My road from Miami, Florida to Givat Ze ev, Israel will, I hope, not seem so far-fetched to readers of My Fifth Pregnancy. Though Jews are completely accepted in the United States, even there to be Jewish is to be Other, different. Not to celebrate Christmas is to be Other. To have your New Year in September is to be Other. We decided to live in Givat Ze ev because it is a suburb of Jerusalem.
Kids here have incredible freedom.
They buy groceries at the local supermarket by themselves, they go to the local swimming pool unescorted, and they think nothing of walking over to a friend s after dark. Unfortunately, Givat Ze ev also happens to be in the territories. Ordinarily this does not mean much, since Givat Ze ev is home to about 10,000 people, is situated directly on the secondary Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, and has never been considered by any Israeli government as subject to negotiations with the Palestinians. Though life in Givat Ze ev has not changed, people have grown nervous thinking about those very few miles that separate us from the Palestinians major city. Since we moved here, I have been writing an occasional column for the Omaha Jewish Press about my life in Israel.