Israel Goes to War, and Dancing Breaks Out - WSJ
Little did I know on arriving here in early June that I would spend almost half of my time in the neighborhood miklat, or underground bomb shelter. But so it was, time and again, once the war with Iran suddenly broke out. I had been to Israel some 25 times before and knew the country well, but those 12 days of war revealed a part of Israeli life that was new to me: miklat culture.
Israel has developed a system of phone alerts and sirens that warn everyone in the country to take shelter when rockets and missiles are incoming. When the alarm sounds, people know it’s time to get to the closest miklat. The shelter nearest my building in Jerusalem was a fast walk of about 90 seconds. I scurried there more than 20 times, as did large numbers of other people in the neighborhood. What I witnessed and shared with them was both unnerving and uplifting.
During the 12 days of the June war, Iran fired some 550 ballistic missiles and more than 1,000 drones at Israel. The country’s elaborate air-defense system intercepted most of these, but more than 30 missiles got through and struck Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be’er Sheva and elsewhere. The Weizmann Institute in Rehovot was hit and badly damaged. Decades of scientific research disappeared in a flash. A missile landed near Tel Aviv University, shattering glass at student dormitories. Residential buildings in the Ramat Gan area were also hit. A major hospital in Be’er Sheva was struck and seriously damaged. According to medical officials, 28 Israelis were killed and more than 3,200 wounded over the course of the war. Some 13,000 were displaced when their homes were damaged by the incoming missiles.
Through it all, everyone in the miklat remained calm, civil, even sociable. When Iranian missiles came flying in, everyone was attentive and concerned, but no one seemed to be losing it. Pet dogs could become a bit frisky and make a racket; otherwise, the mood among the shelter crowd was remarkably even-tempered. Even the children remained calm. In short order, we came to recognize one another, and the mood was amicable, sociable, polite and unpanicked.
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One Friday afternoon, the alert sounded around 4 p.m. and off we ran to the miklat, where we experienced an unforgettably special moment amid the sirens. The shelter was packed with many dozens of people. Among them was the principal cellist of the Jerusalem Symphony, Talia Erdal. She might have run in from a practice session, for she had her cello with her, took it out of its case, and treated us to an unexpected and uplifting concert. One of her pieces was a soulful version of “Shalom Aleichem,” a prayer for peace traditionally sung on Friday evening as part of the celebration of Shabbat. Her playing was spirited and touched the hearts of everyone assembled with us in the shelter. When she performed an especially lively piece, a young woman—a regular in the miklat—began dancing to the music. We looked on with a sense of wonder that all of this could happen in an underground bomb shelter minutes after the sirens had sounded.
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Mr. Rosenfeld is director of Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.