Two Students Come Home Committed to Changing The Israel Discourse
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.)—
There are stickers with Michigan spelled out phonetically in Hebrew characters, Jewish bling abounds and satisfying a falafel craving isn’t hard to do: Welcome to the University of Michigan.
For a lot of seniors, the beginning of the school year means being back in Ann Arbor for the first time in eight months—for others that hiatus was spent where hummus and shawarma are plentiful and shekels are the preferred form of currency.
It seems only natural for these students to return even more in love with Israel than when they left. Eight months later and with much-improved Hebrew skills, two U of M students, Ben Wolf and Alyse Opatowski returned with a perspective that perplexes the creators of the programs that sent them to Israel—frustrated and disenchanted with Israel.
When Wolf moved into his dorm at Hebrew University in February of 2011 it was only his second time in Israel. After going on Birthright in 2009, he had only good things to say about Israel. Yet, once he settled in he realized that as an American Jew he had only been provided with one side of the story. Now he wanted to know the other. Situated in an ideal geographical location, he decided to delve into his new surroundings.
He took trips to the West Bank and Jordan and spent time with an American group of Greek Orthodox college students of Palestinian descent on a two-week service trip to the Middle East. When the group took a tour of Israel, they neglected to visit the most famous Jewish landmarks—not even the Western Wall.
“One guy in the group asked why the Jews care about Israel,” Wolf said. “That’s like asking what’s the big deal with the Dome on the Rock or why the Christians should care about the church of the Holy Sepulchre. That’s the problem; you get people who don’t know anything.”
He was not the only American student frustrated with others’ lack of knowledge about complex issues surrounding the conflict in the Middle East.
Many of Israel’s own extremists are ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in Jerusalem. Studying in Jerusalem provides American students an up close and personal look at this community. And for Opatowski, that left a bad taste.
“In some places outside of Jerusalem people get along so well,” Opatowski said. “But in Jerusalem I have never been so angry at Jews or Judaism and I came to realize that everyone with radical beliefs is going to cause problems.”
She made friends with Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Israelis while living in Israel, but they were not usually friends with each other. While she didn’t venture into Palestinian territory as Wolf did, the extremism she observed in Jerusalem left her feeling hopeless.
“I totally believe that the terrorists and extremists are exactly like Orthodox Jews,” Opatowski said. “I got really involved in my classes writing papers about the Orthodox Jews because they have so much power in Jerusalem,” she said. Opatowski said that some actions of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem reminded her of Palestinian terror attacks. “I learned that Jews will turn over buses and cars that are driving through their neighborhoods on Shabbat and will do these other crazy and insane things.”
She was also dismayed by Orthodox influence over Israeli politics. “It’s crazy to see how much of the state is run by the Orthodox when they take up so little of it,” she said.
Unlike Wolf, Opatowski did not leave Israel to travel elsewhere in the Middle East. Nevertheless, simply by living in Israel, she learned about and was disappointed by Israeli policy and concluded that the ultra-religious Jews in Jerusalem are a major obstacle to peace.
“People think they have to be on one side or the other,” Opatowksi said. “But I lived there and witnessed people living together. Arabs that are not considered Israeli did not have equal rights but I think if Israel changed some of its policies they could make it work.”
The unwavering stance of ultra-Orthodox Jews and their refusal to compromise left her both disappointed in and frustrated by religious Jews.
“I became more secular while I was there because I was so angry with [the Orthodox],” Opatowski said. But since I’ve been back and thought about it I realized that I got to do what I got to do.” She is a practicing member of the Conservative movement.
Wolf lived in a dorm in Jerusalem with three other American Jews. Like Wolf, they came to Israel with Zionist tendencies and the view that Israel could do no wrong. Because most of the conflict is in the West Bank and Gaza, it is easy to forget about it while living in Jerusalem. Moreover, few students chose to delve deeper into the issues to better understand the position of both the Israelis and Palestinians.
For Wolf, however, it was a different story. As the semester progressed and he continued to seek unconventional experiences, he grew increasingly annoyed with his roommates’ sheltered viewpoints.
“They just said the Palestinians are wrong, but they didn’t know why. These are statements with no facts. I really tried to gain as much knowledge as possible about both sides,” he said.
He had dinner with a Palestinian family that had recently been reunited after the father had been arrested by the Israeli government. He even chose to ride the Arab bus line into the West Bank just to see what it was like.
“I was the only white non-Arabic person and nobody else spoke English,” Wolf recalls. “A couple people stared at me, but I just wanted to see what it would be like riding on the Arab bus line.” Wolf said that he felt safe on the bus. “No, I didn’t wear any Jewish paraphernalia, but yes, I look slightly Jewish, but I felt fine,” he said.
Back home in America, Wolf remains involved in the Jewish community, but not to the same extent that he was before. As part of the U of M Hillel governing board, he finds it difficult to listen to some of the Zionist groups on campus because they only talk about the Israeli side of the story.
“It’s easy to follow the big paved road that everybody is on,” Wolf said. “You need the courage to go out and look for that fork in the road, to go down that unknown pathway. You might not like the result you get, but it will help you later in life. Usually if you take the littler extra effort to do something, I find that it’s usually really rewarding whatever it may be. I think it’s an underlying Jewish value.”
He is reluctant to share his observations from Israel and the opinions he formed while there for fear of alienating friends and compromising his position in Hillel. He supports a Palestinian state and believes the land that is Israel is holy to many religious people, not just the Jews. At the same time, he understands the importance of a Jewish homeland and is happy that the Jews have Israel.
“I just want to open other people’s eyes to what I have seen and for them to know how much more is out there,” Wolf said. “I don’t want to change other people’s minds; I just want them to know the issues.”
Plenty of young American Jews ride the crest of the cultural wave while in Israel. They go to experience life in the Jewish homeland and the cultural phenomenon of being part of the majority culture.
“Things are happening, but you just have to live your life,” Laura Marcus, a senior who spent last semester in Jerusalem said. “[Living there] just feels comfortable. I love the Israeli lifestyle and think that it is very important that every Jewish person identifies with Israel and the best way to do that is to go there.”
Programs like Birthright that encourage young American Jews to spend time in Israel and come back as ambassadors for the Jewish homeland are important for the future of Israel, according to Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren. In a press release on the official Taglit-Birthright Israel website he said, “Taglit-Birthright Israel is performing an amazing service for both (sic) to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The opportunity to experience first-hand the energy, beauty, and spirit of Israel is one which will stay forever with all the participants, and dispel the anti-Israel myths they may encounter on college campuses.”
Wolf and Marcus both had their first taste of Israel on Birthright and knew right away they had to get back. While both called Israel home for several months over last semester and summer, and both came back with extremely different views of the place, they can both speak to the importance of a Jewish homeland.
“I’ve traveled to a lot of countries,” Marcus said. “But there is something about Israel that, even though I am so far from home, I don’t feel far at all. I think it’s important for every Jewish person to go to Israel.”
Wolf agreed. “No matter who you are, I feel all Jews have an obligation to support Israel as a nation that was created for us,” he said. “[Israel] is the one place that we can go free of persecution, so I feel like I always have an obligation to support it. Israel will never turn its back on me as a Jew.”
Back in Ann Arbor with new first hand knowledge and different viewpoints about the situation in Israel, Wolf and Opatowski struggle with how to discuss Israel with classmates who share the views they once held about Israel. They want to maintain a strong commitment to Israel, but they don’t want to ignore the newfound knowledge that leaves them frustrated with some aspects of Israeli society and politics. They continue to support Israel because they are Jewish and they remember the experiences they had in Israel that made them appreciate the homeland.
“It is really nice how everything in Jerusalem shuts down for Shabbat,” Opatowski said. “It makes it so much easier to be Jewish and I definitely celebrated Shabbat more. [Israel] really is such an important place for the Jewish people. It’s such an amazing place.”
The question remains how will Wolf, Opatowski and like-minded students with more knowledge about the situation in the Middle East than the typical college student work together toward a better Israel and increasing acceptance in the Middle East.
“I think it’s possible for them both to live there,” Opatowski said. “I’m Jewish, I’m biased and I will always want there to be a Jewish State. It’s important for people to know the other side though, to know that people can get along.”
Wolf isn’t as optimistic that everybody can live together in peace. “It’s tough because I really want it to be there, but it’s so problematic,” Wolf said. “There is no place as important to us as Israel, but that is the problem because it’s important to everyone. Whose is it? It really should be everybody’s.”
Wolf acknowledges that it’s hard to stand up when you’re in the middle ground when the extremists’ views always seem to be the loudest. But after a meeting with a Hillel Governing Board advisor post-Israel back in Ann Arbor, he was happy to learn that he is not the only Jew at U of M who has more complicated feelings towards Israel.
“I was surprised he shared some of the common beliefs of mine about Israel, the whole knowledge of understanding the Middle East, not just Israel,” Wolf said. “There are some things I’m working on. It’s not like I am going to become the head of Hillel or the Palestinian student organization, but there are things you can sort of do on your own.”
Wolf is prepared to start doing something, though it is unclear what in particular it will be. “You have to do things on your own, be proactive. One student comes out and says lets talk about this, all it takes is one student to talk about this,” he said. “Other students will say, ‘If he is talking about this it’s OK to talk about it.’”
Amy Scarano, originally from San Diego, Calif., has spent the last three—and most amazing—years of her life at the University of Michigan where she is now a senior. She is a New Voices Magazine National Correspondent and this is her first story for New Voices.
