As the situation in Israel gets more violent and uncertain by the day, it’s easy to get swept up in brash, inciting and provocative invective. While it’s understandable for us to feel anger and despair while reading the headlines, it’s vitally important to find inspiration from those who react to the violence with empathy, compassion and kindness.
The young Zionist educators at Dror Israel’s Kibbutz Eshbal give us one such example. A longtime East Bay Federation partner, Dror Israel helps promote coexistence by mentoring youth from all backgrounds. At Kibbutz Eshbal, in the Galilee in northern Israel, they run a boarding school for at-risk teens.
A few weeks ago, attackers breached the perimeter and threw five Molotov cocktails into a field in the middle of the kibbutz. Thankfully, nobody was injured, and damage was minimal. However, the students — many of whom have experienced severe trauma — were profoundly shaken.
Most heartbreakingly, the bombs landed where a Sukkat Shalom, or peace sukkah, had stood just a week earlier. Over the Sukkot holiday, more than 100 Jewish and Arab teachers sat under the sukkah to discuss how to promote tolerance and understanding among the area’s youth. It was particularly upsetting to see a hateful act damage a space used to advance peace, understanding and coexistence.
Kibbutz Eshbal’s members have responded admirably with strength, determination, compassion and forgiveness. While counseling and supporting their students and increasing kibbutz security, Eshbal’s members are holding a series of meetings and lesson-planning sessions with Jewish and Arab educators in their region.
“It is much easier to burn and destroy than to build and grow,” said Eshbal’s director of partnerships, Gilad Perry. But through these new programs, volunteers and students will show that “a small group of extremists with a mission to harm will not overcome the large group of devoted people who are educating thousands to create a better society.”
Such a passionate response, in the face of such horror, is an inspiration. Theirs is a great example of a grassroots path toward peace. Let us be bolstered by the kibbutzniks’ example, as we pray that calm returns to Israel and that all of her inhabitants live in peace.
Rabbi James Brandt is the CEO of the Jewish Federation of the East Bay and the Jewish Community Foundation. Dror Israel educators will speak Sunday, Nov. 8 at a symposium at the Magnes, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, commemorating Yitzhak Rabin’s life and legacy. For details, see www.jfed.org/rabin.