I arrived in Israel on March 2nd from Montreal and have met amazing people at every turn.

On the plane, I sat next to a young Ukrainian man from Odesa who had been living and working in Prague for the last year. He shared with me that he asked his employer for a transfer and managed with some difficulty to get through the Russian border to Czechoslovakia, and he has been living and working in Prague for over a year. He was on his way to visit his cousins in Tel Aviv.

Next to him was a woman thumbing a well-worn Bible, a Christian woman from Switzerland reading up on places mentioned in the bible, which she was eager to experience firsthand. I shared some information about places to visit, and she invited me to see her in Switzerland. We exchanged contacts, and I was able to have a meal with her and her companions in Jerusalem a week later.

On the Sherut, the communal taxi which takes about ten people at a time from the airport directly to their destination, I sat next to an American woman with a baby, returning from a wedding in Montreal, whose husband is teaching at one of the Yeshivas in Jerusalem. Next to her was an Israeli neurobiologist educator, Orit Elgavi-Hershler, returning from her book launch in Tel Aviv. I took a picture of her book, which she had with her, and both of us began to ply her with questions about her subject, the latest methods for dealing with autism, schizophrenia etc.

Neuropedagogia: Where souls and education meet

But, the biggest miracle was about to unfold as I disembarked from the sherut minibus and was standing on the sidewalk of this narrow street with my two oversized suitcases, plus two big carry-ons; a woman stopped her car, parked it on my side of the sidewalk, got out of her car, and came over to me to ask me if I needed help with my suitcases!

I don’t know if this happens anywhere else in the world. It occurred to me as I arrived at my new apartment in Jerusalem, the Holy City.