Being an ex-pat on 9/11

Being an American in a foreign country has given me the chance to see the USA from a different perspective and has actually taught me a lot about what it really means to be American. Being an American in Israel is especially enlightening, I think, because there are so many ways in which the two countries are similar, so many ways they are different, and so many ways each misunderstands the other.

I proudly voted for Obama right before I moved here - it was a time of great hope but also began what I see as a trend of division and ugliness. As soon as I moved, I found myself having to explain things I was not (and still am not) qualified to explain: the financial crisis, Obama's foreign policy and view of Israel, the opposition to the healthcare reform bill, the Tea Party, Sarah Palin. There are intricacies of the US political system that cannot be understood by a country of just under 8 million people with a Parliamentary system of government.

What I cannot explain is the recent trend of hate, ugliness and ignorance coming from the US. And I am no longer talking about what is going on in politics, although that is bad enough. It is horrifying to watch your fellow citizens display their ignorance about their President, about the political decisions they need to make when they go to vote, about what is science and what is religion, and about people different from them.

One of the great things about America is that we are allowed to express our opinions, protest, and be pissed off at our country. What scares me is the lack of factual information used to form these opinions. It seems that instead of wanting to hear both sides of the story in order to form an intelligent opinion, people just seek others who share their same views and sit around agreeing with each other and yelling at the other side in a big am-not-are-too playground battle. Most of the time, it seems these groups think the louder and more extreme they are, the more correct and righteous that makes them. And the one person who is holding his cool and trying to fix the mess he inherited is constantly under attack for not having solved these problems yesterday.

The news of the NYC mosque and the Quran-burning pastor has of course made it to this neck of the woods. I found myself at Shabbat dinner last night, surrounded by 60+-year-old native Israelis, almost in tears discussing these events. Imagine that, someone from the big Melting Pot trying to explain to people who have a daily threat from Arab Muslims how we can be so wrongly scared of Islam.


Again, I think it's amazing that America is a place where people can protest and express their opinions, no matter how controversial, uncomfortable, or extreme. What I think has really struck a nerve with me is not so much the actual act of burning the Quran, but on doing so on the memory of all those who perished on 9/11. Have we learned nothing in the past 9 years?! This is how people want to remember the dead? By letting ignorance and hatred penetrate our nation? What a departure from the sense of solidarity and patriotism that occurred in the aftermath of the attacks.

My hopes for America as we remember the horrific day 9 years ago and seek to honor those who died:

Hug your families and loved ones and be thankful each day that you have them.

Instead of shutting down and putting up a wall between you and someone with a different opinion, listen to them. Challenge yourself to understand their point of view because it will only make your opinion that much stronger.

Celebrate our differences. Learn from them. Be thankful you live in a country where these differences can even exist.


Continue to fight and be pissed off, but at least do so intelligently and effectively. Being ill-informed and loud doesn't make you right, just noisy.


Instead of burning the Quran, read it. Instead of shutting the doors of a mosque, enter one. Learn about the religion and realize the beauty that the great majority of followers see in it. At the same time, realize how it is extorted by extremists and the danger in equating the religion with terrorism. Islam =/= al Qaeda.