On Sunday morning I was able to stand in one spot in Jerusalem and see the Old City walls, a construction project for a new apartment building and a Hasidic man talking on his cellphone.  Israel is a diverse and dynamic country to say the least.  The landscape of the country is changing rapidly – in demographic, in environment, in politics.  This is my fourth trip to Israel, and it wasn’t until this seminar experience, on this particular day with a packed agenda that I realized how integral the concept of adaptation is to survive here.  To adapt is to maintain original qualities of something and adjust or modify to meet new conditions. 

On our way from Jerusalem to the Judean desert we stopped in Mevasseret Tzion to visit an Ethiopian absorption center.  While most Ethiopian Jews made Aliyah* in the 1990’s, there are still some moving to Israel today.  Here we heard about the immigration process, successes and challenges new immigrants face when they move to Israel.  In a land built by and made up of immigrants this is a critical social service that receives little attention outside of the country.  The absorption center does amazing work supporting families and individuals as they learn to adjust to their new home through language classes, employment skills, and exposure to Israeli culture.  As important as it is to help Ethiopian immigrants adapt, it is equally important to ensure they are able to maintain their own identities and traditions.  In the center there is a garden where adults can grow food and herbs with which they are familiar.  There is a model of a traditional Ethiopian house so adults can teach their children about their own history.  The true success of this service is not that this population of immigrants is integrating into the greater Israeli society, but that it is happening with an appropriate balance of tradition.

This experience, and others from the day, has shifted how I will think and talk about Israel.  Our trip has been filled with conversations about politics, religion, geographic borders, and cultural interactions, and each reflection ends with – “it’s complicated.”  In a country faced with new, complex challenges each day, it seems less about finding a solution and more about supporting appropriate and creative adaptations to meet the needs of a diverse and ever-changing population. 

* emigrated to Israel