Recently Jonah, a classmate from the ulpan, asked me a few questions about my experiences in Israel for an article he's writing for a small American Jewish publication. I'm one of the few non-Jewish students in the class; he wanted a non-Jewish perspective on Israel. He sure got one. It happens that the questions he asked are ones that I've been thinking a lot about since I moved here. I ended up rehashing a lot of what I've already said here, on this blog, but I thought it might be interesting to publish the interview and put it all in one place. Enjoy.



What was the perception you had of Israel before you got here. What image did you have in your mind?

I'm a Christian, so I was raised with Bible stories. The impression I
somehow formed (irrationally, I think, at some early age, maybe due to
the cheezy 50s illustrations we used in Sunday School), was
of Israel being a kind of desert wilderness, spotted with dusty towns
and palm trees. Sort of like the Old West, but replace the spurs and saloons
with robes and miracles. The only place I really knew about was Jerusalem, and
even my knowlege of that city was pretty slim. I knew it was an
important center for three major religions. I knew it had some hills,
olive trees, an important wall, a lot of churches, mosques, and
synagogues, and a lot of winding streets.

But that's about it. I didn't even know Tel Aviv had skyscrapers until
about a month before i moved here, when i saw a reporter on pbs being
interviewed from TA with one of those cityscapes dropped in on the
blue-screen behind her. A few months ago I sent some in-laws an aerial
postcard of Tel Aviv; They said, "Wow!! You live in a real city! It's
big! We thought Tel Aviv was a small town in the desert..." So it's
not just me that has this sort of wild-west image of Israel.

And, of course, I thought Israel was some kind of war zone. I knew it
was a highly-contested place -- how can you not, if you follow the
news with any regularity? At first my husband and I agreed
that he wouldn't apply for jobs in Israel, because it seemed like such
an unstable place.

I think many Americans these days live with a funny idea of space and
distance -- or maybe Israelis do -- because in Israel, unless a bomb
goes off in your neighborhood, no matter how close it may have gone off,
it may as well have been two towns away. Whereas, in the States, if
something happens 150 miles away, it's still in your backyard. For
example: I got calls on 9/11 asking if I was alright, although I was
three hours north of NYC; but we're now what, maybe, forty miles from
the site of a recent terrorist attack, and it seems like just as far
away as New York did on 9/11.



What was your first impression of the country during the first few days, or weeks that you were here.

beautiful, lush, leisurely, complex, and chaotic, haha...



What is your impression now that you've been here a little while.

A few days after we arrived, Ben's quasi-advisor warned us that life
here would be "a little more chaotic" than life in the States, and to
sit back a bit and expect things to take longer than they do in the
states. He was right. But fortunately there our so many reasons to
enjoy things while we wait for the bureaucrats and lazy secretaries --
great beaches, beautiful weather, great food, passionate people. I
think it's an amazing country.



How does Israel compare in your mind to other countries, do you think that Jewish culture here is expressed the same way that other cultures are expressed in other countries. For example, would you say that Israel is Jewish in the same way that America is a Christian country, or alternatively as countries in Europe are European.

i think judaism is expressed in a much more outward way in israel than
christianity is in america. or, israeli culture is more sharply
defined than that vague, malleable thing we call american culture. but
that's sort of the point, isn't it? israel is meant to be a jewish
state, for and by jews. my admittedly shaky understanding of the
country is, that it exists primarily as a way to corporately celebrate
jewish religion and culture, since that culture was understood to be
oppressed elsewhere.

as an american, not part of that culture, it's a jarring thing -- i've
always seen america as a place of pluralism and naively assumed that
other western democracies were equally pluralistic. i suppose israel
can be equated to somewhere like france or the norway, who
proudly stand by their culture and actively defend it. which in many
ways is admirable. but i think one of the strengths of the US is that
it has been able to successfully house so many different belief
structures under its governance.

that's not to say that it's not obvious that there is a majority
religion in the US -- the little town i grew up in had at least 7
different churches, only one synagogue and no mosques, (although it
did have a bhuddist center pretty close to town). but i think because
ideas of secularism and a-religiosity are so strongly stressed, christianity less of
a front-and-center part of the culture. but here, where to my surprise
most of the grocery stores are kosher, there are mezuzahs on all the
doorways of my apartment (and in stores and bars and clubs),
everything closes during shabbat, and you can't get married or
emigrate unless you prove your jewish heritage, religion is a bit more
obviously a central part of life.



Do you feel as though you've truly experienced Israel, or do you feel as though you can't break through a language, culture barrier.

i feel as though i haven't experienced israel much, but only because i
haven't been much outside of tel aviv. i also think, because i have no
conception of the meaning of jewish holidays (which seem so central to
life here), or what goes on in the synagogues, its impossible for me
to really "get" what it is to be an israeli right now.

from an immigration point of view, i feel like it's closed, but any
country probably seems like that to a new resident. did you know that
the university finds it so impossible to work with the government to
get its foreign post-docs work permits that the post-docs are forced
to be called "students", and take student visas? it'll be hard for me
to get a work permit (and nearly impossible to get a work visa)
because neither my husband or i is jewish or israeli. but i've heard
similar horror stories about the american bureaucracy, so it doesn't
totally surprise me, or strike me as unique...