So I'm not sure if I've blogged about this before but since I have less than one week left in the country it seems like a fitting time to discuss why I'm a Zionist.Ultimately it boils down two 2 reasons. The ideological and the practical. Lets start with the latter.
Practical reasons to make aliya.
Being an orthodox Jewess, a lot of the time it's simply more convenient for me to live in a Jewish state. Being able to eat in kosher restaurants really improves my quality of life. Being able to go to the super market without a kosher list is delightful. Having chaggim and erev chag off as public holidays is really necessary. Having many opportunities for left-wing learning and prayer and communal experiences is vital. Not having to constantly explain myself is lovely. I'm really grateful for the experience I had as an ethnic minority in Australia. It's given me a sensitivity to the needs of minorities everywhere. But do I actually enjoy being 'different'? Not very much at all. More than that the type of work I would like to do with my life is really only doable in Israel. I'd like to be a family lawyer in the rabbinic courts. That career is not an option for me anywhere else in the world. So yeah, practically, Israel is suited to my lifestyle and what I want to do with my life.
Furthermore ideologically I feel compelled to move to Israel. Not because of God or religion or national destiny. Far from it. Rather I see how many problems there are in the country. The poverty, the discrimination, the hatred and the unfairness. Coming from a western country with the sensitivity of having been an ethnic minority and part of the periphery of a society (being orthodox and female) I can see how much better things can work. How multiculturalism really adds to a country and how migrants and refugees, when given the right opportunities, can contribute to their adopted home. I can see how an education system should run. How social security could be improved. True, I won't be working on all these areas. I'm pretty sure that women's rights will be my chosen field. But simply being here, voting here, volunteering here should help a little. Or hopefully a lot.
So that's what I'm going to try and do. Help myself and help the middle east.
We'll see how that goes...
