Our Very Own David Gottlieb Becomes a Zeekster!
I just wanted to let you all know that our very own David Gottlieb,(who BTW is also the co-author of a great book called Letters to a Buddhist Jew) has written an interesting piece for the latest (online and I’m guessing print) issue of Zeek Magazine. The Article titled “Lech Lecha, or: How Israeli Jews Find Renewal in Diaspora” is a great read and so obviously I think it’s worth checking out.
Here is an excerpt:
Awakening late to my Judaism–as so many American Jews do–I came to a realization both strange and wonderful: there are Israelis in my midst! At last, I thought, : Real Jews! Jews who’ve fought and sweated and sacrificed for the realization of that fevered, millennial dream: the Jewish State! Jews who speak Hebrew! Jews who live and breathe their Judaism!
But wait: if living in Israel is living the Jewish dream… why are so many Israelis living here?
A recent trip to Israel, and two days of meetings with Israelis in which we discussed (and heard a panel discussion on) this topic, made me wonder whether perhaps in Israel Judaism is breathed more than lived. Could it be that life in Israel is just too hard, too complicated, too angry, too fractious? Or is it so easy to be a Jew in Israel that you stop practicing Judaism?
Does Israel Need Diaspora?
As a participant in the Wexner Heritage Program (a two-year Jewish leadership development program run by the Wexner Foundation), I traveled to Israel this past summer with more than 100 other participants and their spouses. We came from six U.S. cities to see aspects of life in Israel that most Americans don’t see, including an ultra-Orthodox community (where members of our group who attempted to visit a yeshiva were pelted with kugel by angrily protective community members); a West Bank settlement; Bethlehem and other Palestinian communities bordered or split by the security barrier; a religious leader in the Muslim quarter of the Old City; and Kibbutz Nir Am near the Erez border crossing into Gaza, to name a few
You can read the rest here…
What a great piece. Long, complex, and not entirely uplifting, but that’s the essence of the Israeli Jewish experience. There were too many great points to comment on, so I’ll just let it go this time. Kol hakavod!