Redefining our Unity

May 2, 2006 - 10:45 AM by 90minute

Last night marked the beginning of Yom Hazikaron, Remembrance Day in Israel. As the siren rang, commemorating those who had fallen, a silence unparalleled to anything I have ever experienced fell over Kikar Tzion, the usually vibrant downtown center of Jerusalem. As I looked around me, at the shopkeepers paused in the middle of handing back change, at the bus in front of me, where the driver and passengers stood at the sides of their seats, at the young soldiers standing at attention, I couldn’t help but suck in my breath and think, I have never been in a country that is this united.

As the siren ended and I sat back down, filled with the ever more common pang of realization that my time left in Israel is marked only by a number of weeks, I started to laugh at myself. This is the most united country that I have ever been in? A country where the foreign ministry spends countless dollars just trying to prove that there is more to Israel than terrorism? A country where we can’t even figure out how to define the borders?

I tried to use logic to outweigh my initial reaction, but it was a feeling that I just couldn’t shake. Where else do you find a bus driver, a businessman, and a religious zealot, if you will, that can find common ground that they are equally passionate about? Where else can you find a place in which the bus driver and corner store owner aren’t treated as lesser beings, as they undoubtedly are in so many other countries?

While Israel has its fair share of problems, the core of that mess is something that provokes a passion and dedication to this land unlike any other. Obviously there were whole groups of people that didn’t stand in silence last night, but I can guess that nonetheless not a person went untouched. Everyone in this country feels equally passionate about the land that they live in, and though that can certainly be a source of problems, it also creates a beauty and vibrancy that is unrivaled anywhere else.

What I came to realize, is that while it would be difficult to get many people to throw out the adjective ‘unified’ when describing the land of Israel, there is something undeniably true about this assertion. If nothing else, Israel is a country filled with people – of a variety of races and religions – equally dedicated to this land. Israel is a country where people’s individuality comes second to their self-definition as an Israeli, and that in itself is incredible. Take any random group of Americans, and while some will certainly define themselves as American, you will undoubtedly have the other self identifiers as well – Jewish, Christian, Gay, Hispanic – America doesn’t provide the unanimous desire to get up and say, ‘I’m American’ that Israel invokes.

And so, on this Day of Remembrance, it’s nice to be able to step back and not only remember what has been lost, but to remember that there is a reason to go on. And even more importantly, no matter how divided life can seem here, it’s comforting to know that at base we’re all unified in our mutual love for this land.

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