His messages in Arabic to the people of Gaza are said to have gone viral, and many Israelis look forward to his frequent, insightful commentary regarding the war. As an ardently observant Jew who serves as the head correspondent for the Arab affairs department of Channel 13 – generally considered a left-leaning media outlet – Tzvi Yechezkeli is not your run of the mill Israeli journalist. He grew up in the picturesque Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona and felt that his childhood was marked by peace and pleasantness.
Other than a vague sense of folklore, religion was utterly absent from Yechezkeli’s early life. Even their Sefardic tradition and culture was eschewed – other than a few spices here and there – as the Yechezkeli family was fully intent on blending into the secular, Ashkenazi “elitist” system. Life was all about personal fulfillment which required, first and foremost, excelling in the army, excelling in university, and spending some time traveling beyond the borders of little Israel and getting exposure in the big, wide world.
Learning about traditional values such as building a family and learning how to be a good husband and father were simply absent from his life. The only thing that mattered was self-actualization, self-expression, and self-promotion; and Tzvi Yechezkeli embraced that weltanschauung wholeheartedly. After completing his army service in an elite combat unit and earning his master’s degree in university, he spent eight years carrying out operations for the Shabak both in Israel as well as abroad.
At a certain point, though, Yechezkeli began feeling like something was missing. He felt like he needed something different. So he decided to immerse himself in the world of Arabic and Arabs. His grandparents having hailed from Baghdad and Kurdistan, Yechezkeli felt that the Arabic language and culture represented something authentic and genuine, and he spent an extensive amount of time living amongst and interacting with the local populations of various Arab towns and cities in Israel.
His mastery of the Arab language and thorough understanding of Arabs brought him to the world of journalism where he could provide the Israeli public a unique sociological window into this very different world. Yechezkeli’s work in this arena even wound up taking a political turn with him spending plenty of journalistic time with the people in Yasser Arafat’s bureau in the late 90’s.
In the early 2000’s, though, with the outbreak of the second intifada, Yechezkeli’s work took a sharp curve with him at times interviewing terrorists. And it was during one of those interviews that Yechezkeli heard words of mussar that forever altered the trajectory of his life.
“What are you?” That is the question that the Arab terrorist asked Tzvi Yechezkeli who of course was conversing with the subject of his interview in fluent Arabic. “I am an Israeli,” Yechezkeli answered, not fully comprehending what the terrorist wanted.
Terrorist: “But after being an Israeli, what are you?”
Yechezkeli: “I know Arabic. I am a journalist. I have many accomplishments under my belt…”
Terrorist: “But what religion do you ascribe to? Judaism? Islam?”
Yechezkeli: “Religion?! I am not like you. I have no need for that antiquated artifact of ancient history.”
Terrorist: “You are an idiot. If I were to kill you, I would kill you for one reason and one reason only. Because you are a Jew. What an idiot you are that you would be killed for being what you are and you don’t even realize what you are.”
The words hit Tzvi Yechezkeli like a thunderbolt. He realized that this terrorist, who did in fact want to kill him and would not hesitate to do so given the opportunity, was right. Yechezkeli realized that he had no real sense of identity. No real sense of belonging. He realized that in his core he could feel the need and the drive to be connected and that everything he had done with his life up to that point was simply not filling that need.
And that was what spurred him to begin his process of becoming a baal teshuva.
To hear Tzvi Yechezkeli tell his story (in Hebrew) click here.