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Written on 30 August 2022

By: Wima Brahmantya

This morning ALON - the Argentinian intern said goodbye to De Karanganjar.

Over dinner at home, learning that his full name was "Alon Liwsky", I asked him: "Are you Jewish?"

"Yes. I am Jewish. My ancestors are from Poland."

As I expected. It's not a typical Argentinian name that smells of Spain - Italy.

Argentinians are easy to get along with. They are friendly, open. Especially when discussing Maradona or Messi.

Last night we had an in-depth conversation about "Jews". He has travelled around the Middle East and now Southeast Asia, and Alon realised that Jews and Muslims are very similar in many ways. For example "kosher" food, which they call "kosher". So Jews don't eat pork either. And he recognises that Muslim-majority countries are very friendly and nice people.

With one exception, her internship in Malaysia ended badly. She was 'suddenly antagonised' by her boss, a middle-aged Malay couple. She didn't know what the reason was. She was even cursed at by the boss's mother right to her face, while "my mother never treated me like that."

"Is it because you're Jewish?" I asked.

"Mm... I was going to say that actually. But I don't want to be prejudiced."

"At the beginning of the job, did they already know about your gayness?"

"They only found out after I worked for a week."

"Now that!"

Then we discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Alon admits that he is a supporter of Zionism, in the context of "supporting the idea that the Jewish people should have their own state".

Then I asked: "Are you willing to let Palestine become independent?"

"Of course! They have the right to independence. We can disagree about the conflict at first. But at the end of the day when it comes to humanity, I think the Palestinians also deserve to be free."

Yes, that is the fact. There are Jews who are pro-Israel and hate Palestine. There are Jews who reject Israel and support Palestine. Tonight I heard from a Jewish Zionist who also supports an independent Palestine.

This morning we parted ways. I said: "Shalom aleichem".

And Alon replied: "Waalaikumsalam..", while hugging me.

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