Aug 16, 2024
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The disability infrastructure in Israel shows that an effort has been made, but leaves a lot to be desired. However, what struck me was how much the people are attuned to making up for it. People just help without seeming to even notice they are. There wasn't any patronizing feeling to it, or elaborate "look what a good person I am" theater. And anywhere else, you might panic, feeling helpless and dependent on the mercy of strangers, but I was never left hanging long enough for any panic to set in. The strangers actually had a lot of mercy.
People I thanked for their help looked at me like it was a crazy thing to notice or be thankful for. More traditional Jews in particular seemed almost embarrassed to be recognized for it. (Could just be that I was a secular-appearing woman talking to men, but those same men were willing to risk making physical contact with a strange woman by helping me.) People didn't even break stride or blink while they were helping, it's apparently so naturally part of the social contract to not put a stumbling block before the blind and to live out all of its various extrapolations. Granted, not everyone sufficiently understands how to help, so sometimes the help is less than helpful, lol...
...but where I live in the USA, if I were obviously injured and getting into a taxi from a scooter, I'd be on guard against being robbed and assaulted, and any assailant would probably take the scooter and throw it into a nearby tree just for spite. Whereas I just wasn't concerned about that while I was in Israel. Other things, yes. Random terror stabbings and rammings, sure, that worried me. Suicide bombers, definitely a concern. But not the kind of crime I'm used to in my American city.
And if someone got into my personal space in my American city, I'd perceive it as a threat. Whereas in Israel it never once vibed that way for me, it was so clear that people were approaching to try to help.
It's still amazing to me that I was in a country actively at war, where I barely spoke the language, was injured/temporarily disabled (but able to literally borrow medical equipment from a medical equipment lending library !!! 0u0), and while I was in the difficult position of a) language immersion in a language I barely understand, b) learning how to use assistive devices for the first time and having to use them in challenging places like farms and cobblestone streets, c) having absolutely no idea where I was in the cities I was in, and d) dealing with Iran threatening to do its big bad attack...it wasn't actually anything like how stressful that sounds on paper.
I can't imagine being in any other place where the combination of an active war, a new mobility impairment, and very few language skills wouldn't be a complete nightmare but that simply wasn't what it was like in Israel. I loved Yerushalayim especially. I didn't want to leave and can't wait to go back.