Israel
Recently, I spent about two months in Israel with Skilled Volunteers for Israel, an innovative organization that creates meaningful service projects and volunteer experiences for active adults and retirees. As a volunteer, I tutored students in English, both middle school students in south Tel Aviv and nursing-field students at a youth center in Bat Yam, a smaller city adjacent to Tel Aviv. The work and the entire experience were extremely gratifying. I arrived in Israel armed with much-less-than-fluent Hebrew, a Hebrew-English dictionary, and Google Translate. At the middle... Read More
Rabbi Reuven Greenvald is the Union for Reform Judaism’s director of Israel engagement. He led similar efforts to promote deeper understandings of Jewish peoplehood and stronger ties between Jews in North America and in Israel at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in partnership with the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and earlier at Makom at the Jewish Agency for Israel. He received his M.A. and rabbinical ordination from JTS, and his B.A. in ancient near eastern studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also studied at the Schechter Institute... Read More
Katonti mi’kol ha’hasadim u’mi’kol ha’emet she’asita et av’deha. (I am unworthy of all the kindness and the truth that You have steadfastly shown Your servant.) These are the opening words of a song by American-Israeli musician Yonatan Razel. They are also, not coincidentally, the words spoken by our patriarch Jacob in Genesis 32:11. Razel, a Haredi composer, often transforms the words of our tradition by setting them to music. This passage comes right before Jacob encounters his older brother, Esau, for the first time since stealing his blessing and fleeing home. Fearing imminent harm or... Read More
As director of NFTY in Israel and a resident of Jerusalem, I was asked recently to write a blog post about Israel. With that in mind, I am going back to a topic I know well – or at least one I care about deeply: the complicated relationship between North American and Israeli Jews. Having made aliyah (moving to Israel to live) 15 years ago, I have one foot firmly planted in the North American Jewish community and one foot firmly planted in the Israeli Jewish community. In my daily life, I can’t speak English without throwing in Hebrew words. Yet my Hebrew is filled with... Read More
On a recent Wednesday, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) first-year students gathered together for Israel Seminar. One day every week we focus on a different aspect of life here, viewing the country through historical, political, and sociological lenses. That week, we focused on Haredim, traditionally observant Jews often referred to as ultra-Orthodox in the U.S. Although many people view this group as a monolith, there is a huge variety within and among the Haredi community. Some neighborhoods are plastered with signs decrying the influence of computers and... Read More
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