ALIYAH COMMITTEE
AMTON Newsletter
June 2001
ISRAEL MOMENTS
Ari Gershon, M.D.
A few weeks ago, I was riding the bus home to Jerusalem
from work at Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv. I
sat next to a man who looked to be in his late 60’s
studying a list of English phrases with Hebrew translations.
I asked whether he was studying English. He replied
that actually he wasn’t but that he was preparing
to give a lecture at Yad Vashem to a group of visiting
American students participating in the birthright program
and he was looking over some phrases which sometimes
give him trouble.
I asked what the lecture was about and he replied "Did
you see the movie "Europa, Europa?" "Yes,"
I answered. He then said, "It’s about me."
For the remainder of the trip he told me his story of
surviving the Holocaust pretending to be a Volga German
in the Hitler Youth and then fighting in the Israel
Independence War as I corrected his English. I bring
this up because in the eight months since I made aliyah,
I’ve regularly had these "Israel Moments"
which serve as a reminder of what I came here to find.
This was among the more dramatic, but from seeing a
commercial advertising "the biggest sale since
the exodus from Egypt" to the spectacular view
of rebuilt Jerusalem I see from my window, I am constantly
reminded that I have arrived in a vibrant, modern, but
self-confidently Jewish society. And for someone who
grew up seeing American Jewry fighting an often losing
battle to maintain its identity, the spontaneous, organic
nature of Israeli Jewish expression, from the ubiquitous
costumes on the street on Purim to the dead silence
on those same streets on Yom Kippur to the amateur
music night at Beit HaMagshimim where two different
performers drew the words for their songs from the Book
of Psalms, seems nothing short of a miracle.
I think this reminder of what Israel is about is especially
important now. The "Al Aksa Intifada"
as the Palestinians call it, or the "Oslo War"
as one Likud-leaning friend refers to the current conflict
has been difficult both because of the physical threat
felt most strongly by the settlers and because of the
jarring disappointment felt by those who believed that
peace was attainable and finally just around the corner.
I imagine that the echoes of both the threat and the
disappointment are reverberating in the minds of many
AMTON readers and may be giving pause to a number of
potential olim. But from my perspective as a
new oleh, all of the things that make Israel
special, that make living as a Jew here so fulfilling,
are here in abundance, conflict not withstanding.
One last point: despite the fact that in my eyes, as
a new oleh from America, so much of what happens
here seems miraculous, the thing that amazes me most
is that native born Israelis can take it all for granted.
The hope that was a romantic fantasy only a century
ago that we could again be a free nation in our homeland
has become the mundane reality of everyday life. So
much so that it never occurs to many native Israelis
to appreciate its value. Perhaps, many couldn’t
even if they tried, having never lived any other way.
But you can. Come be a part of it!
Ari, a native of Maryland, was an involved Tnuat
Am’er who made aliyah last September upon completion
of one year of medical internship in New York. He is
now pursuing his residency, in psychiatry, in Israel.
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