One of my correspondents asked that I write about my life in Israel.
I did not grow up in a Zionist atmosphere. My parents were proud to be Americans. My father was either not able or not willing to contribute to Israeli causes. The last time I visited with my mother, after living in Israel for 15 years, with an Israeli wife and two children born in Israel, she asked, "Ira, when are you coming home?"
I first visited Israel on my return to the United States after six months doing research in East Africa. I had spent a decade teaching and writing about American politics and government administration. A colleague suggested that we examine some developing administrative procedures in Kenya and its neighbors.
That project opened my eyes to the importance of understanding other countries. A short visit to Israel exposed me to a society and a group of scholars more attractive than I expected.
A year later, I found myself glued to 24-hour news radio during the Yom Kippur War. What happened in Israel had become important to me.
Then there was another visit, meetings with professional colleagues, my request to be invited for a visit of a year or two, followed by an offer of a permanent position.
As an undergraduate I had studied the migration of Europeans to the United States. What I read occurred in my own experience. Although I had a tenured position as a senior professor at the most distinguished Israeli institution, I had trouble with the language and the culture. Divorce is a frequent experience of immigrants, and I shared in that pain.
Over the years, roughly one half of immigrants to Israel from North America and Western Europe return home. I can think of several explanations for my persistence.
I found Israel to be an attractive venue for my interests. It is fascinating, and even thrilling to see how the Jewish people from radically different backgrounds have managed to cope with one another, and with the problems of economics and defense. Of the hundred or so countries founded in the period after World War II, Israel is arguably the most successful in maintaining its democracy and developing its economy. Yet few of its founders came from democratic societies, and the problems of defense, mass immigration, and initial poverty have been at least as severe as those faced by other new countries.
Like many immigrants here and elsewhere, I remain something of an outsider. I also have felt like an outsider in my homeland, during visits and year-long sabbaticals at different universities. My Hebrew is good enough to teach students, lecture and consult at the upper reaches of government and the army, and to have directed a respectable number of MA and PhD theses, but not good enough to satisfy Varda or our children.
A recent conversation with a Russian friend at the gym began with him talking about the catastrophe of Israel. My response was that the country was in better shape than the place he came from, and the place that I came from.
The United States dwarfs Israel in size, power, and wealth. No doubt many more people (Jews included) aspire to live in the United States than aspire to live in Israel. Yet Israel compares favorably to the United States on the quality of health care and education, especially higher education available to the average citizen, indicators of health and longevity, income equality, levels of addiction and crime, and family stability. Despite persistent assertions of discrimination, Israel's Arab minority does better on those indicators than American minorities. Israel has learned more than the United States how to deal with its enemies, without occupying them or aspiring to change their societies.
Being Jewish has figured in my life more than Judaism. As a teenager, I was pleased to be expelled from religious school. My parents had insisted on attendance against my resistance. The rabbi I did not admire solved my problem. Much later I began writing and teaching about religion and politics. Weekly study of the Talmud with a religious friend has not made me religious. It has added to my identity as a Jew, and provided me with a sense of taking part in arguments that have gone on for more than two millennia.
When I came here, my monthly income declined by more than 60 percent. Over the course of 34 years, Israel has become less socialist and more capitalist. Some want it to become even more like the United States, but wiser heads have prevailed. From what I hear from American friends, my old age is better protected than theirs. I may have decided well after all.
I welcome comments sent to my e-mail address, below.
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
email: msira@mscc.huji.ac.il