By Rabbi Joshua Knobel
“The masts on the roofs of the homes were then like the masts of Columbus’ ship, and every crow standing on their pinnacles announced a different shore.”
Lea Goldberg’s 1935 paean to Tel Aviv describes an exciting and, at times, intimidating frontier for a multitude of peoples. Arab and Jew, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, Russian and Frenchman alike have all found a home in this cosmopolitan mixture of European and Middle Eastern influences. Though many of them, like Columbus, discovered a very different shore than the one they initially sought, most have learned, like Columbus, that the unexpected can bring gifts we never could have imagined.
Our Wise School students, currently visiting their friends from the Elharizi School in Tel Aviv, have embarked upon a similar journey, filled with experiences that evoke surprise and wonder at the manifold historical, cultural, and spiritual gifts that this city and this country offer.
Just as it was in 1935, Tel Aviv remains the port city of our people’s hopes and dreams, offering an exciting, albeit daunting, harbor to those in search of fairer shores, as well as a port of call for am yisrael, the People of Israel throughout the world. As we prepare to celebrate Israel’s 69th birthday, we pray that the promise of Tel Aviv shines ever brighter for all Israel and for all the world.
