Friday 28 March 2014

Hi, nice to meet Jew




Why am I even writing this piece ? 
Well, because I don't believe that all of them are a Jacob Rothschild. 

A whole generation of their young people are leading a nomadic lifestyle travelling around the world, because they don't want to be enlisted in the fight against Palestine by their government. Very kesian you know ?

The story below doesn't reflect this, as I only found out about their predicament later , in another destination. But that's another story for another day.

Still all real life stories need a start , so read on below if you like. 


The very first Jewish person I ever met in my life, I met when I was 30. He was a backpacker staying in a hostel in Rome. Was a mixed dorm, 80 ringgit for an 8 bed bunker. 
Our eyes met from across squeaky mattresses and that's when we said our first hellos. 

Holy shit,  I thought he looked like Jesus Christ in person, with his tumbling locks, beard and all. 'Cept he was in T-shirt and shorts. Thought to myself. " Damnit , I'm talking to Jesus himself " Crazy , yeah, I know. I can be this naive. Expect that of me. I'm underexposed in this department. 
We yakked on, with me half expecting a light and halo to appear behind him at any moment. Never did. No lamb, no angels , just a well travelled pair of sandals staring back at me from the floorboards.

"By the way, where are you from ? " said he was from Israel. Wow, told him he was the very first Israelite and Jewish person I have ever met in my life. ( Now that, explains the resemblance )

Mentioned, he'd visited Malaysia before and rattled of the list of places he'd been to that he could remember. Since he saw that I was getting on fine with him, he asked me next....
" Why does your government hate me ? "
I think I turned red. Stammered back a weak
 " I don't know " 
Asked him back, how'd he get in and travel throughout without trouble.
He took out his 2 passports and showed me. 

Conversation got a bit odd after that , so eventually our small talk tapered off. He did his thing, I headed out to the hallway for a much needed shower.

Probably at the back of his mind, my nationality got in the way. Actually, I couldn't tell him that he reminded me of you-know-who and so I just kept looking ( so fascinated ) until he felt uncomfortable . Maybe he would have laughed if I told him why, but I really didn't wanna take a chance lest I end up making him feel insulted .  

So there, we left it at that , a passing fleeting exchange for that moment. 

Next day , "Jesus" left the little dingy hostel ,while I stayed on for 3 more.

Few years down the road, I met the second Jewish person, this time a teenage girl in Buenos Aires . Let's leave that story for another day.

2 comments:

Snuze said...

How interesting! I met another Jesus look-alike bussing our table at this cute little teashop underneath the bridge in Isfahan.

A friend of mine, who used to be pretty virulently anti-Israel, went to do her PhD in London, met an Israeli Jew and fell in love with him, LOL. It's a question of tak kenal maka tak cinta. Also, a lot of people bought into the propaganda that the Palestine-Israel issue is about religion. Actually, it's about water and land, just like any other boring conflict (re Crimea).

gostansikit said...

Those 2 have been at each other from Biblical days. Seems to be no end in sight. War is just so ridiculous. Only benefits d elite war mongers.
Thanks for sharing this very unlikely love story. It's love that makes the world go round.
Having said that, I can see why she did fall for the 'perceived enemy ', some of them r damn mmm mmm hot. Haha. But seriously, young Israelites sad as they may b over d state of their homeland, have a genuine , infectious exuberance for life. Wish both of them long lasting happiness.