Revelers dance in the street, whapping
each other on the head with giant,
inflatable plastic hammers and spray-
ing each other with silly string. It's like
a national release valve for the sorrow
felt just one day earlier.
You can't be in Israel and not get
caught up in a political discussion.
Ask any Israeli about the upcoming
elections and you will get an earful.
The issues — land for peace, the
Palestinians, should the ultra-reli-
gious serve in the army. The parties
— right wing, left wing, labor, cen-
trist, religious. The Israelis are pas-
sionate about these topics. They
understand the future of their coun-
try is at stake.
I was riding in a cab back to my
hotel in Jerusalem one afternoon. The
driver expressed concerns about the
American-style negative political ads
being used in this campaign and in
general, what he saw as the corrupt
behavior of Israeli politicians. "I'm
worried about what's happening to
us," he said.
When the taxi stopped at a light, a
little boy was handing out bumper
stickers-in support of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu. The driver took
one, peeled off the backing and placed
the sticker on his steering wheel. I
asked him if he supported Netanyahu.
"No," he said. Then, why did you take
the bumper sticker, I asked. "To keep
someone else from displaying it on his
or her car," he answered.
While Israel can be viewed as lay-
Bred ad complex, it also can provide
a sense of continuity and connection.
It did for me.
In an ancient cave in Tel Maresha,
we were handed hoes and buckets by
the Archeological Seminars and told
to dig. Chopping at the dirt stirred up
more than bits of ancient pottery. At
that moment, all of the sights I had
seen crystallized for me, bridging cen-
turies of history in an instant. Here I
was, unearthing bits of crockery peo-
ple had used in their everyday lives
2,000 years ago. It was a feeling no
museum could duplicate.
Israel also is an intensely personal
place, which each person experiences
individually based on his or her own
past. When I first laid eyes on
the Western Wall, I wasn't sure
what I felt. But that all changed
when I touched the stone. I was
overwhelmed with emotion, not
in a religious sense, but in a
deeply personal way.
When my father passed away
a couple of years ago, my broth-
er and I went through his per-
sonal effects. We found two pic-
tures tucked away in his jewelry
box with the tie tacks, cuff links
and old coins. One showed him
and his children and the other
showed him wearing a tallit and
kippa, praying at the Wall.
That flashed through my
mind as I stood there and wept.
Those two photos spoke vol-
umes about my father's commit-
ment to his faith and his family.
I couldn't help but think how
proud he would be of me that I
had made this journey.
In the last 51 years, the Israelis have
done wonders to reclaim an ancient
land that essentially was a barren and
forbidding chunk of limestone and
sand. Yes, I had heard all of the plati-
tudes about making the desert bloom.
Well, it's more than that. They made a
nation and a people bloom, too.
Seeing Israel stirred something
inside of me as well. This trip rein-
forced the importance of the Jewish
state and its future, the Jewish people
and its amazing history and my bond
to both. I know I'll be back. E
Adrien Chandler, a native of
Detroit, is a freelance writer and
broadcast producer from West
Bloomfield. She studied history at
the University of Michigan. She
can be reached by e-mail at
abchandler@earthlink.net .
Israel
The Personal
A first-time visitor connects to
the country and her family
through individuals, not abstractions.
Avern Cohn, Jerry Halperin and Claire Kay decipher scavenger hunt clues
in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.
RITA LEEDS
Special to the Jewish News
Illf y first visit to Israel
produced one strong
impression: Israel,
unlike the United
States, is a people country.
This feeling has persisted from
the first day at the Neot Kedumim
Biblical Landscape Reserve. There,
we learned of the desire of one man
to link our ancestors to future gener-
ations through the planting of the
trees and plants mentioned in the
Bible, and how his son accomplished
the goal.
The fact that the dreams of one
person could be so successfully
implemented in a newly created
homeland for Jews is a significant
accomplishment and demonstrates
what a single person can do. Shimon
Peres strengthened that impression
when he told us that Israel intends
to plant 1 million trees in Jordan, to
bring about a lasting peace with that
country.
This memory is so different from
what I see around me in Michigan,
where mankind is destroying wet-
lands and similar areas to build
homes and shopping malls.
A ceremony at Latrun, the site of
a memorial to fallen soldiers of the
Israeli Armored Corps, left me with
memories of the fallen as individu-
als. Unlike war memorials in the
United States, a major purpose of
this memorial is to show visitors pre-
cisely who fought, and gave up their
lives, for an independent Jewish
homeland.
This is done through photographs
5/7
1999
Detroit Jewish News
27