August 9th, '06
Singing in a Bomb Shelter

I told my daughter a lie last night. A white lie. Meant to keep her from worrying.

"Where is your concert, Ima?" she asked.

"Um... Tel Aviv," I answered, snuck out of the house, and hit the road up north, to do a show in a bomb shelter just outside of Carmiel, one of the many towns that has been shut down for over a month due to repeated rocket attacks.

This, for example, is what today looked like in northern Israel:

Day 29: Hizbullah failed in another attempt to strike areas south of Haifa: Just before noon Wednesday a Syrian-made 302 mm Khaibar-1 missile was fired toward the Hadera-Zichron Yaacov area; the rocket, which contains large amounts of explosives, landed in Haifa but caused no damage; two people suffered from shock.

Since I wrote the above paragraph, another Khaibar-1 missile hit the Gilboa area. Micah Halpern has pointed out that the term "Khaibar" refers to a glorious moment in Islamic history, related to (what else?) the massacre of an entire community of Jews. Really warms your heart, doesn't it?

But anyway, back to my road trip. I had been a little nervous about heading up north, but figured that if the featured act, SONiA, had come in from Baltimore to perform, it was the least I could do to show up from two hours away in Bet Shemesh.

About 30 people crowded into the little bomb shelter. I brought along a program of 100% comedy - I figured these guys could use a laugh. But in talking to audience members, what struck me is how everyone needed more than just laughter - they needed someone to listen.

"It's just so nice to have some reason to get out of the house," said one older gentleman. "We've been cooped up for a full month. I've really started to get depressed."

"I'll tell you a secret," said a woman. "It's my birthday, and I really didn't know how I would get through it. Thank you for coming."

"All my friends have sons who've been called up to serve in Lebanon," said another woman, "and everybody's worried. My own son just went into the army - his regularly scheduled notice - and he's down south in Arad for basic training. I just hope all this is over by the time he finishes."

"Maybe he'll flunk basic training and have to do it again," I said, helpfully.

I kicked off the show at 8:30, then left around 10:15, in the middle of SONiA's set. It was a long drive back, and I needed to be home to get the kids out in the morning for their "normal" summertime activity... day camp.

But when I arrived home, it was just 12:30 AM. It makes you think: it's really not that far to the front, after all.

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