Why I'm happy I live in Israel (Well, one reason anyway).
My daughter must have read Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" (in Hebrew) fifteen times or more. Today she comes to me and asks me what "meek" means (in Hebrew "shiflai ruach"). Then she shows me this passage in chapter 37: "Many nations are represented, many languages spoken, many costumes worn, and on a sunny day the spectacle is as gay and brilliant as a carnival. Haughty English, lively French, sober Germans, handsome Spaniards, ugly Russians, meek Jews, free-and-easy Americans..."

I had to explain to her what this meant. Nothing in her day-to-day experience could have given her an understanding of why Jews should be described as meek. Isn't that wonderful?

I wonder why she never noticed this before.

By the way, we have an abundance of Russians in Israel, many mixed (Jewish and..) or Christian (married to Jews) and I think they're far from ugly.