Total War.

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Mensches ready for battle

As I walk the neighborhood this Saturday, I try to articulate the unsaid to myself. The skies cast a steely sheen across everything and the sidewalks are eerily quiet. The sellers on the street below my apartment no longer joke and laugh, for there is no joy in losing profit. The tattoo parlor we live above is closed, and to my surprise, I find myself missing the constant laughter and banter coming from people relaxing and smoking on the patio. The party store beside our apartment no longer blasts music all day and the only comparably loud sound now is a garbage truck. The shuk (market), once filled with wandering tourists, is now only of service to cautious Israelis with a mission. The coffee shop which usually has a line out the door now has only a collection of people, all warily standing two meters apart. If I speak English in a store, they ask how long I’ve been here, taking caution that I may be a traveler who is breaking the mandatory two week quarantine.

People walk around with various face-masks and rubber gloves which is quite amusing; I saw a woman wearing a full gas mask, and many people wearing common paint masks which don’t do anything… nor is it clear that a medical face-mask does anything also. I guess it is an outward expression of the fear and anxiety hanging heavy in the air.

I walked into the moadon the yesterday to get a guitar to play, which is the meeting room where our program hosted talks, classes, and activities. I was there nearly every day, but I haven’t been since the government outlawed gatherings of more than 10 people over a week ago. I heard echoes of a time past, hit with that sunken feeling of never getting them back. I guess walking around the neighborhood feels like going after a breakup to that special place you and your ex went to; you recognize it, you loved it, but it’s loaded with a past rosy view which clashes with a duller present. Yes, It feels like i’m living in a parallel universe. Further contributing to my feeling of loss, many of my closest friends are leaving for home to be with their parents. I can’t leave a community behind here and crazy as it sounds America, my place of birth, one of the mightiest powers on earth, is less safe than Israel.

Amit and I shopping for doomsday

As I write about my Saturday morning walk, I see a connection to some of the greatest war accounts from the Homefront perspective. My mind went to how Anne Frank felt in the early parts of her Diary about transitioning from freedom to lack thereof. This is the first total war not just for my generation but for my parents too where the public is key to the war effort.

Rach, Jono, and I doing online classes

Despite, I’m trying to keep my spirits high and all of these limitations has spawned a burst of creativity from all creators. My program is coming up with solutions for activities with under 10 people or online. At Koolulam we are dreaming about online events. The international artist community is converging over social media to help each other. Last night I did a livestream concert from my couch for the people on my program. About 25 people engaged over google hangouts, sharing song suggestions, giving applause and laughter. I sang the Beatles, Elton John, Maroon 5 and of course my hit Sunsets Past. It made me so happy to sing and bring some happiness to my friends who are like me, cooped up in their apartments. In times like these we could let the rain drown out our voices. But I choose to be like Gene Kelly, and sing in the rain.

Me playing to a livestream audience

Pandemic in Israel- March 15th

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It’s been a while since i’ve written an update- that certaintly does not mean that I haven’t been busy. I think I attribute my lack of writing updates to being TOO busy, and having less politics to talk about in Tel Aviv.

Since I’ve lived in Florentin I tell people that I’ve become a little more liberal and I’ve started eating a lot more salads and vegan food. Most of all, I’ve gotten a proper taste of being a working person in a bustling city. I have a full trello each day which I never seem to get through, I do presentations to the Owners/ CEOS, schedule meetings in my calendar and spend weekend mornings chugging coffee and working at the local hippie caffe. It’s been amazing to work at a place where I’m valued for creative insights.

Coronavirus however is injecting a ton of uncertainty into my future where many of my plans are held in the balance. Shit got real when 2020 was cancelled; the NBA was postponed, Americas father Tom Hanks was infected, and the happiest place on earth is set to close the gates for the first time in 19 years. March 12th was my Kennedy day so I have had some time to process. Koolulam has postponed our spring tour because Israel has outlawed gatherings over 100 people (and now 10 people.) I held a meeting with my roomates a few days ago going over cleanliness and health procedures and to come up with a protocol if one of us comes down with the flu. Frankly though, I’m glad to be In Israel because I think we are MUCH better prepared than the United States. This won’t be the first time I’ve faced crisis here; In my time In Israel I’ve been through two near wars (After Israels killing of a PIJ commander, and after Americas assassination of Qassem Soleimani), Many terrorist attacks (car rammings, stabbings), Hundreds of rockets and two elections. I have the privilege to be able to look at them as educational moments; Through every crisis i’ve learned more about the people of Israel and Israeli society. Israel is a country founded by socialist Ashkenazi jews from Eastern Europe and later waves of Jews fleeing Middle Eastern countries. Additionally, Everyone has a sense of duty from the army from terror attacks. All this combined means that the culture of Israeli society is embedded with a distinctly eastern sense of collectiveness which manifests itself in a willingness to give up personal freedoms for the safety of the group. Quite contrary to rugged- individualist Americans, No-one defies quarantine orders or safety orders from the government even when seemingly draconian. Now, all bars, clubs, restaurants and entertainment places are closed and people are being encouraged to stay home form work as cases increase. I’m going to be getting stir crazy.

Last Monday was Purim which was super fun. Jono and I dressed up as Hippies and the rest of Tel Aviv wandered around in drunken possies dressed in a tapestry of crazy outfits. Everyone was observing the commandment which is to drink until you cannot tell the difference between Mordechai (the protagonist of the Purim story) and Haman (the antagonist.) When our room convened the next morning “Hangover style” as we often do, one roomate had a phone stolen, another had a bleeding nose and swollen lip, another broke up with his girlfreind, another spilled broken necklace all over the floor, and Jono said they had found me sleeping on the couch. Commandment fulfilled!

I plan on riding out the storm here with the friends I have and so for the time being i’m working from home, taking classes online and doing activities with the apartment. Stay safe!

Quit Thinking American: Sink or Swim and my first weeks in Tel Aviv

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Screenshot of me selling הולצות (shirts)

The Florentin neighborhood is a canvas for the artists who live there… no blank wall stays untagged for long. It’s also the neighborhood where I am living for the next five months in an apartment with five of my other friends. It’s been a while since I’ve done an entry- a sin to which I have no excuse- so I will try to get to what I can. Many of the new people on the program this semester are from South Africa, Australia and Britain, which has been awesome to hang out with people from different places. Us loud Americans are driving especially the arrogant british nuts already and I have, to my happiness, been branded ‘the not annoying American.’ I am working for a company called Koolulam, a social- musical initiative that holds group singing events aiming to strengthen the fabric of society. With 600, 2,000 or even 12,000 people singing in harmony together, the feeling is really powerful. In a meeting, the CEO expressed to me that the Koolulam office is a ‘place for creators.’ If you know me, this is exactly up my alley.

On my very first day, I was thrown in with the production team to help run an event in Jerusalem with 700 participants. Running late, we quickly set up our rig, merchandise, and ticketing apparatus. I was put on scanning tickets. Imagine 700 people pushing in a line, speaking at you in Chinese all with specific questions about a performance which means you need to know specific words that you’ve never heard before like ‘tickets’ and ‘to scan.’ I felt pretty out of place as I tried to help Hebrew speaking Israelis with specific questions; I abandoned any hope of maintaining my high standard of service and impressing my team members. I just had to survive. Flustered, the best I could choke out was “Slicha, ani medber raq kitsat evreit, Anglit?” – “Sorry I speak only a little hebrew, English?” One customer replied characteristically; “llama” “Why?”

Afterwards, I felt terrible like I had failed myself and my team. However, they told me genuinely ‘Kol Hakavod’, ‘good job.’ My feelings, I realized, are guided by my American mindset that I should be a master of my job when I go in the field. However, the mindset of my Israeli bosses is the opposite; jump in the water and sink or swim. If you swim, you are learning.

Last night I was on the production team for a second event, this time in Haifa. Beforehand, I centered myself and tried to maintain confidence in my language skills throughout the night. Whether I was selling shirts or helping to seat people, I communicated in Hebrew in nearly every encounter and I kept calm and problem solved when I couldn’t understand. I felt really proud of myself. I was swimming.

In addition to jumping on the production team, the bulk of my work is in the various groups in the office where I have already worked to edit copy, write scripts, and record voice overs for commercials. 

I’m reminded again and again that I have to adapt my American mindset to Israel. My neighborhood filled with graffiti and grime would be ‘sketchy’ in America. Here, it’s a place where the inhabitants express their views not only in lively conversations in corner bars and cafes but with spray cans on public walls. On the first day of Koolulam when I wasn’t able to do my job well, I the American, felt that I had failed the first test. To pass however, all my team expected me to do was tread water. Then I could learn how to swim.

My Week Back Home: While They Told Stories about Keggers, I Explained the Complexity of Geopolitics in the Middle East

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I spent my short break at home in Philadelphia, where I was successful in seeing who I needed to see including my freinds, family and cheesetray. Although there were times where, for fear of animosity, I would’ve rather shoved Israel under the rug, people who I knew were interested and supportive of what I did for the last four months, though many- understandably so- knew too little to ask questions.

While explaining my time at StandWithUs, a friend interrupted me to ask the ‘big question’; “Are you on the Israeli or Palestinian side??” I couldn’t help but give a resigned smile- knowing that most people see this impossibly complex issue as binary. I try to approach subjects to which I am ignorant in a way that anticipates grey area. I replied that I wish it was so simple but that my understanding is a little more complex than some partisan explanation.

A guy friend explained to me that a few weeks ago he had seen a video of Israeli rockets blowing other rockets out of the sky and said that it was pretty damn cool. I explained to him- that first it’s awesome as hell- and then I explained that what he saw was the Iron dome missile defense system which uses laser guided missiles to intercept non- guided rockets before they hit civilian areas.

I went out to eat Cheesestakes with Jackson and Jaspar like the good Philly kid I am. After a while explaining my experiences in Israel, a man came to our booth, said he had overheard us and that he had a question to ask. He was a heavy set black man wearing an outsize Star of David; from his appearance and the question he asked I believe he was a Black Hebrew Israelite, a group which believes that they are the real lost tribe of Judah and that the Jews of today are not descendants of the Israelites. Although there are black Jews, Black Hebrew Israelites are an American movement appropriating elements of Judaism and Christianity. While the organization has a spectrum of belief, they are classified a hate group on the fringe.

He asked a question that was meant to challenge me along the lines of; “Are the Jews who live in Israel right now actually descendants of the Jews who lived there in antiquity? It seems to me that Post- Holocaust (1945), white Jews came to the area of biblical Israel, subjugated the native population and created a state where they weren’t indigenous. Unfortunately for him, he had picked the wrong guy to challenge and I spent over ten minutes unpacking Jewish indigineity to the Middle East, Diaspora, the Jewish return (which began way before the holocaust), and the complications of land ownership that sparked the Arab Israeli conflict. By the time I had finished my monologue he had nothing to say and told me thank you and left.

At a get together, a Christian friend expressed that she was so happy to be around Jewish people again while spending break at home, remarking that the although she was never raised Jewish, the Christian school she goes to feels far from home. She said that her school had invited a Palestinian Christian speaker who in her opinion spoke negatively and unfairly of Israel without another perspective of an Israeli speaker. She remarked that for right or wrong that wouldn’t fly where we grew up.

I was able to make the dress rehearsal for the HTC Winter Show which was arguably my high point of break- the company continues to thrive with fresh creative voices. At one point one of the my friend Patrick starring in an irreverent show about Trotsky’s death had a line listing a bunch of historical events that would arrive after his untimely death in 1940 and he had changed his last line from something else to say dumbfoundedly “the creation of the state of Israel?!” A show truly tailored to its audience member.

I heard a range of views on Trumps executive order allowing Jews a protected class on race and national origin ranging from support, to eye rolling, to fears of another holocaust and a future of having to put ‘Jew’ on our passports.

I was told that Israel is not always a ‘kind neighbor’ and that what I was doing at StandWithUs was ‘great for the world.’

And while I very much enjoyed watching the news every morning, the middle east didn’t stay far away. Trumps decision to execute a target killing of Qassem Solemanei eerily echoed back to Israels targeted killing of Baha- Abu Al Ata. A fight picked, retaliation, and the hope of diplomacy in the end.

Jono and I impressed everyone with our Hebrew- even if at times we deliberately stringed together random phrases to make it ‘seem’ like we were having an endless conversation. I just arrived in Tel Aviv where I will be living in the Florentine neighborhood and my last few days have been a blast. Stay tuned!