Our Story!

Everybody loves a good story, especially when you are the protagonist of the tale.

What I am about to undertake is to tell you YOUR story, or better, OUR story.

Israel:Take 3 is a forum where we can get to know each other and learn how we are all actors in the same drama; and not just any story, but the greatest one ever told.

The story that we will tell together is the epic journey of the Jewish people coming home, to rebuild our national homeland after almost 2,000 years of dreaming.

But if this is, as I boldly claim, the greatest saga of all time, and if it is indeed our story, then why do so few of us know it? I honestly don’t have a satisfying answer to that question. I don’t know how or why this has been lost in our Jewish education. But now is the time for us to recapture our story.

I am super passionate about this. In fact, it is my mission in life: To live and tell the story of the Jewish people coming home after 2000 years.

Many of you know me and many of us haven’t met yet. So let me share with you a little bit of my story.

I “accidentally” wandered to Jerusalem at the end of 1993 to visit my ex-girlfriend from college who was encouraging me to visit. I had been working as a correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, covering the Yugoslav war from Belgrade, and I was desperate for a break in the action. So, off I went for what was supposed to be a three-week hiatus from the stress of war correspondence.

 

One day I will tell you the whole story, (maybe leaving out a few of the more revealing details) but for now let’s just say that those “three weeks” somehow turned into eight years. And, instead of returning as a seasoned war correspondent, I left as an Orthodox rabbi. Oh, and the ex-girlfriend? Ali and were married in 1996 and have five children and a granddaughter. Life is funny that way.

Obviously, to make such a dramatic lifestyle change, there certainly were many inspiring moments and experiences as well as guides and mentors along the way.

But looking back, if I had to point to the one thing that turned me on to Judaism and set me on a lifelong journey of learning and growing as a Jew, it was hearing our story for the first time. Our story is one that has no parallel in the annals of human history. In fact, nothing even comes close.

Let me explain.

A nation builds a homeland in a land promised to their forefathers, only to be defeated, crushed and exiled some 420 years later. But, defiant and stiff-necked as we tend to be, we return after 70 years and rebuild – becoming the only nation in history to return from national exile. And there we remain for another 560 years until our nationhood is once again cut down and the horrors of exile revisited.

But this time, exile doesn’t last 70 years, but rather almost 2,000. For 2,000 years the Jewish people wander the globe, despised and abused by our “hosts,” all the while clinging tight to the words of the prophets that foretold our inevitable return home. This is an insane notion by anyone’s conception – how can a nation remain intact scattered all over the earth and hope one day they will have a third chance to build their permanent homeland?

And then, just as predicted in the holy books, that very return begins to unfold. At first as a trickle and then a massive flood. And in the period of 100 years, half of the Jewish people return home from over 100 lands across the globe to rebuild a nation that would be at the forefront of all advancement, even boasting more high-tech startups per capita than any other nation on earth.

This story changed me forever. It is my story. It is our story. As a Jew, you can’t know this story and be the same afterwards.

So, I went back to Chicago with my wife and children and began my duties as a community rabbi. And, although I merited to teach our beautiful Torah to hundreds of people for over 20 years, what I really loved most about my job was sharing this story with our people.

(Ali looks exactly the same. I, on the other hand…)

And thus began our Israel trips. Over the course of 10 years Ali and I led 15 adventures to israel all with one common goal – to share our story with our people.

And after a while, that just didn’t seem like enough anymore.

So we made the decision to return from our “personal exile” to the land of our people and replant our roots in the very Judean hills where our ancestors lived and built their lives.

And that’s how we get to this new initiative Israel:Take 3 where we will share moving stories of individuals, families and communities who have been a part of the epic saga of the Jewish people returning to build their third, and hopefully permanent, national homeland. Our missision at Israel Take 3 is to produce top-quality, well-researched, professional and engaging podcast documentaries that will take you on the journey of the Jewish people returning to our land, after 2,000 years of exile.

This is my story and it is YOUR story.

It is my conviction that every single Jewish person has a role in this story.

My role? Simple, to tell you the story!

Your role? To listen and enjoy and hopefully be inspired to ask the same question I asked myself: How can I play a meaningful role in the destiny of our people.