls many nights, tiny owls that nest on the ground in our overgrown jungle property. Their voices seem to echo all around our house.
So Sam replied,
“ oh that’s so cool I have owls in my garden and one day I was in my garden and there was a small owl no bigger than your hand. It was sitting peacefully in a tree. It was not even moving. Not even moving it eyes or head. All the other birds in the garden were going crazy like Angry Birds. The crazed birds were dive bombing from every direction. Screeching and yelling in bird language. They were trying to get a rise out of that tiny owl, smaller than any of them. Maybe trying to intimidate it or even get it to fly away. The noisy angry birds were trying to scare it. It looked like the angry birds they were succeeding. The angry birds were making a total racket. The angry birds by flapping their wings were trying to look bigger and stronger than they are in reality. “
Suddenly both Sam and I ( remember I was eavesdropping) flashed in how he could be describing Israel. He fell silent for a moment. This was not lost on 12 year old Nimrod and his 10 year old younger sister. They exclaimed, that’s just like Israel! Then seemingly out of nowhere Nimrod and his sister (who also comes to the lessons) both simultaneously quoted the famous statement of of Golda Meir,
"אם הערבים יניחו את נשקם היום, לא תהיה יותר אלימות. אם היהודים יניחו את נשקם היום, לא הייתה עוד ישראל״
“If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.”
……………….
Where did that come from?
Here in America we can’t even begin to imagine what these kids have to grapple with every day. What do they experience? How do they face life during war time?
Life in Israel for Israeli children is different than life here. But maybe these children have different supports from their teachers, families and communities. Most have already developed incredible resiliency skills but how does it feel to be a kid and now know at any moment those”angry birds” may appear. Israeli kids live in communities where they do not need to hide their Jewishness. They do not have to avoid learning about the wisdom of our people because it is not one of the cool progressive tropes.
My kids here in the US face that challenge in their “progressive” communities (and I’ve come to question that moniker more and more—- a future topic in many of my posts I’m sure). They have a huge challenge to figure out how to raise Jewish children in America in 2024.
We as communities and families have an enormous task in America.
I see this as a communal and personal challenge. The shifting times in our culture wars make it imperative that our communities support our children and our children’s children. We must prioritize their safety while being free to safely explore and experience what it is to be Jewish. We must nurture the families in our communities because they are our future.
Incidentally Sam keeps in touch with his kids by WhatsApp a couple of times a week. He had just seen this video when he sent it to his thirteen year old who wrote back immediately, “we just saw this in school toda.”
I felt inspired by this video which celebrates the diversity of Jews. Please take a moment to watch it. I want to share with everyone that being Jewish is not a stereotype. It is a celebration of possibilities.
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