Support for Israel is a hot-button issue among American Jews today. Some see this support as a precondition for being Jewish, while others feel that Israel’s actions are a roadblock that keeps them from feeling completely at home in their community.
In April, soon after joining the staff of the Jewish Federation of the East Bay, I spent two weeks in Israel with the federation’s 2015 community trip. The trip brought together over 90 people, including six rabbis, from across the East Bay and Napa Valley.
For me, the real perk of this journey was discovering Dror Israel and getting to know the educators of this young kibbutz movement that is so deeply focused on building Israeli society.
Established in 1995 as an extension of the Zionist youth movement HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed (working and studying youth), Dror Israel is a network of 16 largely urban kibbutzim, most located in the lower-income neighborhoods where the volunteers’ work is focused. These apartment-block kibbutzim are home to Dror Israel’s 1,400 members and also serve as think tanks where new strategies and initiatives are developed to address the challenges of Israeli society, particularly those affecting the so-called periphery.
These 21st-century Jewish pioneers are building an international movement that promotes education, dialogue and coexistence among the many communities who inhabit Israel. Leaders of the movement joined us for Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem and on many of our excursions, highlighting for trip participants the mission to build a society in Israel that reflects Jewish values and the vision of its Zionist founders.
Crisscrossing the country, we toured Dror Israel projects that are doing exactly that. Visits to the boarding school for at-risk youth at Kibbutz Eshbal near Karmiel, the community music center in Akko, the summer camp for Bedouin children in Mitzpe Ramon, and the afterschool homework club in Beersheva offered us a lens through which to examine the complexities of contemporary Israeli society. They laid bare the challenges and aspirations of building peace at a community level.
A month after my return to the East Bay, the complexities of the Jewish state and the diversity of its people are still sinking in. As the East Bay federation continues to build partnerships between Dror Israel and our Jewish community, I am struck by the potential this collaboration has to effect real change in Israel. It will enable us to build deep and lasting relationships with emerging leaders of today’s Zionist movement in Israel working for social change.
These relationships may have an even greater potential: to reconcile the “Israel rift” within the Jewish community and bring us together to work toward our shared goal of securing the Jewish future.
Benjamin Sisson is the director of marketing and communications at the Jewish Federation of the East Bay.