The GorgeousThis Asian Jew finally arrived in Israel, the spiritual home country he dreamed of. As soon as he got off the plane, he happily held the Israeli flag and greeted the people around him, thinking that he would be warmly welcomed. Unexpectedly, both Haridi Jews and secular Jews, they all regarded her as an alien.
At the moment when Lina stepped onto the Tel Aviv airport in Israel, she felt her heart was blowing out.This Asian girl, who grew up in Los Angeles, had a blood vessel of Jewish descent, and her ancestor’s story was filled with a longing for the “promised land.”
She lifted the blue-and-white Israeli flag, trembling with an agitated voice, and waving toward the passing pedestrians—“I’m home, I’m a Jew!” she imagined, welcoming her was an embrace, a cheer, a tear of “my own.”
But the reality is like a bowl of ice water, and the head is poured down. The first shoulder passed by a Jewish Haredi in a traditional black long coat, holding her cheeks, the other glanced at her, the eyes full of contemplation, like watching an actress on the wrong scene, and then coldly crossed her head, as if she had raised not the national flag, but a broken eye.
Then there were a few young Jews dressed in fashion and looked very "secular", they stole private language, their mouths hanged with no hidden ridicule, and one of them even stretched out his hand, and shot her face "bumping" a shot, with little effort, but very insulting.
Li Na froze, and the smile on her face froze. She wanted to explain, that her Jewish genealogy can be traced back to her great-grandfather, that she learned Hebrew and studied Jewish law for this moment... But before she could speak, a child passing by with her parents suddenly "spat" and drooled on her cheek.
At that moment, her tears were no longer contained.She did not understand why she was clearly “Jewish” and became “foreign”?
The Jewish community itself is like a complicated puzzle: there are Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, there are Sephadi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, and there is a Haredi group of extremist religious traditions.
In the eyes of many native Israeli Jews, "Jewishness" is not only a religion and heritage, but also a combination of language, culture, lifestyle.Lina's yellow skin, American style, in their view, is like adding a spoonful of unmistakable smoothie to the traditional Jewish culture.
The Haredi Jews were “pure,” they kept centuries of religious rules, and they would not ignore any “abandoned tradition” Jews, let alone those who were “non-Jewish” in their appearance and growing up.
Although secular Jews are not so old-fashioned, their definition of "one of their own" by default is those who grew up in Israel, speak Hebrew, and are immersed in local culture.
Liana’s enthusiasm, in their view more like a “deliberate pleasure for strangers”, instead seemed funny. Liana sat in the corner of the airport, burying her face in her knees and crying. She thought she had found a spiritual affiliation, and did not think but fell into the thorns of identity.
The "one of our own" in this world can never be simply defined by blood or religious labels. Cultural barriers and ethnic prejudice, like invisible walls, kept her out of the door full of longing.
In fact, more than Lina, how many people in the pursuit of identity identity, have encountered such a confusion. thought to hold some label, you can find a sense of belonging, but forgot the label behind, is a complex culture, history and human heart.
Liana's tears, a disgrace of Asian Jews, are also the abbreviation of all those who struggle in the identity chain - some "home", not you want to go back, some "your own people", not you want to merge, can be merged.
At the moment when Lina stepped onto the Tel Aviv airport in Israel, she felt her heart was blowing out.This Asian girl, who grew up in Los Angeles, had a blood vessel of Jewish descent, and her ancestor’s story was filled with a longing for the “promised land.”
She lifted the blue-and-white Israeli flag, trembling with an agitated voice, and waving toward the passing pedestrians—“I’m home, I’m a Jew!” she imagined, welcoming her was an embrace, a cheer, a tear of “my own.”
But the reality is like a bowl of ice water, and the head is poured down. The first shoulder passed by a Jewish Haredi in a traditional black long coat, holding her cheeks, the other glanced at her, the eyes full of contemplation, like watching an actress on the wrong scene, and then coldly crossed her head, as if she had raised not the national flag, but a broken eye.
Then there were a few young Jews dressed in fashion and looked very "secular", they stole private language, their mouths hanged with no hidden ridicule, and one of them even stretched out his hand, and shot her face "bumping" a shot, with little effort, but very insulting.
Li Na froze, and the smile on her face froze. She wanted to explain, that her Jewish genealogy can be traced back to her great-grandfather, that she learned Hebrew and studied Jewish law for this moment... But before she could speak, a child passing by with her parents suddenly "spat" and drooled on her cheek.
At that moment, her tears were no longer contained.She did not understand why she was clearly “Jewish” and became “foreign”?
The Jewish community itself is like a complicated puzzle: there are Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, there are Sephadi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, and there is a Haredi group of extremist religious traditions.
In the eyes of many native Israeli Jews, "Jewishness" is not only a religion and heritage, but also a combination of language, culture, lifestyle.Lina's yellow skin, American style, in their view, is like adding a spoonful of unmistakable smoothie to the traditional Jewish culture.
The Haredi Jews were “pure,” they kept centuries of religious rules, and they would not ignore any “abandoned tradition” Jews, let alone those who were “non-Jewish” in their appearance and growing up.
Although secular Jews are not so old-fashioned, their definition of "one of their own" by default is those who grew up in Israel, speak Hebrew, and are immersed in local culture.
Liana’s enthusiasm, in their view more like a “deliberate pleasure for strangers”, instead seemed funny. Liana sat in the corner of the airport, burying her face in her knees and crying. She thought she had found a spiritual affiliation, and did not think but fell into the thorns of identity.
The "one of our own" in this world can never be simply defined by blood or religious labels. Cultural barriers and ethnic prejudice, like invisible walls, kept her out of the door full of longing.
In fact, more than Lina, how many people in the pursuit of identity identity, have encountered such a confusion. thought to hold some label, you can find a sense of belonging, but forgot the label behind, is a complex culture, history and human heart.
Liana's tears, a disgrace of Asian Jews, are also the abbreviation of all those who struggle in the identity chain - some "home", not you want to go back, some "your own people", not you want to merge, can be merged.