Dear friends,
It's been now 3 weeks that I travel through "the Holy Land".
First, because so many beautiful stories were told to me, I want to tell you simply how I feel, and what is going to happen.
At the moment, I feel free and happy. It is a pleasure to meet so many people with so different backgrounds (kibbutz workers taking a time-out from the western world, marrying Muslims, marrying Jewish people, faithful Christian monks, alternative pro-palestinian Jerusalemites, Ethiopian Jewish immigrants), and they all understand the same language: a smile.
This is about the German-Israeli relation in terms of Holocaust and the situation today.
It is amazing to rediscover the common principles of humanity, in such an environment, that is so stuck in so many conflicts. As I am German, I also come with a story, a background. And it is through sharing my own story (having grandparents that were living in the Third Reich, and participating in the reconstruction of Germany after the war) with people that lost so many relatives in the Second World War, that a true communication is established again. People share with me their sadness, how they miss their grandfather, or uncle, or so. And when I listen to it, and simply stay with them, as the human being that I am, without starting to make apologies or so, we come truly closer.
There is a young man working here in Ein Gedi. He is a tall guy, with already not so thick hair, he looks like a grim commander or something, with broad shoulders and sharp eyes. He is 19 and doing social service before the army. We had a talk about history, and it became emotional, and he was pretty intense and honest with what he was saying and also how. For some moments, tears came to my eyes and I thought "what is this all about??? Is he really like me, with all he experienced through his family story???"...
He asked me "Do you know what happened in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen". The look in his eyes told me, that whatever argument or information I would speak out now wouldn't make a lot of a difference, because the loss of a person, the longing to see that one doesn't find an echo in facts. So I could just feel how my eyes filled with tears, and replied "No, I don't really know what happened there".
And he told me that 90% of his family died there. And I said I was very sorry and that I was very happy to speak with him about this (I didn't say too much about how I felt inside ;)) )
Gavriel is his name. After our discussion we didnt see each other for some time (I had a full moon swim in the dead see;) ). And some other day we travelled together to Jerusalem. Where he revealed another part of his life. That he used to grow up in an Orthodox environment, strongly according to the traditional way. At the age of 16 he had his outcome as homosexual, and decided to walk another way. I saw in these young eyes, that were showing me sadness from a very intense point, a beauty and strength, that uncovered a very warm and loving feeling in me.
Whenever we see each other we hug and sing a bit and share a respect for the other's walk in life.
Authenticity - connecting people.
