Episode 124 features Movie Minute Rob! He’s a movie blogger and podcaster, host of a minute-by-minute podcast, who also happens to be from New Jersey but lives in Israel.
How did that transpire? What are the differences and similarities between both of our first experiences in the Holy Land, what happens when a place stops being a noun and starts being real and so much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
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00:00:00:01 – 00:00:20:01
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent palmer.com I highly recommend you read Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People. Don’t let Baldree’s second cozy fantasy novel gather Bone dust. And I have to believe the Danno and Palmer Real Estate Hour didn’t get picked up for a second episode. This is The Palmer Files episode 124 with Movie Minute Rob. He’s a movie blogger and podcaster.
00:00:20:02 – 00:01:09:09
Agent Palmer
Host of his own Minute by Minute podcast, who also happens to be from new Jersey but lives in Israel. How did that transpire? What are the differences and similarities between both of our first experiences in the Holy Land? What happens when a place stops being a noun and starts being real? And so much more? Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:09:13 – 00:01:29:00
Agent Palmer
Hello and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 124th episode is a movie minute. Rob. Like many internet initiated friendships, I have no clue how I came to know Rob other than I know he was listening to this very show and commenting along the way. And from there we started to get to know each other.
00:01:29:09 – 00:01:48:45
Agent Palmer
And then I started to appear on his Movie by Minute podcast a few times. And now we’re friends. It’s not often you get to learn more about a friend, but it’s always nice to do so. This is my friend Rob, and this is his story, of which I only knew one sentence, which was from Detroit to Israel, which was from his Twitter bio.
00:01:49:00 – 00:02:09:39
Agent Palmer
Well, it both is and isn’t as simple as that. And this is part of his story, as you’ll soon hear. Before we get there, remember that if you want to discuss the episode as you listen or afterwards, you can find all related ways to contact my guest. Movie minute, Rob and myself in the show notes. Rob’s extensive work can be found online at movie Rob Dot WordPress.com.
00:02:09:49 – 00:02:24:58
Agent Palmer
Don’t forget you can see all of my writings and rantings on Jim palmer.com. And of course email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
00:02:25:03 – 00:02:29:34
Agent Palmer
Rob, I know that you live in Israel, but that you weren’t born in Israel.
00:02:29:36 – 00:02:30:08
MovieRob
That’s correct.
00:02:30:19 – 00:02:54:51
Agent Palmer
And I, I, I’ve documented on this show maybe probably one of the, the only places I’ve really documented it that I spent a semester abroad in Jerusalem and around Israel. But I didn’t go back like I, and I fell in love with the country, but not enough to move there. So I just want to know how a kid from Detroit ends up living outside of Jerusalem.
00:02:54:56 – 00:03:19:25
MovieRob
Okay, that that is a fair question. So basically, I mean, the story goes really long, really far back. So back when? Back when I was a kid. Okay. Growing up, I was originally, I originally, up until the age of eight, I lived in new Jersey. And then, after, when I was eight, my mother got remarried, and we moved to Michigan, Detroit or the suburbs of Detroit.
00:03:19:37 – 00:03:50:46
MovieRob
I was living in Southfield. Southfield, Michigan. So basically, throughout my entire, education, you know, I, you know, I, I grew up in a religious, more modern Orthodox, Jewish family. So, you know, there there was always, Israel that we were talking about, you know, talk about all the different, you know, Jewish laws, you know, where people who who at least have kept Shabbat, you know, we keep kosher.
00:03:50:51 – 00:03:54:29
MovieRob
I mean, I can I could go on and on about all the different things we do, all.
00:03:54:29 – 00:03:56:47
Agent Palmer
The things I don’t, by the way. Like, I mean.
00:03:56:52 – 00:03:58:55
MovieRob
I like I don’t preach that you need to. Yeah.
00:03:58:55 – 00:03:59:22
Agent Palmer
You know, and I.
00:03:59:22 – 00:04:03:39
MovieRob
It would be nice if you did. But you know, that’s, that’s your, you know, that’s that’s you.
00:04:03:44 – 00:04:27:21
Agent Palmer
Yeah. That’s true. I like and I like that, you’re one of the, you are to me to, to for an aside, one of the things that I love about Judaism and that is someone who is much more, I a strict is not a word I want to use, but much more observant of the religion.
00:04:27:22 – 00:04:29:01
MovieRob
Okay, that’s that’s story.
00:04:29:06 – 00:04:51:52
Agent Palmer
That does not look down on me like I’ve met plenty of orthodox and conservative and even ultra orthodox that I have talked to specifically in my time over there, but not limited to that that do not look at me like, all right, like, who’s he fooling? Like, we’re still, you know.
00:04:51:52 – 00:05:08:14
MovieRob
But I, I don’t look at it that way at all. I look at it from the perspective that that you have the potential to want to strengthen your Judaism at some point, you know, but it has to be something that comes from you. It can’t be something that comes from me or from anyone else. Yeah. You know, Jason Sawchuk, Agent Palmer has to decide.
00:05:08:14 – 00:05:34:30
MovieRob
Okay, this is what I want to do, and I mean that that’s that’s actually, something that that is always been very important in my life regarding anything that whether it’s about, you know, the the, my, my, website with the movie reviews or whether it’s about my, podcast, you know, all that stuff. It all has to do with, you know, what am I comfortable with and what do I want to do and what’s good for me.
00:05:34:35 – 00:05:54:35
MovieRob
And, you know, is it something that someone else is going to wanna listen to or read? I don’t necessarily do it for other people. I do this stuff for myself because it makes me, feel good that I’m doing them. You know? Same thing with my home life. The everything that I do, I do because it’s what, what’s better for me in my home life, my family and my home life?
00:05:54:39 – 00:06:11:35
MovieRob
You know, my community. I guess you could say in my own way, yeah, I that’s what it comes down to. So, so for me to say, okay, Jason, you’re you’re wrong because, you know, you don’t keep kosher, you know, I, I can’t see that there’s no connection to that. I can’t force you to do something like that.
00:06:11:44 – 00:06:24:21
MovieRob
If you on your own decide that you want to do that, I’ll. I’ll be the first one to to congratulate you and and, help you and give you tips or whatever it is that you need. Yeah, but I’m not going to say to you, you know, you’re a bad person because you don’t want to do that.
00:06:24:32 – 00:06:46:03
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I’m just saying, I appreciate that that exists within Judaism. Like, it feels like there are other religions that, you and I on different ends of the observance spectrum would not be so, so, friendly, but I it was a it was a digression still.
00:06:46:03 – 00:06:48:06
MovieRob
So I don’t, I don’t mind digressions.
00:06:48:16 – 00:06:54:08
Agent Palmer
I know, so yeah, I know I’ve been on your show. I’ve digressed. Your show.
00:06:54:12 – 00:06:57:16
MovieRob
But that’s what’s fun about it. It’s where the conversation leads you.
00:06:57:21 – 00:07:18:15
Agent Palmer
So, growing up modern Orthodox. And, look, I, I grew up in, conservative and reformed synagogues. And I also heard Israel, Israel, Israel like it was. I think it’s right. The homeland, it’s part of it. But, you know, hearing about. And look, I will be the.
00:07:18:15 – 00:07:37:08
MovieRob
First lady, but let’s let me let me continue with the story then, because you’re I think you’re taking me into the wrong direction. So, I mean, I grew up in a community and a household that discussed Zionism, but it was never something that was pushed. Okay. You know, it wasn’t a question of, you know, when will all of us be moving to Israel?
00:07:37:13 – 00:07:58:08
MovieRob
It’s okay. Israel is there. We have to support it, you know, because we’re we’re we’re quote unquote good Jews. You know, that’s what it comes down to, you know, and, you know, I would I would always hear stories, you know, of, you know, famous Israeli soldiers, you know, we can even talk about, you know, Yoni Netanyahu or you can talk about Mickey Marcus, you know, things like that.
00:07:58:21 – 00:08:14:17
MovieRob
I, I first of all, I loved watching movies about those people also, just to get the stories. It always it was, I, you know, I always had a warm feeling watching those heroic stories of, of of, you know, of Jewish or Israeli, soldiers and the stuff that they were doing.
00:08:14:30 – 00:08:17:21
Agent Palmer
And that was growing up, you know, but.
00:08:17:30 – 00:08:22:59
MovieRob
It was never but it was never something that was that was okay, this is what I’m going to be doing.
00:08:23:04 – 00:08:43:00
Agent Palmer
No, that makes I only make the so so the delineation I’m making here is that I didn’t have any of that. Like I up to the point of like we support Israel because it’s there and we’re good Jews. I that I get but I didn’t know anything about the, soldiers. In fact, it’s not until I go to legitimately.
00:08:43:02 – 00:08:51:31
Agent Palmer
It’s not until I go to summer camp that I meet my first Israeli and talk to somebody who had, been in service and that.
00:08:51:31 – 00:09:13:20
MovieRob
Okay, well, there’s a difference there, because, again, I grew up in a modern orthodox, you know, community where there were I constantly we had teachers, you know, who came for a two year sabbatical from Israel, and they were teaching us and stuff like that. You know, we weren’t, you know, all the studies. Obviously, we’re still in English because it was, you know, it’s still a Jewish day school in America.
00:09:13:34 – 00:09:29:25
MovieRob
But, you know, that we still would hear stories and we would hear things about stuff that’s going on. I mean, whenever, you know, Israel’s, Independence Day came around. So they were stuff that was going on, but it wasn’t something that was really prevalent in my life at that time.
00:09:29:31 – 00:09:30:38
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:09:30:43 – 00:09:50:55
MovieRob
You know, it was okay. They’re doing something for, Independence Day. Okay. I’m going to be a part of it, whatever it is. But it wasn’t something that that I really dreamed that there would be more to that. Okay. Beyond that, you know, I, I didn’t know where my life was going, but, I, I didn’t that this was not on my radar at all.
00:09:51:00 – 00:10:08:23
MovieRob
And like, I had friends whose families, you know, would go on vacations and they’d go to Israel, you know, and, you know, I had friends that would have pictures, you know, of them at the Kotel, the, the, the, the, the Western Wall, Wailing Wall, whatever. However, people want to refer to it in English. You know, I saw pictures of them.
00:10:08:23 – 00:10:22:58
MovieRob
And, you know, I still remember I, I can even if I close my eyes, which I’m doing right now, I can remember a picture of a friend of mine that that, when he was a little kid came to Israel, and they haven’t. Here’s a picture of him carrying a gun, you know, holding a gun next to a soldier.
00:10:23:02 – 00:10:43:34
MovieRob
You know, that’s what was there. Yeah. Okay. But for me, it was, you know, I grew up in a household. We were seven kids because we were a blended family, and we didn’t have the money to, to to go on long family trips to Israel. You know, we we we we, you know, did the 12 hour drive from Detroit to the New York area to visit family.
00:10:43:34 – 00:11:15:24
MovieRob
That was that was our vacation and stuff like that, which, which looking back, I’m very glad that I had that because, you know, there also added so much, to enriched my life that knowing, you know, going through those type of trips, you know, you think about the trips of your youth and stuff like that. So the first time that I actually even thought of coming to Israel, there’s there’s a known thing, at least among modern Orthodox Jews, that generally between, I believe it’s ninth and 10th grade or maybe 10th and 11th grade, it’s between.
00:11:15:24 – 00:11:32:34
MovieRob
So we knew 10th and 11th grade, most modern Orthodox Jews, you know, spend the summer they spent six weeks in Israel or whatever it is. There are all these different programs. I mean, I was I was very involved in the, youth organization NCSA. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. No conference of synagogue youth.
00:11:32:43 – 00:11:58:10
Agent Palmer
Okay. I was, for me, it was the reform movement’s version. So it was, I think it’s erg now, but it was UHC at the time. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, I want to say, and now it’s a union of Reformed Judaism, I think. And for, for me, it was older. The program I went was a semester abroad for high school students.
00:11:58:15 – 00:11:59:44
Agent Palmer
But before then, or around.
00:11:59:49 – 00:12:02:29
MovieRob
The time that there’s there’s even more stuff. Yeah.
00:12:02:34 – 00:12:09:27
Agent Palmer
But all I’m saying is I didn’t know of any like this doesn’t for me. Like I heard about birthright as a program.
00:12:09:31 – 00:12:17:39
MovieRob
Yeah, but birthright wouldn’t let that talking back in. I was I was in 10th grade in 1990. So that was before birthright started, years later.
00:12:17:42 – 00:12:36:24
Agent Palmer
So, yeah, I’m not. And but but I and I, I only bring this up to say similarly, Israel exists, but there is no there. Nobody’s pushing me there. And I don’t think like, oh, I’m going to go there. Like it just doesn’t it’s not, in the brain space right at the moment.
00:12:36:24 – 00:12:49:50
MovieRob
I mean, I knew I knew that I would visit at some point, and again, because I had older siblings and I had older friends. So I that I knew that in general, you know, the year between 10th and 11th grade on during that summer, I’m going to go to Israel, you know, what program am I going to go to is different things.
00:12:49:50 – 00:13:15:40
MovieRob
So I was very involved in Antaeus y I was actually on the regional board of the Central East region, which is, Michigan, Ohio, half of Pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky. I think that’s, the various states that that were involved there. And I was in 10th, 11th and 12th grade. I was in regional board and 12th grade I was the regional president, you know, of of this organization.
00:13:15:40 – 00:13:39:22
MovieRob
I mean, I had a lot to do with it. Now, the whole idea of this organization is to, to help less affiliated Jews become more affiliated. So they would they would have, you know, Shabbat towards, you know, the, the they would have weekend getaways where they would expose, people to the idea of what is spending Shabbat, you know.
00:13:39:22 – 00:14:09:10
MovieRob
So and for those who don’t understand what you manage, Shabbat is, the seventh day where we, we all rest, you know, the, the, the, the non-Jews decided to call that day Sunday. But we do that on Saturday. Yes. You know, so whatever. So, so we would have this, like, long weekend and try to, to get people to become closer to their Judaism, you know, and, and so the organization is made up of partially of people who are already affiliated.
00:14:09:24 – 00:14:26:57
MovieRob
And then it’s mostly people who are not affiliated in order to try and get them, to, to become a part of it. Okay. Now so they, they had a program to, to go to Israel between 10th and 11th grade, you know, for, for people that age. And when I told my parents that I wanted to go in it, they wouldn’t let me.
00:14:27:01 – 00:14:37:37
MovieRob
They said, no, we want you to go where you’re going to be with more people who are religious, you know, because this program is mostly for people who are not religious.
00:14:37:42 – 00:14:38:25
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:14:38:30 – 00:15:02:13
MovieRob
So, you know, I was a little upset because I was very involved in this youth organization and I didn’t quite understand it today, looking back, you know, after, was it 30, almost 34 years? I can understand why my parents said that, you know, there is something to that. But when I look at it, when I look at it from then, from the eyes of a 16 year old, I was unhappy.
00:15:02:18 – 00:15:22:13
MovieRob
And so my, my parents did a little bit of, digging around and they basically said, okay, there’s a program that we’re willing to let you go on. It’s a program that’s, sponsored by, the organization. Or is Young Israel. Okay. Okay. You know, usually is is the the organization, they have, affiliated synagogues all around America.
00:15:22:17 – 00:15:43:16
MovieRob
And so they had a program that, that, that that’s, you know, to go to Israel for the summer. And I was like, I don’t really know whatever my parents said. If this is, if you want to go, this is your option, okay? And I was like, I don’t really know. And then the the representative came and they interviewed me and they started telling me about the program and stuff like that.
00:15:43:16 – 00:16:06:07
MovieRob
And I was like, okay, you know what? If I really want to go, this is this is my opportunity. How bad can it be? You know, I was going without knowing anybody or anything like that. They had, I think they were about 120 people on this particular program that summer. They split us up into three busses and stuff like that.
00:16:06:12 – 00:16:30:34
MovieRob
And one of the things that that, that, that really got me, interested was when they explained to me the itinerary, they basically said that every single day we’re going to take you on to, two hikes to, you know, different places around the country each week. We’d be in a different part of the country, and every day there would be at least two hikes plus other things that we would do.
00:16:30:34 – 00:16:52:38
MovieRob
It was a very, very heavy itinerary, okay. And I was like, okay, it’s going to give me an opportunity to, to get to know the country. You know, something that I’ve only known through books or pictures or things like that. You know, again, this is 1990. So, you know, there was no internet. There was, you know, there was just what you’ve been told by people in what you can read in a book.
00:16:52:43 – 00:17:16:41
MovieRob
Yeah. And so I sort of, you know, acquiesced to the fact that my parents wanted me to go on this particular group. I said, all right, so I went and I still to this day, you know, 34 years later or almost 34 years later, remember that first day when I came, you know, the flight came to Israel and the first thing that they do, I’m sure you know what the answer to that is.
00:17:16:41 – 00:17:20:03
MovieRob
What’s the first thing you do when you when you bring a group to Israel? Where do you take them?
00:17:20:08 – 00:17:23:46
Agent Palmer
I don’t I mean, I don’t customs. What?
00:17:23:51 – 00:17:25:54
MovieRob
No. Come on.
00:17:25:59 – 00:17:29:03
Agent Palmer
No, I, did you take him to the old city?
00:17:29:07 – 00:17:34:38
MovieRob
That’s right. You take him to the Old City of Jerusalem and you take him to see the Western Wall?
00:17:34:49 – 00:17:50:46
Agent Palmer
Well, I guess it depends on when you. When you come in to like, I flew, I, I arrived, I arrived in Tel Aviv in the evening and I arrived at where I was staying at like 11:00 at night, right outside.
00:17:50:50 – 00:18:05:59
MovieRob
So so did we. It was the same thing. Okay. The planes usually even even today, the planes usually come in around 5 or 6:00 in the evening from America. And by the time you get organized, by the time everyone gets their luggage and you get through customs and all that stuff. Yes. So you’re going to show up at around 11:00 at night, in Jerusalem.
00:18:05:59 – 00:18:25:12
MovieRob
And so we got there and, you know, it was it was an exciting idea, the fact that that I’m there because I’d never been here before or whatever it is. And what this, this, this, group did was, again, I cannot stop commending in my mind the way that they do this. They took us through the old city.
00:18:25:21 – 00:18:47:19
MovieRob
Yep. And they they set us down in a place where we couldn’t yet see the Western Wall. Now, just for anybody who’s listening in has no idea what we’re talking about. So the Western Wall is basically the last remnant of the the Temple of Solomon, which was, destroyed for the second time, a little over 2000 years ago.
00:18:47:24 – 00:19:11:04
MovieRob
So are a little less than 2000 years ago. It was in 70, A.D.. And so, you know, they they take us around the old city and we set in a particular place, and they started talking to us about it. You know, what it means to to be in Jerusalem, in the Old City, what it means to be near, the Western Wall and where the temple, stood.
00:19:11:08 – 00:19:18:18
MovieRob
And then they had us all right on a little piece of paper. What do we think we’re going to get out of the, this, this coming summer?
00:19:18:33 – 00:19:19:09
Agent Palmer
Oh, wow.
00:19:19:10 – 00:19:39:38
MovieRob
Okay. And we all we all wrote it down. I can’t tell you exactly what I wrote, because I don’t then I don’t remember, I from what I recall, I, I wrote something to the effect that I want to get a better appreciation of Israel during the course of the summer. I again, I can’t tell you that as a fact, but that that’s that’s my recollection at least, was.
00:19:39:39 – 00:19:56:04
MovieRob
And then they took like, a glass bottle, of, of, I don’t know, wine, Coke. I don’t know what it was, you know, and they put all the pieces of paper in that last bottle so that no one can take it. And then they said, in the final day, we’re going to break it open and everyone can see, you know, what?
00:19:56:04 – 00:20:19:52
MovieRob
They wrote that type of thing. And then they took us, to the side and we got to see a, the first view of, of the area of the, the old city of the, the Western Wall. And I remember the first thing that went through my mind was, Holy shit, I can’t believe that there’s more than just this little wall, because, you know, when you look at pictures.
00:20:19:52 – 00:20:37:01
MovieRob
Oh, yeah. You see the picture of the wall itself. You don’t know that. There’s that, the wall that there have been excavations over the years. So there’s more to, you know, more than just that. The little area of the wall that has been excavated, they have part of the whole southern, wall that’s also been excavated since then.
00:20:37:06 – 00:20:59:10
MovieRob
And it just it hit me and I was like, you know, this isn’t something that you can understand just by looking at pictures. You have to live it. You have to feel it. And throughout the course of that night, just by looking at it, I said, wow, this is a place that feels so comfortable to me. I know that I’m going to live here one day.
00:20:59:22 – 00:21:23:10
MovieRob
Within that first night I came here, you know, it was the way I used to always describe it. And I don’t know if this is 100% accurate or not. It was that I felt that when I was in America, something was always missing, you know, something there was something missing for me, even as a 16 year old. And then when I got here for the first time, I felt that, okay, that that piece that that I felt was missing is now being filled up.
00:21:23:15 – 00:21:41:34
MovieRob
And I was like, wow, I feel so different now that I’m here. And now that I see what’s coming now, I had an amazing summer that that summer, because of the we literally hiked the, the, width and breadth of this, of this country. It’s, you know, it is only the size of new Jersey, but there is so much to see.
00:21:41:39 – 00:22:01:02
MovieRob
It’s unbelievable. I mean, even, you know, I’ve been here for so many years since then, and I still haven’t seen everything because there’s so much to see. Yeah. You know, when when whenever me and my family go for some sort of vacation, we always try and find a new place, and we’re always able to find places to like, oh, wow, I didn’t know that that existed.
00:22:01:02 – 00:22:20:24
MovieRob
And I mean, I know that we’re not going to get into politics, but the and the recent history as much. But even when everything happened six months ago, you know, on October 7th, there were towns that, that, that I heard the names of. And I’m like, I’ve never heard of that town, you know, because there’s just so many towns that are here.
00:22:20:24 – 00:22:42:28
Agent Palmer
Which it’s also one of those weird things where I, I again, I was there for four months. And similar to your summer trip, we did, you know, we we went from a lot in the south to the Golan up up top. And we went from the east to the west and we tried to see as much as humanly possible.
00:22:42:33 – 00:23:07:28
Agent Palmer
But there are times, despite the small nature of it, when I read in the news of like a very small town that we drove through that I’m like, I remember that. And it’s so and it is somehow it works both ways, where it’s like you always be able to find a place you’ve never heard of, but somehow you will also always be able to find a place you have heard of.
00:23:07:33 – 00:23:35:23
Agent Palmer
Exactly. And I’m not talking about just Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and a lot. And no, I’m not talking about just the big stuff. And it’s just, you know, it was for months for me, it was four months, decades ago. And it’s like, I still remember that stuff. I, I, I do remember a feeling of peace. I don’t know if I felt at home, but there is a different I, I and again, it’s hard to describe it.
00:23:35:32 – 00:23:48:11
Agent Palmer
Peace, calm I don’t I don’t know like I it was a time in my life when for the first time ever, I was actually ready to learn which I look. I was.
00:23:48:11 – 00:23:58:21
MovieRob
16 again. I know your story. So I know that you, you, you, you didn’t want to. You had enough of what they were doing to you, you know, in, in your school that therefore you needed.
00:23:58:31 – 00:23:59:25
Agent Palmer
I needed to get.
00:23:59:25 – 00:24:06:24
MovieRob
A find an outlet and you found the outlet that, that, that, that, that you were willing to be, that you were willing to accept.
00:24:06:35 – 00:24:09:04
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but but and this is why.
00:24:09:10 – 00:24:09:58
MovieRob
You were open to it.
00:24:10:07 – 00:24:35:23
Agent Palmer
I, I but I have to ask like, all throughout my four months there, which I, I wouldn’t trade for anything. There’s there’s honestly never a never I don’t even think I had a passing thought of like I’m coming back here like it just I don’t, I don’t know that that happened. And if it did, I didn’t document it, which I documented a lot of that trip.
00:24:35:23 – 00:25:07:26
Agent Palmer
So it feels like I would have, okay, so I, I, I loved it. I kind of felt it was temporary and I think maybe that’s what buys you into, like, I’ll probably never be back here again. Like, let’s let’s open up and take as much in as possible. Right. But, you know, there’s a long way from, I’m here for a summer island, and I want to be here back to actually going back.
00:25:07:31 – 00:25:11:25
MovieRob
Right. Okay. Well, again, there’s the I know.
00:25:11:30 – 00:25:12:38
Agent Palmer
I know the the story.
00:25:12:38 – 00:25:22:43
MovieRob
Yeah. The story is not over. Yeah. So first of all that, like I said, I always look back on that summer very fondly. I even still have the itinerary.
00:25:22:48 – 00:25:23:48
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:25:23:53 – 00:25:29:33
MovieRob
And every year or two I look at it and I’m just amazed that all the different places that that they took us.
00:25:29:33 – 00:25:32:35
Agent Palmer
Have you revisited some of those places? Of course.
00:25:32:40 – 00:25:50:46
MovieRob
And of course not, because it was on the list. But I’ve been back to some places and and obviously the memories are very different, you know, like there’s that. I remember that summer they took a show, a water park, and, I guess it must have been about 8 or 9 years ago, maybe, maybe a little less. There was probably 8 or 9 years ago that I convinced my my wife.
00:25:50:46 – 00:25:56:19
MovieRob
I said, let’s go back to that water park. And it was not the same experience.
00:25:56:24 – 00:25:57:56
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:25:58:01 – 00:26:13:15
MovieRob
You know, again, there’s a 30 year difference between the two, but but still, it was, you know, as, as a kid, you you go and you had you had a blast at that at that water park. But you know, so that sometimes the idea of, of revisiting your memories isn’t always a good thing.
00:26:13:20 – 00:26:29:04
Agent Palmer
So I do want to ask real quick between Jersey and Detroit, what’s your experience with public transportation and how does it maybe differ from what you get when you’re there?
00:26:29:09 – 00:26:49:25
MovieRob
Because very different. Very different. In where I grew up in, in a family where, there was no public transportation. Okay. So it was always, you know, my mom taking me somewhere or riding a bike somewhere, or like, I lived, I lived a mile away from school. So there were times when, you know, I would ride my bike to school.
00:26:49:30 – 00:27:09:17
MovieRob
There were times when, I would walk to school or work home from school with with friends and stuff like that. You know, there’s it, but there was, there was never busses or anything like that. And then when, when I got my license because in Michigan you get your license at 16. So when I got my license, I actually we had like a spare car for, for the kids in my family.
00:27:09:26 – 00:27:18:53
MovieRob
And because I was the youngest, so, you know, I had a car, okay. So I was, I was going to school, I was going to school in 10th grade already with a car.
00:27:18:58 – 00:27:19:16
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:27:19:23 – 00:27:24:25
MovieRob
Because because there was no public transportation. Yeah, right. Israel is the exact opposite. Yeah.
00:27:24:25 – 00:27:38:30
Agent Palmer
And that’s well, that’s why I ask because when I, I grew up in small town PA like, there’s no, maybe there’s a bus, but it’s not nearly as, connected as, say, because they.
00:27:38:30 – 00:27:44:01
MovieRob
Couldn’t even tell you where the closest bus stop was to my my, you know, the house I grew up in. Okay. No, but.
00:27:44:05 – 00:27:44:21
Agent Palmer
But.
00:27:44:21 – 00:27:45:01
MovieRob
After.
00:27:45:06 – 00:28:04:56
Agent Palmer
For four months in Israel and I was taking public transit, I think from day two, maybe like, once, you know, you’re a little tentative because, again, I’m like you, I’m coming from no public transport at all, right? And then all of a sudden it’s like, oh, I can get anywhere I want with like one bus or maybe a bus in the transfer.
00:28:04:56 – 00:28:08:26
Agent Palmer
And then it’s like, wow, this is exactly right.
00:28:08:34 – 00:28:22:01
MovieRob
I mean, I obviously that summer I didn’t, I didn’t, travel on very many busses. I think I had like a free weekend or something like that. And at that point I travel on the busses, but most of the time, you know, on public busses, I mean, most of the time we’re on busses, you know, with the tour.
00:28:22:03 – 00:28:33:38
MovieRob
Yeah. You know, that’s right. But no, that, but the bottom line is, is that I, I left that summer knowing that I was going to be coming back here, okay. When I didn’t know.
00:28:33:42 – 00:28:37:15
Agent Palmer
And how I, I guess how there’s a how. Well, yeah.
00:28:37:20 – 00:28:56:17
MovieRob
Yeah, exactly. There are a whole bunch of questions that, that I didn’t know the answers to at that point, but I knew that that’s what I want to do now. During that summer of, of, you know, the summer of 1990, that was when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Yeah. I still remember that day, August 2nd. I remember where I was, I remember what was happening, everything like that.
00:28:56:22 – 00:29:13:38
MovieRob
And then six months later, you know, when I was already back in America, obviously. And, you know, they’re talking about the Gulf War and everything like that. There were all these solidarity missions that were that were coming to Israel, you know, just support, the country because Saddam was threatening to, to shoot rockets. You know, no one ever does that.
00:29:13:38 – 00:29:40:27
MovieRob
Right. And that doesn’t happen in this country. And basically, you know, I had heard that like my I had I had two brothers that were studying in New York. One of them was doing a masters, I believe, and one of them was finishing up his, his BA. And there was a solidarity mission, which was, from what I understand, was sponsored by the same people who sponsored birth.
00:29:40:27 – 00:29:56:37
MovieRob
Right. Okay. This is long before birth, right? Where they basically chartered planes and said, anyone who wants to go to Israel, you know, you pay like, I don’t know, 500 bucks or whatever, 100 bucks. I don’t remember what it was at the time, you know, to go. And I said to my parents, I said, hey, I want to go.
00:29:56:42 – 00:30:12:34
MovieRob
And they said to me, you are 17. You’re not going. You’re staying here. You’re not going into a war zone. So I was like, all right, well, what can I do? You know, I didn’t really have much of a choice at that point. You know, I still was living under my parents, roof. Wasn’t much I can do about that.
00:30:12:38 – 00:30:46:30
MovieRob
Then we move forward. Another, year and. Yeah, a little less than a year. So this, this, this youth group that I was a part of. So here I am, 12th grade. All right. And, the youth group that I’m part of, NCC also is deciding they decided to do a solidarity mission over Thanksgiving. Okay. That year, they again, they had a it was very subsidized and they they were inviting people that were, you know, very influential in the group.
00:30:46:30 – 00:31:06:16
MovieRob
It was, you know, in the whole and, net national spotlight from, from this organization. And they picked, I guess, 15 or 20 people to go. And I was one of the people who was picked to go. And it turns out that it happened to be the exact same week that we were going on our, senior class trip.
00:31:06:21 – 00:31:21:27
MovieRob
You know, the senior class trip was going to Washington. And here I had the opportunity to go to Israel, you know, for for a week. Yeah. And I was debating what, what to do, whatever. And I said that I can go to Washington anytime I want. How often do I get an opportunity to go to Israel?
00:31:21:40 – 00:31:24:53
Agent Palmer
That’s fair. Okay. So there’s this trip number two.
00:31:24:57 – 00:31:59:16
MovieRob
Trip number two. Okay. So in no, in the end of November 1991. So I, I, you know, came again to Israel again, a very intense tour, just, seven days, and the, the itinerary there was also just amazing with the stuff that they were, they were, giving us one of the, the, sessions that we had was even convince me of what I want to do for my, for, for for my living in the future, which it didn’t pan out, but that was what I wanted to become a journalist.
00:31:59:16 – 00:32:23:24
MovieRob
But because of a lecture that I had been, been at, it was a lecture, run by an organization which is now, defunct called fair, which was known, it’s an acronym for fighting anti-Israel rhetoric. Okay. And the idea was to, to show the way the media biases, everything that happens in Israel. Okay.
00:32:23:24 – 00:32:47:19
MovieRob
And, you know, during the course of this, 1 or 2 hour lecture, they showed us example after example of the way that the media, portrayed Israel. And obviously today that hasn’t changed much that we’re being portrayed as the aggressors instead of, instead of being on the defensive. Okay, whatever. Again, we’re not getting into politics, and I’m not I’m not going there.
00:32:47:19 – 00:33:13:54
MovieRob
I’m just mentioning that as a side. And after spending this week here again, I once again said, you know, I because I felt when I came back here during that week, I felt once again something come over me that here I am, I’m home again. Yeah. And when I, when I was in America over that year and a half in between, I, you know, and in between I had lost that feeling, you know, once I was back in America.
00:33:13:57 – 00:33:24:38
MovieRob
So here I came back to Israel and once again, I’m feeling it. And I’m like, okay, this is, I don’t know if you can see the sign, but this is something he’s telling me that that this is where I’m meant to be.
00:33:24:41 – 00:33:35:23
Agent Palmer
Are I something being missing is one thing, but like, is it depression? Is it just like, I don’t feel like it’s just something? Or is it just something off? Like, you know.
00:33:35:27 – 00:33:38:00
MovieRob
It’s just I wasn’t I didn’t feel as comfortable.
00:33:38:00 – 00:33:39:00
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:33:39:04 – 00:33:57:10
MovieRob
I think that’s what it came down to. It wasn’t. It wasn’t depression. It wasn’t. It wasn’t that I was, you know, on the verge of suicide or, you know, I can’t believe I’m living here or anything like that. It wasn’t that I was still going about my daily routine. It wasn’t. It wasn’t. I think I noticed it more when I was here, that when I wasn’t here, it was missing.
00:33:57:19 – 00:34:16:57
Agent Palmer
Okay. That’s there. And you don’t know what you got until it’s gone. And then all of a sudden you go on the first trip and it’s like, oh my God, this is amazing. I have this thing. You have this connection to the land that you didn’t. I mean, you can you can hypothesize. Do you have a connection as a Jew to the land of Israel?
00:34:17:04 – 00:34:30:29
Agent Palmer
But until you go, you don’t know. I had a connection while I was there. It did not feel missing when I came home. You had a connection when you were there. It was definitely missing when you came home. I can understand that.
00:34:30:34 – 00:34:40:23
MovieRob
And I will once again open up the invitation. You are welcome to come visit whenever you want. Just get on a plane. You know? I know you won’t, but I’m still offering.
00:34:40:23 – 00:34:41:16
Agent Palmer
I know I’m not.
00:34:41:26 – 00:34:49:43
MovieRob
And I’m not offering it because I know you’re going to say no. I’m offering it. I’m genuinely offering it. If and and I hope that one day you will take me up on that offer.
00:34:49:45 – 00:35:20:24
Agent Palmer
It’s it’s. I will say this. I, whether flying’s in my future or not, I think going back in some capacity is is probably on the top of my list. Just because, you talk about the whirlwind tour of your week the second time, and I equate that to what my parents went through, because halfway through my semester, my parents came, we had a parents week, right?
00:35:20:38 – 00:35:43:35
Agent Palmer
Instead of a weekend. So the whoever could. The parents flew over and our parents got a mini whirlwind trip where it was like they got to see a bunch of stuff, and us, like, it wasn’t just our parents came over and saw us. Our parents came over and had their own experience. And then occasionally they made sure the itineraries crossed with ours and we got to see our parents.
00:35:43:39 – 00:35:52:23
Agent Palmer
Oh, wow. So that was a way for them to get an experience. But I know that they were massively busy for those that those five seven days they were there and that.
00:35:52:23 – 00:35:57:18
MovieRob
Didn’t make any, it didn’t make an impact on them. Besides saying that, okay, you can stay.
00:35:57:23 – 00:36:22:54
Agent Palmer
I mean, I was half way I you know, they they weren’t going to pull me out at that point. But, you know, it did I, I’ve, I’ve only talked to him. I haven’t talked to him about it nearly as much as I probably could have. But it was both of their first times. So it it it I think it would have been impactful either way.
00:36:22:59 – 00:36:24:49
Agent Palmer
But so.
00:36:24:54 – 00:36:45:10
MovieRob
I mean, I’m, I’m, I’m it’s a good thing that you mentioned it that way because I, I didn’t mention, like, my, my siblings and my family how all that impacted them and stuff like that with, with, you know, them coming digital. So like my mother, the first time she came to Israel was in the 60s. You know, she came on and she came on a cruise ship, with with her parents.
00:36:45:15 – 00:36:45:38
Agent Palmer
Wow.
00:36:45:42 – 00:37:01:26
MovieRob
And, you know, they spent like a month here because, you know, she already going to take you to take a cruise ship. You know, you’re not going to go back there. And so and you know that that had an impact on my mother. But again, she went back and that was it. I mean, to even go further back.
00:37:01:26 – 00:37:22:28
MovieRob
My grandfather came here in the 1920s, and he was living here for a few weeks, and it just wasn’t good for him. And he went back to America. Okay. Then in 1948, one of his, nephews came to fight in the War of Independence. And then after the war ended, nobody heard from him again. No internet, no, no cell phones.
00:37:22:28 – 00:37:40:47
MovieRob
So they sent my grandfather to come here to look for him. Wow. So he came to Israel to look for his nephew, cousin, whatever it was. And they end up finding him, and he, you know, he convinced him to to go back to America. At that point, he was he was, I guess, having fun here and didn’t want to go back after the, after the war was over.
00:37:40:52 – 00:38:04:22
MovieRob
And he eventually, going to go back and, and ironically, when my grandfather was here, he purchased some, some, agricultural land that he ended up willing to to my brother and myself, which we ended up selling, probably about, 10 or 12 years ago. And, you know, my grandfather bought it for peanuts, you know, in 1949.
00:38:04:22 – 00:38:21:52
MovieRob
And when, when I sold it in 2012, you know, I made a lot of money off of it, you know? Yeah, I was with my wife and I were actually able to to, you know, have enough money to, to buy our house, you know, or buy it to pay for our share of the house, you know, before the mortgage based on that.
00:38:21:52 – 00:38:47:33
MovieRob
So. Wow. And then, a few other quick things. So I had a sister, one of my, one of my stepsisters, came here for a year in 1985, I think it was 845, something like that. And she loved it. And she wanted to stay longer. She actually, volunteered in a in, in the, in the hospital, in the preemie ward and stuff like that.
00:38:47:33 – 00:39:02:26
MovieRob
She actually sent me last year, like, there was an article about her at the time for an article that had her and a picture of her or whatever it is. So she, she wanted to, to stay here, and it didn’t work out for her. So she went back. And to this day, she’s still in America, you know.
00:39:02:31 – 00:39:13:56
MovieRob
Then, then two of my two brothers that I mentioned earlier, both of them came for their gap year, okay. And studied here and then went back to to America.
00:39:13:56 – 00:39:32:40
Agent Palmer
And, you know, all this, Nat, did you know, I guess the question would be, did you know all of this at during any of your trips like that? Was it was Israel, not the, the, the place for Jews or the Jewish homeland? Was Israel the place I’ve been talked about from your mother and your brothers like.
00:39:32:40 – 00:39:54:57
MovieRob
No, no, that’s the thing. No one ever talked about it. You know, when, when when my brother was here for his gap year. So my stepfather came to Israel for the very first time in his life when he was 50. Okay. That was the first time he ever came to visit Israel. My father, who who who died in 1977, okay, at the age of 41, never came to Israel in his entire life.
00:39:55:02 – 00:40:05:27
MovieRob
Would you tell me that? Really? It to me, it always, You know that. I always wonder what he ever thought of it. You know, I just I’m just.
00:40:05:27 – 00:40:15:01
Agent Palmer
Amazed that all of these people in, in and around your life had these experiences and know, like, they just didn’t talk about it.
00:40:15:06 – 00:40:33:02
MovieRob
That’s right. It was it because it, you know, they talked about it, but it wasn’t it wasn’t anything beyond. Okay, I went on a trip to Israel. Okay. That type of thing. You know that that’s what it came down to. All right. All right. So here it was once again. I spent that that intense week here. Loved it.
00:40:33:07 – 00:41:07:45
MovieRob
I have not been to. Sorry I sent to Washington the the trip was actually to to Disney. It was to Disney. Disney World in in Florida. I’ve never been there since then. That’s the irony of that. Okay. Yeah. Yes. And and it turns out that that, one, that because I already paid for my ticket. So at the time, they convinced another, classmate of mine to to go on the trip instead of me because they had this extra ticket, but because she was female, so on her ticket.
00:41:07:52 – 00:41:31:50
MovieRob
So they she just had to tell her when her name was Roberta, okay. Instead of Robert. Yeah, that type of thing. And that was that was obviously, you know, was ten years before 911. So, you know, people could travel and under assumed names like, yes. Yeah, that makes it even. So, you didn’t need to use as much, you know, you know, they give you the ID like you did, like you do now.
00:41:31:55 – 00:41:47:57
Agent Palmer
So I, I, I don’t know this about you. So it’s the leading question. So you come back and is college in the books for you. Like is that something you want to do. And and yeah, if it is how is your first thought. Not I’m going to study abroad.
00:41:48:02 – 00:42:06:14
MovieRob
No it wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t even a fact is I do not think about studying abroad from. Okay. So the once again, you know, as I mentioned, the fact that that, a lot of modern Orthodox Jews at the time and still today, you know, they go on the summer trip between, 10th and 11th grades. Yep.
00:42:06:15 – 00:42:26:04
MovieRob
And then they spend the gap year after 12th grade before they start, studying in college or university. They spend a year in Israel, you know, studying, you know, about history, you know, in, in some sort of, program or whatever it is. So I, I always knew that that’s what I was going to do. Okay, okay.
00:42:26:04 – 00:42:53:46
MovieRob
Because that’s what everyone does. You go to Israel for a year, you know, in my school, my my school actually had a policy that the, the, the truncated the, the truncated the high school years. I mean, I was, I was in a day school that, that, that went from K through 12. Right. So they truncated the, the high school years to a three year program instead of four years, so that your fourth year, you actually are able to go to Israel.
00:42:53:51 – 00:43:23:24
MovieRob
Okay. Okay. So, three years before my class was supposed to come for that year, they decided to cancel that program. Okay. So my class was the very first class in my school to spend 12th grade in Detroit. Wow. Okay. Which again, it’s all part of this. My story here. Because if you know, I wouldn’t have you know, I was in 12th grade when I said I was the regional president, you know, of the of the youth organization.
00:43:23:24 – 00:43:41:57
MovieRob
That wouldn’t have happened had I been in Israel that year. I wouldn’t have come to Israel for that intense week trip had I already been here for the year, you know. That’s right. So, you know, at that point, I had to decide, okay, what program am I going to go to? And, you know, I would say the programs need to be accepted to and stuff like that.
00:43:41:57 – 00:44:06:46
MovieRob
So I, I, randomly chose three different places that I was interested in going to based on things that I heard from different people. And I, you know, went through all the, the tests that you had to go through to, to, to get into these places. And I was actually accepted to all three. And, and the idea was that, okay, I will do a gap year, and then I’ll go back to America and I go to university, okay, you know, and study.
00:44:07:00 – 00:44:33:55
MovieRob
Oh, I was the plan was to study journalism, that that’s what I wanted to do. So I said, okay, great. You know, how how difficult can that be? You know, I spent a year taking a year off and then and then go, go back and find a place to go study journalism, you know, in, I mean, in 12th grade, I actually even took a few courses at the local community college just to, to, to get things moving, you know, to give me credit and stuff like that.
00:44:33:55 – 00:44:59:46
MovieRob
I took a took a psychology course and a, creative writing course, and things like that, which again, to this day, I the both those courses impacted me so much on, on my thinking in the way that, you know, because, you know, as a 12th grade, you you don’t do those things usually, you know, you know, not everyone everyone’s, Agent Palmer, but when you’re doing.
00:44:59:51 – 00:45:15:17
MovieRob
So I then once I got accepted all three of these programs, I had to choose between them. You know, my my original hope was, okay. I get accepted to one, and then you don’t have to make a decision as to where you’re going to go. Yeah. You know, that’s, you know, it’s it’s the, it’s you know, sometimes you got to be careful what you wish for.
00:45:15:24 – 00:45:44:41
MovieRob
You might actually get it. You know, another thing, and the program that I actually chose was one that’s actually in the old city itself, okay, of Jerusalem, because I recalled that, you know, how much I enjoyed during the summer, the summer program when I was there for a week in the Old City. And then I, I didn’t mention this before, but then the the program that I did during that week, during my senior year was entirely in the old City.
00:45:44:46 – 00:46:08:30
MovieRob
So once again, I fell in love with the old City, again each time. Yeah. So I said, hey, I’m in. I now have an opportunity to be there for an entire year. That would be great. Why not? Yeah. So that’s what I decided. And and again, I, I didn’t know anybody in the program really that there were coming.
00:46:08:34 – 00:46:12:50
MovieRob
There were a few people that I knew a little bit here and there, but but not intensely.
00:46:12:55 – 00:46:34:24
Agent Palmer
What? So the old city, we got to stop for a moment. We got to talk about the old city. The old city is not something I think. I think I think it’s an American thing. The old city is not something you’re prepared for as an American. No, it is not cramped. It is small. It is a it is beautiful, but it is.
00:46:34:24 – 00:46:44:23
Agent Palmer
It is all of these things that even like the most dense downtown, has like plenty of room by comparison. And I are part of it.
00:46:44:23 – 00:46:53:10
MovieRob
There are almost no cars that can go in there. There’s like very few streets that you can get a car on. Most people, you know, if you’re traveling, you’re going to go by, you’re you’re walking, you’re going to go by a bike.
00:46:53:15 – 00:46:54:21
Agent Palmer
And I think some of that when.
00:46:54:21 – 00:46:58:30
MovieRob
People have to for transport things, they’re doing it with carts. And so I mean, maybe.
00:46:58:30 – 00:47:23:48
Agent Palmer
It’s a European thing like some European towns are a bit smaller like that, but it’s just the 2000 years of, 4000 years of history, all that stuff that builds up. I mean, it, it’s small and I we weren’t. It’s the year 2000 and I’m there and we’re not supposed to go unescorted into the old city.
00:47:23:53 – 00:47:24:12
MovieRob
Right?
00:47:24:23 – 00:47:38:51
Agent Palmer
We’re not supposed to. We did. You know, that was not, And I’m glad we did. Wandering around the old city was probably one of those, like, core memories that’ll never go away.
00:47:38:55 – 00:47:46:26
MovieRob
Okay. But the question is, is, you know, that I again, for people who aren’t familiar, the old city is basically split up into four quarters.
00:47:46:30 – 00:47:51:49
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but it’s also not you have a route like it’s but it there’s modern Jerusalem.
00:47:51:54 – 00:47:52:10
MovieRob
Yes.
00:47:52:10 – 00:47:56:20
Agent Palmer
And then there’s the Old City which is legitimately walled off. Yes.
00:47:56:20 – 00:48:19:04
MovieRob
The 40. Completely. Yeah. Right. But you but since you have the four quarters, you have the Jewish quarter, the Jewish quarter in general. It’s, I guess everything everything’s relative. It’s relatively safe to work there. Yeah. And then you have the the Armenian Quarter, you have the Muslim Quarter, and you have the, the the Christian quarter. Okay.
00:48:19:09 – 00:48:36:23
MovieRob
And so again, you know, for, for me, it was always okay, you can go through the Armenian corner, you can go through the Jewish Quarter. That’s it. Don’t go to the other quarters, okay. You know, stay away from there. Even when I was in the program for the year here, there’s there. They’re staying away. The morning after I got here for this program.
00:48:36:28 – 00:48:56:48
MovieRob
So me and the friends of mine went to the, the Arab market in the Muslim quarter, you know, the because, you know, we wanted to go and haggle once you go, you know, to, to to feel as if we’re, we’re more than just the these, these little 18, 19 year olds.
00:48:56:52 – 00:49:00:31
Agent Palmer
You don’t want to, you know, you don’t want a tourist experience as well. Correct?
00:49:00:35 – 00:49:21:09
MovieRob
Correct, correct. So I, I remember I ended up buying a, a chess set and, I bought sandals there, you know, at relatively low prices because I haggled with them and stuff like that. And then, you know, I went home, I went back to to the to the program. And, you know, the following morning I was going to play chess with a friend of mine, and we start setting up the chess board.
00:49:21:09 – 00:49:46:15
MovieRob
And we realized that he didn’t give me seven pieces. So, you know, so we went back the following. We went back the following morning and started, you know, arguing with the guy, and he wanted more money. And, you know, today I realize how stupid that was, you know, there are certain things you don’t do, but, you know, we went there and and we had fun arguing.
00:49:46:20 – 00:49:49:58
MovieRob
I had fun, yes. And thankfully, I’m still alive after having that fun.
00:49:50:02 – 00:49:56:44
Agent Palmer
Now, the question, I have a question. If it hadn’t been based in the old city, would you have picked a different program?
00:49:56:49 – 00:50:16:18
MovieRob
Yeah. Of course. Okay. Of course. But since I had that option, that’s the one I went to. You know, it was it was it was a question of how to choose between the three programs. That that was what it was. You.
00:50:16:23 – 00:50:36:05
Agent Palmer
Did you notice something is not permanently settled in Israel yet? Well, for those of you who’ve heard me on his show discussing things like the Great Escape, Die Hard, and most recently, It’s a Wonderful Life, and even if you’ve only heard this show, you’ll know I can talk and Rob can talk. And thus we’ve split this into two episodes.
00:50:36:15 – 00:50:55:14
Agent Palmer
That’s right. It’s a story so long it couldn’t be contained by just one singular episode. So until next time, I want to say that it has been a pleasure to get to know Rob via email and talking before and after recordings on his show, and it’s a testament to the good relationships that actually can come about through the internet.
00:50:55:19 – 00:51:19:28
Agent Palmer
And while Rob’s and my friendship is less common, it does shine a light on a real friendship that can happen through the internet, across an ocean, and many, many, many time zones. So until next time with the exciting conclusion of Rob story. Thanks for listening to the polymer Files episode 124. And now for the official business. The Polymer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays.
00:51:19:28 – 00:51:37:06
Agent Palmer
If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can find all related ways to contact myself and Rob in the show notes. There you will find links to Rob’s relevant social channels, podcast and website. The music for this episode was provided by Henno Heitur. Email can be sent to this show at The Palmer Files at gmail.com.
00:51:37:06 – 00:51:52:07
Agent Palmer
And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:51:52:12 – 00:52:00:02
Unknown
You.
00:52:00:07 – 00:52:17:59
Unknown
See?
00:52:18:04 – 00:52:26:37
Unknown
Me?
00:52:26:42 – 00:52:28:49
Agent Palmer
All right, Rob, do you have one final question for me?
00:52:28:58 – 00:52:53:10
MovieRob
Yes, of course I do. I’ve been I’ve been waiting years to tell you they ask you questions. And I finally thought of one for today. There you go. Okay. All right. Because of the current climate around the world. Yes. Okay. Are you do you feel that in certain situations you need to hide the fact of your religion?
00:52:53:15 – 00:53:31:34
Agent Palmer
I want to say no, but I, I, I feel like it’s a default. Yes. My my father converted. So I don’t have a Jewish last name. Right. And I, I always wear, a high necklace that my now, dead uncle, may he rest in peace, bought me, and it’s it’s the only piece of jewelry I wear right now, and it’s the only piece of jewelry I’ve worn since I was 13.
00:53:31:38 – 00:54:00:41
Agent Palmer
But it’s a necklace. It’s not. It’s under my shirt most of the time. So to look at me, you wouldn’t know, right? So I don’t have to hide it. But it’s a yes and no, because I also don’t volunteer it either. You know, I don’t wear a yamaka everywhere I go. I, I, you know, I so there are some of what people call the telltale signs.
00:54:00:46 – 00:54:27:54
Agent Palmer
I don’t, I don’t carry with me. But by the same token, if anybody asks, I say I’m Jewish, like, I don’t, I don’t hesitate if it if I’m if I’m asked, do you know what I mean? If it’s for or if it comes up or for whatever reason. But, you know, given the current climate, you know, and this is it’s probably as political as I’ll ever get.
00:54:27:59 – 00:54:59:18
Agent Palmer
I absolutely hate the current political climate because it feels like people just realize there’s a conflict there. Correct? Only since October versus since last October versus, maybe part of growing up within Jewish circles of, you know, from reform to Orthodox, you, you you’ve kind of known about this internal brewing conflict for since 1947, it feels like, it’s.
00:54:59:18 – 00:55:00:47
MovieRob
Been it’s been longer.
00:55:00:52 – 00:55:01:26
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I know.
00:55:01:26 – 00:55:04:24
MovieRob
It’s been no one. I know it’s been America. It’s been longer.
00:55:04:29 – 00:55:06:19
Agent Palmer
I but I know I’m just saying, you.
00:55:06:19 – 00:55:10:44
MovieRob
Know, I know the anti-Semitism in America in the 20s and 30s even before.
00:55:10:49 – 00:55:36:51
Agent Palmer
Well, I’m just talking about the current ongoing thing, like we’ve known about it for a while, the whole thing. So for me, it. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t let’s put this way, it’s not on my sleeve. I don’t, I don’t hide it. And I say proudly that I’m Jewish, but I don’t, I don’t know if I could do a better job saying I am or or whatnot.
00:55:36:57 – 00:55:44:01
Agent Palmer
I know I could, I know I could always, probably be a better Jew. I know that.
00:55:44:08 – 00:55:45:29
MovieRob
Wasn’t my question. I told you at.
00:55:45:29 – 00:56:07:20
Agent Palmer
The beginning of it, I know, I know that, but I’m saying that. And I actually, so as, as you know, because you listen to the show and as, as, as other listeners will know, I’m reading all the books in my house. I have not gotten to the two shelves of what I will call Jewish literature.
00:56:07:25 – 00:56:12:58
MovieRob
Okay. I don’t know. I’m purging. I haven’t gotten there, like you’re saying, okay, that I’m safe.
00:56:12:59 – 00:56:30:39
Agent Palmer
No, I’m not, I’m not saving it. I’m just I just haven’t got it hasn’t cracked the list yet. Of course, there’s still a lot of books in my house. But I know that this summer, I’m going to start in on some of the books on those shelves. Okay?
00:56:30:39 – 00:56:46:25
MovieRob
You don’t mix and match when you’re when you’re reading books as a like, for instance, when I watch movies, you know, I can watch them, you know, in one day I’ll watch like a comedy from. Oh, you know, I do, you know, a classic from the 40s. Like, I mix and match. It doesn’t matter.
00:56:46:25 – 00:57:06:25
Agent Palmer
I know I do, I do mix and match in terms of, like, fiction and non. But one of the reasons that’s kind of kept me away from that shelf is I read before bed and I try not to read thinking material before bed, and I know that that’s going I know that those are going to they’re not going to be difficult reads.
00:57:06:30 – 00:57:30:01
Agent Palmer
As far as like, oh, I won’t understand the subject matter, but I expect them to be challenging reads and that some of my beliefs are going to be questioned or put to the test, or expanded in a way that, I think I’m finally in a place where I’m ready to tackle that. And so that’s why it’s going to start happening.
00:57:30:01 – 00:57:49:36
Agent Palmer
So I don’t know, we’ll find out where I end up at the end of that shelf. But I mean, one, 1 or 2 books isn’t going to make a difference, probably, but a full shelf of them, you know? Okay, maybe, maybe, maybe I will, join you in not recording on the Sabbath. Watch something I do from time to time.
00:57:49:41 – 00:58:05:36
MovieRob
Okay. Well, as you know, I won’t. I won’t even write to you when I know it’s, the Sabbath for you. Because I don’t want to make you write to me right back to me. You know? I know because I know I have an hour difference. That’s what I’m saying, right? Yeah. The seven hour. If I have to wait, if I have to write something, I’d like, you know, sometimes on the Saturday night.
00:58:05:41 – 00:58:21:04
MovieRob
Well, I really want to write something to Jason, and I’m like, no, I’m going to wait till Sunday morning because I don’t, you know, again, you do what you want, that’s fine. But I don’t want to be in the position where I’m making you do something that, that, that I personally think possibly you shouldn’t be doing.
00:58:21:11 – 00:58:38:23
Agent Palmer
Let’s put that way, I gotcha. I know I get it, and I also think I, I’ve been trying to I feel like there’s a part of it that’s a balance issue. If I actually took the Sabbath off, generally speaking, I think I might be healthier. So it’s all.
00:58:38:28 – 00:58:58:37
MovieRob
Well, there is. There is, something to that. You know, the, the the idea. I mean, again, if you want to go into, you know, things that the Talmudic thought and, you know, there are a lot of places that that what they say is, is that the idea of taking that one day break, you know, is to, on the one hand, replenish yourself.
00:58:58:42 – 00:59:26:08
MovieRob
But, you know, the the belief is that you know, if you don’t work on that day or you don’t, you’re you’re not, you know, again, this is for people who believe, you know, God, you’re not, you know, you’ll you’ll still earn whatever you meant to earn during the course of that year. You know, the idea is that you’re supposed to take a break during the day and let me just even tell a short little story about that one, about my, my my grandfather.
00:59:26:13 – 00:59:49:14
MovieRob
Okay. Not the grandfather I talked about before. My other grandfather. So, I, my my grandfather from my father’s side, moved to America. Yeah. Well, actually, my great grandfather, moved to America in 1903. He came on, on on, you know, on a ship from from Poland. And he had his wife had two children in Poland.
00:59:49:14 – 01:00:08:56
MovieRob
Then they waited two years before he brought them over. Oh, wow. Okay. My, my, my grandfather himself was, was I think four when he came over. And I actually even went onto the Ellis Island website. Now that actually I was able to find the manifest of the ship where my great grandmother and then my grandfather and his sister came on that ship.
01:00:09:01 – 01:00:44:00
MovieRob
That’s amazing. And, you know, he grew up in a religious home. I believe they were living in Albany or somewhere in upstate New York. And, you know, he got older, you got married, he had three children, and he was working in a furniture factory. And this was, you know, the 1930s, early 1940s when the the blue laws were in effect in America, where basically, you know, businesses needed to be closed on Sundays, but on Saturday, they pretty much had to be open.
01:00:44:05 – 01:01:02:15
MovieRob
It was a six day work week. And, you know, my grandfather, being a religious, you was not willing to, to work on on Saturday for this. There were a lot of stories of people that would, you know, show up for work on Monday morning and, you know, they were told on Friday, if you don’t show up tomorrow, you’re going to be fired.
01:01:02:20 – 01:01:25:11
MovieRob
They will get fired. And then, you know, Monday morning they have to look for another job again because of their beliefs. And what my grandfather did was, as he was working in this, furniture store for a furniture factory, and he made a deal with the with the owners, you know, that that he’s not going to come in on Saturdays, but every other day of the week, he’s going to come in early and he’s going to leave late.
01:01:25:15 – 01:01:25:35
Agent Palmer
Wow.
01:01:25:41 – 01:01:48:44
MovieRob
And you know, he did this for however long. I don’t know how many years he had this, this this deal work and one, one morning in December of 1944, he, came to work early in the morning. He was the only one in the in the factory. The elevator door opened, he stepped in, and unfortunately, there was no elevator there.
01:01:48:49 – 01:02:07:42
MovieRob
And he he fell down one flight, but hit his head on a metal beam. And, after a few days, in the hospital, he passed away. So, on the one hand, that’s a very sad story, you know? And it’s a story that I’ve heard so many times. You know, ever since I was a kid.
01:02:07:47 – 01:02:17:46
MovieRob
But I think the, the, the the important lesson out of that, that, you know, your beliefs are more important than anything else. Yeah. You know.
01:02:17:46 – 01:02:21:56
Agent Palmer
If you if you believe you can find a way, I feel like that’s that’s part of it.
01:02:21:58 – 01:02:38:57
MovieRob
That’s right. And for him, it was important for him not to be able to not to have to work on Saturday. It you know it I’m assuming that it that, you know, even before the accident, it, it caused a lot of stress in his house that that he wasn’t around, you know, because he was going to work early and coming home late and everything like that.
01:02:38:57 – 01:03:14:08
MovieRob
But the idea that that they knew that the reason he’s doing this is because of religious beliefs, you know, is, to me, you know, this is a story that happened 80, 80 years ago. And yet, you know, it it still gives me strength whenever I think of that story because it shows the, you know, that that you you need if you can, you need to, to move as many worlds as possible in order to continue to, to fulfill your beliefs and do what you believe is, is, is the right thing to do.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).