April 1, 2008
Israel Office
SHATIL
NIF Outside Israel
Message From Larry Garber
My intent was to use this message to report on an Environmental Shabbat that I attended this weekend near the Sea of Galilee, but this will have to wait for another edition. On Sunday, the Jewish people lost a dear friend with the death of NIF Board member Gerald Cromer. He was buried on Monday afternoon in Jerusalem.
I first met Gerald in 1982 at Kehillat Yedidya, which Gerald helped found. I was visiting my sister in Jerusalem for Rosh Hashanah, when we heard about the horrific news of what had happened in the Sabra and Shatilla camps in Lebanon. During that week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, my sister invited me to join her tzedakah collective meeting, which Gerald happened to be chairing.
I remember him urging the meeting participants to take it upon themselves to ensure that the religious community was well-represented at the massive demonstration against the massacres and the war, scheduled for the following Saturday evening. And, he insisted that something more was required, a Yom Iyun – a day of reflection, which he then helped organize. Out of these efforts, with Gerald leading the way, emerged the religious Zionist peace organization, Netivot Shalom, which several years later merged with another religious peace organization, Oz V’shalom.
Fast-forward 22 years. I had assumed my current position at NIF and was pleased to discover that Gerald was a member of the Board. He still maintained the passion to merge his understanding of Jewish texts and values with his commitment to peace and social justice. With excitement, he described his individual initiative to bring together through a series of meetings the different worlds of NIF’s social justice and religious pluralism organizations to develop mutual understandings and respect.
Sadly, but perhaps fittingly, I learned of Gerald’s death while attending a workshop on “Faith and International Assistance.” The workshop combined academic presentations with text learning, and was designed to encourage specific follow-up activities by a multitude of organizations, operating both together and within their own separate realms. As this was precisely the type of event that would have excited Gerald, I was pleased to dedicate my remarks as a panelist to his blessed memory. |
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