A few months ago my wife Molly & I took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Israel as part of an amazing journey with the Israel Collective. These are my journal entries over the course of the trip. Today’s post is the sixth installment. More to come!

DAY SEVEN / 2.14.22 / 8:30AM / Hotel

The day begins with a presentation on the history of anti-semitism by a visiting rabbi. Why does it happen? Similar spurious charges and themes resurface throughout history…

Economic myths - Jews control the world’s money
Chosen People - Jews are elitists
Scapegoats - Jews are convenient targets for blame and find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time
Apartheid - Zionism is evil
Outsiders - Jews are always separate from the dominant culture
Deicide - the Jews killed Christ
Race - the Jews are of a different blood

Our lecturer went on to talk about the underlying reason for anti-semitism’s endurance. In his estimation, the heart of the matter is “The Call to Sinai”. Simply put, Jews understand that there is one God and one absolute standard of morality. Mankind continually rebels against this, while the Jews have come to represent this standard. This is why treatment of Jews serves as a moral barometer for humanity. Moreover, in any given population, the treatment of Jews within the society-at-large gives you an indication of that society’s core values. Provocative. I think I’d like to pull on this thread a bit more.

[Later that day we arrived in Tel Aviv after leaving Jerusalem. The narrative picks up here.]

After the lecture, we boarded the busses and went off to the Yad Vashem - Israel’s World Holocaust Remembrance Center. It was a powerful place. Much like our National Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC, the Yad Vashem is a unidirectional setup which takes the visitor on a chronological journey through the Holocaust. I was moved by the many photos and one spot in particular where they displayed the pocket contents of an entire Jewish town who were stripped of their personal belonging before being gunned down outside their Baltic village. The end of the museum featured a room of records and photographed faces before walking out to a balcony with a sweeping view of the mountains.

At the end of our visit I spoke with our tour guide. I told her that at Washington, DC’s Holocaust Museum, survivors unfailingly remind visiting American school children how lucky they are to live in the United States and express their gratitude for what the United States means to them in light of the evil they once had to endure elsewhere. I was curious to know what survivors living in Israel told Israeli students. She said that gratitude for life was also a common theme. She also said that children are taught to remember the Holocaust without allowing their Judaism to be defined by it. What a wonderful sentiment.

She went on to say that, “Israel has its problems,” with the interjection of an endearing gesture I saw many Israelis use - a sort of head tilt paired with a shoulder shrug & gentle hand wave, “…but we’re a fundamentally just people. A good people. It’s important for our children to know this about themselves and their country.”

I couldn’t agree more! There’s a parallel to the United States here. We’ve got a deep reservoir of justice & goodness. Moreover, our system is unique in all of world history and we should be grateful for it. We should strive to honor and protect it so that it can be passed on. We should both acknowledge and grapple with our difficulties (past & present) but always maintain the baseline understanding of what an amazing country we’re blessed to live in. How do I communicate this effectively on tours with the same kind of passion James did at the City of David?

Panorama of faces & lives lost at the Yad Vashem.

The day continued with a bus trip to the border with Gaza.

Art on the security walls on the outskirts of the village. This mural faces toward Hamas controlled Gaza.

The Jewish community we visited was right beside the security wall - not more than a few hundred yards distant. Upon arrival we were greeted by a fit, lean Israeli man in his jeans and winter coat. He was a farmer & father within the community with a close shaved head who stood tall in healthy middle age. I was struck by his appearance because he both came across as very welcoming while exuding the definite air that he knew how to handle himself - a trait common among these remarkable people. He brought us directly into a large rocket shelter for his presentation.

He took out maps and showed us our position relative to Gaza - the thin strip of land crammed with two million Palestinian Arabs on Israel’s southwest border. He also told us about the alarm system built to warn us of incoming Hamas rockets. Once heard, it meant you had approximately 15 seconds to find cover. Rocket shelters were dispersed throughout the community; small white boxes obviously placed and made of sturdy metal and (in many cases) decorated with floral murals by the local children. He told us how Israelis & Palestinians in the area used to coexist but it all ended with the coming of Hamas to Gaza. Hamas wants to see Israel destroyed and they periodically lob missiles into Israeli population centers with the help of Iran.

The village we walked through is a frequent target of these attacks. It should also be noted that the village was lovely. There were flowerbeds, well maintained homes and a playground where I saw a little girl eating ice cream while her friends giggled atop the nearby jungle gym. Quite a contrast to the looming threat that hung over all of it. I suppose you must learn to compartmentalize such weirdness when you live there for long enough. We were warned that recent Palestinian/Israeli tension in Jerusalem had placed the community on heightened alert. Imagine our concern when - off in the distance - we heard a loud BOOM followed by a rising gray plume of smoke. Our host matter-of-factly told us this was a common occurrence; a controlled explosion at the nearby Hamas training camp. In a few more minutes our group drew close enough to see the newly erected Hamas guard tower on the other side of the security barrier. If you looked determinedly you could even see men on the tower platform. Genuine terrorist henchmen! Surreal.

Our guide points out a Hamas guard tower in the distance. Look closely at the electrical tower then scan down to the bottom left of the electrical tower’s base and you’ll see the guard platform perched right above the wall.

When asked if residents often choose to relocate, our host told us that the community was so close knit & supportive of one another that movement out of the community was rare. Besides, wherever you go in Israel you’re still in the line of fire! Might as well hang around the people you love and who love you back.

[That night]

Molly and I went to Shila. It’s a modern restaurant in a romantic setting. We were able to nab an ‘early’ table on Valentine’s Day (Israelis eat late) and share a bottle of the house red. Ah love.

If you want to learn more about the Israel Collective, click HERE. If you’d like to learn more about our great tour guide, Yoav Rotem, click HERE.

Historic America in Israel: Aaron's Travel Journal PART 6