err, your cows r 'ow yoo say, meshugar, lo?

In truth the title of this post has very little to do with its contents...That said it is true that the alleged mental instability of some British-raised bovines a decade a go and more is the reason why im not able to participate in the blood drive that is going on locally this evening.

It is true that my Britishness has been a source of interest and reflection just recently. It is fascinating and curious to me that having come here for profound reasons that are a fundamental ezpression of my Jewish identity. And of course, my Jewish identity is my primary personal identity - I simply wouldn't be here if that weren't the case. Despite it is my Britishness that is keeping body and soul together for me right now....

This is so obvious and almost inevitable and yet curious. Having come all this where to play an active role in the story of the Jewish People, having been a professional Jew for my entire working life. I have come here and find myself teaching English in an Israeli religious secondary school. By the way Ive never doubt the age-groups im teaching, neither have I ever taught English nor do I have an Israeli Teaching certificate. But, hey i interviewed well and got the job, but at this point this is all the school's problem. But its all so strange coz i certainly didnt come here to teach English to English speakers..ho-hum, but its work.

Much more fulfilling to me has been the substitute teaching ive been doing at Machon - Id forgotten how much I love teaching Modern Jewish History. So much fun. And now, as of today, Ive started teaching a weekly course in Jewish History for FZY Yearcoursers. Now this is the stuff I came here for. Nothing, absolutely nothing tops job satisfaction.

One final thing before I sign off. According to this weeks Haaretz quiz. November 28-29 was international 'Buy Nothing Day'. A world wide campaign to 'switch off from shopping and tune into life'. This fascinating innovation was brought to you first by the number 7 the Letter J and was a production of the Shabbat Celebration Network. Well its taken thousands of years, but maybe the rest of the world is catching on,,,those cunning Jews got their first!

Living the Zionist Dream...or just turkey?

So things are changing here. Unfortunately one of those things is not the weather. For this previous statement i was recently told by a very idealogical friend of mind that I was more ideological than him...this i doubt. I was quick to point out to him that the night before this conversation took place I had gleefully taken part in a Thanksgiving celebration replete with Turkey, hot apple cider, pie, yams,good friends and a repetable shiron of Thanksgiving songs. There was definately a time in my life when I would have rejected such an invitation as I would have construed it as questioning my zionist crudentials snd certainly not something that people who live in this country should indulge in.

Whilst (I got teased endlessly for my persistent use of whilst at an american dominated Shabbat lunch yesterday) there were frustratingly american excesses at the meal in question, not least the singing of a patriotic American song that has the same tune as 'God Save The Queen' and a complete rendition of Clementine - what a depressing song by the way, who knew? I find myself newly at ease with my Israeli- identity.

I think the rationale goes something like this...Now I made aliyah, so having pinned my colours to the Israeli mast, I wont countinance a questioning of my zionist crudentials. I am here, I am proud and I have thrown my hat in with the fate of the Jewish People beyond question. Some turkey and singing doesn't change that!

Yes we can? No, no...yes, WE can!

Goodness- where have I been? What am I doing? Where am I going.?...but enough with these ridiculous, protentious and frankly unnecessary question that im sure havent been keeping you - ah yes, the emorphous 'you' that no doubt doesn't exist since i havent written here for 3 years and more- up at night.

So putting such triffling matters aside...i'm back and i'm inspired. I'm sure the details of the intervening years will unfold as we go along, but for now lets start as all good things do (so why this?- Ed) at today.

So why today of all days I hear you cry. So today Ive seen the same fascinating 3 times. To understand what I mean we have to go back to the monumental and historic victory of Barack Obama in the American Presidential Election of some 3 weeks ago....

As I begin to commit this to writing I can feel that tingle of expectation once again, that stirring sensation you get on those rare moments when the hand of history beckons and you follow transifixed by the grandeur of the moment.

Those early hours of that Tuesday Morning,were of course one of those moments. Moments to be drunk in, to be savoured. I, myself, brought ny bed clothes to the couch that evening, settling in for a night in front of the TV as the results would roll in. Of course by the time I left the couch at around 7, I think it was, I had been overcome by the emotion of the occasion and was illated. The first time as Obama reached the magic number, again as McCain conceeded with a grace you felt sure was fundamental to his character and an eloquence that was so moving I wondered how it had elluded him during the campaign and finally as Obama himself took to the stage to make his first speech as president-elect. By the time he finished speaking his mantra ringing in my ears, I was, not for the first time that evening, crying, gripped by the magntitude of the moment.

There is a joke doing the rounds of the Katamon Shabbat circuit just at the moment. So, according to the joke, there is a heated argument going on in the Israeli Foreign Ministry at the moment as the officials there cant agree on whether Israel and its neighbours is 168th or 169th on Obama's priority list. Yes I know, not exactly pant-wettingly hilarious but illustrative of an important point not lost on the Israeli media in the days immediately following Obama's election. Happily the coverage was concentrated on the mood of illation that was sweeping up people not just in America but across the world and the truly historic consequene of the result - namely America's 1st black president just 40 years after the end of segregation.

So aware of this global change of the political mood, its effect can be felt in the local political punditry here in Jerusalem. Two weeks ago Jerusalem elected a new, secular mayor to replace the incumbent Charedi Uri Lapoliansky. In analyzing the victory of the self-made millionaire Nir Barkat one of the hosts on the results programme asked the analyst in the studio is this result at least in part an up-shot of the result in America. Is this a reflection of an alteration in the public mood. Is Barkat 'The change WE need'?

At the time i was sceptical of the comparison. It seemed lazy, just making a popularist statement into a question to make Jerusalem's local politics of greater consequence than it is.

As it turns out this might not just be jumping thoughtlessly on the Obama band-wagon by journalists too lazy to think of their own questions. The more I ask around and look around not only do I hear people connecting the two political victories, but today I have seen a most intriguing and surprising site....

On the side of 3 seperate buses today alone I have seen for the 1st time slogans advertising the Sephardic Charedi Party Shas which picture a stylistic image of the israeli flag with the slogan B"H Ken. Anahnu Yecholim super-imposed over the top of it. You guessed it, that translates as: Yes. We can. The B"H (Bezrat Hashem- With G-d's help) is written to the side in the style of the way observant Jews often begin any piece of writing.

I'm not sure that Obama ever envisaged that his slogan would have such a fundamental impact that it would be mimicked so far a field, but it is striking that a party whose values encourage skepticism, disdain and distance from the values of the wider world are the 1st to make use of Obama's victory to increase there own political capital.

The echoes of history in the making reverbirate in what you might think are the most unlikely places...