of diversity and cultural appreciation. But the one flag I hadn’ t seen was the Israeli flag.
We who love Israel( and Israelis) are, unfortunately, no strangers to feeling left out of communal moments and spaces dedicated to cultural appreciation. Even acknowledging Israel can often be considered taboo in liberal spaces for various( often ungrounded) reasons. So while I felt proud to be contributing to the holy work of the ACA, I had not felt truly myself while I was there, often leaving the Zionist part of my identity out of conversations around religion with my co-interns.
Today, that changed.
My eyes have been feeling dry recently, and so I’ ve begun bringing eye drops with me to work. As I tilted my head back, I looked up for the first time at the ceiling directly above my cubicle. There, above my head the entire time I’ ve been here, was the flag of Medinat Yisrael, the State of Israel. Though I had not known, my family was with me the entire time I have been helping people gain legal status to be with their loved ones. I had felt hesitant to be publicly proud of my people, but little did I know that the flag of my people was with me the entire time, watching over my head.
The story of Pesach, told during Magid, is at its roots a story of migration.
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