Grass is greener

I could be wrong, but I bet I'm the only person, in the 21st century, who can claim to have become a Zionist on account of the Dreyfus Affair. But I totally did! It happened on the fourth floor of the Reg, to be precise. Or maybe I just looked out the window, saw snowy Chicago, and dreamed of this.

Either way, the point is, I'm a self-hating Jew, but not in the usual sense. I wish I were born Israeli.* Given that there are so many Israelis in NYC that it's hard to believe any are left in Israel, I realize there's something odd about a native New Yorker, lucky enough to have interesting work in NYC as an adult, wishing what I do. And I know that I could become an Israeli citizen relatively easily, as versus, say, a citizen of Japan. But, as I am reminded each day, since my boyfriend and maybe half of my classmates are not American, I am oh so American, and will be this way always, no matter where I live or what my passport says. While I was sitting in the Reg, reading about Herzl to the sound of a grad student clipping his fingernails under the table, my Israeli counterparts were living it.

*I'd imagine this post would be held against me if I ever decided to run for president. But, no danger there.