A family experience in Jerusalem hospital reveals how “We, the people,” rather than “Them, the politicians,” could show a collective way forward.
By Solly Kaplinski
(First appeared in The Times of Israel)
For almost three weeks recently, we visited our daughter every day at Hadassah Ein Kerem in Jerusalem – she underwent a series of operations and procedures and thankfully, is now on the slow road to recovery. The medical care has been truly outstanding for which we have a lot to be grateful. What especially stands out is the professionalism of the staff, many of whom – possibly even the majority amongst the nursing staff, are Israeli Arabs. But there is something more: over and above their expertise, the genuine concern exhibited, the friendliness and compassion which you can’t fake, the authenticity of feeling, all played an essential part in the recuperation, recovery and well- being of our daughter.
Of course, there are always issues and I’m not going to sugar coat this – hospitals are after all stressful, frenetic places and emotions are on display – and one sees the best and the worst excesses of human behavior.
But on the macro level, the tension-free mixed wards, relaxed lounge areas and eating places – which will never make the headlines because this is truly good news, somehow seem to belie the reality of our fragile and at times hanging- by-a- thread country outside the walls of the hospital. Which begs the question:
How do we take the reality of what goes on behind the doors of the hospital: an oasis and haven of relative calm and a slice of normality, and transplant it lock, stock and barrel to our real world. What are the ingredients, the secret sauce for success? How do we mirror image and clone a relatively peaceful institution and make the centre hold in our immediate outside world where “anarchy is loosed upon the world” (Yeats).
Sadly, I cannot prescribe a remedy or template for success or for that matter, something earth shatteringly profound but the regrettable observation that failing the emergence of a once-in-a-lifetime larger than life Mandela type leader, we are sometimes left subjected to spineless pygmy politicians of all stripes and sizes. Them as well as a media and their proxies: arrogant, know-it-all talking heads and so-called experts on all sides of the spectrum who cannot be trusted nor seemingly deliver. Consequently, the pathways to a new and more optimistic future have to be bottom-up driven, that it is ultimately “we, the people”, who have to painstakingly and modestly find the way to change our current harsh reality and that yes, there are role models for success. Take my neighborhood for instance, French Hill in Jerusalem, possibly one of the most integrated and diverse in Israel where people live, work, shop, and eat together and is, to all intents and purposes, a model of co-existence – with no authoritarian dictates on how and where we should live our lives. Or take our apartment block where religious Jews and Muslims live side by side together with Christians and secular and traditional Jews.
This harmony and goodwill was especially pronounced when Iran forced us all several times into our communal shelter. In other words, changing our reality is doable! And we can especially take comfort – and inspiration from the fact that Israeli society, the people: amcha, post October 7th, in the face of an absent, reckless and negligent government, rallied together with our unbelievably dedicated brave and courageous soldiers and pilots – and a President whose middle name is Empathy, and came to the heroic rescue and rebuilding of our fractured, traumatized country and people.
Maybe and of course, this is a long and unrealistic shot (but please, indulge my fantasy – we can “perchance to dream”, can’t we?) we should, following on reflections of our daughter’s hospital experience, entrust our future into the capable hands of the helping professions who get it, who understand human weakness and frailty, who selflessly provide not only the generous and gentle heart – and a broad shoulder to lean on but who help us navigate the depths of pain, suffering and anxiety, and also strive to find the blueprint that makes us whole and brings out the very best in us.
About the writer:
Solly Kaplinski, former Headmaster of Herzlia High School in Cape Town, also headed up Jewish Day Schools in Toronto and Vancouver. His Aliyah professionally has been bookended by working at Yad Vashem in the International Relations Department and at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) where he served for 17 years as the Executive Director of Overseas Joint Ventures. He is also the author of a novella, A world of Pains: A Redemptive Parable? He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Arleen, and their 3 daughters, their spouses and an egalitarian minyan of grandchildren, all living in Israel.
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