Ya'akov and Me

The passenger window is tinted yellow from years of cigarette smoke. Running down the middle of it, is a vertical crack in the shape of lighting, probably formed either as a sport or in earnest as someone wrestled with a setback. The window is stuck midway up allowing for a blast of hot air with the familiar smells of diesel and earth to fill the cab. I was in a good stare as the terrain charged by, wondering which biblical figures walked here and which battles from the Old Testament were fought. But it is difficult to ponder these questions when my Israeli driver Ya’akov’s radio and cassette player screams with Anthony Newley’s torch song “What Kind of Fool am I.“ Both hands on the wheel, the ever present Marlboro dangling from his lips, Ya’akov belts out the tune, over-enunciating each lyric in his sing-along.

What’s in a name? Everything, apparently. Ya’akov -or for us none Jews “Jacob” - literally means “heel-catcher” or supplanter- a person who “lies in wait” for a situation to develop in order to take advantage of it. In Genesis of the Old Testament, Ya’akov is described as the person who wrestles with a mysterious man who turns out to be God Himself. That account perfectly describes the man sitting next to me singing off-key with Anthony Newley.

A man of small stature, Ya’akov is built like a brick house with hands like baseball gloves. His eyes are blue and clear in spite of all that he has seen and experienced. But it is also through these eyes that Ya’akov is constantly searching the horizon for opportunities. For some, pop culture is the demise of western civilization but for Ya’akov it was a blessing.

Ya’akov embraced western pop culture by teaching himself English off of Billboard’s Hot 100 music chart. That is why he strains so hard to pronounce each lyric. His accent is definitely Israeli but it switches to a bad Elvis impersonation when he curses out loud as the undercarriage of his truck scrapes the limestone rocks in the road. He still has difficulty with slang, like walkie talkies which we use on location. Ya’akov consistently would called the walkie talkies “okie dokies” .For the benefit of Ya’akov and to the last day of the shoot we would always ask if the “okie dokies” were recharged.

A veteran of the Six-Day War, Ya’akov has witnessed Israel’s history from the frontlines. It was in May of 1967 that Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser expelled the United Nations Emergency Force from the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt then amassed 1,000 tanks and nearly 100,000 soldiers on the Israeli border. In response, Israel mobilized 70,000 reservists, Ya’akov being one of them. On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a preemptive attack. By the war's end, Israel had gained control of the region and created a political tar pit that has welcomed every generation of world leader since. Ya’akov, on the other hand is just happy to have survived so he could drive media clients around Israel and sell cartons of Maralboro to the Bediouns.

We are somewhere on an old dirt road off of Highway 79 near Nazareth in Northern Israel. Ya’akov maneuvers around bombshell size potholes in his mini truck, which is full of camera gear and is swaying almost rhythmically to the cassette player. The goal is to find a location to film in the Israeli outback without power lines or any evidence of the 21st century. We find a spot, pull over, and true to our tradition, Ya’akov pull out a small backpack stove and proceeds to make us coffee. We sit on the back tailgate smoking cigarettes and spoon our thick black coffee. “Ya’akov” I say

“Yes Da’vid” Ya’akov replies.

“How about another song?” I ask.

Without blinking, Ya’akov bellows,

“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey

don’t you know that I love you?

In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby

Don’t you know that I’ll always be true?”

Standing in the middle of an old dirt road in the outback of Israel, Ya’akov sings and mimicks playing a vox organ in D minor. Jesus, Iron Butterfly.Of course, the song came out in May of 1968, right after the dust settled from the Six Day War-- a perfect time for Ya’akov to start learning English. As the sun sets and Ya’akov keeps rolling out the hits, there is nowhere I’d rather be.

“Hey, Ya’akov, hand me your okie dokie, I 'll change the batteries for you “