This is such a wonderful post that I would like to share it so my students and readers can read it, too.
It’s Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel’s independence day! Flags are flying, music is playing. It’s not the first time I’ve celebrated this holiday, but it’s the first time I’ve been able to do so as an Israeli.
Many people have expressed surprise that we decided to become Israeli citizens as part of this one-year adventure. There were many practical reasons for doing so, which I won’t get into with this post. I’d rather talk about what it means to me to be an Israeli.
Whenever I encounter one of these surprised individuals, my stock response is to show them my new Israeli ID card while saying,
“.עכשיו זה גם אשמתי”
“Now it’s my fault too.”
It usually gets the laugh I’m looking for, because Israelis are perpetually unsatisfied with this incredibly miraculous project that has been undertaken here to rebuild an ancient country in a modern world. Israel, they feel…
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Coffee Shop Rabbi 
That’s really cool that they moved to Israel and the dad got his citizenship card. Israel is an amazing place. I liked his reflection on loving and wanting to improve a place at the same time.
I was a bit disappointed by the total absence of Palestinians in his ideas of improvements, even in relations to conversations had with Israelis about Israel. When I lived there, conversations with Arabs and Druze happened every day, and were a positive part of the complex stew that is Israel. So the lack of Palestinians seemed a bit echoing… But maybe that reflects the too-big scope of that whole issue. Or maybe he addresses it in another blog post.
I was also surprised he didn’t mention the tomatoes. People who talked with us about making aliyah always cited how good the tomatoes were compared to in the US. Never any other produce. It made wonder if there was a Department of Aliyah with talking points, or a website they were all going to for help writing their presentations. 😀
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