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Babbale, aime-sha-esin, shlek. I was standing there, astonished, staring at what’s going on with utter disbelief. The images were registering the nuero pathways but the brain had trouble translating that into understanding. Here, in the heart of Melbourne Australia lies an ultra religious Bnei Brak with Hebrew and Iddish showing everywhere. London’s Golder’s Green and Manhattan’s Brooklyn… behind you.
For my new travel mate, it was a good place to shop for lousy Kosher bakery and snacks for us to put in our big rented apartment room, but for me it was horrible. There are times, when I’m embarrassed to admit that I dislike what others refer to as ‘my own people’. The Jewish stereotypes are overpowering and making me feel like a complete stranger at a faraway land. I know their ways, I’m tolerant of their life perception, but respecting something is different than actually taking part in it. This is not for me. It’s not only the ultra religious but also the Chabad folks and the really creepy Israeli that runs the Sabra Israeli restaurants. Good thing I invented the me-them-block-mechanism that I can use in times of great need. Finger sucking in my mouth I mumble ‘Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, where are my happy thoughts… ‘. No wonder the only guy I could relate to was the drunk guy that sat next to me on the bench as I was waiting for the shopping to end – “oh, check out that hottie, mate. The things I would run past that chick’s body if I were 30 years younger”.
But, thankfully, not all the Melbourne Jewish folks are like that and Kolfield hosts the more liberal and modern people which the Felmans are part of. I’ve spent some time in the morning looking for holiday decent clothing on Chapel the Melbourne equivalent to London’s Oxford or TelAviv’s Shainkin, where I battled changing my inner pricing range from the Vietnamese 2-10$ for tailor made suit to the 120$ for a T-shirt.
The dinner was absolutely fabulous. I don’t think I’ve had a meal like that in years. After walking there for about 2 hours (small explanation - no car use or electricity on Jewish holidays) we took a dive into the best that Jewish cuisine has to offer, and apparently there’s lots that it does offer. The Felmans, apart from taking wonderful care of the total stranger that I am, are really a great family that I’d be happy to call my friends anytime, especially the lively-ever-energetic-humorous-amazing-cook-Lotty. Good company, wonderful food, who could ask for more? They even walked us back half way back so we wouldn’t feel alone… unbelievable people.
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Yuri
| May 13th, 2007 at 7:39 pm #
another thought-provoking post, thanks.
I’ve also got similar issues for long time.
for me, rather than “me-them-block-mechanism”, “afterall-every-individual-IS-different” works better.. but still, frustrating incidents occasionally happen… meh.
“my own people” - I’m not sure in what sense you used the term, but there’s one thing that I’ve found interesting. Several classmates of mine who happen to be Jewish use “my people” so naturally. It at first sounded very very odd to me, “MY people”? Often people use the term “we”, like we do this, do that… Some people, including me, use either “I” of “Koreans” or else. I guess “we” is the most common one, but “MY people”? I was intruiged.
later I found out that it’s not just (some) Jewish people who talk like that. There’s one more people who use “my people” frequently and naturally - the native people. Several land disputes are still going on in Canada, and the native advocates constantly said “my people…”
So interesting that I’m wondering what kind of psychology in this case lead people to use that specific term. All I can guess now is that it has a lot to do with “suffering” history and education. Or does it.. I don’t know.