Fifty Years Later – A Time to Celebrate and Reflect

04 Sunday Jun 2017

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

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I remember well the anxiety I felt as a high school senior during those six days in June 1967 when the entire Arab world mobilized to destroy the State of Israel and push the Jews into the sea.

Knowing that Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and other Arab nations were preparing a coordinated attack against Israel, Israeli leaders took the tough decision to strike pre-emptively. Yet, no one was certain that Israel would or could survive. When the fighting ended, however, Israel had with lightning speed in only six days conquered the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, the Old City of Jerusalem and its Jewish Quarter, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Jewish holy sites that had been inaccessible to Jews during the prior nineteen years were restored to Israel, and the relief and euphoria felt in Israel and throughout the Jewish world were powerful and palpable.

The fiftieth anniversary of the war this week shines a light on the great diversity of views about the meaning of the Israeli victory that the war provoked in the Jewish world. Much has been written about the war, its origins and implications for Israel, the Palestinians, world Jewry, the Middle East, and the international community.

For the Jewish people, there were many undeniable positives – the victory of the few over the many, the reunification of Jewish holy sites to the Jewish people, the conviction that Israel was a fact of history and there to stay and that it would defend itself mightily against any foe, and never again would there be another Holocaust.

There is no question that the war was justified and that the pre-emptive strike was a necessity for Israel’s survival. Many believe that had Israel not struck first the Jewish state could well have been overrun and destroyed. And so, on this significant jubilee anniversary, we Jews are entitled to celebrate unabashedly that remarkable victory by the Israeli Defense Forces.

However, there are significant moral, political and historical consequences associated with Israel’s victory in that war. The wisdom of holding territory and ruling indefinitely over a hostile Palestinian population has been debated since the end of the fighting in 1967.

David Ben-Gurion urged the government at that time to give back the conquered territory or risk corrupting the moral character and integrity of the State of Israel. No one listened nor heeded his words. Instead, successive Israeli governments followed a disastrous policy of settlement building even though it attempted on several occasions to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians. The failure of those bonafide efforts has condemned Israel to perpetual conflict and endangers Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.

We in the Reform Zionist movement are not alone in opposing the occupation and supporting two states for two peoples resolution of the conflict because we believe that Zionism must be far more than justifying our physical presence on every dunam of what was once Biblical Israel.

Zionism is about reconstituting the Jewish people in our homeland, promoting the growth of Jewish and Hebrew culture, concretizing the great ethical principles articulated by the Biblical prophets, and promoting democratic principles as written in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

Zionism is also about caring for our people in Israel and around the world and reaching out to other nations in times of crisis and need. Zionism seeks to fulfill the prophetic call to be an or lagoyim, a light to the nations of the world.

Though Israel lives in the real world of competing political interests and in a violent and dangerous region of the world necessitating it to attend constantly to its security needs and the safety of its citizens, security cannot become an excuse for the oppression of another people and the denial of their national rights.

This fiftieth anniversary is an occasion for the Jewish people to celebrate Israel’s victory in the 1967 war and an occasion to continue to advocate on behalf of the best interests of the Jewish state by striving to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regardless of the obstacles that are so obviously in the way.

“Why Judaism Matters” Pre-Order My Book to be published September 26

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Book Recommendations, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice

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My book “Why Judaism Matters – Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to His Children and the Millennial Generation” is a common sense guide and road map for a generation of young men and women who find Jewish orthodoxy, tradition, issues, and beliefs impenetrable in 21^st Century society. By illustrating how the tenets of Judaism still apply in our modern world, I offer direction not only to my own sons but to the sons and daughters of Reform Jews everywhere. My sons, Daniel and David, have written the Afterword. The book will be published on September 26 by Jewish Lights Publishing (a division of Turner Publishing).

Why Judaism Matters -Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation

Rabbi John Rosove

6 x 9, 240 pp, Paperback, 978-1-68336-705-5

http://www.jewishlights.com/page/product/978-1-68336-705-5

Why Judaism Matters: Letters of a Liberal Rabbi to his Children and the Millennial Generation – Kindle edition by Rabbi John Rosove.

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

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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.