by Yiftah Leket
We celebrate Rosh Hashana at our synagogues, we have Passover Seder at our houses, we educate ourselves within the context of a school/university/adult course. Making Israel’s national holidays (The Yom’s) a meaningful experience, means making it community-wide and in collaboration with a lot of community partners.
It has been such a pleasure to work with partners from across our community – from day schools to congregations, and all of Federation’s partner organizations in between, to create this year’s Yom programs and events. Personally, as an emissary and an Israeli, one of the most powerful components of this year was working with the Bnei Akiva Shlichim who work at Farber Hebrew Day School. We worked to create collaborative events and to increase the diversity of the audience. We succeeded by bringing a diverse crowd together, with various religious affiliations, different political views and even different ways of loving and criticizing Israel.
The strength of our connection to Israel comes from a personal journey, a place where each of us asks him/her self “what is the role of Israel in my Identity?”. The unique relationship our Jewish community has with Israel comes from the entire community going on this journey together. Asking tough questions about Israel and carving new paths to understand it in an ever-changing reality, is a heavy burden for each individual person.
The theme of community and collaboration was also the focus of a special cohort I participated in, manifested by Hartman institute, wisely formed and led by Rebecca Starr. The cohort was geared towards the heads of days schools in Metro-Detroit, and took place over a series of seven encounters. It was here that we learned together about Israel from the lens of Israel Education. The power of this cohort was not only the extraordinary individuals who participated in it. It was the fact that we were together, asking the big questions that have no answers. And the conclusion out of this cohort was organic and simple – we want this togetherness to continue, and to expand it to a wider audience.