Merav and Roy Lobel are going back to Israel. Since the birth of their baby boy, now eight months old, they have longed to be with their families. Each time they\’ve hung up the phone after a call to Israel, they\’ve felt as if part of their heart was still there.
By ship and plane, I\’ve traveled to Israel 15 times over the last 60 years and, looking back, my relationship to the Jewish state has a certain Zelig-like quality.
Israel at 60 faces three major challenges: identity, technology and politics. The future Israel will have to strive and struggle to maintain a credible role as the cultural and spiritual center of Jewish peoplehood. Demography will continue to play a fundamental role here, but the main challenge will be whether Israel can strengthen internal and transnational Jewish cultural bonds to preserve some consensus among the Jewish people.
will never forget my first day in Israel when a group of teenagers pointed at my tallit and laughed. It was the summer of 1970, and, at age 15, I had realized my dream of volunteering on a kibbutz. Raised in an American home in which Conservative Judaism melded effortlessly with moderate Zionism, I never suspected that some Israelis would see contradictions between the two, or that I might someday be forced to choose between them.
The first song Ya\’akov Shimoni ever wrote was called, \”Genesis.\” The lyrics — in English, Hebrew and French — were about pollution, global warming, Mother Earth and the destruction of Israel\’s natural resources. It was 1997 — long before \”An Inconvenient Truth\” became a blockbuster and the green movement reached an unprecedented level of hipness.
Israel, girlfriend, what is your problem? Why all this hoopla and hype? Does the whole world have to know that you and I — hey, break out the Botox — are turning 60?
It is a proud and glorious week as Israel, her 7.2 million citizens and millions of friends around the world celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel\’s birth as a modern, democratic nation.
Twelve years ago, newly arrived at the Reconstructionist Malibu Jewish Center, Rabbi Judith Halevy gave a sermon about her long-term commitment to Israel, about how much she cares about the Jewish state.
At its 60th anniversary, Israel needs a new vision that not only will guide its priorities and inform its actions, but also will be relevant to the lives of all Israelis.
To be an Israeli at the time of the state\’s 60th anniversary means to be resigned to living with insoluble emotional and political paradoxes. It means living with a growing fear of mortality, even as we celebrate our ability to outlive every threat. We are almost certainly the only nation that marks its Independence Day with an annual poll that invariably includes the question: \”Do you believe the country will still exist 50 years from now?\”
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