Am Yisrael Chai

     So the last few days have been pretty crazy. On Tuesday night, it was Yom Hazkiron, the day of mourning for the IDF soldiers who have sacrificed their lives defending Israel and those lost in the various terrorist attacks throughout Israel's history. It was truly a sad night and somewhat of a sad day, but like in the true form of Judaism, we do not dwell on the sad for too long and instead remember to appreciate what we have and are happy, the next night was Israeli Independence Day. I'm going to describe the night, but it simply does not do it justice. Take the 4th of July, New Years Eve, and St. Patrick's Day, put them together and multiply the craziness by at least 50 and you get Israeli Independence Day.

     Every single street was filled with people dancing and drinking. It didn't matter if you were in a club or you were at a bar, the music from bars allowed you to dance outside and they deliberately did this. People were showering everyone with shaving cream, Israeli flags were everywhere, people had face paint on, and fireworks were shot off. The best part about the night was the traveling Chasidic Jewish vans. Chasidic Jews were driving around in vans with massive speakers on the roofs and the Jews themselves were either dancing around it or even dancing on it. Vans would drive around slowly, blasting their music, and then would sometimes get to an intersection and just stop at the light for 20-30 minutes and people would just dance around it. I saw a car trying to get past a group of around 100 people and people were just dancing in front of it, jumped on the car, and nobody cared, even the driver. Of course he was honking, but never got out to confront the people. Everyone was generally happy. I danced with Chasidic Jews, with random Israelis of all ages, and simply had the best night of my semester.

     I believe that Israeli Independence Day is so much crazier and so much more vibrant than any other independence day for any other nation is because of what it represents and how close it is to each Israeli. For Americans, Independence Day is a nice time to get the family together and have a barbecue and shoot off fireworks and yes drink. But the Declaration of Independence was signed over 240 years ago. It is only something symbolic to Americans and also… something forgotten. Of course we remember what our founding fathers did for our country, but only from the standpoint of the history textbooks. We don't know the feeling of declaring independence from a foreign power. For Israel, independence is as close to them as our own birthdays. Israel is only 64 years old and for some people who live in Israel and are alive today, they were there. They were in the world and read the newspaper that said that Israel had declared independence. There are people who are alive today who fought and saw their friends die for the creation of the Jewish state. And the people who live there now who are young? At most, they are separated by the day of independence by only maybe 2 generations at most. We are only now getting to a generation separated by three generations. That is why Israeli Independence Day means so much to everyone here. They know how hard it is to make sure that Israel sees another birthday and why? Because they fought for it or are fighting for it currently. Every citizen past the age of 18 has had a hand in fighting and defending the State of Israel, the Jewish state. They can all say that Israel still exists partly because of their contribution. So why should they not celebrate? 

     I realized on Independence Day just how unified this country is. Regardless of race, ethnicity, or political standpoint, every Jew in this country had a reason to celebrate because no matter what you think of the State of Israel and its actions in the political realm, a state for Jews exists in this world and two nights ago, G-d heard his Chosen People's appreciation. In one night, the entire Jewish state, in one unified action in celebration, showed their appreciation for their ancestors who died because they were Jewish, their ancestors who fought and died in the fight for Israel's independence, their immediate family members who have fought for 64 years, their current friends and family members who are fighting for it today, and of course, themselves and what they have sacrificed.

Am Yisrael Chai

On This Day of Yom Hashoa

     Today is Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Sixty-nine years ago, Adolf Hitler came to power and began a process that would end twelve years later and millions of people dead. On this day, it is extremely common to hear the phrase, "Never forget" implying that we should not forget the six million people who died in the concentration camps. By never forgetting the six million people that died in the concentration camps we seem to be forgetting everyone else. We forget about the Jews who were killed in Krystal Night. We forget about the Jews who were killed in random acts of violence. We forget about the Jews who died in the ghettos. We forget about the Jews who died resisting the Nazis on their own. We forget about the Jews who died in the labor camps. We forget about the non-Jews who died because they hid Jews. We forget about the soldiers of the Allied forces who fought to defeat Hitler. And we forget about the millions of people who didn't die in the Holocaust. We forget to remember that hundreds of thousands if not millions of people survived and we forget to commemorate those who are courageous enough to tell their stories for the sole purpose that we do not forget. 

     Today is about so much more than just not forgetting. Not forgetting seems so passive to me. Instead we must be active. We must not just "not forget," but we must actively remember. We must remember all those who were lost, sacrificed, and saved. We must remember what their sacrifice meant to millions of Jews across the Diaspora and to the Jews of today. 

     We must remember that we have Israel. There are currently over fifty countries in which the majority of the population is Muslim, half of which have Islam as their official state religion. There are over 100 countries in which the majority of the population is Christian. There are currently sixteen countries in which the official religion of the state is Christianity. There is but ONE country in which Jews make up the majority. That country is Israel. Jews who escaped Europe after Hitler had come to power and even during the time of the Holocaust were on numerous occasions refused to be let into the various countries including our own. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost because there was no Jewish state. That has changed.

     Israel exists as a haven for Jews. Israel exists as a place where Jews can be Jews without second looks. Israel does not even care if you are or your mother or your mother's mother was Jewish. Even if it was your father's father who was Jewish, you are a Jew who has the right to become an Israeli citizen. Why? Because the Nazis would have killed you. Israel exists as a result of the Holocaust and Israel will continue to accept you as a Jew even if you do not even believe Israel should exist. Israel simply does not care. If you are a Jew, then you deserve to not be persecuted elsewhere. That is your right.

     Today I saw something that I will never forget and probably will not see again in my lifetime. I was standing outside the university and at exactly 10am, a siren went off. Cars pulled over, people got out of their cars, people  stopped walking and talking. People simply stood in humility with their hands and feet together and their heads down in remembrance of those who were lost in the Holocaust. For two minutes, an entire nation was unified in silence. It did not matter where you came from, what your political party affiliations were, or how religious you were. All that mattered was that you were a Jew and those who died seventy years ago died because they were Jews too. At that moment I remembered two things. I remembered Barrack 52 in Majdanek and the bright red heals and remembered how they felt when I touched them and the chill that I got when I did so. And I remembered why I fight for Israel and will stand up against anyone who wishes its downfall or does not support it as they should. I don't care what your stances are on anything. I don't care about what you think about the settlements or Israel's military force or the refugee camps or how it handles Gaza or the West Bank. If you are a Jew, you should support the State of Israel and its defense and its survival. You don't have to agree with everything each specific administration does while in power, but you should and need to protect the land of Israel from all detractors no matter what you think about each individual issue. You know why I don't care? Because they wouldn't have cared. The Nazis wouldn't have cared if you were a self-hating Jew who believed in everything the Nazis said. If you were a Jew, you died. Simple as that. 

     On this day, we do not just "not forget." We remember so that we make sure that it never happens again. On this day we remember that it is because of the existence of the State of Israel that it will never happen again for if someone tries to exterminate the Jewish people like Hitler tried and even if every country rejects countless Jews, there will always be one country that will let us in regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, or nationality. And that one country will be the State of Israel. You better believe I'll fight for that with every last breath and you better believe that you should as well.

For two minutes, a country is united in silence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGPbA9wowRk

Perspectives, Convictions, and Judgements

     The last 24 hours have had a theme of perspective. And by last 24 hours, I mean last night and I was thinking about it an hour ago. I had multiple people tell me that it was a good to always talk to the other side of an issue even one as complicated as one as the Israeli/Palestinian conflict because that is the only way to get peace. But I have a difficult time digesting that since there are people out there who I feel, by talking to them, serve no purpose. That's not necessarily true. I don't believe that it's not good to talk to the other side. It simply depends on who that "other side" is. As well as, it also depends on what your goal is by having a conversation. If you're trying to create a narrative of the situation, then getting as many perspectives is the means to achieving the goal of creating a narrative. If you're trying to create a solution, then gaining perspectives is important, but understanding their convictions is much more important than simply understanding their perspective. But if you're trying to make a judgement, then perspectives are meaningless. The perspective of an individual on a situation as complicated as the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is worthless in the grand scheme of things because they are one person living in one place for a specific amount of time. No person is alive today who experienced the Balfour Declaration with meaning (they understood the importance) and therefore, even if they were a mere teenager during the 1948 war, they lived in a specific place and have not experienced all of the conflict as a whole. That is why, when we make a judgement, we can't focus on perspectives because they create a tunnel vision. If we are trying to make a judgement, however, we need to focus on objective facts. If you're trying to create a narrative of a lover's quarrel that eventually ended with the man attempting to kill his wife should then you would need to speak to both the man and the woman in order to hear why each acted the way they did. On the other hand, if you're trying to make a judgement, who was right and who was wrong, there's no need to gain the perspectives. The man tried to kill his wife. Now maybe there are extenuating circumstances that we need to know about, but those are not perspectives. Those are more facts in order to be put into the equation in order to make a proper judgement. 

     But back to my original point about obtaining perspective. When making a judgement, perspective is meaningless. My friend had a conversation with two members of the Muslim Brotherhood while along her travels. Without seeming disappointed in her personal decision or attacking her decision to engage conversation with what she deemed as friendly people, I wonder why gaining the perspectives of two men who are engaged in an organization like the Muslim Brotherhood is helpful or should be encouraged? This organization is anti-Zionist and frankly anti-Semitic. So what perspective could I possibly get from that would be a reasonable one that would help further along the process of gaining a reasonable narrative? It's the same reason that talking to a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or Hamas would be ridiculous. When you join a group like that, you don't join it like you would join a club on your university's campus. It's not even similar to associating yourself with a political party. You join an organization like this because you believe what they believe. The reason that I know this is what possible reason would an individual have for joining this organization if he DIDN'T believe in the beliefs of the organization? Hamas has STILL not recognized Israel's right to exist as a state. So why would I sit down and have a conversation with them? So they can tell me why my homeland should be annihilated and I should be driven into the sea? It's the same reason that you wouldn't sit with a Nazi or a member of the Ku Klux Klan. You can't expect to have a reasonable discussion with someone who believes that you are less than they are because of the color of your skin and you can't have a reasonable discussion with a person who believes you should die because of what you believe. It's absurd.

     I was told that you have to have conversations with these people because that is the only way we move forward, that is the only way we reach compromise. Compromise of what? On one side of the table, there is a person who believes in a piece of land being shared. On the other hand, there's a person who believes you should die. What compromise can be achieved with a person like this? You don't create compromise by unraveling a narrative. You create compromise through conviction and the action of giving up one's conviction in order to create a better situation for both parties.

     This is why I do believe that it's important to talk to the other side that is reasonable like talking to Palestinian citizens. It's important to talk to them, not to create a narrative, but to understand their convictions. Peace will be made not when we try to reconcile the differences of narratives. I support the discussion between Israeli and Palestinian teens just as much as the next guy, but you're not going to create true and lasting peace. The way you create peace is by both parties recognizing the convictions of the other. What does the other person want so badly that they are willing to die for? And then you reconcile those convictions. Israel wants no terrorism. That's a fair request. Palestine wants no checkpoints. That's a fair request. Israel wants defensible borders. That's a fair request. Palestine wants no settlements. That's a fair request. These are convictions that will the parties will not give up on and they are fair convictions to hold. So why hasn't peace been made? Because of the convictions that are not fair. Israel's policy on settlements is not fair and Palestine's request for 1967 borders and the Right of Return is not fair. So we must give up some of our convictions in order to benefit both parties as a whole. 

     Narratives are nice. They are easy, peaceful, non-confrontational, and overall universally not bad. It's good to know the full story in order to better  your opinion on the subject at hand. But it won't create peace. Having the full story in a situation like this will not help because one narrative will be Israel won the land and the other will be it was stolen by Palestinians. We must not focus on the narrative, but focus on judgement based on facts and history. Because in this world, there IS a right and there IS a wrong. The perspective of Hamas I'm sure is great in building the narrative of the Israel/Palestine conflict, but in the end, they are a still terrorist organization and the belief that Jews should be killed or that innocent Israelis should be killed is WRONG, no matter what narrative you come up with. In the end, narratives don't matter. All that matters is the judgement.

FOMO

     What is this… this FOMO? Well it's something that two girls who I randomly met in Amsterdam told me. These two girls are studying in Rome and told me that they've been going out every night. I thought this was crazy when one of them told me why. They suffer from FOMO… the Fear Of Missing Out. I thought this was brilliant. I had never heard of this acronym before and now it makes a lot of sense. 

     Recently, I've been missing Boulder a lot. How could this be? I'm in freaking ISRAEL. I should be loving it and not even thinking of Boulder, but I am. I see all the pictures of my fraternity brothers partying it up during St. Patrick's Day and mixers with sororities. I see Facebook group postings talking about upcoming events and current situations going on in the house and of course Greek Week. Our biggest party of the year is about to happen and… I'm not there to experience any of this. It's been weird thinking that an entire semester is going to happen and I won't be there to experience it with all of my friends. Of course I've been enjoying my time here in Israel. How could I not? But there's always this feeling that I'm missing out. I know that I'm going to get back to Boulder next Fall and there are going to be ridiculous stories and a change in relationships and new relationships that I won't have. I'll have my own stories from Israel, but I cannot share them with my friends back home.

     This feeling has led me, over the past couple weeks, to not appreciate Israel and my time here as much and basically I need to stop. Essentially, it all comes down to appreciation. Israel gets built up in the minds of American Jews so much because it's so far away and visits are so far apart from each other. This is the first time I've been to Israel since my senior year and after I leave, I have no idea when I'll be able to come back. As I started to get more and more anxious and excited for my semester abroad, I just thought of the amazing experience I had on IST. Now I realize, it's so much different. On Israel Study Tour, you really live a lifetime in four weeks. Now, while living here, you get into a routine. You learn to know the city. You have the same bars, the same restaurants, the same clubs, the same people, the same classes, the same grocery stores, the same everything. And because it's the same, even in Israel, a break in routine is necessary. Luckily, I got that break and now I'm ever more excited for this last month and a half in Israel. As much as I hate the fact that I see things going on for ZBTahiti and Greek Week and the mixers and the parties and the new freshmen class and everything else, I know that next year will bring the exact same thing. There will be more parties, there will be a Tahiti, there will be Greek Week, there will be St. Patricks Day, there will be mixers, there will be my fraternity brothers. But… there won't be Israel. I need to keep the FOMO going for myself, but not FOMO in Boulder, but FOMO in Israel. Every single minute is precious here in the Holy Land and everyone should always have some FOMO. It's what drives us to do the crazy things in life and to not say "No." It's all about appreciation. It's easy to appreciate things when they become routine, but now that I once again recognize this, it's easier. Why complain about missing a party with sand in the basement and a beach theme when I have a world class beach literally 20 minutes away from me? Why complain about missing out on St. Patrick's Day and the other parties when I have a world renowned night life ten minutes away and Purim and Israeli Independence Day? There are so many things to be thankful for where I am and it took meeting two girls from Berkely to say a ridiculous acronym that ended up being genius. I'm glad I got to hear this acronym and more importantly, I'm happy to report that I am once again extremely appreciative of where I am and it'll just make getting back to Boulder that much more exciting next Fall. FOMO

Spring Break Photos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJe0uqVGZJA&feature=share

A Tradition Unlike Any Other

     I just watched a video called "I am Jewish." This man, somewhere in his twenties, just read aloud a poem I assume he wrote himself about Judaism and what it means to be a Jew both religiously, historically, ethnically, and culturally in a matter of minutes. Every single thing he spoke, you could relate to, but the one thing that caught my ear more than anything was a line in which spoke about the ram's horn being blown on Rosh Hashanah and for the umpteenth time, it the final Tekiah Gedolah was blown for a congregation of Jews. In this one moment, in this one instant, in this one second, the passion of Judaism rushed back into me. 

     Tonight is Pesach in which Jews around the world celebrate the Exodus out of Egypt. I was with my Israeli family and here, four generations sat at the same table, yes FOUR. Two great grandfathers got to experience a seder with their great granddaughter and a great granddaughter got to experience a seder with not one, but TWO great grandfathers and in no time at all, she will remember experiences with her at least one if not both. How many of us can say that? How many of us can say that we ate with even one person who was our parents' grandparents? But that's not the point. The point is that on this day, in this year 2012, we still celebrate in the exact same way that our ancestors celebrated the Exodus of our people from bondage fifty years ago, two hundred years ago, a thousand years ago and even fifteen hundred years ago. Fifteen hundred years ago, the ancestors of the Jews today ate a hard boiled egg, maror, matzah, charoset, had a lambshank on the seder plank and told the story of the Exodus and sang Deyeinu. Do I know if this actually true? Of course not, but our traditions come from somewhere… 

     One of my roommates got into a semi-heated argument earlier in the semester about lineage. I said that in Judaism, your religion is determined by the mother so if your mother is Jewish then you are Jewish. If she is not, then you are not. Plain and simple. That is our tradition. My roommate said that the only reason that tradition was started was because back when Judaism was young, it was not possible to determine the father of a child, but it was possible to determine the mother of the child. Now that we have the technology of such things like paternity tests, that tradition is now flawed and negated and we should consider a person Jewish even if only their father is Jewish. I had a rare occurrence of ignorance in the matter as I asked him where he heard this and he told me "college." I immediately spat it away with sheer ignorance with the conception that a college professor could teach me about MY religion and MY traditions. But then it occurred to me that it didn't matter because even if that is true, we do not simply throw away 3000 years of tradition because certain technology exists. Our whole religion is based on tradition. Everything we do is based on tradition and we cannot lose that because technology in one country is further along than in others or technology is further along in this year than it was fifty or hundred or five hundred years ago. We lose our connection to each other today and we lose our connection to our ancestors when we let things like this interfere with our tradition. 

     I was once asked by two very passionate feminists and progressives why I do not speak the matriarchs in the Amidah prayer. They are both feminists in the modern world as well as in Judaism. In the Amidah prayer, in the conservative and orthodox chumash, one states the three patriarchs and the three patriarchs only: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in the reform chumash, the four matriarchs are added: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. While working at a Reform Jewish summer camp, during Tefilah, I chose to say the original Amidah and not the modified one (which includes changes to other words as well throughout the prayer.) When they asked why I don't say the matriarchs, I response with one simple word: tradition. The head of the Israeli staff on my Israel Study Tour trip had an issue with this when I asked. She said that she was constantly torn between being a feminist and keeping to tradition. The Amidah had existed as a prayer for around 2,000 years and all of sudden, we decide to change it? Who are we to change a tradition that is over two millennia old because we think it's offensive? 

     Jews throughout history have needed to assimilate to their surroundings and their environment for survival. Learning to dress the same as the goyim, to speak the language, to learn trades that were easily mobile, all for the sake of keeping the Jewish religion alive. Today, millions of Jews decide to not cover their heads, to not pray three times a day, to not keep kosher, and many other things for the sake of convenience. It is not convenient to be an Orthodox Jew I will admit, which is why I do not adhere to most of the rules of Judaism, but I am still a Jew. I choose my Judaism and I have assimilated in order to not be ostracized by my peers and my environment. Say what you will about the nonexistence of anti-Semitism, but recent events have obviously proven otherwise and I will not subject myself to that for the sake of looking modest and not eating shrimp or a cheeseburger. But changing a prayer? How does changing a prayer help Jews assimilate into the community better? How does changing a prayer, a tradition over 2,000 years old help keep the Jewish religion alive? It doesn't. It kills it. How does changing the law of maternal right vs paternal right progress the Jewish people? Well the obvious answer is if we consider people with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers to be Jewish, we'd have more Jews in the world, but Israel already acknowledges them as Jews and those have a right to go to Israel as Jews. But Israel is separate from Judaism. To be Israeli is not to be Jewish and to be Jewish is not to be Israeli. The religion and the state are connected, but not intertwined to each other. 

     What next? What will the progressive movement do to Judaism next? I know I sound crazy, but Judaism is BASED on one simple thing: that Jews around the entire world are connected to each other by one thing: our common past… our tradition. And if we continue to change our tradition here in America because we believe to be progressive, well then we lose that connection. We're not all connected just because we're Jews. We're all connected as Jews because we share history. We share history of oppression, of persecution, of success, of peace, of struggle, of adversity, of patriotism, of culture, and tradition.

Jerusalem