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At 4 a.m. on July 19, we landed in Newark NJ, Jacob shows me the headline: Houthi drone hits Tel Aviv . 

I said, thank God we weren't there; I cannot imagine if the kids felt that while we were there.  

After more information came out we discover this was about 5 blocks from where we were staying the night before in Tel Aviv. We would surely have heard or felt it. 

For 20 days, I was in Israel and never once felt unsafe, I never needed to go into a shelter, I never needed to duck and cover, there were very few signs that I was in a country at war, or at risk.  

And for 20 days, I was surrounded by signs of those still held captive. Memorials to those who were murdered. And we were constantly thanked for coming at all. 

As I wrote while still on my Cantors Mission, the dichotomy of standing blissfully with my feet in the Mediterranean, knowing that less than a hundred miles to the north whole Israeli cities and towns are evacuated and there are hundreds of rockets launched by Hezbollah every day, and the land is literally on fire. And less than 50 miles to the south lies the wreckage of Gaza, 2 million people displaced, at risk, living in ruin. Whole families dead. (I looked it up the distance between Tel Aviv and Gaza City is a little less than the distance from Omaha to Lincoln, can you imagine Lincoln being an entire world away?) 

On my Cantors Mission we visited and studied with and learned from so many people, I cannot possibly include them all in one Shabbat evening, but I hope to give you some snapshots of my experiences, of the lessons and of the confusion I’ve returned with. 

Snapshot: Maoz Inon July 3, 2024 

On the 3rd day of our mission, we went to Nazareth and were given a tour of the old city by Maoz Inon. We learned that despite Nazareth's importance to Christians (even having the Pope visit 20 years ago). Its old city is run down, has had gang problems and corruption including from the Police, and does not have a single hotel or hostel for visitors to this holy place. Maoz, an avid hiker and back packer, decided to change this and 15 years ago set up the first guest house in partnership with a local Arab family. As we walked from street to street and store to store Maoz knew everyone. He knew the story of all the shops and shop owners, he knew who had opened after covid and reclosed because of the war. Most of the shops are owned by women and sell local artisan products so every shekel spent benefits the local community. Maoz showed us a wall, it looks like a regular wall a burier between the sidewalk and a piece of property but it has “white wash” paint on it. Maoz told us that this wall always has the story of the Nakba written on it, frequently the municipal government will whitewash it, but the story always gets re-written. It is only now after 7th of October that the community has left the whitewash and not re-written the story. They know that leaving the mess of whitewash, showing their story being covered over, is a powerful message in itself.  

Then Maoz brought us to the beautiful Liwan culture shop, it is a coffee shop, library and artisan store combined. Dedicated “to preserve Palestinian cultural identity and share it with the many visitors who come to Nazareth.” One of the owners shared with us the dream that started the shop, the fight against local gangs to see it open safely, and the impact it has had by making space for other local shops to open, selling artwork and artisanship from Palestinians from around the country. 

Maoz Inon lost both his parents on 7th of October, their home in Netiv HaAsara was set on fire by a mortar attack, the community had 20 residents murdered, yet were among the fortunate communities, they were behind a wall (not a fence) and were invaded by 6 Hamas Militants by hang glider, 5 of those 6 were killed by the community and Netiv HaAsara did not suffer from a second or 3rd wave of attack. The community only suffered for roughly 30 minutes but both Bilha and Yakovi Inon were killed in that time. Maoz credits his father for teaching him the optimism and hope that have been his comfort through this terrible year. His father, a farmer would say over dinner, “next year, I will, once again, sow wheat, for the coming year will be better.” Maoz is dedicated to sowing peace, sharing the truth of his neighbors stories, and committed to showing a different way, to breaking a cycle of revenge and to a belief that we must try another way. 

Snapshot: Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv (July 8, 2024) 

Nearly a week later our mission was set to meet with Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the first and only Reform Rabbi to hold a seat in Knesset. 

MK Kariv is a member of the Democratic party (formerly Labor), he is left-wing, spent his earlier Rabbinic and Lawyer career at the Israel Religious Action Center, fighting for pluralism and democracy. He disagrees with Netanyahu and the coalition on most everything and ended the meeting with us saying he had to go yell at the prime minister. But the message he shared around the existential threat Israel faces were sobering. He stated comparing October 7th to the Yom Kippur war misreads the intentions. In 1973 Sedat of Egypt knew they needed a mild victory to create a space for negotiations to regain territory and pride. The situation today is more similar to 1948, we need to understand that Israel is surrounded by Jihadists funded by Iran: they do not have aim for political gain, or to balance previous land gains…. they aim to block political gains like the Saudi Abraham accords. Iran is the funder and instigator of at least 6 fronts that Israel is facing: Gaza, Hezbollah in the north, the Houthi’s in Yemen, the boarder between Iraq and Jordan, and Syria’s Assad regime. 

I found this analysis and the reality of Iran’s hold on all of Israel’s boarders to be quite terrifying. As a pluralist, I loath to blame religion as the cause of war, though I do believe it is often used as an excuse or to whip up support. But what does this mean? Is Iran fighting a power game or a religious game? Fundamentalist Islam is being used to motivate people to fight against Israel, and to let their own people die in the name of that war. How can Israel or any nation who desires and values universal humanism defend against an enemy that uses this humanism against them? 

Snapshot: a Haifa graffiti tour, how graffiti and Murals can revitalize a city 

Snapshot: GPS in Haifa doesn’t work it says you're at the Beirut airport. 

Snapshot: Rimon School of Music 

Snapshot: Polyphony and the Galilee Chamber Orchestra, the first professional orchestra composed of both Arab and Jewish musicians in Israel. 

Snapshot: havdallah with the Reform movement at Hostage square. Protest, prayer, art and gathering to confront the reality of 275 (at the time) days in captivity. 

Snapshot: praying out loud in community at the Kotel with Women of the Wall. That may be the first time praying at the Kotel felt like a truly sacred space. 

Snapshot: learning at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and celebrating a curriculum embracing eastern and western Jewish Musical traditions.  

Snapshot: Mohammed Darwashe 

Snapshot: Dr. Cohav Elkayam-Levy 

Snapshot: feel Beit 

Snapshot: the site of Nova, the scorched earth in the road, the memorial pillars and trees; the sound of artillery, the assurance that is the sound of “the good guys” the knowledge that this sacred space continues to be witness to the sound of others death. The message from soldiers who overheard our memorial prayers, praying for us as Americans seeing the danger we live in. 

 I left the mission one day early to meet my family at the airport, we were set for a first-timer's trip: visiting the Kotel, and Massada, the dead sea, and museums, archeology, hikes, and the Mediterranean Sea. My tour group arranged for a driver to take me from the Otef, the Gaza envelope, to the airport to pick up Jacob and the kids.  

The driver introduced himself and told me he was a Nova survivor; this was his first time back to the area. As we drove he told me where he drove his car into a field, where he turned around; where the car's wheels exploded and he and his wife had to get out, he could picture every curve and every bush as it had been that day 9 months before. I don’t know how he lived through it, I don’t know how they got to safety. He told me all the friends they went to the festival with died. He and his wife have no idea who to designate the care for their children if they are to die in the future. 

From the postcard of Maoz Inon: “I forgive the past and I forgive the present, but I won’t forgive anyone for ruining our future.”—Hamze Hawawde

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Watch the entirety of Friday’s service here.

Temple Talk is a recap of sermons given from the Bimah for those who missed a Sermon or who wanted to revisit the words spoken at a previous sermon.