Last word...

from David

We returned from Israel last week. In no time we were back into the rhythms of life in the Mandell JCC. Since we returned home, our in-boxes have been crowded with emails from our colleagues on the trip who returned to their JCCs in cities through North America....Tucson, Jacksonvlle, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Springfield, Baltimore.... All of us sharing appreciation for the experience and for the camaraderie of such a great group of people. This is one of the results of a trip like this - the new friendships across the miles.

This has been an amazing experience. We started in Poland where we learned about the history of a rich and vibrant Jewish community there. We walked through the remnants of the evil that took the six million from us. And we experienced the impact of a JCC in helping to re-build the Jewish community.

We came to Israel, the Jewish people's greatest triumph. We celebrated Shabbat, met with brilliant inventors, ate far too much wonderful food, visited old and new neighborhoods, enjoyed live music and beautiful art, experienced the ancient history of the four quarters of the Old City. We spent a morning in the newly reopened Israel Museum filled with some of the most spectacular treasures that tell the stories of the Jewish people. We shopped in the market, climbed the tower of the YMCA had tea on the terrace of the historic Kind David Hotel. Most memorable are the people we met whose efforts and accomplishments are so extraordinary. Human rights activists, venture capitalists, inventors, musicians, and students. We met with Israeli and Palestinians who had lost loved ones to terrorism. No matter how many times I have come here, there is always something new and there are always different perspectives to consider.

Jill and I look forward to exploring with our community the many possibilities for bringing groups to Israel for unforgettable experiences. We have talked about arts and culture trips, family programs, food and wine tours, fitness and wellness experiences and archeological digs. We have the unique opportunity to work with JCCs in other cities in putting together these programs. The JCC Association office in Israel is ready to help us, through the new Boarding Pass Program, to access access resources that are often not available on the typical trips.

Over the next several months, we would like to get together and talk about what kind of trips you, our community, would like us to put together. We both understand that this has to come from you. We will help to pull together the structure with the best resources to make it memorable.

You'll be hearing from us!

Freedom of Expression

I could not send all posts before I left Israel.....

The Museum on the Seam is a former army post that was on the border between Israel and Egypt in Jerusalem. After the reunification of Jerusalem the building was turned into an independent art museum that invites works by artists from throughout the world. Some of the artists are from countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations. One of the current artists is from Saudi Arabia and is being prosecuted by the government there for sending an art piece to Israel. Some of you may remember the Coexistence exhibit that came to town a few years ago. It was cured by the Museum on the Seam. I think it is so perfect that Israel is the place where these artists can feel safe exhibiting their works and expressing so many diverse thoughts.

Jerusalem. Part 2

We travelled towards Ramlah in the West Bank and stopped at the security fence. This massive concrete wall was built to prevent terrorists from entering Israel and has been extremely effective in stopping the terrorist attacks. Anyone entering Israel from the other side must pass through strict security checks. A Palestinian man who come to our group spent three hours crossing over. Regardless of their political positions, the Israelis we spoke to about the fence all felt that it has been very effective in stopping the killings.

From the serious to the celebratory, we went to a nightclub for a performance by David Broza. This popular singer is on the par of Bruce Springsteen in Israel. While all his music was in Spanish and Hebrew, it didn't matter. He and his band performed for three straight hours. They are incredible musicians and it would be amazing to bring them to our community. Here is his website. Tell me if you agree! http://www.davidbroza.net

We ended this afternoon in the Jewish Market in Jerusalem. Being there as the city prepares for the sabbath put us right in the middle of such tumult. Anyone ever have Halvah with coffee beans? I have to tell the Crown to try and order it! We bought some bread, cheese, olives, and tangerines and had a late afternoon lunch on a vacant bench. As it got closer to closing time, the vendors became more frantic and the prices kept going down. Years ago, I was here with a staff group from Rochester and we did a scavenger hunt in Nachl'ot, a 19th century Jewish neighborhoods adjacent to the market. It was a creative, challenging and engaging way to learn about a life in this amazing city. There is now one for the Old City. Great family activity....we will add it to the itinerary of the family trip.

Tonight, most of the group headed off to Tel Aviv for a Noa concert. I decided to head down to Kibbutz Revadim to have dinner with my oldest friend, Karen, and her kids. We have known each other for close to 50 years and I cherish these too infrequent chances to visit together.

Tomorrow we get to visit some of the neighborhood synagogues in the morning and then walk though the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in the afternoon. Shabbat Shalom!

Jerusalem. Part 1

Jerusalem highlights....from David

The sights and sounds of Jerusalem are like no other in the world. This is the place where it all comes together. It is this place where we long to be each year we conclude the Passover Seder. Since arriving here on Wednesday we have viewed the city from an array of vantage points. This is a great way to get a sense of how the city has evolved over the years, how the different parts co-exist and relate to one another, and how incredibly complex it all is.

We went to a church in the Moslem Quarter, one of the stops on the Via Delarosa. There, under a bench and in the floor was a circle containing intersecting lines. Soldiers carved these shapes into the rock roads all over the city and used them as game boards with piles of small colored stones they carried in their pockets as they stood around. I think there's an app for that game. $1.99

The Moslem Quarter was filled with children coming out of school. A small group of them was chasing and taunting an African women who got separated from her group. While she was running from them and laughing, it was clear that she was frightened until she got safely back to her group. It made me feel sad that there is, from such an early age, so little understanding or kindness. Their schools teach them that there is no Israel, and Tel Aviv does not even appear on their maps. One little boy stopped and was enchanted with Barak's iPad.

Visiting the Western Wall is always a special experience. We all approached and had our own personal moments. The plaza was filled with thousand of people, including groups of soldiers. I have not even started the book I downloaded, "Jerusalem A Biography.". But I am definitely committed to reading it when I get home.

Soul Food

Jill and I, along with Allan Finkelstein (who is the President of the JCC Association) spent the morning exploring the galleries in Neve Tzedek, the artistic center of Tel Aviv and walking through Nachalat Binyamin, Tel Aviv's twice weekly colorful arts and crafts fair.

We stopped off to visit the Photo House that I talked about in my last blog and spent time speaking with Ben Peter, Miriam Wissenstein's grandson. He showed us the photo archive. Here is the photographic history of Israel and this young man is the curator. These one million+ photographs tell one of the most important stories of the Jewish people. What a treasure.

There is such a rich array of artistic expression here. The Habima Theater recently re-opened after a three year renovation. Every town in Israel has an orchestra. Public art exhibit actions and installations are plentiful. There is even a graffiti tour that tells all kinds of stories.

The culinary arts and Israeli wineries are flourishing, evidenced by some excellent ethnic restaurants and many highly rated wines (not that I am a good judge). Tonight we went to a cooking school and all thirty of us made dishes of our own creation. Jill and I did middle eastern beef spring rolls - definitely a hit!

I've always wanted to do an Arts and Culture tour of Israel. We developed an itinerary a few years ago and I hope to pull it out, update it with the newer additions, and bring together a group. Next year? Let me know if you are interested!

2 Inspiring Stories

I once viewed a film on HBO called Strangers No More which won the Academy Award for best documentary. It was such an inspiring story. Today we had a chance to visit the Bialik-Rogozin School, the subject of the film.

This school is located in the south Tel Aviv, the older and poorer section of the city and serves children of many of the foreign workers and refugees from nearly 50 different countries (there are over 70,000 in Israel today). These children come from diverse backgrounds of poverty, political adversity, war and genocide. They have confronted so much hardship and tragedy. The school is a place where they become a family (kindergarten through 12th grade) and where they rebuild their lives. I was inspired by the principal, Eli Nechama, who for the past several years has created an incredible place in which no child is treated like a stranger.

From the films website....
The film follows several students' struggle to acclimate to life in a new land....Mohammed, a 16-year-old refugee from Darfur, who witnessed the killing of his grandmother and father before escaping alone through Egypt to Israel; Johannes who arrived at Bialik-Rogozin after spending most of his life in refugee camps; and Esther, who fled South Africa with nothing, in search of safety and peace of mind. With tremendous effort and dedication from the school, the three managed to create new lives for themselves, form strong bonds with their teachers and make new friends......Education is a number one issue around the world. What this small school in the heart of Tel Aviv is accomplishing is just fantastic.

This is just one of the wonderful stories about Israel that I wish more people would know about.

Next we walked through the center/north section of Tel Aviv and got to see the historica Bauhaus buildings in the area of Bialik Square. We ended up at the former municipality building of Tel Aviv, now a museum and homage to Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv's first mayor.

The day concluded with the screening of Life in Stills, a documentary about Miriam Weissenstein, who with her husband Rudi, founded the Photo House, a photography studio and archive containing over one million negatives of photos that document Israel's history. www.pro-or.com In the film, Miriam is joined by her grandson Ben as they try to save the studio from demolition. The relationship between Ben and his grandmother was so beautifully filmed and depicted. Miriam was 96 years old when the film was made, she lived to see the premier, and died several months later. This was such an amazing tribute and we were fortunate to have met Ben and Tamar Tal, the filmmaker, for a discussion following the film.

All of us were excited about the prospect of a tour in the States of the film and a photo exhibit from the Photo House. It would be a perfect program for Israel's 65th in 2013!

Arriving

From David......
Friday

Arriving in Israel always has a special significance for me. I always feel a sense of being home. Coming here from Poland brought with it a host of other feelings. This time I felt relief to be here. I also felt sadness that the Jewish Homeland did not exist when it was so desperately needed by the Jews of Europe. We landed in darkness on Friday morning around 3 am. We rode to Kfar Maccabiah in Ramat Gan outside of Tel Aviv, checked in, and went to sleep until 10 am. Only when we woke up did we see the Israel in the light. Our new day had begun.

This hotel, convention center, sports complex is really quite wonderful. I initially felt that we should be in the middle of Tel Aviv, but this area is lovely and the 20 minute ride to Tel Aviv is not difficult. Here is the website for kfar Maccabiah. http://www.kmc.co.il/en/

We started the day with welcomes from Shlomo Balzam, who was born in France in 1948. He is chairman of Alumim (children hidden in France during the Holocaust) and works to find documentation regarding French Jews who perished. He helped us to make the transition from Poland to Israel. I spoke with him about the French film The Round Up and Sarah's Key (he preferred the later).

We also learned more about the March of the Living program. In Hartford, Yachad is recruiting teens for this April and the Federation is putting together a group of adults. This will be a huge gathering. They are expecting 8,000-10,000 people. Anyone interested should call Heather Fiedler at Yachad or Cathy Schwartz at the Federation. We also heard about smaller groups that experience versions of the March at different times of the year. It is important for them to make it as easy as possible for groups to come.

We welcomed Shabbat with Rabbi Yonatan and Shana Neril. Yonatan is committed to focusing on environmental issues. He was ordained in Israel and founded the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development in Israel. Part of what they do is to run Eco-seminars in Israel. I learned that he was a graduate of the JCC preschool in Walnut Creek, CA where I was the executive director from 1988-1992, and went to the summer day camp there. Jews today live in a kind of universal Anatevka, making connections wherever we travel.

We lit the candles and welcomed the Shabbat together, followed by an amazing meal at the hotel