Israel Viewpoint: From the Homeland

By Dave Baum
Former KOACH Southeast Fieldworker

There's a phrase commonly used to denote an inspirational moment: "lightning struck." I don't know if the original if was meant to be literal, but I had an inspirational moment when I heard a loud boom the other day in class. The boom was so loud that it shook the whole building. My father asked me to write an email explaining what life is really like here. I told him it was impossible. I thought, "How could I have the audacity to try and fully explain Israeli life in an email?" I told him that and he told me to try harder. So I've been sitting with writer's block for weeks, until I felt a boom and lightning almost literally struck me.

We heard a large boom in class the other day and the building shook. Everyone in class was silent for a minute, as was I. But what were we listening for? We were all listening for ambulances, more than 5 to be exact. If there are more than 5 ambulances going at once, then our worst fears become a reality, a pigua, or a homicide bombing. But we heard no sound, except for car alarms. What was this sound? It was a low flying plane that created a sonic boom as it flew by. It revealed a more esoteric truth about the world I live in and the world we all live in today, no matter where we are. In Israel, there is a need for military exercises to survive, for security. Sometimes we need to feel a false boom so the real shock won't hit us as often.

Are we so different in America? When a plane flies low and you are in mid-conversation, do you not stop and look up? Of course many of us do, or at least did. That is because we expect a terrorist attack like this, because we experienced it. And here in Israel, we listen for ambulances. When you realize that the plane that flew by was just that, a regular plane that flew by, you go back to your conversation without acknowledging the awkward pause that just occurred. And when we realize that the large boom was fireworks, or a car that backfired because we don't hear ambulances, we go on with our conversation. I hope that America will never know what it is like to live with security at every store, restaurant, and mall. I wish I could be that optimistic, but sooner or later, this truth will be apparent to all of us around the world.

I live in Jerusalem, an intense city to say the least. There are holy people from the "big 3" - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The norm is to wear a kippah in the city, and it's not just the Ultra-Orthodox, but mostly average Jews with knitted kippot. My location is pretty unique and special. I live 10 minutes from the Old City and 10 minutes from downtown. It's two extremes, from the mostly secular, to the mostly religious.

But people live in freedom here. There's a demonstration every Thursday about 2 minutes from my house. Sometimes it's the Peace Now group, sometimes it's the group that supports transfer of Arabs, and most of the time both. But they protest in peace with each other, without fighting. On Friday afternoon, the streets are bustling with people trying to buy last minute supplies for Shabbat. An hour before sundown, a siren plays throughout the city signifying the beginning of the Sabbath. And for 24 hours, life more or less slows to a standstill. Stores are closed, few cars, if any, ride the streets, and a sense of peace and rest fills the air. People walk the streets and lunches and dinners go on all day and night. As darkness falls on Saturday night, the streets once again fill with cars and people and life returns to normal. I can describe it, but I can't possibly explain to you the feeling. For that, you will have to come here.

Jerusalem is a place where you can get a full, Israeli meal for 2 dollars, where your cab driver will quote Scripture in conversation, where immigrants actually want to speak the language of their new home, where shop keepers will give you a blessing for buying something, where people give charity in the streets and actually look at the faces of the people they give their money to, where people of different religious practices live together in relative peace, where you can see ancient Israel and 20 minutes later see modern Israel at its best. When the sun sets, all the walls of the whole city glow and you realize why they call Jerusalem, Jerusalem of Gold. But everything is golden in this city, at almost all times. The gold comes from each person you see on the street. The city rubs off on you and there is even a special name for those who live in Jerusalem, they call them Yerushalmim, and for a year, I am lucky enough to be among them. I know what I wrote sounds corny, but I say it with pride, because this is the most beautiful city I've ever seen in the world.

I hope I did some justice in giving all of you a taste of life here. But there is no way that you can understand life here until you visit. So I advise all of you to come and tour this great place. It's not a war zone like you may see on CNN. Life is alive here, and even though times are tough, people live on with a smile and hope for the future.

[Posted 12/5/02]