Love Letters on King George Street

Private grief, national grief and the ever-hopeful words of children.

About noon today, too depressed to lift my eyes from the sidewalk as I walked through sunny downtown Jerusalem along Rechov King George, I wondered why I was so incredibly down.

Was it my own mourning for my mother - who died a natural death this year - that was passing over me again like stormy weather? Or was it this morning's news of a Palestinian terrorist's killing of Yaacov and Hannah Dickstein, father and mother of 10, in a roadside ambush in the West Bank that had turned this apparently bright day dark? I couldn't tell. The personal had been merging lately with the communal, the petty with the significant; selfish and unselfish concerns were intersecting.

This is the first time in my life that the grief of my brethren has entered my bloodstream like a virus; the first time I can't tell the difference between other people's losses and my own fear of such losses. Never before has my personal self-image been so identified with that of my country's that insults to Israel's honor are synonymous now with slights to my own. Was it the rude cashier in our neighborhood supermarket who triggered my bad mood today, or the egotistical Rev. Jesse Jackson, here on one of his unhelpful visits, feeding my low-grade bitterness with remarks about Israel's obligation to "help the Palestinians" and to end "the cycle of violence" in the Middle East?

Last night I was jolted out of an unremembered dream by this thought: "How will she do it?"

I lay there a few seconds in confusion, half asleep, unable momentarily to distinguish for sure between my own life and that of a woman, a mother of eight young children, whose husband was killed last week in a drive-by shooting.

A picture of her crying at her husband's funeral had appeared on the front page of Friday's Jerusalem Post. Clinging to her was one of their daughters, a pony-tailed girl about 9, also crying.

How will she do it? The question balanced over my head like a long steel beam in the darkness. How will she take care of eight children when she herself is in such grief? Were it my own life I was thinking about, the weight would drop. I would be flattened by it.

The power of empathy can only go so far. I wanted to shrug off that steel beam as if it were nothing but a figment of my imagination. Then, this morning, the news of the nine remaining Dickstein children, neither of whose parents survived.

On King George, I had just passed a newsstand - espying a headline on the front page of The International Herald Tribune, "The Plight of Palestinian Children" - and was passing one empty storefront after another. The stores were going out of business because of the intifada; tourists are few and very far between. I didn't feel like lifting my eyes, but then for some reason, something made me look up, at something written in English in a child's hand.

EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.
YOUR FRIEND,
JARED
Swampsett, Ma.

Next to it was another page taped to the glass.

ISRAEL will survive ALWAYS,
from Rebecca Donnert
A fellow Jew

And another:

My Name is Astin Tucker
I am 72 and I hope you have Pees and noone gets hert
Temple Kol Ami

All of a sudden, my eyes sort of opened and I looked to the left, right, and up and down. The whole big store window - this must be where the bustling, ever-crowded Richie's Pizza used to be - was plastered with children's letters and drawings.

Yo I'm sorry about what is happening their! STAND STRONG! Simi Valley Ca

Dear Fellow Jews
Hello. My name is Sammy and I am very sad about what is happening in Israel. In the USA an awful thing happened on Sept. 11. I was very upset. It is fine to show your feelings. Don?t be afraid of what is happening in the world.
Sammy

Hope for peace. Please be well evry body.

HOPE FOR GREATNESS.

I became aware of a woman to my right, also reading.

Dear People in ISRAEL Shalom! We wanted to say we are praying for you
Ben, age 10

Stay Beautiful
Powerful
and Free
Toronto, Canada

Israel, I KNOW YOU WILL WIN!
Julie
grade 3
age 9

We Support You. We Are Jewish Too.
Shalom
Arielle.

I peeked over at the woman, who felt my glance and returned it. She looked like an Israeli, in her 60s. Had she lost someone in this intifada? In one of the wars?

Israel will survive
always
from Rebecca Donnet
a fellow Jew

Dear people of Israel
We are supporting you Always!!!!
I wish I could help out but I can't so I can only pray!!!
Harrison Brennan

A young couple, also reading, had appeared over to my left.

Dear People of Israel
We are praying for the bombing to stop!
Sincerely,
Eric Demmark

ISRAEL ROCKS

SMILE AMERICA LOVES YOU

Have a good day

Why the frown?
When things are blue, smile!!!
made by,
Devon Gold

Good Luck in the War!!!!

Both the Israeli woman and I happened to turn, just then, to continue walking. Our eyes, meeting for an instant, smiled faintly.

Our smile will not be lost. No matter what else happens, for a few minutes we had been there with each other, and all the children, on King George, at this particular moment in Jewish history, before going our separate ways.