• Home
• Contact
• Who I Am
• Photos
• Sample Itineraries
• What People Are Saying
• Articles
• My DVD
• Links

The New Jew

31-Mar-08

Yom Kippur is the holiday we observe to commemorate our deceased. Which? Why, the fallen soldiers of the Yom Kippur War of course! Thus the name silly! This is FACT for students in a junior high school in Bet Shemesh, Israel. The Jewish State, 2006. I know, you find this hard to believe. After all, ignorance of our heritage as designed by the Israeli school system has simply succeeded. Still, this last item makes me pause. Yes they have succeeded in creating their "New Jew"

"Proud Israelis", freed from the shackles of the Diaspora old ways. Love of the Land, identification with the People . sacrifice for the community, respect, volunteerism, modesty, patriotism... We see these things ALL around us - don't we?! This was supposed to be the benefits of severing our ties from 3500 years of heritage in engineering the "New Jew", the Israeli!

As if the "great success" of the fifties and sixties of the architects of the "New Jew" were not enough, they extended the same favor to the Ethiopian Jews of this generation Isolated and persecuted in Ethiopia, they held on to their identity through their belief and practice of Judaism They dreamed of Jerusalem. They never stopped dreaming and passed it on through hundreds of generations They had a unique holiday there which celebrated that longing for Jerusalem. They now celebrate it overlooking the Temple Mount.

This year I had the opportunity to visit these celebrations In anticipation, I drove towards the gathering and I experienced for the first time in Israel something that was part of my childhood experience as I was raised with in my" changing" neighborhood in Brooklyn - fear of young Black "youths". Many young men had their hair dyed, wore the "in your face" violent rap culture attire and accompanying jewelry and tattoos. The young girls looks like and played the same role as the "sisters" I remember from Brooklyn. Our bus was kicked by angry youths, others strutted in front of us in the same defiant manner that I remember oh so well.. I had to ask myself, did I make a wrong turn? Are these Jews? Dispersed amongst the crowd was another type of Ethiopian Jew, ones that looked l and acted like Jews. Modest attire, decorum, respect - menchen! The difference? The latter did not fall into the hands of the "New Jew" engineers.

At the Western Wall that afternoon I witnesses a moving event. A few hundred Ethiopian youngsters took part in a beautiful ceremony, a "Benai Akiva" religious youth movement activity. Decorum, self control. pride, self respect, feet firmly planted on the ground and heads up high.. Together with some their veteran Israeli counterparts, they sang songs of love of God, country and People They were indeed fulfilling a dream - not creating a nightmare for themselves, their parents and society.

Today fifteen thousand Israelis live in Goa, India. Many do not plan on returning to Israel. They do not feel like it is their country. They have no country. They were educated not to be Jews but free. Now they seek their freedom and identity. A million former Israelis have chosen North America as their Zion. They too were taught not to be too sentimental and irrational about the things that insured Jewish survival.

When prime minister Olmert says "we are tired of fighting and tired of winning", the "New Israeli" listens. No amount of "bread and circus" will protect us from those on our borders banging on the "security fence to push us into the sea or convince the millions of Israelis seeking the real thing across that sea.

While the Minister of education is busy with changing the history books to accentuate the "green line" and remind the young generation that the Land of Israel is not really ours to claim and have an attachment to, her students dream of Goa and any where but Zion - on any side of any line.