Israeli Taxi Journal Part 1: The Raving Cabbie

One of the most fascinating experiences in Israel is getting into a taxi. In my very short time living here, I have learned more about this country getting to and from places by cab than any other way. There is so much that is completely unpredictable about the whole thing! You never know how much you are going to pay or if the driver is going to yell at you or be your best friend. You don't know if he really listens to where you want to go, but certainly that if he goes to the wrong place that it is your fault, even though you've warned him and clarified the address multiple times. They have screaming conversations with one another over their radios, drive like maniacs, and are -all- characters.

Tonight, we went to celebrate the birthdays of a few family friends at an Indian restaurant in Tel Aviv. Our taxi ride home provides the best example yet of how unbelievable these encounters can be. It started with a normal conversation about where we were headed. Like most of our conversations, it began in Hebrew and slowly, but surely, turned to English. Then came the music.

Brett and I watched this middle-aged, graying curly-haired man with glasses on his nose crank the volume on some obscure European techno. As he passed other taxi drivers he would honk his car horn repeatedly and speak into his radio. Needless to say, he was on the receiving end of a variety of amusing looks. Speeding through the night on the highway, he raved and danced his way through track after track. The only recognizable song was the finale, and apparently his favorite, the Black Eyed Peas remix of "Time of My Life," which had him moving his whole body and waving his hands in the air in-between playing "air drums."  In fact, he completely missed our destination because, as he happily explained, he was "lost in the music" and had to turn around.

Only as he dropped us off did he continue to speak with us. For whatever reason, he thought that we would find his imitation of British people amusing and proceeded to perform for us. It really was entertaining, despite the fact that it was in no way recognizable as a British accent! He kept saying, "Oh reaaalllly!? This is just looooovely!" in a higher-pitched voice and laughing to himself afterward, repeating, "That's what the British would say!" We laughed, too!

                  -  Darren

Welcome Home

After many years of waiting and preparing, we are finally Israeli citizens. We arrived at Ben Gurion International in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning aboard a surprisingly smooth group flight of new "olim" (immigrants) organized by Nefesh b'Nefesh. 

Although I was passed out for much of the first half of the flight (I slept through dinner, but, judging by the breakfast, this may have been for the best), the remainder was long in anticipation. It was extremely interesting to be part of a group of people making this step together, though, and looking around, it all became real very quickly.  It began to sink in that we were finally doing what we set out to. Also on the flight were two or three groups of Taglit Birthright participants, which added a unique dimension. At one point, I struck up a conversation with a few girls on the program and found it difficult to express answers to some of their questions which would in any other context have been so easy to articulate. In this situation, though, here they were on their way to a first experience with an incredible place that I, myself, was on my way to making home. I couldn't really find the words, even, to say why I was doing it - I just felt excited for them, like they were about to have an experience that I knew about and they didn't, and that they couldn't possibly know how life-changing it would be. Better yet was that I wasn't alone in how I felt - a Garin Tzabarnik from the Southwest Garin, and a new friend who will be participating in the same ulpan as us, related to how weird it was to have the two groups combined. It really made it that much more meaningful.

Upon landing, we were given flags, hats, stickers, and who knows what else before being taken to process the rest of our absorption paperwork. We were received by a spokesperson of the Ministry of Absorption, given much-needed refreshments, and were then called in individually into an office to sign documents and receive our "absorption baskets." These packages include items that help to make our initial transition to Israeli life a bit easier. Off we went back to the main arrival terminal where we were greeted by people holding signs and singing "Avinu Shalom Aleichem" before we all boarded taxis to our destinations in our new home. 

            - Darren 

The Night Before

I've been anticipating this very post for months now, constantly thinking about what I would include to sum up everything about living in America and my feelings on the immediately impending emigration to Israel. Now, only hours away from boarding the flight to my new home, the night is finally here. It's my last night living in the United States.

Throughout the duration of this blog, we've discussed a lot about the processes involved in emigrating. The best place for me to begin this post would be explaining exactly why I got involved in the process and why I'm choosing to leave my life in America behind to go serve in an overseas army.

I've been exposed to Zionism for a good portion of my life. I've grown up with an ardently Zionistic brother and I've been educated about the State of Israel and what exactly it means to us as Jewish people. Through visits to and learning about the tiny country in the Middle East that an entire religion calls home, I've come to appreciate it as both the foundation of our history and the safe haven for our people.

While I always held this deep appreciation and admiration for Israel close to my heart, it wasn't until a trip to Poland that I made up my mind about my future and what I needed to do to help insure Israel's: become a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. The sites of the horrors and tragedies the Holocaust created serve as a chilling reminder that evil exists in the world. Unfortunately the Jewish people have faced those evils on more than one occasion throughout history. Now that we have a homeland to call our own, it's imperative that we protect it and defend the Jewish people against any who seek to harm us. It's this very notion that's fueled my desire to pursue this goal and make Aliyah.

It's never easy to leave the comforts of home that have become all too familiar. The routines I've become accustomed to, the college life, for example, will now be replaced with new routines, the army life. The packing is always tedious, the goodbyes always difficult. I'm under no false illusions, a great challenge awaits. I go into it with passion in my heart and a firm belief in a cause. I'm ready to take the challenge.

I've been blessed with a beautiful home, a loving family, an incredible girl, a few best friends as well as many close ones, and the best upbringing I could have ever asked for. I'm turning the pages, closing out an unbelievable chapter in my life. Tomorrow, I'll board an airplane to open the the next one. Tomorrow, I will be realizing my dream.

I'd like to conclude by mentioning how astounding the support pouring in from home and abroad has been. I appreciate it more than I'll ever know how to say!

-Brett

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I fly to Israel. I become a citizen. I follow my dreams. 

I will never forget sitting in my great-grandfather's living room in Johannesburg, South Africa, days before emigrating to America at the age of nine. I remember him grasping a miniature set of the five books of Moses, with his eyes fixed upon me, weeping. Over the course of the next emotional hour or so, he detailed the story of his exodus from Lithuania. Discovering my ancestors, his immediate family, massacred in their own home in a violent pogrom, he decided to find a life for himself somewhere a bit safer for a Jew, he explained. Clutching the texts in his fist, he begged me never to forget who I was and where I came from.

Stories like those of my family members are common in every Jewish household and come from a time before the Jewish state and its army existed. Every society in history lost its tolerance of the Jewish people at some stage. Although extremes vary, my people have been exiled and slaughtered around the world for who they are and where they come from. After the most tragic example of this, the Holocaust, the Jewish state and its army were born to say, "No more!" Israel was and continues to be a statement to the world that the Jewish people will fight for self-determination. It is the declaration that we will not be forced to give up our customs, have our villages destroyed, our stores boycotted, our blood banned, or our bodies burned.  My decision to make aliyah and enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces is a contribution to the message that Jews can now have a say in their own history. 

On an ideological basis, I find it wrong that I would be able to rely on the safeguard of Israel's existence throughout my life without having given what every other citizen gives. While Israel will absorb any Jew into its borders as a citizen on the basis of the Law of Return, and will even rescue endangered Jews and bring them to safety (see: Operation Solomon/Ethiopia), I could never forgive myself for not doing my part for this privilege to be maintained. If one day, at 85 years-old,  I am no longer safe to live in America as a Jewish man, should I be content to fly to Israel, receive my benefits, become a citizen, and live out my years in safety, without having first done my part? I could never.  In my many conversations with friends and family, it has been pointed out to me that there are many things a Jew can do for his people. While I agree and would never discredit anybody or their own contributions, whatever they may be, nothing else I can do for Israel is mutually exclusive with my army service or my living in the land. This is something that I have always wanted for myself and see as my responsibility. I am taking this step to grow, to understand and appreciate the sacrifices we have made to get to where we are as a people, and to give of myself to our collective struggle. 

Tomorrow I fly to Israel. I become a citizen. I follow my dreams.  It has been an intense process to prepare for and the farewells have been getting increasingly more challenging. More than anything, I am excited to finally realize this ambition I have always had. The road ahead is filled with triumphs, failures. smiles, frowns, opportunities,  obstacles, and everything in-between, but I am expecting the time of my life. 

                   - Darren 

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes and kind messages, the support is overwhelming! I can't tell you how much it means.