Big questions...

There is one place in the world where you really could be anywhere in the world – an aeroplane. The overdressed air hostesses, highly unhelpful safety instructions (surely they could be simplifies to, ‘if the plane crashes you will die’) and those small overhead light/call for help buttons which invariably you will always get mixed up and up end with 3 hostesses trying to assist you when all you wanted to do was read your book… One thing though most definitely meant that this plane was not anywhere but India:

“Good evening ladies and gentleman, welcome to Spice Jet flight number….”

‘Spice Jet’! Well I couldn’t stop laughing; I was definitely still in India!

Last weekend I took the two hour flight from Calcutta to Dehli. I was not at all sure what to expect. My friends here in Calcutta told me nightmare stories about tourists being ripped off and not so friendly locals. One very interesting observation was made by an Indian friend about why he prefers Calcutta, “In Calcutta it is so cheap, even the most poor can live. They cannot survive in Dehli”. Well it seems that location really is everything for some people and New Dehli with its wide, clean western streets and high prizes would certainly prove a challenge for the vulnerable. In contrast, Old Dehli managed to take the biscuit from Calcutta as being highly overcrowded, cramped and simply manic.

Switch to another scene in Dehli: down a dark alley way full of shops, in a backpackers haven is a security man with a huge gun, protecting the entrance to a single door which on any other day you would walk straight past. To gain entrance to this man’s private club you not only needed a passport but proof that you were Israeli. After some negotiations he decided I could enter; Beit Chabad Dehli. Manned by three young yeshivah bochers, this Chabad house is really a home for any Jewish backpacker. Friday night I was completely overwhelmed by the 60 odd Jews sharing dinner together, singing songs, drinking whiskey and wine and sharing experiences. Within just a few hours I felt that I was with family, transported to my own Friday night table, eating my family’s food. To have spent four Shabossim, with at times, no other Jews this was a highly emotional moment. There is something so special about the Jewish people, these people, none of whom I had met before, were singing my songs, shared my experiences and a deep connection. We spoke the same language (or tried to!) and had the same desire – to spend Friday night together. Shabbat morning I sat opposite a Canadian man. It turned out that he had been living in Calcutta for a year and this was the first time he had met another Jewish person – he was nearly crying. Needless to say we will be in contact. It was an amazing experience. That bond of Am Yisrael could make Dehli be ‘any place in the world’ for me; last Shabbat I was at home.

This idea about the importance of location and the transference of your ‘home’ to somewhere else has been something which as Jews, over the last 2000 years of exile, we have had to deal with. Making home wherever we go. In today’s society however, with international news at our fingertips, most of our possessions made abroad by people we cannot relate to and eating food from any country we so wish, are we now not part of a global society as well as own our community? Multi-cultural Britain after all is all about staying true to your own community while at the same time being part of a wider British society based on the rights of all. Should our model for helping others then reflect this wider society? Is how we choose to give our time and tzedaka still all about location location location?

The Chief Rabbi in his book The Dignity of Difference, points out this modern day conundrum:

“Traditionally our sense of involvement with the fate of others has been in inverse proportion to the distance separating us and them. What has changed is that television and the internet have effectively abolished distance.”

Commenting on to whom we as Jews are obligated to help, the Chief Rabbi makes the point that a more globalised society has brought the suffering of others closer to home and diminished the distance separating ‘us’ and ‘them’ potentially giving us more reason to want to help those in need abroad. However baring this in mind Americans gave nearly three times as much money after Hurricane Katrina than after the Asian tsunami even thought the tsunami killed many more people (Levitt and Dubner, 2008). Have things really changed and is it natural that they do?

Does this sense of one large global community though increase our obligation to others, make us care more about the plight of those further afield and does it really make us into one big community? These are very large questions and ones that being in the international development field one is confronted with every day. Ignoring the potential pitfalls of volunteering and giving charity we must ask ourselves more- fundamental questions. Why these people, why this place?

If you heard someone screaming on your street would you help them? What if they are a homeless person on the street where you work? What if you saw them on T.V? Would it make a difference if you knew them personally, if they were English or Jewish?

This is what as a group we have been discussing this week and the truth is it requires a lot of soul searching and I think a lot of truths need to be confronted. I have my own personal reasons and motivations for being here but I also believe that you are put in situations for reasons unknown to yourself and it is what you do with that that counts for the most part. Do you also ever feel like you have heard something you cannot ignore and you are somewhere for a reason? That you have been given this opportunity for a greater reason, that simply by being born British and in a globalised world you have an opportunity to help bring peace and order to our world that those before you simply could not have?

There is an idea that when G-d spoke to Abraham in the first instance that actually he spoke to everyone in the world but it was only Abraham who listened. He was a radical, he wanted to bring about drastic change which takes ultimate courage – he listened and he answered. Every day we are confronted with choices, messages, decisions – which will you answer, what will you do and most importantly – why?