Broken hearts and broken buildings, yet cafe culture in Tel Aviv is still booming. I’ve always admired Israelis’ tough skin, though stubborn at times, their resilience during crisis astonishes me. “A shelter is located nearby,” casually reads the Instagram caption of my favorite Tel Aviv cafe, recently rebuilt after a missile strike, advertising their pastries and operating hours as if it were just another day. Right beyond its outdoor seating lies a stretch of rubble, serving as a constant reminder of war. And still, people are encouraged to come, to sit, to stay, to enjoy. Nothing seems to stop Tel Avivians from reaching for some sense of normalcy.

I ask myself how we got here. Israel is built upon the weight, and in many ways, the unity, of generational trauma. With the very existence of the nation bound to the Holocaust, decades of war, and October 7, 2023, psychological terror has seared itself into the collective memory of Israelis, repeating and rarely allowing its citizens to catch their breath.

I spent two years living and studying........

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