Beth Sholom in Israel: Daily Perspectives
Rabbi Amanda Russell is currently leading a group of 16 Beth Sholom congregants on a solidarity mission in Israel to learn, witness, and hear stories of all perspectives. Follow along their journey through the lens of a different participant each day in this blog series.
Day 1: Arriving and Setting Intentions by Rabbi Amanda Russell
Day 2: Witnessing October 7th by Alexa Summer
Day 3: Bring Them Home Now by Mark Gunther
Day 4: Full Body and Full Senses by Adam Lowy
Day 5: We Need Shabbat by Liz Noteware
Day 6: A Special Shabbat by Michael Rapaport
Day 7: A Final Reflection from Israel by Rabbi Amanda Russell
A Final Reflection from Israel
As our group walked the paths of devastation at Kibbutz K’far Azza, I realized in that moment that I carried a lot of responsibility. I watched the reactions of our group participants, wondering to myself how each was internalizing this pain.
I have walked the rows at Auschwitz. I know the feeling of sitting at a memorial site to mourn lost lives. But this? This was raw. Our guide, Chen, grew up on this Kibbutz, and now she is one of twenty people who have returned. She told us the story of her elderly father who survived three times on October 7th. Once when he came back early from a walk with a friend only to miss the terrorists’ breach of the fence by a few minutes; then when he left his safe room to go check on his daughter only to come home and find his home torn apart; and again when the terror attack was over. And as we walked through this once lively Kibbutz, now the site of a massacre, my heart ached as I worried about putting this trauma on my fellow travelers. I wondered if this was the right thing to do — for Chen and for us.
Our trip was intensely packed — logistically and emotionally. It is hard to unpack all that we saw, heard and witnessed in four days. It is also hard to imagine that the people we met, all coming from different backgrounds, each with different perspectives, could share anything in common. But each person who spoke with us — Israeli, Palestinian, Arab-Israeli, Jew, Muslim — thanked us profusely for coming. They didn’t have to share optimism, they simply shared their truth. And every person expressed gratitude that we were there.
Reflecting back on all that we experienced in those few days in Israel, I feel confident that going there was not only the right decision, it was the responsible decision. I do not feel optimistic about what comes next, but I feel like we offered the most meaningful gift that we could - support, attentiveness, sometimes hugs, alongside endless compassion. We learned a lot! And, sometimes, showing up and facing the facts head on is what’s needed to grapple with what comes next.
I feel so immensely proud — proud that we boarded the plane to Israel in an incredibly difficult moment, proud that we heard such diverse speakers and that we were each open and engaged and ready to listen, and proud that we brought comfort and strength to so many of the people that we encountered along the way. The trip was more impactful than I could have imagined.
In the coming weeks and months our group hopes to share our experiences with you — our Beth Sholom community. Please look forward to an opportunity soon to hear from us. We are also thinking about how to bring some of our experiences to the community through learning, engagement and dialogue. If you have interest in being a part of that conversation — the future of Israel programming at Beth Sholom — please reach out. And if you are considering a trip to Israel, I urge you to go. I don’t think you will regret it.
As we are taught in Pirkei Avot, “mitzvah goreret mitzvah” — one good deed leads to another. May each of us continue to show up for one another, striving for more mitzvot in our community and in the world.
Written by Rabbi Amanda Russell — May 26, 2024
Day 6: A Special Shabbat
There is nothing quite like Jerusalem on a Shabbat morning. The streets are largely devoid of cars but filled with families walking to the many and varied Shabbat morning services. The focus on being together, worshiping with each other and the serenity of the day are apparent everywhere. As Israelis and Jews attempt to navigate this difficult time in our history, it seems appropriate to focus on our traditions of prayer and family that have brought us through other tough times.
Shabbat was also our last day in Israel – in fact, I am writing this on our flight back. So, there was time set aside in our schedule to enjoy three more incredible Israeli meals as well as time to pack the many treats we bought during our stay here. I think we all helped the Israeli economy, as everyone’s suitcases seemed fuller and heavier on the way home than they were on the way here.
We began the day by taking a beautiful, 40-minute walk to the Arazim School where Kehilat Klausner (a halakhic and egalitarian Jewish community) hosted us (and teens from partnership minyanim around Israel) for Shabbat morning services. The service leaders and Torah readers were all teens – both men and women sharing the duties equally. We were warmly welcomed as their guests from San Francisco and Rabbi Russell represented us all by taking the sixth Aliyah during the Torah service. The place was packed to the gills and filled with young families and lots of children running around throughout the morning. I was particularly struck by the intensity with which the congregation sang Avinu Shebashamayim — the same prayer for the State of Israel that we also recite each day at CBS morning services.
After services, we all returned to our hotel for a group Shabbat lunch where we were joined by Eliav and Maor and their three girls, our hosts at Kehilat Klausner and cousins to CBS congregant, Joel Susal. Following some time to rest, Lital (our tour guide for the entire week) took us on a short walking tour of the neighborhood around the Montefiore Windmill. Lital shared the history of this first neighborhood built outside the walled city of Jerusalem in the 1860’s. We also paused a few times to read the poetry of Yehuda Amichai and discuss how the words of these poems augmented the beautiful views of Mount Zion and our trip to Israel overall.
Over dinner, the group reflected on our week together by each answering the question: What surprised us the most during our trip. Everyone had a different answer, as there were many surprising moments, comments and observations from the past week. But we all agreed that coming to Israel was tremendously important and we are glad that we made the trip.
Shabbat ended around 8:15pm where we gathered in the hotel’s lower lobby for Havdalah and then it was back on the bus for the drive to Ben Gurion airport, saying L’hitraot to Lital and our bus driver Eli, experiencing the chaos and crowds of El Al’s terminal, and seeing San Francisco friends - the Brandeis 8th graders and their chaperones as they also concluded their Israel trip.
Everyone we met this week in Israel was so glad that we made the trip and gave us a lot to think about. One thing that they asked us to do is to remember the hostages — and as we walked down the long corridor from security to our departure gate, we passed posters of each hostage. Written on many of them was the following line: “I’m waiting for you to come back”. While that was clearly a message for the hostages from their loved ones, it could have also been a message to us visitors from the Israeli people.
Written by Michael Rapaport — May 25, 2024
Day 5: We Need Shabbat
After our day of easy tourism, it was back to the sobering business of talking to people engaged in the struggle of this region, called “dilemma travel” by our tour operator. We drove past Bethlehem to the West Bank town of Gush Etzion. We left the highway at a junction that looks like any exit off of 101, but this one sees frequent skirmishes between Israeli military and West Bank residents. A few hundred yards from this hotspot is an organization housed in a farm-like setting called Shorashim (Roots).
Roots was founded to create opportunities for dialogue and for living out a shared society between Israeli Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank. The project was inspired by a charismatic Rabbi who espoused “praying with one’s eyes open” - seeing the world as it actually exists, with its overlapping claims and contradictory realities all being part of God’s truth. Jewish settler Shaul, explained to us that it’s a “messy” project that, in part, brings religious belief into the peacemaking project. The humanistic approach - “aren’t we all human beings?” - has failed because the residents of this area feel an ancient, religious connection in their bodies to the land; their religious identity as Jew or Palestinian is more central to their core than their generalized humanity. A refrain in these parts is “The Oslo Accords were a decision our heretics made with your heretics.”
Roots members take frequent small actions to connect the two communities, showing up for hospital or bereavement visits across communities and intervening when Palestinians are blocked from their property by Israeli action.
We next heard from Noor, who challenged some points of view I’ve heard expressed: “There’s no Palestinian people or nation — they’re just Arabs. Why can’t they go live in any of the 22 Arab countries?” Noor’s family has generational roots in land they can no longer access. He feels the Zionist project erased the existence of families like his. What he found at Roots was Israeli Jews willing to acknowledge the legitimacy of competing claims for the land; the reality of 1948 as a catastrophe for Palestinians. At Roots, he can find partners that don’t deny his experience, and to whom he can extend his compassion and empathy as well. However, he is feeling limits on his empathy following October 7 as the assault on Gaza continues. He finds the US-based university protests in support of Palestinians meaningful, even if American students don’t understand the nuances of the situation.
The Roots folks said they had a “fanatical belief in change” and had rejected fatalism, but it seemed that the connections they had forged between the settler community and Arab West Bank residents are so fragile as to be in serious peril. Shaul said he wasn’t sure if they were Atlas shouldering the world or Sisyphus endlessly pushing the rock up the hill.
We then whiplashed into a totally different kind of experience at Jerusalem’s shuk. It was packed with people getting ready for Shabbat. The spices and candies did not disappoint. Adam took me to a restaurant he frequented as a college student which served simple, delicious hummus and mujadara, all served by harried and hilarious old men who were quick to tease us for eating more than our share of pickles.
Next was the archetypal Jerusalem activity, visiting the Kotel. We walked by the mixed-gender area (deserted) and went on to our separate sides. Our group had a variety of experiences, from feeling nothing to feeling deeply moved. As a non-Jew, I don’t have centuries of connection to the wall, but I find it almost sizzling with energy of some kind. My parents have been there, too, and just knowing I was touching a place that they had also touched, and knowing they had been moved, was meaningful to me.
As a small postscript, my favorite things about this trip have been (1) noticing the presence of pitchers for netilat yadaim (hand washing) in Every. Single. Bathroom, and (2) singing Shaharit on the bus. These have reminded me of the potential for holiness in every moment and place.
Written by Liz Noteware — May 24, 2024
Day 4: Full Body and Full Senses
As you may know, I strive to offer a variety of Jewish multi-sensory learning experiences to our community, especially the youth. Today, in Israel, we did that with great intention! Our guide Lital told us it would be a “lighter” day, a day to enjoy the city and to have fun. So, we embarked on a full body, full sensory journey through Tel Aviv. It was a hot, hot day from the get go - our bodies were immersed in the heat and it was intense. Fortunately, we started at the air conditioned Anu Museum in Tel Aviv. Anu is the Hebrew word for “we” or “us” and the museum is a celebration of the Jewish people through modern history. Using every medium imaginable we engaged with Judaism — art, dance, music, theater, comedy, movies and architecture. It was a great way to start the day — a true celebration of the Jewish people in Israel and around the world and our group beamed with pride as we left the museum.
We then headed to the neighborhood of Florentine in the southern part of Tel Aviv. It's the industrial district and it is the canvas for some of the most incredible graffiti and street art that you will find anywhere in the world. It was an incredible tour — colorful, powerful, political, and simply brilliant. The street artists of Tel Aviv are an incredible group and it was an honor and blessing to witness the creations, and to be able to see how they're expressing themselves since October 7th. Our sensory tour of Tel Aviv continued at the Levinsky Balkan Spice Market, this time it was all about taste! We sampled some of the most unbelievable and fabulous foods that I've ever had in Israel. We were greeted with a giant cup full of soda water stuffed with vegetables and fruits — kale, fresh mint, burnt lemon, grapes, watermelon — it was delicious and it was insane, and that was just the beginning! A platter of Turkish food came out and it was unbelievable, highlighted by a full hibiscus flower that had been pickled and stuffed with a delightful goat cheese. Then we sauntered not even half a block to a burrekas spot, aka heaven on Earth, and had some of the most delicious, flakey and traditional burrekas that I've had. The tasting tour continued, we made our way down the street and ate purple kreploch dyed by beet juice and fermented stuffed cabbage. Any excessive tour of eating savory delights needs to end with a sweet treat, so our tasting tour ended with special donuts that culminated a beautiful day of eating, enjoying and celebrating the diverse food culture that you will find all over Israel. We were hot, stuffed and exhausted, got on the bus and drove to Jerusalem. We settled into our hotel, met for another delicious dinner and the sensory party was not quite over! At our hotel we had a seven-flight wine tasting of all sorts of Israeli wines that were special, unique and made from indigenous grapes that were hundreds of years old. Our time in Israel has been incredible, powerful, inspirational, intense and wonderful. Our senses, spirits, minds, bodies and souls were stimulated to a great degree today and I hope when you come to Israel your full self will experience the same!
Written by Adam Lowy — May 23, 2024
Day 3: Bring Them Home Now
After an interesting late evening discussion in the bar about how to share our experience back home, the next morning we heard from Dahlia Scheindlin, political scientist, consultant and journalist (and lifelong friend of Adam Lowy), with a smart, incisive and sobering analysis of where Israel stands now. Like most of the people we met here, she sees Israel standing at a dangerous crossroads. She finds some hope in organizations that are working for a shared future with Jews and Arab citizens of Israel, and between Israel and Palestine.
It was a good segue to our next meeting at Givat Haviva with its Israeli Arab director, Mohammad Darawshe. This strong, influential organization’s mission is to create a shared society in Israel for all its citizens, Jews and Arabs. Among other programs they run a school that co-educates young Jews and Arabs, and train teachers of each ethnicity to work in the other’s school systems (which are separate here). He was full of impressive statistics documenting the advance of Israeli Arabs in many professions. A lovely and inspiring man who we hope to bring to CBS on his next tour of the U.S.
Then it was back on the bus for a stop at a roadside service center for lunch before a visit to Ahim Laneshek, aka Brothers and Sisters in Arms. This group of reservists formed to resist last year’s judicial reform proposals, and were the key organizers and motivators of the massive pro-democracy demonstrations. On October 7 in a flash, they became the largest, most effective and best supported direct aid organization in the country, coordinating 15,000 volunteers and working to identify the dead and the missing, find transport and accommodations for survivors, and collect and distribute everything from food, clothing, and toys, to medical supplies and even furniture and appliances for mourning tents. They are not abandoning their political work, however, and have separated the direct aid and political activity into two organizations. A tremendous positive energy flowed in this office, and they will continue to fight hard to preserve Israeli democracy.
Our next stop was “Hostage Square,” where the families of the hostages maintain a permanent presence within spitting distance of IDF headquarters. The square has many art pieces ranging from the famous Shabbat table to a walkable tunnel lined with hostage photos, backed with an eerie soundtrack that gave a sense of the terror and despair the hostages must be living with. A large area with several circles of chairs allowed groups like ours to speak with people, and we met the grandfather of hostage and musician Alon Ohel (find him on Instagram). This man’s simple but profound longing for his grandson brought the geopolitical reality down to its emotional core. The whole place is very moving… and enraging. Bring Them Home NOW!!!!!
The day ended with dinner with Danny Camron, a 45-year soldier and ambassador (including five years at the UN). His three organizations include Commanders for Israel’s Security, an ever-growing group of retired senior officers resisting the current government and supporting peace, reconciliation and democracy, and a group of 50-plus retired ambassadors who can open informal international diplomatic links bypassing the current government’s toxic international status. Lots of detailed conversation here, but he basically believes Bibi has gone off the deep end and placed the country under severe threat, although the core of what Israel can be remains strong. Depressing, to some degree, but also representative of what Israel can be as a country and a moral force in the world.
A powerful, whirlwind day. The country remains the dynamic and maddening place it has always been. Here in Tel Aviv there is construction everywhere, dozens of cranes in every direction, lots of traffic, people in the streets—yet the war hangs over everything. All we can do is be hopeful and supportive. Several of the people we met today had spent time in the Bay Area, either at Cal for grad school or for work, so some Jewish Geography got played. Overall, this day left me feeling hopeful, meeting so many people who believe Israel can fulfill its promise and are doing the work necessary to help bring it about. Each person (except Mohammed, who didn’t really talk about it) thinks the current government has botched the war, diplomacy and domestic relations, but they were elected! All they can do is to increase the internal pressure on Bibi enough to force a change in policy (unlikely) or a no confidence vote and early elections or a new coalition government. The 2-state solution, separation from whatever “Palestine” becomes, is the light at the end of the tunnel, except there is no tunnel…
Without exception every single person we met has expressed how important it is to them that we are here — that the support means the world to them. And despite their problems, they also wanted to know how we were doing! Truly a powerful day.
Written by Mark Gunther — May 22, 2024
Day 2: Witnessing October 7th
Today was perhaps the most intense day we will experience on the trip, because it brought us to several sites of attacks on October 7, as well as very close to Gaza itself.
After an early breakfast in Tel Aviv and morning prayer, we drove to volunteer at a farm in Kibbutz Klahim, where half of us boxed cabbages and the other half, cantaloupe. Our guide shared the meaningful impact that volunteering on farms has after October 7 because there was an ecosystem of workers in the Western Negev — where much of Israel’s produce is grown — that no longer exists after the attacks.
We then went to Sderot, where an incredible speaker, El’or, took us through the experience of residents of Sderot on October 7, including his own experience. El’or is a Magen David Adom medic, and on October 7, hearing the sirens early in the morning, he set off from his family – a wife and 5 young children – and once he realized the terror sieges underway in the city, attempted to rescue as many wounded as possible, though that was not possible for many. He told us vivid stories of several families and of the siege at police headquarters, which the Israeli military eventually demolished rather than risk more lives trying to retake it. Now, it is an empty lot with a memorial sign, and two murals (with bullet holes throughout) have been painted on surrounding buildings, evoking pride and commemorating the heroes of Sderot from that day.
We next went to Kibbutz K’far Azza. Many of you recall hearing the story of this Kibbutz from the Zoom call held in January with two of its members, Orit and Keren. Our kibbutz guide, Chen, has been a resident for many years, along with her family members, and she is one of 20 people now living at the kibbutz, which once housed over 900 people. One cannot easily recapture hearing her talk about her experience and the experience of so many who were there on October 7. Many houses are destroyed or shells of their former selves.
Gaza is less than one mile away from K’far Azza. We could see — beyond the fence to the kibbutz that was breached — the Gaza wall itself, and buildings in Gaza in the distance.
For much of the day we smelled smoke, heard bombing, and at some times saw tanks and helicopters. Since the sirens sound on average once a day in these areas, indicating incoming rockets, we were briefed at every stop on safety protocols should we hear a siren. Thankfully, the sirens did not sound while we were there.
The bombs were loudest at our next stop at the Nova Music Festival site. Here, many people were sexually assaulted on October 7 and, here too, many were killed and taken hostage. A beautiful memorial site has been set up, with recognition for every individual killed or taken there. We also saw the hundreds of cars that were incinerated by the terrorists as people tried to escape. We lit candles and heard Hatikvah. Like at other sites, there were groups of soldiers who had come to commemorate those who were lost.
Finally, we drove to the Bedouin town of Laqiya (which has 22,000 residents, along with an additional 6,000 residents in the unrecognized portion of the town). Mustafa, a young and impressive representative from a nonprofit organization called Desert Stars, hosted us for a tour and dinner in his family’s home. He emphasized that his family is very large and lives all around him, and the neighborhood certainly seemed very integrated together. Unlike the tents of past generations of Bedouin, these citizens of Israel live in houses and gather in community buildings called shigs. We learned a lot about the Bedouin experience in Israel, and how there are multiple perspectives that many concurrently feel about October 7 and the war.
Several of us were grateful to have an informal debrief together after our return, where we shared some initial thoughts about how to bring some of these experiences home to the Beth Sholom community.
Written by Alexa Summer — May 21, 2024
Day 1: Arriving and Setting Intentions
A few different flight paths and arrival times landed us all together for the first time on Monday at 6:00 p.m. (Actually, a few even grabbed a quick dip in the ocean between hotel drop-off and our first adventure!) We met our lovely guide Lital who will lead our group this week, and we gathered as a group on the roof of the hotel overlooking the beach and city of Tel Aviv. We opened by singing the words, Olam Hesed Yibaneh — I Will Build a World of Compassion, and shared the various reasons for why we decided to come on this trip - why me? Why now? We concluded with the Shehehyanu, having reached this moment at this time with this special group, and headed off to dinner at the Tel Aviv Port.
We were greeted there by Rabbi Elhanan Miller, our first speaker, who not only taught us about the many different facets of his own life and all that he contributes to the world (visit People of the Book), but his main intention was to give a geopolitical overview of Israel since October 7. He spoke clearly about where things went wrong on that day and what the political landscape might look like going forward. We talked, asked questions and dreamed about what is possible while enjoying a delicious meal together. And then we boarded the bus back to the hotel for bed. A very long but interesting first day!
