As I turned 70 I decided that the best way to mark this milestone birthday is in the country where I was given birth. I left there in my early 20s, and it is a place I adore, the nation state of the Jewish people, Israel.
In general, less some much needed fixing, Israel is a very dynamic country, it is on love of life steroids.
One day during my visit I stood by the window and reflected. Only seventy years ago broken heart, broken spirit Holocaust survivors and Jews who were expelled from Moslem countries arrived in the land of Israel, which was a nothing nascent country. There they were inspired, were told they must go on, build themselves and build a homeland and so they did. I remember growing up, how whatever was new, no matter what it was, was the conversation of the month because it was discovering and rediscovering the essence of life.
In Israel they learn fast, but after they learn the already known, they take it to the next level, they take it as high and wide as possible. And that applies to science, medicine, technology, in fact to every aspect of life there.
There is a saying, ‘People who care, volunteer as a way of life’ and this is what the members of The Center for Music in the Galilee, are doing, bringing culture to the Galilee periphery communities. There are many such nonprofit associations in Israel; I guess, as they do with everything else in Israel, they fast learned the charity culture, which is so embedded with the citizens of the United States and is their way of life.
I had the opportunity to attend The Center for Music in the Galilee charity gathering in a private home in Kfar Vitkin, a village in Israel Sharon Region. The smell of cows in the air, blended in the atmosphere of the well decorated home where the event was held, gave me a sense of past with a truly special meaning.
Israel started as an agriculture economy and that spirit is still so well entrenched in those who chose to work the land and raise cattle. The results, the taste of vegetables in Israel is superb and the choice of milk products on the supermarket shelves is by far beyond graspable.
Yet, in the heart of that remarkable and of high technology farming land atmosphere reside people with great means, who chose to retreat to live away from the city hassle but have not forgotten that the country needs their help. These are the people, all love music, who formed The Center for Music in the Galilee in order to bring music to those living in remote places in the country who either do not have the means or the ability to get to the centers of the Israeli culture, available in the largest cities of the country, Jerusalem Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Since the government of Israel must direct its resources mainly to defense and social issues, the citizens take the lead and help where is needed in other aspects.
In many ways Israel is still a nascent country, beleaguered by wars and expecting more wars, as it is surrounded by vicious, Jew hating enemies. If that evil goes away, hold to your seats world, the meaning ‘repairing the world’ and ‘from Zion wisdom will come’ is going to go to unknown levels of goodness.
