JULIAN RESNICK writes from Israel
When I was a young boy growing up in Somerset West, the local Hottentots Holland Dramatic Society put on a passable rendition of the farce “1066 and All That”, on the stage of the MOTH Hall. (Does anybody out there reading this even remember the Memorable Order of Tin Hats, MOTH?). Perhaps, because of this theatrical production, this was the first date imprinted on my young, impressionable mind, and, once again, possibly because of this, my bedroom curtains were a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry.
Numbers come to mind in the strangest moments in my life. I might have shared with you the horror which flooded through my body when the phone number that Verizon Cell Company gave me in NYC, when I began my Shlichut in 2010, ended with the digits 1648. The poor, puzzled salesperson could not understand why an event in faraway Ukraine, the Chmielnicki Massacres, which took place in 1648, should be a determining factor in the purchase of a cell phone in Manhattan in 2010.
Just last week, I was reminded of another significant number in the story of the Jewish People: 669 ring a bell for anyone? Come on, try a bit harder before I spell it out. Impress me.
Allow me to tell you the story as it unfolded on August 6th and 7th. I was getting ready to board my flight Delta 2340 out of Atlanta into Newark to catch my ElAl flight back home, when I noticed that the departures boards were beginning to look ominous with the words “delayed” and “cancelled” beginning to appear on flights bound for the New York area. A few hours before my anxieties about getting home to Israel were focused on the second leg of my journey, the NY-Tel Aviv leg, for obvious reasons.
The irony was, of course, that I was now dealing with a weather system and not what we have gotten used to recently here in Israel. I had to find a way home. Not easy, as who was still flying to Israel? But, thank goodness for code sharing agreements, as ElAl has one with Delta (I was flying Delta from Atlanta to Newark, and ElAl to Tel Aviv), and Delta has one with Air France, and, lo and behold, Delta offered me an option: Air France to Charles de Gaulle and, from there, an Air France flight to Tel Aviv. Neither of the flights was flight 669. Any closer to 669? No? I press on.
I settled into my seat, not excited at all about the prospect of another very long Transatlantic flight. Boredom began to settle in, so I decided to check the movie list, scrolling along until I found one with a Jewish connection. (I know, I admit to a bit of an obsession). I spent the next hour and a bit sobbing. You are right, I should have opted for the champagne or cognac offered (Air France, remember), but no palliatives for me. It is the story of our people, full on, over the Atlantic towards Paris. 669? Getting warmer? Yes? I knew we would get there!
The movie was “One Story”. And the story it told is the story of Sir Nicholas Winton and the 669 Jewish children he was instrumental in saving from the Nazis in Prague. And here I have to draw threads together for all of you, unless some of you are Israelis, because all Israelis know the number 669.
It says something very powerful about our narrative, our consciousness and the complex layers of identity of Israel and the IDF, that, when we created our elite rescue unit, which has often, over the years, helped extricate our combatants from the most intense situations, including some very dramatic moments in Gaza over the past months, the unit could only have one name.
Yes, it is 669.
Another, for me, powerful statement about who we were, are and will be, but only if we continue to remember, and educate, according to the central values of our People.
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