The SA we leave; and the Israel we return to

Most of the weekly parashot (Torah portions) we read lately, including this Shabbat, are full of the people of Israel complaining on their desert journey. They say that the journey is too long. There’s insufficient food. The promised land is not as promising as promised. There’s no water. Moses and Aharon’s leadership is questioned.

As my 94-year-old grandmother calls it, it’s “krechtzen”. You can hear from the sound of this Yiddish word that it means to grumble and complain. Us Jews are professionals at it.

My family and I arrived to live here temporarily four and a half years ago. My wife, Liat, took on the duty of heading up the Israel Centre to strengthen ties between Jews who live here and in Israel, to reinforce the community and its institutions here, and to help those who prefer to make aliya.

In so doing, we all fell in love. We were literally captured by the magic of this country and community. I think many of you forget or aren’t aware of this magic. But trust me, it’s there.

With eyes looking out for the potholes and dimmed in the darkness of loadshedding, it’s hard to identify the beauty and treasure what you have. But you have incredible history and cultures, views, and especially, people. The people here are the kindest and warmest I’ve ever met.

Don’t believe the statistics. You do have high crime rates, but your society here isn’t violent at all. Even after the trauma of apartheid and the regime change this country went through, it’s a positive and strong society. I have simple evidence. When you compare different cultures, you look at how people behave on the roads – this worldwide test obviously ignores taxis.

Drivers here are kind, obliging, and let you go first. They are calm, and never hoot. You can even drive through a busy junction with no traffic lights during power outages. Can you imagine what would happen in such a situation at a Jerusalem junction? Have you driven on Route 6 highway lately? It’s like being in a car chase in a PlayStation game.

It’s easy to hanker after the past and romanticise it as a paradise, believing everything after that is rotten and corrupt.

It’s not a competition between South Africa and Israel. Each place has its problems.

It’s true: there’s no place like home. And Israel, as the heart of every Jew, is our home, even if we don’t live there. And I agree that if there’s anything I miss for my four boys, it’s the freedom they have in Israel.

Here, you have an incredible, well organised, and united community, supporting its welfare, education, spiritual life, representation, security, and resources. As well as some kosher food and a newspaper. Don’t take it for granted.

I met Liat more than 20 years ago at a Jewish students’ camp, with participants from the United States and around the world, near Los Angeles. Back then, we promised to take our then-future-children on a shlichut adventure, much like we have just completed here. As the Israelis at camp, we organised an Israel Day, and used the catchy slogan: “Israel – the best place to be a Jew”.

Twenty years passed, and for me, it’s more than a question of whether Israel is the best place to live as a Jew, it’s a challenge. In that sense, the Israel we’re returning to in a few weeks isn’t the same Israel we left a few years ago.

The judicial overhaul and huge demonstrations of the past few months aren’t the reason for the shift. In my view, Israel has been at a junction for a while now. When we have had Jewish sovereignties in Israel in our history – the ancient united kingdom of Saul, David, and Solomon, and the later Hasmonean kingdom – neither reached their 80th independence day. Their enemies weren’t the trigger for the loss. We can blame mainly ourselves for losing freedom and statehoods. Once again, the year Israel celebrated its 75th anniversary is a wake-up call. Our concern isn’t Iran or Hezbollah, nor the Palestinians and Gaza. Israel won’t survive without deciding exactly what it is – its character and direction.

Some think Israel is becoming too Jewish. Others feel it’s too liberal at the expense of its Jewish values. I don’t experience a contradiction between “democratic” and “Jewish” as our core values. If one principle explains the game rules, the other feeds the neshomah.

I think the question is different, namely, what will keep Israel Jewish? What version of Jewishness will enable Israel to stay prosperous, have superior military and technological power, be a light unto the nations?

• Can you stay an armed superpower and the people’s Israel Defense Forces when more than half of the population isn’t recruited to the army?
• Can we last as the leading country with billion dollars’ worth of start-ups per capita when a huge portion of Grade 1 pupils don’t learn English and mathematics?
• Can you stay righteous and honoured in the democratic world when angry settlers – with justified reason to be furious – day after day conduct raids on innocent Palestinian villages and burn houses, cars, and groves? Will we be able to maintain our integrity when we have our right to a homeland while others under our direct control live in Bantustan-like enclaves?
• Can you have flourishing creative and innovative universities and academies for long in a country with no real freedom to think, and for those with religious, race, or gender-based differences?
• Can we renew the world of yeshivot that was destroyed in the Holocaust in the only country on earth which funds Jewish scholars and modern sages, but in a state which will drive away its taxpayers and investors?
• Can we go on living tribe by tribe but as one united kingdom without a respectful Constitution like South Africa has to protect human rights, liberty, and its structure?
• Can we stay the heart of the Jewish people if most of the world Jewry won’t be eligible to make aliya, convert, or pray in the Kotel?

It doesn’t matter what your opinion is of Israel or Bibi. Whether you’re Orthodox, haredi, or love Israel unconditionally. I think the Israel you imagine, pray for, are proud of, and wish for is also the Israel I yearn for. It’s the Israel of prosperity, openness, and success, diversity and a mosaic of differences, a voice of generosity and justice. A light unto the nations!

I’m going back to Israel to make sure Israel won’t become a pale version of democracy like Hungary, Poland, or Turkey. And not a zealot, extremist interpretation of Judaism that brought our destruction.

This is my challenge in Israel, and yours here and there. I’m going back to Israel to make it the best place to be a Jew, while you live in a place where it’s great to be Jewish. We’ll miss you all. Thank you for letting us take part in your amazing country and community.

• Zvika (Biko) Arran is a publicist, social entrepreneur, lawyer, and advisor to philanthropists.