Page 25 - HaMizrachi Tisha bAv 5783 USA

Oh, the incongruity of it all! A Jewish girl from war-torn
Europe, a Holocaust survivor living in Tel Aviv, and a
model participating in an international beauty pageant.
ALIYAH DIARIES piece. But the truth is, Rina Weiss’ story is the story of the
So many clashing realities in one short, matter-of-fact
people of Israel. Everyone Jew in Israel has a narrative
that stretches back over the generations to ancestors who
arrived in Israel from all corners of the globe – to a young,
bright eyed kibbutznik who escaped Russian pogroms, to
a Mizrachi Jew armed with his rich traditions, or to a
lone Holocaust survivor who landed here with nothing
and built his life from scratch. People like Mr. Mati Alon,
who still enjoyed reading TIME magazine, Abraham with
his academic friend David, and a friendly South African
family with pet cats.
Sometimes, as a new immigrant, I feel out of place here.
But where we’ve come from is important, for everyone And they had all come from somewhere to make that
here has come from somewhere else. It is the very thing dream a reality.
we all have in common, even with the Israelis who’ve George Orwell once reflected, “Looking back through my
lived here their entire lives.
work, it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose
Here’s another striking article from The Jerusalem Post, that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple
entitled ‘Shabbat Shalom,’ this time from 1948: passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjec-
tives, and humbug generally” (Why I Write). It was when
Mingling with the many complainants that came to the Orwell fused “political purpose and artistic purpose into
Mahne Yehuda Police Station in Jerusalem late on Friday one whole” that he was able to write books weighted with
afternoon was an aged oriental Rabbi in a handsome kaftan. meaning, books like 1984 or Animal Farm. All of the care,
He made straight for the room of the officer in charge.
all of the passion that has driven people to protest – it all
Challenged by the constable on duty, who suggested that stems from the same desire, the same sense of political
in a police station one doesn’t just walk straight past the purpose: to build a healthy, thriving Jewish country. If we
sentry, the Rabbi shyly admitted that all he wanted to say lose sight of this common goal, then, like Orwell, we’ll be
was “Shabbat Shalom” to the members of the all Jewish betrayed into “purple passages” and “sentences without
police force. He was invited to sit down and have a cigarette meaning.”
before the Sabbath began. Israel is a nation made up of people carrying disparate,
Imagine the scene. A stately rabbi, dressed in his Shabbat unlikely stories. Yet all these stories are united by that one
finery, sweeping into the police station. The presumably overlapping chapter, the one where we all settled here.
secular officers, baffled by this man’s assured stride and If we learn to respect everyone else’s stories, learn to see
his obviously foreign appearance. The tension dissipates our own stories reflected within them, then, maybe, we
when they realize that all this man wants to do is say could all begin to write the next chapter together – and
“Shabbat Shalom.” And so they all sit down and have a write it well.
cigarette, and talk. What did they talk about? Perhaps
about where they all came from, marveling that this
new country of theirs exists, or perhaps musing about
where it will one day go. Maybe they just spoke about
the weather. Either way, the ‘aged oriental rabbi’ from
this story respected the police force, and they, in turn,
respected him. He respected them because he didn’t see
a secular police force as an antagonist, but rather as an
exciting part of the new Jewish state. He saw that he and Odelia Glausiusz
the police force had the same goal – they all wanted to recently moved to Jerusalem where she works
maintain the safety and well-being of their new country. as a freelance writer and content curator.

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