On many mornings, Meir Charash takes his mountain bike and heads to the Jerusalem hills.

Some days he pedals to the Haas Promenade, where the city stretches beneath him in pale limestone and morning light, 3,000 years of Jewish history unfolding in a single panorama. Other days he heads toward Ein Lavan, where springs bubble up beneath ancient trees and the sounds of the city shift into birdsong.

For nearly half a century, Charash has measured his life not by lack of bumps in the road but by his willingness to keep riding — through war and peace, hope and disappointment, extraordinary joy and devastating loss.

When he boarded an El Al flight to Israel on October 16, 1979, none of that was part of his plan.

He was fresh out of Boston University, where he’d just been offered a job as a research assistant in organizational behavior — a position paying $12,000 a year, which, Charash says, felt like unimaginable wealth at the time.

He assured everyone he would be back in a year. His parents believed him. His professor believed him. He believed himself.

He had come to Israel to participate in the World Union of Jewish Students program — a year of Hebrew studies, Jewish learning, and volunteer service. It was meant to be just a short adventure before returning to America.

Instead, it became home.

Hebrew did not come easily. Nearly five decades later, his unmistakable American accent still gives him away the moment he opens his mouth.

“I guess,” he says, “I’ll always be an immigrant on some level.”

But belonging, he learned, has........

© The Times of Israel