From: "Gilad Atzmon" <gilad@gilad.co.uk>
Date: October 24, 2010 10:37:48 AM EDT
To: reporternotebook@gmail.com
Subject: an amazing video & a great text
Jewish Integrity for a Change
Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 10:02AM
Gilad Atzmon: The following is an email that was sent to me by an American Jew a few days ago. This is a very interesting text that exposes the depth of the Jewish Diaspora's identity complex: Tribalism, shame, self hatred, pride and embarrassment...
You're free to share my story if it interests you, but please spare my name.
My father is a Cleveland-born Labor Zionist who immigrated to Israel with the aspiration of redeeming his secular Jewish soul by pioneering and cultivating the land of his forefathers. My mother is a Mumbai-born B'nei Israel Jew who grew up rather poor in the southern development town of Dimona but worked hard and eventually became a well-paid corporate executive, all while maintaining her traditional Jewish orientation.
I was born in the Holy Land but left when I was four. I lost my Hebrew within a few months of my exile and always considered it a personal tragedy. It was a burned bridge to that curious home away from home that I would visit every few years--the big JCC my synagogue honored, the always-running summer camp my youth group worshiped, the headquarters to which I owed my ethnic loyalty. To have such an Israeli name without the ability to speak Hebrew...chaval (pitty).
To read more:
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