Israel: Never a Vacation; Always a Trip (Part 2 of 3) |
Part Two of a Three-Week Odyssey
Too much happens in Israel every day and every minute of every day. It is for this reason I am dividing up my account of my recent visit into three segments. As in Part One, I’m sharing vignettes from my experience which I hope illustrate important aspects of Israeli society two years post-October 7.
Is the War Over?
It depends on whom you talk with. When you go to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, the countdown clock is still ticking which indicates the number of days, hours, minute, and seconds since the hostages were abducted. The timing of my visit was one week after the return of all the live hostages when only a portion of the deceased hostages had been released. This bittersweet reality left me with a confused and uncertain feeling. I had intentionally left the hostage pendant that I’d been wearing for over two years at home, but in Israel I noticed some people continuing to wear either the pendant or the yellow ribbon pin. I was quick to acquire a new pin to mark the fact that the deceased hostages were still being held captive.
I saw posters of many hostages everywhere, but particularly of Hadar Goldin, especially in the Gaza envelope area. Hadar was an IDF soldier killed and abducted to Gaza in 2014. My intuition (which was totally wrong) told me that Hadar’s body would never come home. It seemed like a lost cause. A friend of mine who was the former manager of the artist colony Ein Hod informed me that he came to know Hadar’s family as Hadar was a gifted artist and Ein Hod had arranged an exhibition of his paintings following his death years ago. This was the first I had heard of his artistic talent. I took a particular interest in his fate and that of his family as I had met his twin brother who’s currently a graduate student in Boston. Seeing his photo so prominently displayed throughout Israel filled me with both a sense of satisfaction that Israel hadn’t forgotten him, despite the passage of time, but also profound sadness for his family. Upon my return to the U.S., I was surprised and relieved that Hadar has come home.
Normal Life with Kids:
One of my visits was to my friend Moshe who lives on a beautiful moshav near Kfar Saba. As his wife was in Poland on a business trip, he was simultaneously hosting me in his home all the while managing his three sons, one a preschooler and the others school age. He had a lot going on, let’s just say. While he fed his little son, he gave the others loose supervision and managed to take me to one of the highlights of the week on the moshav: a man named Eitan who brings out his food truck every Wednesday evening to serve fresh felafel to the community. Here again the concept of “balagan” is relevant. There’s no real place to sit down comfortably, very few napkins and no water. No problem: I ordered half a portion of and drank some kind of kid-friendly fruit juice. We couldn’t really relax however as Moshe was running late to attend the Judo blue belt ceremony of his oldest son that evening. Holding his toddler on his shoulders, Moshe led me to his car and where we proceeded through heavy rush hour traffic to another moshav which hosted the judo class. But wait: first Moshe........