Israel

Israel@jrf

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 12:59:39 -0400

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.

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

Salute to Israel Parade: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel

Jennifer Glowacki — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:09:36 -0400

Start: Jun 1 2008 - 1:00pm

End: Jun 1 2008 - 5:00pm

Register Online Now
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.

From its beginning in 1964, the Salute To Israel Parade has been a public affirmation of love and support of Israel, as well as an expression community among American Jews that transcends religious and political affiliations.

Reconstructionist congregations are invited to march together with affiliates from the JRF New York/New Jersey region. The parade will be held Sunday morning, June 1st and will make its way down Fifth Avenue from 57th Street to 79th Street.

The JRF affiliated congregations and individual Reconstructionist marchers will meet at 1:00 PM at the NE corner of 54th Street and Seventh Avenue. Once we gather there, we will walk together in our formation block to the Line of March (the parade line-up spot) that will be on 54th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.

Please contact Melanie Schneider at 212.870.2483 or by email at JRFNY@aol.com.

Commemorate Israel 60 / Shabbat Israel

Lisa Tuttle — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:59:09 -0500

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:

Zionism and Communal Covenant: A Reconstructionist Approach To Essential Jewish Principals An excerpt from the 2004 JRF Israel Policies Task Force Report

A Guide To Talking About Israel In Your Congregation By Rabbi Toba Spitzer

Reconstructionist Educators' Frequently Asked Questions on Israel By Rabbi Shai Gluskin, Rabbi Moti Rieber, and Rabbi Jeffrey Schein

JRF Resource library - Israel section

Pluralistic Judaism in Israel: A Report from the JRF Convention

JRF Omer Teaching: Beyond the Human Perspective, Rabbi Michael Cohen, Arava Institute, Israel

Rabbi Brant Rosen's Letter to Chicago Sun Times about Gaza

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:48:54 -0500

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.”

Critics of Gaza’s Hamas-led government blame the destitution on the firing of Qassam rockets into southern Israel and clearly, such attacks are intolerable. No country should be expected to remain passive under attack.

But are Israel’s economic blockade and military incursions providing the answer? Currently 860,000 Gazans – more than half the population – now rely on the UN for food. In recent military operations, some twenty Palestinians were killed, including a three-year-old girl. Israel may hope its tactics will turn Gazans against Hamas, but given the choice to hate Hamas or hate Israel, Palestinians will most certainly choose the latter.

Economic deprivation is clearly not working, and we know that there’s no military solution. As always, the only answer is negotiation, as President Bush indicated at the Annapolis peace conference. In the short term this means a negotiated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas; long term, it means a two-state solution.

This won’t be easy. It won’t happen in one step, and more blood may be shed. Bush’s path is far from clear, but those who support Israel must support his efforts towards peace and encourage him to follow up his words with strong actions.

Clearly, war and collective punishment aren’t the answer. If Israel and the Palestinians want true peace and security, the only solution will occur across a table.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Brant Rosen
Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, Evanston
Brit Tzedek v’Shalom Rabbinic Cabinet

JRF Calls on Congress to Support the Annapolis Peace Conference

Lisa Tuttle — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:17:34 -0500

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!

Interestingly, the letter’s chief co-sponsors are a Jewish-American and an Arab-American: Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York (who is also the chair of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East), and Rep. Charles Boustany, a Republican from Louisiana, respectively. Their joint leadership on this letter represents the first Jewish/Arab-led Congressional letter on Israeli-Palestinian peace in years, if ever!

The Ackerman-Boustany letter calls for "robust, hands-on U.S. leadership and diplomacy" and states that "resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, through the establishment of two states for two peoples, is too important not to seize the opportunities that have emerged over the past weeks."

The letter further calls for increased U.S. and international aid to the Palestinians to increase government accountability, public safety, job creation, housing projects, and economic development. It notes that these efforts, in addition to continuing to "engage with Israel" to release Palestinian tax monies and to improve “movement and access” in the Palestinian territories, can help create an atmosphere more conducive to diplomatic moves and preserve the possibilities for success.

At the same time, the letter does not go into the details that need to be negotiated. We believe that this combination -- support for the peace process, encouragement to the Secretary of State (at a time when other Jewish organizations are doing just the opposite), encouraging positive steps toward the Palestinians, but not attempting to micro-manage the negotiations themselves -- provides a basis for this effort's obtaining widespread support.

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

L’shalom,

Robert A. Barkin, President
Carl A. Sheingold, Executive Vice President

P.S. Please share this message with family, friends, and colleagues. (If you forward to friends in a different Congressional district, just have them call 202-224-3121 and ask for their own Representative.)

A Note from Israel

Isaac Saposnik — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:55:53 -0400

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.

During my all-too-short visit, I have had the opportunity to visit museums, watch movies, walk through beautiful towns, and just hang out with the teens. Group favorites from the past few days have included a home-cooked lunch in the Druze village of Osefya; meeting Murray Greenfield, an American who came to Israel before the creation of the State in order to help smuggle displaced Jews into the country (as he told us, he was "this close" to being a crew member on the Exodus); and a "scavenger hunt" through the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv. Perhaps the most exciting experience from the past few days was the morning we spent at Gadna. learning first-hand what it means to be a new recruit in the Israeli Defense Forces. The teens dressed in uniform, took part in field exercises, ate army "rations," and explored their personal responses to the army and its role in Israeli life. This powerful experience, along with so many others, is what this trip is all about; we are here to give our teens opportunities to challenge themselves to think in ever expanding ways about the place of Israel in their lives, in the life of the Jewish community, and ultimately in the world within which we live. As they enter their third week in Israel, they are doing this in ways that continue to amaze and please us more than we could ever have expected.

When I first met up with the group on Sunday night, we sat outside of our hotel in Haifa and discussed some of the highlights of the trip. I heard of visits to the Kotel (Western Wall), walking through the ancient water tunnel built by Hezekiah, learning about the pioneers of Israel from a phenomenal speaker, swimming in the Kineret, and the fun of a night in a Bedouin Tent before climbing Massada to the sounds of a live David Broza concert. The higlight that stood out most, however, came from one participant in particular. She explained that as she began walking towards the Kotel, a woman asked her where she is from. She told the woman that she is from the United States and that she is here with a group from No'ar Hadash, the Reconstructionist youth movement. The woman's response was simple: "Welcome home." This clearly touched the teen and her peers - everyone shook their heads in understanding as she told the story.

For our teens, the past two weeks have been a homecoming. (Worry not - they will still come home to your communities at the end of next week!) Know that, without a doubt, they will come home changed people. The experiences they are having here in Israel are truly life-changing and the way in which they are responding is truly holy. It is a deep pleasure to have had the opportunity to spend time with them over the past few days and I look forward to finding the ways in which they bring their new home with them when they return to the United States next week.

Through our time with these teens, we are all able to come home a bit to our country - and to ourselves. For both of these, we are most grateful.

Birthright Journal - Part 11 - On the Last Day: Jerusalem

Joe Getzoff — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:27:47 -0400

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.

There is a tendency here to feel at the center of the world. The Western Wall marks the outer ring of a Temple originally built at the spot of the biblical Binding of Isaac. And centuries later, when this would be ruins, on this spot where Abraham once raised a knife to his son, Mohammed ascended to Heaven and his followers would commemorate his apotheosis with the construction of the Dome of the Rock. Before and since then, this spot would infinitely change hands. If it is the center of the world, then the world is built on violence.

A British lecturer in Tel Aviv remarked on this. “I’d have liked to see Mohammed ascend to Heaven personally,” he said. “He’d be rising and say, ‘Well, guys, good luck figuring this one out.’”

I do not write a prayer this time. The Wall is crowded. A Hasidic rabbi is deathly ill and his congregation is here to pray for his health. The Hasids push up against the Wall, each struggling to find an open spot to touch, to nod their heads against while they pray. They recite Hebrew under their breath. A man comes up to me and starts speaking in Hebrew. I realize he is homeless and then he pauses and shifts into English and asks for change. His teeth are broken and yellow. I give him five shekels and he thanks me and says, “The air is cold for this time of year.” He rocks back once on his heels and wrapping a tattered talis around his shoulders, walks into the Hasidic crowd.

On the other side of this Wall is the Arab bazaar, a place we were told was too dangerous to visit, though the Israelis say they go there all the time. Behind me, soldiers with M16s pace up and down the marble, with and their backs straight and most of their faces shaved. They are all my age. Today, at Yad Vashem, our eight soldiers stood in a line as they sang the Israeli national anthem. Someone grabbed my arm, and I flushed, feeling awkward for singing an anthem outside the Holocaust museum. We had just walked out of the exhibit. I had lingered behind in the final room, a place called the “Well of Souls.” In the center of this room was a deep hole and above was a dome where images of the victims’ faces faded in and out of the interior. Circling the walls were shelves filled with binders, all information on those who died. There is space on the shelves for more binders. There are words inscribed on a small black plaque next to the well reading, “We are all seized with an overwhelming desire to write letters before we die.”

UntitledThe Kabbalic notion of creation is that we are inscriptions—reality is the lack, the space hewed out from God. God, Himself, carved from His body, we are the borders within the infinite, the tattooed numbers left behind on forearms as revenants. The center of this world is the Wall. It is finite, it is the ultimate religious reality but its back is up against another culture.

Running my fingers along the pockmarks in the Wall, I see the red creases that the phylacteries left in my arm, and like the new wall that crawls towards the center of Jerusalem over this Middle Eastern horizon, I realize that I, too, have been hewn. Tonight, as we float quietly over the Atlantic, I will dream of orchards and islands and lost and lonely shoes.

Report From Israel

Jane Susswein — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:54:52 -0400

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.

Ruth CalderonOne of the things I found most fascinating is how the language we use to describe ourselves and our religious practice simply doesn't translate in Israel. Words just don't mean the same here and there. For example, Ruth Calderon, who spoke at our convention in November, spends her life teaching Talmud and organizing huge Shavuot gatherings (4000 expected at the Tel Aviv Museum this May, and 38,000 on TV!), Havdalah services on the boardwalk in Tel Aviv, and more; yet she considers herself secular.

Steve Burnstein at Kibbutz Gezer's Kol BoI attended a service in Har Adar with Roni Yavin, who directs Elul, a network of Batei Midrash all over Israel. She and her family have just formed a group which celebrates Kabbalat Shabbat once a month at their community center. Her daughter and other 11-year-olds are preparing for Bat Mitzvah. I sat in on a lesson prior to the service; it was an introduction to the Sh'ma, which they had never heard!. They were astonished to see me wearing a kippah, and to hear me sing throughout the service. The melodies were more familiar than at many Reconstructionist synagogues in the States.

We then went home to a lovely Shabbat dinner, with the whole family singing as the platters were placed on the table. Shabbat day was spent at home, cooking for the week, entertaining friends, and going for a long walk. There is an “allergy” to anything that is called religious, since that term only described the Orthodox, yet their practice is more Shabbasdic in many ways than for those of us who attend shul each weekend. The search for new language to describe what's going on will be a long, but fruitful one.

Birthright Journal - Part 10 - Exhibits at Yad Hashem

Joe Getzoff — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:28:27 -0400

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

“To have stood fast through this and—except for cases of human weakness—to have stayed decent, that is what forged us. This is an unwritten and never to be written page of glory in our history.”
- Heinrich Himmler, Poznan, 1943

“I know that when I stand before God on Judgment Day, I shall not be asked the question posed to Cain—where were you when your brother’s blood was crying out to God.”
- Imre Bathory, one of the “Righteous Among the Nations.”

“Even back there, in the shadow of the chimneys, in the breaks between pain, there was something resembling happiness… For me, the happiness there will always be the most memorable experience, perhaps.”
- Imre Kertesz, Fateless

Birthright Journal - Part 8 - A Small World

Joe Getzoff — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:10:52 -0500

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?”

“Close to it.”

“Do you go to Chabad?”

“Yes. Sometimes.”

“What is the rabbi’s name?”

“Yitzak… Yitzak K—”

“Ahhh!” he says, looping the black leather around my wrist and then two fingers. “Little Yitzak!” He does not look at me as he says this. Only my arm.

The moment reminds me of when I was being interviewed by El Al security in Newark. A woman with a small frame and a shock of curly black hair asked me to which denomination I belonged. I had answered that I did not really identify myself with any. Her next question, monotone and rehearsed, was, “Are you a Bar Mitzvah?”

“Yes. At a reform synagogue.”

“Which?”

“Temple Emmanuel. In Cherry Hill.”

“Ahhh! Yes. Of course.” She made a few quick Hebrew marks on a form and continued asking me questions.

At first, I found the questions amusing. Did she actually know of Temple Emmanuel? Why was I being asked which denomination I came from? As she kept asking, I felt more uncomfortable. Why did she need to know? Was I not allowed on the plane if I wasn’t a Bar Mitzvah? What if her report of my denomination contradicted what I had said? No, I’m sorry, we have you down as conservative…didn’t you also go to Beth Shalom—? Sorry, tickets are only available for denominational Jews… Where do you live? Where are you from? To whom do you belong—
“Chabad and… where else? Somewhere in Cherry Hill, right?” The Lubavitcher tugged tight the phylacteries and pulled them hard around my ears.

Who wants to know?

…

When I fist met Yitzak, I was struck by how young he was and how he pronounced with such fervor and authority that when you slept at night, your weary soul ascends to heaven and there, God gives it a divine charge and sends it back to your body. While he says this, Yitzak’s thumb rotates in a counter-clockwise circle across the glass face of his wrist-watch. He points to the Hebrew letters in his small yellowed sidur and asks me to read the words.

“This is Modeh Ani,” he says, “the prayer to thank God for returning your soul to your body.” He says a line, “Modeh ani—” and I repeat, “Modeh Ani.”

When Yitzak’s son wanders into the room and stops humming and looks up at me with his big brown eyes, Yitzak says, “Say hello to Yosaf. Say hello to Yosaf, Leybl,” and hunches down to scoop his son up into his arms. Me, Caught Dovening

When Yitzak asks me what I think of the Gaza pull-out at the end of the summer, we are sitting in the dark. There is very little furniture in his living room, just a brown couch, a brown chair, scattered PlaySkool toys, and a picture of Rabbi Schneerson. When I say that I think it is a good thing the Israelis pulled out of Gaza, he cuts me off, and tells me that Scripture forbids Jews to return land. I try to say that somebody needed to do something to move towards peace, but he changes the subject, apologizing that he cannot bring me food. It is, after all, “a fast day. Today was the day the Temple of was destroyed.”

The sun is shining through the half-drawn Venetian blinds. Yitzak sits down and asks me, “Would you like to do tefillen?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

I have never done tefillen before. “I do not feel comfortable.”

“You do not feel comfortable?” His thumb moves counter-clockwise across the face of his silver wristwatch and he seems embarrassed, unsure of what to say next. I want to reassure him, to direct his attention elsewhere, to say, in a low voice with a practiced lilt, like Yitzak does when reciting Hebrew, “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”

…

The Lubavitcher takes the prayer sheet from me and gives it the next in line. He removes the phylacteries and they leave red creases in my forearm. “Okay. You are good to go pray now,” he says and begins wrapping another American’s arm.

At the wall, I am unsure of what kind of prayer to leave. Around me men, some in jeans and pullovers, others in long black Hasidim clothing, run their hands along the wall and tuck notes into creases. I wonder what they say.

I tear a page out of my notebook and quickly write, “Peace.” I fold it and fit it into the Wall. But, feeling, odd, or simplistic, I unfit it, unfold it, and add, “Shalom.” As it rains, the ink begins to smear, so I brush it on my pant leg where the letters run. I folded the page, once, twice, and tucked it back in the Wall.

Above, cypress trees sway in the wind and rain. The Dome of the Rock crouches opposite from an Israeli checkpoint on this side of the Wall. Off in the distance, I can see the Mount of Olives, and then farther, the other wall, constructed of gray concrete, wrapped in barbed wire, creeping towards the heart of Jerusalem