Evelyn 11
Still in the dream of course, conversation peters out. One of the guys turns to me, friendly tone, "come on Ari, we're bored to death with each others' stories. Give us one."
I blush, "reason I don't say much, well, it's just my life is lots more boring than y'all."
"Oh come on, that just ain't true. Now and again you give funny stories from Israel and they're always good."
Murmurs of agreement.
"I don't really know a story to pick."
"Tell us how it is you came to come to Canada."
"Man, that's a long boring story."
"We got loads of time, want to hear it."
Murmurs of agreement.
"Well you see, when I was a little boy in elementary, things looked good for me. I had a real talent for English, did the best of anyone in my grade. Math, I wasn't a genius or anything like that, but way above average. Now you take those two traits, any Israeli could make good assuming he gets reasonable luck of the draw.
"But I was raised ultraOrthodox, Haredim, what y'all would call Black Hats in slang. Now in elementary, there is lots of secular topics, so I did ok.
"Once I started lower yeshiva, that's a religious high school, whole different ball game. No more secular studies at all. So all those other Israelis kept on getting better in stuff like English and math; whereas us, doing religion only, started to forget it.
"It's there my particular weakness showed up. I just cannot read for any long period of time and that's all they do.
"Now once you're 18, it's like a cultural thing, every Haredi has to go to yeshiva. If you don't, drafted into the army. Now it's not like people are over afraid of death. After all, considering how many serve, casualties are quite low.
"What it is, it's the end of your life. You are considered totally disreputable. Lose all your friends, family disown you, never get married.
"And so, no matter how poor a student you are, there's always a yeshiva of low enough quality that'll let you in. No one is ever turned away totally, that would be like a victory for the seculars.
"Anyhow, there was six of us, just could not read much, and we had to do something to be sort of belonging to the yeshiva, so we got into Peylim.
"What they do is follow around any suspicious foreigners. You see it's against the law for a non-Jewish missionary to operate in Israel. And the worst of the lot is the Jews for Jesus set.
"Now some Peylim groups operate on muscle, beat up people, but that wasn't our way. We'd gather evidence, turn it over to the Police to prosecute. In fact, our group got four guys thrown out of Israel, back to the States.
"Things were fun, right up til the army did the big investigation. They claimed all the Peylim were really just draft dodgers, not legitimate students.
"Now any of the violent groups, got the book thrown at them.
"But us, different. You see, seculars claim to hate us, but I don't think it's true, I think they secretly admire us. Almost anything non-violent, Haredim get off real easy.
"And so the army ruled that our two years of Peylim was really a service to Israel, as backed by testimony of the Police. We'd only hafta do one year of the draft.
"We never saw any field duty. Our whole year was tied up in basic training and getting us up to grade ten level in secular studies.
"We got honorable discharges, same as everyone else. But then the trouble started. You see, your army record is everything when it comes to employability. So, a para or commando does better than infantry. The Gitavi or Golani infantry do better than most. Any West Bank or Gaza duty gives you points. To have been in South Lebanon, even on a short raid, points.
"So us, we weren't seculars, didn't have the army credentials, yet we weren't Haredim anymore. Totally disreputable, disowned.
"Two of the guys went and joined a militant illegal colony in the West Bank. Two more ended up homeless drunks, one managed to go to the States, and me, Canada."
One of the guys smiles, "there you see, not boring at all, right guys?"
Agreement.
"Ari, you gotta talk more in future, don't be so shy. Tell me, you like Canada?"
"Fabulous place, everyone minds their own business, I'm just like anyone else walking down Douglas."
I blush, "reason I don't say much, well, it's just my life is lots more boring than y'all."
"Oh come on, that just ain't true. Now and again you give funny stories from Israel and they're always good."
Murmurs of agreement.
"I don't really know a story to pick."
"Tell us how it is you came to come to Canada."
"Man, that's a long boring story."
"We got loads of time, want to hear it."
Murmurs of agreement.
"Well you see, when I was a little boy in elementary, things looked good for me. I had a real talent for English, did the best of anyone in my grade. Math, I wasn't a genius or anything like that, but way above average. Now you take those two traits, any Israeli could make good assuming he gets reasonable luck of the draw.
"But I was raised ultraOrthodox, Haredim, what y'all would call Black Hats in slang. Now in elementary, there is lots of secular topics, so I did ok.
"Once I started lower yeshiva, that's a religious high school, whole different ball game. No more secular studies at all. So all those other Israelis kept on getting better in stuff like English and math; whereas us, doing religion only, started to forget it.
"It's there my particular weakness showed up. I just cannot read for any long period of time and that's all they do.
"Now once you're 18, it's like a cultural thing, every Haredi has to go to yeshiva. If you don't, drafted into the army. Now it's not like people are over afraid of death. After all, considering how many serve, casualties are quite low.
"What it is, it's the end of your life. You are considered totally disreputable. Lose all your friends, family disown you, never get married.
"And so, no matter how poor a student you are, there's always a yeshiva of low enough quality that'll let you in. No one is ever turned away totally, that would be like a victory for the seculars.
"Anyhow, there was six of us, just could not read much, and we had to do something to be sort of belonging to the yeshiva, so we got into Peylim.
"What they do is follow around any suspicious foreigners. You see it's against the law for a non-Jewish missionary to operate in Israel. And the worst of the lot is the Jews for Jesus set.
"Now some Peylim groups operate on muscle, beat up people, but that wasn't our way. We'd gather evidence, turn it over to the Police to prosecute. In fact, our group got four guys thrown out of Israel, back to the States.
"Things were fun, right up til the army did the big investigation. They claimed all the Peylim were really just draft dodgers, not legitimate students.
"Now any of the violent groups, got the book thrown at them.
"But us, different. You see, seculars claim to hate us, but I don't think it's true, I think they secretly admire us. Almost anything non-violent, Haredim get off real easy.
"And so the army ruled that our two years of Peylim was really a service to Israel, as backed by testimony of the Police. We'd only hafta do one year of the draft.
"We never saw any field duty. Our whole year was tied up in basic training and getting us up to grade ten level in secular studies.
"We got honorable discharges, same as everyone else. But then the trouble started. You see, your army record is everything when it comes to employability. So, a para or commando does better than infantry. The Gitavi or Golani infantry do better than most. Any West Bank or Gaza duty gives you points. To have been in South Lebanon, even on a short raid, points.
"So us, we weren't seculars, didn't have the army credentials, yet we weren't Haredim anymore. Totally disreputable, disowned.
"Two of the guys went and joined a militant illegal colony in the West Bank. Two more ended up homeless drunks, one managed to go to the States, and me, Canada."
One of the guys smiles, "there you see, not boring at all, right guys?"
Agreement.
"Ari, you gotta talk more in future, don't be so shy. Tell me, you like Canada?"
"Fabulous place, everyone minds their own business, I'm just like anyone else walking down Douglas."
posted by afghangirlscifi @ 8:04 AM
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