Today I feel that I belong

I, Yevgenia Dodina, born in Belorussia, daughter of Boris and Sarah and mother of Anna, a graduate of the Royal Drama Academy of Moscow, immigrated to Israel with a group of actors thanks to our teacher, director Yevgeny Arye. Together we established the Gesher Theater of Jaffa. I now perform with the Habima national theater.

This is the script I have been studying for several weeks. It moves me more than any monologue I have ever performed. It is the script reflecting the most important decision I have ever made.

My first performance in Israel was silent. Then for months I acted in Hebrew without understanding a word. I did my Hebrew apprenticeship with Tel Aviv cab drivers. They were my Israeli ears for whole monologues from plays I was trying to memorize. They listened in silence, not understanding a word of the concoction of sounds I tried to transform into Hebrew sentences.

"I beg you. Face your fate. Stand before the most horrible trials that still await you." This was the first sentence that prompted a reaction. The startled driver stopped his cab, brakes squealing, and asked in amazement, "But why, honey?" At that moment, I knew I would manage.

Even today, in press interviews, I always get the question: "Do you feel Israeli?" Eighteen years of living in Tel Aviv don't seem to entitle you automatically to an Israeli identity. I always ask in response: "What does it mean to feel Israeli?" I have never received an answer.

I am lighting a flame in honor of theater and in honor of aliyah. These are two things of which I am a part, and they are inseparable parts of Israel, of the same mosaic of cultures that makes this country what it is. Last week I appeared at the central Holocaust Day ceremony at Yad Vashem. Today, on the eve of Independence Day, I am lighting a flame for the State of Israel. I have still not gotten an answer as to what it means to be Israeli. But I certainly already feel that I belong.