Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

We invite you to enrich your connection to Israel. This section provides resources for learning about current issues and contemporary culture, implementing programs in your community, traveling to Israel with other Reconstructionists and making personal connections with the people of Israel. Our aim is to provide educational opportunities and a Reconstructionist approach to important issues.

Contact us at Israel@jrf.org to share your ideas and offer suggestions.

Check out resources about Israel from the JRF Online Resource Center These resources include articles, lesson plans, bibliographies, Israeli Independence day rituals, community discussion guides and much much more!

Here are a few of our favorites:

• Zionism And Communal Covenant: A Reconstructionist Approach To Essential Jewish Principals, an excerpt from the JRF Israel Policies Task Force Report (2004)
• A Guide To Talking About Israel In Your Congregation
• Reconstructionists Educators' Frequently Asked Questions On Israel

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The Salute To Israel Parade, the single largest gathering in the world in support of Israel, will celebrate the milestone 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel on June 1 on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

In celebration of Israel’s 60th Anniversary, the Shabbat between Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha’Atzmaut has been designated as Shabbat Israel by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and will be commemorated in an array of events throughout the country.

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, as a member of the Conference of Presidents and a partner in this initiative, invites all JRF congregations to devote the weekend of May 9-11 to special programs marking this historic milestone in Israel’s history.

Here are some helpful links to support your Israel 60 / Shabbat Israel event planning:

Rabbi Brant Rosen: Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, Evanston, ILRabbi Brant Rosen, spiritual leader of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL was recently on a Brit Tzedek v'Shalom mission to Israel. Upon his return he wrote this letter to the editor of the Chicago Sun Times. (See Rabbi Rosen's blog, Shalom Rav).

For a full set of resources on Israel see http://www.jrf.org/israel

To the editor:

I recently traveled with a Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace) delegation to Israel and the Palestinian territories. We met with academics, peace activists, and politicians, including Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Prime Minister Fayad. Among other things, we learned much about the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, circumstances reflected in the 1/22/08 article, “Tens of thousands of Palestinians flood into Egypt through breached Gaza wall.”

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, along with Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, American Friends of Peace Now, The Israel Policy Forum, and the Union for Reform Judaism, is supporting the letter to Secretary Condoleeza Rice being circulated by Representatives Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Charles Boustany (R-LA), commending her efforts to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by convening an international conference this fall and calling for additional steps to ensure its success.

JRF echoes the plea in today's Brit Tzedek Action Alert: Your help is needed! Pro-peace, pro-Israel constituents need to persuade additional Members of Congress to sign on to the letter and demonstrate widespread Congressional support for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the Annapolis conference.

The letter closes for signatures on Friday, November 16th so please call your Representative and urge him/her to sign the Ackerman-Boustany letter today! Sample script attached!

No'ar Hadash in Israel 2007As I write, I am sitting in Ben Gurion Airport awaiting my flight back to the United States; I have spent the past few days with the 35 teens on the No'ar Hadash Israel Experience. First, let me say that they are all happy, smiling, and well cared for. In this last regard, IsraelExperts (our tour operator) has been spectacular at looking after every detail, and Roni and Derek (our American staff) continue to be among the most caring, thoughtful, and energetic leaders you can imagine. The group is truly lucky to have such a team planning and implementing this program.

SoldiersThe sun is going down on Jerusalem today. On Mt. Olive, the graves are silhouetted against the sky. We are back at the Wall and I do tefillin again. I am wearing a yarmulke I bought only a half hour before in one of the many small shops that pocket this quarter. This is the second trip to the Western Wall and this time it is warmer and the rain clouds have dispersed, leaving the sky a patchy mix of gray and light. There is a quiet urgency in our group, a kind of unspoken restlessness because we know that we have a half hour at the Wall before we climb back onto the bus for the last time and head out for the airport in Tel Aviv. I wander off and wrap tefillin like I did the last time. Twice now I have prayed this way and both times here at the Wall. When I get home, I will have to tell Yitzak.

Jane Susswein and Rabbi Amy SmallRabbi Amy Small and I met in Israel in March. She was on a trip with Makom, an effort to strengthen synagogue relationships with Israel. I was on a Religious Pluralism Funding Committee mission from my federation in northern NJ. Our interests were very similar, visiting projects which promote religious pluralism in Israel.

I stayed one night at Kibbutz Gezer with Steve Burnstein and his family. He is an RRC student who has made aliyah and is working for Israel Experiences, which plans tours for birthright and other groups.

Cemetary on Mt. Herzl“Slay them not… scatter them abroad.”
- St. Augustine

“This was a painful, surprising betrayal by a culture on which I had pinned all of my hopes, to which I had devoted all of my admiration, my heartfelt ardor.”
- Albert Memmi, A Pillar of Salt

Softly, softly! Let’s be silent!
Graves are growing here
- Shmerl Kaczerginsky, Vilna Ghetto April 1943

Wall and Dome“Where are you from?” the Chabad Lubavitcher asks me as he wraps the phylacteries around my arm. He hands me a pink sheet with the prayers to do tefillen.

“New Jersey,” I say. Behind us is the Western Wall. It is a cold and rainy day and the Wall is mostly bare and empty of anyone besides my Birthright group. Soggy paper prayers collect in tangled piles at the base of the Wall.
“New Jersey!” he says, his smile growing underneath his scraggly black beard. “Cherry Hill?”