Israeli Bright Light #9 – Bringing Jerusalem’s Minorities Together – Tehila Friedman-Nacholon (the last in this series)

28 Sunday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Israel/Zionism, Social Justice, Women's Rights

An Israeli Orthodox mother of five and a visionary out-of-the-box thinker and social activist, Tehila Friedman-Nachalon is one of the founders of the ‘Yerushalmit Movement’ that works to make Jerusalem an inclusive and vibrant city. She is a former Chairwoman of ‘Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah,’ a religious Zionist movement that works to strengthen openness in the Orthodox world and unity in Israeli society promoting pluralism and democratic values, is a member of the staff of a non-profit organization called “Kolot” (I.e. “voices”), and she is among the founders and board members of “Yerushalem,” a coalition of civic organizations working for an inclusive Jerusalem.

Tehila met with my synagogue leadership group earlier this month in Jerusalem and shared hers and her colleagues’ efforts to bridge the gaps that exist between the many different minorities living in Jerusalem. The greater goal of the ‘Yerushalmit Movement,’ she explained, is to help Jerusalem fulfill its deepest purpose and mission, to be a “City of Peace” in which all the religious, ethnic, and national groups can join in the pursuit of the fulfillment of common interests and thereby improve civic life.

The organization’s primary areas of focus are to strengthen the social fabric of neighborhoods, to cultivate women’s leadership, to empower residents in grassroots social action, to facilitate cross-community collaboration, to improve education, infrastructure, health and culture, to improve the quality of life for young families, to develop common language between many diverse groups, and to reclaim the public sphere as tolerant and pluralistic.

Tehila is on the staff of Kolot, a non-profit organization with the mission

“to create a moral, value-based society in the State of Israel that can be an example to all nations,…to train networks of leaders throughout Israel to use Jewish ethical principles as the basis for creating a values-driven vision for the Jewish State.”

Its seven pillars include:

“Principles of equality and justice, the role of dialogue and respectful disagreement as a basis for democracy, the importance of humility, modesty, and personal sense of mission for healing and repairing ourselves and the world.” Kolot insists that building “a homeland for the Jewish people in the land of Israel was never only about creating a place of safety and survival for Jews, although these were important aspects of the need for a Jewish state. The dream was … to build a model society based on Jewish ethical principles and spiritual ideals.”

Tehila spoke to us specifically about Jerusalem’s diversity of populations and how so often they either have nothing to do with one another or are uncooperative and hostile in relationship to each other. She compared Jerusalem to a pie with every slice representing a different community. Those members of their respective communities towards the crust are the most difficult people to deal with, the extremists and absolutists, who won’t work with other groups and who make life in Jerusalem so fractured, contentious, and balkanized.

Those in the pie’s middle, though a small group, are people open to finding common ground based on their shared interests. The Yerushalmit Movement has sponsored discussion circles and cultural experiences in West Jerusalem’s Zion Square that engage individuals and groups in dialogue and face to face encounters that dissipate barriers of fear that perpetuate conflict. It has sought as well to strengthen the LGBTQ community of Jerusalem, to re-brand Jerusalem not as a center of conflict, but as a center of dialogue and peace. From August to April 2016, the organization held 32 events in Zion Square serving nearly 10,000 people in collaboration with tens of local organizations, groups, and professionals.

The Yerushalmit Movement has also developed a women’s leadership program based in conflict neighborhoods that bring together women from across the spectrum including ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews to work on joint neighborhood projects that further the social good.

Tehila is a grassroots activist and organizer. I was so impressed by her vision, eloquence, dynamism, and humility that I asked her if she had considered running for a seat in the Knesset. She smiled and said she was thinking seriously about doing so – probably Yesh Atid. “Good,” I said. “The government needs more people like you.”

Tehila Friedman-Nachalon is yet another bright Israeli bright light who brings honor to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT affirms the preliminary injunction blocking President Trump’s Muslim Ban

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Politics and Life, Social Justice

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I am one of many Amici Supporting Appellees who signed onto the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals case against President Trump’s ban against immigrants from the six Muslim countries, and I’m delighted by Judge Thacker’s concurring opinion that Trump’s and the government’s reasoning to apply a ban on Muslims coming from the six banned countries “has not met the criteria it claims it used, and the reason seems obvious — and inappropriate.”

The relevant passage from Judge Thacker’s opinion appears on p. 137-138 of his argument, as follows:

The Government’s untenable position is made even worse by the fact that the Government’s purported justification for EO-2 does not logically support the ban it created. EO-2 reasoned that people coming from the six banned countries posed an increased risk of committing terrorist acts because, according to the Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 (the “Country Reports”), “each of these countries is a state sponsor of terrorism, has been significantly compromised by terrorist organizations, or contains active conflict zones,” and were unwilling or unable “to share or validate important information about individuals seeking to travel to the United States.” EO-2, § 1(d); see § 1(e) (citing Country Reports). However, given these conditions as the reason for the ban, and based on the Country Reports, two other majority Christian countries — Venezuela and the Philippines — should have logically been included. See U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism, Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 78–85, 297–98, 308–09, 314–15, 352, 380 (June 2016), https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258249.pdf (excerpts saved as ECF opinion attachment). Neither country is willing and able to help the Government verify information about people attempting to travel to the United States, and both countries have terrorist organizations operating within their boundaries. Therefore, applying the Government’s logic, the potential of a terrorist act from a national of Venezuela or the Philippines would also justify a blanket ban on all nationals from these countries. Interestingly, however, the CIA World Factbook reports that Venezuelan population is, at most, 2% Muslim, and the Philippine population is 5% Muslim. See Cent. Intelligence Agency, Field Listings: Religions, World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2122.html (last visited May 23, 2017) (saved as ECF opinion attachment). Thus, the Government has not consistently applied the criteria it claims it used, and the reason seems obvious — and inappropriate.

A victory for justice and the first amendment!

Israeli Bright Light #8 – Yad b’Yad (Hand in Hand) Bi-Lingual Jerusalem High School

24 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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As we walked the halls of the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School for students grades kindergarten through 12th grade (the school was founded in 1998 with 20 students and today has 696 students enrolled), the students were passing together between classes, laughing and talking as one might expect in any high school in Israel or America. But this is a different kind of school and there was much more than meets the eye here.

The students all appeared alike, but this is not a normal secular Israeli high school. It is a bi-lingual school, an experiment in bringing the diversity of students that live in Jerusalem together to learn about each other, to hear each other’s narratives, to discover the beauty in each other’s respective cultures, to work through stereotypes and prejudices, and to become friends and partners in a shared society.

The school is a microcosm of Jerusalem’s urban diversity and has students coming from Jewish and Arab neighborhoods all over East and West Jerusalem and includes Arab Christian, Muslim, Armenian Christian, Druze, Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, and Ethiopian Jews, and increasingly more religiously observant Jewish students.

The high school is like all good academic Israeli secular high schools, but Yad b’Yad includes what the directors describe as “a unique and supportive environment as our students become teenagers and prepare for life as adults after school, with dialogue groups, expressive arts, volunteering, and extensive civic studies.”

In the elementary school, all classes are taught by one Jewish and one Arab teacher. The kids learn Hebrew and Arabic, and the reality of racism and violence that characterize so much of the contact between Israelis and Palestinians does not exist here. It is what Mohammed Darawshe, the Director of Givat Haviva, told us is “a perfect model of a school in a shared society.”

Yes, Palestinian Arab citizens and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem have different perspectives and experiences than do Israeli Jewish citizens. But they talk and argue and listen and become friends.

I was moved deeply when I heard that during tense times such as the recent knife terror and the crossing points between East and West Jerusalem closed, Palestinian students living in East Jerusalem could not get home from school that is located in the southern area of West Jerusalem within sight of the Israeli neighborhood of Gilo beyond which is Bethlehem. So, what did they do? The Israeli Jewish students invited the East Jerusalem Palestinian students to stay in their homes until the checkpoints opened again. This could last days to weeks.

The school’s founders and leadership describe its mission as follows:

“Our Mission at Hand in Hand is to create a strong, inclusive, shared society in Israel through a network of Jewish-Arab integrated bilingual schools and organized communities. We currently operate integrated schools and communities in six locations with 1,578 Jewish and Arab students and more than 8000 community members. Over the next ten years, we aim to create a network of 10-15 schools supported and enhanced by community activities, altogether involving more than 20,000 Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens. Jews and Arabs – learning together, living together – and inspiring broad support for social inclusion and civic equality in Israel.”

Yad b’Yad is yet another grassroots effort to bring peace to the land of Israel/Palestine. Truly a bright light in our journey as a Temple Israel of Hollywood Leadership mission to Israel.

See the Yad b’Yad website for more information – https://www.handinhandk12.org/inform/why-we-exist

Israeli Bright Light #7 – Street Art and South Tel Aviv Galleries

22 Monday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Art, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity

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Note: To see the art I describe below, go to my Facebook page –

www.facebook.com/RabbiJohnLRosove
It isn’t graffiti. It’s street art, and there’s a lot of it in Tel Aviv’s Florentine neighborhood, a run-down transitional section of the seaside city that attracts hipsters, art lovers, and Israelis of every background and origin.

The art is painted liberally on the sides of buildings, in doorways, on lampposts, and on virtually anything stable in the street. This art tells many stories. Most of it is unsigned.

Niro Taub, an artist, and a graduate of the Faculty of Visual Communications at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design was our guide. As we walked the streets, he spoke of the combined currents of history, culture and society, the symbols that are uniquely Israeli and part of western popular culture.

Below are three examples:

The first is a Hebrew inscription over an apartment building door that contains the first three words of Psalms 137:5 (“Im esh’ka-chech Yerushalayim… – Should I forget you, Jerusalem,…”).

The Biblical verse continues (vs 5 and 6): “…May my right hand wither. May my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not recall you if I do not set Jerusalem above my chief joy.” (Translation by Robert Alter)

The second line reads “Zeh big’lal Tel Aviv” (It’s because of Tel Aviv).

Together, the Hebrew (written in a Biblical font) is this: “Should I forget you, Jerusalem, it’s because of Tel Aviv!”

The calligrapher/artist simply and poignantly focused on the wide chasm between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The ancient and holy city of Jerusalem is inherently conservative, constrained and fraught with tension between Haredi and non-traditional Jews, between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis, political right and political left. The modern largely secular Jewish city of Tel Aviv is far more laid back. It is alive with art, music, restaurants, galleries, cafes, high-rise coastal hotels stretching from Jaffa to the Tel Aviv port, and a beach community that draws thousands of runners, bicyclists, and strollers, young, middle age and old, every day of the year.

The second photo is a mural of a huge black horse (notice the small car at its base on the street) that was painted by an unknown artist on the side of this large building in the middle of one night. How he/she did it is a curiosity. We wondered what it might mean, but that is part of the appeal. The art is meant to engage the viewer to muse in one’s own thoughts and come to one’s own conclusions.

The third mural depicts seven internationally famed musicians, songwriters and singers who died from a drug overdose at age 27. Included in this rendering is Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse. The rubbed-out figure at the far right is the mural’s artist.

This street art creativity is, in my view, an Israeli bright light that’s not widely known or appreciated in the west, and it ought to be.

Israeli Bright Light #6 – An Ethiopian Israeli Woman’s Journey

21 Sunday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Stories, Women's Rights

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Batya Shmueli grew up living on the banks of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. When her family landed at Ben Gurion Airport in 1991, she remembers that her grandfather bent down and kissed the runway tarmac to express his intimate joy for the land he had prayed for his entire life. She recalls being stunned to see white Jews because in Ethiopia all Jews were black. With her family, she lived in a caravan adjacent to a small town in the Galilee.

As a teenager, Batya sought to fully identify as an Israeli girl and leave behind her past as an Ethiopian Jew. She recalls rebelling against her family’s traditions and taking on all things Israeli. She learned Hebrew, did very well in school, had lots of friends, dressed and behaved as young Israeli teens do. Her new life, however, contrasted dramatically with the traditions of her family and most especially with her beloved Ethiopian Jewish grandfather who was not at all happy about the changes he witnessed in her.

After high school, Batya served in Israel’s Navy with an elite naval commando unit. ‎When she completed her military service and before entering the university, she traveled to New York but felt overwhelmed by the city, and then west to Los Angeles (a bit less intense) where she lived for a year in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood populated by thousands of Jews. She worked at the Israeli Haifa Restaurant, made friends, and attended an orthodox shul.

Being far from her family and friends Batya yearned to return home. However, her grandfather, whom she loved so dearly had died, and she regrets to this day that she didn’t reconcile with him and thank him for the Ethiopian Jewish traditions that he sought to sustain in her family.

Batya discovered much about herself during her formative years. Especially, she learned what it means to be Israeli with Ethiopian Jewish ancestry and roots. She learned that everyone is accountable, that playing the victim to outside forces that sought to keep her down is self-destructive, that she could create her own life anew. She learned as well the importance of placing value in her ethnic and religious tradition yet at the same time to participate fully in the general Israeli culture. As a young person growing up in Ethiopia and Israel, she learned how important it is to clarify her goals, to learn as much she could, and to work hard to fulfill her dreams.

Upon Batya’s return to Israel, she entered the University of Haifa, received her Bachelor’s Degree studying teaching and the history of the Jewish People. She married, became the mother of three children, and now serves as Resource Development and Community Relations Manager for Yemin Orde Youth Village in the Carmel region of Israel where she is responsible for finding established Israelis who are willing to give their time, experience and capital to help the students and graduates of Yemin Orde Youth Village succeed in Israeli society.

Batya is a bright, wise, thoughtful, practical, kind, and loving woman. She is one of several hundred full-time teachers and staff at Yemin Orde and is a compelling role model for the 435 teenagers who live there.

The students come on their own from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union (Russian, Ukraine, etc.), Poland, Turkey, Zimbabwe, France, Argentina, Brazil, and other countries. There is also native Israeli youth who come to the village from broken and dysfunctional homes and from tough crime-ridden Israeli neighborhoods. For all of them (boys and girls ages 14-18) Yemin Orde is their home, the only safe and nurturing home they have in Israel. Even after graduation, they return and stay close to their teachers and mentors to whom they owe so much.

Batya told us that Yemin Orde helps students to become honest, responsible, and accountable for what they do and don’t do, to take appropriate risks and accept their limitations, to cope with failure, to handle themselves with dignity when they feel that their teachers, future commanders, and bosses don’t like them, to seek help when they need it from teachers and counselors, to refuse to think and act as victims, to look forwards and not backwards, and to pursue their interests with passion, perseverance and commitment.

The educational philosophy executed by talented Yemin Orde staff such as Batya actually saves lives.

Over the course of the 64 years of its existence, Yemin Orde’s graduates have served in elite units of the army, become leaders in Israel’s hi-tech industry, in the law, medicine, science, education, and business. Some have risen as political leaders and become mayors of towns and cities, and even as Members of the Knesset.

In her own life, as a teacher, counselor, and staff at Yemin Orde, Batya Shmueli is among the brightest lights that my synagogue leadership group met in Israel.

Israeli Bright Lights #5 – Five Young Progressive Activists

18 Thursday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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Temple Israel of Hollywood Leadership Mission before meeting with Members of the Kenesset

Ever since the 2011 Social Justice Protests in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities and towns that drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis from many socio-economic and religious backgrounds to protest the escalating rise in the cost of housing, food, health, and education, I have been particularly interested in what impact these protests have had upon the younger millennial generation of Israelis.

On our recent sojourn in Israel, I wanted my synagogue leadership to meet with young Israeli activists to find out, and so we invited five young women and men to join us for dinner in a downtown Jerusalem restaurant to talk.

The five are progressive activists ranging in age from their mid-20s to late 30s. The oldest of the group is Mikhael Manekin, a modern orthodox man who heads up a new initiative called “Israel Tomorrow.” He was a founding member of “Breaking the Silence.” Itai Gutler is a member of the Jerusalem City Council. Maya Peretz is the chief organizer of a labor organization called “Koach La-ovdim” and is an assistant to Zionist Union Knesset Member Michal Biran. Uri Keidar is a Jerusalem organizer on behalf of the American pro-Israel pro-peace group J Street. And Bar Gissim is a volunteer activist with the left-wing Zionist Meretz Party.

I asked each to introduce him/herself and explain what they do and why they do it.

The all inspired us. They are smart, well-spoken, sophisticated, politically savvy, and committed to the state of Israel not just as the nation-state of the Jewish people, but as a pluralistic, just, and free democracy serving equally all its citizens (Jew and non-Jew) and inhabitants. They are all political progressives, yet their concerns mirror those of Israeli society as a whole.

They spoke briefly about “hamatzav” (the “situation”) referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though all advocates for a two-states for two peoples resolution of the conflict, they are not hopeful an agreement will come about soon under the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who each are either incapable of leading their respective populations forward, or unwilling to do what it takes to do so.

As a founder of “Breaking the Silence,” an NGO of Israeli army veterans that has collected more than a thousand testimonies of soldiers describing their experiences in the occupied West Bank beyond the Green Line, I asked Mikhail what motivated him and those in that organization to speak out as they have (Note: “Breaking the Silence” has been targeted as an anti-Israel organization by many right-wing Members of the Knesset, though in truth these young women and men soldiers love Israel and want it to live up to the highest of moral standards and cease to be an occupying power over 1.7 million Palestinians living in the West Bank).

He said that his group believes that Israelis must confess and face the truth about IDF soldiers’ abuse of Palestinians in the territories, that this abuse defies the high moral standards set by the IDF and that such abuse compromises the moral character of the state and sullies the soul of Israel.

I asked Jerusalem city councilman Itai Gulter (a young man in his early 30s whose wife had just given birth the prior week to their second child, a daughter – he was very tired!), what he thought were the greatest challenges facing him as a Jerusalem City Councilman.

Many of Jerusalem’s challenges are similar to those in any American city (e.g. providing equal city services, transportation, housing, employment, and filling potholes, etc.), but he noted that additionally, the religious character of the city that is home to a very large and poor Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) population and a very large and poor Arab population are among the most pressing.

I asked Bar Gissim, a young graduate student and left-wing Meretz activist why she believed that Meretz has lost so many mandates in the polls (it once had 11 Knesset seats – it has 6 now). She acknowledged that the country has moved to the right politically, that the key issue on most Israeli’s minds is security and that the people crave a “strong man” as Prime Minister. I asked about the Jewish orientation of Meretz and whether its leadership may be losing a lot of Israelis because though most are not Orthodox, Israelis do identify with Jewish tradition in one way or another and that a complete lack of attention to its party as based in liberal Jewish moral values may lose many Israelis who might otherwise identify with Meretz’s political agenda. This is a criticism of Meretz I have heard for many years. Bar herself had not considered this.

Both Bar (a secular Jew) and Mikhail (an orthodox Jew), reflecting (I believe) the group as a whole, said that they do not act out of “Jewish moral values” per se, but rather out of democratic universal moral values.

I asked the group about the rising cost of living and how they themselves and young Israelis make ends meet. Though all of them live on their own and not with their families, they said that for them and middle-class Israelis, making ends meet requires most people to work more than one job and to depend upon multiple family incomes. At times, they confessed, their parents have helped subsidize them.

Our conversation continued for hours. The takeaway for us as American Reform Jews was that these young Israelis take seriously the obligations of citizenship and consider political activism and advocacy their civic and national duty. As such, they represent the best of and the hope of Israel.

We were heartened, as well, that these millennial Israelis were happy to meet with us who were so obviously interested in them, in their work, their values, their lives, what that think, believe and hope for Israel.

They are truly bright Israeli lights about which we American Jews can feel inspired and proud.

A Bright Light In Israel and the West Bank #4 – Rami Nafez Nazzal

14 Sunday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice

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Israeli Jewish tour guides are discouraged by the Israeli military administration from entering the West Bank to lead tours, so our Jerusalem tour operator (Daat/ARZAWorld Travel) engaged for us a Palestinian company “Beyond Borders Tours” and its founder, Rami Nafez Nazzal, to lead us.

Rami lives in East Jerusalem, carries a U.S. Passport, and is world-traveled due to numerous academic appointments, when he was young, of his distinguished professor parents Drs. Nafez and Laila Nazzal.

He was educated at the Anglican International School in West Jerusalem and later earned degrees in Business Management and Tourism from the University of Utah in 2003. From there Rami moved to Boston where he lived happily for seven years. But when his father told him that it was time for him to return home to East Jerusalem, he did so. Rami explained that when a Palestinian father makes such a “request,” the son complies whether he wants to or not.

When Rami returned to Jerusalem he founded “Beyond Borders Tours.” His facility with English and Arabic has gained him entry into many worlds. He is keenly intelligent, articulate and eloquent, good-humored and affable. His company grew.

Rami is also a journalist and regularly reports for Time Magazine, the New York Times, Reuters, and Der Spiegel on important stories related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His deep knowledge of the reality of Palestinian society enables his readers and those he guides to peer through a raw and authentic lens into the often difficult political and emotional terrain in both Palestine and Israel.

Rami was candid and honest with us, especially about the Palestinian predicament. He shared insights into Palestinian Muslim society, culture and family life and into the political, economic and social cross-currents that define so much of the life for Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank.

When Rami introduced himself to our group he shared his personal story as the son of academic parents. His first positive experience with a Jew wasn’t in Israel. Rather, it came in a close family friendship with the late Rabbi Leonard Beerman of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, who was my own childhood rabbi.

Leonard had told me about his and his wife Joan’s friends, Rami’s father and mother. As a child, Rami remembers spending time in the Los Angeles Beerman home. At the age of ten he first met Rabbi Beerman and couldn’t believe that Leonard was actually a rabbi not only because he didn’t appear Haredi, but because Leonard’s open heart to the aspirations of the Palestinian people, his principles, politics, and values were so unlike that of the Israeli Orthodox rabbis Rami observed in Jerusalem’s Old City.

I shared with Rami that Rabbi Beerman was among my most important rabbinic role models, and though Leonard and I didn’t always agree (e.g., unlike Leonard, I am not a pacifist), I loved and respected him for his principled life and remarkable rabbinic career, and I was touched by his pride in me which he shared so generously in his last few years of life.

Rami Nafez Nazzal is one of the very bright lights that my synagogue leadership tour encountered this past week in Israel and the West Bank. I recommend that anyone traveling to Israel also plan on spending time with Rami. You will not regret doing so. You can reach him through his website at www.beyondborderstours.com.

Israeli Light #3 – Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem of Holon, Israel

12 Friday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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Israeli Light #3 – Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem of Holon, Israel

I received two urgent emails on Friday morning, May 5, asking me to contact Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem, the Rabbi of Kehilat Kodesh v’Chol in Holon, Israel with whom my congregation was in a sister synagogue relationship. Both asked me to extend Galit my emotional support.

One came from Rabbi Nir Barkin, the Director of Domim, a program funded jointly by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) that links Israeli synagogues with Diaspora congregations. The other was from my ARZA President, Rabbi Joshua Weinberg.

Earlier that day in Jerusalem, Rabbi Noa Sattat, the Executive Director of Israel’s Religious Action Center, asked me to give Galit a hug for her that night when my leadership tour would be spending Shabbat with her congregation.

None of the three explained what had occurred that provoked them to reach out to me. I am well aware of how challenging Galit’s work is and I assumed they were just encouraging me to be as supportive as I could be.

Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem began this Holon Reform community located southeast of Tel Aviv five years ago. A thriving city of 250,000 mostly secular middle-class Jews, it is fertile ground for the growth of non-Orthodox liberal Judaism. Given Galit’s keen intellect, open heart, liberalism, and her infectious enthusiasm, if anyone can build a community there, she can.

Kehilat Kodesh v’Chol does not yet have its own building. It rents space for services and classes and has enormous potential to be a center of Reform Jewish life in Holon. Its congregants include people of every walk of life and many highly educated and professionally productive members. For example, the community’s chair is Heidi Pries, a researcher, and lecturer at Tel Aviv University School of Social Work. Her husband Ori is a lead web developer in a Tel Aviv-based web company. Another member, Anat Dotan-Azene, is the Executive Director of the Fresco Dance Company and her husband Uri is the tech director of a leading post production sound studio for Israeli television and film. Another member, Michal Tzuk-Shafir, is a leading litigator in the Israeli Supreme Court and was President Shimon Peres’ (z’’l) legal advisor. Her husband Nir is an industrial engineer working as an information systems manager. Galit’s husband Adar is the former chief inspector of civic studies and political education of the Israeli Ministry of Education and is the soon-to-be manager of teachers’ training at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In association with her congregation, Galit created a Reform Jewish elementary school that is a part of Israel’s national secular school system. More than 100 children are enrolled in kindergarten, first and second grades and a grade is being added every year.

Despite all the activity, Kodesh v’Chol faces substantial financial and space challenges because unlike Israel’s orthodox synagogues and yeshivot, the Reform and Conservative movements receive no government funds due to the political hegemony of the Orthodox political parties.

In the secular city of Holon, Galit did not anticipate what was to take place the night before my leadership group joined her for Shabbat services, which turned out to be the reason for the two emails and Noa Sattat’s concern.

Galit’s elementary school had been offered classroom space in a Holon public school for this coming year by the Holon municipality, and a meeting was planned on the night before our arrival with all the parents. However, four uninvited parents from the public school that was hosting Galit’s congregation’s school crashed the meeting and began screaming obscenities against Reform Judaism, Rabbi Cohen-Kedem and the planned-for presence of the students in the local public school building.

They viciously threatened Galit and warned that the children themselves would be in danger should the congregation’s school be on the premises. They said that they would spit on the children.

Galit confessed to me that she lost her cool, but when I asked what that meant, it was clear (recalling Michelle Obama) that though Galit was deeply offended and upset by the behavior of these parents, ‘when they went low she went high.’

Galit called the principal of the school and though apologetic and embarrassed, she would not take action against the offending parents.

Galit called the municipal authorities who had given the Kodesh V’Chol School its space and demanded that they find new classroom space. At this time, we are waiting to learn where the school will be housed.

I and our group were stunned, but in hindsight, we should not have been surprised. The Reform movement in Israel still has a long way to go in establishing itself as broadly as possible.

At the moment the Israeli Reform movement attracts 8% of all Israelis. According to surveys, however, when Israelis are asked about their attitudes towards Reform and Conservative Judaism, between 30% and 40% say that if there were a Reform or Conservative synagogue in their neighborhood, they would attend.

I told Galit how proud I am of her for the dignity and resolve with which she stood her ground and responded with moral indignation to those offending parents. I was moved as well that she placed the welfare of the children first. She refuses now to use this public school out of concern for the well-being of the children.

I also expressed my own conviction that this ugly incident could be a watershed moment for her community.

When word spread of the Thursday night encounter, many more families showed up for services. There were more than a hundred men, women and children singing and praying together. The children came under a tallit for a special blessing. Modern Hebrew poetry and music was sung along with music from the American Reform movement. The service was warm-hearted, upbeat and joyful.

Galit delivered a passionate and moving sermon based on two verses from the weekly Torah portion Kedoshim (Leviticus 19) – “You shall not hate your kinsman in your heart” and “You shall love your fellow as yourself.”

She did not mention the incident from the night before, but everyone understood the context of her remarks.

Galit represented the very best of Judaism generally and the Israeli Reform movement specifically.

That was a Shabbat service I will never forget and Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem has shown herself to be one of the bright lights in the firmament of Israeli leaders.

Israel’s Bright Light – #2 – Mohammed Darawshe

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Ethics, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Among all the remarkable people we met this past week, first among equals is Mohammed Darawshe, the Director of Planning, Equality and Shared Society at the Givat Haviva Educational Center located inside the Green Line in the middle of the country.

Mohammed had visited my congregation several months ago in Los Angeles, so when meeting him in Israel, it felt like two friends reuniting.

Givat Haviva houses The Center for a Shared Society which, as GH’s website notes “aims to build an inclusive, socially cohesive society in Israel by engaging divided communities in collective action towards the advancement of a sustainable, thriving Israeli democracy based on mutual responsibility, civic equality and a shared vision of the future.”

Givat Haviva’s work draws together neighboring Jewish and Arab municipalities to create ties and initiate joint projects in the fields of economy, education, and culture. It promotes joint educational projects and youth encounters, a joint industrial park, a river restoration project, establishment of a regional bike trail, and construction of a shared football stadium.

Every day, hundreds of Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab students mingle together in joint classes and in social contact on GH’s educational grounds. One project called “Children Teaching Children” brings pairs of Arab and Jewish students together in intense dialogue to break down negative stereotypes of each other.

Mohammed initiated a program to introduce Jewish teachers into regional Arab schools and Arab teachers into regional Jewish schools that resulted in a dramatic reduction of racism in those communities. Givat Haviva fosters understanding of the “other” national group and nurtures the feeling that there is, indeed, a shared destiny between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. So many of its programs rely on a partnership with mayors, municipal education department heads, school principals, administrators, and teachers.

One very effective program is called “Youth Delegations” in which three delegations of Jews and Arabs came together from local communities to interact with youth from Germany and Poland. The first European delegation visited Givat Haviva in early November, and the Israeli Arab/Jewish delegation visited Germany and Poland in late November. In Israel, the delegation focused on German Jews living in a Jerusalem seniors’ home and the students visited Yad Vashem. In Europe, the Arab/Jewish delegation toured Berlin together and focused on the plight of refugees of all four nationalities at the end of WWII.

The second delegation brought 18 Arab students from Baka el-Garbiya and Menashe who are active in youth movements with 12 German youth from the Einstein Gymnasium in Berlin. They spent 5 days participating in intensive workshops on “Dictatorship and Democracies – The Fragile Border between Them” and focused on the GDR period and democracy in Israel, Germany, and East Europe.

The third delegation, with 20 youth from Megiddo and Kafr Kara hosted their German and Polish peers for a week in December. They focused on “Dialogue Methods According to Martin Buber”, studied Buber’s biography and philosophy, and met with his granddaughter and great-granddaughter, Tamar Goldstein, a noted peace activist. They also met with Paul Mendes-Flohr, an expert on Buber’s philosophy.

Givat Haviva offers overseas English-speaking visitors Arab language study and to everyone studies in conflict resolution and mediation techniques.

Mohammed spoke to us at some length about a national study published in 2002 and acknowledged by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2007 that, indeed, Arab citizens of Israel are systematically discriminated against in virtually all areas of Israel’s national life even though they are granted equality as citizens according to Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

Fifty percent of Arab Israeli children live under the poverty line, so scholarship support, intensified Hebrew instruction, computer training, and classes given on the site of the Givat Haviva campus offer Arab students an opportunity to prepare themselves to succeed in an advanced Israeli economy and job market.

A special challenge is to raise the economic and employment status of Arab women through education, enhanced Hebrew language facility, all of which depends as well on building more child care programs in order to relieve Arab-Israeli women to be able to enter the workforce.

Givat Haviva has developed social and business programs for Jewish Israeli women to join in partnership with Arab women. One such program is called “Women cook for peace.” Meetings are held in each other’s homes to share traditional recipes, customs, holidays, cultures, and intimate social contact.

Another program brings together Jewish and Arab women entrepreneurs in a series of lectures about running businesses, accounting, taxes, contracts, and marketing.

Yet another program prepares Arab and Jewish women to run for public office in municipal elections by giving them the knowledge and skills to run campaigns, be effective in public relations, work with the media, to network, and fundraise.

Mohammed is the driving force behind much of what is taking place at Givat Haviva. Its programs have literally affected thousands of Israeli Arabs and Jews. He is right to pursue a goal in which equality between Israeli Jews and Arabs is achieved to stabilize and strengthen Israeli society as a whole.

Mohammed is considered a leading expert on Jewish-Arab relations and has presented lectures and papers at the European Parliament, the NATO Defense College, the World Economic Forum, the Club de Madrid, the US Congress, the Herziliya Conference, and Israel’s Presidential Conference. He is the recipient of the Peacemakers Award from the Catholic Theological Union, the Peace and Security Award of the World Association of NGO’s, and was the Leadership Fellow at the New Israel Fund.

Our time with Mohammed was inspirational for my synagogue group.

Rabbi John Rosove's Blog

Monthly Archives: May 2017

Israeli Bright Light #7 – Street Art and South Tel Aviv Galleries

Israeli Bright Light #6 – An Ethiopian Israeli Woman’s Journey