“I was born different, I was born thinking different, creating different, looking different as you can see” Netta answered a televised interview conducted by the Greek Star Channel. Indeed, as a young girl Netta Barzilai wasn’t looking like a typical Israeli girl but still, Netta dared to dream of becoming a singer and a performer despite all the negative comments she had to endure on the way.
“I remember being chosen last for soccer games, when the school uniform couldn’t fit me…a lot of teasing” Netta continues. “People told me I am too fat to be this, I am too crazy to do this.” And yet despite the negative atmosphere, Netta persevered.
“Different” women in Israel dare to dream, regardless of what others think or say. They dream of sharing their gifts, even when they don’t look like top models, actresses, or anchor women.
Anyone who dares to dream cannot be rendered into a toy.
Netta could not be rendered into a toy. Even when a woman is bullied, silenced, sidelined, or disregarded, she cannot be rendered into a toy. Women who dare to dream persevere, endure, and persist despite the noes, negativity and cynicism they encounter on the way to their dream.
Women who dare to dream are gifts; Gifts to ourselves, to our families, communities, and places of work.
And when we manifest our dreams, our gifts are shared with the community and the world! Becoming a journalist, a scientist who promotes women’s health, an educator that cares for her students, a prime minister that fosters cooperation and brotherhood among her people, a singer who unites people in song. By dreaming our dreams and manifesting them we add our gifts to the world.
Israel –like women– is not a toy, but a gift to the world!
Israel, as is the case with gifts, seeks to share itself with the world; Share its talents and knowledge, its know-how and dance, its literature and its music. In the Eurovision song contest this is beautifully captured in the sending out of the star-like forms that bring up in mind the Star of David.
“Dare to Dream” is Israel’s Eurovision slogan.
“Dare to Dream” is Netta’s credo too, and her daring has indeed opened a road for all of us, women and men!
Let this year’s Eurovision be a reminder to us all to become the gifts that we are and share them generously! Let us all dare sing our personal songs as in the Eurovision. And let’s join hands towards the post-war European-Union-vision of peace and brotherhood as we weave together our personal, communal and national voices.
From Jerusalem with love,