I have really debated whether or not to write this for quite a while…
…similar to other issues of national or international import, I am never entirely certain whether it is an appropriate use of my small slice of the blogosphere to add to a conversation in which I bring no particular expertise and no concrete suggestions.
Is there something I can say or offer that will help address what is going on in Israel right now and how we could or should respond? Do I have something critical to share with our schools about how to process and discuss current events? Our schools are led by talented and bright professionals and lay leaders who in this day and age have access to a myriad of resources. Sure, I might be aware of one or two they are not and could help by making them available, but it would be hubris to think that I have an answer to address this that they don’t or that they couldn’t easily find. And yet…
Saying nothing at all doesn’t feel right either. As a Jewish educator – as a Jew – I have to speak purely from the heart about Israel…
…a place that changed my life in 1988.
…a place that changed it again in 1992.
…a place that changed it once again in 1997 and 1998.
…a place that I anxiously await revisiting.
…a place that I have waited their whole lives to share with my children.
Because like a lot of Jews of my generation, a teen Israel experience (along with camp) was a crucial step on my Jewish journey. It also was my very first job in Jewish education.
I first went to Israel in 1988 as part of our local Federation’s teen tour. It was an 
extraordinary experience and I met friends that summer that I am still close with today. I returned to Israel in 1992 as part of a NFTY in Israel summer experience. I unfortunately decided to pose in the awkward position you find me in the lower, righthand corner of this picture. Yes, my hair is shoulder-length. And yes, sadly, I am wearing socks with sandals.
My very first job in Jewish education was working for the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angles (BJE-LA) running teen programs, paramount of which was the LA Summer-in-Israel Ulpan. I cannot provide a link to the program because, unfortunately, it no longer exists, but for many years it was a signature summer-in-Israel program combining the regular touring experiences of other trips with an actual Hebrew ulpan for which students received high school and college credit. I spent the summers of 1997 and 1998 leading this trip and having an opportunity to provide teens with the experiences I had been blessed to have as a teen myself.
The power of the Israel experience is real.
That’s why we visit. That’s why we do our b’nai mitzvah there. That’s why we have Federation and synagogue missions. That’s why we send our Jewish day school classes. That’s why we send our teachers. That’s why we make aliyah.
That’s why the current situation is heartbreaking.
I have no interest injecting politics of any kind. I have my beliefs and I am sure you do as well. I don’t know what the answers are to safeguard our homeland, our beating heart. I’m not even sure I know the questions. I am sure that the opportunity to experience Israel transformed me and the opportunity to provide that experience to others transformed me just as thoroughly. To contemplate the idea that one day it could prove too unsafe to visit stirs my soul to anger. To wonder if one day it could prove impossible shakes me to my core.
As the sun makes a slow descent and brings with it the spirit of Shabbat, I can only pray. Other days of the week lend themselves to advocacy, but not this one. Our worship calls us to face our sacred ancestral home…may a day come when the peace of Shabbat envelopes our home, our Israel.
And may that day come without delay…
As always, you are an eloquent speaker and you definitely made the right choice speaking from the heart. It is comforting to other Jews to be able to read what other jews feel and are thinking about Israel during this most difficult it time.