It had been seven years since I was last in Israel. So, when the opportunity presented itself for a short visit this month, I hopped a plane. My inner Zionist was rekindled in so many vital ways. I want to share that passion with you, dear reader, to hopefully inspire you to go to make your own pilgrimage to Israel if you’ve never been, or to go back if you haven’t visited in some time.
“It makes me cry, most times with pride and joy, and sometimes with frustration!”
While in Israel, I visited two of the organizations that our Wise community supports: Bet Issie Shapiro and The Israel Sports Center for the Disabled. At Bet Issie, I was inspired by the commitment of its dedicated staff whose vision for inclusivity extends not merely to those who can reach its Kfar Saba campus, but also to Arab communities in the center of the country, and ultimately to the world.
At the ISCD, center director and former wheelchair tennis pro Boaz Kramer proudly led me through the amazing facility. I was truly overwhelmed by the magic of the place. Here, variously abled people are given wings to excel in their selected sports. I watched a young Russian immigrant tennis pro adeptly maneuver on the court, reaching and returning shots that many players on two legs could hardly manage.
At both of these places, tears of inspiration often welled in my eyes.
Later, I heard visionary rabbi Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, speak at the final session of their yearly summer program for rabbis from around the globe. He declared that, for all of the center’s positive influence on Israeli society, its broad reach into the IDF, as well as educational institutions throughout Israel, they had overlooked nearly 25% of the Israeli population. He committed his dynamic center of Israeli spiritual and ethical progress to reaching more deeply into the Israeli Arab community.
“We have failed,” admitted Hartman, “to fulfill the noblest ambitions of our own Declaration of Independence and truly engage our Arab sector in the task of building our state.” He went on to affirm that the Jewish state must fully reflect the principle from the first chapter of Genesis, stating that all humans are created in God’s image. “From this point forward,” he declared, “the Hartman Institute will add no less than 15 Arab scholars to our Jewish faculty.”
Again, I cried. I cried tears of sorrow for the continuing inequities of our Jewish state, not merely for the often-overlooked Arab sector but also for the marginalization of Conservative and Reform Judaism. I also cried tears of pride for Hartman’s truly prophetic vision of radical inclusivity, which is reflected in so much of the good that Israel does.
—Rabbi Ron Stern