Creative Aging: The Zionist Reawakening of My Adult Children

16th in a series.

Israel had taken a back burner. Way back. 

All three of our kids went to Jewish day schools. To Jewish camps. To Israel many times. 

They grew up, became professionals with demanding jobs. They got married. They all had kids. They’ve took on hefty mortgages and rents, and all the pressures that this generation faces — more than we ever did. They’ve remained committed to Jewish life.  All of them do Shabbat dinners, light candles, say the kiddush and sing some songs. They’re all involved in synagogue life. 

But Israel? 

It was something they distantly cared about. None of them, no matter how much they traveled to Mexico, Columbia, Italy, England, Japan, Argentina, Nicaragua — prioritized Israel on their itineraries. Never did they say during all the recent times I’ve been in Israel, “Hey, we’d like to come and join you!” 

I’m scheduled to be teaching in Tel Aviv this spring semester, which hopefully will still happen. My wife and I offered to bring the kids and the grandchildren. But with their schedules and different child-rearing dynamics (don’t get me started), they haven’t been able to coordinate between them and commit to a big family trip. 

I’ve often wondered if the relevancy and love of Israel they experienced growing up in our home would be further diluted when they transferred it down to their children. 

Then, October 7 happened.

These atrocities, these kidnappings, this war, these lies, this antisemitism and my former (by several years) liberal colleagues proudly showing their “even-handedness” after 1400 Jews were massacred in cold blood.

Then, the realization that all that debate into drawing a line between anti-Zionism and antisemitisim was all just a ruse for rationalizing and gloating about the murder, torture and kidnapping of the Jewish people. 

Then, for my kids, everything changed.

I’ve lost count of all the rallies, events and prayer services they and our grandchildren have attended since that dreadful day. I cannot keep up with all the articles, videos and social media posts they send me every day. My daughter in New Jersey helped organize a massive greeting outside the UN, where the mother of hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin came to speak.  I cannot listen enough to their frustrations and worries about all the influential people, organizations and media attacking and lying about Israel. They even have a cousin who posted a bunch of naive, uneducated garbage on social media and one of my kids wrote him a loving email nearly ripping his head off. 

They’re communicating with their children about Israel. Isaac, 7, is asking questions like an adult. Noa is singing Hebrew songs. Max, 3, keeps yelling, “Am Yisrael Chai!” All six grandchildren, 3 to 8 years old, know that something serious is happening with the Jewish people. My kids and their spouses aren’t hiding the appropriate realities from them. My son-in-law Camilo spent a year on Kibbutz Nir Oz and had relationships with many of the people killed and kidnapped. On their behalf, he’s becoming an activist, something this Nicaraguan-born son of a revolution never imagined. 

This horrific situation has brought our family closer together, with Israel as the bonding substance. In the midst of this war, the seed we planted, which I feared had gone dormant, has begun to flourish. Not only among our kids, but among their friends. I look to their generation — the generation I worried was disconnecting from Israel — and I’m seeing a resurgence of their Jewish and  Zionist identity. These Jewish seeds are our hope.

Our kids’ generation has been rudely awakened to the reality that the security and vibrancy of Jewish life everywhere has a direct connection to Israel. 

Our kids’ generation has been rudely awakened to the reality that the security and vibrancy of Jewish life everywhere has a direct connection to Israel. They’re going to need to take the responsibility of examining what went wrong in their Jewish education, in Israel itself, and among their peers that allowed them to distance themselves from Zionist identity over the years. No one issue is solely responsible. 

Once Israel wins this war, the Jewish world has a lot of work ahead. And our kids are going to have to do it together with their Israeli peers. 

In many ways, October 7 changed everything

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Gary Wexler woke up one morning and found he had morphed into an old Jewish guy.