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ALIYAH DIARIES

A Box of Postcards

Odelia Glausiusz

here is a second-hand bookshop on Shatz Street There are heart-warming stories of people connecting
in Jerusalem that houses an eclectic mix of lit- across the divide. On a recent El Al flight to Israel, I saw
erature. If you make your way down the creaky a man with a black coat, flying tzitzit and a long gray
Tstaircase, you’ll find boxes stuffed with yellowing beard give a warm hug at the end of the flight to the bare-
postcards amongst the towering shelves of books. As headed man sitting next to him in a t-shirt, shorts and
you flick through them, you’ll spot Hebrew, German, flip flops. Moments like these make me hopeful. But the
Russian, French and English, glimpses of the incredible recent protests over judicial reforms at times seem almost
assortment of people that have migrated to Israel over the dystopian. The newspapers were full of photos showing
decades. There is one from TIME magazine, informing Mr. dense crowds of passionate people blocking highways
Mati Alon in Jerusalem that while his comments “were and clamoring with police. “A deeply divided Israel limps
circulated among several editors for their information
and consideration,” they could not, regrettably, be pub- toward its 75th birthday under weight of internal rift,”
lished. A hastily scribbled postcard from David, with a ran a headline from The Times of Israel, shortly before Yom
picture of the Bodleian Library in Oxford on the back, to HaAtzmaut.
tell Abraham that he’s off to the States (but Abraham can The interesting thing is that all of the protests – whether
now write to him at the department of Political Science for or against the reforms – have been accompanied by
in Berkeley). A chatty letter from Pearl in Johannesburg, a sea of Israeli flags. People are angry, but it’s because
dated 13th October 1964, addressed to “Matilda, Mishael + they care deeply about the fate of this country. Except
Fam (+ CATS).” Like a walk through the shuk in Jerusalem,
these old postcards open a fascinating window into the all of this care, all of this passion, is driving people apart
rich diversity of Israeli society. instead of forging them together.
A 1956 article in The Jerusalem Post reported the news that
Since making Aliyah, I’ve been struck by the multitudi-
nous, divergent worlds that exist side-by-side in this tiny Miss Israel – a certain Rina Weiss – had come in third in
country. It’s not just a matter of Chareidim and chilonim, the Miss World Contest. The article ends: “[Miss Israel] said
Israelis and Arabs, right and left. There’s Chassidish and that she was going to spend her prize traveling through
Yeshivish, Dati Light and Dati Leumi. Ethiopian Jews, Moroc- England meeting the British as her way of saying “Thank
can Jews, French Jews. The idealistic, remote hilltop yishu- You” for getting her out of a concentration camp during
vim in Yehuda and Shomron and the restaurants, clubs the War (she was rescued from Bergen-Belsen by British
and skyscrapers of Tel Aviv. troops).”

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