A few weeks back we started a Shulchan Ivrit, aka a Hebrew discussion section out of the Moishe House in St. Louis. It's small, but tonight was a bit of a turnabout.
This evening, I sat surrounded by what is by all accounts just about every Israeli in St. Louis between the age of 22 and 30. There were 4 of them.
In a rare cultural reversal, my American friends had flaked on me, and the Israelis actually showed.
The introductions revolved around each Israeli trying to figure out if the other was actually born in Israel and why the others were in St. Louis.
A large part of the discussion revolved around the difficulties they are facing being Israeli in St. Louis, and they noted how all of the Israelis who live here and are married with kids (and work for Amdocs) seem to have very few American friends.
This led to trying to figure out how long to stay in St. Louis, and as best as I could with my Hebrew failing me, I tried to put up some sort of defense.
Unfortunately, for a the few young Israelis in St. Louis, there aren't many reasons. Their families are usually in Israel, they find it just as hard as the rest of us to connect with peers, but with the added cultural barrier standing in their way.
Moishe House has already started trying to help build the network, but the whole community will need to reach out to provide reasons to keep these talented brothers and sisters in St. Louis
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Hebrew Overload- Every Young Israeli in town was at the Moishe House. And that's kinda sad
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3 comments:
Are you as sad about not fitting in in St. Louis as you are about no longer living in Israel?
Maybe I didn't clarify, the Israeli who came over expressed concerns about not fitting in in St. Louis. If you have had a chance to explore this blog, I'm sure you will find evidence that we are doing just fine when it comes to fitting in in St. Louis, thanks... that being said, I do miss Israel.
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