A New York import

November 24, 2009 - 10:01 AM by Jessica

My friend’s father has a saying, “Our imports are better than our exports.” He’s generally referring to the presence of Jews from other movements within liberal Orthodoxy, and the skills and understanding that they bring with them. And while I wouldn’t want to hijack his saying to mean something else, it occurs to me that it can be applied to a few other situations. Not, for example, to Israel as a tech industry nation, for example, where our exports are actually as good as our imports, for example, if not better. Nor to food, where I think our tomatoes and oranges, avocados and organic herbs are a hell of a lot better than our imports. Then again, we’re not doing much importing of tomatoes and avocados, right?

But his saying could be expanded to refer to Israel’s ‘importation’ of people over the decades, the ingathering of the exiles, the Easterners and Westerners, Europeans and Mediterraneans, Americans and South Africans, South Americans and Australians, you get the idea. Namely, all the great people that have made their way here to enrich and enliven this country. But sometimes, our imports take a break from Israel and head to greener pastures to make their fortunes and find fame. At that point, they become, well, exports.

One prime example is comedian Yisrael Campbell, the former Philadelphian who converted three times — Reform, Conservative and Orthodox — and moved to Israel where he married and had three kids. He and his family moved to New York last summer to pursue a plan to put his one-man show on Off Broadway, and they’ve succeeded, as “Circumcise Me” recently opened at the Bleecker Street Theater. Reviews have been decent, and those of us who know and love Yisrael, can attest to the fact that this is a show well worth seeing, especially if you’re into Israeli exports.

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