Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue

From Ros Ellis

My dear friend, Tsafy, who is a Sabra of many generations and my age, wrote her thoughts about her life in Israel below as Israel celebrates 60 years.

It is very moving and I thought I would share it....she has given her permission.....

Tsafy's parents, Israel and Drora had a flat just off Dizengoff....I stayed there on my visits to Israel as a teenager when I had time out from the Kibbutz. They have passed away now but I will never forget their kindness and hospitality to me. Their flat must be worth a fortune now...but they had it built in an orange grove when Tel Aviv was just one road!!!

Tsafy's life has been typical I feel of Israelis of our generation...tears and joy. I was at her first wedding....her husband, Meir, killed just two months later in the Yom Kippur War. I remember those dark days so well...we were all so young...all we wanted was to live and love...and here was death and sorrow in our midst.

But Tsafy rebuilt her life with her lovely husband David, who she met while having a break in London with us, and as you will see below her life has been in Carol King's words...a tapestry. It makes me realise how our lives have been easy in comparison..... would we have risen to the challenge???

So I do hope you will read it and pass it on..... I wish my Ivrit was as good as her English!!!

In Tsafy's words to me "I would like people to know that even if we don't have a great Prime Minister and we are not always happy with what happens.....we love this country and will do anything it takes to protect it and make sure it stays here for eternity".

Am Y'Israel Chai

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today we celebrate Israel's 60th birthday: Friday 14/5/1948 just before Shabbat and the Declaration of Independence, hours before the British left Palestine and a newborn is given the name of State of Israel.

4 months before the 3rd birthday of Israel I was born, in the middle of a cold winter. I would like to share my thoughts about the long way we walked together, Israel and me.

I was one of the unbelievably lucky one to grow with 2 sets of grandparents: most of my friends had none as theirs perished in the war. My maternal grandparents had a hotel in Jerusalem, where we spent all our holidays until I was 5, and my grandpa passed away just 10 days after my mum gave birth to his granddaughter, my youngest sister. Whenever we went to Jerusalem my brother reminded me that at the bottom of the Hanevi'im St, where the Hotel stood, on top of the wall there were Jordinian soldiers pointing their guns at us, No, they never shot when we were there but yes, they did kill and wound a lot of Jerusalem citizens.

I was in first grade when the Suez Canal War took place. I remember my mother making me walk the stairs down to the basement, to the shelter, with her holding my 8 months old baby sister in her arms and me being petrified that when we get to the ground floor an Arab soldier with a gun will be shooting at us.

At the age of 7 we celebrated Israel's 10th Anniversary! Everybody went out of their way to decorate homes and shops, to party and to visit the Great Exhibition that depicted our achievements in agriculture, industry and absorbing millions of refugees in a record time.

When I was in 4th grade we went on a school trip to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, called after Mordechai Anilevitz who was one of the Warsaw Getto uprise leaders. On the way home we heard on the news that Israel found Adolf Eichman and brought him to Jerusalem to put him on trial. The year of the trial was traumatic in every possible way: the testimonies on the radio and in the newspapers (no TV in the 60th in Israel), the photos and experiencing it with the parents of Ilana, my best friend, who were Holocaust survivors.

High school was a start of a growing up process for Israel and me. At 16 I shared Israel's fear of Egyptian's threat to attack (May 1967). The boys were drafted to dig shelters in Tel Aviv -Jaffa boulevards whilst the girls worked in the Blood Bank assisting in an effort to collect donated blood in case the war broke. and it did. Monday morning at school and we were all assembled in the shelter when the first attack took place. Two days later I “broke the World Record for 2 miles run” as I made my way home to tell my Mum that the army is breaking into the Old City of Jerusalem, where she spent her childhood. Together we listened to the description of the first Israeli soldiers to cry by the Wailing Wall. In the next few days we found out that my brother's best friend was with them: he stars the famous photo of a soldier by the Wall in these exciting moments.

I joined the Army in February 1969, after six months of travelling in the USA and UK, working as a volunteer in a Kibbutz and helping my Dad who was running both his own business and my late Grandpa's business. Both Israel and I were very proud to join forces during my Army service. I ended up in the upfront of the Sinai Desert, just a few miles from the Suez Canal. Our soldiers were continuously under attack but the Egyptians. I saw the fighting but I also met my first close encounter with military death: first it was a 5-soldier enemy team killed in action and brought to our camp, and then an officer that we knew and met on Sunday night who got killed on Tuesday of that week.

In June 1970 I met Meir, in October I changed army uniform with university books and in August 1973 I got married to Meir - who got killed only 2 months later in the Yom Kippur war. Both Israel and I were in a state of shock: not only did so many thousands of young life terminated, but a lot of our values and beliefs got shattered over night. The first 2 years were a political nightmare for Israel and for me? Do I really need to tell you?

At the very end of 1975 I went on holiday to the UK, met David and managed to breath fresh air. !976 was my lucky year, the beginning of my fantastic life with David and of building my own great family.

Israel, on the other hand, had it worth: wars, political disasters, economic madness and change of mood! Bad time indeed.

October 1982 we leave the UK on the way to Israel just hours after the Sabra and Shatila killing in Lebanon which was blamed on Israel, which was in Lebanon then. We taste the Aliya difficulties, we experience the unbelievable inflation, we make our contribution to the local education system and the economy. we put our children in Gas Masks in the Golf War, we go to funerals of soldiers we knew when they were in school with our children - but we celebrate the Karmiel Dance festivals and the very many Independence Days. We get scared when bombs explode all over the country during the Arab Intifada and we worry sick when Leone goes quiet when both she and the terrorist bombs are the the Har Ha'Tsofim university on the same day. We try to carry on with life as if "business as usual" and help Israel survive the threat to put an end to it.

And this morning, as many Israelis are out walking in this most beautiful and loves country, I am looking back at the long way we walked together, my Country and me, and I am so proud of our achievements, together and side-by-side, our great nation and family we nourished - and with great excitement and pride I wish we would celebrate many many birthday together and share a lot of happiness.

I am proud of you, Israel, with all your many faces and colours and moods.
Happy 60th Birthday, My Homeland and Pride.

Tsafy Simons