Two Weeks on the Ground: Initial Impressions of Israeli Life

It’s almost hard to believe, but as of tomorrow I’ve been in Israel – as an immigrant! – for two full weeks.  I suppose that a post including some of my observations is a bit overdue.  I wrote a lengthy post on my old blog almost two years ago (http://rabbidoninoz.blogspot.co.il/2015/11/israel-hayom-today.html); I’ll try not to duplicate the things I published there.

Children's playground in a newer section
of Ashqelon on a Saturady (Shabbat) afternoon

Someone said something to me since my arrival, that reminded me of an early impression (25 years ago…could it be that long ago??!) and a friend’s reaction to my relating it.  We were talking about the old Tel Aviv bus station, which I mentioned in my 2015 post.  At that time, it was the active bus station.  I mentioned to my friend that, on arriving on a bus from the north to transfer to one going south to Gedera, I was initially shocked at the Third World quality of the landscape.  Yes, my friend chimed in.  We Jews have an image of Israel as a Switzerland on the Mediterranean; it’s often one’s first view of the Tel Aviv station that kills that notion!

Much more recently, I was talking with a veteran Israeli about the state of the country’s mass transport – the train system.  He opined that it ran quite well and was entirely satisfactory as long as one remembers that this isn’t Switzerland and doesn’t expect Swiss adherence in, for example, adherence to timetables.

No, this isn't Switzerland...but in Switzerland
one doesn't dine al fresco on wonderful Israeli
shwarma and shnitzel for lunch!  Yum!

The refrain this isn’t Switzerland is actually heard rather often in Israel, as if it explains and justifies the various ways that Israel can be chaotic and unpredictable.  It’s interesting, because although officially, relations between the two countries have generally been frosty, the two places actually have a lot in common.  For example, Israel’s citizen army was deliberately modelled after Switzerland’s (although talking to a Swiss once, years ago, I got a very vehemently negative reaction from him when I suggested as much).  They’re both small countries in a sea of larger, more powerful ones who have used their legendary smarts to protect themselves militarily, and to develop unique industry to outperform their neighbors.  That said, both countries have absorbed much of the cultures of those neighbors.  In Israel’s case, those neighbors are the nations of the Arab world.  So Israel resembles an Arab country – in appearance but also in certain attitudes – far more than she resembles an ‘orderly’ European country such as Switzerland.

I’ve spent more than a little time thinking to myself this isn’t Switzerland during the past two weeks as I’ve navigated the absorption process.  Please don’t read this as a complaint.  What other country has a specific cabinet-level ministry dedicated to the smooth absorption of immigrants?  And what other country offers a basket of benefits to help them through the process?  So if it doesn’t quite work with Swiss precision, I’m not complaining!

My time here has now included two Sabbaths.  Most newcomers to Israel tend to rhapsodize about the Sabbath here, and how peaceful it can be.  Even those who are not at all religious, tend to find themselves touched positively by this laziest of days.  But being a religious guy myself, I find it particularly delightful.

Displaying an almost-completed Torah scroll at
an evening educational session at Netzach
Yisrael.  The rabbi, Gustavo Surazski, is also
a qualified scribe!

Although the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism seem like afterthoughts to a Jew from North America where they dominate, Ashqelon does have a well-establish Masorti (Conservative) congregation.  I attended services there a couple of times, many year ago.  On more recent visits, I’ve tended to attend – if I do – at the (Orthodox) synagogue on Clara’s moshav, since we invariably stay at her parents’ home.  But this time, I decided that from the first Shabbat, I would attend at the Masorti congregation, Netzach Yisrael, in Ashqelon since I would undoubtedly make that my congregation while living in Ashqelon.

My experience to date has made me feel acquitted in that decision.  The two Sabbaths at Netzach Yisrael have been wonderful.  It is a very diverse congregation, with notable English-speaking and Spanish-speaking immigrant sub-groups. (The incumbent rabbi is himself an immigrant from Argentina.)  But there is also a group of veteran Israelis in the congregation.  And there’s an interesting sub-sub group, one of whose members celebrated a bar mitzvah this past Shabbat.  There are several large families of African-American converts to Judaism, who immigrated from the American Midwest (Chicago and St. Louis, I was told) and have become a fixture in Ashqelon.  At first glance, I thought they were Ethiopian Jews, who are well-represented in Ashqelon but whom I wouldn’t expect to see in a non-Orthodox shul.  But then I heard American accents!  So the congregation is truly multicultural in numerous layers.  But just as Israelis in general are an incredible hodgepodge of accents, skin tones and customs brought from their lands of origin, at the end of the day all the different Jews whom I’ve met at Netzach Yisrael have something important in common:  they are Jews who have decided to make their lives in the Jewish State.

I will write more as the weeks go by and my interactions with Israel broaden.  Tomorrow I’m going to navigate the Ministry of Education to talk about obtaining a teaching credential; I’ll surely have something to say about that experience in the coming days!