Back to the Old Country Part II: Philosemites and Antisemites

My three week academic study trip to Poland, with 9 other graduate students, set off on Thursday June 30th. We were going, as students of history and the Holocaust, to look at modern issues concerning Jewish-Polish relations. We arrived in Krakow, smack in the middle of the 21st Jewish Culture Festival, which as we learned pretty quickly, is sort of a big deal in Poland. On our ride from the airport to our hotel, situated at the corner of the old city in Krakow, we caught glimpses of Jewish stars labeled with information for the festival- but it wasn't just a few signs, there were signs everywhere.

The Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow consists of tours of Jewish Kazimierz, Yiddish and Hebrew Language workshops, movies, lectures concerning history and present culture, Klezmer concerts (including a final "Jewish Woodstock" concert), Genealogist appointments, Shabbat dinner and services, open admission to Jewish museums, Jewish dance, Yiddish singing and more. Most events were offered in Polish and English, but there were a few in Yiddish and Hebrew (including a "Romeo and Juliet adaptation... in Yiddish). The festival itself, was widely attended, mostly by Poles, but also by Jews from Israel and the Diaspora. Poles, non Jewish Poles, were coming out in droves, to celebrate Jewish culture and religion. It was philosemitism at its best.

The Jewish Culture Festival is organized and was established by a non-Jewish Pole, Janusz Makuch. Most of the organizers are not Jewish. Most of the participants are not Jewish. It is in light of this, many criticize the festival as being unauthentic, or virtual: it lacks Jews. Ruth Gruber, in her book "Virutally Jewish" describes the festival, and also the renewed Jewish quarter Kazimierz, which now boasts Jewish restaurants, Klezmer music, and Jewish symbols. She describes the quarter virtual, because in some senses, it is just that: a Jewish area, devoid of Jews. One restaurant I passed by, called Ariel, has a big Jewish star accompanying the sign, and lists Jewish favorites on the menu, like "Chulent"- a slow cooked beef stew traditionally made on Shabbat, and also sweet fish- also known by Jews as gefilte fish. As you eat, a Klezmer band plays in the background. Yet, there are no Jews sitting inside: the restaurant is not Kosher. Similarly, the Jewish cultural festival, isn't completely "kosher" either: the final Woodstock Klezmer concert began much before Shabbat ended- so while all my non-Jewish friends were able to go to the show, me and my other religious friend, Alexandria, had to sit inside our hotel room waiting for it to get dark before we could wander out. I turned to Alexandria and asked, "How is it that only the Jews cannot attend the Jewish culture festival?"

As the rest of my group made their way back to the hotel after the concert, they encountered a telling scene: a group of religious Jews, were making Havdallah near their hotel window. They were dressed traditionally: black suits, black hat, women covering their hair and wearing long skirts. Across from the window, outside, were a group of Poles, with cameras, taking pictures of the Jews making Havdallah. The participants in my group were taken aback: The real Jews were being treated either like old relics in a museum, behind a plane of glass. So while crowds flocked out to a crazy final concert, Jews were stuck in their hotel rooms, or being stared at while they performed religious ceremonies. We were the museum pieces, and left out of the Jewish fun. Was it ignorance? Was it antisemitism? It reminded me of the little Jewish dolls you can buy in almost any tourist shop around Poland: traditionally dressed Haredi Jewish men holding coins or bags of money. We were relics you buy and place on your fireplace mantel- stereotypes, virtual.

And here all the contradictions came flying in my face: on the one hand, the Poles are philosemites, celebrating the best of Jewish culture. On the other hand, it's unauthentic, pushing the Jews to the sidelines. Why are they even interested in Jews in the first place? Why do they care about Yiddish, and Jewish dancing and songs? Why are there tours informing Poles of long history of Jewish synogogues in Poland? And art, made by non-Jews expressing Jewish issues? Weren't the Poles antisemites, an image that is often held by many Jews? Didn't they want us gone? Weren't these the same Poles who instigated pogroms, even after Hitler's war was over? And the ones who purged out the last of the Jews in 1968? Yet, the more I stayed in Poland, the more I began to learn, that despite the lack of Jews, the history of the Jews does not exclusively belong to Jews.

The truth is that Poles do care about Jews, Judaism and a Jewish piece of their past, that isn't only Jewish, but also Polish. The Jews of the past, the ones that made up 10% of Polish population, weren't a separate part of the culture and country- they were part of it. Jewish culture was Polish culture, and the the Jewish culture festival, isn't only about celebrating Jews, but celebrating Poles, and Poland itself. I think that this concept is sometimes hard to grasp, especially considering that the younger generation of Poles never really knew a Jewish Poland. The Jews left over 60 years ago, and the growing Jewish community today in Poland, does not even hold a candle to the past. Yet, they are the generation that grew up in a place where the ghosts of the past could be seen everywhere. A foreign language, peaking out behind layers of paint, indentations of Mezuzah on their homes, and old decaying buildings, laden with Stars of David. The Jewish footprint exists in Poland- it is everywhere.

In Poland, contradictions are part of the past, they are part of the present and they are part of the future. True, the Jewish Culture Festival has virtual and unauthentic aspects, just like the "Jewish" restaurants in Kazimerez, but what could they be based on? Poles are trying to put the pieces of the past together. On the other hand, antisemitism still exists in Poland as well. Just a few weeks ago, the memorial in Jedwabne commemorating Jewish victims, who were killed by their Polish neighbors during the Holocaust, was desecrated with Nazi slogans, and unforgiving statements. This action came in the wake of similar acts of hatred against Jewish memorials. But a few days later, in Bialystock, Poles marched in protest against antisemitism. They were protesting this wave of hatred. Clearly, the answer is not simple: Poles are neither Philosemites nor Antisemites. They are dealing with a past that is still present. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon the following quote from Janusz Makuch, who established the Krakow culture festival. In it, he expounds on the contradiction that define Poland Jewish relations today.

"My name is Janusz Makuch and I come from Poland. I come from a country of rabbis and tzaddikim, gaons and melameds, from a country of Jewish sages, writers, bankers, architects, painters, doctors, shoemakers and tailors, film directors and producers, physicians and politicians, scientists and Jewish soldiers, from a country of devout, good people. I come from a country of anti-Semites and goodhearted people, from a country of szmalcowniks (blackmailers and informers) and the greatest number of Righteous among the Nations, from the country of Father Rydzik and the country of John Paul II, from a country of anti-Jewish graffiti on synagogue walls, and a country where thousands of non-Jews study Jewish history, culture and religion, from the country of the German death camps and the country of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, from the country of Shmuel Zygelboim, Mordechai Anielewicz and Marek Edelman, and from the country of Jan Karski, Jan Nowak-Jezioranski and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski. I come from the country of the Vaad Arba Aratzot, the Jewish Parliament of the Four Lands, from a country of countless shtetls, yeshivas and Hassidic courts, from a country of Jewish autonomy and pluralism and I come from a country of the numerous clausus, ghetto benches, pogroms and murder. I come from a country whose greatness was co-created by Jews who were Polish citizens. And I come from a country that after the war kicked out Polish citizens who were Jews. I come from a country of anti-Semitic madness where they burned Jews in barns. And I come from a country of Christian mercy where they hid Jews in barns. My name is Janusz Makuch. I come from Poland and I am a goy, and at the same time for more than 20 years I have created and run the largest Jewish culture festival in the world. I'm a Jewish Pole - and I'm proud of it."

Back to the Old Country: 3 weeks in Poland

It’s weird to think that only 100 years ago, the number of Jews in Israel was insignificant, especially compared to its population today. Yes, there were Zionists, but they were only the first dreamers, tilling a land that was still quite empty. 100 years ago, America was a growing Jewish center; it was the Goldene Medina (Golden Land), the New World for Jews.
The real core of Jewish life, just 100 years ago, was Europe. And straddling in eastern and central Europe was the core of the core: Poland. A country where 10 percent of the population was Jewish, a country with millions of Jews, living in both shtetls and Jews the major cities. In Europe, there were Chasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Reform Jews, religion-hating Communist Jews, socialist Jews, Yiddish cultural Jews and more.
But today, it’s almost possible to forget this. Jews live in Israel, they live in America, they live scattered through Europe, but they don’t live in Poland anymore. Because Poland, for us Jews, is the land of death, the land of our ashes: Determined firmly by Nazi concentration camps that still grace the Polish landscape. And every year, Jews from around the world remember this. They travel, in groups to Poland for a week or two, touring the death camps and the concentration camps, reciting Kaddish at mass graves and proudly singing “Hatikva,” with Israeli flags hanging off their backs. Against all odds, they are reclaiming the continuity of the Jewish people. When we proclaim “never forget,” what we mean is that we will never forget that there was an attempt to exterminate us. We will never forget so that we can be assured it will never happen again.
Despite these trips, the hundred of years of Jewish life in Poland is sometimes forgotten. After all, we’ve transported that which was important to our new homes. We’ve rebuilt the Yeshivas in Bnei Brak, Mea Shearim and Brooklyn. Jews are still cooking cholent on Shabbos, and you can find knishes, pickled herring and matzah ball soup in the heart of Manhattan. Bubbies and Zaidies are still distributing Jewish guilt all over the world. And the politics and religion that developed in the old country are happily developing in new places.
And so, for us, Poland is the concentration camp. It is used as the symbol of what can never happen again. And along the way, we quickly sweep over the past, both the good and the bad of it.
This summer, I received an opportunity to travel to Poland, to study Jewish-Polish relations before, during and after the Holocaust, with nine other graduate students. The trip was three weeks. When I was asked what my plans were for the summer and I replied, “Three weeks in Poland,” the response was generally the same. “Three weeks in Poland?! What can you do in Poland for three weeks? That is so depressing. You only go to Poland to see the camps. You need one week, tops.”
But I was excited to go to Poland, to return to the Old Land. I felt that feeling that Jews feel when they go to Israel for the first time, like they are going home. I am, after all, a Polish Jew, somewhere down the line–so it really was like going home. And so, in the next few weeks, I would like to share with you an experience in Poland. Three weeks in Poland–with days that were depressing, that did make me want to take the next flight back to Israel, but also days that were fun and days that really challenged how Jews see and connect with both Poland and Poles.
While I was in Poland, I kept hearing the same story. The story is that as the Jews were wondering east through Europe, they arrived in Poland. However, after discovering the name, Polin in Polish, they knew they were destined to stay. In Hebrew, Po lin means ”Here we stay.” The land in Poland was once holy to Jews, and I wanted to find out, not only why, but if any of that remains.

Blood Libel for the 21st Century?

For awhile now I have been following in the news a group called the “intactivists” who are attempting to ban circumcision in San Francisco. The group claims that no one, but the owner of the penis has a right to cut it off. Man was born perfect, they argue, and no one has the right to cut off the foreskin. When the child comes of age at 18, he can then choose to be circumcised. The group is likening male circumcision to female circumcision, and is claiming that it is a barbaric custom that is unethical. The group has succeeded in getting enough votes that the “circumcision ban” will be placed on the next Municipal Election Ballot. However, interesting enough as this topic is, as I could also write an entire blog ranting against these ideas, the topic of my blog is about a product of the campaign to convince San Franciscans to vote in favor of the ban.

I don’t believe the ban is antisemetic, definitely it infringes on religious freedom, but i don’t believe intrinsically it’s antisemetic, although perhaps anti-religious. This was until the campaign came out with “Foreskin Man”, a superhero that so far features in two comic books, that is meant to “enlighten” the public on the dangers of circumsion. So what does he do? He protects babies from the “monster mohel”. That’s right, Foreskin Man, a blond hair blue eyed man, goes around saving innocent babies from the evil Jew, who is represented pretty similarly to Nazi Germany’s depictions of Jews in the 1930s and 40s.

Which one is from Nazi Germany, and which was drawn today?

But where the comic book gets real interesting is its use of old blood libel accusations on Jews. Blood libel accusations, which came in all shapes and sizes in the Middle Ages, basically accused Jews of needing blood (generally Christian child blood) for sacrificial and religious purposes. In panel 36 of the comic book, the Aryan hero overhears the Mohel say: “And thank thee, O Lord, for the Joyous Metzitzah b’peh for which I am about to partake”, and then in panel 46, after the Monster Mohel is defeated by Foreskin Man, he says, “I’ll just keep coming back until his foreskin is mine”.

Metzitzah b’peh, a controversial form of Circumcision, where the Mohel sucks the blood out, in order to stop excess bleeding or infection, is not a common practice amongst Jews today or for a very long time. (A tube is used in common practice) Yet the choice to include it in the comic book, aside from being deceitful and unfair, not only makes a point against circumcision, but discriminates against Jews. We are the bloodsucking nation, and the Mohel clearly needs that foreskin, because he will just keep coming back for it. It really

Modern Antisemitism at its best

is reminiscent of Medieval times when the Jews were accused of capturing Christian babies and using its blood for Matzah. Here we are in 2011, after the Holocaust and the debunking of such silly myths, and yet it reappears in a new modern form.

Perhaps I’m taking the comparison a little too far, but one thing I’m not taking too far is the antisemitsm manifested in the comic book. Read the comic book, and judge for yourself, are you as offended as me?

Another Nakba Day come and gone

Yesterday marked Nakba day which was commemorated in and out of Israel. The Nakba, which means, "the day of the catastrophe"- marks the catastrophe: the creation of the State of Israel and the accompanied displacement of Palestinians from their homes. Crucial to this displacement is the question of "how were the Palestinians displaced"- historical evidence supports any which way you want to argue as historians themselves still bicker over how many were forcibly displaced by Jewish soldiers, and how many willingly left. (or to complicate it: how many were ethnically cleansed, how many were killed, how many left in order to aid the Arab armies against the Jews, how many were urged by Arab leaders to help Arab armies clear land, how many were nervous because of the war, and how many left because it seemed cool at the time.... you get the point.)

For days leading up to Nakba day, Israel had been anticipating something would happen: especially in light of a grassroots movement, aka a facebook group, which urged Palestinians to begin the third Intifada on Nakba day this year. So what happened in Israel? Violent protests at border crossings, molotov cocktails thrown at Mount Scopus, a suspected terrorist attack in Tel Aviv (That left one dead and 19 injured) and most significant of all, Palestinians crossing into Israel from Syria and Lebanon, where Israel defended its soveirgnty and borders by firing into the crowds. A lot happened yesterday. My friends who live on Mount Scopus told me that the Saturday night and all of Sunday was noisy with small bombs, gunshots, helicopters, and fireworks. They said some east Jerusalem streets were filled with garbage cans and car tires on fire. So, yes a lot happened, but a lot also didn't happen. What is clear the day after is that yesterday did not mark the beginning of the third intifada, despite the violence, protests and illegal entry into Israel.

Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz yesterday that Israeli Jews should begin to commemorate the Nakba. He argues that celebrating the heroic side of Israeli history isnt enough- we also have to understand the other narrative, the dark side. This dark side includes the displacement of Palestinians from their homes- regardless if there is justification or not. Yet the Nakba isn't simply about displacement, it's about legitimacy of land and state. It gets to the core of the legitimacy of the State of Israel as a Jewish entity. Palestinians are not just marking their displacement, they are mourning Israel's creation. Nakba protesters like to bring their old keys to demonstrations, the keys of their old homes in their villages that no longer exist. Those homes have long ago been drowned by history. There is a lake there now, and we cannot live underwater unless we drain the lake itself.

Yet, I don't think that Levy is too far off. Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are stuck in their own world. Jewish Israelis celebrate Indepedance day. Palestinians commemorate Nakba day. In reality, they are both the same day. In reality we don't have two different days, or two different stories, but two very intertwined people and stories. And in some way Zionism too is tainted, in less we can understand the pain and the history of the other alongside our own.

Therefore there needs to be a sort of give and take. Israelis need to understand the history of their land, both good and bad. We can never come to understand their fight, unless we understand our shared history. Of course, the other end is that Palestinians need to come to understand there is another people that live here, and that we also have legitimacy. We also have a difficult past, and sought to return to our homeland, through legitimate means and world support. They cannot return to their homes, for they will ruin ours. But together we can build new homes in a new state alongside our state.

Photograph: East Jerusalem on Nakba day. Photo By Ellie Dayan.

Palestinian reconciliation: Good for the Jews or Bad for the Jews?

It has been buzzing in the news for awhile, and today we all got our confirmation: the PLO and Hamas agree to a “historical Palestinian reconciliation deal“. After years of bitter rivalry and disagreements, they have come together to begin to form a “unity government”. And even though Abbas has more or less told Israel to mind its own buisness, (his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said the reconciliation was not Israel’s concern) we all know that this is our business. And so at every milestone we ask: is it good for the Jews or bad for the Jews?

The initial response is to say bad. Aluf Benn, in his recent Haaretz Op-Ed piece believes that the future of the Palestinian nationalist movement is with Hamas, if this is so than any “unity” governed will simply be Hamas dominated, and therefore terrorist dominated. This leads him to fall down a pessimistic slippery slope asserting that this will push Israeli society behind Netanyahu in his claim that if there is a West Bank withdrawal it will be taken over by Hamas, and thus be an Iranian satellite full of terrorist attacks (he’ll point to the Ashdod bombings and the recent school bus bombing to back the terrorist attack claim) , and this will push Livni to therefore join a Netanyahu led unity government to stand strong against Palestinians and international pressure. To sum up: the bad is a Hamas takeover masked by a unity government, therefore international pressure will continue to mount against Israel pushing Israel far more right, and stifling any hope for peace. Oh, and then a third intifada is probably inevitable.

Seems bleak. So is there any good for the Jews? There must be because the answer to the question, ‘is it good for the Jews or bad for the Jews’, is always answered with both good and bad.

For some time now, as Abbas has been trying to find support to independently declare a Palestinian state, critics have been urging Netanyahu to come up with his own clear and serious peace plan that would force Abbas to deal with Netanyahu as well. Last year at Netanyahu’s foreign policy speech at Bar Ilan, Netanyahu pledged to forge peace. He said, “We do not want to rule over them. We do not want to run their lives. We do not want to force our flag and our culture on them.” Later in his speech he said, ” Friends, in order to achieve peace, we need courage and integrity on the part of the leaders of both sides.” This is our opportunity to show our courage and our integrity. If we don’t want to rule over them, then we don’t have to. Perhaps this reconciliation will provide us the opportunity not to shut out the left, but to listen to it. While Hamas and the PLO are drafting a new government, we can draft a vision for peace. We don’t need to wait to see what they will do, but rather force them with an option they can’t turn away from. And so instead of leaning on our pessimistic instincts we can hope that Hamas will not corrupt the PLO, but rather the PLO will influence Hamas. If we can prove we are standing strong for peace (by a big option or a concrete drafted idea for peace) we can perhaps gain some lost control.

In any case, good or bad, history has proved to me in times of crisis Jews are their most creative. So if Hamas and Fatah want to start a fresh page- maybe we all can too.

Things that make me angry

I'm going to change the tone of my political/historical/Jewish blog and talk about things that make me angry. I have been very angry lately, at the little things, and I really just need a forum to vent. Smart and intellectual readers may choose to stop reading now.

1. My Shabbat Komkom.

Many of you who keep Shabbat may be familiar with this komkom, it is usually white or black, and is verified for Shabbat use. You fill it up with water, and there is a big huge buttom at the top that you "press" and then hot water comes out. Why do many people have it? I am still trying to figure out. (Sidenote: why do i have it? I did not buy it, but it has been in my apartment since I moved him) I am very jealous of those who have those hot water things with the little simple easy sprout thing, all you do it push the tap and like magic water comes out. Nope not ours. You may have noticed the quotation marks surrounding the press... this is because when I say the word press, I really mean - use all your weight and multiple times you need to push and heave and work just to get a drip of water. You do this multiple times to fill up a mug with hot water. This is work. Rabbis should begin to ban this instrument of anger. I'm so angry just thinking about it.

2. My Dell Laptop.

There are many things that make me angry about my laptop. I can't even think properly about it, I'm already angry. While my hot water container only makes me angry on Shabbat, my laptop makes me angry everyday. Every since the hard drive decided to crash last year (point of anger #1) for some mysterious reason, the touch-pad decided it's going to be super sensitive, so whenever I type, it jumps all over the place, so i end up deleting passages I've already written(or the entire thing I've written), or sometimes it will jump me into a previous paragraph and I'll just start writing there. So much fun. Solution? I bought a mouse! Not really a solution, just a way to make me angrier... Because even if you have a mouse, you still can't disable to touchpad, so while you type you still get the pleasure of jumping all over your previous text. Next- my laptop decides when it wants to turn on, and when it wants to turn off. I'm sleeping on shabbat, and all of a sudden, I hear my laptop turning on.!! Yeah that's great!! I didn't turn it on, in fact I turned it off before Shabbat, but it doesn't care what I want. And then the heating on it will go off, and make that loud annoying sound (of the fan or whatever) all night while I try to heat, meanwhile the heating is probably burning my hard-drive (as it did last time) FUNNN!!! And last... when the hard drive crashed, my dell representative convinced me to buy more memory, promising me that if i had more memory, then my computer would be faster, and I'd never ever have a problem in the future with my computer freezing or being slow. He is a liar. Donations for a Mac are welcome.

3. The Jerusalem Train.

It's useless, it doesn't go anywhere, it has taken many many many (too many) years to build, Jaffa is now closed and all buses are rerouted to Agrippas, taking me twice as long to get to my desired location. and the worst part it won't even start till August- HOW MANY MONTHS DO YOU NEED TO TEST THE SILLY THING? All i ever see is the train go by with smirk workers on it, sitting in it, with their feet up on the chairs, enjoying their useless ride. I hate the train. and when it begins to run, if it ever begins to run, it goes nowhere, and i'll never end up taking it.

4. Humanity's inability to fly.

Are we not smarter than birds? How did they figure out how to grow wings and fly. Yes, we have airplanes, and jets, and blah blah blah, but those things do not help me get home to my apartment when I don't feel like walking. It's like you are close enough to walk home, but not enough to take a bus, and you are tired and cranky, and wouldn't it be so nice to just rise up in the air and fly home?? Moving sidewalks are also a good idea, someone smart should get on that.

5. Angry Bird Pigs.

If a piece of a building fell on my head, I would die... really why don't you? and a helmet is a stupid excuse.

A bomb explodes in Jerusalem.

I was sitting in the Ministry of the Interior office in the center of town in Jerusalem, I was applying for my Israeli passport. I was sucked into a fairly successful game of angry birds on my ipod. I looked up, the “take a number” board listed 32, only 10 more numbers until it was my turn. Then, the piercing sound of an ambulance roared past the office. I thought nothing of it… there are always ambulances running around. But the sounds didn’t stop… it wasn’t one ambulance, it sounded like an army of sirens. Everyone in the office was looking around. People started crowding onto the balcony to see what was going on outside. The room became tense. Something was wrong- we all felt it. I quickly checked the news on my ipod. Nothing at 15:05. But the sirens grew louder… what was happening? 5 minutes later, I checked the news again. “Breaking news: The entrance to the city has been closed after an explosion was heard near the central bus station.” Cell phones began to ring. My phone rang, it my cousin.

“Where are you? Are you still at the Ministry of the Interior?”

“Yes I’m still here… what happened? There was a bomb? What’s going on? ”

She wasn’t sure… she replied, “I think it’s a bus bombing… it’s the 74.”

I had just taken the 74 to get to the office. My heart sank. I started to shake. Then, my number appeared… it was my turn.

As I left the office, I took a deep breath- perhaps it’s better to walk home.

In the time that followed the attack, everyone in Jerusalem was on the phone. As I walked through the center of town to get to my neighborhood, I didn’t pass one person who didn’t have a phone stuck to their ear. I was bombarded by calls and texts, making sure I was Ok. I was calling my friends… I just needed to know no one was there, no one was hurt. Networks began to fail as the lines were overloaded. As I spoke to people, more information began to be revealed… the bomb was not on the bus, no ones was killed, the bomb was detonated at Benyamin HaUma near a phone booth(beside the Central Bus Station). I was still shaking… honestly I was scared. I decided to call my mom, I wanted her to know about the attack and that I was fine before she saw it on CNN and started to freak out. The moment I heard her voice, I started to cry.

When you are living in Israel, and experiencing your day to day activities, it’s easy to get lulled into a sense of security. I had read earlier in the day that there had been Katyusha rockets fired at both Be’er Sheva and Ashdod. But that was in Be’er Sheva and Ashdod, I was in Jerusalem. Just last week, Israel suffered the tragedy of a family being slain in their sleep. But that was in Itamar, I was in Jerusalem. There hasn’t been a bombing in Jerusalem since 2004. I know that Jerusalem doesn’t feel as safe as my home town of Toronto… but it doesn’t feel so bad. Today, knocked me out of that feeling. I didn’t just read about it in Haaretz or J-post, or hear about it on TV. I was minutes away.

When I spoke to my mom, after we got through the shock, and the worry, she was angry. Angry that ’someone’ could detonate a bomb and try to kill innocent people. That’s the feeling now.. anger at that ’someone’. We all know who that ’someone’ is…it’s that “homogeneous group” we call Palestinians. They are the ones trying to blow up Jews at crowded bus stops, and they are the ones throwing rockets into our southern cities. But be warned our Prime Minister says, “Israel will act firmly”. Violence begets violence.

The truth is, when something like this happens, it’s natural to feel like that. We are scared, we are nervous, and we translate it to anger. We want to defend ourselves. We want to be strong. I don’t know what is going to happen in Israel in the next few days. I don’t know what acting firmly means. I do know that this city is going to feel a little different tomorrow. We’ll do the same things we did today, and we did the day before, and we’ll continue to do in the future. But something has changed… our quiet has been disturbed.