Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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Uncomfortable
Before the ceasefire, I had a thing that on days I had to leave my town for the merkaz, I’d wear comfortable shoes. You know… just in case. That faded as the explosions quieted, the sirens halted, the Hostage Release Reality Show stole our attention. Today was a day I should have worn comfortable shoes,…
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Drowning in despair
Last week was the lowest. Last week was when one conserved mental energy, as one didn’t have to use their morbid imagination to consider what the 30s were like. Instead, one’s mental energy was called up to battle the despair that has descended to darken the world I grew up in. When the blood dried,…
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How are you?
Floating. Don’t you feel that way too? Just giving in to the atmosphere, letting the butterfly effect nudge you, push you on your lower back. A gentle shove, a passive direction. You didn’t climb something to get there, you stood, passively, you wake, passively, you forgot to eat, passively, you forget the day of the…
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Where is…
Ventured into Tel Aviv today. Kaplan has had quite a year. These days, it’s displaying something far more horrific and tragic… a walking nightmare, experienced by 220, shared by 9,000,000: At least here, in Israel, no one ruthlessly tears down posters of the Kidnapped, the Held, the Captive. Kaplan – the 2023 temporary home for…
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Dispatch after 11 days into whatever comes next
I checked a few places to make sure this was actually day 11 since the Hamas massacre. The days bleed into one another, I don’t even know half the time what day of the week it is, and when I posted my first dispatch, I was off by an entire day. And so much has…
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Our prayer.
There’s something about our prayer in Judaism – it’s timeless. That’s out of necessity, out of an evergreen survival mode; but some periods of survival are more… necessity than others. I think that’s what fueled the magnet that drew me, compelled me, to shul this past shabbat. I had to be among those communal words,…
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The privilege to choose where you’re murdered for being a Jew
A reaction from a lot of Americans (including the State Department, apparently): “You can always come here.” I do feel guilt and appreciation around this, rooted in the well-meaningness and love of my friends and family; I understand how irresponsible? selfish? it might seem: “You have American passports. You can always come on a plane…
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Ok, let’s get technical
To my friends and family outside, let’s get technical. It’s Saturday morning, and your plan was to sleep till, oh, 9am. Take it easy, get everyone dressed for shul, go get your Simchat Torah aliya. But instead, you wake up to an absolutely awful 80s video game sound, obnoxiously loud, and wonder if your husband…
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Dispatch after 72 hours into whatever comes next
If there’s a teudat zehut (ID card) in your pocket, it’s like this: whether you were born here or moved here a year ago, your life is intertwined with whatever is happening outside your own mind and body. Whether you asked for it or not, whether you agree with or not, whether you fully comprehend…
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A season for internal Jewish liberation.
Here’s a secret. Even as a kid, I enjoyed sitting in synagogue on the high holidays. Even when friends would coax me to join them outside during the ‘boring parts’. (I didn’t really find them boring.) Even when my mom was reading any and all books from the stuffed shelves near the back row. Even…
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Immigrant sandwich generation
I have some devastating data to share with you: Depending where you’re sitting when you read this, you may feel differently. The way it hits me: Sabra Israelis are way more networked throughout their lives than Americans. Living pretty close, even if it’s two hours away, to return home for holidays… Shul/youth groups every weekend…
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Who is *really* ready for אחדות in 5783?
It’s a big week ahead. The timing shouldn’t be lost on any of us. We’re on another eve of Temple destruction anniversary. We’re on another eve of Knesset voting the judicial reform issue. Will the labor unions strike again? Is the IDF really at risk of falling apart? Will Bibi’s new pacemaker slow the pace…
Questions? Comments? Advice?