The day after Maccabi Haifa beat Juventus in the UEFA Champions League, I wore one of their green-and-white jerseys to work—I have an embarrassingly large collection of them from all the time I’ve spent in Haifa. It was a great conversation starter with all the people I ran into, but there was always a little pause when I wondered if I should mention that Maccabi is an Israeli team. It’s not dissimilar to when British people ask me why I’m a Liverpool fan and after some hesitation I talk about how I started rooting for them when Yossi Benayoun signed there.
Every day is rife with these little hinges of decision points. Should I post about Maccabi’s win on Facebook? Yes. Should I change my profile frame to say “I stand with Israel” during rocket attacks from Gaza? I did. Should I retweet the Israel Defense Forces posts about the terrorists killed in Jenin? Did I? I forget. How stridently should I take up pro-Israel activism on social media? Tough one.
