Rabbi Carl Astor will be discussing a sample of Israeli short stories exploring the nature of being an Israeli, living in Israel, and dealing with the difficult realities of Identity, religion, and war in a Jewish state.  Surprisingly, these existential issues have not fundamentally changed over the 76 years of the existence of Israel, and what was experienced then is very much similarly experienced today. All of these issues reflect the struggles of trying to be a Jew, a Zionist, and a human being at the same time, a question for us to consider in our own lives. We will be reading stories by S.Y. Agnon, S. Yizhar, Amos Oz, and Etgar Keret.