Jerusalem Week 2--Pesach and Politics

I said to another TBA member who is in Israel right now, if you didn't read the news, you wouldn't feel any of the tension that you are reading about in America. Mostly you'd just feel the peace of Jerusalem and the rhythm of the Passover holiday. I got into that a little bit last week, but a little more now.

The Longest Seder. We attended the longest and latest Seder we have ever been to at the home of the Swidlers, a family who lives in the Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem who we met when they hosted us 12 years ago through shabbat.com (it's a real thing), and we have become good friends with ever since. Since they are constantly hosting us (our apartment could never really meet their Kashrut standards) we took them out for a pre Pesach Pizza Hut dinner. Then, the next night, their Seder went from about 8:45 PM to 2 AM. But it was not just an all Hebrew/mumbling type of Seder. It was filled with questions and discussions and beautiful, beautiful singing. The entire family is musically talented, and they throw in classic pop tunes like Beatles songs to the words of the Haggadah. It was fun, delicious, but, yes, extremely tiring. 

Passover Pizza and Charoset Ice Cream. You can not only go into the streets to boil/kasher your utensils and burn your last chametz (leavened products), but many restaurants are converted to Kosher for Passover, so you barely feel the challenge of keeping  it. We had a margerita pizza at a place called Ben Ami made with potato and almond flour that you would never know was not made with flour. It was delicious. The Ben and Jerry's plant in Israel also makes a special seasonal edition Charoset Ice Cream, which I have wanted to try for years. Unfortunately, it's mostly just vanilla ice cream with a little charoset flavor and not as good as actual Charoset. Still...

                                              

Terrorism, Fireworks, and Rockets. Yes, we still feel very safe. There was a terrorist shooting in the West Bank that killed a Mom and her two daughters and a car ramming in Tel Aviv that killed an Italian tourist. You never stop feeling the pain and tragedy when this happens. But Israelis, and those of us who visit often, still feel safe and understand that it is the price you pay for having a country that some don't believe has the right to exist. Sadly, we have gotten used to rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip indiscriminately into Israel. I can only imagine what it must be like to live in Sderot or one of the other border towns--the price Israel paid for ending its occupation of Gaza. It arguably got worse, given the constant barrage. This is another subject for another time, but it is why so few Israelis support leaving the West Bank anymore. 

As far as what is happening at the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is also Har Habayit, the site of the ancient Jewish Temple Mount, again, it's the tragedy and the insanity. Worshipers are there to both worship and riot with homemade fireworks, rocks, molotov cocktails, etc., which they actually bring inside the mosque, and Israeli police have to go in and quell the riots. The Jordanian Waqf is supposed to supervise this by agreement, but they look the other way and the burden falls on the Israeli police. Ignoring really isn't a safe option. I don't fault the Israeli police for that, and the media portrayal of it is more narrative than reporting, true of whatever source you are reading. 

However, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, well, then we have hit that definition. Because what happens afterward is that Hamas uses this as an excuse to send more rockets into Israel (Israel is trying to take over or desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque, they say), and Israel responds by bombing Gaza or even Gaza forces in Lebanon. And what happens is it escalates. More civilians tragically die, which only inflates Hamas' influence, it makes Israel look terrible, and it risks more Israeli lives on top of it. As hard as it is, this is when Israel needs to show restraint and just let it lie. Even though I certainly buy that Israel has every right to defend itself every single time, responding with more force does not accomplish anything or make Israelis any safer. And if it escalates on multiple fronts, things could get scary and make us feel unsafe, despite our high threshold for this.

I Will Not Be Talking About This Every Week. There's not much else I can say. I can't hammer these same points every week, so even though there will be terrorism and tension and rockets and responses throughout these next several months, I won't be able to add much to the conversation.

End of Pesach Addendum. Bornsteins and Ganots

First, great Passover meal with the Bornsteins.

Secondly, We had a marvelous visit with one of my lifelong best friends, Brenda Fishman Ganot. We see her and her husband Steve on pretty much every visit to Israel, and they invited us to spend the last night and day of Passover at their house in Beit Shemesh. Brenda and I were co Presidents of BBYO's Central Region (the Bay Area) back in 1982-83. We were also on the International Board the next year. She made Aliyah immediately after High School and does all kinds of great things here in Israel, while, as you know, I took a more usual United States college path but ended up as a rabbi. Our lives are sort of like two alternate lines of deep Jewish commitment that emerged from the same source. So there is always so much to compare and discuss, and I always get great info on what the situation is like in Israel from an Israeli perspective that I imagine would be very similar to my own. 

Then (International Convention 1982)

Now at the Ganot Home in Beit Shemesh

So I conclude this posting how I began. If you didn't read the news, you wouldn't feel any of the tension that you are reading about in America. Mostly you'd just feel the peace of Jerusalem.