Related Blog Posts on Israel

There is Not One Way: How to Teach Israel

Shalom Orzach

How do we teach the full story while fostering a love for our homeland? The methodology we use to teach about Israel must be analogous to the methodologies employed in all our educational endeavors. We surely wish to foster a deep love and nuanced understanding of what it means to be Jewish in the contemporary world. This ought to be achieved through value-driven conversations incorporating moral, ethical and personal dilemmas.

Avital Sharansky and Rabbi Rick Jacobs - Camp Swig, 1978

The Courage to Advance Authentic Judaism in Israel

Rabbi Rick Jacobs

Thirty years ago this month, a modern-day Jewish hero was freed from prison. Back then, it never would have occurred to me that Natan Sharansky and I would become colleagues. Today, nonetheless, I am honored and proud to count this man – who has inspired generations of Jews around the world and engendered goodwill even in politically complex scenarios – within my circles. Ours is a relationship borne of a personal bond that began while he was still a Soviet prisoner.

 

Rocks and water in Western Galilee

How We Commemorated Kristallnacht in the Western Galilee

Sharon Mann

In the Western Galilee where I live in northern Israel, the population is diverse – about half is Jewish with the other half a combination of Muslim, Christian, and Druze. Although many of us live in different cities and villages according to faith or culture, some of our communities are mixed, so we share many of the same entertainment venues, businesses, and institutions. We live and work together and must afford one another respect and understanding.

Coming Full Circle: The NFTY in Israel Tikkun Olam Experience

by Sharon Mann The phrase “what goes around, comes around” came to mind recently as I remembered back five years to the time I saw my daughter, Ayelet, off on a flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto, Canada. She was headed to URJ Camp George, a Reform Jewish summer camp where she would spend the summer as a camper, part of an Israeli youth delegation from the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. Now, she’s graduated from Mechinat Gal’s Pre-Army Academy, a post-high school Israeli gap year program that emphasizes volunteer work, leadership training, and enrichment studies. As a staff member at The Hannaton Educational Center, she’s come full circle, welcoming North American teens from NFTY in Israel to her home, eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel). At Hannaton, the teenagers participate in a tikkun olam chavaya (repairing the world experience) that includes hands-on volunteer work as they learn to make a positive contribution to Israel and the world.

Israel: Front and Center

Rabbi Rick Jacobs

As we all wait for word about the future of the critical talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Vienna, I want to share a few thoughts about my recent time in Israel, meeting with politicians, fellow Reform Movement leaders, and some of the talented individuals

Together in Israel: Reimagining the Congregational Israel Trip

The Community Synagogue of Port Washington has previously shared strategies for innovation in youth worship and lowering barriers to participation by rethinking “membership” in youth group. This month, we check in with Lindsay Ganci and Rabbi Danny Burkeman following a recent congregational trip to Israel that leverages what they’ve learned. Many people have traveled to Israel on a family trip, many have taken part in teen trips to Israel, and a lucky few have traveled on both. This past February, we organized a congregational Israel trip that would blend the experiences of a family and teen trip into one hybrid adventure. When our congregation began talking about a family trip to Israel, one of our congregants approached us and asked about the possibility of offering a parallel teenage trip for our youth program, POWTY (Port Washington Temple Youth). This was around the same time that Taglit-Birthright expanded their eligibility criteria so that teenagers who went on an educational trip to Israel during high school would still be eligible to a place on a free trip.  This removed what had previously been a major barrier to synagogue teen trips to Israel, and gave us a special opportunity to dream about and experiment with a new model for Israel travel and engagement for our congregants.

June 3 is Worldwide Unity Day: Promoting the Jewish People as One

In the summer of 2014, three Israeli teens – Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel – were kidnapped by terrorists on their way home from school. Jews from around the world came together to search, pray, and offer support. The building sense of Jewish

Rabbi Rick Jacobs' Open Letter to President-Elect Reuven Rivlin

[Editor's Note: This letter from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform, Judaism, to Reuven Rivlin, Israel's president-elect, originally ran in Haaretz.] Dear President-elect Rivlin, I want to offer my warm congratulations to you upon your election as the 10th president of Israel. What a tremendous opportunity you have to serve our beloved Jewish State at this critical time! In your acceptance speech, you immediately signaled that you are resigning from the Likud party to become the president of all Israelis: “Jews, Arabs, Druze, rich, poor, those who are more observant and those who are less.” I was very pleased to read these words which herald a new breadth and depth to your leadership. I would be less than candid, however, if I did not admit to some concern about your ability and willingness to work with the largest denomination in North American Jewish life, the Reform Movement, and our Israeli counterpart, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. In 1989, you visited Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in New Jersey. In an interview after your visit you told a reporter from Yedioth Aharonot about your experience, where you disparaged, with stunning insensitivity, the dominant religiosity of North American Jewry, our Reform Movement.