Today I was a...

"Shenkin Jew".

And it was fun. A friend and I went shopping on Nachlat Binyamin for material for our daughters' bat mitzvah dresses. Both their bat mitzvahs fall around Purim time and both want to be princesses. Anyway, we spent the day shopping and looking at all the crafts. We ate at Agvania, which is the BEST pizza shop in Israel, hands down. It was a beautiful day, and the crowds were out. Strolling. Shopping. Drinking latte.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I suppose I want to give you a flavor of some of the feelings behind the politics over here. There are those who are highly critical of Tel Aviv Jews, feeling that they live in their little bubble and and are either anti-settler ("they bring it on themselves or just make more trouble for the rest of us"), or completely apathetic. And I'm sure there are plenty of people like that and they are not limited to Tel Aviv. But I'm equally sure there are many Jews from all points of the political spectrum who care deeply about this country and what happens to fellow Jews everywhere. They understand that Jews living everywhere in this land benefits the rest of us. And let's remember that Tel-Aviv is not immune, and has, to our sorrow seen many terror attacks.

In light of Dimona, security forces were out in full yesterday, and that was appreciated. It was great being Jewish in a Jewish city, listening to our language being spoken and enjoying the sunshine.

With G-d's help we'll have many more days like it.