On the days when I work in the office, I stop at one of our local branches of Aroma to pick up a salad for lunch. Most of the people who work there are hip young Arabs who are unfailingly kind and friendly, and far cooler than I’ve ever been or could ever hope to be. Prior to the war, I would drive into work twice a week, and over time, our connection grew warmer and...
During my 32 years in Israel, my politics have shifted left, and, while I certainly have Israeli friends whose political leanings are considerably further to the left than mine are, I’m more to the left than quite a few of my friends here. I’ve never been afraid to call out and criticize the Israeli government, its policies, or military policy vis a vis the Palestinians. I’ve...
When your son comes home during a war…And you cannot control your joyOr the number of times you stand on tiptoeTo wrap your arms around his man-sized bodyAnd he lets you. When your son comes home during a war…For less than a dayAnd you gaze at him when you think he doesn’t noticeUntil he asks you to stopBecause apparently, “it’s creepy”. When your son comes home during a...
We are currently facing a watershed moment with regard to antisemitism. You don’t have to be in favor of what Israel is doing right now – you can be staunchly against it. You can be against the Occupation. Hell, you can even be against Israel’s very existence in any form (though I hope you’re not)! But if you aren’t taking a stand against the...
הלב מתכווץ והתקווה נעלמת ואין לי לאן לברוח כאב נרדף אחרי כאב ולנפש שלי אין מנוח אזעקות שוברות לנו את השקט וזקנים רצים לתפוס מחסה מרקטות הנופלות לנו בין הבתים ולעולם לא ממש משנה למרות הדמעות שלא מפסיקות לזלוג ולמרות הלב שלא מפסיק להתנפץ לרסיסים ביחד ננסה להתגבר על כאב שלא מפסיק לכאוב וביחד, בסוף, אנו ננצח ביחד נתחבק, נבכה ונתנחם נתאהב מול אור הירח נקים משפחה, נעשה אהבה וביחד...
It’s 5:59am as I begin to write this. I’ve been awake for an hour and twenty minutes, after sleeping for less than five hours. These are the hours when my thoughts and feelings are the rawest, and I am unable to filter. I’ve been having so many of both, of course – thoughts and feelings. They’re all over the place, running amok and leaving me depleted and exhausted, but also...
The routine of war is that there is no routine. Some days feel better than others, but no matter how much work I manage to get done, how many “normal” things I manage to do, there is no escaping the fact that our world is spinning off its axis. I find that in all of my exchanges, I’m hyper-aware of my choice of words and my use of punctuation marks. Simple questions are no...
As I sit here trying to gather my thoughts, a television journalist reporting from one of the kibbutzim that was attacked asks an investigator about the worst thing he’s seen while going through the ruins. “We entered one house, and it was obvious that the home had been set on fire, and that many shots were fired. The family managed to escape, but were found by terrorists...
There are so many immediate, pressing needs in Israel right now – equipment for our soldiers risking their lives on the front lines; clothing, housing, and other items for survivors of the attacks down south who lost their loved ones and their homes; providing emotional support for those in need, unexpected financial hardships… The list is seemingly endless. As...
I don’t know what to say anymore, though every time I say I’m having trouble finding words, they seem to spill out anyway. I have no idea what direction this post will take. While my mind is hazy about the events of the first Intifada back in 1987 – months after I returned home from spending a transformational gap year in Israel, since returning after college in 1991 and...