Last night I sat with close to 2,000 other residents of Caesarea in the Roman Theater on the beach, waiting for the Yom HaAtzmaut eve celebrations to begin.
As I gazed around I suddenly remembered sitting here in 1967, as a 17-year-old on the Habonim Kibbutz year program. I still have the pictures of my friends and I happily wandering the empty Roman theater, those beautiful large pinkish stones contrasting with the blue, blue sky and sea.
Back then, I took it all in with the eyes of a child, with few if any plans for the future, other than wanting someday to have a family and live in places as interesting and beautiful as this theater.
Caesarea is a community that is very aware of the history and beauty of its location. The Caesarea elementary school curriculum virtually centers around the Roman history of its beautifully preserved ancient structures, as well as the environmental aspects of the sea and beach. The curriculum even includes golfing at the golf course.
And so, looking around at the audience, some of whom I recognized as parents from school, I knew that many were probably as aware as I was of the fact that 2,000 years ago, Jews were sitting in these same theater seats watching plays and concerts, or being tortured down below on the stage, a spectacle for post-Jewish rebellion Romans.
This particular show, however, was far more promising. I had earlier swung by the theater to drop off my 11-year old daughter, Carmi, dressed in her jazz dance costume. (Where have all the embroidered Yemenite blouses gone?) She and many other Caesarea youth had been practicing their Yom HaAtzmaut show routines for months.
Finally the speeches began. Various politicos made the exact kinds of speeches you would hear in Fox Point or Glendale, thanking the people that made various good things possible in the community.
One speech was slightly different in honoring the “Baroness.” Titles of nobility are not the usual thing in Israel. Sitting front and center in the audience, was the Baroness Nadine de Rothschild, whose family developed the town of Caesarea. (The Baroness still keeps a lightly used house here.)
I marveled at the fact that the speaker had the opportunity to thank the Rothschild family personally for their help in making the State of Israel possible, having supported settlements in Palestine before there was even a Zionist movement. Think Rishon Lezion, Petah Tikva, Rehovot, Rosh Pina, etc. It felt a little like having Betsy Ross in the stands.
When the speeches ended, and the program featuring the young dancers began. It was a modest production, complete with Broadway quality lighting, sound, and effects. The kids were the warm up event for the main event, a hugely popular group called Typex (named for an office product like White-out).
Finally, Carmi’s dance group came out. There I sat, in the cool Yom HaAtzmaut night, watching my very own child who has now become fluent in Hebrew, dancing happily with her friends on the stage of the very Roman Amphitheater where I sat so long ago, not much older than she, basking in the future. What can I say?
A resident of Caesarea, Fran Assa is a native Milwaukeean who made aliyah in 2002.
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