Lady and the Tremp
Hitchhiking has been a significant feature of Israeli culture for years. Safety concerns have limited it over the last decade, but it's still going strong.
I’m a big fan of Israeli public transportation. Whether it’s the bus, the train, or the ever-developing light rail, it’s fairly straightforward to get from one place to another. Especially with Google Maps and the app, Moovit, it’s never been easier to navigate the Israeli cities and countryside.
Nevertheless, sometimes public transportation isn’t enough.
This brings two possibilities: a cab or a tremp, which is also known as hitchhiking. In a future article, we will discuss cab culture, but today’s focus is on the art of the tremp. Tremp comes from the German word, trempen, which means to hitchhike. The spot where people wait for a tremp is known as a trempiada1. Instead of the classic thumbs up for a ride, Israelis use an index finger pointed down. If that sounds odd, students also raise their index finger instead of their hand when they have a question.
It makes sense that music, food, and slang are elements of culture, but hitchhiking?
To this I will respond with a “yes!”. Hitchhiking is something that you will notice while here and it offers insights into Israeli culture and society. You can also find a disclaimer at the bottom of this post.
In American culture, hitchhiking is often portrayed as dangerous in movies and TV and the driver is often depicted as a shady character. The attitude towards hitchhiking in Israel is quite different and it was embraced in a widespread fashion for a while. You can still regularly see Israelis at roadside bus stops and exit gates of kibbutzim and moshavim hoping for a ride.
Over the years, the IDF has cracked down on soldiers who try to tremp and will arrest any who are caught. They are sent to military prison and can face quite serious consequences. This serious handling of hitchhiking is due to the concern for the safety of soldiers (and civilians), but it is a direct result of kidnapping by terrorists. Similar to other aspects of Israeli culture, this security reality and the prevalence of the military in regular discourse contributes to the general ethos here.
Operation Brother’s Keeper
In 2014, three Israeli teenagers, Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists. The search for them was known as Operation Brother’s Keeper and led into Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. As the boys were kidnapped through hitchhiking, the country became more careful with the practice. However, hitchhiking didn’t go away and it has bounced back in the years since.
“The murders of three innocent boys may challenge the appeal of hitchhiking on roads shared with potentially hostile drivers. Hopefully, it will end the bravado-driven nighttime hitching that would be a hazard in most places in the world. But getting into those two dozen cars, I could feel the sense of community and delusion of safety that drives each traveler waiting at the side of a West Bank road with a thumb out.”
-Daniella Cheslow, “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the West Bank”, Tablet Magazine
A Window into Israeli Culture
Hitchhiking, although given a bad name by the worst case scenarios, can represent an act of kindness. Someone is in need of a ride and a driver gives them one out of a genuine care for their fellow. It can often lead to enriching and random conversations that foster learning and even empathy for people of different backgrounds.
However, the official institutions in Israel continue to push against this common activity. The bus companies are serious enough about preventing hitchhiking that they “offer a 50% discount to settlement residents, in order to encourage them to take buses and avoid hitchhiking”2. That may encourage some to forego hitchhiking, but there are plenty of tremp requests that occur out of the range of the bus system. It would also seem that a price reduction is not strong enough to eradicate a deep aspect of how things have been done for years. Beyond financial and practical considerations, the act of the tremp holds a sense of camaraderie. It can be seen as a carpool of sorts where even though the driver isn’t your child’s best friend’s parent, there is a certain closeness that sets Israel apart from many (fully) western countries.
“Bottom line? Tremping is NOT a guerrilla act. It’s NOT a display of ownership. And it is NOT a right-wing or extremist statement. It’s a solution to a problem of poor public transportation and expensive cars. And the practice isn’t going away any time soon, though certainly extra precautions are being taken across the board.” - Laura Ben-David
Nothing like a personal anecdote to help the cultural lesson go down smooth.
A Personal Tremp Adventure
I’ve personally tremped a few times, mostly during my semester abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, but also during previous trips while visiting friends who lived outside of the city limits. My most recent experience came just a few weeks ago. My wife and I were on our way to a hotel outside of Jerusalem. The bus driver missed our spot after we gave him plenty of notice and our best option was to get off at the next stop. The only issue with that next stop is that there was no sidewalk or space to walk along the side of traffic. We didn’t know what to do until we remembered the good ole practice of old, the tremp. We threw down the index fingers and before long, a driver pulled over and we hopped in. The middle-aged man gave us a warm smile as he talked to his wife on speaker phone. She was matter of fact about him picking up a trempist and she stayed on the line. She mentioned something about it being nice that he picked up two mefunim (refugees from their homes in the South or the North of Israel) and gave them a ride. I blushed as we told them that were just two people from Tel Aviv staying at a local hotel. I was quiet throughout the ride while my wife chatted with the driver. At the end, my wife thanked him while I stayed quiet. He not quietly expressed, “Why did he not say thank you?!”. I was embarrassed as I try to show my gratitude (as it is proven to increase happiness, but also as a general practice). I’m not sure what we would have done otherwise. He saved the night.
Some have raised the alarm with tremps due to a fear for the safety of the country’s young people. Others will continue this age old ritual of sorts and rite of passage. There’s no need to convince those who think that it’s dangerous that it is safe, and those who hold it as almost sacred will probably not be dissuaded. It is important though to encourage those in the middle to be extra safe.
I am not condoning hitchhiking at all and certainly not encouraging it, but I am presenting it to you as a feature of Israeli culture that goes beyond the surface.
Song of the Week
ואיך שלא
Ve’eich sheh-lo
How could it not
This is one that I’ve listened to on repeat since its release shortly after October 7th. It’s a cover that comes years after Mosh Ben Ari’s cover of the Ariel Zilber song. It is moving with or without an understanding of the lyrics. Its rises and falls offer an emotional rollercoaster that resemble the emotions of many during these tragic times. I hope that it brings you strength and whatever else you might need.
Slang of the Week
דוגרי
Doo-gree
Straightforward talk (similar to ‘tachlis’)
Thank you for reading this week’s post. I hope that you enjoyed and that you will continue to enjoy. Wishing you a Shabbat shalom and a smooth weekend!
Credit for title: The glorious Lior Zwanziger-Gillis
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“Tips for hitchhikers”. https://travel.fandom.com/wiki/Israel/Tips_for_hitchhikers#:~:text=Such%20a%20stop%20is%20known,instead%20of%20raising%20a%20thumb
Steinberg, Jessica. “How hitchhiking became the norm”. https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-hitchhiking-became-the-norm/