Before our opening dinner in this beautiful tent-like structure at Merkaz Shimshon, headquarters for the World Union of Progressive Judaism (like the URJ but for liberal congregations throughout the world and outside North America), we were greeted by a very enthusiastic marching band. They accompanied us from the David Citadel hotel, down the road to Merkaz Shimshon. They followed us in and continued to play enthusiastically inside the building, while we were enjoying hors d’oevres and shmooze time. I am just getting my hearing back, but it was quite festive.
The highlight of dinner, besides catching up with colleagues and friends, was a visit from Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat. Someone actually commented to me that he is the Obama of Israel. Pretty high praise, I think. A successful businessman and philanthropist, Barkin praised Jerusalem as a “3,000 year old brand.” He urged us to do our part to ensure the arrival of ten million tourists over the next ten years. And while he spoke of the greatness of Jerusalem, he also expressed concern over the profound poverty that plagues the city. Speaking to Netta, one of our wonderful madrikhot (youth counselor) early in the day, I learned that security issues dominate poverty issues, and that it is really important for the new government to find a way to prioritize both. Security concerns rule the day, for logical reasons. However, the poverty in Israel is doing as much to erode Israel’s viability. Barkat also spoke of a very important middah (virtue), aravut hadadit, which conveys a sense of mutual responsibility among people for one another. Pluralism, within the Jewish community or among Jews and Arabs, is not simple. Jerusalem, and Israel at large, will improve more from a sense of service between mutually responsible human beings than it will from striving to kill enemies. I took away a sense that business approach to confronting Jerusalem’s and Israel’s problems will be more effective than a military approach. I hope this sense mutuality will continue to expand with respect to the relationship between secular and Reform/Progressive Israelis.
Lailah tov.
