Ofer Musan grew up doing the things many children in Westernized countries do. From watching Disney movies to listening to popular music to playing sports, he had the same interests as many other children his age in different parts of the world.
“Toy Story 2” was Musan’s favorite film as a child, he recalls. He played his VHS copy so many times, he wore down the video. His taste in music was broad, and included Elvis, Michael Jackson and the Beatles, among others. And when it came to sports, he loved to play basketball, despite his diminutive stature and lack of athleticism, he says.
Musan also listened very closely to his parents. Not that children in Westernized countries typically disregard their mothers and fathers, but Musan knew the importance of heeding his parents’ orders.
He knew his life depended on it.
Born and raised in Israel during what Jews call the Second Intifada – a major Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel – Musan says he couldn’t ride a bus due to concerns about suicide bombers, for example.
“And if you saw a bag in the street, you’d call the police,” he recalls.
Other than that, Musan says, he had a normal childhood. “I grew up in The House of the Three Kings – Elvis, Michael Jackson and Zohar Argov, the king of Sephardic music.”
If a Chattanoogan gives Musan, 27, a quizzical look when he mentions the last singer, it’s his pleasure to explain who Argov was. This can open a door to a conversation about Israel, he says, which is his reason for being in the city.
Musan is one of hundreds of “shlichim” living in the U.S. – and thousands living internationally – as part of a program through the Jewish Agency for Israel. Shlichim is the plural of “shaliach,” a Hebrew word that translates to “a representative sent on a mission to share a collective heritage.” Thus, Musan is an emissary from Israel who’s here to engage and educate the Jewish community about the Middle Eastern country.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga has been hosting shlichim locally for 13 years. Israelis representing a variety of backgrounds, including Ethiopian, Eastern European and Yemenite, have served here.
“We’re trying to show Chattanooga that Israel is as diverse as America is,” Michael Dzik, the executive director of the local Jewish Federation, says. “It’s a way for us to tell different stories and build connections.”
The agency will host Musan for at least the next year. While here, Musan will engage with local Jews through activities as simple as sharing meals with them in their homes and as substantive as hosting programs that inform people about events taking place in Isreal.
Dzik says Musan will essentially serve as a living, breathing piece of Israel. “It’s important for Jews to visit Israel, but taking everyone there would be tough, so we bring a piece of Israel to Chattanooga,” he says. “Ofer will work with our kids, teens and adults, and keep us engaged with what’s happening in Israel.”
Of incalculable concern to Jews living in Chattanooga is the war with Hamas, which began when the Islamist militant movement launched a devastating attack on Israel Oct. 7. (Many countries consider Hamas a terrorist organization, while other countries say that only about the organization’s military wing, according to the Council of Foreign Relations.)
Hamas is the ruling faction in the Gaza Strip – which together with the West Bank makes up the Palestinian territories in Israel – and is best known for its military wing and its armed campaign against Israel, notes an article in The Times.
Many local Jews know someone the conflict has impacted, whether it’s a friend who was kidnapped or killed, or a family member who’s been called to serve in the military, Dzik says. “We’re all feeling the pain,” he continues. “It would be like an attack killing 40,000 people in the United States.”
Musan is no exception. He arrived in the U.S. one week before Hamas struck. Within an hour of the start of the invasion, he’d received over 300 text messages. One was related to a classmate who was attending a music festival in southern Israel when Hamas began its lethal offensive; 24 hours later, someone found the young man dead near the site of the event.
A few days later, a friend of a friend of Musan’s was identified in one of the videos Hamas released of the Israelis it had kidnapped.
Although most of Musan’s immediate family lives in central Israel, and is relatively safe, he says, he does have extended family members who live in the southern region of the country. A cousin who lives in the city of Ashkelon was vacationing in Northern Israel when a Hamas missile destroyed his house.
Musan says part of him wants to return home to be with his family, but another part of him is determined to remain in Chattanooga to connect with local Jews, tell them his story, and support them during the conflict.
“My job is to be here and to help the Jewish community understand what’s happening,” Musan says. “They hear different things on different news channels but don’t understand the full picture. There are not many people here who can tell their story about growing up in Israel and experiencing this horrific war.”
As a “living, breathing piece of Israel,” Musan represents the character of the country and its diverse traits, says Dzik. His parents raised him in Ramat Gan, a city near Tel Aviv. Unlike the descendants of Jews who lived in Central or Eastern Europe, his mother’s family is Persian and his father’s parents were from Syria and Turkey.
“I’m a Sephardi Jew,” Musan explains. Sephardi Jews are a diaspora population associated with Spain and Portugal, and tend to have darker skin than Ashkenazi Jews, who descended from Jews who lived in Central or Eastern Europe.
“Someone could look at Ofer and think, ‘He’s not from Israel,’ because they’re used to seeing Jews who look like me,” says Dzik, an Ashkenazi Jew. “But Jews define themselves in many ways. Ofer has a different story than most American Jews.”
Music not only filled Musan’s childhood home but also captivated his thoughts as he entered adulthood. He learned to play guitar, piano, drums and various percussion instruments, and even took classes at a music academy in Israel.
Musan also immersed himself in his country’s Youth Movement, an organization that furthers the social and ideological development of Jewish children. Through Youth Movement, adults mentor teenagers, who in turn mentor adolescents. Musan began attending Youth Movement in earnest at the age of 15 and continued to participate in the organization until his early twenties.
“You have a group of friends who meet each other once or twice a week, depending on how old you are, and someone who mentors you and teaches you values and points of view,” he explains. “I learned about equality and accepting people who are not like me, and to not ... (isolate) myself but to be a leader in my community.”
After serving in the Israel Defense Forces (a requirement of all Israeli youth and a period of time Musan declines to discuss), Musan became a Youth Movement mentor in a Bedouin village with 300 children and teens. While there, he worked with Muslims, Jewish immigrants, children of foreign workers and refugees from varied backgrounds.
“We call ourselves an immigrant state,” Musan explains. “Everyone who lives in Israel came from somewhere else.”
To perform his role, Musan learned to speak Arabic, and then used the language in everyday conversation for three years.
“I didn’t know Arabic before I arrived,” he says. “I learned as I went, which was fun.”
Musan also learned to introduce himself in 18 languages, including French, Palestinian Arabic, Sudanian Arabic, Israeli Arabic, Mandarin, Tagalog (the primary language of the Philippines) and different versions of Spanish, among others.
Musan’s service as a shaliach in Chattanooga follows on the heels of his time with the Youth Movement. Every year, over 10,000 Israelis apply to participate but the Jewish Agency for Israel selects only a small percentage.
After training at The Shlichut Institute, these young men and women then serve in synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, universities and more around the world. There, they engage with Jews and non-Jews about Israel, teach Jewish heritage, and speak about issues related to national and religious identity.
Musan applied after he spotted an ad about becoming a part of a Jewish community in the U.S. on Facebook.
Ann Treadwell, program director for the local Jewish Federation, says Musan’s mentoring experience convinced the agency to chose him as its new ambassador.
“We try to show the diversity of the people who live in Israel, so Ofer’s personal background interested us. We also liked his musical background. He’s a good fit.”
In addition to interacting with the local Jewish community, Musan will be working Christians United for Israel to arrange talks at churches and civic organizations in the Chattanooga area. For example, next week, he and Dzik will be meeting with students at Lee University.
To arrange an engagement, call the Jewish Federation of Chattanooga at 423 493-0270 and ask for Treadwell, or email Treadwell at atreadwell@jewishchattanooga.com.
Musan has just one request: be patient with his English. “I have been here for only three weeks. I learned the word for ‘cane’ only yesterday. But I am doing my best.”
If the Three Kings could see him in action, surely they’d agree.