Disclaimer: This post is going to be a bit heavier emotionally than will be the rest of the blog. I probably will not speak this openly again about my feelings on Israel's existence and the Jewish people as a whole.
One month from today I will be embarking upon the real-life journey from DC to Israel where I will partake in a five-month hotel management program sponsored by Masa Israel. In June of this past year I visited Israel as part of a 10-day all expenses paid trip with 39 other young American adults. I had been to Israel before, but for some reason this time was different. It's as if I was colorblind before, and now I can see all spectrums of the rainbow. Stemming from the experience there has been a complete dissonance inside my head. I feel as though I belong in Israel. Do I leave everything I know and love in the Land of the Free just because of a fleeting feeling of belonging? Do I really belong there? That is what this experience will help me to see!
On my trip back in June we visited Israel's military cemetery, Har Herzl, with actual Israeli soldiers on the same day we visited Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad VaShem. This day was enough to make me rethink my entire existence. How can it be real that if I were to time-travel 70 years back to WWII Europe that I would almost certainly be put to death just for being born unto Jewish parents? This is CRAZY! The population of Jews in the world today would almost certainly be double its current 13 million if not for the genocide of two-thirds of Europe's Jews.
While it's not in anyone's best interests to dwell on the past, we NEED to plan for a brighter future. We can argue: if the Jewish people had had an organized military by which to defend themselves, would they have been able to defeat the Nazis and prevent the inhumane slaughter of millions? The world will never know. What we do know is that we do now have an organized military. We have a state, one state. If Israel should fall, there will be no army in the world to defend the Jewish people. If this happens, it will be a struggle for us to exist.
To introduce you to your author for just a moment so that you can understand the mind from where these thoughts escape... At the innermost of my being I believe that we are all just living beings of the Earth. We all share the same basic rights to exist and be happy. However we are not all the same. We come from a collection of past experiences that have led us to become the individuals we are. I am not Jewish in a religious sense. I am Jewish in the sense of my identity and my heritage. I enjoy the traditions and customs, but I do not believe in a god. I am Jewish just as much as I am an American. But before I am Jewish or an American, I am a vegan. I believe that nonhuman animals are entitled to all the same rights that human animals have. The genocide (I know this is technically incorrect grammar to use the word 'genocide' since the word applies to the killing of humans, but I wasn't sure what other word to use..) of nonhuman animals throughout human existence is a wrong that boggles my mind.. but I digress.. and will save this for another post.
We (the Jews) have been persecuted for centuries and centuries. I exist today as a product of survivors of oppression. I am descended from immigrants from Eastern Europe circa the time of the Pogroms and from Spanish Jews who fled the inquisition to keep their lives. We have survived throughout history because we have each other. Israel, only just the size of New Jersey, must continue to exist as a home for the Jewish people. One can argue, but there are many Jews in America.... Yes, the area in which I currently live is heavily populated with Jewish people. Yes, there are probably 20 synagogues within a 10 mile radius of my house. Yes, in school we got off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Yes, we sang Hanukkah songs in my public elementary school. Yes, our weekend is conducive to Shabbat. Yes, we are allowed to practice Judaism publicly and freely. BUT- can we really say that if aliens came from outer space and threatened to kill all the Jews and their friends, that the gentiles living among us would defend us? I don't know the answer. I would certainly hope so. I do know that in the case of World War II the answer was no.
Right now I feel the need to be in Israel. We, the Jews of the diaspora, have the chance 2000 years from our dispersion to reunite in our home land of Israel. Why not go? And so off I go!
This video pretty much sums up my thoughts.
Goodbye for now!
