No-One Promised Us A Rose Garden!

When I was eighteen, I went to Israel to study for a year.   

That year was 1952-53. I got to appreciate what life was like living in the new state absorbing hundreds of thousands of survivors from the death camps. And hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from Arab countries where they had lived for centuries. I learned what it was like to sit down for a meal and to get up hungry as shared rations were thin for everybody.

For Jews in Israel having their own state was not the promise of a “rose garden”, but a constant struggle to survive in a hostile environment. Even so, for many, it was a place that was more hospitable, and safer, than the places where they had been.

After the birth pangs of 1948, the U.N Partition Plan, internal terrorism, and an attack by seven invading armies, it would have been impossible to imagine the impressive Israel of 2023, seventy years later.

From about 700,000 Jews, that population has grown to well over six million (6.7), nearly ten million overall. In spite of the challenges it continues to face, Israel is among the leading nations creating marvels from new technology.

Some of us are fortunate enough to benefit from the help of others in ordering our lives. Most commonly such help can come from those connected to us by blood.  Sometimes, we are fortunate enough to live in a place where the general society accepts the responsibility to offer a leg up to those in their society who need such assistance.

It is a common feature of human existence that if you live in a place where assistance for those in need is not available, and you know of alternatives that you might benefit from, you might make an effort to change your place of residence to one where such assistance might be more likely to be available. Even if it only meant that there was a better chance for gainful employment; that would be enough to get you moving. Even if it only meant that the new place would be safer for you and your family; that would be enough.