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Erika Dreifus

ByErika Dreifus, Erika Dreifus

Opinion

One year later it remains difficult to believe

So much has changed, not least the US presidency, writes Erika Dreifus from New York

November 2, 2017 13:29
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2 min read

What a difference a year makes.

At the end of October 2016, I was travelling in Israel with a group from my home congregation. Our 10-day voyage was scheduled to return us to Newark Liberty International Airport early on Tuesday morning, November 7 — in time to vote in that day’s U.S. presidential election. But just in case we encountered any delays, I obtained and submitted an absentee ballot prior to departure.

Much about those days lingers in memory: the Israeli hotel breakfasts — still incredible, even after two previous trips, and surpassed only in gustatory recollection on this round by my first taste of knafeh pastry one evening in Haifa. A pre-breakfast venture in Jerusalem to participate in a procession to the Western Wall, a march intended to emphasise principles of religious pluralism and gender equality. A visit to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base — and the oh-so-youthful faces that I saw there.

I remember, too, my first-ever handshake with a Palestinian Arab, which occurred when our group travelled to the West Bank. And another first, a too-quick, tear-filled visit to the Yitzhak Rabin Centre in Tel Aviv. I recall prayers: at a memorial service at Yad Vashem; when a subset of fellow travellers became B’nai Mitzvah together; as we concluded Shabbat with Havdalah by the sea.