Sarah 3

I flash my winningest smile,"good afternoon Mrs Klein." She's a real VIP here. Like the rest of us, she is Gur Hasidic. However, she was raised in the USA, has a Masters Degree in Psychology, made Aliyah (immigrated), is a Mental Health Counsellor at the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) Induction Center. It's a huge honor that she comes to our tiny Yiddish-only library. After all, she could easily read the stuff in the Public Library, which most of the rest of my customers can't.
"Ah Sarah," she smiles gently, "are you busy at the moment?"
"Nothing that can't wait. Like advice on Yiddish authors?"
"No Sarah, actually I was meaning to talk to you. When is the big day, when are you getting married?"
"Two weeks today, on my eighteenth birthday."
She laughs easily, "you and everyone else. No one here wants to serve in the IDF."
"Ma'am the men round here says there's a reason secular Israelis don't want to put a gun in their hands. Chances are the Hasids would use it on the seculars before they get around to using it on Palestinians."
She laughs brightly, "and what do the women say?"
"They say the only people crazier than secular Israelis are Palestinians. Both are so nuts they deserve each other. You'd actually be doing a Palestinian or secular Israeli a favor by putting them out of their misery. Best not to shoot either, more cruel that way."
Again she laughs, "enough clowning around. So, tell me, have both families bought a trailer yet?"
I blush hotly, "costs two thousand shekels for a cheap used one. My family has the cash, Dad works at the lower yeshiva (religious high school). Their side, they been saving a year; claim they have not one shekel. So, marriage goes ahead, but it could be a fair bit before I end up living at the colony."
"Can't you see Sarah, they're a fraud? Oldest trick in the book. Works like this. You get your draft exemption so you're cool with it, willing to wait. Him, all he has to do is stall for three years, claim they can't afford the trailer. So, he resides in Res there, not in the trailer park. But don't think he'll ever bother to come home weekends. Lot don't. After all, look it's been five days since end of the term, we haven't seen one of those lads yet. Then guess what happens."
"Because we don't produce any children, he can get a divorce after the three years."
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"What can I do? If I don't marry him, it's off to the IDF to share a cell block with a lotta prostitutes. If I do, least I can stay here, continue to live with parents, work in the library."
She grimaces, "this is one bloody awful country, forcing people to make choices like that."
"Ma'am, you at least are American. If you get fed up, you can go home. Last I checked, no other country but here wanted a person with elementary school education, horrible Hebrew and a main language of Yiddish. It's like this whole place is outa date."
"You ain't whistling Dixie. Know what one of the Councillors told me? This Development is the last place on Earth where it still resembles the East European shtetl. In fact, he joked he was trying to get funding from the Museum Board. Then he got serious, said it all was to do with Hitler."
"Why Hitler?"
"If this Development closes, it's like Hitler has won, after all these centuries. If is stays open, it's like flashing Hitler the bird."
We both laugh.