As recounted by
David Alon
One of the interesting things that
we the Heller High Jewish history teachers have in common is that we all made
Aliyah from the U.S. while in our twenties.
Never-the-less, we each took a different path to arriving in Israel and
adjusting to our new lives in the Jewish state.
This week our students had a unique
opportunity to hear the four of us speak in a panel discussion about our
respective experiences. For me
personally, this was quite gratifying since I had thought about putting
together this activity for a few years.
My colleagues and I are so busy with our everyday lives, that we don't
often get the chance to simply talk candidly about what it was like to make
Aliyah. In fact, I was more intrigued
about hearing what my fellow Jewish history teachers had to say than hearing
myself talk. Even though we've been
acquainted for a long time, I was surprised to find out things about my friends
and co-workers that I didn't know before.
None of this would have been
possible without the direct participation of the Heller High students. We asked them to submit questions in advance
so we could gauge what subjects were of interest, and then based the panel
discussion off of these queries. The
biggest challenge for us teachers was to stick to the time limit for each
response, otherwise none of us would have shut up and we would have been there
all day. (We even had a stop watch make us be concise!)
The first question posed was
"How did your relationship with your family in the states change when you
made Aliyah?" Although each of us
had a slightly different answer, there was a common theme of dealing with being
so far away. There's no question that
this is a difficult issue for us that we are still figuring out. My colleague Evan Wertheim and I pointed out
that our spouses and our young children have indeed become our immediate family
here in Israel, so that is something to consider as well. My other colleague Shira Kleinman gave a
thoughtful explanation of how her group of close friends has become her support
network and very much her family.
Similarly, Evan and I were asked
"What does it mean to raise your children as first generation Israelis?" Evan was proud to remark that his
two-and-a-half-year-old son can speak three languages (Hebrew, English, and
Arabic from a bi-lingual nursery school).
I described to the students that my two daughters (one five years old
and the other nine months old) will grow up as native Israelis and native
Hebrew speakers who regard being Jewish as more of their national and cultural
identity, more so than I did growing up in America.
Regarding Jewish identity, one
question that was asked was "How has your observance of Judaism changed
since coming to Israel?" This might
have been the toughest question for us, because it really made us dig deep into
our Jewish souls and search for the right thing to say. One thing that seems clear, based on our
respective answers to this question, is that none of us are in the same place
religiously where we started out in.
Each of us in our own way has given serious thought to what being
religiously observant means when living in Israel as opposed to the
diaspora. Shira gave an outstanding explanation
of how kashrut and Shabbat took on a new meaning for her since moving to
Israel. Another member of the faculty,
Josh Scharff, explained how in Israel he doesn't have to explain why he can't
come to baseball practice on Yom Kippur.
I replied that although I was attracted to Israel's secular Jewish
culture in the beginning, my family ended up joining the Reform synagogue in my
town Mevesseret Zion.
Likewise, another question that made
us think long and hard for the right thing to say was, "if your views on
the Arab-Israeli conflict changed or were enhanced by living in
Israel?" Of course we all desire
peace, but there's no doubt that each of us has a much deeper and more nuanced
understanding of the situation by virtue of just living here. Evan said it best when he stated in response
that if you go through years of your life without ever changing your views
periodically, then you're not reading and listening to enough diverse opinions.
Several students submitted questions
about the army in Israeli society which provoked interesting responses. Josh, Shira, and Evan spoke of the importance
of the IDF despite the fact they were not drafted. Each in their own way spoke of integrating
into Israeli society, and how their Israeli friends admired them for making
Aliyah without any negative attitudes about arriving too late to enlist. I myself spent six months in Tzahal at the
age of 27-28, being trained as part of an artillery crew. For me, there's no question that my army
service played a significant role in my integration into society. I explained that although I didn't
particularly enjoy every minute of it, I felt that I was doing something
important for the Jewish people, and that I wanted be able to tell my kids that
I was in the army just like they will be some day.
Of all the questions, the one that
seemed to bring out the most unified response among the four of us was,
"What was your experience like learning Hebrew?" We all stressed the absolute importance of
the Hebrew language, not only for living in Israel, but more importantly for
Jewish identity. This was the one thing
we seemed to agree on more than anything else, how central knowing Hebrew is to
strengthening one's Jewish identity.
Each of us had to work really hard to become mostly fluent, and there's
no doubt that acquiring proficiency was perhaps the biggest challenge for all
of us.
Of course we all have this duel
Israeli-American identity going on in our heads, so one question that got us
thinking was, "If you were asked to choose only one, would you consider/define
yourself as American or Israeli?"
Unlike the previous question about Hebrew that we all had the same
general reply to, this time there was room for disagreement. Although we have each retained some elements
of American culture (food, slang, pop culture, sports teams, etc.) we each
talked about having different feelings about our American upbringing. Josh, in particular spoke of his strong
American patriotism and his emotional reaction to hearing the Star Spangled
Banner and HaTikva. Whereas Evan and I
asserted that there's no question that we define ourselves as Israeli first,
Josh made a captivating comment that more than anything, he sees himself as a
Jew.
Perhaps the most difficult question
for us to grapple with was, "Did you ever regret the move, or was there
ever a moment when you felt you were not a part of Israeli society
yet?" Each of us had anecdotes
about the struggles of being a new immigrant, but on a whole we recounted that
native Israelis were extremely welcoming and proud of our decision to make
Aliyah. Shira remarked that Israelis
would hear her American accent and try to speak to her in English, to which she
immediately replied in Hebrew. Evan stated
emphatically that it's not in his nature to live a life of regrets, and so he
doesn't tend to look back and ask if things could have turned out
differently. Myself, I've been living
here in Israel for almost 14 years, I'm married to a native Israeli with two
sabra daughters. I'm grateful for every
moment I've had in this incredibly complicated, unbelievably beautiful, and
constant drama of a country. I can't
wait to do this panel again next semester!
