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May 13, 2008

Israel Office

• NIF Sets Up Win-Win Encounter Between Arab and Jewish Soccer Fans

SHATIL

• Immigrant Pupil Brought Back From the Edge

Weekly Message

I arrived in Israel yesterday to participate in the Facing Tomorrow conference, which is being hosted by President Peres. The conference is part of the various worldwide celebrations of Israel at 60 and will feature speeches from leading world notables, including President Bush, and a wide range of panel discussions modeled on the Davos format.

Prior to this mega-event, the Jerusalem People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI) is organizing a one-day conference, which opened with a dinner last evening at the residence of President Peres. JPPPI was established as an independent think tank “to promote the thriving of the Jewish people vial professional strategic thinking and planning on issues of primary concern to world Jewry.” Former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross serves as the chair of the think tank, which is incorporated in Israel and whose work is based “on a deep commitment to the future of the Jewish people with Israel as its core state.”

Together, these two programs reflect a healthy trend to not only celebrate 60 years of Israeli achievements, but to ask challenging questions about the future of Israel, world Jewry, and the Israel-world Jewry relationship. For many, the focus remains on issues of survival, with both an Iranian nuclear capability and the demographic realities of a shrinking, and potentially less influential, Jewish people, viewed as existential threats. Others, including myself, prefer to direct our attention to the substantive content of Jewish thought and tradition, while acknowledging the internal contradictions and troubling anachronisms.

In this context, the concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) represents an important example of what Judaism can offer 21st Century humankind. As Yehudah Mirsky argues in an excellent paper prepared for the JPPPI conference, “the impulse to think in terms of Tikkun Olam does have the potential to bring great benefit to Jews and to the world, But we would do well to try and formulate distinctively Jewish forms of this work, not as a substitute for universalist moral concern but rather as the best way to bring Judaism’s own resources to bear on that concern, and in so doing offer on way of invigorating Jewish identity in a global age.” [All papers prepared for the JPPPI conference can be accessed here. For those interested, I will contribute my impressions of the conference and the themes emanating from the various panels at (link to NIF blog).

My final remark is not about the conference, but my Havurah’s rededication of a Torah this past Sunday. Together with the rest of our community, my family contributed to the process not only with a monetary gift, but by writing a letter into the parchment. The fact that this particular Torah was found in the basement of a church in Slobodka, Lithuania and had not been used since World War II added to the poignancy of the celebration. And yet without denigrating the importance of symbolism, whether in dedicating a Torah or in celebrating Israel at 60, the values derived from, and the actions that follow, the interpretation of this ancient text are what is critical.

In this week’s NIF News, we report on an important breakthrough for religious pluralism in Israel. Last week, the Reform Jewish community of Modi'in inaugurated the country’s first-ever non-Orthodox synagogue building provided with government funding. The victory, won after a protracted legal battle by a veteran NIF grantee, opens the way for more State recognition of Israel’s Conservative and Reform Movements, and represents another crack in the Orthodox monopoly. We also feature a unique soccer match between Arab and Jewish fans initiated by NIF to promote coexistence and equality. SHATIL features its Back from the Edge program for immigrant youth-at-risk.