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The Israel Stories

You can listen to the Israel Stories by clicking on the story name at right. First, read the background below, and if you so choose, you can look at questions for discussion at the bottom. We hope you enjoy these stories, and that they help you to reflect further on your own story.

Who is Tikkun Toronto? Tikkun Toronto is a community inspired by a diversity of spiritual and social justice traditions and committed to Tikkun Olam, a Jewish belief in healing and transforming the world and ourselves. We work through the arts, politics and inclusive spirituality in a manner that is caring, creative, collaborative and fun. What are “The Israel Stories”? They are stories by nine members of Tikkun about the complexities and changes in our individual relationships to Israel. These stories are not written in stone; rather they are the tracks made in our continuing personal evolution. They are, we believe, ultimately spiritual stories: they show the patterns that each of us sees our lives making in relationship to something larger than ourselves. For some, that is a set of moral or ethical values, for others a religion, for others the Great Mystery. Why did you write and record these stories? Over a year ago, Tikkun Toronto appeared on “The Big Picture with Avi Lewis”, a CBC television program exploring people’s reactions to a film about Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. It was a hugely frustrating and futile experience for us, as true believers on both sides of the issue shouted and interrupted each other, trying to prove that their pain was worse than the others’. No one was interested in hearing anyone else; both sides focussed on scoring points by shouting clichéd slogans. We decided to try to reach out by telling our personal stories. One prospective member of the group, an ex-Israeli soldier, asked us how we were going to make it clear who was right and who was wrong through these stories, a question that made it clear that we weren’t the group he was looking for. The purpose of these stories is to open up dialogue; when we tell them to others in person we invite the listeners to share their own stories with us. We all believe that the first step towards reconciliation is to see and hear the other person’s view. We tell these stories not to give you our answers, but to share our exploration of important questions. What questions are these stories about? The stories started from the simple question, “What was my relationship to Israel when I was a child; how and why did that relationship change?” But there are larger questions embedded in that. Robert Frost once wrote, “Home is that place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.” In some of these stories, Israel is a literal home, in others a spiritual home, in some the possibility of a home. But there is always a tension in your home: to stay there you may have to give up some of who you are, but if you leave you may lose your community. There is a tension raised in our lives when the clothes of our ancestors, passed down to us, do not fit who we are. And there is a tension when the truths we learned in childhood no longer seem true. These stories explore how we wrestle with those tensions in our lives, and we hope they inspire you to do so, wherever your path may lie. We share the stories in a spirit of dialogue, and in the hopes of a deep and shared nurturance for us all.	Harvey's story
	Dorothy's Story
	Avi's Story
	Edie's Story
	Peter's Story
	Joan's Story
	Terry's Story
	Anita's Story
	Lois' Story
	Anne's Story

Questions for Discussion, Meditation, or Reflection

After you have listened to a story, ask yourself these questions: what has the narrator lost/ What have they gained? What are the forces that keep them where they are; what are the forces that push them away?

Each of the story tellers has moved away from where they were in their youth, which is to say away from their home. Is there a place in your life from which you have moved away since your youth? When your story changed, how did that impact your relationships, or your actions? Do you have examples of relatives, or friends who tell life stories that tend to harden their worldviews and leave them stuck in some way? How would you suggest exploring other ways of looking at that story?

Think of a place (physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental) that is home for you. Write for ten minutes about it, starting alternate lines with, “I have to leave home because...” and “I can’t leave home because....”

Do you have strong feelings about the Middle East, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine? If so try writing about your feelings, without entering into the politics of what should happen. Find a friend who feels differently, and have them write the equivalent piece. Share your work with each other, without judgment and with compassion.

Some of the narrators talk of situations that have torn families apart or fear of being ostracized from their family. Why would a person’s thoughts and words towards Israel have such a large impact?

Many stories suggest that the writers feel outside the mainstream Jewish community. How might feeling an outsider from this community impact their lives? Have you felt like an outsider in your life? What is the connection between being an outsider and a rebel? How have the Palestinians become outsiders to Israel or the Jewish community?

There seems to be a sense of deep longing in some of the stories and generally in the relationship to Israel that many Jews have. What might be the behind that longing? What are they longing for? What deep need or desire might Israel represent to them? Can you think of other examples of this deep longing of a people for a place? Is this longing really about a physical place or about something non-material? Can a deep non-material need partly be met by a particular place?

How might exploring your story about your relationship to Israel be part of a healing journey? How do our stories define who we are / how we view and relate to the world around us? Choose a theme (hurt, betrayal, safety, tribe or trust) and explore how it fits into your stories and your worldviews?

Many of the people who told their stories might describe themselves as being socially conscious. In what ways does a social consciousness inform many of these stories?

Can you think of any mythological stories, fairy tales etc that mirrors the Israeli / Palestinian story? What aspects do these stories share?

Many of these stories involve growing up with one perception of Israel, then later traveling there and coming into contact with an unexpected reality. This leads to a process of questioning and reframing a new reality, a new story. Imagine this story sequence told from a perspective of a Canadian Zionist Jew, or an Israeli who joins the army and serves in West bank, or a Palestinian who meets Israelis for the first time? How might their stories be reframed?

It is said that while many older Palestinians have met Israelis and therefore know them as human beings, there is a future danger because many young Palestinians only know Israelis through stories in which they are de-humanized. The same probably can be said about Israelis perception of Palestinians. Discuss what ways you see that lead out of this trap.