April 2008 • Nisan, 5768 www.kolotchayeinu.org congregation kolot chayeinu • • voices of our lives From the Rabbi in this issue From The Rabbi ......................................... 1 olot Chayeinu’s Values State- has to go to Israel to see it in Tachlit ........................................................ 3 ment says this about our con- all its engaging and frustrating nection to Israel: “We believe complexity, allowing for breadth From Kolot’s Israel Trip: that Jews have an obligation to and depth in the shaping of A Reflection .......................................... 4 Kgrapple with the many issues and emotions opinion in a way that is not true The Very Air of Israel ........................... 5 connected to our historic attachment to sitting here in New York. There The Kotel .............................................. 6 Israel and the current political situation in is something about seeing Walls..................................................... 6 Israel and Palestine. While we join Jews ev- how close Syria, Lebanon and Photographs from the Trip ...............4-6 erywhere in facing Jerusalem while we pray, Jordan are, for instance, that we have no consensus on political solutions adds texture to one’s thinking Other Israel Wrestlers: nor their philosophical underpinnings.” about Israel’s wars of the last 40 Stuck On a Bus in 1968 ........................ 7 This is an accurate reflection; the discus- or 60 years. There is some- Dreaming the Actual ............................ 8 sions we had about just this small section thing about seeing the mix of Recommended Reading and Music ..... 9 of the Values Statement were heated, once Palestinian villages and Jewish Tehillim and Eretz Yisrael .................. 10 nearly arriving at a member leaving the settlements in the West Bank, Kolot Donations Pages ......................11-13 congregation. and how close they are, say, that So with this level of heat and this lack of informs one’s opinions about Is- consensus, why did I take 7 Kolot members raeli withdrawal from the West demolished in an all too typical Jerusalem to Israel this fall for the first-ever Kolot Bank. And there is something about seeing catch-22: In their area of east Jerusalem Chayeinu trip to Israel? up close the ancient it is impossible to get a permit to build a The first answer is stones, the tunnels deep home, and when people build their homes that Kolot board mem- under the Western wall, are demolished for lack of a permit. We ber Margie Fine pushed Wrestling the Mediterranean as it began to rebuild, we saw another home de- me into it. A few years With has been for centuries, molished before our eyes, and last year we ago, Margie and I and the villages built on top learned that the rebuilt Dari family home a few others were part israel of the ruins of older had once again been demolished. I wept of a small-group discus- ones, the Jordan River and wept as that cruel reality sunk in, and I sion about possible Kolot with all its significance, came home saddened, embittered. I wanted action related to Israel that remind one of an- and needed a “corrective,” a trip whose mis- when Judy Mann said, “I don’t think anyone cient ties and how hard they can be to give sion would be broader, more complex. And who has not been there should criticize up, for all the peoples of that land. I wanted both to show the broader reality Israel.” Margie heard that loud and clear So yes, Margie pushed me into this. But to Kolot members and to see it with them, and decided that Judy was correct and that the second answer to why I wanted to take members of my community. Yet I could not she – as a critic – needed to go to Israel and a Kolot trip to Israel is more personal to go again unless we visited, learned from wanted to go with Kolot. me. I had last been in Israel two years be- and engaged in some of the incredible work I am not sure one has to go to Israel to fore, a painful trip with Rabbis for Human for justice that goes on among Israelis and be able to be critical of it; we do have the Rights to rebuild the home of the Dari right to free speech, after all. I do think one family, Palestinians whose home had been continued on page 2 FROM THE RABBI farmer from field, and yes, suicide bomber from new membeRs Judith Loebl Ami Kaplan & elka Gould on new babies: Cedar Lee destination. And for the rest of my time in Israel Sally Minker the death of Elka’s mother Charlemagne Drury, born and since I have returned, it is that wall I have Alana Alpert Marian Nadboy Nadia Gould Feb 26, 2008, to Alissa struggled with, beating my head against the wall, Marcie Bachar Seth Pearce Schwartz and Andrew Drury mike Cockrill & ellen lubell as it were, as I tried to reconcile the reality of the Rafael Bachar Myra Podorson on the death of Mike’s sister- Published: wall providing more security for Jews in Jerusalem Alexander Basson Gil Podorson in-law, Debbie Cockrill while it hampers almost every aspect of life for Caroline Batzdorf Pamela Potischman Arthur Goldwag, author of Palestinians. I felt safe, in other words, because of Elizabeth Berdann Joel Potischman Cindy menell & michael “-Isms and -Ologies: All the a wall whose existence I strongly question. Meggan Berley Pamela Price skinner on the death of Cindy’s Movements, Idealogies, and I think the security it provides is temporary Peter Berley Leslie Richartz father Doctrines that Have Shaped and that it is creating additional frustration and Elizabeth (Betsy) Biele Steven Rosenbush our World;” rage among Palestinians against Israel, Israelis Louise Bordeaux Silverstein Jack Ross Phillip saperia on the death of and Jews. I saw the wall up close and if it divided Bonnie Jeneba Charkey Aram Rubenstein-Gillis his Uncle Allen Roberta Samet, article in “DISASTER SPIRITUAL CARE; me from my neighbors and family and livelihood Jennifer Egan Scott Shifrel Debra Everett-Lane Practical Clergy Responses as it does so many Palestinians, I too would be Lisa Shuchman simKhAs: Michael Everett-Lane to Community, Regional and enraged. Yet even Jessica Montell, who spends Dara Silverman Dori Fern b’ne mitzvah: Amelia Holcomb, National Tragedy”; days and years trying to protect Palestinian rights Stacey Simon Claire Fontaine Maya Park, Emily Dinowitz, through advocacy and lawsuit, believes that the Lisa Sirkin Phillip Saperia, article in “The Paula Freedman Rosie Silber-Marker Kolot members with Palestinian Israeli youth and their families in Masj Dul Krum. Photo courtesy wall may be necessary. She argues against its route, David Stevens Still Small Voice: Reflections of Cindy Greenberg. Laura Glassman mazel tov to all the students on Being a Jewish Man,” URJ not against having it at all. Why? She is rais- Elka Gould that got in to new middle and Press. ing children in Jerusalem and wants them to be Alyssa Gray CondolenCes to: RAbbi continued from page 1 safe. So does her Palestinian co-worker, who has high schools this year Lisa Heller Arthur Goldwag on the death Film released: children in East Jerusalem and works for B’tselem David Herskovits mazel tov to lisa sigal on Palestinians. It is that work that gives me hope and of his mother, Anita Goldwag David Novack’s, “Burning the C because it works, it has had success, he sees great Andrew Hoffer being included in the 2008 Future: Coal in America” makes me think again, when I am most despairing, potential for his people in its work. Beverly Hoffman betsy biele & her husband Whitney Biennial that peace – a real and just settlement for Israelis i felt a love for We also visited the Bethlehem checkpoint Carol Horwitz harvey on the death of his and Palestinians – may be possible. with Hana Barag, a member-leader of Machsom Sharon Jaynes father, Irving Fisher new homes: Gabriel Heller So off we went, 8 members of different ages, 2 Watch, a group of 500 mostly older women who Michele Kirsh and Sara Murray, Alex Basson, Adam Fredericks on the death men and 6 women, only 2 of whom had been to Marion Lipshutz Jonas and Marie Nachsin the place i had stand in witness at the checkpoints around the of his uncle Mel Israel before. And it was wonderful: wading in the country through which Palestinians enter Israel. Mediterranean, swimming in the Kinneret (sea of They are mostly older because young women can’t Galilee), basking in the sun’s glow on Jerusalem’s not felt in follow the schedule of getting up at 5 am to be stones was as delightful as ever. Visiting the site at the checkpoints before 6, and returning in the ruling by the Supreme Court against torture. But holy but rather is made holy by the ethical deeds of a hard-won battle against Syria in the 1967 war afternoon for return trips. during my last trip I learned how much torture goes of it inhabitants. Yet there is something about the was as sorrowfully touching as ever. Putting a note twenty years. Hana is 72, a mother, and a grandmother, on anyway, and in spite of much that it is good, interaction of this place and all the deeds of all its in the cracks of the warmly-energetic stones of the a widow. She spoke to us of the hardships the Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian lands is itself a inhabitants that gets under my skin, into my heart. Western Wall was as moving as ever. Walking to checkpoints inflict on Palestinians, preventing violation of human rights, as my friend (and direc- A friend suggests I am trying to deny my love for shul along stone and tree-lined streets in Jerusalem them getting to from everything from weddings tor of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel) says.