Predictions are for the brave, or the foolhardy, especially in a time when a global pandemic continues to change everything about the way we live, work, travel and socialize. It is easy, therefore, to resist the temptation to predict what might happen in the year ahead as we end 5781 according to the Jewish calendar and on Monday night, September 6, we welcome in 5782.
Instead, in the spirit of heshbon nefesh – the traditional soul-searching that accompanies this season – I’d rather look back at the year just ending and replay some of our strongest collective memories.
At the end of 2020, after Collins Dictionary unveiled “lockdown” as its word of the year and terms such as “quarantine” and “social distancing” appeared on similar lists elsewhere, Thrive Global founder and CEO Arianna Huffington bucked the trend and selected “resilience.”
“Unlike quarantine and coronavirus and social distancing, resilience is the only one that’s going to be just as relevant when the pandemic is over. Resilience is the quality that was summoned in us by all the challenges of 2020. And it’s also the quality that’s going to carry us forward into 2021,” wrote Huffington.
Resilience is a quality that defines Israelis as much as “chutzpah.” Even pre-pandemic, Israelis bounced up and down, there and back, from disaster to joy.
It is fitting that emotional resilience in Hebrew can be described by the words “hosen nafshi” – “hosen” coming from the same root letters as the word for immunity/immunization. Hisunim – vaccinations – have become a central part of our lives. Israel, with an efficient free public health system, was the first country to extensively roll out Pfizer anti-COVID vaccinations in a campaign which made us proud and served as a model.
We were also the first to learn that the vaccination does not have a long-lasting effect, hence Israelis are now lining up to receive a third shot. Third time, hopefully lucky. There is an uncomfortable feeling that goes with getting a third shot of the vaccine at a time when many countries have yet to provide the first shot to all. But, having purchased the vaccinations – and promised the medical feedback to Pfizer – it would be a shame if instead of boosting the initial immunization shots, we let the effect die out – and that would not be all that died.
Still, there was definitely a less festive atmosphere for the third shot in the arm – an admission that the novel coronavirus is novel no more and going to be with us for a long time.
This has definitely been a bumpy year that tried even the most resilient. We’ve been through wars before, but the thousands of rockets launched on Israel during 11 days in May were unprecedented in intensity. We dealt with it, as we always do, with humor – this time hinging on jokes about herd immunity and masks in communal shelters.
The riots in the Arab sector that took place at the same time were no joke. The bright spot was, as always, looking for the helpers. Many Arab-Israelis came to the aid of their Jewish neighbors in their hour of need.
The economy proved more resilient than was first feared, surviving lockdowns, the mini-war and the almost total halt of incoming tourism. Those dependent on the travel industry need more than resilience to survive, however.
Unfortunately, coronavirus itself has proved remarkably resilient, and there’s a global battle against new mutations challenging our physical and mental health and our knowledge of the Greek alphabet.
ISRAEL’S POLITICAL situation this year underwent a fundamental change. After four elections in two years, Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted by a coalition that was as unexpected as it was diverse: Naftali Bennett, heading a party with six MKs and one defector became prime minister, while Yair Lapid, whose Yesh Atid party had 17 seats, became alternate prime minister with a rotation agreement.
The coalition ranges from the right-wing to the far-left. It includes the kippa-wearing PM and a hijab-wearing member of the United Arab List; a proudly gay male health minister and an ultra-feminist transportation minister who at the age of 54 just had a child with her younger partner via a surrogate.
It marked the end of ideological politics, the elasticity occasionally bordering on the mind bending.
It remains to be seen how resilient the coalition will prove to be. The strongest elastic snaps when too much strain is put on it.
The change of government in Israel (which also installed Isaac Herzog as its 11th president) was often held up as a reflection of the swing from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the US.
But the comparison only goes so far.
The first meeting in the White House between Biden and Bennett was delayed last week by the terrible bombing at Kabul airport as the US and allied troops hastily withdrew and handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban. (Israeli defense officials had reportedly warned of a likely ISIS-K attack.) Biden’s reasoning that he had to abide by Trump’s decision to withdraw by August 31 sounded particularly weak given that he doesn’t feel equally bound by Trump’s decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal.
With both Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Islamists emboldened, it’s no wonder that Israel’s normalization agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year (according to the Hebrew calendar) grew to include Sudan and Morocco in 5781.
When Iran’s nuclear plans were set back by a series of explosions and fires at various facilities and the targeted killing of key scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, widely attributed to the Mossad, few tears were shed beyond Iran and its proxies.
A “Cold War” was also launched against Israel. The Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s ice cream giant decided not to renew the license of the Israeli producer who refused to give in to demands to stop sales in Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem. The move might have backfired, however, as it became increasingly clear that not only was it morally hard to swallow, it violates anti-boycott laws in many US states.
The year 5781 showed us yet again that the country that is obsessed with security fails to take safety equally seriously. Forty-five people died in the country’s deadliest civilian disaster during a crush at the Lag Ba’Omer celebrations on Mount Meron at the end April.
Israel also dealt with an environmental disaster when tons of tar blackened the country’s Mediterranean coastline in February. Last month’s huge fires close to Jerusalem should also serve as a wake-up call. Although they were apparently either the result of arson or criminal negligence, the hot weather and parched earth certainly contributed. Contrary to the old joke, as a country there is a lot that can be done about the weather, rather than just talking about it.
Mental health was put onto the global agenda at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. Emotional well-being, and resilience, should not be taken for granted. We all need a bit of help sometimes.
Israel did better than in previous Games, with gymnasts Linoy Ashram and Artem Dolgopyat bringing back golds and the country’s paralympic competitors – living lessons in resilience – have also won medals, including several precious gold ones.
Life goes on. The return of children to schools and kindergartens this week was typically a rushed effort with no one being sure until the last minute just how it would work. Nonetheless, social media feeds were full of “first day of school” photos and the requisite COVID home-testing kits, reminiscent of pregnancy tests.
A source of emotional strength for me has been our outdoor prayer minyan. What started with a few neighbors near my Jerusalem home some 18 months ago has grown into a substantial community. This week it is holding a small ceremony for the children starting first grade – who astonishingly number at least 10. The earliest memories of these children will forever include combining play and prayers in the park as something natural.
As Huffington noted: “The key part of resilience isn’t about bouncing back, it’s about bouncing forward. It’s about using adversity as a catalyst to get better and become stronger.”
That’s something to keep in mind through 5782 and beyond.