It’s been a while since I’ve updated, mostly due to the fact that I’ve been - quite literally - all over the world and haven’t had a moment to settle.
Over break, I ventured to Israel on Birthright. The idea is kind of daunting: forty college-aged Jews - strangers - on a bus together for nearly two weeks. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the situation turned out. While I’m still reflecting on the travels, and imagine I will be for a while, there are a few things that have been stewing that I find worth discussing.
First, in an attempt to keep these writings somewhat scholarly and somewhat relatable and reflective, I don’t talk about my personal life in specific terms beyond how it impacts my creative ventures. I think it’s important to note, though, that from a religious standpoint, my understanding and interest in Judiasm is limited, if not non-existent. It’s never been something to which I was exposed, nor during childhood did I see it contextualised as more than a social event or a glorified babysitting arena. I didn’t expect to find religion, god, or anything while on this trip, but I was surprised at what I did take away.
I never understood the significance of Israel, in part because I don’t have the religious background, but moreso because historically, I was never exposed to the stories and facts (these, I have found, are often interchangeable). Covering miles of ground in the Middle East - somewhere in which I never imagined I’d ever end up - certainly exposed me to the history, and allowed me to place the Biblical stories I was hearing for the first time.
While I, in fact, did not find god, what I did find was a new definition and I populated a set of significant questions. Walking out of Yad Vashem, the museum of the Holocaust, Shoah, and seeing a vista over modern Jerusalem hit me as the planner had wanted - a bridge between past atrocities and current strength. While I don’t always agree with Israel or the Jewish people - or any organisation, country, set of beliefs, etc. that is guided entirely by religious notions - I did take away something important: what I have called my “Hollywood Movie Epiphany.” It’s never been presented to me that spirituality and history can exist without religion. I don’t think it’s a two-way street; religion cannot exist without these things, but I have a right to feel connected to a people and a history, a right to ask questions, and a right to seek and understanding of how the past and the future bridge. And this can all be done through the absence of religion. It is important, of course, to understand that religion is significant enough to such a massive number of people that it does have an impact, but my cultural identity and opportunity to feel a spiritual connection to the diaspora as a Jew is in no way demeaned by the absence of religion in my life. It seems simple, but it’s a realisisation I never knew needed to materialise.
Further, while being exposed (almost indoctrinated, but what else can be expected on a free trip?) to the Israeli perspective on the Middle East conflict by actual Israelis, I’ve been struck in another way. When one is not invested spiritually in the conflict, it’s very easy to write off the tension in the Middle East through explaining it as a political clash for land and control. But aye, there’s the rub: when religion and preservation of a culture built around religious ideology are the bases for the beliefs and motivations which fuel a society’s war, how can one take religion out of it and label it merely political? As my feet touched the streets of the Old City, my eyes saw into those of Hasidic women crying at the foot of the Western Wall, and I watched secular Jews buying coffee in Tel Aviv all in the span of mere days, there’s a palpable reality that this conflict can’t be boiled down to a simple label. There are layers, one more complicated than the next. I think merely allowing such a thought to enter one’s head is scary to many people who are resistant to being wrapped into one side or the other.
Of course, that opens up so many questions. Is the requirement to serve in the Israeli Army both service as well as a factory for Nationalism instilled by the government? Certainly, once one’s life is at risk for his country, his inclination to ever leave his home is diminished, regardless of how secular his practices are. Is discussion of a two-state solution, while favorable in many ways, even possible? Does ideology prohibit practicality? Is there even such a thing as practicality, and as such, who defines it? Is it enough to say one supports Israel merely because she is a Jew? Is there a such thing as “peace,” or is that as temporary as a cease-fire? There’s no right or wrong to any of these questions, and I’m being careful not to project my own thoughts as I write, mostly because my opinions are irresolute. Regardless, I’m glad to have opened up my eyes and feel blessed to even have the opportunity to ask the questions, period.
M
