playing against stereotype
With a long tradition of mutual distrust between haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews and the Israeli police, it’s nice to read about a secular police officer going out of his way not just to protect, but also to serve the haredi community where he works:
Sometimes the ingenuity of one person is enough to carry over an entire community. Meet community policeman Shuki Der’i (44) who has been running an original project in the Jerusalem haredi neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo: he has started a group for teenage boys dealing with different disabilities including Down’s Syndrome, autism, and other communication problems, and meets with them once a week to help connect them to their community.
While he is at it, Der’i, a qualified fitness instructor, gives them a fitness lesson and asks them to tell him about the good deeds they have done.
. . . The weekly meetings, Der’i explains, are run according to a steady order of business. “At first we sit around a table, in a home environment. Every boy is required to tell one good deed he had committed that week. One of them told the group that he stopped hitting his brother following our meeting, another one about helping his parents with housework,” he smiles.
“In one of the meetings we worked on polite behavior, on the importance of saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, things they were not accustomed to before. They did not know how to cross a street either, so I taught them how to walk in a safe manner.”
According to the (admittedly rather sloppily reported) article, the community, or at least the kids themselves, have taken a liking to Officer Shuki:
Recently, the proud instructor escorted the boys on an outing to the Western Wall.
At the end of the visit one of the boys approached him and announced excitedly that “he put a note in the wall asking to be just like Shuki,” and melted Der’i’s heart. “Once, one of the boys would get scared and run every time he saw a policeman,” he sums up. “Now he says he’s not afraid of cops anymore, because ‘I have Shuki, and he’s there for me’. A sentence like that is worth it all.”
“The smell of earth and home”
Filed under: History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Profiles
Isrealli.org asks “23 questions to an Israeli in New York,” the Israeli being Yael Hartmann, publicist, freelance journalist, and former army captain.
Exerpt:
14. I wish I could live in Israel and in the US near my family simultaneously.
15. I smile when I hear Israeli music playing in a New York deli
16. I get angry when I hear people talk about Israel when they don’t know all of the facts.
17. I do not forgive those who cannot forgive.
18. Once in a life time experience: Being responsible for the American media during the Disengagement from Gaza and going through Trapeze school would be neck and neck. The heartbreaking snapshots etched in my mind after 8,000 people were removed from their homes in front of the media circus are still impossible to describe to those who were not there. However, flying through the air when one is afraid of heights and then letting go so that someone can grab your arms is another experience that no one can take from you. I would highly recommend the latter.
19. Favorite travel destination: India was incredible with its extreme poverty and decadent wealth and its incredible food and colors. Mexico is a magnificent country – you need never leave in order to experience contrasting cultures, landscapes, fragrances and peoples.
20. What I miss about Israel: The music, the smell of earth and home when you get off the plane, and the view of the sea from my apartment.
Read her answers to the other 16 questions here.
Oh, the irony
Filed under: A New Reality, History and Culture, Politics
Via Israellycool and Jewlicious, an article about the 3rd Annual Israeli Apartheid Week, with events taking place in the US, Canada, and England to show the world to what extent Israelis are racist, bigoted jerks who want to keep all the power for themselves.
One of the keynote speakers is Dr.Jamal Zahalka an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament. His photo and biographical information can be found on the Knesset website here.
Has anyone planning that event allowed this to sink in? I mean, I’m the first to admit that Israel does some stupid and cruel things, but apartheid? Give me a break.
Little girl, overreaching
Story from House of Joy in a suburb of Jerusalem:
Once upon a time, in the land of Israel, there was a little girl named Sophia Nessa or as her friends called her, Sophie. Now Sophie was a very smart little girl and she was a very able little girl but she was a little girl and had not yet learned about limits. These three character traits combined to keep Sohie’s mommy – who had three other wonderful children very busy.
One day Sophie decided that she was big enough to take herself to the bathroom all by herself. After all, her older brother and sister went to the bathroom all by themselves. Never mind the fact that Sophie was not ever two years old, she knew how to go to the bathroom. And so, while her mommy was making lunch, Sophie went upstairs, took off her dress and her diaper all by herself and went poo poo in her little potty. Then she lifted the lid, took the cup out of the potty and went to pour it into the big toilet bowl. But, as I mentioned, Sophie is not quite two and she does not have good aim. Instead of landing in the potty, Sophie’s poo poo landed on the toilet bowl itself. She didn’t notice that this was a problem and promptly put the seat down so that she could stand on the seat and flush the toilet. Then, Sophie decided to wash her hands so she went to turn the water on and wash her hands. When she finished with this, she decided to wash out the cup for her potty. So she climed into the bathtub. She forgot two things. First, she forgot to turn the water in the sink off. Second she forgot that while she knows how to get into the bathtub all by herself, she does not know how to get out of the bathtub. She called for mommy who ran upstairs to find a flooded bathroom, a squished poop on the toiled seat and Sophie smiling in the bathtub holding a dirty cup.
The Magic Touch
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Life, Profiles
Last week, The New York Jewish Week published a story I wrote about “Magic Michael” Tulkoff, a “humor therapist” at several Israeli hospitals, who makes balloon animals and jokes for Jewish, Muslim, and Christian children:
With both balloons and tzitzit hanging from his belt, Tulkoff indeed exudes a special bedside aura, a mix of jubilant jokery and sensitivity for patients’ pain — and that of their parents. Recently Tulkoff visited a 2-year-old boy who had just received a heart transplant and had a long incision down his small chest. The child was alone and looked sad. In an effort to cheer the boy, Tulkoff tooted his harmonica and kazoo, to no avail. Bubbles elicited a small response.
By now the child’s understandably stressed mother had returned. Tulkoff created balloon swans and bears, hung them above the boy’s bed and squirted them with air to make them “jump.” The boy laughed out loud. But what Tulkoff noted afterward was that “[the] mother was thrilled.”
A few hours on rounds with him makes it clear that Tulkoff sees his role not just as an entertainer, nor just as part of the rehab team — his official position at Alyn — but as a healing presence for patients’ entire families.
The families are often surprised to encounter Tulkoff “out of uniform,” since clowning and magic jar most Israelis’ stereotypes of Jews who wear black hats and suit jackets. Tulkoff said that often his religiosity “sets me way apart for the good,” since clients have no fear that he will make crude jokes. And anyone with negative images of Jews who wear tziztit is immediately put at ease: Tulkoff, like most medical providers in Israel, does his work equally well, with equally corny jokes, for all patients, regardless of nationality or beliefs. He performs in rudimentary Arabic and Russian as well as English, Hebrew and Spanish.
You can see the rest of the story here. I spent a significant amount of time with Michael, both alone and on “rounds” with him at two different hospitals, and I’ve met his charming family. He is indeed a very special person. In the photo above, he is encouraging a young burn victim to flex his arms.
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