Israel becomes real

'What does it mean to heed the call?'

VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor

When Rabbi Daniel Gordis, his wife, Elisheva, and their three children decided to make aliyah five years ago they were in search of the real thing.

They were drawn by the promise of authentic Jewish life, animated by the premise of being part of the continuing Jewish story. Gordis, who had lived in Jerusalem as a youngster, recalled the ease of Jewish life in the Jewish state; his wife, who had always wanted to live there, recalled the ineffable pull to come home.

And in Israel they found it, a full and rich life imbued with purpose and suffused with Jewish meaning. They recovered the real thing - along with a sobering dose of reality.

"If a Place Can Make You Cry, Dispatches from an Anxious State" (Crown Publishers, $24 hardcover) chronicles the family's decision to move to Israel against the backdrop of the unraveling peace process and escalating violence in the Middle East. It begins in July 1998, when Gordis, then vice president of the University of Judaism and dean of its Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, and his family leave their comfortable life in Los Angeles for a year's sabbatical in Jerusalem. It continues through the beginning of the matsav, the "situation," to the debilitating conflict today.

Gordis, now director of the Mandel Foundation's Jerusalem Fellows Program, tells the story with a series of long, thoughtful e-mails, originally composed as newsy messages to friends and family back home. As the e-mails began to circulate on the Internet, several were published individually and eventually led to the idea of compiling the messages into a book.

Gracefully written, simple enough to be readily accessible, substantive enough to satisfy more serious readers, the e-mails pack a powerful emotional punch. Gordis limns biblical text for historical reference and contemporary relevance. The story of Abraham, with the biblical imperative to "go forth," comes alive as Gordis recounts his own compelling desire to go home. Too, the story of Abraham's sons, Ishmael and Isaac, reminds of the painful seeds of today's conflict between Arab and Jew. Gordis frames his observations within the current political context (each chapter begins with a newspaper clip detailing signal events), giving heft to his ruminations. And he provides deeply personal reflections about his family's life.

"Israel is not just a place, it is a story," he writes to his children in the book's epilogue. "And it's not just any story - it's our story, your story, the story of where we've come from, and the story of where we are going. It's a story that our people have been telling for a long time, and we feel a need to be a part of it."

A compelling speaker, Gordis will be in Phoenix on Feb. 6 for the Jewish Federation major gifts dinner.

Speaking to Jewish News from Georgia where he was making an appearance, he provided insight into the welter of emotions that define life in Israel today.

"What does it mean to heed the call?" he asked. "Nobody knows what the cost will be for our kids. There's got to be some implication of how it will play out - feelings about their parents, Israel, being Jewish. I'm sure some of it will be very powerful."

And positive.

Gordis spoke passionately about the heightened sense of purpose living in Israel brings.

"Life in Israel is about important historical trends. Israeli kids, for better or worse, are forced to ask, 'why are we here, why have we chosen to stay here?' Being here is about making a difference in some cosmic story."

But making aliyah is not a viable choice for everyone, he said. And Jews can have "committed and important lives" in a lot of places.

But they still have an obligation to visit the Jewish state.

"I have strong feelings about American Jews who have chosen not to come," he said evenly. There is a sense of abandonment and disappointment, he said, and suggested that it is an abdication of responsibility.

"Less than 60 years after Jews went up in smokestacks, they are too afraid to come."

Gordis predicted that American Jews will look back on these times as a period of shame.

"They will wake up and regret what they did."

He was insistent that peace will come, albeit slowly and at great cost. In his book he agonizes at the price both Israelis and Palestinians are paying for the continuing violence.

"We have to work it out," he said, "but how it will happen is anybody's guess."

An optimist who believed that peace was at hand when he and his family arrived in Israel in 1998, Gordis is now more pragmatic.

"Nobody believes anymore that we will sit around the fire and sing 'Kumbaya'," he said.

The big question, he said, is how much influence the United States can exert.

"This will not get resolved without a U.S. push," he said.

A Palestinian state is a given, said Gordis, along with giving up some of the settlements.

Also critical is a change in Palestinian leadership.

"The Palestinians are their own worst enemy," he said. "Arafat has to go."

Yet, despite the reality of danger in Israel today, Gordis emphasized that life is full and vibrant, and it goes on.

"There are lectures and concerts every night; the bookstores are full."

Would he have made the same choice to make aliyah five years ago if he knew then what he knows now?

"Absolutely," he responded without skipping a beat. "We'd still be here."

Details

What: Rabbi Daniel Gordis will speak at the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix Major Gifts dinner
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6
Where: Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road
Cost: Dinner is $60, minimum $10,000 family gift to the Federation Annual Campaign
Call: Josh Belkin, 480-634-4900, ext. 1133

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