Gila Berkowitz has been a reporter and a contributor to national magazines. She has published two novels and a cookbook and is a frequent speaker on Israel, antisemitism and the Holocaust.
Overtourism? Not in Israel! Sukkot, the Jewish festival that began last Friday night, is especially marked for welcoming guests from all over the world. This year, the city's streets are filled with smiling faces, the Kotel overflowing with worshipers, the hotels so fully booked that you can only dine in their restaurants if you are a registered guest (worry not, there are plenty of other places to eat).
It was customary for Jews in Eastern Europe to invite non-Jewish neighbors into the sukkah, the decorated booth for which the holiday is named. The holiday liturgy cites Isaiah, “I will bring the nations to my holy mountain and make them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their offerings and sacrifices will be welcomed on my altar; my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people."
In a world where the latest complaint from the UN, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome is par for the course, Israel, as always, stands alone. And as much as Israelis love to travel around the world, they also delight in welcoming tourists to their oasis in the Middle East.
My parents brought this tradition with them when they came to America. Our family hosted the motley ethnics typical of a Brooklyn block. Children oohed and ahhed at the lights and glitter and evergreen cover of the sukkah. “It’s like living inside a Christmas tree," they exclaimed. The parents toasted us with vodka and praised my mother’s divine strudel. For a brief hour we enjoyed the company of people who, the rest of the year, barely nodded to us.
As a young mother in Northern California, I invited our neighbors to the sukkah, too. Betty, from next door, was something of an antisemite, she admitted once. She refused our invitations to come to our sukkah, no doubt for fear of our satanic intentions. But each year she asked me when our holiday was, so that she could schedule the trimming of her magnificent redwood. She gave us the trimmed branches to use for a fragrant sukkah roof.
In Jerusalem we invite our neighbors too, though most if not all, are Jewish. I dream of the day, however, when it will be easy to welcome our non-Jewish friends from abroad to our sukkah, our city of gold, and the wonderland that is Israel.
Of course, the first thing someone tells you about vacationing in Israel is their fear, since it is a country at war. Well, you have to admit that this not just a perception, Israel is technically always at war, with nations near and far expressing hatred and hostility. Right now, no one is shooting at us (foo, foo foo)! The result? A peaceful vibrant atmosphere that invites people to go out and have fun. The tourist surveys show that the biggest surprise for visitors is how different Israel seems in real life from what they expected from international media.
Israelis wouldn’t mind getting more of Shanghai’s mind-boggling 397 million tourists. Or having Orlando’s 36:1 ratio of tourists to residents (for the math challenged, that would be about 360 million tourists!). Unlike Venice, there is no daily tourist fee. While we have demonstrations in Israel, they are not asking for Barcelona-style counter-tourism. In fact, people love visiting Israel. Independent surveys show that 88 percent of tourists are more than satisfied with their visit, nine out of ten recommend it to others, and a large number end up staying longer than they’d planned.
Sometimes it takes a visitor to open our eyes to the wonders of Israel. I remember having breakfast in a hotel one day, when a group of Christian tourists came down to eat. They stopped, surrounded by the yards and yards of salads and fruits and fish and cheeses and cakes and eggs.
“Oh my Lord," they called out in amazement. “Look at the bounty with which God has blessed His Land!"
It was true. In this land breakfast can be a banquet.
In ancient times, when the Temple stood, there was an overtourism phenomenon, but it was not a problem. The rabbis of the Talmud recalled that when the people gathered to pray in the Temple, they were fiercely crowded. But when they bowed down to God, there was plenty of room for all.
No, there will never be too many visitors to Jerusalem. Travelers from everywhere will always be welcome. All the nations will gather here as one.
Come to Israel for the hotel breakfasts. The most tourist-friendly nation in history invites you.