Page 6 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – November 29, 2010
‘We can be very proud of our Israeli investments’ Israel inspires me. I have made many visits there, having spent five years deeply involved in Partnership 2000, three as UIAFC national coast-to-coast chair. However, it had been five years since my last visit when Bernie and I travelled there in October. We had a fantastic time. We went on our own and caught up on all the fabulous new sights, museums, restaurants, etc. We also spent some time on Federation business, and that is what I am writing about here. We met with Yossi Tanuri, who is director-general of the Israeli office of UIAFC (United Israel Appeal Federations Canada, our national organization), and he gave us an insider’s view of the impact we are having in Israel. We also spent a full day up North, in Etzbah HaGalil, our partner region, with Eran David, who is the UIAFC Israel office’s representative in the North. Eran started by giving us an overview of the Canadian investment in the region, the strategy being employed, and how it is being implemented. It has changed drastically from ‘my day,’ when the main program was Gesher Hai, the face-to-face encounters between children at Hillel Academy, Yitzhak Rabin High School (YRHS)
Federation Report Donna Dolansky Chair and two schools in the North, Bet Sefer HaNadiv and, at that time, Danziger High School in Kiryat Shmona. Hillel Academy has maintained the relationship with Bet Sefer HaNadiv, but YRHS has a new school in Israel, Einot Yarden. In the years since I was chair, the focus expanded to include leveraging our Canadian dollars with Israeli venture capital, and investing in broad education initiatives in places where it was the most necessary. Now, we have a grand plan to leverage funds with the Israeli government and some funders, such as the Rashi Foundation, to develop a regional medical school just outside Safed. To that end, we met with Uri MarChaim from the Migal Science Institute. We viewed the plans for the medical school, which hopes to have 70 students per year, and expects to receive the first students next October. It was very impres-
sive, and the Northern Galilee communities have signed on, since Safed is 17 minutes away from Kiryat Shmona, and the other closest hospital is in Haifa. One of the biggest changes I noted from my earlier involvement in the region was how the local mayors and leaders have evolved to thinking regionally rather than just locally, and Canada helped bring about that change in mindset. We visited a brand-new early childhood centre in Kiryat Shmona, which consists of two parts: a centre for school enrichment, which receives students from regular schools on a rotating basis, and a therapy centre. We also visited the reconstructed Renanim School in Kiryat Shmona for children with special needs. This school – which was damaged in the second Lebanon War – has students aged from 6 to 21 years old. Its primary purpose is to prepare the students for independence. We were treated to a concert at Renanim School where the music teachers have a system to teach students to sing and play instruments without learning to read music. It was excellent. Then we went to HaNadiv School in Metulla where we had a terrific time meeting with about 20 students from Grades 5 and 6. Their English was excellent. They
sang “O Canada” and “Hatikvah,” they told us about themselves and asked about us. They performed Beatles songs, complete with guitar, and gave us a tour of their classrooms and school. They were so warm and engaging! They also gave us a package to bring back for the Hillel Academy students. Next, we headed off to lunch with two Kav Hazinuk participants, May Barzilay and Ram Zeevi. Kav Hazinuk is a leadership program with a twist. It takes 16year-olds, who make a five-year commitment, and teaches them leadership skills, how to work in volunteer organizations and how to improve their communities, in the hope that they will become future leaders of the country. We completed our visit at Tel Hai College where we went to the learning disabilities centre and to a science facility that regularly brings high school students to the college lab for enrichment. Both areas were very impressive. We could learn a lot from their techniques! We have a strong Partnership 2000 Committee, chaired by Lisa Rosenkrantz. If you would like to get involved, please let us know. All in all, we can be very proud of our Israeli investments. May we (and they) go from strength to strength!
Is it really about doughnuts or latkes? Around Chanukah time, visitors to Israel might be led to believe that the country is an oil rich nation. However, the oil they’ll find there is not crude oil, it’s cooking oil used to prepare sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and levivot (latkes, potato pancakes) for the holiday. Ever since the rabbis of the Talmud published the story of the miracle of the oil, wherein one day’s supply of oil miraculously lasted for eight days, oil has become a symbol of Chanukah. In addition to delighting our taste buds, fried foods are supposed to help connect us to the ancient miracle. Worldwide, Jews celebrate Chanukah with fried delicacies. Here in Ottawa, we gladly conform to this practice. As you are enjoying your latkes and/or doughnuts, and taking in the beauty of the Chanukah lights, I would like to attempt to reframe the miracle of the oil and suggest that we consider it in light of the discussion in the From the Pulpit column between Rabbis Steven Garten (September 6) and Charles Popky (October 25). When the rabbis of the Talmud introduced the miracle of the oil to the Chanukah narrative, they were looking to include God in what was otherwise a secular military event. The Hasmonean victory, as recorded in the Books of Maccabees, lacked any sense of the spiritual. The rabbis understood that military victories alone are quickly forgotten. In 2967 how will people remember the Six Day War? Spiri-
From the pulpit Rabbi Scott Rosenberg Beth Shalom tual victories, however, have the power to endure. The rabbinic miracle of Chanukah is about keeping the light burning. One day’s supply of oil burned for eight days and allowed the supply chain to be restored. This oil symbolizes the fuel that kindles our Jewish souls. As long as we are sustaining Jewish light in our lives, then the miracle of Chanukah continues. As we all know, our world is filled with many fire extinguishers that have the power to snuff out this Jewish light. Some of these forces are similar to the Hellenizing influences that threatened our people in the past. Intermarriage and assimilation are not new topics for Jews or for Judaism. Over time, our responses to these threats have varied. This fall, Rabbis Garten and Popky have each suggested paths of response. I would like to add my voice to this discussion. Chanukah teaches us that rather than lament over what isn’t, we need to maintain hope for what is. As a community, we need to feel comfortable cradling, nurturing and empowering the Jewish flame that
exists in every Jewish soul, no matter their personal or familial life choices. On the topic of intermarriage, I know many strongly-committed Jews whose spouses are not Jewish and who live a committed Jewish lifestyle and celebrate their children’s and grandchildren’s Jewish identities. What can we learn from this? I also know Jews who share their lives with non-Jewish partners and are comfortable raising their children as Christians. The Jewish partner feels a strong sense of commitment to the Jewish world and in-
volves themselves in ways that are spiritually meaningful to them. Their children, though not Jewish, even according to the most liberal of definitions, are philo-Semitic and have a reverence for, and understanding of, Judaism. There are lessons to be learned here as well. The grandest lesson, though, is to be learned from the many endogamous Jews whose flame of Jewish connection and identity are almost extinguished. Both they and their children have little connection (Continued on page 7)
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