Karen Lehrman Bloch - Passage to Israel

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. Cover design by Rain Saukas Cover image: Jerusalem at sunset by Markus Gebauer Jerusalem. Ancient Masada ruins at dawn. Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0688-0 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0689-7 Printed in China For my son, Alexander You are a member of an eternal people, A letter in their scroll.

Let their eternity live on in you. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Contents Foreword In the pages that follow, you will come to sense that in Israel there is something alive in the air. Something somewhat indescribable, a song unsung, even though the whole world urges us to put to words the melody it sings. Maybe this is simply life , an affirmation of the extraordinary found in the everyday experiences that connect us as human beings: The children on their way to school; the market vendors selling fruit to a passerby; a couple biking down the sidewalk. I first heard it on the beaches of Tel Aviv, where the police skateboarded down the boardwalk and the father biked with his infant daughter in the seat behind him. Where the Chabadniks chanted in prayer on Saturday morning, their melodies juxtaposed with the quiet found in the markets closed on Shabbat in Nachalat Binyamin.

I saw it on the avantgarde graffiti painted on the shops in Mahane Yehuda Market; strokes telling the story of everyone who has touched and been touched by Jerusalems people: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in abundance. Black and white, rich and poor, old and young, Jerusalems people sing a song of a history that calls forth a future pregnant with possibility. Maybe this is simply identity . I heard it in Caesarea as the waves descended and crashed into each other, reminding me of the aqueducts and atrocities brought on by the Romans; but the stones stood still on the rushing water, telling a story of Time. Let her run her course, they said, and it will be proven once more that the eternal people indeed still are. I heard it in the wail of the wind in Beit El, where men struggled with angels and zealots fought in caves.

Forever and ever, these hills go on. Who can tell where they will end? And who knows of their beginning? I was here before in Israel. But I forgot this feeling. I forgot I could have such goose bumps, that I could feel this chill down my spine. I forgot my heart could skip at this pace, that I could see the sky in this light. I forgot why I dedicated my life to telling the story of this place and these people.

Its ultimately because it moved me. And Israel for me is like that song that compels you to dance. In the following pages youll get to glance at some of its sheet music, displayed in vibrant hues and shades. Maybe this is simply humanity . Here is the face of Freedom, the sturdy hands of self-actualization; the shoulders teaching us resolve; the back unbent, steady with courage. Here churns the guts that withstood the test of time; the legs that ran swift and beat out the drums of history.

Here stands the forward feet, heeding the call of transcendence, to serve a King in all His splendid glory. This is the woman of virtue and the boy with the slingshot. This is the man with the staff and the queen of Persia. This is the stride in Bob Marleys step and the respite of the Negro slave. This is the poetry in Martins Dream and the promised land of his last speech. I was here before in Israel.

And I remembered this song. It reverberates in every corner of the earth. It is sung by all peoples. It is an ancient song of courage and freedom. Maybe this is simply love . Yisrael . Yisrael .

Since I was a small child, the very word has held a deep power over me. Hearing it, saying it, and most especially singing it would bring a rush of emotionsa profound love and longing mixed with an inexplicable sadness. Long before I fully understood my historical connection to the landthe fact that for me, as well as for millions of others scattered throughout the Diaspora, Israel is my cultural and spiritual homelandI knew that this small country residing between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was inextricably bound to my identity, eternally a part of me, the essence of a transcendent bond that has been passed from generation to generation. When Israel shines like a beacona light unto nationsI beam; when Israel needs to defend her people, I strengthen my resolve; when Israel cries, I cry. Over the past one hundred years, the people of IsraelJewish, Christian, Muslim, Bedouin, Druze, and Bahhave transformed a desert land of ancient ruins into a breathtaking composition of the natural and manmade, a gorgeous montage of cobblestone streets and wineries, sculpture gardens and Bauhaus architecture, innovative interiors and verdant olive plantations. I decided to create this book because I felt that the real Israel was no longer being seen.

Images in the media were either focused solely on Israels conflicts with her neighbors, or were fake, photoshopped or fabricated in an attempt to rewrite history, to change the narrative, to make the world hate a nation, a people, that has existed in one form or another for more than three thousand years. Despite its small size and continual struggle to survive, Israel has given more to humanity than most countries combinedbut that was not what the world was seeing. I decided it was time to show the world what every visitor immediately sees when stepping off the plane: the real Israel. It is written in the Talmud: Ten measures of beauty descended upon the world, nine were taken by Jerusalem. Indeed, the beauty of Israel is so varied and profound that the process of culling images for this bookof curating a mosaic of the landscapes, seascapes, architecture, ruins, holy sites, and street sceneswas both a dream and a struggle. (Israel actually means to struggle with God.) How to choose from such an abundance of beauty? I decided early on that, for this book, the eyes of many photographers would be more interesting and authentic than the eyes of one.

This volume exhibits the work of thirty-four photographers, Israeli and not, professional and not. I am humbled to have had the privilege of working with such amazing talent, artists who are able to capture the indescribable, from the poetry of the birds at the Hula Nature Reserve, to the sweetness of children praying at the Western Wall, to the painterly Mediterranean sunsets. But beneath the beauty and poetry of the land, what else do the more than two hundred images in this book show? Diversity . Israel is rich with a diversity of people, architecture, lifestyles, religions, and cultures. Markets overflow with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fragrant smells. There are black-hatted Orthodox men and tattooed skateboarders in Jerusalem; archaeological ruins of Masada and Shivta, and a high-tech Tel Aviv bustling with companies like Apple and Google and start-ups that save lives throughout the world; chic French immigrants at cafs and Bedouin hospitality in the Negev.