The House of Old People

I like that the men in my grandparents' old folks home dress like old men. You know? Pants worn high. So high that these men barely have a torso, and their socks are in plain view. Because you never know when you're gonna have to go wading in the middle of Beverly Hills.....

What I don't like about this old folks home are some of the women. It's a mostly Jewish home, so when I came by to sit with my grandma, a bunch of the women started talking about my upcoming move to Israel. And this one woman kept saying how, if I absolutely HAD to go, I should go for a little vacation there, and then get out as quickly as possible because "Israel is going downhill"--whether it's because of external threats, internal threats, or its own general chaos. The lady stressed that Israel was unsafe and dangerous and that in a few years it would no longer exist. Yes, said the lady, the best idea for you is to get out of there as quickly as possible because Israel is going to be taken over and destroyed. The lady who said all this is Jewish, so she's sad about all of this, but not sad enough to try to do anything.

Look, I understand that when you're 80 or whatever, there's not too much that you CAN do to "save" Israel, if indeed Israel needs "saving." But why would you encourage a 19 year old to bail? (I mean, I don't have plans to go over to "save" Israel, but I hope that I will be able to contribute something positive. Aw hell, let's be honest--I'm gonna go over there and watch soccer all day.)

And the worst part of all of this is that this lady (who, by the way, is crazy and tells people that she owns all these buildings all over LA....which she doesn't) is not the first person who has ever said these things to me. I hear it all the time, whenever someone finds out that I'm going to Israel! It irritates me that so many Jews who are my parents' age and my grandparents' age are telling my generation that we should all bail on Israel like a bunch of cowards and let the Jews that are stuck there, with no other options, just fend for themselves.

It irritated me that this lady was leading a life in a nice apartment in Beverly Hills, so she had the luxury of saying, "That's sad, but oh well!" to the thought of the end of Israel.