Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan

334 Amsterdam Avenue

L2 Auditorium

NYC PREMIERE

Sun, November 4, 2018

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Narrated by Mandy Patinkin. A Palestinian chemist decides to move from his Arab village to a Jewish kibbutz in southern Israel. The American founders, vowing to “fix the world” and the State of Israel, welcome him. Will the small kibbutz in the desert generate a new chance for Israeli society as a whole?

From our central spot on the migratory route of the Syrian African Rift Valley I lifted my chaotically packed bags to the luggage rack, and clumsily made my way to an empty window seat. The bus lurched forward and my bag spilled, rousing sleepy passengers, angrily jolted awake by my raining lingerie and assorted toiletries.

Rain, I thought, Never in June. Not even in my wildest leaving-dreams. My friends waved from the parched Arava Road as they returned to work and I receded toward Ben Gurion Airport. I wouldn’t be gone for long, I closed my eyes to the moment of parting. Musing between sleep and wakefulness:

When the desert thinks of rain, the sand turns the color of mist and the whole expanse is drenched in a cracked yellow haze that soaks the body in a salty slick water of sweat. Months go by without even a hint of rain to quench your thirst, the sky is a clear blue palette with no specks of white; not even in the northern most tips of the country where the Cedars of Lebanon sway in the Galilee hills, where the Cedars of Lebanon rest, in between wars.