As I write this I am sitting at a small table in the center of one of the halls set up during the Jewish Federation General Assembly to showcase a dizzying variety of programs, initiatives and organizations from across Israel and around the Jewish world. All around me are Jews from the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, France, Israel, Ethiopia (and probably more places) who have come to this crowded bazaar of Jewish life to learn about the important work being done to strengthen not only world Jewry, but to make the larger world a better place as well.
One such organization I came across this week is the American Friends of Kishorit, an organization dedicated to supporting the amazing work being done at this kibbutz located in the Western Galilee where adults with developmental disabilities and mental health issues live, work and socialize. One resident of the Kibbutz whom I met at the GA told me about the toy shop, dairy and organic vegetable garden they have there. I thought this sounded like a really innovative approach to inclusion and a great example of how a key element of Israeli culture -life on a kibbutz- has been made available to all Israelis.
Another very interesting project I learned about is an initiative called Takdim, a project started by local governments in Israel, in collaboration with several Jewish Federations in North America to help develop a culture of local giving and allocation within Israel. This seems like a great way for Federations in the US to lend a hand to Israel through the sharing of best practices and knowledge gained over decades of helping to build and sustain Jewish life in America. I suspect we will hear more about Takdim in the coming years.
GA attendees also had the opportunity to visit local institutions of learning in the city, followed by field visits to programs that American Jews are participating in around Jerusalem. I chose to visit the Shalom Hartman Institute first, an important think tank and education center non around the world. One of the speakers this morning was Dr. Tal Becker, a research fellow at the institute and a long-time Israeli diplomat, who offered an overview of some of the contemporary challenges facing Israel, when it comes to tensions between the ultra-orthodox and the rest of Israeli society. Our next stop was the Bezalel Arts academy on Mt. Scopus, an art school with a world-class reputation, where we met several American Jews studying at the school, in part with a Jewish Agency funded MASA scholarship, who shared their art with us and told us how how coming to Israel had made a difference in their lives.
Over the course of the last few days I've also had countless conversations with people who are thinking very seriously about the present and future of the Jewish people. I look forward to sharing some of these ideas here in this blog in the weeks ahead.
Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2013.
