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We have visited Israel regularly since our honeymoon in 1972 but still marvel at its miracles. Truckloads of surplus oranges and austere kibbutzim have given way to superhighways, wifi-enabled trains and hi-tech innovation. Water treatment, solar panels and underwater gas supplies have made water and energy shortages a thing of the past. Israel’s intelligence and defence capabilities have universal respect, while a precariously small population has grown to more than 8 million. Viewed from France, aliyah looks more like an opportunity than a sacrifice as the economy keeps growing and everything seems possible.
We left Paris struggling with unrelenting strikes, street violence and floods. We flew into Ben Gurion to bright skies, warm sun and a palpable sense of freedom, the weight of minority status lifted from our shoulders. Israelis ask anxiously about life in France and encourage aliyah with a smile, but their remarks feel welcoming while in Paris questions about aliyah feel like a form of expulsion.
In Israel we take pleasure in everything. A “sound and light” night walk through Jerusalem’s Old City the extraordinary Hurva synagogue beautifully restored after Jordanian destruction in 1948, a miniature Eiffel Tower on Ben Yehuda, the lively Germany colony and train station, the new top floor restaurant at Ticho’s House, Mahane Yehuda transforming itself under our eyes. The French tramway rolling quietly through the city centre carrying Haredi rubbing shoulders with bare-armed tourists, Arab families and secular Jews. An assertive modernity dressed in Jerusalem stone.
In Tel Aviv, we discovered chic Sarona before the killings and the Druze ladies who make hot and heavenly Bedouin bread sandwiches at Hacarmel. We listened to Ben Gurion read Israel’s Declaration of Independence on Rothschild Boulevard, a text worth re-reading regularly like weekly prayers. A stunning performance by the Batscheva Dance company at its hexagonal home in Neve Tzedek, near a classy French cafe. The warm enveloping sound of the Israel Philharmonic filling a magnificent concert hall. In Ashdod, 2500 people enjoyed a Greek tenor and Israeli soprano sing popular songs in a spectacular outdoor setting.
Religiously speaking, Progressive Judaism is advancing while Orthodox Jewry is challenged from within by young men and women wanting to work, join the army or start a business. The sensitive TV series “Shtiesl” has become cult viewing for many, raising questions about the traditional lifestyle. As with French olim, there is now an established community to soften the landing for those who take the plunge.
Despite the naysayers in the French media, Israeli democracy is alive and kicking. The style is rough, but real. The government may indeed be drifting further right, but a backlash is building. It is hard for France to understand how a citizen army turns adolescents into adults, integrates diverse cultures, builds a national psyche but that’s how it is. Generals are among the modern day prophets, crying out to defend the principles on which the state was founded.
Arabs and Jews live largely separate lives in Israel but it’s not apartheid. It’s not full equality either, but Arabs mix freely as a minority much as Jews have lived in the Diaspora for centuries. Young Arab families with strollers walk confidently in the Old City, Arab women chat in restaurants on the chic Mamilla street, young Arab couples walk the Haas Promenade next to the splendid Omaya reception hall celebrating a Jewish wedding. A young Arab student obtains a perfect 800 score in psychometric exams, in Arabic, and is proud to be Israeli. A new grassroots peace initiative “two states one homeland” is gathering support among Israelis from right and left, including Meretz and settlers, as well as Arab Israelis and Palestinians. The “status quo” in Israel is a “non sequitur”.
Reuven Levi has been a Paris resident for 35 years. He was married in the United States and is a father of three, grandfather of six, and an active volunteer in the Jewish Community.
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