Hope from the Holy Land
It’s been a while since I returned from a trip to Israel
feeling hopeful. My last trip, three years ago, was characterized by a sense of
ongoing frustration and near despair.
As you undoubtedly know, I’m a hopeful kind of person. I
try to find the good in each situation, aiming to give people the benefit of
the doubt. But the last time I was in Israel, it was hard to find something
positive. Attending the Hartman Institute, listening to speakers, visiting with
Jews and Palestinians, friends and family, I heard a common refrain. No one
could see a way out of Israel’s challenges, whether political, religious or
economic. For a while it seemed that Israelis had chosen to avoid the difficulties.
The tide was against them, and it was all they could do to tread water.
This summer I attended the Hartman Institute again and
have arrived home with a wide array of experiences. I met family in different cities
with different political views, learned with scholars providing insights into
the different sectors of Israeli society, visited Lod and Sderot, towns on the
periphery of Israel’s mainstream center, and heard Members of Knesset (MKs)
from the newest government coalition.
The best way to characterize what I heard is the phrase ”gam ve-gam” which loosely means “this – and that.” Journalist Ilana Dayan used this phrase to describe Israel today, a country of many sectors,
many ideologies, a place of paradox and contradictions.
She talked about Israel’s culture of negotiation and
argument. She pointed to issues of security vs human rights, social democracy
vs capitalism, Jewish vs democratic state. Obviously, these binary distinctions
are not necessarily in opposition to each other, but they often come into
tension.
This is exactly what I heard too, a world of
contradictions. And that in itself is hopeful, because it means that healthy
debate is alive and well in Israel again. People are engaged once again. I heard MKs talking about creating a state
based on values and a Knesset where, behind the scenes, people of different
parties study together and have coffee together. I heard everyday people who
are doing inspiring things:
- university students living with and organizing impoverished Jews and Arabs to advocate for better town services;
- owners of Café Yael, a “social business” in Sderot that trains at-risk youth and offers them job skills and support to create a foundation for their future;
- Bambi Sheleg, a prominent settler-turned journalist creating a magazine, Eretz Acheret, (another land) that “goes beyond the headlines” and documents the diversity of Israel’s population;
- Dov Lipman, an orthodox rabbi who made aliyah to Israel from Baltimore and is serving in the Yesh Atid party as a bridge between the ultra-orthodox and the secularists, and others.
You might be wondering what people were saying about Secretary
of State John Kerry’s efforts to renew the peace process. In early July, most
people had not seen any progress that was worth putting their faith into these
talks. But MK Tzipi Livni, who is Israel’s Minister of Justice and lead
negotiator to the upcoming talks, insisted that an agreement is necessary for Israel’s
future. When asked, are you optimistic, she said, “Yes I am, because I have no
choice.”
In addition, she made an assertion that Jews outside of
Israel should pay attention to. She told this pluralistic group of rabbis, serving
many different kinds of Jewish communities in America, Canada, South America
and Europe, that the dialogue with World Jewry needs to change. Specifically;
it should include a discussion of values. Livni added, “What good is a homeland
that doesn’t allow for this dialogue?”
Contradictions, dialogue, debate, paradox. Those are
hopeful words, words that honestly describe the human condition in our
post-modern age. They speak of respect for differences and appreciation of
nuance. They are ideas that our own polarized American democracy could also
find useful.
Rabbi Barbara Penzner
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