Greetings from Tel Aviv

I am writing this article in Tel Aviv, just after Purim – and when you read it, Pesach will be beginning, and I will be back! Tel Aviv was an interesting place to experience Purim, and has made me think about what is so unique about celebrating the festivals in Israel. The signs of Purim were everywhere. What’s more, although Purim did not begin until after Shabbat on Saturday evening, since, for most Israelis, the weekend starts on Thursday evening, all day Friday people were already out and about in funny hats and/or painted faces, with children in full fancy-dress. Bakeries and cafes well-stocked with hamantaschen did a roaring trade, and there were street musicians and mime artists to entertain.

Of course, Purim is the perfect excuse for a party, so it’s not surprising that Purim was such a success in fun-loving, largely ‘secular’ Tel Aviv. But the celebrations were not confined to the party extras. On Motza’ey Shabbat, the public reading of the Megillah, in the open air on Rothschild Boulevard, drew a crowd of hundreds from all sections of Tel Aviv – young and old, secular, progressive, modern orthodox and ultra-orthodox.

As people gathered, seeing such a concentration of fancy-dress possibilities was interesting in itself. But watching the mingling of kippah, scarf, and sheitel-wearers, with the bare headed – and with those in very different kinds of wigs, and imaginative head-gear of all types (not to mention a sprinkling of men in genuine streimals and long beards) was fascinating. And when after a couple of opening songs, and a short performance by a slap-stick comedian, Rabbi Lau, the Chief Rabbi of the city, came on the stage to address the gathering, it was clear that this was the official Tel Aviv Purim event.

The point is that everyone present came there to listen to the Megillah – and to hiss and boo and shake their greggers. Purim was an important date on all their calendars – irrespective of their very different ways of being Jewish in their daily lives. And speaking to Jewish friends and family here in Israel about their Seder plans (a small cross-section of people, including progressive, orthodox and secular), I know that the same is true of Pesach. Everyone is going to a Seder, and in Israel, where Pesach lasts seven days and there is only one Seder night, this means that on that one evening, six million Jewish Israelis of every possible type and background will be celebrating the Exodus from Egypt in their different ways.

It seems that, in Israel, when it comes to the core moments of Jewish experience, labels like ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ become superficial, irrelevant and misleading. So may it be with us. Chag Samei’ach!