Everything Looks Different From Shiloh

Decades ago, when I studied dance-movement with Alan Wayne, who stressed the crucial importance of "proper alignment," we were told that even the slightest variation in position will produce different musles. And sometimes it could damage the body.

The sum of what we are is a result of every single thing we did before and everything we have been exposed to.

Our decision to move our family to Shiloh was partly political/ideological, but it was also an attempt to give our children a community and a place to grow up in freedom and independence. My adolescence in Great Neck, NY, was a nightmare after spending my first thirteen years in the supportive Garden Apartment community of Bell Park Gardens, Bayside, NY.

For over twenty-six years, we have been living in Shiloh, which is now celebrating thirty years since its rebirth as a living Jewish community.

From the time we moved here, Shiloh has had its influence. I'm not talking about the people as much as the experience of living here.

I can't say how much we've contributed, influenced life in Shiloh, but certainly Shiloh has had its influence on us.

Living here feels safer than any place else. That's not the impression one gets from reading the papers. But in real life, that's how it is. We enjoy a personal freedom. I can walk alone at any hour. Young children play outside and visit their friends freely. If I need something, I have neighbors who are always available for help.

The media and politicians like to give the impression that we live thousands of miles away from them in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It helps them spin their web of lies about how the State of Israel would be better off without "the territories." They don't want the public to know the truth. We are the center of the country. Jerusalem is just a half an hour by car, and it takes a little longer to Tel Aviv.

If G-d forbid my home is destroyed and my land given to the terrorists, Petach Tikvah, Rosh Ha'ayin, Jerusalem, more cities, kibbutzim and moshavim would find themselves on the border, a wiggly-squiggly impossible to defend border.

The Arabs of today aren't the Arabs of 1960, and the Arabs of 1960 weren't what old-time Israel wants you to think. In the time leading up to the 1967 Six Days War, the Arabs weren't cowed and peaceful. There were terror attacks and snipers terrorizing Israelis. And don't forget that the Six Days War was caused by Arab threats and aggression.

From Shiloh, I see things very clearly. We Jews have such a tiny piece of Land. For our security, for our survival we need every centimeter, every inch.