Yom Yom

I’m back.  More on that later.  

Right now I am sitting with my window open and the residual smell of campfire is wafting in.  It is L’ag Ba’omer.  Sort of. Technically yesterday was L’ag Ba’Omer but the city? country? Rabbinate? decided to postpone it a day because they did not want the preparations to happen on Shabbat.  Something like that.  But I am jumping ahead.

Since we have last been in touch, there have been some very special days here.  I had never been here for Yom Hazikaron or Yom Ha’Atzmaut but Seth has.  Yom Hazikaron started the night of Sunday, April 30.  For those of you who do not know, Yom Hazikaron is Israel’s Memorial Day which they follow immediately with Independence Day, Yom Ha’Atzmaut.  It would be like if the United States observed Memorial Day on July 3 and went right into July 4.  

The connection of the two days makes sense (as would be the case in the US as well) since no one here could ever disconnect the creation and survival of this country without the sacrifices that were made for it to happen.  Israel keeps track of every single person who has died in battle or by acts of terrorism since the founding of the state and as of this Yom Hazikaron that number is 23,544.  They count to the person.  It is a hard day and beautifully observed here.  

I wanted to make sure we did something worthwhile and we were very lucky to attend some special events.  That night Seth, Zoe and I went to a tekes and program that Nefesh B’Nefesh was sponsoring at the Jerusalem Cinemateque.  Hannah and Elana Greenbaum met us there.

First of all, you need to know about the word, “tekes.” Tekes means ceremony in Hebrew and Israelis are obsessed with them.  They are always up for a tekes.  Zoe has them at school all the time.  The army has them as a way of marking the soldiers’ training (remember Max Kresch’s tekes in the beginning of our year?) and then there are the national holidays where you can go from tekes to tekes.  For Yom Hazikaron, communities, shuls, schools, organizations and anyone else you can imagine puts together a tekes.  Some people attend big ones, and others go to ones organized right in their neighborhood.

The Nefesh b’Nefesh program started with a tekes timed to end in time for us to hear the siren that goes off at 8:00.  It was an incredibly sad half an hour filled with profiles of soldiers who made Aliyah and died fighting for Israel. One of the soldiers featured was named Alex Singer and his family was there.  They showed his artwork and read his poetry.  Actually, I heard more poetry read over that 24 hours than I think I have ever heard anywhere.  Israeli’s love their poetry and poets and I heard Natan Alterman’s poem, The Silver Platter, several times.  It is famous, although, if I knew it, I forgot it.  Here it is with some background.  Some people have described it as the Israeli Gettysburg Address.

At 8:00 the siren blares for two minutes throughout the country and everyone stands at attention.  (A second two-minute siren is sounded the [next] morning at 11.)

And then we were in for a treat.  NBN was showing The Prime Ministers movie, part 1.  It is based on the wonderful book written by Yehuda Avner who worked for most of the Israeli prime ministers.  Avner, a Bnei Akiva recruit, left Manchester, England in 1947 at the age of 17 in the expectation of draining swamps but ended up fighting a war practically from the minute the boat landed in Haifa.  So he was here from the beginning and an articulate English speaker and writer.  (In fact, his role in the beginning with the prime ministers was as their aid with all communication in English.)  

We were lucky enough to have his daughter, Yael Michaeli, introduce the movie and speak a bit about her father.  She read passages from his journal and letters that the family has from his arrival in Palestine in 1947 until after Independence was declared.  As you can imagine, Avner was a great witness to history even at such a young age.  And the movie offers a substantial dose of history that goes down so easily because Avner is such a good guide.

I really immersed myself in history for these two days.  Feeling bereft of knowledge, I started reading Daniel Gordis’, Concise History of Israel in preparation and I ended up learning a lot and enjoying it.  It is an easy read and does not go into anything too in depth but if you want the basics, it gets the job done.

The next morning, Seth and Zoe both had school in the morning but were let out early for the holiday.  Seth and I chose to go with Pardes to Har Herzl in the afternoon where David Bernstein, the Dean of Studies, was leading us in observance of the day.  Again, I had never been to Har Herzl, but Seth had been many times, especially when accompanying the Hillel 8th Grade trip, and sure enough, we ran into Hillel’s 8th grade while we were there. Har Herzl is the location of the national cemetery where national leaders (yes, including Herzl) and fallen soldiers are buried.  On Yom Hazikaron it is filled with visiting family and friends and it feels like the whole country is there paying tribute.

Hannah chose to go on her own in the morning.  Zoe chose to go with a few friends straight from school, arriving in time for a tekes honoring civilians killed in war and terrorism where, among others, Bibi was speaking.  David Bernstein gave us much history and took us through chronologically.  Of course, it is a solemn place and it is painful to see all the families who are sitting by graves.  There are people who bring instruments and sing.  There was one group who came to sing whom we saw at Chana Senesh’s grave.  There was a funeral taking place accompanied by a 21 gun salute which was on loudspeaker and emotionally painful to listen to.  We did not make it all the way to the top where the prime ministers and Herzl are buried because it was closed off for the national tekes that night.

It is sad that visiting here is such a great way to learn about the country.

We returned home to get ready for the transition from sadness to joy.  Eliana and another of Hannah’s friends, Tali, came in from Givat Shmuel, and were staying with us. And we barely had time to get to Ramban Synagogue for another tekes and holiday praying. It was still Yom Hazikaron and only with davening and sundown did it end.

I left my people at shul and made my way to the Kashuk’s where we were invited to a Yom Ha’atzmaut BBQ.  When I got there, there was a group watching the national tekes (yes, another one) taking place on Har Herzl that transitions one yom to another.  This includes a torch lighting ceremony that is a big deal here; there are twelve torches – one for each tribe – and it is a big honor to be chosen to light one.  This year’s chosen included Rabbanit Henkin whose son and daughter in law were killed in a terrorist attack about a year ago but she is best known as the founder of Nishmat, the seminary where Hannah studied here.  She lit her torch in honor of all the women who study torah.  Here is the moment and the translation.  You can see what the tekes looks like.   She is an extremely brilliant woman and this was a powerful moment.

The theme of this year’s tekes was Jerusalem in honor of 50 years of reunification so all the torch lighters had a Jerusalem connection. The crowd I was with knew a couple of the other torch bearers, including Dr. Ahmed Eid, an Arab surgeon who runs the Department of Surgery at Hadassah Hospital, and a blind immigrant from India who studies where Nechama Kashuk volunteers.  This year was the first year that non-Israeli’s got to light torches and it was two Americans who shared the honor:  Michael Steinhardt, who co-founded Taglit-Birthright Israel and Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the US.

And then the pomp and circumstance was followed by some Las Vegas glam combined with military shtick and Yom Haatzmaut had begun.

After the BBQ our group made our way to the center of town where the party was well underway.  This night is like New Year’s Eve:  fireworks, dancing, music, silly string, funny hats, drinking, the whole nine yards.  We went to Kikar Safra (Safra Square) which is the seat of the Jerusalem municipality and feels a bit like an abandoned Roman ruin.  Here is the Korelitz clan.  Here is when we ran into Talya Kresch.  

The girls went off to do their own dancing thing in the square and Seth and I enjoyed the crowd.  It was fascinating.  Yoram Gaon, who earlier that night received the honor of lighting a torch at the national tekes, was performing.  Picture an old guy, sort of like Tom Jones, singing old corny national songs.  But guess what?  They loved him!  Here were all these 20 somethings, dancing and singing at the top of their voices and approving with delight his song choices.  And it was not just because they were drinking.  First of all, Seth and I were saying that there is no national songbook in the US.  Could you get a multigenerational crowd together in the US and have everyone singing and dancing along?  Of course not.  Besides pop/rock songs, we do not share music in common.  These were national songs.  This Land is Your Land?  America the Beautiful? What?  Do you even know the words?  These people knew every word to dozens of songs.  They liked each one more than the last one.  And many of them broke out into Israeli dancing.  Here is a video from early in the night which does not fully capture the fun.

[Apologies. Too uneducated and too lazy to get this facing the right direction. Seth] There were celebrations like this all over Jerusalem.  Fireworks went off at midnight.  And soon after, Seth and I started the walk home.

If Yom Haatzmaut at night is like New Year’s Eve, the day really is like the 4th of July.  Parks, BBQ’s, etc.  We packed a picnic and the 4 of us headed to Independence Park to hang with the natives.  Just families of all generations having fun.  There was a flyover but, in general, it was pretty mellow.

Three of us went in search of some history after the picnic because we had read that Eshkol House was open and free for the day.  Levi Eshkol was the prime minister during the Six Day War and his official residence is now a museum and education center. We were all into Eshkol following the movie from two nights previous. We found the house, a beautiful international style building on a lovely street in Rehavia, but they were sold out for the day.  We hope to get back.

It was a meaningful and fun two days and we felt that we had been a part of the observances and celebrations.  So, once again, if you are looking for a holiday to spend in Israel, really, why should it not be these two?  And really, where else can they be observed?

My week of Israeli history continued the following Sunday night when I went to an evening with Natan Sharansky.  I could not pass up an opportunity to see a real live hero while I was here.  Hannah is an old hat at seeing him, when working for Nefesh B’Nefesh and once just on the street. But this was my first time in the flesh.  The evening was sponsored by the Times of Israel and Nefesh B’Nefesh and was structured as a casual interview with a Times reporter.  It was a great night.  He was so interesting and has an amazing view of life and the world and has such perspective on politics and history.  I loved hearing what he had to say including how he told Breshnev jokes when he was being interrogated by KGB thugs.  (They had to fight smiling by the way.)  There are a few more interviews in this series that I hope to get to.

And this week I started my ulpan again.  Yay, I really need it.  And as I mentioned, we had Lag Ba’Omer here.  In case you are looking for a holiday to celebrate here, do not pick Lag Ba’Omer.  I had no idea how much anxiety I would suffer just knowing that open fires were burning throughout the land.  Who knew that I had arson issues?  Maybe everyone has arson issues.  Anyway, I went to a movie with Allison and by the time I walked home I smelled of a camp fire as the city reeked of smoke.  Glad to have that one over.  Here is a picture Hannah sent us of some arson fun in her street in Givat Shmuel.  (Not a riot, despite appearances.)

And now I return to my opening greeting.  I am writing because Seth is in the States.  For those who have not heard, Seth has been offered and accepted the job of Director of Jewish Studies at the Frankel Jewish Academy and is there doing some work.  It is very exciting.  We did keep telling you all that we were coming back.  

[Quick note from Seth:  The first thing I did when I got here was go to Trader Joes, of course.  Just in case I had any doubts that I was back in the States, the three people who in quick succession apologized for walking in front of me while I was checking out the cereals cleared it up for me.  It threw me a little, since the notion that even a clerk would apologize for something like that, let alone a fellow customer, is decidedly not Israeli !)

For now, Zoe and I tough it out alone.  Next week, the final, and this year at least, the most intense Yom -- Yom Yerushalayim which includes a visit from the President of the United States.  I, for one, am holding my breath.

Until then.

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