What the Opening of 7-Eleven in Tel Aviv Really Symbolizes for Israelis

What the Opening of 7-Eleven in Tel Aviv Really Symbolizes for Israelis

By: Shalom Pollack

US convenience store mega-chain 7-Eleven opens its first store in Israel. The shop in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff center is the first of an expected several hundred to open in the next three years. The opening was marked by long lines as Israelis clamored to try their signature items like Slurpees.

The above item made headlines and is the talk of the day today in Israel. The mainstream media is all over it.

On morning radio shows, giddy customers all but gushed their excitement on the airwaves. One said, I just returned from NY and felt like I was still there!  Is there anything to be learned from his reaction and the undeclared mini-holiday celebrated today in Israel?

Maybe it’s just me but my reaction was one of disappointment.

Am I just an incorrigible party pooper who cannot lighten up and let people enjoy the little things in life that excite them  – even for the moment? Maybe.

When I heard the item on the radio this morning I thought about how the Israeli(s) for whom a whiff of NY is so exhilarating and who do not share the things that exhilarate me as a Jew and Israeli.

I left NY, the land of a thousand “Seven Elevens” for the air and stones of the two thousand years dream. It does disappoint me that many Israelis would gladly exchange the land of their dreams for that mine. They seek a more “fun” place to live in, as former PM Olmert said was his vision for Israel.

Alas, over a million former Israelis have made their dream come true and have left Israel for the various lands of Milk and Honey. Consciously or not they have chosen to not just leave the land of our collective historic dream that has always united us as a people of faith and hope but from the concept and physical link to “Am Yisroel ” – The PEOPLE of Israel.

Their children and grandchildren will quickly intermarry which for most will be the “solution” and key to the happiness and success that they sought. Assimilation into a larger culture is an old story with roots deep in Exile. The novelty is that it is happening in the Jewish state, and so very quickly after the great rebirth of that state.

How so? It is clear what happened.

The Powers that were when the state was established and after, were intent on taking the (traditionally) Jewish out of the Jew and creating something totally new, an Israeli. Millions of excited Jews flowed into the Jewish land of their dreams but quickly found that they were at the mercy of an establishment that decided where they would live, work, and where their children would go to school. To get to the head of the line for essential services it was advisable to send your children to the schools they strongly recommended and to “fit in” with the ‘lords of the land”.

Off came the payot (“side-locks”) In came the ‘New Jew” minus traditions of thousands of years. Culture shock, poverty, and total reliance on ” Big Brother” had an almost immediate, life-changing, and nation-changing impact.  At the time it seemed like the cultural anti-Torah tsunami would indeed crush the last sparks of the old dream.  Indeed, few were unaffected. Fewer were saved from the crushing wave.

If I were a betting man I would bet that the excited person interviewed this morning about entering the “Seven Eleven” Temple was not one, like me, a relentless, “unreasonable” holdout, clinging to the old dream of this land and people.

Would I bet that the “Seven Eleven” enthusiast votes Left or “Center”?  Likely. Would he have been a voter for the Right of National/Religion? Mumm. No, not likely. There is a huge historic “birur”(selection) taking place in Israel today.

On one side are those who dream of “Seven-Eleven:” land and culture. On the other are those Jews who have other, much older dreams like the air and stones of another land. Some leave Israel for strange lands while others come home to Israel from those same lands. Both are excited about their choice and new lives.

The trend is clear. The demographics and ballot box results show the way of the future of the Jewish dream. It is shaping the Jewish state before our eyes.

It is an exciting process.  It is called the era of redemption.

Shalom Pollack is a tour guide and author of “Jews, Israelis and Arabs”