Only in America?

August 18, 2008 - 1:29 PM by

Falling asleep at the swingI am currently in America visiting my family and celebrating the birth of a new nephew. We visit America just about once a year and every year I feel more and more distant from the life I once led here. I’ve spent approximately one third of my life in Israel (which amounts to my entire adult life) and I find it difficult to connect to the place I grew up. This is our second trip with our daughter but the first where she is actually “aware” of what’s going on. In Israel we speak exclusively in English in the home and she’s exposed to Hebrew from our native Israeli friends and the gan she attends. As well as the occasional Hebrew-dubbed version of Jack’s Big Music Show. I anticipated some major jetlag so I set the dvr to record a couple of episodes of “Jack.” She usually has a major freakout during the introduction – stamping her feet, clapping, waving hello, etc. However when I put Jack on, she just looked at me really confused….like Jack is supposed to talk in Hebrew, not English. I felt really bad for her. Her tiny world was turned upside down.

Fast forward a day later we were visiting friends in Forest Hills, New York where playing in a park among many, many Israelis. Her face lit up when she heard all the Hebrew being spoken. It made me a very, very proud Abba.

Now my parents don’t live in the most Jewish area of New York. The depths of Suffolk county, NY has plenty of Jews, but it is certainly no Five Towns. We went to the local mall today (must get as much shopping in as possible) and the little one was getting a little kvetchy and we had another 30 minutes before our scheduled meet-up with my wife. I had to think fast….and there it was…like an oasis on the horizon…a kiosk selling Dead Sea products! I casually walked by knowing that I would get the Israeli hard sales pitch. When I answered her in Hebrew she was quite delighted to converse. And just as I planned when my daughter Tzofia heard her speak Hebrew she once again lit up and completely engaged her in “conversation.” Turns out the saleswoman was also from Modi’in and lives just three blocks away from us. Only in America!

Tags: , , • Category: Immigrant Moments, Life 

Comments

One Comment on Only in America?

  1. Benji on Mon, Aug 18th 2008 7:32 PM

    2. Only in America…funny!

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