Yom Huledet Sameach!

American astronaut Garrett Reisman sent a greeting from space to Israel for its 60th birthday. Reisman, 40, a mechanical engineer from Parsippany, N.J., is the first Jewish crew member on the international space station. He has been in space since March 11.

“Every time the station flies over state of Israel, I try to find a window, and it never fails to move me when I see the familiar outline of Israel coming toward us from over the horizon,” Reisman said.

Source: JTA

Stunning.

We had a kid’s book on Israel when I was growing up. Can’t seem to locate it but it had lots of pictures of happy Israelis. Happy Israelis dancing the hora. Happy Israelis sitting on tractors. Happy Israels picking oranges.

And then I finally made it to Israel a few months shy of my seventeeth birthday. Didn’t see any hora dancing that visit. Didn’t see a tractor til my third visit. And I’m pretty sure that the pomelos were being picked by Thai workers.

So the book was a little outdated…so what? The romanticization of the chalutzim and kibbutz life instilled in me a connection with the land that changed and evolved with reality.

Infatuation based on superficiality fades with time. Like true love, the complexities of a living and breathing modern Jewish state makes me love her more. Not less.

The Ima has drawn up a super list of 13 things she loves about Israel. Check it out.

And Happy 60th Birthday!

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There’s still time!!
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