Center Field: Sometimes, Israel's dreams and realities converge

In Israel, Yerushalayim shel malah and Yerushalayim shel matah clash continuously, the ethereal, heavenly Jerusalem confronts the corporeal, earthly Jerusalem. Considering Zionism's magnificent dreams, and many of Israel's ugly problems, the collision between Israeli dreams and reality is often jarring. But what keeps Israel going are those other moments, when the modern miracle of Israel fulfills the Jewish people's highest aspirations and most compelling ideals. Those are the moments that make it all worthwhile, that sustain Israel's citizens and supporters through the many daunting challenges.

Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day, celebrates the harmonic convergence of the "malah" and the "matah," of the millennial dreams and the daily realities. And this year did not disappoint. With the country wrapped in blue and white, with schools and most work places closed, all of Israel united in joy last week.

The celebrations followed the most sobering day on the Israeli calendar, Yom Hazikaron, the Day of Remembrance. Coming from a country where Memorial Day now marks the start of summer sales, I am always overwhelmed by the communal and individual mourning taking place on this sacred day. The loud, enveloping official siren and moment of silence conveys a sense of national awe, as the country stops to honor fallen soldier and terror victims. The dirges on the radio, the silenced television stations, except for the memorial scroll of names, enhance the national ambiance. But the intensity comes from the personal anguish, as loved ones remember particular individuals, Benny and Koby, Alyssa and Aliza, who lost their lives so tragically.

Yom Ha'atzmaut also unites the individual and the community, this time in joy. At 8 PM on Wednesday evening, as the tone flipped from mourning to celebration, this dance between the I and the us continued. You felt it in the celebrations in downtown Jerusalem, as pop stars celebrated on stage for the television audience at home while individuals danced with abandon on the streets for themselves. The highlight was seeing an old woman with a cane, and a scarf wrapped around her head, dancing. Eight young men and women encircled her, saluting her by kneeling on one knee, and clapping as she whirled and waved her cane around. The next day, the mix of barbecue and beach - punctuated by aerial flyovers in formation - also celebrated the personal and the political, the intimate daily joys of life in Israel provided by a powerful and functional sovereign Jewish state 

The day after Yom Ha'atzmaut, United Israel Appeal of Canada, known locally as Israel-Magbit Canada, mounted an extraordinary after-party. Twelve hundred philanthropists, community workers, and soldiers from elite units, gathered to celebrate the $1.2 billion dollars the small but significant Canadian Jewish community has invested in Israel over the last 40 years. Three Israeli industrialists, who, thanks to Magbit Canada’s talented Director General, Yossi Tanuri, have partnered with the Canadians, were the guests of honor. Nochi Dankner, the head of the IDB Development Corporation conglomerate, has funded day care centers, fire and emergency systems, therapeutic pools in Israel's north, during and after the Second Lebanon War. Michael Strauss, whose Strauss-Elite food giant makes 80 billion chocolate bars annually, has adopted the city of Acre as his special cause while supporting Ba’atzmi, which coaches unemployed Israelis. Eitan Wertheimer, whose firm Iscar attracted Warren Buffet's now legendary $4 billion investment, supports Atidim, a Head Start-type program to help disadvantaged students in Israel’s periphery learn and prosper. The two featured speakers were President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

No one in the room was naïve, and everyone was well aware of the cloud hanging over Olmert's head. As two young singers from Sderot, one Ethiopian-Israeli and one Russian-Israeli, escorted him to speak, cynics scoffed that it avoided an introduction - and sidestepped the frustration of that city's inhabitants with him. When Peres praised Olmert twice for advancing the peace process and Olmert repeatedly praised Peres as "the youngest person in the room," "the greatest statesman in the world today," and an essential partner in governing Israel, many nodded knowingly that each was embracing the other, very carefully, very publicly, and for very specific political reasons.

But this was not a time for politics, or for cynicism, but for celebration. Only a misanthrope could have resisted the warmth in the room, the idealism in the speeches, the mix of altruism and careful planning demonstrated by the good works of the three honorees and their partners, the many other generous donors and community workers cheering in the audience.

At this Israel-Canadian philanthropic love in, the higher Yerushalayim shel malah and the base Yerushalayim shel matah overlapped and reinforced each other, creating harmonic convergence. The only Israel on display was eretz yisrael hayafah, the beautiful, romantic, lovely Israel. Toasting moguls known by the quality of the social programs they fund rather than by the luxuries they indulge set standards of behavior we all should follow. Seeing how they were honored by a song from underprivileged children rather than another plaque or a banquet captured the tone of thoughtful idealism, of humble generosity, of strategic giving that characterizes the Israel-Diaspora partnership at its best.

Every country needs such moments - and such aspirations - to pull through the morass of daily life and achieve national greatness. The example of the Canadian-Israeli partnership celebrated that day should inspire us all to do what we can to make the world better - even as we wade through the strife of daily life; even if we have to wait until next Yom Ha'atzmaut - and endure more sobering headlines - to celebrate the amazing potential of Israel and the Zionist movement across the world to build a better Israel, and create a country that sets the world standard as a sophisticated, progressive, enlightened, and generous democracy.

The writer is Professor of History at McGill University and the author of  Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today. This is an updated version of an essay he first wrote for Independence Day in 2001.