Here’s a video about Route 66 that appeared last month on an Israeli television program titled “Roim Olam,” or “Watching the World.”
The narration is in Yiddish Hebrew, but I think most will easily follow what’s going on.
Eyal Tavor, an Israeli TV reporter who filed the story, said this in an e-mail:
In autumn 2008 my wife Ruth, myself and our son Daniel (then aged 13) went on a month-long road trip along Route 66. It was the realization of an old dream of mine to travel the Mother Road. Although I grew up in Israel, I’ve always been fond of America and saw Route 66 as a significant American icon: Americana at its best. I was delighted to find out the road authentically preserved the image I have always had in my mind about America, an image which was inspired by many movies and books: endless spaces, remote towns, diners that were frozen in time, vintage motels, roadside attractions and nice people respecting good old values such as diligence, modesty, friendship, and strong contact to the land.
Our Route 66 trip turned to be an unforgettable exciting experience. At some points we were actually able to identify with the old settlers who were travelling west in the hope of finding a better future.
These days I am building an Israeli internet site, the first in Hebrew, about route 66. You will be the first link I will put there.
My purpose is to arouse interest in Route 66 among Israeli people and to encourage them to set out for the road. I am aware of the fact that very few in our country are familiar with the whole story. In many places we visited along the road we were told that we were the first Israelis to ever stop by. Most of our hosts had no recollection of any Hebrew in their guestbooks. The Israeli flag Harley & Annabelle are seen holding was hand- drawn by our son.
(Hat tip: Laurel Kane)
Just a note: It’s not Yiddish, it’s Hebrew. Very different languages. Yiddish is a Jewish dialect of German; Hebrew’s a Semitic language. My Hebrew’s awfully sparse, but that’s Hebrew.
(Middle East specialist born & raised a mile off route 66 in Joplin, MO.)
Well, shucks. I should have known that, but I had a brain freeze when I wrote it.
That explains why when I used a Google Translator on the notes of the YouTube video, the translated text from Yiddish to English was gibberish. Doh!
The comment about the Hebrew narration reminded me how strange it was to find out that not only Israelis had little knowledge about route 66, but also local people we met along the road were quite ignorant about Israel: Some of them just couldn’t believe we were actually speaking the original (!) biblical language, Some asked us if Israel is where the pyramids are (funny, we built them 4000 years ago as slaves in Egypt), others thought we were joking when we told them that Israel is smaller than New Hampshire. Someone asked us to mark Israel on his world map with a pin, and the pin’s head turned to be bigger than our entire country, so it covered us and Jordan altogether…that will explain: https://reider.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/israels-new-campaign-size-doesnt-matter-discuss/
Yours,
Eyal