My Confusion and I

Yesterday was the rememberance day for the fallen soldiers in Israel. It is a sad day in Israel but also a day when I feel sad in whatever country I may be. We are honoring the young people, girls and boys, that are in the army in Israel and are fighting for our right to be there. For me these people are heroes. It is a feeling difficult to explain but for me these people are the bravest people I've heard of. They are only 18 years old but have to grow up and take the responsibilty to keep the Jewish population safe. This day is important to all Jews around the world. To make you understand what some of these people are capable of doing I will tell you a true story about a soldier. The soldier Roi Klein. Roi Klein was a soldier in a fighting unit in Israel during the Lebanon War 2006. He was a father of 2 sons and just a normal man living in Israel. During the war he was with his unit and he noticed a handgrenade being thrown into the group. His first reaction wasn't what mo...

As a Jew I often have the feeling I need to defend Israel. Not because I want to defend them all the time but for the fact that I often get blamed for what Israel Defence Forces (IDF) does. I think there is something within me telling me that I need to defend them because if I don't, no one will, which is a feeling I reckon many Jews have. I am not Israeli. I was born and raised in Sweden and if there is any nationality I should be mix up with it should be Polish or Hungarian/Romanian where my grandparents come from but I now have a strong connection to Israel for many reasons. First of all, I've probably spent at least 2 weeks there every year, if not more. Secondly, I have family and friends there. And thirdly, it is after all, although all different opinions, a Jewish state. It is a state where I can buy kosher food, go to a synagogue and not be afraid of showing I'm Jewish. It might be difficult to understand why this is so important for me and other Jews but there is...

As I've mentioned earlier in this blog I am Jewish. This is something I've been my whole life and I don't know anything else than being Jewish. This doesn't mean that I don't know how it is to live a normal life or that I can't understand people that don't live a religious life. I have after all grown up around people that don't believe or at least not the same way as I do. By growing up in a non-jewish environment I have had a chance to see both sides. By seeing both sides there have been times when I've had my doubts about religion and if what I'm doing is normal. I've also got a lot of questions from my non-jewish and jewish friends why I do all these things. Why I keep all the weird traditions like fasting, only eating special food and sit in a hut for a week every year. The most common response I give is; that's how I grew up, that is all I know. But that is not the whole truth. I have actually chosen to live my life the way I do a...

Most people in the western world owns a tv and we also spend a lot of time infront of it watching all these tv-shows about other people's lives. You, as well as I, seem to enjoy watching other people do stupid things on tv. We've got Britain's got talent, X-Factor, So you think you can dance and an endless list of talent shows and what's even worse is that these shows are usually made in many different countries but they still show all of them everywhere. This means that from time to time I can switch channel on the tv from watching American Idol to Swedish Idol and later watch Britain's got talent. I don't watch these shows to find talent or appriciate the good singers. I watch it simply because I find it entertaining when someone really terrible shows up and try to get his 15 minutes of fame. Don't blame me, I bet many of you do the same. There is something about making fun of people not understanding that they are (excuse me for my language) crap at w...

I've always had people telling me that we can't choose your family but you can choose your friends and I think many other people heard that too. In one way that is true, we are born with a family and there is nothing we can do about it. We are kind of obligated to love our family, luckily I am fortunate I  have a family I happily love and I appriciate them very much but there are people with problems that makes it difficult for them to love their family. In that situation they can choose their friends to love and get support from. But sometimes you don't have the opportunity to choose your friends and you actually have to become friendly with people you wouldn't have chosen in the beginning. I can't really say I've got the chance to choose my friends, not last year on my gap year or this year in England. I'm not saying I haven't chosen who I speak to often and to whom I tell some things I don't share with everyone because I have. However, there are...