Page 58 - HaMizrachi Tu BiShvat 5782 - USA

ALIYAH DIARIES

A Scarf is Worth

A Thousand Words

Learning Hebrew helps, but becoming Israeli

is really all about how you tie your scarf

Kally Rubin Kislowicz

’ve been listening to the music my conversation with Hebrew phrases. and twisted themselves into looking
from In the Heights, the Broadway My wardrobe is slowly transition- like fabulous sabras. I suddenly felt
hit turned movie musical that ing away from Old Navy and Target like their greenhorn cousin, Balki
Ikept Lin-Manuel Miranda busy towards Fox and Chameleon. My four Bartokomous.
before Hamilton. It’s a show about fingers automatically press against my
Spanish-speaking immigrants trying thumb to signal a range of things from A few weeks later I mustered up the
to get by in New York. I love everything “Hold on just a second” to “You idiot, courage to try this new look. I twisted
about the soundtrack. The rhythms, stop honking at me while my Waze and wrapped until I came up with
the lyrics, the story that describes the recalculates!” something that I deemed passably
pride and the struggle that arise from Israeli. I skipped out the door to work
being born somewhere else. And even And then, without warning, my friends (slowly, mind you, so as not to disrupt
though I have no rhythm and did not betrayed me and made me see myself in the temperamental structure on my
leave the Dominican Republic search- a new light. Little by little, they started head). I felt good and glamorous, like I
ing for a better life, when I listen to this tying their headscarves like Israelis. had unlocked yet another achievement
music, I feel seen. Now, I am a simple just-tie-a-knot-in- on this long path to acculturation.
the-back-and-go-about-your-day kind
I moved to Israel when I was 36 years of girl. It’s a look that worked for me in When I got to work an Israeli coworker
old knowing full well what challenges the old country. But Israeli women have stopped me in the hall.
to expect, and with the clear under- transformed the scarf into a multi-lay- “Did you get a haircut?” she asked.
standing that I would never fully ered, three-dimensional work of fash-
become Israeli. I accepted those terms, ion mastery. They tie it on the top, they I told her I had not.
hoping that the rewards of raising my twist, they add height, and they look “New clothes?’” she wondered.
children in the Jewish homeland would incredible. For the past five years I was
far outweigh my temporary feelings of quite content to simply admire them “No,” I said.
inadequacy and moments of embar- while they stood in front of me in line “Well, something is different about you.
rassment. To be fair, at the time I at the cheese counter, wondering with What is it?”
didn’t realize that by “temporary” and awe about the physics and the mechan-
“moments,” I actually meant “constant” ics of their artful displays. But at a wed- So I confided in her that I had tied my
and “unending periods.” But I regret ding over the summer, I noticed that in scarf differently. “I look more Israeli,
nothing. right?”
a mixed American/Israeli crowd, my
Until recently, I imagined I was adjust- immigrant friends were blending and She looked me up and down with
ing to life in Israel rather well. I pepper passing as natives. They had wrapped sad eyes, touched me gently on the

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