The Surgeon who Moved me to Tears
My Dad had cataract surgery today, so I flew in yesterday to spend a week with him in Baltimore.
I’d been scared to leave Israel and come to the US right now. It’s true that Israel’s at war, and America’s not. But the incredible unity and clarity in Israel since October 7th makes me feel secure, supported, safe.
I was concerned about what kinds of ambivalence and even hostility I might encounter as a Jew and an Israeli in the US now.
It was truly wonderful, therefore, to discover that, on my train down to Baltimore from the Newark Airport, most of the seats on my full-to-capacity train were occupied by Jews on their way to the Pro-Israel Demonstration. One woman on the train even wore an Israeli flag wrapped around her shoulders like a cape.
If she wasn’t not scared, why should I be?
If that train ride moved me, it was still nothing compared to what happened this morning at the hospital.
After the procedure, my father’s surgeon, Dr. Levine*, came to give us a report on how the surgery had gone. She’s been my father’s eye doctor for a decade, but I had never met her.
Dr. Levine is a petite woman, but formidable. She went through the medical details of the procedure with a detached authoritative air.
And then, abruptly, her voice began trembling with emotion, “Jenny, I want you to know that since October 7th all I can think about is all of you over there, in Israel. In my head, I am hearing HaTikva all day long. If I hadn’t had 15 patients scheduled yesterday, I would have gone to Washington.”
On the drive home my father told me that on October 7th this surgeon had called him from home to make sure my family and I were OK.
Today, the war is raging and media bias is rampant and Jew-hatred is skyrocketing. It’s a scary time to be Jewish. But at the same time, it’s a wonderful time to be a Jew. To be a member of one of the smallest nations in the world but, without a doubt, the largest family.
YES, B’H!