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Being in Ayanot – originally a training farm for the Halutzot,
women pioneers in the 1930s, reminds me – and I need constant
reminding – that there’s more to Israel than the checkpoints,
the security fence, and the bombings. Of course all of these are
an active presence in the lives of each of the Israelis I met,
and issues of national security are fiercely debated. (To my surprise,
a majority of Peace Now activists now favor the Sharon unilateral
withdrawal plan.) Yet life goes on, and in places like Ayanot,
it does so with remarkable tenderness and caring. One long time
resident of Israel, drawn originally by the nation’s vision
of social justice told me that while she feels betrayed by the
ultra-orthodox, the ultra-nationalists, the rampant capitalism
and the sometimes cruel treatment of Arabs, she loves, as I do,
the vibrancy of being in Israel. She feels the same thrill I experience
every time she sees an Israeli flag waving, and she feels the deepest
connection with the richness of Israeli culture and history. She
speaks with passion and deep emotion about Ayanot and the many “Ayanots” throughout
the country, about the guides and mentors who have not yet lost
the spirit of the Halutzim, and about a still hopeful generation
of young people learning from them. (If BAJC is looking for a project
in Israel with which to link, we may not need to look any further.)
My Uncle Saul – about whom I wrote last month – who
came to Israel from Poland in the 1920s, was an ardent member of
the Zionist socialist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, surely the
spiritual ancestors of the idealistic young men and women I saw
working at Ayanot. The organization operated not only in Europe
and Israel, but also in the United States. One group of Hashomer
Hatzair which was active in New York in the 1950s, is having a
reunion in Brattleboro in early July, and I have invited them to
join us for a service. On Saturday evening July 3 at 6 PM, we will
do Havdalah together and then listen to the stories of these most
interesting people. We will learn that evening about a rich part
of our American Jewish history, and, more generally of Zionist
history. It’s likely to be compelling for all of us, including
our youth.
B’shalom,
Jim
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