Extraordinary People in an Extraordinary Land - Essay Example

The contradiction in Israel is, that ordinary Jewish citizens are a preferred lot over their Arab compatriots. Along with the rigid religious establishment, a thriving lesbian and gay community exists. In this book, Donna Rosenthal has taken pains to interview a heterogeneous section of the people-- Jewish, Arab, men and women, secular and religious, with their fears and hopes, enthusiasm and disillusionment, willing acceptance of challenges and also expressing defiance…how Israel makes efforts to transform itself into an ultra-modern state, to stand shoulder to shoulder and challenge the world powers, to tell—not we also count—but better take us into account!

Nation-building from the scratch is not an ordinary process. Striking a balance between the orthodox and ultra-modern of the same religious group is all the more difficult.  Interaction between the two has to happen often. Rosenthal writes about the strange meetings thus: “An electrical engineer with a long ponytail is eating pasta with a bearded orthodox man in a knit kippa. At the salad bar, two women programmers chat in russian” (p.126). Immodestly dressed women in Jerusalem streets are abused by the orthodox. Rosenthal writes, “Some men wear their shorts, others dangle them below their ears. Signs in their haredi neighborhood warn women to dress modestly, not to expose much skin. Blouses cover them from collarbone to wrists” (p.174). In the matter of worship, the male-female division is enforced strictly. “In haredi and orthodox synagogues, men and women sit apart so they will not be distracted from prayers. In haredi synagogues, women sit in balconies or behind curtains” (p.182). In the same city, you have modern entrepreneurs engaged in research for high-tech industrial products. Children of Bedouin families and Israeli Arab—both have problems establishing their identities in a Jewish State.

Street acts of savage inhumanity are commonplace. Israelis are proud of the adventures of their armed forces. How more than fourteen thousand Ethiopians were airlifted from Africa in thirty-six hours! The intellectual gain from Soviet immigrants! All this is happening in a country that is smaller than New Jersey, geographically!

How tradition and modernity are compelled to challenge each other in a Nation that is steeped in orthodoxy but moving on the fast track of modernity? Rosenthal cites many examples, and two of them are given here: “It is not easy for the teen wearing a knit kippa over his dreadlocks to tell his parents, in broken Amharic, that he’s in love with a non-religious white girl” (p. 2). Also, “Tradition-bound Ethiopian Jewish mothers are shocked by the sight of strange, nearly naked white Jews tanning in “dental floss” bikinis” (p.2).

Not everything is so religious. No doubt, “The material, size, and color of a kippa in Israel can reveal a man’s religious and political affiliation” (p219), but get some more authentic information from some other reliable but not so respectable sources”. Prostitutes claim that a fifth or more of their faithful customers are very religious. Jews whom they identify by their black kippas and another traditional garb” (p.371).

Israeli kids are encouraged to be fiercely independent. Parents train their minds for joining the army. Modern Israeli mothers do not prohibit their childfree to have sex with their girlfriends at home! In times of never-ending conflicts and war situations, Israelis have learned the art of living as if there is no tomorrow.