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Why Jews Stay in Israel

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Using a fictionalized account of the author’s own experiences, the just-published novel For Better and For Worse: An Israel Odyssey is a 600-page love story about ordinary life in Israel over the past 25 years.
 
Author Batya Kroopnick sets her main character, Shelley Kaplan, in a rehab hospital in Chicago. After sustaining two broken ribs and a crushed leg in a car accident on a trip to the US, Shelley is forced to spend a significant amount of time in rehab before she can return to Israel. While she recuperates, Shelley regales two staff members (and later, another patient and her daughter) with stories about her everyday life in Israel.
 
Reflecting on the fictional premise, Kroopnick said, “I wrote the book to show an inside glimpse of Israel through the experiences of an olah hadasha [new immigrant] turned seasoned Israeli. Even though the book is based on real people and true events, it's really about all of us here who have felt or experienced many of the things that Shelly does throughout the book.

“The book is really about Israel —it's miracles, struggles, development, achievements, good times, hard times, the people who make up the country—their strengths and weaknesses, courage and strong bond with each other, how with Hashem's [God’s] help, we somehow manage to overcome whatever comes our way and keeping going forward.

“My aim was for Shelly and her stories to show a positive, yet realistic perspective of what it's like to live in the Land of Israel, fall in love with the country and the people, and cope with the many struggles that come with being an Israeli, and especially an olah [immigrant]. “
 
Though Kroopnick’s prose is unadorned, her stories, especially the one about the gabbai (p. 125) and the one about the slip (p. 259) faithfully capture the “Only in Israel” feeling.

Kroopnick spends a good deal of time portraying the way Israelis coped with the challenging events of the past, including the First Intifada (1987-1993), the Second Intifada (2000-2005), the tragic expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005 and the horrifying events at Amona in 2006. Reading these stories in the midst of the Third Intifada was a bit surreal.

Despite the heaviness of the events detailed in the second part of the book, Kroopnick expresses much love for the depth and meaning of Jewish life lived in the Land of Israel. For Better and For Worse: An Israel Odyssey is an extremely accessible introduction to what it really feels like to live in Israel… and why people stay, even when the challenges become formidable.
 
Order your copy here.
 

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