stepping on history

It's was 33 years ago, probably in July, that I took this towel. I was a young college student spending the summer in Israel, primarily on a Jewish Agency (Sochnut) leadership program. Part of my agenda was visiting numerous "important" people, and some of these had offices within the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem. I visited there often. I was delighted to discover that in the washrooms of the Sochnut a circular towel that could be pulled from within a box mounted on the wall was used for drying hands, instead of the paper towels that had already long been standard in North America. I don't take towels from hotels, but I knew I wanted a towel bearing the Sochnut title for a memento. Over the summer I took two. Even now, making this public confession makes me hope that, as with a previous confession, there's a statute of limitations regarding theft of this sort. In my defense I should stress that it's only because of my action that an historic artifact such as this has been preserved.

But there's something about being distanced from an object that gives it meaning. When we rediscover something we relate to it differently than when we encounter it every day. And that's why the fact that our number is no longer on that towel, but instead the mark of the kitchen, makes all the difference in my being able to tell this story.

My question becomes whether anybody else who, upon finding that particular rag, succeeds (with a bit of effort) in deciphering that it says "The Jewish Agency" on it, would wonder how or why such a rag would ultimately end up in our kibbutz kitchen.