Sunday evening, April 13, 2003
Dear Friends,
REFLECTIONS ON OUR STAY HERE
As I think back over the 7 1/2 months that we have been here, I gasp at what we have done. So much has happened in that short time. We have met so many people -- friends, colleagues, family, students, and strangers -- that I can scarcely encompass it all. We have talked intensively in three languages: Hebrew, English, and French; and I have lectured and taught in Hebrew and English. I have been to a very large number of lectures, symposia, etc. -- most ot them in Hebrew. Ursula has developed an ability to communicate in Hebrew. She mixes it with other languages but, then again, she does this with all the languages she speaks. We have also been on trips, some of them local in Jerusalem and others to different parts of the country, and we have not really been aggressive about the latter.
I must admit to being tired. The tiredness comes also from being in another culture or, more accurately, in other cultures.
The effort of being in so much conversation has been tiring, especially since I have to concentrate on the Hebrew conversations. Israelis, especially younger ones, talk very quickly. (When I taught at the Hebrew University, I made a deal with the class -- that I would speak Hebrew but that they would have to speak slowly and loudly.) Road signs spring to my eye first in English and I have to make an effort to read the Hebrew. It is so much easier to follow the news in English, but I make the effort much of the time to read (or hear) the news in Hebrew. Talking on the phone is strenuous because I cannot watch the lips of the person I am talking too. A very large number of people we meet speak English and it is easy to slip into it, but I make the effort to talk Hebrew. I had started to make up a list of new words but did not follow through with it. Socializing with the French speaking community has also required an effort; I have to concentrate on what I am saying and which words to use, which I do not need to do in English.
Praying at the Wall involves one in a whole culture of different religious rituals --hasidim with their long peyot (sidelocks) and fur hats, non-hasidim with their long coats and black hats, sefardi Jews with their open shirts and working-class appearance, young army-bound Israelis in their white shirts and knitted kippot, the professional beggars for whom I have to calculate how much I give for the holidays, how much do they need, who are the fakes, etc. And, in each of these groups, I am the stranger -- the weird American who doesn't look like them yet who turns up for prayers before dawn. Philippe and I were at the Wall on a Friday night recently -- it was the first time it was really warm enough to be there and then to walk back to his apartment. What a cacophony of sounds, rituals, and people; I'd forgotten how un-American Friday evening there is. It's like being on a small sail boat in moderately rough seas -- doable, even enjoyable, but tiring.
Everyone in Israel has an opinion on everything. Since the issues here are largely unresolvable, conversations are rarely dialogues; they are more like disagreements of greater and lesser intensity. Are we oppressing the Palestinians and should we be more solicitous of them? Should the ultraorthodox be getting money from the government when they don't serve in the armed forces and when most of them are anyway on the dole because they study and don't work? Did Ehud Olmert, the former mayor of Jerusalem, do a good or a bad job? Should women be given rights in the synagoguge ritual? Is Netanyahu a good finance minister? Not only does everyone have an opinion, they expect us to have an opinion. This is easier for Ursula than for me because I do not feel the need to have a definitive stance on most subjects. I find the process of taking and defending a position all the time exhausting.
Having an opinion puts you into a group. You belong with the people who hold the views you do. You pray with them; you socialize with them. But we don't really fit into any of the groups; or, perhaps more accurately, we fit -- as we always have -- into many groups: the concert goers, the French bourgeois immigrants, the people at the Wall, the academics, the American immigrants, etc. Most folks find a lifestyle and ideology, and then they live that. We still change synagogues almost every week, making new acquaintances everywhere we go.
Jerusalem is a a city that honors knowledgeability. How thoroughly you know what you know counts. This is true in orthodox circles where it is not uncommon to find people who know sizeable parts of the Talmud (which is 20 volumes long) by heart, together with its many commentaries. However, it is also true in academic circles. I have been amazed by the ability of my collegues in Jewish Studies to cite from memory before a class verses from the Bible, or midrashim from rabbinic literature, or modern Israeli poetry -- not to speak of being able to cite extensively from the area of their own expertise. As a result, the display of knowledge in oral situations, and not the writing of books, is important. Students are inducted into this culture from the start. They begin majoring in Jewish Studies when they enter. They take intensive courses where they are expected to memorize a great deal of data, and they are tested accordingly. By contrast, in the States, we value the broad humanities education in which students are expected to do something creative with whatever we teach them; so is faculty; therefore, publication is central to academia. It is a little tiring, and intimidating (which I think it is meant to be) to study in an environment where everyone is expected to know everything.
The weather, too, is different from what we are accustomed to. We had a very long, cold, and rainy winter. This is good because the Middle East is always short on water and rain is the only real source of water here. But it has been tiring to rise every morning and be cold; or to sit in the apartment in the afternoon and evening, and be cold. It was so cold that the towels in the bathroom did not dry. We had to put them on the drying rack in one of the two rooms we had been heating with small electric heaters. (Having my office be the drying room was also not conducive to work.) All of a sudden, winter is over and we are in the middle of a heat wave. It is so dry that one has to be sure to drink all day long so as not to be dehydrated. The plants which were dying of too much rain now need to be watered.
Fighting the drivers on the street is also tiring. No one, but no one, let's you in to make a turn across traffic. One of the older women we know, when I asked her how she manages, told me that some women drivers let her in from time to time. In a country with permanent enemies who can, and do, rise up at all times to kill you, you learn to be aggressive but, for us, I find it draining.
Still, in spite of the tiredness, the experience has certainly been worth it -- one we will keep with us for a long time, and we hope to live here again soon.
WHAT'S NEW
On the first really beautiful day of spring, Ursula and I went to the Mt. Herzl cemetery. We stopped at the wrong gate and wound up in the military cemetery there. It was very moving. Hundreds of young people who died at ages 17, 18, 24, and so on defending their country in a series of wars. One mother put up her own added plaque, quoting from Jeremiah, "She refused to be comforted for her children, for they are no longer." We also visited there the graves of some of the founders of the State: Herzl, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, etc.
On another spring afternoon, Ursula and I went down to plant trees. As some of you know, the mountains of the land of Israel used to be filled with trees. Over the centuries these were cut down and severe deforstation resulted. The Jewish National Fund was inaugurated a long time ago to reforest the hillsides of Palestine and then Israel, the results of which are visible to all. They are still working on it. So, we got directions to the right place and went to plant trees. This is the tourist planting center. The holes are already dug and very small plantings are available. We planted some (see pictures) wth great satisfaction.
Herod, king of the Roman province of Judea, does not enjoy a good reputation with Jews because he corrupted the temple administration. His reputation with Christians is not much better because he killed babies in an atttempt to eliminate Jesus. Herod, however, was one of the major builders of the Roman empire, having built up the temple mount (one of the largest constructions in the empire), a series of spectacular palaces (including Masada), and for having built two aquaducts to Jerusalem. The lower aquaduct brought water from south of Bethlehem to the temple mount, a distance of many miles. The path had to go gently because the drop in elevation is only 40 meters (40 yards) and gravity made the system work. To do that, Herod tunneled under mountains and curved around valleys. Gaby Barkay took us to a place where one can see some of this (see picture). It is an amazing feat.
I spent a Shabbat with Jonathan and Rachel. With both Philippe and Ursula away, they invited me to join them. It was very enjoyable. They have worked very hard on their new apartment and have emptied all the cartons but one, have put up pictures and bookshelves, and even received new beds in which I slept. I went to synagogue with them, met some of their acquaintances, and got a feel for the neighborhood. There are hundreds of children there and the street they are on is a dead end, so the children play there all Shabbat. The view is also splendid: one can see all the way down Wadi Kelt to Jericho and, a night, one can see the lights of the cities of Jordan on the mountain range opposite the one they are on.
At the hairdresser today, a young woman walked in with her wig! I asked what would she want done with it and learned that wigs have to be cleaned and reset. I suppose it is a lot easier than coming in and spending an hour or so getting your hair done.
THE WAR
On this Wednesday evening, 4/9/03, the 21 st day of the war in Iraq, it looks as if the end is near. Crowds are celebrating all over Iraq (as predicted in an earlier letter). There is some looting in Iraq but this is a GOOD sign because it shows that the Iraqis believe the Saddam Hussein regime is dead. There is still sporadic fighting but they will run out of ammunition. Still, several serious problems remain: (1) There must be fierce fighting in the tunnels under Baghdad where the nerve centers and some of the weapons of mass destruction are located. Those units will die rather than surrender and this will be hand to hand fighting all the way. May God protect our soldiers. (2) The involvement of the Russians in helping Saddam flee and/or smuggling papers out of Baghdad is not good, though it was to be expected that they would try to cover up their deep involvement in Iraq. Wait til we hear about the involvement of the French. (3) A systematic search for all weapons of mass destruction needs to be done. That will take time. And of course (4), a new regime has to be put into place. This will not be simple but I hope the American diplomatic corps is as proficient as the military corps has been.
Here, people including myself have stopped carrying their gas masks, though one area of Iraq on the Syrian border is thought to be the place where some weapons of mass destruction are stored and where the leadership of Iraq may be holed up. If the Syrians have any say, these weapons won't be used because of fear of sure Israeli and American reprisal; this is not Syria's war. Two weeks ago, the Institute for Advanced Studies where I work lost its seminar room when it became the "sealed room" for our building. (Can I even imagine such a room set aside at Emory, never mind the big iron gates that always control access to the campus?) I suppose we'll get that room back next week some time.
For those of you interested in seeing a good presentation of the Israeli destruction of the Osiris nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 from the perspective of this war, try this link.
On this Sunday evening, 4/13/03, the Israelis have lowered the high level of alert. What I read about Al-Qaim, the section of Iraq on the Syrian border, however, is not good. If elements of Saddam's family or close aides are still alive, they will take over the management of the gangs in Iraq and no civil authority will be able to rule. They will also still have their weapons of mass destruction to funnel out through Syria to the international terrorist network. The victory may yet prove to be only pyrrhic.
I leave Tuesday morning for New York. Ursula is already there and I arrive at about the same time as Philippe (who is in Paris) and Benjamin and Alexia. By Tuesday evening, we will all be together in New York. Praise is due God that we have survived the Iraq war unscathed. May the peace be as productive as the war.
Our best holiday wishes to all of you. Shalom, Ursula and David