Dear Siach Community,

Spring is in full gear now, and we can’t believe that in just ONE MONTH we will be meeting with so many of you at Ohalo Manor Hotel in Kibbutz Kinneret for the second gathering of the Siach network! The Siach Team is working hard on the final details to make sure you have a meaningful experience. In this edition of the newsletter, you can read about how the different geographic regional cohorts are continuing the conversations between conferences.

In addition to the upcoming conference, so much is happening in the Siach network these days! Have you heard about the new partnerships that have emerged between Siach members? Did you have a chance to listen to our webinar on the topic of gender segregation in the public sphere? Have you stopped to consider the tribal aspects of your Jewish identity and what that means for how we relate to others? The answers to all these questions and more are included in this month’s newsletter, so make sure to read through and see how our network is developing!

As always, wishing you the best,
The Siach Team – Judith Belasco, David Brown, and Limor Friedman

Siach’s European Cohort Gathers in London

“It was a great privilege to meet a group of such passionate and talented leaders from across Europe and to hear of their inspiring work, grounded in Jewish values, yet impacting positively on people of many faiths and backgrounds all over the world. They are a living example of the Jewish renaissance happening in Europe and represent what I call a Judaism unafraid to engage with the world. I wish the members of Siach continued success in all they do.”
-Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

The European cohort meets with Chief Rabbi Sacks at his home.

On May 9th and 10th, JHub hosted a gathering of over 35 social justice and environmental professionals and activists from across the continent and beyond (UK, France, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Chile, Australia, and the USA). The group included those working—inspired by Jewish values and experience—on issues such as Asylum, Genocide, Climate Change, International Development, Human Rights, and Fairtrade. This regional gathering was in preparation for the second global Siach conference taking part in Israel in June.Continue Reading “Siach’s European Cohort Gathers in London…”

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A Fresh Perspective on the Siach Network

Last week, the Israeli cohort met for an orientation day in Tel Aviv. It was great seeing everyone together, returning and first-time Siach members seamlessly molded into one solid group. Here, new Siach member, Gideon Sylvester, shares his take on the day:

The Israeli Cohort listens intently to Jonny Ariel at Siach Orientation Day in Tel Aviv

I have to confess that I was a little nervous as I entered the stunning building where our Israel delegation’s pre-Siach seminar was taking place. Would the day be interesting? How would “the new boy” get on with all the seasoned Siach participants? I need not have worried. After brief introductions, I quickly realized that I was in the midst of a warm, highly professional, and idealistic group.
Continue Reading “A Fresh Perspective on the Siach Network…”

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Rachel Azaria at the 2011 Siach Conference

On Tuesday, May 1st,  we held an in-depth discussion about Judaism and gender segregation in Israel and the UK. Recently, these issues have come to light as real life cases have been publicized and sparked massive global attention. This Webinar featured Rachel Azaria and Maureen Kendler, two leading women on gender issues within their Jewish communities, and was moderated by David Rosenn.

Listen to the Webinar:

Rachel Azaria, a member of the Siach Community and a member of Jerusalem Municipality who was relieved of her duties as a coalition member for her activism in regards to women’s rights in public spheres. Read about her experiences and thoughts.

Maureen Kendler lives and works in the Orthodox British Jewish Community and has grown concerned about recent events connected to the erasure of women in public spaces. Maureen has started to take a deeper look at what is happening at home and away in this area and is sounding a serious warning for the Jewish community about the peril of rendering 52% of its community invisible.

David Rosenn is COO at the New Israel Fund, charged with managing NIF’s day-to-day operations in North America and involved in setting and executing strategy for the organization overall.

When it came time to decide whether to attend the first Siach conference, I needed some convincing. I wasn’t sure what the outcome or my role would be, or how cliquey or ‘insider’ the conversation would feel in nature. Yet, as I watched it come together and heard who else was going, I ultimately decided to go. At times, the conference did in fact feel a little cliquey or like we were spending a lot of time navel-gazing, but we also had some very important and dynamic conversations and I made some useful connections.

What’s interesting is the impact Siach has had on me long after the fact. I knew that having a conversation about having conversations, networking in order to better network, and taking time out to identify more of our collective views were inherently valuable exercises. What I didn’t foresee was the tangible impact that these kinds of discussions would have on me and my own organization in such a short period of time.

While our program initiatives and social assets at COEJL long precede Siach, the strategy of being a socially networked organization and capitalizing on relationships in order to build something bigger is something that Siach helped nurture at a formative time. The conference occurred when we were in the most important planning phase of our key program, the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign, which is entirely built on a networking model. Further, at Siach, several members of the Green Hevra, a new Jewish environmental network which COEJL now administers, were present at a time that the group was applying for funding. Also at the conference, now head of Pearlstone Retreat Center Jakir Manela and I discussed the initial concept for Kayam Farm’s Shmittah Summit, held in March 2012.

Jakir’s vision was to convene different types of leaders for a high-level learning summit with an orientation toward action and policy. This was of interest to me as COEJL was convening a group of national leaders to elevate their voice on the environment and the declaration to do that eventually had a key focus on the Shmittah year. The Summit also became a lobbying platform for the AJWS-run Jewish Farm Bill Working Group, of which COEJL is a founding member. While the first summit has now been held, work on the Covenant Campaign, Shmittah and the Farm Bill all continue. The Green Hevra is now funded and focused on a similar set of goals as Siach in that we are taking time to identify our shared strategic vision.

Both the Covenant Campaign and the Green Hevra will be presented at Siach 2. I regret that I won’t be there this year due to personal circumstances (I am not flying while pregnant), but I am glad to know that our efforts will feed into the broader conversation as it continues. It is especially exciting that our Israeli sisters and brothers will host us and help us see firsthand their critical environmental work.

I know the conference will present the opportunity to discuss lessons learned. Here’s one from me in advance and in summary – networks are only as good as the efforts that go into making and mobilizing them. For me and for COEJL Siach has indeed proven to be a valuable enterprise and we look forward to seeing what happens next.

It is with great excitement that the Jewish Agency’s Project T.E.N. and B’Tzedek recently announced their partnership to create a volunteer center for service learning and international development in India. The Directors of T.E.N. (Nir Lahav) and B’Tzedek (Yonatan Glaser) met for the first time at Siach. The T.E.N.-B’Tzedek center will serve Jewish young adults from around the Jewish world (including Siach’s ‘Israel, North America and Europe’ formulation). The program will embody and build Jewish peoplehood, engage in service projects based on the insights and principles of international development, and deepen and carry forward the agenda of Tikkun Olam. It will launch with the first cohort on August 6, 2012.

Siach’s objective of deepening networks amongst people working in Jewish environmental and social justice work was of unique value to us. Siach created a space for us to come together to learn and network. The informal yet ‘electrified’ Siach setting had a formative impact on the formation and trajectory of our relationship. The opportunity to meet in a small group setting – we were in the international development track together – meant that we got to know each other ‘around the campfire’, as it were. Meeting in a setting that encouraged innovation, collaboration and dialogue was profound.

The project is part of the larger work of each organization; T.E.N. is initiating an initial four pilot centers (in addition to India: Safed, Brazil and Ethiopia) as the basis for what will grow to 10-12 centers internationally. B’Tzedek developed and has operated its nine-month career and leadership program LIFE in India and Israel for four years. The partnership leverages the strengths of each organization, and we couldn’t be happier. The T.E.N. website will provide all the details after its launch in June.

Thanks in anticipation to the Siach community for helping nurture the ‘newborn’ child; please be in touch with ideas for collaboration to Yonatan@btzedek.org.il.

Three weeks ago, New Israel Fund (NIF) took out ads in the New York Times and the Forward, as part of a million dollar matching gift campaign funded by a longtime donor. The ads featured a news photo of a billboard in Jerusalem: a poster of a woman that had been defaced by ultra-Orthodox residents, and the words “What happens when extremism crowds our equality and democracy in Israel.” The campaign met with overwhelmingly positive responses, but there were also several irate ones. Nobody argued with the accuracy and importance of the problems the ad raised; at issue was the venue, a non-Jewish (and at least to some minds, anti-Israel) publication. One response posted on our Facebook page read: “On Erev Yom HaShoah, this is the image that the New Israel Fund wishes to convey to the American public about Israel?!” In short, what is known in Jewish-American as “a shanda before the goyim.”

We have, I think, some pretty solid responses. Pragmatically speaking, where else would we reach a mass audience of liberal Jews? (With all due respect to the venerable Forward, the Times’ Jewish readership is somewhat larger.) Secondly, in the current age of Wikileaks, investigative, and digital journalism, the truth will out, and furthermore, in the words of one august American Zionist, sunlight is the best purifier. And – something I deeply believe – the ability to critique is to the credit of the American Jewish community and of Israel; this is – in the words of one donor – a sign of strength and an engaged civil society that is seeking to highlight problems and address them.

But a question in my mind remains: why did this trigger some people and not others? We all know that we react differently to the same content in different contexts. Even though I spend most of my waking hours delving into areas in Israel that leave room for improvement, my responses to different people pointing out my country’s flaws can vary wildly based on identity, context, and other factors. Alex, a friend and conflict mediation expert, explained it to me in simple terms of tribalism: we critique and diverge within, but when attacked by an “outsider,” instinctively and automatically shift to circling the wagons. (To think of this in closer-to-home terms, think of how you can respond to a non-family member criticizing the very same parent/sibling you constantly complain about.) This is such a primal instinct that the prefrontal cortex – home of executive functions – is overridden, and the amygdala, or primitive brain, kicks in.

So what differentiates those negatively triggered by the ad from those who welcomed it? Perhaps one key difference is a perception of Jews – and by extension, for this purpose, Israel – as a powerless minority group, as opposed to one possessing power and, in the case of Israel, sovereignty. For the former, the fear – as evidenced by the Facebook comment – is not only of having the tribe shamed in public, but of stoking the fires of anti-Semitic hatred. For the latter, perhaps the overriding fear is of misusing our power and authority; thus, finding common cause for change is the higher priority. And as social justice activists, often seeking to challenge the status quo, we know that sunlight is the best purifier, and that to create change we must speak truth not only to power but sometimes to those who feel disempowered. Another element may be the ever-evolving nature of collective identity or tribe. Perhaps for some the primary division is along ethnic lines, whereas for others it may expand to values, social/political leanings and cultural affiliations (i.e. as – lets say – I can also belong to the same tribe as the non-Jewish liberal democratic, civil rights supporting aficionado of foreign films).

All this is of course conjecture. And it doesn’t get us much closer to figuring out whether there are better ways of overriding the tribal instinct to reach those higher functions. (The above-mentioned Alex’s response to this question was an unambiguous no. The primal instinct to protect the tribe is apparently so hard-wired that no rephrasing would prevent the triggering.) Siach community – your thoughts and insights?

The Israeli Cohort listens intently to Jonny Ariel at Siach Orientation Day in Tel Aviv

I have to confess that I was a little nervous as I entered the stunning building where our Israel delegation’s pre-Siach seminar was taking place. Would the day be interesting? How would “the new boy” get on with all the seasoned Siach participants? I need not have worried. After brief introductions, I quickly realized that I was in the midst of a warm, highly professional, and idealistic group.

The formal sessions started with a friend and teacher, Jonny Ariel, talking about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. It was a heady mix of witty anecdotes and probing questions. Has Israel turned into the drunken uncle at the party? Is it the person whose life is tied to yours, but whose behavior has becoming increasingly embarrassing? As a Jew who grew up in the diaspora and proudly made aliya to Israel, I was soon thinking deeply about my relationship to my people, my state and my religion.

A welcome break offered an opportunity to catch up with old friends and former students and to meet the author of a book whose work led me on a journey to explore the life and work of Abraham Joshua Heschel.

When we came back from the break, it was time to learn some Jewish sources. Once again, identity issues came to the fore as we studied the laws of charity. One beautiful source was written by an old friend who teaches at the Otniel Yeshiva. But not everyone appreciated his words, “This man has nothing to teach us about ethics”,  one participant declared,  ”his yeshiva is built on stolen Palestinian land!”

Our preconference was an exciting, passionate  introduction to what promises to be a fascinating, thought-provoking and challenging conference. I look forward to seeing you all there!

“It was a great privilege to meet a group of such passionate and talented leaders from across Europe and to hear of their inspiring work, grounded in Jewish values, yet impacting positively on people of many faiths and backgrounds all over the world. They are a living example of the Jewish renaissance happening in Europe and represent what I call a Judaism unafraid to engage with the world. I wish the members of Siach continued success in all they do.”
-Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

On May 9th and 10th, JHub hosted a gathering of over 35 social justice and environmental professionals and activists from across the continent and beyond (UK, France, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Chile, Australia, and the USA). The group included those working—inspired by Jewish values and experience—on issues such as Asylum, Genocide, Climate Change, International Development, Human Rights, and Fairtrade. This regional gathering was in preparation for the second global Siach conference taking part in Israel in June.

The gathering began with an evening reception hosted at residence of Chief Rabbi Lord Sack’s and Lady Sacks, where the Chief Rabbi shared his thoughts on the Jewish imperative to be engaged with acting for a fairer and more sustainable world for all humanity. One highlight included the Chief Rabbi citing his encouragement of the Union of Jewish Students to be at the forefront of combating Islamaphobia on campus as an example of ‘paradoxical intervention.’ It was suggested this approach is one we could all employ more often, rejecting fear and surprising people with our positive hope filled responses to the challenges of globalisation.

The following day the group participated in sessions exploring how Jewish social action allows us to offer a reinvigorated and forward looking expression of Judaism for our young people and communities, one that recognises we want to inspire people with Jewish heritage yet at the same time equip them to be active in wider society. There were also practical workshops where existing collaboration across Europe and the Jewish world were highlighted and new ideas for projects developed. Simone Abel, Director of Rene Cassin shared her experiences of the global Siach network, including joint work with Hungarian counterparts connecting Jewish and Roma communities in the fight against xenophobia and adapting a development programme for European Human Rights Activists into an international fellowship with peers in the States.

Julia Itin from Germany joined a panel with Amy Philip, deputy director of Pears Foundation and Jonathan Boyd, Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, discussing the current opportunities and challenges facing European Jewry, based on a range of recent studies. The panel and the group may not have agreed if there is a clear sense of what European Jewry is, but the overwhelming positive examples of innovation and social action across the continent were heralded as cause for optimism that the quality of Jewish life in Europe is vibrant and diverse.

Libby Burkeman and Joanne Bell (UK) with Anneli Radestad (Sweden) and Nico Riethmuller (Chile) at the European Gathering. Photo Credit: Oliver Marcus

The current economic and political realities in Europe shaped some of the conversation, as the group sought to articulate what part of the European contribution to the global Siach network may be. It was clear that protecting vulnerable groups during this time of austerity, offering a different economic narrative, combating fascism and embracing diversity are areas of activity where the European experience may offer useful insight and existing projects within the global social justice and environment conversation Siach is fostering globally.

Here are some reflections from the participants:

“It really was an inspirational day – well organised, welcoming and challenging. I learnt a lot, met some fascinating people and felt activated to do more, talk more and learn more.”
- Robin Moss, UJIA, London)

“I think that our traditional Jewish communities should get hold of the Siach-participants list ASAP and invite some of those creative, talented and enthusiastic people to come and give them some fresh ideas!”
- Lene Rachel Andersen, Denmark)

“While in entrepreneurial America the Jewishness is mainly based on individual and in national Israel mainly on the Jewish State, in Europe – after the recovery from communism and Shoah – Jews are developing in more than a few exiting directions. Siach Europe is the European platform to learn and to discuss about new exiting ways to build this community – vital, pluralistic and fully engaged in the wider society.”
- Julia Itin, Germany)

“intensive and inspiring meeting, dynamic discussion on the identity and future of European Jewry, uniting its diversity, and living towards the Jewish and the just”
- Ines Astrug, Germany)

In just a few days, we will be sitting around the table with our loved ones to celebrate Pesach. When we sit down to begin our sedar, the very first call in the haggadah is:

Kol dikhsif, yeitei v’yeikhol. All who are hungry, come and eat.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of England, explains that “sharing food is the first act through which slaves become free human beings. One who fears tomorrow does not offer his bread to others, but one who is willing to divide his food with a stranger has already shown himself capable of fellowship and faith, the first two things from which hope is born. That is why we begin the seder by inviting others to join us”

Our first responsibility as free people is to worry about those who are less fortunate, those who are not sitting around the seder table, and those who can not afford a hot meal. It is our individual and collective responsibility to reach out and invite those individuals into our homes and into our seders. As members of the Siach community, we each, in our own way, in our own organization, strive to constantly keep this Jewish value as an underlying theme in everything that we do.

We are only two months away from the second annual Siach Conference and we are excited for the opportunity to reconnect and meet new colleagues and to bring our unique applications of this value into our global network. Together we can explore new ways to act on this responsibility, partner together, and deepen the conversation around collective action.

Wishing you and your families a happy and meaningful Pesach,
The Siach Team – Judith Belasco, David Brown, and Limor Friedman

Mars and Venus in the Jewish Community: An Honest Conversation about Gender Segregation

Rachel Azaria at the 2011 Siach Conference

Tuesday, May 1st, at 10 AM New York Time, 3 PM UK time, 5 PM Israel time.

Join us for an in-depth discussion about Judaism and gender segregation in Israel and the UK. Recently, these issues have come to light as real life cases have been publicized and sparked massive global attention. This Webinar will feature Rachel Azaria and Maureen Kendler, two leading women on gender issues within their Jewish communities, and will be moderated by David Rosenn.

Rachel Azaria, a member of the Siach Community and a member of Jerusalem Municipality who was relieved of her duties as a coalition member for her activism in regards to women’s rights in public spheres. Read about her experiences and thoughts.

Maureen Kendler lives and works in the Orthodox British Jewish Community and has grown concerned about recent events connected to the erasure of women in public spaces. Maureen has started to take a deeper look at what is happening at home and away in this area and is sounding a serious warning for the Jewish community about the peril of rendering 52% of its community invisible.

David Rosenn is COO at the New Israel Fund, charged with managing NIF’s day-to-day operations in North America and involved in setting and executing strategy for the organization overall.

To sign up for this webinar please email siach@heschel.org.il and you will receive a registration link and confirmation.

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בעברית

This year’s Purim celebration at the community of “Kama” in Beer Sheva took us all by surprise. Not because of the originality of the costumes or Purim tricks, but a little before midnight, we heard the first siren warning of a rocket attack. We barely heard the warning over the music and dancing. By the time we started running to the communal bomb-shelter, the missile had already fallen. You would think that with rockets falling in the middle of the Purim celebration, that would ruin the festive spirit of the evening, but nothing could be further from the truth. The rockets only helped solidify the feelings of solidarity and joint fate between the members of our community, and naturally increased the energy in the room and the need to get lost in the music and to drink.

This time around, the rocket attacks only lasted a week and a half, but it was more than enough time to raise some serious questions from within our community of Kama. Our community is part of a larger community incubator, which is an initiative to establish young communities in Israel’s socio-geographic peripheries. The last time there were rocket attacks, we were a much younger community and only had ourselves to worry about, but now we all had families and children. The question we all started asking ourselves is should we continue to live in our wonderful and idealistic community, despite its vulnerable and dangerous location and put our children at risk? By living in a less economically developed area, our homes were not protected with individual bomb shelters and we are therefore actively placing our children and families at risk? On the other hand, if we want to stay together as a community, where do we find an available apartment building that has built in bomb shelters and would be available for immediate occupancy for the entire community on such short notice?

In addition to the pragmatic challenge of finding new housing, it also presented us with an important moral dilemma. How can we go about finding a solution to keep our families safe, while creating socio-economic gaps between those who can afford protected housing (i.e. private bomb shelters) and those who cannot? How do we balance our own personal safety and a sense of security for our families with the value of solidarity and responsibility to the entire community, both to those who are of means and to those who are not? How do we balance social justice and responsibility with defense and security? Do the values of community superseed or sucumb to physical safety?

Were we able to answer all of these tough questions that arose? Not really.  The rockets stopped one clear morning, and with them, so did our dilemma, and we returned to our usual business of creating new projects and further developing our community. Will we manage to return and deal with these challenging issues before the next round of rockets? I only hope so.

….מסיבת פורים השנה של קהילת קמה בבאר שבע, הפתיעה אותנו ולא בגלל המקוריות של התחפושות. איפה שהוא קצת לפני חצות נשמעה אזעקה בעיר. בגלל המוסיקה והריקודים בקושי שמנו לב, והתחלנו לרוץ למקלט המשותף שבדירת הקהילה זמן רב אחרי שהטילים נפלו…הייתם מצפים שאירוע כזה, של טילים באמצע מסיבת פורים, די יהרוס את השמחה, אבל האמת היא שהטילים רק העצימו את תחושת שותפות הגורל וכמובן את הצורך לרקוד ולשתות.

הסיפור הזה של הטילים נמשך הפעם רק שבוע וקצת, ובכל זאת החלו לעלות שאלות מהותיות בקהילת קמה: עכשיו, בניגוד לעבר, יש לנו ילדים. האם נמשיך לגור בבתים לא ממוגנים ונסכן את חיי ילדינו? אבל מצד שני, איך נצליח לעבור עכשיו כולנו יחד לבניין ממוגן? איפה בעיר באר שבע נוכל למצוא בניין שמספק פיתרון מגורים מהיר לכולנו?

כמו שכבר קרה בעבר, גם הפעם הקהילה והמציאות קצת התנגשו. מצד אחד, הצורך לייצר ביטחון למשפחה, לילדים ולבית. מצד שני, הצורך לא ליצור פערים בין אלו שיש להם בית עם ממ”ד או מקלט קרוב לבין אלו שאין להם. הדילמה הפרגמטית הזו העלתה שוב שאלות על הסולידריות, תחושת האחריות אחד כלפי השני, היותנו קהילה שמסוגלת לספק הגנה לא רק במובן הפיסי. האם הצלחנו לתת תשובות? לא ממש. הטילים נפסקו בבוקר בהיר אחד ואיתם גם העיסוק בסוגיות המיגון, שהוחלפו מהר מאוד בשאלות הרגילות על פרויקטים חדשים ופיתוח.

האם נשכיל לחזור לשאלות אלו לפני ההסלמה הבאה?! אמן ואמן…

Naomi Efrat has been involved in social action for 13 years, serving as a program coordinator and educator, and currently serves as the Partnerships Director of the Rikma Center for Community Development. Naomi is responsible for developing the growing network of socially involved communities in Israel’s periphery and the cooperative ventures among them. Additionally, she directs the nationwide Dorshim Kehilla project, which has four community Batei Midrash in Israel and runs social-action programs in the field of Jewish Renewal. Naomi is part of the Kama urban kibbutz in Be’er Sheva, and is a member of Tor HaMidbar, the platform for social involvement through which the community runs projects in the Negev region and the rest of Israel.