Final Thoughts

During the last two weeks I have received many comments and e-mails regarding my adventure here in Israel.  Virtually all of them were positive and many of them were very touching, especially the complete strangers that just happened upon the blog and took time out of their lives to see what I was doing and to send me a nice note.  Of all the messages received I did receive one negative one.  Obviously with the internet you will get all types of people with an agenda or chip on their shoulders looking to be a jerk.  This person sent me a blog message telling me to “keep my racist comments off the internet”.  My initial reaction was to tell him where he could shove his computer mouse but I ended up writing back asking nicely what he felt was “racist”.  I have yet to hear back and doubt I will.

I have been asked by many people when I will be moving here.  Keep in mind that this is now my 4^th time visiting Israel and the answer has not changed. I have no intention of moving here.

One of the basic concepts of Reform Judaism is the notion of ‘Tikkun Olam’ or the repair of the world.  Nobody can expect to literally fix this whole planet but all of us can do something in our lives, however small, to do something positive.  I come here to do just that, not as a pilgrim, or religious zealot, or Zionist that just wants to help the Jews of Israel but as a dentist who can improve the lives of kids of all stripes.  I am very fortunate that I am part of a profession that can travel the world and do this as there are not too many non-medical professions that can.

So NO, I will not move here but I will visit and experience what this country has to offer, which is much.  I have seen virtually every corner of this country (except Gaza) from the south and the borders of Egypt and Jordan, to the north and the Lebanese border, the east with the Golan Heights and Syrian military installations and the Mediterranean to the west.  The country is about the size of New Jersey and has mountains that one can snow ski on, deserts with nomadic Bedouins and their camels, cities with bars and nightclubs, People of all religions and levels of faith honking their horns at the same stalled car and buses full of yeshiva students trying their best to get home before the Sabbath begins.  Just a side note but it’s not unheard of for someone to be driving home right before the Sabbath only to be stuck in traffic. What do they do? They leave their car on the side of the road and walk the rest of the way.

J

During my time in the clinic I saw approximately 75 kids doing countless silver fillings.  Most of them did not speak any English whatsoever, only Arabic or Hebrew.  Some thanked me and most didn’t.  Most of the parents didn’t thank me either but that’s ok.  Most came from huge families of 10 to 15 kids with no way of supporting them except for government handouts.  Most of them will probably never see any other part of the world which is really sad.

You may have noticed that in most of all my other posts I have shown all the warts and blemishes this country has.  It would be wrong to only show all of you only the bright spots, of which there are many.  I’m sure there are many tourist sites or marketing sites on the internet that you can turn to for that but the warts here exist like they do everywhere around the world.  Don’t let the blemishes turn you off from visiting here as I’m sure that if you do visit you too will leave with many fond memories of this exceptional part of the world.

My 14 hour flight is leaving soon so I am done with this blog….for now.  I will be back one day to fight tooth decay one tooth at a time and hopefully write more stories of my experiences.  Thanks for reading them.

L’hitraot !  (See ya!)