The state of the Jews in a state of transition
The health of the prime minister dominated the conversations I had last week with Israelis in Jerusalem, Ra’anana, Rishon Letzion, and the Negev. Would the new Kadima Party “have legs” under Ehud Olmert? Would Israel’s enemies take advantage of this political vacuum?
Yet despite these monumental questions, life in Israel went on. In my short visit, I encountered significant transitions, which in Israel become, literally, daily occurrences.
One morning, I visited a seminar attended by about a dozen Israel Defense Forces soldiers at Kiryat Moriah, the education campus of the Jewish Agency for Israel. This initiative, the Nativ program, is an effort to educate soldiers about Judaism and the Jewish people. It is a vital program, because a substantial number of the soldiers serving, originally from the states of former Soviet Union, are not Jewish. These soldiers, who may be giving up their lives for the Jewish state, are offspring of parents who qualified to arrive in Israel via the Law of Return, which only requires one grandparent to be Jewish. I mentioned to the group that the “Israel” in IDF represents an alternate name for Jacob, one of the founding fathers of the Jewish people. We wanted them to know that Israel is the Jewish state, not just a state of Israelis.
Since its inception in September 2001, close to 5,500 soldiers have participated and, to date, more than 1,000 have completed the conversion process, their transition from being Israelis to members of our people. Funding for the program is provided by the Absorption and Defense ministries, and the Jewish Agency. Because of budget cuts, more philanthropic funds are required to sustain this vital program.
The next day, I visited the community of Nitzan, where 500 recently relocated families from Gaza now reside. The temporary dwellings are functional and relatively attractive and are designed to be dismantled after all the residents are fully transitioned to Israeli society.
The mood among the evacuees is somewhat depressing, because most of the breadwinners have not yet found employment. Children have become distrustful of authority figures — including the IDF, the Israeli government, and their own rabbis — because their lives have been turned upside down within such a short time period.
To relieve some of the stress and tension among these residents, our UJA Campaign has provided funding to the Israeli Association of Community Centers for counseling and recreational activities. I spoke with two of the educational and social-service workers in Nitzan. Slow but steady progress is being made in planning for the residents’ future, they informed me. One of them expressed bitterness against the government, and indicated many of their children do not have a sense of pride in the IDF. I responded that while I understood their children’s reaction, they should be taught to have pride in how the IDF and the settlers handled this very traumatic situation, fraught with potential for violence. Jews had empathy for each other, knowing full well that their religion and peoplehood united them despite the temporary strife which confronted them.
Later that day, I visited the newly opened Aleh Negev residential program for the developmentally and mentally disabled, one of the largest such facilities in Israel. This is a joint venture between the Sachta Rashi Foundation, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, and our own Partnership 2000 community of Merchavim. We visited some of the recently transitioned residents and social-service workers, recently trained by Partnership 2000, who capably performed the rigors of feeding the residents and helping them with the routines of daily life. This program is an outstanding testament to the commitment of Israeli society to its most vulnerable population.
The last transition I encountered was with the mayor of Rishon Letzion, Meir Nitzan. A veteran of the Labor Party for 28 years, he made his transition to Kadima. He felt that the Likud Party represented the status quo, and Labor was too naive in its expectations for a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians. He concluded that because Kadima would be able to make unilateral decisions (a la Ariel Sharon) at the time of its choosing, that would better the security of Israel and ensure the vibrancy of the Jewish state. He will campaign for Kadima candidates, and has abandoned Labor for good.
While small in geographic area, Israel is one of the most dynamic societies in the entire world. I expect no less from the homeland of Jacob’s descendants.