Never Hide!

The streets of Jerusalem were quiet at 3 am.  I walked with my two daughters to our friend’s home to watch our beloved Chicago Cubs lose game one of the NLCS.  I felt completely comfortable at this hour, in a way I never felt safe walking to the 7-Eleven nearest Wrigley Field to get ginger ale for a sick child.  Walking the streets late at night felt normal, even during this wave of attacks.

The game ended, we walked home and started our day.  I dropped my youngest daughter off at school and went to the gym near the Old City.  Afterwards, I had a strong feeling inside that I needed to walk around.  Strolling felt necessary.  

First stop: Roladin in the Mamilla Mall to get a large café hafuch.  While there were people walking, window-shopping and sitting in the restaurants, the mall was far from full.  It seemed there were as many police officers and soldiers as there were customers and it felt safe.

Second stop: The plaza outside the Jaffa Gate.  I met a group of Armenian Christian tourists from Australia finishing their tour.  At the same time, another group, from the Philippines, was just setting off on their Old City adventure. Standing across from the outer walls of ancient Jerusalem, I saw that the tourists looked happy and comfortable, not  nervous or frightened.  

Third stop: The Old City.  I talked with Zaki who sells Middle Eastern bagels and breads. We exchanged pleasantries and he complained that all he wanted was  “to be able to feed his family and for us to live in peace.”  I agreed.  Zaki then asked, “But tell me, Why do you people want to go to Al Aqsa?  It is not your place.  Why do you provoke?”  The “Jews want to take over and destroy Al Aqsa” is a total fabrication, a lie spread by Fatah and Hamas to provoke Palestinians that has no basis in truth. But I knew I would not be able to convince  Zaki of the truth. Instead, I asked him which of the yellow bagels was more authentic, the chocolate or the date-filled, purchased the date-filled one, and continued my walk.

Fourth Stop: Jaffa Street.   Like Mamilla Mall, there were people going about their regular errands – shopping, eating, talking and working – and plenty of soldiers keeping watch, keeping us all safe.  Like the Arab shopkeepers at the Jaffa Gate, there were plenty of storeowners complaining about the lack of business. During these conversations, I started to get a hint of why this walk was so important.

Fifth Stop– Ben Yehuda Street.  I moved down Jaffa Street toward Ben Yehuda Street. I found the answer to my question, my need to walk around town, in a Simon & Garfunkel-esque way, almost straight out of The Sounds of Silence.  The words of the prophet were not written on subway walls – we don’t have subways in Jerusalem – or tenement halls; rather, it came in the form of an advertisement for Ray Ban Sunglasses. In big, bold letter, above a group of  athletes were two words:

NEVER HIDE!

“Never hide.”  It is so simple.

I needed to walk around downtown Jerusalem because I could not hide.  

Hiding means the terrorists win, they cause me, they cause us, to change our lives. They dictate where we go and what we do or don’t do.  They breed fear, hatred and, unfortunately, more violence.  I won’t hide because this is my home, my country, my city.

“Never hide” doesn’t mean take needless and careless risks.  Like any major city in the US, there are certain areas here I don’t go to because the “crime” statistics are too high to make it worth the risk. At the same time,  “Never Hide” also means not to avoid your gym or your regular coffee place or wherever you like to sit and work.

“Never hide” means not conceding our Jewish values.  It means being like the children of Aaron:  pursuing peace.  It means remembering that redress is in the hands of God, not people; that we demand safety but won’t execute vengeance. It means that even in a war on terror, we trust the IDF and Police to protect us and to do so in an ethical way.  At the same time, “Never Hide” does not imply or permit violence, vigilantism, chants of “Death to Arabs.” That is simply not our way.  “Never Hide” demands that we call out our own who act counter to our tradition, who murder, beat and berate in the name of vengeance; it means we don’t let them hide from justice.

Unlike in the past, we no longer need to hide. We are a “Free people in our own land.”  We can and must be publicly proud, both in Israel and across the world.  We cannot sit alone in our darkened rooms, letting life pass us by, conceding victory to the terrorists.

In fact, I believe that the more we are out and about, the greater the sense of individual and collective security we will feel. I write this secure in the knowledge that things will ultimately quiet down and return to normal.  One day, there may even be Peace here.  Let’s hope and pray it arrives before my Cubs make it to, let alone win, the World Series. While we wait for and work toward it, we can say, as Cub fans do every year, “There’s always next year.”  And there is always the next cafe hafuch, the next moment of pride and the next possibility for Peace.

Until  that time, the words of the Ray Ban prophet will continue ringing in my ears:

“Never Hide.”

A Last Jerusalem Shabbat - Parashat Devarim

שמחו את-ירושלים וגילו בה, כל-אוהביה; שישו איתה משוש, כל-המתאבלים עליה

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all that love her; rejoice for joy with her, all that mourn for her.                                                                                                           Isaiah 66:10

A Last Shabbat in Jerusalem, not ”The” last but “A” last…

as a visitor, as a foreigner.

A last Shabbat in Israel with a temporary address, a temporary home.

Anticipation grows as:

A last Shabbat siren draws near, a last Friday sunset, a last Kabbalat Shabbat.

My last Shabbat before Aliyah, before fulfilling the Mitvah of Yishuv Ha’Aretz (settling the land), before ceasing to be a stranger, a wanderer.

The last Shabbat without a teudat oleh or a teudat Zehut.

A last Jerusalem Shabbat brings time to thank so many for the blessings of the year:

To the staff of The Tamar Suites, my home away from home, for making me feel comfortable and part of the family this year.

To the Grand Café, owners and employees, for welcoming me so warmly and for delivering great food and customer service

To my friends at Gehtz Li, where I get my laundry done,

To the fruit guys on the corner of Bet Lechem and Esther HaMalka, and

To the great folks at Bet Lehem for wonderful conversation plus cheese and bread recommendations,

Thank you to the staff and teachers of The Fuchsberg Center and our Youth Hostel.  You all do exceptional work and it is a pleasure and privilege to join you.

To every cab driver who gave me a “Kol HaKavod” upon hearing our Aliyah intentions, and who engaged me in honest conversation about co-existence and friendship.

To all who hosted me for a Shabbat meal, a meal during the week, or a cup of coffee.  I look forward to inciting you to our new home on Qorei HaDorot.

To our long-term, dear friends and to the new friends I discovered this year for everything.

To thirty-five years of Shlichim for contributing to the inspiration leading to our Aliyah, from

The shaliah I only met once who, after a talk I gave at kibbutz Shefaim, stopped me and said, “Rabbi Sykes, you are such a Zionist.  Why don’t you live here yet?!” to...

Shlichim who started out as employees at camp and became dear friends and mentors.

To my wife, Becca, who took the brunt of the stresses this year in the US, who handled most of the logistics leading to our Aliyah; And

To Elan, Mira and Amalya who are making this journey, each in their own way.

To The One who promised this land to our ancestors and grants people the strength to return home.

A last Shabbat in Jerusalem, before a First Shabbat here…

As a citizen, a contributor, a participant in the greatest endeavor in Jewish, democratic sovereignty, in over 2,000 years.

Thank you Jerusalem and Israel.  

See you again, as an Oleh Hadash, on August 20.

Shabbat Shalom.

Jewish Pluralism: Alive and Well in Jerusalem.

With all the negativity about pluralism in Israel these days, it is easy to develop a picture that is wholly pessimistic.  There is no question that on the governmental level, restrictions on Jewish choice exist here.  Yet, as one sided-as the governmental religious establishment is in Israel, so too is the exclusively negative picture of Israel we are most often presented with by the press on this subject.

Take this past Tuesday, for example.  In just a few hours, I visited a Bet Midrash for young Masorti Jews in Jerusalem, attended a concert devoted to the subject of supporting a modern, Democratic Israel and met a group of Taiwanese Christians here on the second half of their March of the Living Trip. I also spent time at a meeting of the Tnuat Yerushalmim - The Jerusalem Movement - devoted to strengthening and preserving Jerusalem as the capital for all Jews.  Incredibly,  all five groups were meeting at the same place at the same time.  Pluralism is alive and well here on the non-governmental level!

The concert, titled "Sacred Rights, Sacred Song" and created by my friend Fran Gordon, took place at Moreshet Yisrael, the Conservative Synagogue in downtown Jerusalem. Fran, and those who worked with her, created the piece out of a desire to support Israel's democracy by calling to the forefront the importance of maintaining Israel in general and Jerusalem specifically as the homeland and capital city of all Jews.  The affiliation of the synagogue did not prevent both Orthodox and Secular Jews from attending.  The material, challenging much of the status quo on religious issues, did not prevent Secular or Orthodox Jews from attending. The fact that councilwoman  Rachel Azaria's Yerushalmim Movement was meeting on the campus at the same time did not prevent people who might disagree with the party's platform from attending the concert.

In the bet midrash, a large group twenty-something Israelis, joined together for a weekly learning session.  They came to study with Tomer Persico, an expert on the study of New Age Religion, Neo-Hasidism and other Jewish, New Age variations.  I was only able to stay for a few minutes before running to the concert but I could feel the great energy and anticipation in the room.

The dining room at The Fuchsberg Center was full.  Members of a group of Israeli educators spending the day on professional development dined among a group of Taiwanese Christians in Israel for the second half of March of the Living, having learned about the Shoah while in Poland the previous week.  They were joined by a group of young German Christians, also here on a mission of some sort.  One room, three groups. Jews and non-Jews dining together in the heart of Jerusalem in the Jewish State.  Wow! What's next?  Lions lying down next to lambs?!

After the concert ended, I joined Yerushalmim: For a Vibrant, Pluralistic Jerusalem.  According to their website, Yerushalmim focuses on two main issues and is unique because:

"The struggle against religious extremism and gender segregation and promoting the status of young families in Jerusalem...We are the only organization uniting secular, Conservative, Reform and Orthodox volunteers who share a passion for diversity and pluralism in Jerusalem and...have developed strong friendships and working relationships with both the city council and the Jerusalem mayor’s office, and are thus better able to turn our ideas into urban reality."

Again, wow!  Just Wow!

I went to the group discussing our new home neighborhood, Baka. Sitting in a circle, ten of us discussed everything from parking and traffic problems in the neighborhood to whether or not the Israeli equivalent of a neighborhood JCC, called a Matnas Kehillati, should be open for family activities on Shabbat, to insuring that improvements to Jewish sections of neighborhoods extend to the Arab sections as well.  As the meetings broke up, I looked around and saw men with large kippot, crocheted kippot and no kippot. I saw women wearing traditional Orthodox head coverings, no head coverings and wearing skirts and women wearing the latest in secular fashion.  And, rather than sticking with their own, they were all talking with one another. I left the Center exhausted and reassured that the Zionist ethos of a State for ALL Jews is alive and well among the citizens of Israel.

Look beyond the focus on the negative in the media, on the hegemony of the Ultra-Orthodox over all things governmentally religious, on the discord, and you will find incredible partnerships developing in Jerusalem between Secular and Religious, denominations and independents.

You will see a beautiful Jerusalem tapestry of varying perspectives meeting, learning together and valuing one another.

Finally, because of the ever growing number of individuals and organizations committed to realizing Ben Gurion's dream of a State for All the Jews, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, we will ultimately see and be part of a stronger, officially pluralistic Israel for all of us sooner and, I believe, in our day.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rock, Pluralism, Blessings and Jerusalem!

There is no question that the picture painted about Israel in the press today is not pretty.  Nurses went on strike to force the government to increase what are embarrassingly low wages.  Only a last minute action by the Knesset prevented the shutting down of Channel 10, a noteworthy critic of the current Prime Minister.  The man slotted for the number two spot on the "Likud - Yisrael Beiteinu" list was indicted by the attorney general for breach of communal trust.  The neighborhood, also known as the Middle East, gets nastier and more unstable every day.  And let's not forget about the daily announcements of the Chief Rabbinate trying to impose the opinions of the very few on the entire country.  It all sounds so bleak.

Yet, this is not the full picture of today's Israel.  It leaves out important discoveries in the fields of medicine and technology.  It fails to include the rich cultural events that are woven into the daily life of jerusalem.  It neglects the wide variety of social entrepreneurial ventures popping up on a constant basis, the beautification projects making Jerusalem a more livable and lovely place and the sounds of multiple religious traditions co-existing in the most sacred of cities.  Finally, the journalistic approach of publishing only the darkest narratives neglects the incredible projects related to  התחדשות היהדות - the reinvigoration of Judaism - taking place all over Jerusalem and Israel.  Here is an example of what I am talking about.

I spent Sunday night at The Yellow Submarine, a music club in the Talpiyot Shopping District, to listen to a group of rock bands.  Surprised?  Rabbi Sykes went to a what?A rock concert? After all, rock is not my musical genre. I am not one to frequent concerts or rock clubs. I am definitely not the "clubbing" type. This, however, was not an ordinary battle of the bands.  The musicians were all teenagers and the bands were a mix of religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sefaradi, socially comfortable and socially akward teens.  They were participants in  "Meko-Rock Jerusalem" - a project of Bet Midrash Elul, the pluralistic bet midrash in Jerusalem and the founders of Merko-Rock, a project started in a place called Emek Chefer, by David Levy.

Meko-rock is a play on the Hebrew word, Mekorot or sources.  The concept is simple and beautiful.  Meko-Rock brings together teens of different backgrounds on a weekly basis, for three to four months, to study Jewish sources.  These teen musicians create study groups that become bands.  They choose sources from the Bible, Rabbinic literature and other Jewish texts which become the inspiration for writing rock music.  Just as the teens have excellent facilitators to help guide them through exploration of Jewish texts, they also work with top notch musicians who help take their source-based inspiration and create inspired rock music.  I am not talking about taking "Oseh Shalom biMromav" and writing a new tune to replace the one we know; rather, by learning about different faces of Peace, participants may look at their lives, their angst and where they lack Peace.  Their exploration becomes lyrics and music and performance techniques.

I was blown away by the music, by the depth of learning and the depth of the material created.  It was exceptional.  The bands were fun to watch, the participants were all very talented and were totally into it!  The audience, made up of parents and friends, supporters and funders, was equalling inspired.  Roni Yavin, the power house professional leader of Bet Midrash Elul, understood the potential of this program to touch the lives of all points on the religious spectrum.  For teens on the "religious" end of the spectrum, the project allows for the re-examination of familiar texts, for the extraction of different life lessons, for exposure to perspectives different than their own and for the expression of identity through music.  For the more "secular" participants, Meko-Rock creates the space to encounter a part of Jewish heritage often denied them by secular educational institution and increasingly Haredi off-putting.  Perhaps most important of all, teenagers progress through this encounter together, breaking down barriers between the different sectors of Israeli society.

Meko-Rock is but one of many similar examples of efforts to bridge the gap between "religious" and "secular" Jews of every age and stage.  The התחדשות movement is a reaction to the trend toward התחרדות or Haredization of Jerusalem and the government.  Meko-Rock, Bet Midrash Elul, The Jerusalem Movement, The Masorti Movement and other organizations - religious, pluralist, denominational and not - are working together, bridging gaps, and insuring that Jerusalem remains the creative, religious capital of the entire Jewish people.

The pluralist, open approach to Judaism being taken by the above mentioned groups is the embodiment of the blessings given in VaYechi, the final portion of the book of Genesis.  The children of Jacob are not given just one collective blessing; rather, they are given an individual blessing.  They are a family and are blessed and they are recognized as individual components of the family and blessed.  The התחדשות or reinvigoration approach to Jewish Jerusalem acknowledges that Jerusalem is both collectively and individually ours. That is something to celebrate!

Thank you to Roni Yavin for introducing me to Bet Midrash Elul and to Meck-Rock and thank you for the work that you do on behalf of the Jewish People.  Your work is definitely avodat kodesh - sacred work - and it brings to life the sentence we will all shout at the end of the Torah reading this week:

חזק חזק ונתחזק!

Be Strong! Be Strong! And together, we will be strengthened!

Shabbat Shalom!