Talking with Sam this afternoon during a rare moment of downtime, I reflected with him about the nature of my mission here in Israel. I may be reporting what I see to you, but I’m not an investigative journalist. I am searching for some kind of truth, but I’m not on a so-called fact-finding mission. It’s important for me to keep my bearings, to calibrate myself, and to remind myself of what I’m trying to do. I guess the best way to describe it is that I am on a person to person mission. I’ve been trying to meet as many people as I can, hear what they have to say, try to put it into some kind of a framework, and report back to you, my faithful readers.

So today I was invited to join a friend of ours who we met last May, Shani Amihay-Boneh, at a birthday party for one of her nieces. Shani’s parents and older brother were there and they welcomed Dina and me like we were part of the family. Not exactly the right time to pull out a notebook or record what they had to say. But that wasn’t what I was there for.

Shani with her youngest daughter and her mom ❤️

Instead, we enjoyed birthday cake, presents, singing, and all the usual things. But there was also a serious side, and here I’m paraphrasing some of the things Shani expressed during our visit:

Right after Oct 7th we had a glimpse of who we are. We came together without guidance from the government. We Israelis are strong and creative. We responded even as the attack was still unfolding. We came together. Suddenly all political, religious, ethnic divisions receded into the background. Suddenly there was no time to ponder best solutions. Volunteers got to work and invented solutions as the challenges arose. 

Not exactly birthday party talk is it? These were some of the reflections I heard from my friend Shani this afternoon. She continued to explain,

as the the initial challenges were addressed, new ones continue to emerge. Please try to remember this, Israel is not a land of PTSD because there’s no “post.” The trauma is ongoing  for so many, if not all Israelis. The trauma continues to unfold with each rocket attack, with each report of fallen soldiers, with each premature birth, with each day the hostages are not released and the hope for their survival may be getting dimmer.  

For her “day job,״ or should I say what she does when there’s not an all out war, is to lead culinary tours. Sam and I joined her in May along with our dear friend Maxine Kaufman, who introduced us. We toured the ancient city of Safed (Tzfat) and savored countless traditional cuisines. But it wasn’t just a culinary tour. We received a truly insightful social history of this very complicated city, one of those places in Israel where Jews have lived since biblical times, and which continues to evolve. I don’t need to go into the history of Tzfat, a place of great ethereal beauty perched high in the hills of the western Galilee. I will leave it to you to get in touch with Shani next time you’re in Israel, because she truly brings you into a different world, a world that you probably could not uncover, let alone savor on your own. Here are a couple of videos that I copied from Shani‘s Instagram page. 

Before you take a look at them, I want to stress that her upbeat, energetic tours take you to truly unexpected corners of both Jewish and Arab culinary delight. Not just in Tzfat but in Nazareth and other places you might not have even heard of. You will learn a lot. You will inevitably catch the enthusiasm Shani shares so generously with you and with the many “food hosts” you meet along the way. A sip or two of Arak won’t do any harm either. And you will come away with a fuller understanding of the place you’ve been. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cxcx8O2oEjz/?igsh=eHdmeGphc3N0amph

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwNvi_hIuZW/?igsh=ZWJiNHFqaXp4eDZv

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtWGXNfIvWW/?igsh=bGRrbGEwdXZrcHox

 

Just in closing I want to add that we met Shani and her husband Nir at their home on a kibbutz in northern Israel. Their place is not much different at all from the communities that were destroyed on October 7. Life for them and their three young girls stood still. And the threat from Hezbollah just to the north is ongoing. Shani and Nir and their family are examples of civilians who have been, and continue to be targeted by terrorist forces that surround Israel. As you can see, her videos are vibrant and full of life and fun, but for now, the family is living in a changed, strangely threatening and uncertain world.