Why I moved to Tzur Hadassah

Today's ceremony welcoming Kitah Aleph to school had everything I moved to Tzur Hadassah for. I have to be honest that I am trying to repair certain things from my childhood with my children and I know that they, in turn, will have their own issues. Nonetheless, a big part of our move to Tzur Hadassah two plus years ago had to do with schools. I saw how kids in Jerusalem were all over the city as the parents tried to find the best education for them, and I wanted something different for my kids. I also went to elementary school in a big city - to kindergarten at a local school having been schooled the year before in England - which had connected events I've been recovering from for 20 years - and the year before that somewhat in Cambridge, Massachusetts. First grade saw me at a new school again, travelling by bus to Falk Elementary School, a private school where I spent grades 1-7, along with my siblings.

I wanted my kids to go to a school with their neighbors and we moved to a small town with one elementary school. It's the largest elementary school in our region. Today Gabi's first grade class, together with 3 other classes, was welcomed to school in a large ceremony on the school field (it's blacktop). They have just put up a giant shade there - not the soft type, it's like a roof - and it has a good feature of improving the sound quality (so Alen told me).

The ceremony was lovely. The classes marched in in their special white shirts, and were greeting by the 2nd grade, who stood behind them to help them sing the school song. Another song, "Every year begins with a question mark" was sung - it's a popular song here - I'll try to post the words. Then the kids sat down and were greeted by various second grade kids, a representative from each other class, and dignitaries including the head of our region. They ended with each class dancing in a circle, and the first grade parents joined the kids for the dancing. And then Hatikvah.

I know that in order for this country to become rightly the country of all its citizens, we need a new national anthem. Nonetheless, I can't help but cry when I hear Hatikvah and realize where I am living and raising my children. My ancestors could only have dreamed of that (and of our unusual family!).

At the ceremony, one of the speakers talked about how first we want to give the kids a feeling of belonging and safety, and in that, they can learn. Feelings of belonging and safety have been hard to come by for me, for many reasons. In part because of childhood trauma, in part because of my family's many moves, in part because of what it means to be a Jew in the Diaspora, in part because of my own sensory issues and moodiness, in part because of being gay, and on and on. When I saw Gabi sitting at her table the first day of first grade with two girls she's been with now for 2 years and who go to our shul, I knew something is right about what I'm trying to give her. And I'm very grateful.