The Innocents Abroad, 21st Century Version

The Innocents Abroad aka The New Pilgrims Progress by Mark Twain was published in 1867, after Twain accompanied a group of Americans to Europe and “the Holy Land.” Coincidentally, this itinerary was quite similar to our 9 month plan, starting in September 2023. I highly recommend reading the chapters on Paris; I was laughing out loud (this book is available as public domain so can be downloaded gratis).

Year one included Paris, Chamonix, India, Israel and San Sebastian and all posts are available.

Now my husband Andy and I are in year two. We are in Mexico City November and December, 2024 and will spend the winter in Saint Martin de Belleville, part of the Trois Vallees in the French Alps.

It continues to be quite a ride!

Am Yisrael Chai in Paris

Published by

Joan Taback Frankle

on

Thank you, Mayor Hidalgo

I was planning to share some recent adventures with you but everything changed on Saturday when Israel was attacked by Hamas. This violation feels very close and I have been distracted by the news, the photos and the opinion pieces.

So, to clear my head this afternoon (no earbuds), I ran in the Jardin du Luxembourg. When I finished, I went online to see what if and how France was supporting Israel. First, in solidarity with Israel, Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris, announced that the Eiffel Tower would be illuminated in the colors of the Israeli flag tonight. Then I found that all over France there would be gatherings of solidarity. I found information about the one scheduled for Paris at 6:30 but was not sure how safe it would be, if it was real, if I should go. So I reached out to my friend Kenden whom I had met on Yom Kippur. Did she know of this event? And was she was going? And might I meet her there? Yes, yes and yes!

Kenden and I walk in solidarity with thousands of Parisians

Andy’s workday starts in the late afternoon as he is coordinating among clients in the US and a team of employees in India so he wouldn’t be available to join me. This is unfortunate for many reasons. I know he would have loved to be there plus, Andy is better at navigating Paris than I (the good thing about that is I discover many treasures whenever I get lost — maybe I get lost on purpose). This was no night to get lost; I used two apps and hand-wrote my directions so I would get to Place Victor Hugo (16th arr.) in plenty of time to meet the Alfond-Vincent family. In spite of the wall-to-wall attendees, in the thousands, I found my friends and we walked to Trocadéro, toward la tour Eiffel.  

In Solidarity with Israel against Terrorism
Stunning view of la Tour Eiffel

The security was visible and many streets as well as the Trocadéro Metro station were closed for safety. The walk was wall-to-wall people, very peaceful with signs, chants of “am Yisrael chai” as well as French chants, which I could not decipher. When we arrived at Trocadéro, we found Rabbi Tom Cohen and many of Kehiliat Gesher congregants. Rabbi Tom told us that his future son-in-law was deployed and on duty 20 hours at a time. We sang Ose Shalom Bimromav which attracted more people and admired the stunning blue and white Tour Eiffel, with a projection of the Star of David. 

I tried to share a link of Rabbi Tom Cohen, leading us in Ose Shalom but it did not work; c’est la vie.

It felt right to be there among thousands of Parisians (and Jewish visitors like me). The entire world needs to see a strong Diaspora and our family in Israel needs to know that in spite of the things we don’t agree on, we do agree that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself. So many of you are tuning into special briefing sessions, as am I. We all know friends and/or family there. We know sons and daughters have been called to serve. We know, men, women, babies and elder civilians have been injured, kidnapped, and lost. Let’s keep tuning in, supporting and standing with Israel.

Shalom,

Joan

9 octobre 2023

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