I hope you are well. It was exciting to meet with Meir and Tara who are just home from an amazing trip to the U.S. and to learn about their impressions of the atmosphere in the Jewish community in the places they visited. Perhaps, most of all, it was wonderful to learn about their progress with the Gen Z project which has a crucial purpose of creating an environment in which young Jewish students in the U.S. can flesh out their values regarding Israel, war and peace.
I often wondered (as a child born in 1968) what it was like to live in Israel in 1967. I grew up commemorating the victory in the Six Day War with festive prayers and Hallel. In under one week, Israel propelled itself from the brink of destruction to a new era. Religious Zionists around the world claimed this to be a modern miracle. Like Pharaoh’s sorcerers in Egypt and Zeresh in the Book of Esther, it felt that the hand of God had rested upon us. Something momentous had happened that we could not quite explain. I often wondered if I would have thought it was so miraculous if I had been there, in Israel, to see and experience the events of 1967 or was I just hearing the story as it was told after the event.
I mention this because the events of the last year and a half feel so momentous that one cannot simply pass them by without wondering, Where is the hand of God? The formulation of that question after October 7 reminded us all of the Holocaust. Asking where God was on October 7 felt a bit like asking where He was in Auschwitz. The events that have unfolded in the last few days in Syria and Lebanon feel more like the Six Day War. Can we really understand how all this happened and, if so, how? Hezbollah just disappeared. Iran’s proxy war is in shambles. Assad’s regime has fallen and a bunch of Al Qaeda graduates just called for peace with Israel!? How can we make sense of what is happening, and how should we respond? It is all so fresh that it is hard to know. Still, it remains to be seen whether or not these developments are “good or bad news for the Jews” as my grandmother used to say. But, it is not too soon to say that these are momentous times, the world is shifting on its axis and we are all being called upon to react.
Siach Shalom has undergone quite a makeover in the past year. We are currently running more than 20 groups, concurrently bringing together radical opposites inside Israeli society, supporting the efforts of President Herzog and others to build a consensus that our national security depends on our national cohesion. We are also seeking to build bridges to the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community, resented by so many, especially at this time, for not carrying their weight in the war effort. We are reaching out to heal pain and trauma of bereaved families, residents of the Gaza envelope and families of hostages. In addition to all of this, we are trying to learn about the Muslim world. At this very moment, we are meeting with religious and political leaders who belong to the many factions in the Arab world who bless Israel and pin their hopes upon it. From what we can learn, these factions represent a disproportionately higher number of the world’s Muslims than the Fateh and Hamas propaganda machines would leave you to imagine. Getting to know them has been a life-altering journey for us. It is our hope and plan to begin integrating them into the workshops that we run.
As always, this is a spiritual journey for us and it is one that we are deeply grateful to you for your support and participation. There is so much uncertainty about the future in the air. But it is hard to overlook the immensity of the drama currently unfolding. It is far too soon to make judgement calls, as we are still in the midst of it all. My prayer is that one day, in the not too distant future, we will find ourselves not only with a new day of mourning in our Jewish calendar but also with a new day of giving thanks and saying Hallel for the miracles that we have witnessed.
Wishing you all a joyful Hanukkah,
Alick